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Dragon Quest II

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Dragon Warrior II
Dragon Warrior II
North American boxart
Developer(s)Chunsoft
Publisher(s)Enix
Director(s)Koichi Nakamura
Producer(s)Yukinobu Chida
Programmer(s)Koichi Nakamura
Artist(s)Akira Toriyama
Writer(s)Yuji Horii
Composer(s)Koichi Sugiyama
SeriesDragon Quest
Platform(s)NES/Famicom, MSX, MSX2, SNES, GBC, Mobile Phone, Wii
ReleaseFamicom / Nintendo Entertainment System
  • JP: January 26, 1987
  • NA: December 1990
MSX
MSX2
Super Famicom
Game Boy Color
Mobile phones
Wii
Genre(s)Role-playing
Mode(s)Single player

Dragon Warrior II, known as Dragon Quest II: Akuryo no Kamigami (ドラゴンクエストII 悪霊の神々, Doragon Kuesuto Tsū: Akuryo no Kamigami, lit. "Dragon Quest II: Pantheon of Evil Spirits") in Japan, is a role-playing video game developed by Chunsoft and published by Enix (now known as Square Enix) in 1987 for the MSX and Nintendo Entertainment System as a part of the Dragon Quest series (then known as the Dragon Warrior series in North America).

Dragon Quest II is set 100 years after the events of the first games and follows the path of the descendants of the earlier games' hero. The game's story centers on the prince of Midenhall who is ordered to stop an evil wizard after he destroys Moonbrooke Castle. On his adventure, he is accompanied by his two cousins; the prince of Cannock and the princess of Moonbrooke. This game greatly expands on the series formula from the first game by having a larger party and more areas to explore. Dragon Quest II feature multiple heroes and enemies in a battle and a sailing ship.

Dragon Warrior II was successful in Japan, original Famicom version has been sold 2.4 million copies. Later, game was remade for Super Famicom, Game Boy Color with Dragon Warrior. A sequel Dragon Quest III: And Into the Legend... was released in 1988 in Japan. Dragon Warrior III is the prequel of Dragon Warrior and Dragon Warrior II, which followed their ancestry Erdrick's story; the three games are collectively called "Erdrick's Legend Trilogy".[3]

Gameplay

The party wanders in a castle.

This game allows the player to control more than one character, and it is the first entry in the Dragon Quest series to do so.[4] The game introduced a party system where, instead of beginning the game with an entire party like in previous computer RPGs, the player begins the game with only one character and gradually recruits more party members during the course of the game.[5] The player controls his or her characters as they move in the game world. They can search treasure chests, talk and trade with villagers, equip weapons and armor, and cast spells.

While wandering the fields, towers, caves, seas, or dungeons, the player encounters battles that happen randomly. Battle mode introduces groups of monsters, which is an upgrade from the one-on-one battles of Dragon Warrior.[4] In the battle mode, the player gives orders to the characters on how to fight the monsters. Once the player defeats all of the monsters, the characters gain experience points and gold. The experience points raise the characters' experience levels. This improves the characters' attributes, and they may also learn new spells.

To win, the player must fight many monsters to improve the characters' experience levels and get gold to buy better weapons and armor. Eventually, the player's characters become strong enough to make it to the next town or dungeon. This repeats until the player reaches the final boss and defeats him. However, the gameplay is not necessarily linear, especially after the player gets the boat. Exploration is a key component of the game. The game offers a few spots to save the game.[6] In most of the towns, talking to a king or minister saves the game. It also allows deletion and the moving of saved games. This was an upgrade from the Japanese version, which utilized a password system to restore progress.[7]

Dragon Warrior II is noted for greatly expanding the game play from the previous game, Dragon Warrior.[8] Dragon Warrior II is the first game in the series to feature multiple heroes and enemies in a battle, as well as a sailing ship.[4] Unlike Final Fantasy released that same year which only allowed the player to dock the ship at ports, Dragon Quest II allowed the player to land the ship anywhere, allowing the entire game world to be explored in an open-ended manner.[7] It was also the first to have weapons which cast spells when used in battles.[9] In addition, Dragon Warrior II offers a wider array of spells and items[10] and a much larger world.[4] The game also expanded the inventory management system of its predecessor by giving each character an individual inventory that holds up to eight items, placing a greater emphasis on conservative item management between the characters.[7] Dragon Quest II was also the first Dragon Quest game to include a game of chance (played with found Lottery Tickets), and was also the first Dragon Quest game to use multiple key types and to include travel doors (warp gates).[6]

Plot

Story

Dragon Warrior II is set one hundred years after Dragon Warrior.[8][11] A century of peace is suddenly ended when minions of the evil wizard Hargon attack Moonbrooke Castle. One lone guard, a wounded survivor of the battle, makes his way towards the kingdom of Midenhall. There with his dying breath he informs the king of their dire circumstances concerning an evil wizard known as Hargon (an enemy seen later in the Dragon Quest Monsters games).[12] Hargon has just attacked Moonbrooke castle. The king commands his son, the Prince of Midenhall and a descendant of Erdrick, known as Loto in the Japanese versions and later re-localizations, to defeat Hargon.[13]

The Prince begins his quest alone, but is later joined by two cousins: the Prince of Cannock and the Princess of Moonbrooke. After finding the Prince of Cannock, who leaves on a similar journey about the same time as the Prince of Midenhall, the two must rescue the Princess of Moonbrooke, who was in Moonbrooke Castle when it was attacked by Hargon's army. It is up to the Prince of Midenhall to find them, join forces, and together defeat Hargon.[4] Along the way, the trio secure a ship, which allows them to travel across oceans to reach new continents, including Alefgard, where Dragon Quest took place. There they meet the grandson of Dragonlord, the villain from the previous game, who gives the party valuable information regarding the five crests.[14] By collecting the five crests hidden around the world, the party can create the Charm of Rubiss, allowing them to fight against Hargon and his illusions.

Setting

The early part of the game takes place on land. From a few magical tiles or tunnels, the player can visit a few tiny islands in the beginning, but only upon reaching a major port and fulfilling a specific task does the player get a ship which allows the player to explore much more of the world by sea. Magical teleportation is the last means of transport that the player must use. Architecturally, some castles are presented as ruins.[6]

The game world of Dragon Warrior, Alefgard, is included on the world map in Dragon Warrior II (albeit in slightly reduced scale), although the Hero can win the game without ever setting foot there.[4]

Characters

  • The Prince of Midenhall (Lorasia) is the main character of the game. He is sent out by his father, the king, after a guard from Moonbrooke announces Hargon's attack. He is the classic warrior of the party. He can use almost any armor and weapon in the game.[10] He has no natural magic ability (there are some weapons that can be used as items and have the same effects as spells), but his physical attack and defense are the greatest of the three. This is the character the player starts out with in the castle of Midenhall.[6]
  • The Prince of Samantoria (Cannock) is the first character to join the party and is a blend of the classic warrior and wizard archetypes, having a lot in common with the series' well-balanced "Hero" class. He cannot use as wide a variety of weapons and armor as the Prince of Lorasia, but he compensates for this with the ability to use magic. However, it should be noted that his magic is not as powerful as that wielded by the Princess of Moonbrooke.[10]
  • The Princess of Moonbrooke (Moonbrook) is the second and last character to join the party, entering the party with a curse that must be cured, and is the classic mage in the party.[10] She too cannot use as wide a variety of weapons and armor as the Prince of Midenhall, but she compensates for this with the ability to use magic, being the most powerful caster of the party.
  • Hagron is the evil sorcerer who has destroyed neighboring Moonbrooke Castle at the begnning of story.[7] While he is defeated Prince of Midenhall and the gang, he summons a Destruction God — Malroth.

Development

Like other main games in the Dragon Quest series, Yuji Horii wrote the scenario, Akira Toriyama did the artwork, and Koichi Sugiyama composed musics. Co-creator Koichi Nakamura directed the game and did half of the programming.[15] Barely a year after original Dragon Quest released,[7] Dragon Quest II was released on January 26, 1988 in Japan.[16] Compare with its predecessor, the game improves in nearly all aspects.[7] Yuji Horii believed many players would play Dragon Warrior II without playing Dragon Warrior and thus had players search for the other party members.[5]

In the original Japanese Famicom version, passwords were used for saving, but the NES version featured a save feature without passwords.[7] The storyline introduction in Moonbrooke is present exclusively in Dragon Warrior II.[7] In Dragon Quest II, the game starts right with the injured soldier from Moonbrooke entering Midenhall castle, seeking help from its king.[17] Like Dragon Warrior, Dragon Warrior II also received a little of censorship in American localized, for exmaple, for defeated character's, Amerian version used ghost-like sprite instead original coffin with cross.[7]

The world of Dragon Quest II was later used as the setting of Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart on the Game Boy Advance. It starred Kiefer, a hero from Dragon Warrior VII.[18]

Remakes

Dragon Quest II was ported for MSX in 1988, the ported has many issues, like choppy scrolling, inferior graphics, sluggish combat and menus and characters titles are surrounded by black.[7] MSX2 ported was released in May 1988 in Japan.[19]

In 1993, Dragon Quest II was remade and combined with Dragon Quest as part of Dragon Quest I & II for the Super Famicom, which used Dragon Quest V's engine.[7] Super Nintendo remake was only released in Japan. Later in 1999, Dragon Quest I & II game was released for Game Boy Color and localized in American as Dragon Warrior I & II in 2000.[7] Proper nouns was retranslated in Game Boy Color version and more similar as Japanese name.[7] Both remakes add a few of new scripts.[7]

Dragon Quest II was ported for Japanese mobile in 2005.[20] Its capacity is 4 times large as orignal Dragon Quest ported,[21] and for strict capacity constraint, it was divided into two parts. First part was pre-installed in mobile phone and last part can download without charge; world map was provided by as a pre-installed PDF file.[22]

Both the Famicom and Super Famicom versions of this game, along with Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest III, were re-released under the Dragon Quest 25th Anniversary Collection compilation for the Wii in Japan on September 15, 2011.[23] Wii compilation featured interruption save function for each games.[24] The compilation also include original copies of the strategy guides for the games, along with original artwork and material on the games' development.[23]

Music

Koichi Sugiyama composed and directed the music for the game. Dragon Quest II's Symphonic Suite was bundled with Dragon Quest I's symphonic suite and a disc of original compositions as Dragon Quest in Concert.[25]

The song that is played when wandering the fields of Dragon Warrior, "Unknown World", is also played when the Hero is in that area. The ending theme "My Road, My Journey"[26] is the also ending song of related anime Dragon Quest: Dai's Great Adventure.[27]

Suite Dragon Quest II -Gods of the Evil Spirits-
No.TitleJapanese TitleLength
1."Overture March"ドラゴンクエストマーチ1:30
2."Only Lonely Boy"Love Song 探して3:11
3."Château"王城3:25
4."Town"街の賑わい1:45
5."Fright in Dungeon ~ Devil's Tower"恐怖の地下洞～魔の塔3:15
6."Requiem"レクイエム2:10
7."Endless World"遥かなる旅路～広野を行く～果てしなき世界4:10
8."Beyond the Waves"海原を行く2:12
9."Deathfight ~ Dead or Alive"戦い～死を賭して2:13
10."My Road, My Journey"この道わが旅3:55
11."Dragon Quest II Game Original Sound Story ~From Opening To Finale~"ドラゴンクエストII～悪霊の神々～オリジナルサウンドストーリー　～オープニングからフィナーレ…25:00
Total length:52:46

Reception

The Famicom version of Dragon Warrior II was a financial success in Japan, having sold approximately 2.4 million copies as of March 31, 2003.[34] Issuance of Dragon Quest II also promoted Dragon Quest's distributing.[15] In 2006, readers of Famitsu magazine voted the game the number 17th best video game of all time.[35]

Dragon Quest II is generally known as a remedy to problems found in the first game, including allowing parties of three characters, having a larger world, better graphics, and the ability to carry more items.[8] Other noted improvements were keys that can be used multiple times and new strategic elements introduced because of larger parties and larger groups of enemies.[8] The game's music is often praised, despite its limited 8-bit capabilities.[8] Considered a classic for the RPG genre, the game is regarded as praiseworthy.[36][37]

Japanese reviews usually mentioned game is difficult. For a key item's holder "Lagos" is difficult to finding, many traps in dungeon "Cave to Rhone", Rubis Charm is discovery difficultly, no hints for going to the second floor of the final dungeon, and final boss Malroth has "Healall" spell, critics called the game is "the most difficult Dragon Quest".[38]

Famitsu awarded Japanese Super Famicom remake a 35/40.[30] While Game Boy Color remake get a 30/40 from Famitsu,[31] Dragon Warrior I + II received fairly high marks in America. These including a 8.0 out of 10 from IGN,[32] a 9.6 out of 10 from GameSpot,[8] and 8 out of 10 from Nintendo Power. It also received the RPGamer's Game Boy Color Award of the Year for 2000.[33]

Together, both the Super Famicom and Game Boy Color remakes sold in excess of 1.92 million copies worldwide.[39] With the success of this game, Enix next went on to release Dragon Warrior III for Game Boy Color in 2001, which again was based on a previous unreleased Super Famicom update of the original Famicom Dragon Quest III.[40] Wii Dragon Quest Collection sold 403,953 copies in 2011.[41]

References

  1. ^ "ドラゴンクエスト I・II" (in Japanese). Square Enix. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  2. ^ "Dragon Quest Anniversary Collection Brings First Three Games To Wii". Retrieved 13 May 2011. {{cite web}}: |first= missing |last= (help)
  3. ^ ""ロトの伝説三部作"がWiiに！　『ドラゴンクエスト25周年記念 ファミコン＆スーパーファミコン ドラゴンクエストI・II・III』" (in Japanese). Famitsu.com. 2011-05-26. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Editors of Nintendo Power: Nintendo Power September/October, 1990; issue 16 (in English). Nintendo of America, Tokuma Shoten Publishing, 67.
  5. ^ a b "Dragon Quest: Sential of the Starry Skies". Iwata Asks. Square-Enix. The History of Dragon Quest. Retrieved 2010-12-05.
  6. ^ a b c d Enix Corporation Unveiled Secrets of Dragon Warrior II (in English) Enix America Corporation.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Kalata, Kurt. "The History of Dragon Quest". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2013-06-19.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Provo, Frank (September 24, 2000). "Dragon Warrior I&II review". Gamespot.com. Retrieved 2009-09-23.
  9. ^ (1990) Nintendo, Enix America Corporation Licensed Nintendo of America Inc. Dragon Warrior II Map (in English) ENI-D2-US.
  10. ^ a b c d Enix Corporation Unveiled Secrets of Dragon Warrior II map (in English) Enix America Corporation.
  11. ^ Majaski, Craig (October 9, 2000). "Dragon Warrior 1&2 review". Retrieved 2009-09-23.
  12. ^ Prima Games, ed. (2000). Dragon Warrior Monsters Official Strategy Guide. Prima Publishing. p. 234. ISBN 0-7615-2730-3.
  13. ^ Editors of Nintendo Power: Nintendo Power September/October, 1990; issue 16 (in English). Nintendo of America, Tokuma Shoten Publishing, 66.
  14. ^ Dracolord's grandson: You can call me Kid Draco... Enix (2009-09-23). Dragon Warrior (Game Boy Color). Enix.
  15. ^ a b Jeremy Parish. "Koichi Nakamura Interview: On the Birth of the Console RPG". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
  16. ^ "retrodiary: 07 January – 03 February". Retro Gamer (85). Bournemouth: Imagine Publishing: 15. January 2011. ISSN 1742-3155. OCLC 489477015. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ Narration (first line of game translated): One day, a single wounded soldier arrived after a long struggle at Lorasia Castle.Enix (2009-09-24). Dragon Quest II (Famicom). Enix.
  18. ^ Michael Baker. "Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart - Staff Retroview". PRGamer. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
  19. ^ "ドラゴンクエストII 悪霊の神々 (MSX2版)" (in Japanese). Famitsu.com.
  20. ^ 田中聡 (2009-10-02). "ふぉーんなハナシ：携帯版「ドラクエIII」に採用された"新要素"" (in Japanese). ITmedia. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
  21. ^ "FOMA向け「ドラゴンクエストII」完全移植版を制作" (in Japanese). ITmedia. 2005-05-17. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
  22. ^ 斎藤健二 (2005-05-17). "フルブラウザ＋2.5インチ液晶＋ドラクエII──「N901iS」" (in Japanese). ITmedia. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
  23. ^ a b Cassandra Ramos (2011-06-30). "Dragon Quest Collection to Come With Bonus Dragon Quest X Video". RPGamer. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  24. ^ Gueed (2011-05-26). "FC版のI・IIには「ふっかつのじゅもん」も。Wii「ドラゴンクエスト25周年記念 ファミコン＆スーパーファミコン ドラゴンクエストI・II・III」の最新情報が到着" (in Japanese). 4gamer.net. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  25. ^ Patrick Gann (2007). "Dragon Quest in Concert". Retrieved 31 August 2007.
  26. ^ "松崎しげるが『塊魂』の名曲を熱唱！　光田康典氏、坂本英城氏も登場した吹奏楽＆オーケストラステージをリポート" (in Japanese). famitsu.com. 2011-10-05. Retrieved 2013-04-12.
  27. ^ "ドラゴンクエスト・ダイの大冒険" (in Japanese). Toei Animation. Retrieved 2013-04-13.
  28. ^ "Dragon Warrior I & II for Game Boy Color". CBS Interactive Inc. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  29. ^ 実験!! ゲーム家族のクロスレビュー: ドラゴンクエストII 悪霊の神々. Weekly Famicom Tsūshin. No.343. Pg.107. 14 July 1995.
  30. ^ a b http://geimin.net/da/db/cross_review/index.php
  31. ^ a b ゲームボーイ - ゲームボーイ ドラゴンクエストI・II. Weekly Famitsu. No.915 Pt.2. Pg.111. 30 June 2006.
  32. ^ a b Nix, Marc (2000). "Dragon Warrior I & II Return to the days of yore with Enix's Game Boy Color RPG revival". Retrieved 2008-04-10.
  33. ^ a b "RPGamer's Awards 2000: Game Boy Color RPG of the Year". 2000. Retrieved 2008-04-10.
  34. ^ "February 2, 2004 - February 4, 2004" (PDF). Square Enix. 2004-02-09. p. 27. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
  35. ^ Campbell, Colin (March 3, 2006). "Japan Votes on All Time Top 100". Edge-Online.com. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
  36. ^ "Dragon Warrior I&II". RPGfan.com. September 21, 2000. Retrieved 2009-09-23.
  37. ^ Nix, Mark (October 4, 2000). "Dragon Warrior I&II". IGN.com. Retrieved 2009-09-23.
  38. ^ 週刊ファミ通 2009年3月27日号増刊『オトナファミ 2009 April』p.53
  39. ^ "February 2, 2004-February 4, 2004" (PDF). Square-Enix.com. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
  40. ^ Dustin Hubbard and Dwaine Bullock (2001). "Dragon Warrior III at DQ Shrine". Retrieved April 10, 2008.
  41. ^ Anoop Gantayat (January 16, 2012). "2011 Game Sales Chart and Sales Trends". andriasang.com. Archived from the original on January 23, 2012. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
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