Dragon Quest II HD-2D (Multiple, 2025)

 

I've had a tumultuous relationship with Dragon Quest II. For a long time I considered it the worst game in the series, due to the uneven difficulty, unappealing map layout, and one of the three characters being utterly useless. However, it also has a charm about it that I've always liked, and I never dreaded replaying it or anything. So I'm hoping that this remake will take the DQ game most in need of refinement and give it that much-needed forging.

For the record: After replaying the first seven games again in the last few years, I'd probably now rate the original DQII above DQVI and DQVII in the grand scheme of things. Those games are way over-long and most of the runtime is mundane, things DQII has no problems with. Even in the original rudimentary NES form, this game doesn't take that long to run through and each section of the game held my attention.

Previously on Dragon Quest 1: The descendant of Erdrick defeated the Dragonlord by himself, with no party members. The guy was a beast, and employed both physical power and magical power.

Between games, he set out and founded new kingdoms around the world, outside of Alefgard, while having hella babies with Princess Gwaelin.

Wouldn't mind seeing a new game set during this time period. There's a lot you could do with it. Tell the story of the hero and Gwaelin establishing new towns, leading people to prosperity, defeating various monsters that emerge, and so forth. Late in his life, the guy realizes that their world is some other world's underworld, and sets about trying to prove his crazy theory, but nobody believes him.

The biggest kingdom established by Mr and Mrs Gwaelin is the kingdom of Midenhall, which now stands as a huge force some 100+ years later. Originally it was "Maidenhall" (named after Gwaelin) but over time the name has shifted, as names do.

The other main kingdoms they established were Cannock and Moonbrooke. While Midenhall is a towering monument to the strength of will, Moonbrooke is a magical city with stainglass windows and a thriving populace.

Cannock is just kinda there, trying not to make too much noise in the background and barely avoiding bankruptcy any given week.

We skip right over the century+ of peace and prosperity, though, and go straight to THE SACKING OF MOONBROOKE.

Rampaging bandits are smashing everything in sight, setting fires, and throwing rocks at the guards in what some news agencies are calling an "overwhelmingly peaceful sacking"

Afterwards, there isn't much left besides a bunch of ashes and rubble. Surprising that Moonbrooke would fall so easily to a fairly small invasion, given how they're the kingdom of casters. Did nobody in this castle have Explodet?

On the other side of the land, the Prince of Midenhall is one of Erdrick's descendants, and he inherited all the physical prowess of DQ1's hero. Meanwhile, the Princess of Moonbrooke inherited all of the magical prowess (and then some) of DQ1's hero. She's super powerful, and looks great in a towel.

There's also the Prince of Cannock, who inherited a little of both. And I mean a little. The guy is like a downsized version of the DQ1 hero and not in a good way. Looking forward to seeing how this version of the game improves that character in particular to make him useful, because in the past, he was terrible. In the NES version, he couldn't upgrade past the Iron Spear (a mid-level weapon at best) and hit for 1 damage for most of the endgame.

Erdrick IX (who I'll probably interchangeably refer to as Midenhall) starts with a Copper Sword, so like the first game you're at an advantage right out of the gate. On the NES, I think he started with something weaker and you had to farm for the Copper Sword.

Time to give myself a way bigger advantage:

Pre-order bonus codes get you a bunch of stat seeds and, more importantly, Elevating Shoes. This accessory gives you EXP just for walking. I could have claimed this in DQ1 as well (and it would have sped things up a bit). It makes early levels FLY by, but after level 10 or so it's mostly just a supplemental tool for giving a character a bit of an EXP bonus / catching up lower-leveled characters.

Another bonus: For playing DQIII, I get a cat suit. An actual cat costume, not a sexy "cat suit" like the kind Sable would wear in 1999 when she wasn't wearing a pair of handprints.

Well...it's more appealing than the DOG SUIT from the first game. I guess. It also gives a substantial defense boost, basically forcing you to use it for the first hour or two if you want to actually function at maximum efficiency. Ya, no, I'm good.

This guy explains why he likes living in wells. It's all damp and clammy down here. Did George Lucas write this part?

A side-route here takes me outside of Midenhall, and onto some island. The world of this game is full of secrets, warp portals, and side-routes, and clearly took a lot of inspiration from the early Ultima series on world design.

The good times end after five minutes, as a survivor of the Sacking of Moonbrooke stumbles in.

The King decides that Midenhall needs to get word to Cannock ASAP. If the third of the three kingdoms was essentially obliterated by a malevolent force, the other two kingdoms could be next and need to get an alliance going quick.

On the world map, Alefgard itself is reproduced (in a much smaller form, with fewer locations on it) in the northwest. Always liked that this game felt like it was letting you go beyond the far shores of DQ1. A good sequel should feel like that.

Notice how Midenhall is the furthest from Alefgard of the three kingdoms established by The Gwaelins. Since it was first, it means they traveled pretty far before they found a place that seemed nice enough to build something there. You can see where they might have followed the coast all the way around to it. Their kids were actually the ones who went forth and built the other two.

Midenhall starts out with a bunch of special attacks, and they aren't weak either. Guy is far more OP on abilities and equipment than he was starting out on the NES, and that's before even factoring in all of the other potential advantages this version gives like the seeds and the CAT SUIT.

One thing I'd change about this version so far: I wish the enemies were a bit larger. These Slimes could stand to be about 4x bigger onscreen.

Thanks to the Elevating Shoes, pretty much every early level only requires one battle. I was uncrowned level 2 before I even walked outside of the first room. However, the shoes can't level you, they can only get you to that last point, and then you have to fight a battle to level.

Besides Slimes, the enemy I most associate with DQII is actually these ravens. They looked so nefarious on the NES, and gave this game a slightly-weird vibe right out of the gate.

Level 10 with seed-boosted stats, Erdrick IX is ready to plow through the first few hours of the game already. It took all of 15-20 minutes to get this far, which is the power of the Elevating Shoes.

Time to actually like, start the game. First stop is the town of Leftwyne. It's a sleepy town where not much happens.

Nothing except... what the f****?

The first real equipment shop is found here, with some actual upgrades. However, the Chain Sickle is a bit of a waste, and it's much better to wait and get the Iron Lance in the next town (which, remember, used to be the Prince of Cannock's ultimate weapon, lol)

At this point I can only get one max upgrade, and the helmet gives the most raw defense. The game actually advised me to focus on defense upgrades instead of offense, since offense can be made up for with spells. This is actually a really good point. In the first game, the Hurt spell could make up for you having a subpar weapon for a while, while you had no means to increase defenses besides armor.

I usually focus on getting weapon upgrades first in these games, since I adhere to the old Klingon proverb of "strike first, strike hard, no mercy"

Going north from Leftwyne, which is basically flyover country, I arrive at the kingdom of Cannock. At least this place is on a high cliff surface, making it harder to invade. Moonbrooke is in a low-lying marshland, by comparison.

They really re-created the hell out of Cannock. Look at this place. It's stunning.

I hit the weapon shop post-haste, and we've got some better upgrades here. Iron Lance, Scale Shield, Hardwood Headwear, and Chain Mail are what Prince Midenhall here needs to be maxed-out for the early game. Prince Cannock can also use all of this stuff so I'll need to buy it all twice.

This game pays a lot more attention to the Princess of Cannock, who in previous versions was so low-key and unsung that I'm not even certain she existed.

The interior of Cannock Castle is just as impressive as the exterior. What a locale.

Then we've got the county jail, where they keep neer-do-wells:

"NGOs pay me 400 GP to clash with police and get arrested! Kee kee!"

I'm here to get the Prince of Cannock to join the group, but all I can find is his sister. NO GOOD. We're looking for the Prince! NO GIRLS ALLOWED!

Looks like the Prince of Cannock just sorta wandered off, and our hero has to go on a fetch quest to find him before he'll join. Not that I mind, gaining a party member is nothing to take for granted after the brutal solo voyage of the first game.

I misread this as "invertebrate dawdler" and pictured the Prince of Cannock slithering around in the dirt somewhere. No wonder he's easy to catch up to!

The Princess shows up and does a spin while asking Midenhall if he likes her outfit. Look, lady, we're all like, cousins here. This is the one RPG out there where nobody is gonna check anybody out or get romantic. It's all a big Erdrick family affair and this isn't the porn industry.

The Princess joins! This was an unexpected surprise twist that really threw me for a loop. She doesn't officially join until later, though; you can't control or equip her at this stage.

Ability scrolls actually have a lot more of a point in this game compared to the first, since you have to decide who to give them to and there's usually a choice involved.

Besides not really being a full party member yet, she also can't be controlled. However, she does pitch in a lot during fights - much more than Gwaelin in the first game, as far as guest characters go. I'm going to try to do as much as possible before I bring her back to Cannock.

Kind of curious how these scenes would play if the Prince of Midenhall wasn't a mute. Princess Cannock just kinda forces herself into the party.

Also, she is super sassy, so I gave her the sassiest name I could think of.

It's the pendant Gwaelin gave Erdrick, now owned by Erdrick IX. It's weathered and well over a century old, plus one of our forefathers had to keep it up his ass for four years during The War.

I don't just have a penchant for baubles, I also have a penchant for finding the Nintendo Power coverage that corresponds to these games.  So before I go, I've got Nintendo Power scans. The original NES version of Dragon Warrior II came out at a weird time where it didn't get much for NP coverage. DQIII got a lot more attention due to when it dropped, and DQI was of course the game that NP gave away for free so it got attention. DQII was just sort of in the middle, the red-headed stepchild of NP coverage.

All I could find was a short preview in Nintendo Power Volume 16, along with another fairly small section in Nintendo Power Volume 27 (which I apparently covered at some point, unfortunately only with minor snippets from DQII - funnily enough, this very site was one of the Google results when I was searching for info on this).

Volume 16 coverage...is super short, and basically just an overview that does little to sell you on the game if you aren't already.

The map. DQ2 expanding on the world of the first (rather than just ignoring it and moving onto a new region) is one of the things that I liked most about it.

Here's the Volume 27 coverage. This one's more of a review, and just sorta gives you some bullet points. Besides giving four pages to DQII ever, look at how dismissive NP is of the game. Right at the top there, it basically says these tips are to get DQII over with so you can get to DQIII.

Despite how short this is, it makes the game look awesome. Five Crests! Sea Caves! What's up with them knocking Erdrick though? He just "left his stuff lying around carelessly"? Pretty sure his grave kept getting looted and that's how his gear ended up all over the place. The Erdrick Sword was likely left in Charlock Castle because Erdrick just stabbed it into the floor after defeating Zoma. Then the hero of DQ1 did something similar after besting the Dragonlord.

Nobody was gonna go into Charlock to get it. That'd be like going into Gary Oldman's club to get Alabama Worley's stuff. Not a good plan.

Next time on DQ2: I get the Prince of Cannock and try to get the Princess of Moonbrooke.

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The Dragon Quest Master Post