Dragon Warrior (Quest) II: Bigger, longer, harder

Dragon Warrior II is a bigger Dragon Warrior: more heroes, monsters, equipment, spells, items, towns, and dungeons. The formula is the same, but with three party members instead of just one, who battle up to eight monsters at once. But it released a few months after Final Fantasy in the U.S., to which it compares poorly (in Japan it predated FF by almost a year).

An opening cut-scene shows Moonbrooke Castle being destroyed by monsters; a lone survivor escapes to warn the neighboring kingdom of Midenhall. At first you control only Midenhall's prince, a descendant of the legendary Erdrick, but he is soon joined by his noble cousins, the prince of Cannock and princess of Moonbrooke. She has been transformed into a dog, but the Mirror of Ra, which the men retrieve from a swamp tile on the world map, reveals her true shape. She is a magic-user, who will learn powerful, new spells like healall [fullheal], revive [kazing], and explodet [kaboom]. The prince of Midenhall is a warrior who can't cast any spells, while the prince of Cannock is notoriously weak, a "jack of all trades, master of none" archetype. The descendants of Gwaelin and the hero from DW1 work together to defeat Hargon the Sorcerer [High Priest].

Multiple enemies! But the background is always black, unlike in the first game.

Dragon Warrior II has an open world similar to the first game, but now there are multiple land-masses, including (a shrunken) Alefgard in the middle. In Lianport [Rippleport], the party obtains a ship. In Charlock Castle they meet the surprisingly friendly great-grandson of the Dragonlord, who informs them they must find five crests and then visit an isolated wizard named Rubiss. Anyone familiar with Dragon Warrior III may be surprised to hear Rubiss called a wizard: in that game she is the faerie-like spirit that created Alefgard! (In the remakes, she is a goddess that resembles an angel.) Here Rubiss is just an enchanter who gives the heroes a magic charm that banishes Hargon's illusions. Anyway, the five crests are scattered around more or less at random: search a certain tile in a shrine with a flame, search the floor in a certain jail cell, defeat a big cat in an arena, defeat four gremlins in a tower on an island, and find a treasure chest in the passageway to Rhone, the final area. (The remakes, understandably, adjust the way some of the crests are found.) A man in Lianport gives the heroes a flute that echoes when played near a crest. If you stay at the inn in Beran, the prince of Cannock falls ill! To heal him, you have to find a World Tree [Yggdrasil] leaf, by searching a forest tile on a small island. It revives a fallen hero, but the party can carry only one at a time.

The game has three keys (silver, golden, and jailor's), each of which unlocks a different kind of door. These replace the purchasable, one-use keys from the first game. A new battle command is introduced: parry, which increases a character's defense for the round. One annoyance (also found in Final Fantasy) is that whenever a hero tries to attack an enemy already slain, their turn is wasted (this is fixed in remakes, of course). Another change is that Shakespearean words like "thee" and "thou" are not used. As in the first game, you save your progress by speaking to a king (of which there are now four) as well as a few other NPCs. Houses of healing [churches] make their debut: for a fee, characters can be detoxified, uncursed, or revived. Dungeons are no longer dark, needing torches; instead, they have obscured areas. When you enter an obscured area, it becomes visible, and previously visible areas become obscured. It's meant to prevent you from seeing paths in advance. A minor change is that hills no longer slow party movement.

The true final boss

Dragon Warrior was grindy and suffered from sudden spikes in difficulty; the sequel is no different. If you aren't careful, you may find your party wiped out, costing you half your gold (or you can reset the game). Rhone and the dungeon leading to it are notoriously difficult. It's exciting when you finally make it there, especially since it has snow, making it stand out visually. A couple mini-bosses stand in your way before Hargon. Similar to how the Dragonlord had two forms, when Hargon is defeated, he summons his master, Malroth, the true boss! If the party is wiped out, grind more levels and try again.

Snowy Rhone

DW2 has about twice as many monsters as the first game, and except for the iconic slime, metal slime, drakee [dracky], and green dragon, they are all new. As before, their delightful designs were drawn by Akira Toriyama, and they come in two or three palette-swapped difficulties. The baboon [badboon], attackbot [killing machine], and evil clown [whackolyte] especially stick in my memory, in part because they appear during hard segments. Some foes, like the disembodied goopis [muddy hands] and graboopis [bloody hands], summon reinforcements. The game also doubles the quantity of equipment and items: sixteen weapons, eleven types of armor, five shields, and two helmets (up from zero!). New items include wizard's [prayer] rings (restore MP), antidote [antidotal] herbs (remove the new poisoned status), and lottery tickets. These let you play a slot machine: the best prize is a gold [loyalty] card that halves the price of all purchases.

Similarly, there are twice as many towns, some of which have bits of story. In Tuhn [Slewse], the key to a floodgate has been stolen. The fishermen of Zahan have gone missing. Osterfair [Dirkandor] has an arena (where a crest can be won). Various shrines are connected via teleportals, though the connections (with locked doors) are too confusing to be useful. The return [zoom] spell is more helpful, though in the original NES version it only takes you to the last town you visited (in DW3, a list of selectable towns is added).

DW2 has a reputation as being the worst of the series, which is understandable. DW1 was groundbreaking. DW2 offers much more but is hardly revolutionary, especially when judged against Final Fantasy, and DW3 and DW4 are vastly superior. So it's hard to recommend DW2 today. However, it's easy to recommend the new Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake! The plot has been considerably enhanced, with new mini-bosses, the faeries, mermaids, and a huge amount of intraparty cut-scenes and banter that make them feel like real people. Most dramatically, a fourth hero is added: the princess of Cannock joins her brother! Interestingly, the Remake forces you to visit the Dragonlord to progress the story, locking off most of the crests until he gives you the faded Sword of Erdrick. I have a soft spot for how old RPGs just threw you into an open world and expected you to take notes on your own. Various NPCs, including the Dragonlord, dropped hints about where to find crests. I remember sailing around aimlessly, at a loss for where to go. It can be frustrating, which is why modern games add objective-markers and such.

Gorgeous HD-2D Remake

If you want to enjoy Dragon Warrior II, I strongly recommend the HD-2D remake. But the original will abide in my heart (even if it pales in comparison to its sequels). And if anyone wants to save up their gold coins to buy a used cartridge on the Electronic Bay, I salute that! Godspeed, scions of Erdrick.

Grade: B-

Linked Review

"The sequel improves on the gameplay elements of the original in almost every conceivable way. Unfortunately, they can be tedious, especially the copious amounts of 'grinding' needed."
— Joey DeSena, Ultimate Nintendo: Guide to the NES Library, 3/5

On the title screen, the heroes slowly walk forward from the dark distance.