Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line

Genre: Turn-Based JRPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Dragon Quest II is a Turn-Based JRPG, originally released on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987, that is the direct sequel to one of the most important, influential games the genre has ever seen. In the original release, the game included a number of quality of life additions that improved over the original game, although many of these are considered industry standard at this point. With the Nintendo Switch remakes of these games (based on the Smartphone versions released a few years ago), many of these features were already included.

So that leaves two questions: how does this game stack up by today’s standards, and how much, if any, is this version of Dragon Quest II an improvement over the Nintendo Switch version of the first Dragon Quest?

As far as the presentation, the move to mobile, and then to the Switch, improved the game’s visuals, text, and music to be… well, not nearly in line with today’s standards, but at least somewhat less archaic. The new presentation is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, the redone soundtrack is noticeably improved, though I’d say it’s not quite as good as the first game. On the other hand, the combination of highly-pixelated with somewhat less-pixelated character sprites seems a bit odd and off-putting. In addition, the screen scrolls in a slightly-shuddering way that’s really distracting, though you do get used to it eventually.

As for the game’s story… this is an improvement over the previous game, but not by much. I suppose there’s only so much you can do with a story written for a 1987 videogame. His time around, the game begins with a castle beseiged and then razed, the only survivors being an escaping princess and a mortally wounded guard delivering news to the next kingdom over. In response to this, the prince is sent on a quest to gather together the descendants of the hero’s bloodline to fight this new evil. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but at least it’s not as formulaic as the game’s predecessor. This game’s story is both given personality and made more absurd with the insistence on language that fills sentences with Elizabethan-sounding words in an attempt to class up the affair, although with a child’s view of what “classy” is. Expect a lot of “thou”s and “thy”s.

And the gameplay… well, again, what do you expect? This was one of the earliest games in the genre, and as such it is extremely basic by today’s standards. This time around, the player does gather together a party of multiple characters, though there’s a set character progression with skills learned automatically at certain levels. There’s little strategy or thought to the game’s battles – it’s mostly just grind until you can afford new equipment and/or level up a sufficient amount, then venture into a new area, raid the local dungeon, and then repeat the process.

This would all be somewhat understandable, except this game really emphasizes the “grind” bit. Grinding takes forever in this game, with enemies being extraordinarily stingy about handing out gold and experience. There are other elements here that are frustrating as well, such as save points being few and far between (players can create a quicksave in this version, but are only allowed one quicksave for all of their save files).

Unfortunately, Dragon Quest II doesn’t hold as revered a place in history as its predecessor, and many of the improvements it made over the first game are rendered moot by the modernizations these remakes have given all of the games. The most noteworthy things that remain markedly better this time around, the story and the party system, are still lacking by today’s standards. In other areas I’d argue that this game isn’t quite up to par with the first game. In any case, by today’s standards, there’s little to distinguish this game from the first one, little to justify a purchase over the first game, and little reason for JRPG fans who aren’t looking for a trip down memory lane to even bother with it.

tl;dr – Dragon Quest II is a JRPG that may have been a notable improvement over the first game when it was originally released on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987, but those improvements have largely been rendered moot by the remake treatment these games have all gotten, and without that to its credit, all that’s left is pretty much a game that’s extremely outdated and archaic by today’s standards. Fans of the genre looking to revisit a classic may find this game worth their while, but most would do well to skip it.

Grade: C

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