Dragon Warrior II

Dragon Warrior II

NES - USA - 1st Edition.

Developer Chunsoft Publisher Enix Published 1987-01-26 Platforms Game Boy Color, MSX, MSX2, NES, SNES Genres Role-playing game Themes Adventure, Fantasy Series Dragon Quest Distribution Commercial

Dragon Warrior II is a fantasy role-playing video game developed by Chunsoft and published by Enix on 1987-01-26 for the NES and later that year for the MSX and MSX2. It was later ported to SNES and Game Boy Color. It is the sequel Dragon Warrior and the second game in the Dragon Quest series.

The game is set 100 years after the events of the first game. While the descendant of Erdrick brought peace to the land by defeating the Dragonlord in the first game, a new evil wizard named Hargon is taking over the world. You control the prince of Midenhall, s direct descendant of Erdrick, who is trying to stop him. In this game, you can have a party, and face multiple enemies in combat.

Personal

Own?	Yes. NES USA loose cartridge with a damaged shell.
Won?	Yes. NES - USA - Reached level cap for each party member.
Finished	2024-08-29.

My brother acquired a used copy of the game from a friend. I spent a little while playing their existing save file right before the end of the game, but, because I had no idea what I was doing, I eventually started a new game. At first, I was impressed by the various new features and put several days into the game, however, as it began to drag on like the first, I became bored. Add to that the difficulty of getting it to play on our aging NES, and I gave up on it. Decades later, partially from liking the music, and partially from wanting to finish the games I had as a child, I started playing the game again and finally beat it.

Review

4	5	5	7	5

Best Version: Game Boy Color

Good

• The addition of multiple party members and multiple monsters in combat added to the game's strategy. I like how the game really leans into the new feature by having monsters call for reinforcements and cast spells to help their comrades. While it's still quite primitive compared to what RPGs on computers were doing, it's a big step up for consoles in 1987.
• The monsters are expertly drawn by Akira Toriyama.
• The music, again by Koichi Sugiyama, is well-composed.
• The introduction cutscene adds much needed story to the game.
• Seeing Alefgard pocketed as an island in the new world helps you imagine just how large Torland must be by comparison.
• Turning fallen party members into ghosts is a cute addition.

Bad

• Combat has some problems.
  • Most of the spells only slow down an already slow combat process. I'm not going to cast stopspell to possibly prevent some enemies from lowering my defense slightly when I could just attack and kill them.
  • Several of the monsters are just plain annoying like the healers (which keeps healing their compatriots), the blizzard (which frequently casts defeat), and gold batboon (which casts both sleep and sacrifice).
  • I would have liked background graphics in combat instead of a black screen. I miss the attractive look from the first game.
• While the enemy design is nice, some of them are quite silly. A ghost mouse? A clown? Baboons? I hope these were failures of translation and not intentionally lame.
• The game doesn't give you enough inventory space. Once your characters start acquiring all their necessary weapons and armor, and then start accumulating plot items, they will only ever have a couple slots left for consumable items. Also, I wish, when you have full inventory and open a chest, the game let you use the item immediately rather than have to ditch one you're holding.
• Even though it's better than the original, the game still doesn't have much guidance. The manual describes the basics, but for all the more interesting stuff, you're on your own. There are vague hints about where to go next, but nothing substantive, and, once you get the ship, it becomes even worse. For example, I talked to the holy man about the echoing flute, but I still had no idea what it was used for. If you take a break for several days, it's very easy to forget what you were doing and have little chance of figuring it out again unless you kept detailed notes.
• Some of the hidden plot items only have vague clues to their whereabouts making them pretty difficult to find, particularly a couple of the crests and a few keys. Because these must be found in order to progress the game, I feel like they should have been a bit easier to find and let the optional items have more complex puzzles. In the US release, the game included an insert which gave more detailed hints for these items which isn't very helpful to those playing without it.
• I would have liked to see more equipment upgrades for the other two party members. The Prince of Midenhall gets the majority of the equipment.
• Even very late in the game the chests are filled with low-quality items that you've long since out-grown, and less gold than you would get from a random encounter. Likewise, powerful enemies drop very weak weapons and armor that are worthless to you by the time you can actually defeat them.
• The towns feel very cramped and I frequently found myself getting stuck behind slow-moving NPCs.
• Unlike the first game, this one doesn't have underground-only monsters, and most of the towers and dungeons have the same monsters you fight outside of them. This lack of specialized monsters makes the game feel too homogeneous.
• I wish more of Alefgard had a purpose. Only Tantegel castle remains, all the old towns are gone making the entire island feel empty and pointless. The swamp cave is still there, but it too is empty.
• It costs more to cure poison in the town than it does to buy an antidote herb which you can carry around with you. This doesn't make much sense.
• Blocking off parts of the map by requiring you to have the other party members feels very artificial.

Ugly

• Movement in the game is very slow, both the speed of your characters and navigating menus. The game is far more accessible when played at about 150% speed in an emulator.
• Once again, the game requires a ridiculous amount of grinding. Each character in the game always feels under-powered for the next leg of the adventure, even when you're taking it slow. And combat is often long and unrewarding. Most battles give a pittance in experience and gold, and even leveling up, which ordinarily is cause for celebration, gives such a minor boost in stats that it doesn't feel like anything changes. This is particularly dull late in the game when you're fighting the same monsters over and over again trying to reach the level caps.
• The pit traps in the Road to Rhone are really annoying and mapping them is very time-consuming to have to map out.
• The Japanese original has a sex worker, who, if you refuse to purchase her services, accuses you of being gay. This is inappropriate for game targeting kids.

Media

Box Art

• 

  The Japanese Famicom art is spot on. It shows the heroes facing off against the a looming figure of Hargon. The cartoon style fits with the game perfectly.

• 

  The US box, painted by Hiroshi Kajiyama, depicts the game as a much more adult Western fantasy. The painting is good, if a bit rushed. Even though I don't think it accurately depicts the tone of the game, it's still my favorite.

• 

  The MSX and MSX2 boxes are very similar, just with markings identifying the required system. The art is the same as the Famicom box, only with a lot more dull blue background.

Documentation

• 

  Manual - Famicom - Japan.

• 

  Manual - NES - USA.

• 

  Map Insert - NES - USA.

• 

  Strategy Guide - Unveiled Secrets of Dragon Warrior II.

• 

  Map - Nintendo Power promotional.

• 

  Map - Alternate promotional - Front.

• 

  Map - Alternate promotional - Back.

• 

  Script - NES - USA.

• 

  Advertisement - MSX - Japan.

• 

  Advertisement - MSX - Japan.

• 

  Advertisement - MSX - Japan.

• 

  Advertisement - MSX - Japan.

Maps

• 

  Overworld map.

• 

  Overworld map with spoilers.

Graphics

• spriters-resource.com/nes/dragonwarrior2 - Graphic sheets.

Videos

Review.

Longplay - MSX2.

Longplay - NES.

Game play - MSX.

Play Online

Famicom, MSX, MSX2, NES (USA)

Representation

Strong female character?	Pass	Princess of Moonbrooke is an important member of your party.
Bechdel test?	Fail	No women talk to each other.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	The cartoon style makes race unclear, but most look white.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Titles

The title was changed from "Quest" to "Warrior" in the USA because of a pen and paper RPG TSR sold called "DragonQuest." Enix continued calling the American released "Dragon Warrior" until 2004 when they started using "Dragon Quest" for all regions.

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
Chinese (Simplified)	勇者斗恶龙II	Yǒngzhě dòu è lóng II	Dragon Quest II
English	Dragon Warrior II
English (Later)	Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line
Japanese	ドラゴンクエストII 悪霊の神々	Doragon Kuesuto II: Akuryou no Kamigami	Dragon Quest II: Evil Spirit Gods

Links