The Dragon Quest Series Part 2: Evolution and Insanity

 

 

When I purchased Dragon Quest I off the Nintendo eShop, I snatched up Dragon Quest II at the same time because I figured with how old and cheap the first game is I'd beat it quickly. About 4 hours later, my intuition turned out to be correct. Originally released in 1987, roughly 10 months after the first one, Dragon Quest II sought to expand upon the foundations of the first one, adding meat to the first game's bare-bones structure, and in the process created one of the most frustrating JRPGs ever made.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Dragon Quest II takes place a hundred years after the events of the first game. The evil wizard Hargon has ordered a campaign of evil upon the land, sacking the city of Moonbrooke. You play as the Prince of Midenhall, a direct descendant of the hero from the first game, who goes on a journey across the land to stop Hargon. Along the way, he is joined by his cousins, the Prince of Cannock and the Princess of Moonbrooke, making Dragon Quest II the first game in the series with an actual party as opposed to the one-man army you played as in the first game.

As with Dragon Quest I, the plot is simple but at the same time there is more going on. You find your cousins as you travel the first part of the game, leading to a bit of story structure in the opening segments. For expediency's sake, I'll refer to the Prince of Midenhall as the Hero while the others will simply be referred to as the Prince and Princess. I really don't want to write their full titles repeatedly. Shortly after you have a full party, you gain access to a boat which allows you to explore basically the whole world, which in turn stops plot progression until the end of the game, but since there's already more here than in the first game I'm happy with how things have evolved.

Speaking of evolved, Dragon Quest II immediately feels different from its predecessor in a number of ways. For starters, enemies can now show up in groups as opposed to the one-on-one fights that dominated the first game. This allows for more intense encounters, but the way Dragon Quest II handles them leaves something to be desired. If there multiple enemies of the same type, the game's interface will not distinguish them so your player will randomly select one of the enemies, which can lead to occasionally frustrating moments when you attack an enemy you didn't want to.

To elucidate what I'm talking about, say you come across three Slimes. You select attack, but the game groups them as one entity, so you don't have a say in which specific Slime you want to kill. When you're fighting weaker enemies, that's okay, but later on when you're dealing with much stronger enemies, it can be irritating when your character suddenly targets another enemy when you didn't want them to, especially if you're trying to go after the one who took the most damage but instead the character attacked the one with the most health. It's not gamebreaking or anything, and it only happens occasionally, but it's still an annoying thing to have to deal with. One would assume that they'd at least update that aspect with the remakes but evidently not.

Also, whenever you finish a fight with multiple enemy types, you get the hilariously grammatically-incorrect message, "The enemy are defeated." It's bizarre that such a basic mistake would be made, especially one that the player is going to see countless times before they finish the game.

 

It isn't all bad though. The addition of more enemies during a battle makes Dragon Quest II feel less aged than the first one, and showcases higher stakes than those found in the first game. One of the biggest problems with Dragon Quest I was that since you were always fighting one enemy, battles never felt like they were escalating. You were just fighting different and stronger enemies, but since the game was balanced towards the one-person party they never became much of a challenge unless you wandered too far from the grinding zone. It also helps make Dragon Quest II feel more dynamic since now you have to account for fighting more than one enemy at a time and deal with what they bring to an encounter.

Another immediate difference is the save system. Because the world is much larger than the one in the first game, there are more locations where you can actually save. The most common type is talking to a king, but some towns have priests that allow you to save as well. You can't save at every town, but it is substantially better than having a single save point in the entire world.

Perhaps the biggest difference of all however is the addition of actual party members. Dragon Quest II gives you a total of three party members and all of them feel unique. The Hero is the most physically capable of the three. He gains the most health and he has the highest strength and defense. Interestingly, he is also the only protagonist in the whole series who doesn't learn magic. As such, he becomes the tank of the group and he becomes invaluable towards the end when enemies get really strong. The Prince is more of a backup unit than anything. He learns magic and he can equip most weapons, but his strength is mediocre to bad and whatever spells he learns are quickly outclassed by the Princess. He is the definition of the jack-of-all-trades and master-of-none, and because of that he ends up being a little useless by the end when the enemies start to significantly outclass him. The Princess is the mage of the group. She has pitiful defense and strength, but she gains the best spells in the game and gets the most MP out of all three. Her offensive spells aren't great, in fact most offensive magic in the first two Dragon Quest games aren't really useful (I neglected to mention it at all in my post on the first game because frankly I never used it), but she's fantastic as a healer and her status buffs and debuffs are a godsend.

To be perfectly honest, coming directly off the first game and coming into the sequel, I was initially disappointed that Dragon Quest II moved away from the one-person party of the previous entry. Like I said in my post on it, the first game's archaic nature made it retroactively engaging and a small part of me wished the series continued with that setup, but at the same time I understand why the addition of a party was made. It does allow the game to evolve, and there were games even before this one that allowed for multi-character parties such as Wizardry (Dragon Quest's biggest influence and the one the development team wanted to emulate for this installment) and Ultima. Plus it allows for new ways to challenge the player, having them figure out how to use each character's strengths and weaknesses to their advantage and make all three work as an actual team. I accepted the change, but part of me wishes someone else can take up that initial one-person-party idea from the first and build on it.

 

Beyond these changes though, Dragon Quest II still plays like the first. Combat is still turn-based, you just have more characters to command. Inventory is still limited, which can be doubly annoying this time around because now you have to carry important key items to gain access to new areas. Thankfully, as with the remakes of the last game, this one has a vault to store unwanted or unneeded items, especially key items that will clog up your limited space after you're done with them. It's still an old Dragon Quest game though, with all the bells and whistles that come with it, so even while the improvements and additions make it feel a little more modern, there things to remind you you're still dealing with a 30+ year old game.

As I mentioned earlier, not long after you get your party, you get access to a boat which in turn puts the whole world practically at your fingertips. This turns Dragon Quest into a totally different game. Where before you simply followed your way to the next town, now you explore the whole world looking for magical trinkets in various locations. It's strangely invigorating especially since it happens so early in the game. One of the coolest moments though is when you find Tantegel and the Dragonlord's castle from the first game. You get to visit the land your ancestor traveled across in his quest to become a legend. While it is much smaller than even the previous game due to the memory limitations of the original release, it's still such an awesome moment because it also highlights how much bigger Dragon Quest II is. Your ancestor may have conquered this continent, but you, his descendants, have to tackle the world.

At the same time though, I highly suggest using a walkthrough for this portion of the game, not merely because what you need to look for and where is obscure (though it can be), but also because Dragon Quest II is one of those games that will utterly crush you if make a wrong turn into an area you should avoid until later. I used StrategyWiki's walkthrough, which provides a good suggestion of when to tackle each goal, which will help you keep your sanity for the majority of the game. A word of warning though if you're playing the Switch version; all the town names were re-translated and the majority of online walkthroughs use their original names, which can make things confusing. Outside of that lack of direction, Dragon Quest II can be a remarkably comfy game like the first, and the added layers of complexity brought on by combat and world exploration can make it more engaging at times.

That is, until you get to Rhone.

Here's a bit of a history lesson for you; Dragon Quest II wasn't properly playtested in its initial release. The game's development was hampered by balance issues, with the developers struggling to make the game fair but failing to take various areas into account, most infamously Rhone, the final area of the game. The various remakes of Dragon Quest II re-balance the game somewhat, but the one constant is that the final part of the game is considered by hardcore fans to be the most difficult part of the mainline Dragon Quest games.

Keep in mind that I played the Switch version, which is also the most recent version of the game, so I'm fairly certain the final areas were made a little easier than in the initial release, and if that's the case then I seriously can't imagine how difficult the original NES and Famicom releases were.

It all starts with the Cave to Rhone. The Cave has an insanely confusing layout, with mazes that make no sense and invisible pitfalls that send you to previous parts of the dungeon. There's one floor that consists of various dark rooms that you have to enter in a specific order in order to get the staircase to appear. If you just head straight for the room the staircase normally appears in, it won't show up. There's nothing to indicate that you need to go in a specific pattern, so unless you already know what to do or you're following a guide, you're gonna be fumbling about trying to figure out how to proceed. Even worse is that near the end of the Cave, you'll come across some absurdly strong enemies that only exist to waste your resources, and you will be close to starving by the time you get to the end of the Cave. Dragon Quest II already forces you to be stingy with magic and items, and this last part of the Cave is little more than an endurance test, both for your characters and your patience. I recommend using a walkthrough here too unless you want to keep banging your head against the wall while you struggle to avoid the pits and find the correct path through this nightmare.

Once you leave the Cave, you enter Rhone proper. Rhone is a frozen wasteland filled to the brim with the most dangerous enemies in the entire game. There is a temple in one corner of the land with a priest that can save your game and heal your entire party. Be thankful for that, because it's the only mercy you'll be getting in this hellhole. The enemies here include Frostburns, who don't have much health compared to the other enemies, but they have a horrible insta-kill spell that has a good chance of killing at least one member of your party at a time. Frostburns are frequent and they usually come in groups, so you better be on your A-game while you're here. There are also Batmandrills, who will occasionally use Kamikaze, which is also a guaranteed kill if they decide to use it.

Real talk, when I first got to Rhone, I was already in a bad mood after the Cave and the enemies here exceeded my patience. I figured I'd grind it out since this is the most dangerous place in the entire game, but the idea of grinding with the Frostburns and the Batmandrills with their awful insta-kill attacks right after the worst area in the game was more than I could take. I gave up right there and moved on straight on to Dragon Quest III. It wasn't until months later that I decided to pick the game back up. I was right there near the end after all, and with that priest who can resurrect dead companions and give free healing, there's really no reason not to keep grinding until you can easily conquer everything.

So I got back into the grind and eventually I got my characters to a nice level and ventured forth to stop Hargon. Unlike the first game, I struggled somewhat with the final area, though the issues I had wouldn't have been fixed with grinding to higher levels. Before you can get to Hargon, you have to fight a trio of bosses, at least two of which cast FullHeal, which heals them back to full health because Dragon Quest II hates you. Again, this is a remake which has some re-balances so I can only imagine how much worse the original version was.

Hargon himself was a bit of a pushover, like the Dragonlord from the first game. But once you beat him, that's not the end. As it turns out, Hargon was merely a servant of a greater evil, the god of destruction Malroth. Malroth is a far more difficult fight than Hargon, and I actually died a couple of times here. Thanks to the autosave option this release offers, I powered through it and eventually saved the world again. You might say abusing the autosave is cheating, but I say the final areas are already cheap so I get to be cheap to it.

The game ends similarly to the first, with you having to travel all the way back to the first castle. Despite all the trouble the final areas gave me (or perhaps because of it), the ending felt more satisfying than the first despite being mostly identical. Your father, the king of Midenhall, declares you and your cousins heroes and offers you his throne. It's hard not to feel pride when the court hails you as the new king right after you purged the evil from the land.

If Dragon Quest I was a tough sell to most people, then II is an even harder one, and it all boils down to its difficulty, which is a shame. Where DQI exists more as a curiosity on where the JRPG genre began, II begins to feel more modern with its addition of multiple enemies during combat and having three characters in a party. The game's even mostly fair if you're following a walkthrough and take the best routes. It's also a much longer game too; where the first one took me roughly 4 hours, II took me 10, which is still a little short by JRPG standards but in this case it does show a rise in scale. It's just the final areas of the game that kill it. I can't imagine most people would have the patience for it. I most certainly didn't, and if I hadn't decided one day to suck it up and suffer through it, I'd have probably never finished. I can only really recommend it to the most hardcore Dragon Quest fans and those that are looking for a challenge.