Dragon Quest II HD-2D, Part 2 - Grieving Angel's Lament

 

WTF? I think this woman wants to milk us.

.......the title of this post is way too good for this post or anything in it.

Previously on Dragon Quest 1+2 HD2D - I defeated the Dragonlord, King of Kings. Even being sung to the ring by Motorhead wasn't enough for him to get a win. Note how I tried using Dragon Slash, which it turns out is actually the best way to damage him...but only if you've got the Oomph effect on from War Drums. Because buffs have such a short duration, I gave up on this idea before long and fell back to Gigaslashing for 400 instead of perfectly set-up Dragon Slashes for 500.

The key to winning this fight is to make sure you gain a level from the Dragonlord's first form. Which isn't too difficult because it gives the majority of the EXP you need to level up. You'd have to be pretty early in a level to not gain one. The full restore from this keeps you from going into the real battle at a disadvantage.

Something else from DQ1 that I somehow missed before... here's the world's most adorable slime:

LOOK AT HIM WOBBLING

IT'S TOO MUCH

Here's a DQ1 comment that I entirely missed until 40 days later, so I'mma spotlight it and the answer here:

Supreme Dragonlord sounds cool.

All of that said, I'm glad DQ1 HD is over with. That wasn't my favorite version of the game. It looked super pretty and was enjoyable to run through, but I had some issues. Most of the issues were with the new content. 5 on 1 battles were a bad idea to sprinkle in, and the Dragonlord is way overpowered compared to the rest of the game (to the point that you could get to him at level 35 easily enough and then still struggle to beat him at 50). If they were going to make such massive alterations as adding a character to DQII, they should have done the same thing in the first one to balance it out.

The good news is that this is the best version of DQII. I might not have liked the first one in some ways, or felt the SNES version was better, but you're not gonna find a better version of DQII in any way shape or form than this new one.

Anyway, back to DQII, truly a gentleman's Dragon Quest game:

Sounds to me like the Prince of Cannock has a Masturbation Nook that he sneaks off to, and it's up to us to find it.

Also, he doesn't bathe. No baths, has secret masturbation nook. Might still hit for 1 damage. Not sure if I want this guy joining the party after all.

At the end of this cavern is a glorious sight to behold, a majestic waterfall. ...does it conceal the Masturbation Nook?

This old guy has been hanging out here for decades waiting for someone to show up, as old guys in Dragon Warrior games tended to do before they climb into bed and die.

Turns out the Prince of Cannock long since concluded his business at the masturbation nook and left.

The mystery of where he is now isn't much of a mystery because we've got a tremendously useful objective marker in this version.

Uhh, way to undercut our hero here. Pretty sure he isn't a "little one" and he's carrying around a f****in' sword.

Make-believe adventuring, my ASS

This dialogue would make more sense if it was directed at the DQ7 hero. Maybe this is self-aware dialogue and the joke is that the old lady is near-sighted or something.

Here he is, at the local inn. He already knows of the Sacking of Moonbrooke, and is down to go check out the situation. ...maybe we should start getting our respective militaries to some degree of readiness? Should we really be sending the princes out with no backup?

The Prince of Cannock joins, and I leave his name as the default it picked.

Should have just named him "Cannock" for simplicity. Every time I see this name, I think of noted dictator "Papa Doc" Duvalier, who hasn't been the same since he was defeated by Eminem in a battle rap.

Cannock starts at level 4. I think he started at level 1 in the old versions. Equipping the Elevating Shoes allows him to very quickly start catching up to Midenhall's ten levels, and you can actually have them basically even with each other by level 15. Going to do the same with Moonbrooke, so the characters being wildly different levels is a thing of the past. (Not that it mattered much with Moonbrooke, she was always way more OP than the other two even at half their levels, due to being a Sage)

Papa Doc Cannock learns a very useful ability for level-grinding purposes... under normal circumstances. With the Elevating Shoes, I actually have a reason to run in circles.

Since the Princess of Cannock is a temporary guest character, I've got 3 characters to run around with until I return to Cannock. I seize the opportunity to do level-grinding and explore / add more places to the Zoom list while I've got her. She'll be back later.

Think I already said this, but not sure I feel about the game going back on the classic 3 characters this game always had in the past, and if they were going to mess with it that much I wish they would have added Gwaelin as a playable party member for DQ1 too. Would have helped that game a lot.

The Prince of Cannock is actually good in this version, and learns some good attack abilities (like Sam Beckett's finishing move, seen here). He's far from the "DQ1 hero only a D minus tier version" that he was in previous editions. Now he's basically a B plus tier version.

That'll do it for the grinding. With the Elevating Shoes I got Cannock up to speed quick, so they're pretty much within a level of each other going forward.

Getting level 15 also got me enough gold to get the best equipment available from Cannock for both characters. At this stage of the game they can pretty much use the same stuff. Later Midenhall's range of usable equipment dramatically outpaces Cannock's... at least, normally, we'll see now.

Next stop: Investigating Moonbrooke (the place) and finding Moonbrooke (the person)

That's it for the sassy princess, for now. Kept her around as long as I could get away with.

On the way to Moonbrooke, it seems the local Cannock outposts have been overwhelmed by monster attacks. They're expanding their sphere of control by the hour. The good guys probably have to follow rules of engagement and other such things that only the good guys tend to follow, which gives Hargon's unscrupulous ambushers the advantage with their guerilla strikes.

We should really like, mobilize our knights or something...leaving these outposts to just get ganked one by one isn't gonna cut it.

In the past I never worried about Mini Medals in this series, but that's changed. I didn't bother in DQ1, but after seeing that DQ7 requires Mini Medals for postgame access, and feeling kinda like I shortchanged myself by not spending more time hunting them down in DQ1, I'm gonna go ahead and go out of my way to find them here in DQ2. Especially on the off chance that they might be tied to postgame. Not following a list, hoping I'll just find them on my own.

Future Editor's Note: Turning on "display treasure chests on map" in the settings is huge for finding all the loot in these games. I didn't even know about this until later. No wonder I was missing so much stuff.

New boss fight! It's a couple of weirdoes named after Pokemen!

An easy fight given how pumped-up I got with new equipment and everything. Probably ahead of the curve.

Besides medals, I'm also going out of my way to make a note of any locked chests I find so I can get them later.

Cannock is now fully mobilized and ready to...guard their gates! Hargon's forces might ransack the rest of the land, but By God they won't get through this doorway!

This next town has a puppy wandering around. It just showed up a few days ago, and it acts suspiciously like a prissy princess.

"Give me food!" it barks while not letting anyone pet it for more than 3 seconds.

...are we sure it isn't a cat?

Out in the wilderness, I get Ra's Mirror, which reveals the true form of things, what they look like on the inside. So if you hold it up to P. Diddy, it'll show you Harvey Weinstein. If you hold it up to Harvey Weinstein, it'll show you... Harvey Weinstein.

At this point I'm intent on getting the best possible gear for all three characters again once I get the third character, so I sell all my old gear and any loot I accumulated. Nothing is a particular golden ticket, but it adds up.

Here's Moonbrooke Castle itself, and...it's looking pretty bad.

Indeed, the place lay in stark ruins, a clear warning of what awaits kingdoms that fall to Hargon. It's actually pretty depressing.

Ghosts roam around, pleading for help after the fact. The Dragonlord managed to take down Damdara, but it seems like Hargon has already done a lot more damage than the Dragonlord ever did. At least Damdara's citizens had a chance to flee.

I mentioned how ability scrolls now entail having to make a choice. Both Midenhall and Cannock can use a lot of these physical-based abilities, and it's a matter of deciding who will contribute the most with any given new move.

One of the prettiest rooms in the game is found here, and the only thing not burned down. Wonder if there'll be any way to walk around pre-riot Moonbrooke at some point.

Did I mention how depressing this place is?

More locked chests to make note of, deep in the bowels of Moonbrooke (the place)

Back to town, it's high time I shined Ra's Mirror on that oddly prissy dog.

It then becomes...

The guys are like "Oh My God" at the gorgeousness of their cousin. Keep it in your pants, guys! We're not the Hapsburgs!

Enough jokes, they bring terrible tidings...and Princess Moonbrooke doesn't take it well.

She has a very realistic reaction to all of this. Nothing overwrought, nothing childish, just normal processing.

It was here that I realized I was playing a game meant for mature people, that trusts the intelligence of its audience. Even if some of them are kids, I think it's good to trust your audience's maturity level and give them a story that doesn't hold back. So much of our media and entertainment are designed to be understood by the lowest common denominator. They just straight-up insult our intelligence on such a nearly-constant basis that after a while we might not even notice it anymore.

Moonbrooke is taking everything dead-serious. Cannock is more of a prancing playboy, and Midenhall...is a mute, but Moonbrooke is treating the situation appropriately.

Hargon has been a busy bee, and must be stopped to bring this trilogy to a close.

Next time on DQ2: I get Moonbrooke up to speed on everything that's been going on, and climb towers.

I leave you with some words of wisdom, that a lot of us could apply to our own lives:

Other Dragon Quest Posts

The Dragon Quest Master Post