Dragon Warrior II
System: NES
Release Date: September 1990
Developer: Chunsoft
Publisher: Enix
Genre: RPG
Erdrick’s descendants must come together to save the land once again in Dragon Warrior II! The evil sorcerer, Hargon has attacked the kingdom of Moonbrooke, with a plan to bring forth the ill-omened gods to bring him strength. It is up to you, Prince of Midenhall, to find your cousins, the Prince of Cannock and Princess of Moonbrooke. Only together will your powers be enough to stop Hargon once and for all.
You start by watching Hargon and his minions destroy the castle of Moonbrooke and kill everyone inside. A lone guard makes his way out and to the castle of Midenhall. After relaying the fate of his castle, the king volunteers his son to become the hero of our tale. The Hero is physically strong, but doesn’t have access to magic as his ancestor did. His first task is to find his cousin, the Prince of Cannock. After nearly catching up with him many times through towns and dungeons, the cousins finally get together and join forces. The Prince is not as strong physically as the Hero, but he does have access to some magic.
Magic can be healing, damaging, status effecting, or utility. There are three levels of heals. Damage spells can either affect a single enemy, group, or all enemies on screen. Status effect spells can reduce accuracy, cause sleep, or alter defense. Utility spells allow you to escape dungeons, fly back to your last save town, repel monsters, revive a party member, or even open doors. I got a lot of use out of the Repel spell, because battles are excessive. Seriously excessive. Gone are the days of one on one battles. Instead, battles can pit you against anywhere between one and seven opponents. You target by group instead of by specific monster. This can cause you to not kill an enemy that you should have been able to, allowing them an extra attack. Or the turn order may be different than what you expect, wasting an attack, because targeting an enemy group that dies doesn’t retarget to a living group.
Solving the puzzle to unlock the Princess gives you your final party member. She isn’t strong physically, but she does come with the capability of casting the strongest spells. The only question now is can you connect with your spells reasonably often? With the party together, figuring out what to do is obscure. Walking to every town and talking to everyone doesn’t overtly instruct you on what to do next. When you find a boat that you can take out onto the open water, a trip to Alefgard is guaranteed. As you go between towns, you are likely to run into some information about crests and may even find one by accident. There are five you have to search for and while some are easy to find as you go through dungeons and towns, there is one that is just mean. The only clue I found was when the fortune teller told me to go south. Very vague and likely caused many hint line calls or new Nintendo Power subscriptions. I realize now that I never visited the Castle Charlock to meet the descendant of Dragonlord, who would have given me more information.
Once you collect all five crests and head into the final area, Rhone, you’re in for quite the time. Blizzard enemies have the ability to cast Defeat and wipe you out in one turn. If the Golden Batboons put you to sleep and allow the Blizzards many chances, you’re going to eat the dreaded total party wipe. As long as you’ve collected all the equipment you want (get everyone a Shield of Strength to keep in their inventory. You’re welcome.) the loss of half your gold means nothing to you. The grind evident throughout the game is excessive. Enix realized this, because later ports balanced the experience and gold rewards to make playing more accessible. The only other time I’ve beaten this game is on the Gameboy Color version with my buddy Bobby. We still had to grind for an evening before attacking Hargon’s Castle and experience gains in that version were doubled!
Hargon’s Castle is incredibly anti-climactic for all the trouble you took to get there. Floors are straightforward, unlike most of the other dungeons you encounter. There are three mini-bosses that you must take out, but with the ability to leave and heal after each of the battles, it’s not a great challenge. Even the final battle doesn’t take much in the way of tactics. You have to have enough hit points to survive two rounds worth of attacks or the math to win just doesn’t work out. Putting an end to Hargon and his wicked ways rewards you with a promotion to King of Midenhall and a job well done.
Graphics: 2.0
Graphics are functional, but are definitely showing their age. Granted the Japanese release was in January 1987, eight months after the release of Dragon Quest.
Sound: 3.0
The full party overworld theme is stuck in my head and won’t leave.
Gameplay: 1.5
Grind, grind, grind, maybe find an obscure clue, maybe stumble into something helpful.
Difficulty: 1.5
There are a lot of unfair enemy patterns, key items that I couldn’t find any real hints for, and excessive grinding is a necessity.
Fun Factor: 2.0
The amount of time I spent on Dragon Warrior II is more than I’ve spent on any other game on this list, so far. I do not feel like I got the amount of joy equivalent to the amount of time spent.
Overall Rating: 2.0
Dragon Warrior II earns a C. I do not think this a great follow up to the original. The pacing is off and the addition of extra characters doesn’t help as much as it hurts.