II

Okay, we're at level 42-50, we have almost all our spells, if not all of them, and we are ready to take on the challenge of the castle. Now we shall siege for Hargon....and finally complete the story.

Plot: 7/10
Dragon Warrior II, the story is a small movement away from the standard "get items, kill evil bad guy, save princess/the world" trope that the first game followed to a T. Basically, you are the son of the King of Midenhall tasked to save the world from the evil Hargon thte Wizard - with the aid of your Nephew and Niece. This leads to a wild goose chase after your Nephew, some item procurement and grinding for your Niece who was assumed dead as a victim of the game's opening sequence. And then the linearity continues through the tower of the wind, to a sea-port town where you have to battle Hargon's minions in exchange for a ship.

From there the story becomes a wide-sweeping, build-it-as-you-go affair that plays hand in hand with the sudden break in linear gameplay. Now you get to re-visit Alefgard as it is 100 years after the first game, as well as many new places on the map. And there's almost llittle hand-holding to guide you as to where to go next. And the scattering of clues leads to you creating your OWN story for this second third of the game, by going in any order you want, and having to gather clues across two hands worth of towns, towners, castles, missions, and everything else to figure out how to ready yourself for the final third of the game. Ending with the story of a super long, hard, difficult cave (the Cave to Rhone) that leads to a snowy "valley of death" where the last third of the story plays out.

The end of the story is just primarily a death-filled grind-fest where the story takes a massive halt in exchange for leveling up exponentially in order to survive the final bosses - yep, there's more than one, FIVE to be exact. And almost all of them are super hard unless you take your time to level up, build your strength and HP (and cache of Spells), and maybe use a hint guide or two if you're really lost. This leads to a traditional Dragon Warrior/Quest style ending of no random encounters, townsfolk cheering on your success, and the king giving some kind of handsome praise or reward for your efforts of 40+ hours of game time.

Graphics: 7/10
Compared to the original release from 1986, this was a true step up in graphics, and was the game that set the standard "look" of the series. We in the USA did not notice this because our original Dragon Warrior release of 1989 was doctored up by Nintendo to be on-par with the current releases somewhat (we were about 4-years behind Japan). This is really where you can start to see Akira Toriyama's influence reach beyond just the enemy designs, as well as design move from a top-down perspective like an early Ultima PC game to a 45-ish degree front and top-down perspective which would only get improved in later releases.

Gone are the rinky-dink, skinny, uni-directional sprites of the 1986 Famicom original, replaced with the more familiar quasi-8x8 sprites we are familar with which eminate that Anime style energy, all the while on the minimual pixel count of 64 pixels in total for every graphical asset in the game. These improvements were carried over to the NES release of the first game in 1989.

However, due to now having multiple party characters and thusly, battles with more than one enemy, and windows needing to show more than one set of stats, the more familiar modern JRPG layout used in modern Dragon Quest releases from this point forward is here - moving all action to the lower third of the screen, enemies on a black background in the middle, and the party member stats up top. It lead's to a more "Focused" look as you're not going to be gazing at a grassy knoll when you're in battle in any Dragon Warrior game - you're going to be looking at the text window below telling when your StsopSpell failed to stop a Gold Baboon from casting Defeat, or when a Babble poisons your hero.

Many assets are reused: grass, sand, trees, but the blocks that build castles are new (mostly) - giving a 45-degree from the front/top perspective rather than top-down like the original game. This makes things look a little more "3-d" and "lively", however this effect was not carried over to dungeons and towers, which use their own tilesets that are still top down - but the blocks are much bigger than the original blocks used for them. Along with the loss of a need for a torch (kind of ironic considering the entire party is carrying torches on the US title screen), and the bigger layouts of things, leads to less of a claustrophobic feel of the 1st game, and more to a limineal-space, "backrooms" sort of feel to towns and castles. This gives an illusion that they are more difficult because now, where you are covering twice as many blocks to pass the same space than you did in Dragon Warrior, even in the same dungeons like say, the Dragonlord's castle.

One particular graphical anomaliy that has to do with aesthetic continuity in the series, is Breconary/Tantgel. Whereas in the first game, Tantgel Castle and Breconary were two separate entities with 2 tiles of space between each other, and Breconary EAST of Tantgrel - now they are one piece, with the town on the WEST side of Tantgel castle instead. Maybe they lost the original design documents, or maybe the town had to move? But added with Dragon Quest III....maybe they have to move Breconary from one side to the other every 100 years? Who knows. Very odd change either way. Also, with this combining of castle+town, it makes things smaller and less as "grand" compared to Dragon Warrior I where the castle was at least 4x the screen size, now with it feeling like it's reduced to roughly half-that scale. Also, does the throne room just get rebuilt every 100 years or so and the stairs keep getting moved left or right with the changes.

Cave to Rhone gets around the lack of a light-source requirement using a technique similarto how Ultima III: Exodus on the FAmicom/NES handled it, by blacking-off sections of the cave, particularly during the cave's notorious "randomized" section where the entire cave path loops infinitely if you don't pick the "correct" series of passages. This makes it feel even darker, and more risky, added with the high-level enemies and the risk of falling through the floor at any time in some areas.

Then there's the snowy valley of death, where you meet Bryan Adam's singing next to a STratocaster stuck in the snow.....oops, wrong video. This section hits you upside the head with a 2x4 graphically in that it's time to grind as there's a Monolith/Shrine/Save Point/Mission - or whatever you want to call it, often called "Last Refuge" where you duke it out with the hardest overworld enemies of the game for gold and experience points until you're ready to hit Hargon's castle.

Hargon's castle is a much different twist than the paradoxical castle/cave of the Dragonlord, who seems to be living on the level where you could put in a nice spring-fed water source for a tiny house. But Hargon instead has a trick up his sleeve of reproducing the original Midenhall castle except with a looping stairwell and illusions - probably one of the earliest graphical "WTF!?!?" moments in gaming history. You came all this way to go battle Hargon only to find yourself back at home. Of course, with a certain item, you can free the illusion and then you come upon one of the creepiest castles in the series. Unlike Dragon Warrior I or IV, where the final castle is desolate except the sold bead guy, or Baramos' whose been hidiingn in his Swimming Pool the entirety of Dragon Quest III, this castle is inhabited, with some optional gold baboons protecting the un-attended 1st floor throne, and fires wandering pretending to be members of Midenhall - adding to the eeriness.

The fact that the graphical assets are a merger of old ones from DQ1 and new ones designed to give a more "cohesive look" to the game overall lends a nice, staring at a re-animated bird-skeleton level of eeriness to your quest. This was the vibe I liked about early Dragon Warrior/Quest, which I feel plateaued in the 8-bit releases around III or so, before things began to soften up during the Zenithian trilogy. It just feels more edgy, more dangerouus, less as "refined" from later releases that seem to feel a bit more refined but more cartooney as a result.

Sound: 8/10
AT this point, Koichi Sugyama, composer, was still flying mostly in "jingle" mode, but the music in this release seems more lively and refined compared to the first game. The first game found us hanging around baroque instrumentals with the rhythmic qualities a bit more implied than actually played out using other NES channels, and they were slwoer and a little more "jarring" at times. This is where we get that sort of uniquely JRPG type sound, with the main theme "Lonely Boy" - being a pop-tune that Sugyama created for a Japanese pop singer in the 80's - and put in the game in a minute+long loop that plays at the savegame creation screen, and once you have a full party as the overworld music - a major upgrade from DQ1 where most music was about 30 seconds long at most, and could become rather grating (particularly the overworld and the dungeon themes), and had a small bit of rhythmic ambiguity.

That rhythmic ambiguity was addressed this go around with a lot of very oom-pah-ish alternating of the pulse and square channels with each other, especially on the main theme during character creation. Some music was reused, like the Dragon Quest overturne, which is the same theme with some envelope changes on the square channels to add some depth and some variation. Another returning song is the Alefgard overworld theme, which addresses that test-tone issue the first game had by thtrowing an envelope over the Triangle-wave Melodyline that give's it a more magical sound, as well as the square waves becomeing a bit more stacatto for the same reason. Town music is less "Christmas-y" (the old Town theme used to make me think of if THe Swiss Colony had their own TV commercials for their meat and cheese selections), and more like a relaxed theme played by some bards in a park. The Castle theme did lose some of the baroque feel in favore of a more relaxed, pop-meets-baroque feel. It's obvious there's a little more comfort and "vibe" in Sugiyama's score this time out.

Dungeons recieve an even more lengthy score that is less grating on the ears, but very much "Dragon Quest" in vibe, doing away with the pitch/tempo changes invoked by floor changes, remaining consistant throughout, which eases some of the tension the "twilight zone" like music of the first game had. It really feels here, despite all the setbacks, Sugiyama seems to have had more time to create a more impressive score this time out, and thusly, it really helps the game along quite a bit, adding to immersion, even in this 8-bit variant I prefer.

Another new touch that not a lot of people mention musically, is the implimentation of 2 different themes between when you have a full party and a dead party member. Once all three come on, you get a much more mission-based, up-tempo pop tune, while the

An interesting fact is this game shares a year with another JRPG release - which was a JRPG adaptation of a Western RPG - and it also shares the concept of pop-music as a soundtrack. Ultima III: Exodus, released as just Ultima: Exodus for the FAmicom and NES in 1987, also had a pop-penned tune (actually a bunch) tat was released on tape/CD (Kyofu No Exodus). I don't know who the composer was on that, but it seems Sugiyama and FCI/Ponycanyon's composers both were really master musicians with their hands in a lot more areas than just 8-bit chiptune audio (actually I know for a fact with Sugiyama as he was quite a well known composer in Japan for pop tunes, commercials, and even the theme for Ultraman).

The battle theme in this game has a creepy-quality to it in how it tosses you in smoothly vs. the original game that was the musical equivalent of bumping into something and finally realizing the risk you are in. The first game was like the lyrics are "F***.......holy freakin crap!" whereas this one is like "Off to battle you gooooo...." before launching into a very, almsot Hebrew-ish mixed with middle eastern music composition style - which would carry over to battle themes in every game this point forward. Losing the whole baroque drama of the first game and giving the game a little more motivation during battles in the audio department. That said,, the barb at the start - or loss thereof - does drop some of the "stun" effect of a random encounter, making it almost feel more like the computer just wipes it's screen and says "okay, time for a random battle".

And last of which is the final battle theme with Malroth which moves away from the humorous "dun-dun-dun-dun" Cars-like chug of the original, moving towards the 1st game's rhythmic quasi-ambiguity with a song that sounds like a cross between a baroque intimacy scene with a villian, and something off a Frank Zappa album - giving it an interesting feel.

Overall, Sugiyama really steped up the tunage on this game quite a bit giving it an 8 out of 10.

Gameplay: 7/10
Gameplay is, for the most part, much the same as the first Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior. The basic "daily grind" of the game is you wander towns and castles purchasing items and talking with the royal subjects for clues, before heading out to "grind" for awhile for gold and experience to level up so you can continue the next part of the quest, whether that's a cave, a tower, or a sea voyage to another island to find more clues and fight harder enemies - which expands on the "let's just wander over this bridge and (dun.....dundundundun..waaaah) Starwyvern hits Creepingnet for 110HP - Thou Art Dead!".

Overall, the gameplay cycle is much the same, gather clues, arm up, get tools, go out, grind for awhile, go fight something major in a castle, cave, or tower, get some new fancy item fofr your quest - rinse, and repeat. The difference is now you have three characters - not one - to control, and you fight more than one enemy at a time. Also, there are some improvements. Overall though, this older release does lack some of the creature comforts and quality of life enhancements later entries in the series would bring us.

Let's talk improvements. First off, the menu and stairs system is MUCH improved. IT seems Chunsoft did similar like what LucasArts did later on with their SCUMM engine. The original Monkey Island had 16 commands, the later version only had 9. This one reduces the 10 commands down to six, and removes the useless and annoying "stairs" feature, now with an automatic trigger to another floor when you step on a stairs tile, as well as combining the Search and Take commands together. This makes gameplay more streamlined, less confusing, and requires less window real-estate on screen.

The next major improvement is in the weapons/armor system. Whereas in the original game, when you bought a new weapon or armor piece, you were forced to give up the other one for a set amount of gold - likely to address the limited inventory of one character. But Dragon Warrior II expanded on this by giving cerrtain weapons some additional capabilities that may make them useful when not equipped. This also enables you to trade-up somewhat, though still not through the weapon shop directly - you still have to sell through a "tool" shop for some reason. However, this helps work with the Dragon Quest economy a lot more in procuring weapons and armor versus the original game.

The addition of two other party members is an improvement because unlike Dragon Warrior 1, where you, as a lone character, needed to flee if your MP or HP started getting too low, and then hope to dear Rubiss you have a bloody Wing of Wyvern or just enough MP enough to cast "return" - this time the othehr characters can have your back as you limp an ailing commrade home to rest, heal, and get ready for the next round of fighthing. However, the downside to this is now with 3 party memmbers instead of one, just like Ultima Exodus, only the main party member gets revived, and then you have to spend some ridiculous sums of money at an inn to revive your entire party if the party is wiped out to get your other two back to life. However, if you have Vivify spell, you can save some bread by reviving your "revival" character and the reviving the rest of the party using that character for only the cost of MP.

Probably the most talked about "issue" in this game is the huge difficulty spike near the end though. Most people forget that this "spike" starts EARLIER in the game though. See, at one point in the game, you have to fight off some monsters from a female in a seaside town, upon which you get a boat. It seems the MINUTE you get that boat, all linearity of the game goes out the window, and it becomes less like Dragon Warrior, and more like Ultima V or VI. Now you don't have a "guide" to your quest so much, as people giving you clues about all these different locales, some of which they guide you to, others of which you have to find on your own via exploration. It seems to me, based on reviews about this phenomenon, modern RPG players are all about "clout" - how much they played the game in their social circle, versus being like me, enjoying the game on multiple passes, learning it's intricicies, and taking advantage of them or avoiding them on the next pass. I don't mean to sound like an old crank here, but the whole point to these games was exploration, whether it was making bread in Trinsic in Ultima 6, and learning about beekeeping at Empath Abbey, or traveling to a king to fight his dog or visiting a six level basement island to talk to the spirit of Rubiss in this game. Today's kids would rather Erdrick's descendat show up in ghost form and walk you through how to slay a slime with a copper sword on level 1 in 2 hits - rather than duking it out valiantly with a bamboo pole or bare hands, hardcore earning that gold and learning the ins-and-outs of each enemy. Dragon Warrior II was not meant to be a "intro to JRPGs 101" like the first game, it's meant to slowly and eventually introduce you to what a REAL RPG is like, and get you famliiar with it, eventually taking you outt of the filmstrip simulator in the driver's ed classroom, and putting you in the actual heroic driver's seat.

The only real sign of rushing to release is the final third of the game, which is handling a brutally hard dungeon that I don't know how ANYONE got through it alive in 1990 without a hitt guide or the internet, but they did - probably through hours of mapping what passages work on graph paper, like a real hardcore PC RPG player would have done with say....Ultima. For modern day players not accustomed to grind-heavy RPG's, who can't find a certain, almost yoga-like zen in grinding, this can be quite taxing, but for a "Zen-of-Grinding" man like me.....it's a nice, realxing past-time, especially when the risk is low and the rewards are high. The whole reason you have to go up 34848 Experience Points to get to Level 39 is a false fear-monger. You think it's going to take a long time, but when you have enemies still throwing 15xx some random number XP at you each battle, and you win more and more as your party gets stronger, the faster you level up, the more buff your party becomes, next thing you know you're doing one-hit kills on Gold Baboons that once used to decimate your entire party at one incantation of the "Sacrifice" spell, and Zarlax is having nightmares on par with Zack the Legomaniac encountering Nightmare Bonnie in a dark alleyway. Let the creepingnet freighttrain of might and magic through m*********s! Here' momwin' down this h***hole like a nitrous boosted Briggs & Stratton powered Murray with no governor and a titanium blade held on by grade 8 bolts and magic! Once you've taken the time to level up - you'll be chowing on victory at Hargon/Malroth's defeat in no time.

Overall: 7/10
Okay, so overall, I give ita 7 out of 10. I would give an 8/10 for my own personal rating, but you have to consider which audience of which you are pandering to with this game.

Chances are, you won't like it if you are a "modern" player who expects hand-holding, decent clue placement to add some linearity to an otherwise non-linear quest, extra bonuses, and does not like long grinding sessions before a moderate reward. It also will not help if your idea of "minimum standards" are the Super Nintendo. Most people when they hear of me playing this game, tell me "The Super Nintendo/Game Boy Color/etc. Port is SOOOOOO Much better". But "better" is in the eye of the beholder. Honestly, I'd love a de-make of DRagon Quest V for the NES! Let's see what a 1MEG Dragon Quest game with enhancement chips would look like!

But if you're an old schooler like me, who is not annoyed, has a NES that has uptime like a File Server, can handle the iidea of "starting over" if you have to when it comes to gold after death, and carry enough patience and enough inner peace to find the "grind" relaxing rather than tedious, then this game just might be one for you in it's original 8-bit incarnation. Sure, it's still not as smooth or refined as the last two releases (III/IV), but it's still got a charm all it's own, with a "Sophmore edginess" I quite like. It's a bit like The Cars Panorama record, or Loverboy's "Keep It Up" - it's an aquired taste that only a certain type of person can really live with.