In Dragon Warrior II, it's now been 100 years since Dragon J. Lord started terrorizing Alefgard and was defeated by your grandfather, and Erdrick's descendant has been gettin down an' dirty with royalty since then, generating us, utlimatley, 3 heirs: the Prince of Midenhall (you), The Prince of Cannock (your runaround nephew), and the Princess of Moonbrooke (assumed dead).

So aptly name your savegame whatever the heck you want, the only thing it impacts is the names of your relatives this time. So it's not really that important. What is important, is how much do I need to explain the backstory. See, when Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the LEgendary Line was released in Japan in 1987, they did not have the nice little introductory sequence we got with Dragon Warrior II in America in 1990. They just tossed you in Castle Midenhall as your named character and you figured it out on your own - just like the first game. But in the USA....

It's a nice quet day at Castle Moonbrooke. The Omnipresent sun in the sky, fresh grass pixels growing, and the Princess of Moonbrooke and her daddy, the King of Moonbrooke are enjoying a nice cup of tea out in their postage-stamp sized courtyard....when all of a sudden....

Two demons show up and of course, as you can guess, a fight breaks out between the king and the demons, who, like Asian Giant Hornets to a beehive, descend upon the castle, killing everyone who does not escape, and setting the place on fire in the process....also, somehow the castle's garderobe (septic system) backed up too....jeesus, he shoulda' called Roto-Rooter or Dupre's Septic Sucking Services instead of spending all that GP on more bottles of Centipod Wine. Of course, Bart, the Village Jedi Knight, and castle guard, manages to escape the castle as it burns down....and makes the whole 50 mile trip on foot to castle Midenhall to bear tidings to the king and his son....

And our story starts with said Jedi Knight "dying" (dissappearing) before the King after his "evil tidings that just can't wait".

And so, dad will give you ONE chest with 150GP, a sword, some armor, and we're off. Probably a good idea to snag some medical herbs on the way out. Make sure to EQUIP everything before we continue, what good are some tools when you don't use em'!

Now, for this first part of the game, we can integrate the grinding into the progression of the story. Everyone focuses on much later in the game where we basically do nothing but blow up top-shelf enemies with insta-kill spells and armaments so strong you could kill Lord British in the Ultima universe with one hit! But here, this is the first time Dragon Quest actually makes it EASY on us.

Just head north, then go west yung' mann', and lookout for a town in a sandlot surrounded by sea and swamp - no, it's not Louisiana, but it starts with an "L" and is quite fittingly named "Leftwyne" - because you go "left" to get there, get it!

Now, let's talk about cheating here, there's actually a hack to accumulate money out the wazoo the first time you come to Leftwyne. See, there's a new fundraising activity in the tri-kingdom area, it's called the Lottery. And being of scientific mind, I know the odds are against me, but I also know one other thing - those Lottery tickets are like, 50gp apiece if I sell them - so that's what we'll do, buy things from the "tool" shop, and sell the lottery tickets to accumulate wealth. By the time we're done, Elon Musk is gonna' be in Leftwyne holding a empty bean can asking for handouts from US! We'll have so much GP, we'll be able to buy Amazon and Microsoft - and still have enough to spare to purchase all the strongest armor and weapons in the game.

Once were done piddling around in Leftwyne - so how many months WAS that? - now we need to head northbound to Cannock. To see our niece and nephew.

Cannock is a castle with a bit of a lake to the right of it, found by heading through the hills and forest northward from Leftwyne. Once we get there, go have court with the king and save after getting healed up at the Inn. For awhile you'll probably want to grind around Cannock Castle to remain safe, before we head to where by now you probably found out via either the King or your Cousin's sister - the princess of Cannock - that he's at the "Spring of Bravery".

You'll probably want to grind up to about level 5-7ish by this point, upgrading your equipment at Leftwyne perodically, before attempting the Spring of Bravery. Also, make sure to stock up on Anecdote herbs since the monsters there can poison you.

At the Spring of bravery - in this rampant runaround - you will want to head up and to the left to the actual spring, there once again, we have missed our cousin. However, the man there will heal you before you go. So I guess it's not a fully wasted trip.

If you head back to Cannock, of course, he's still not there, you'll find him in Leftwyne - in the Inn, that's when the prince of Cannock will join your party.