Backlog Game Reviews 23: Dragon Quest 2 (Gameboy Color)

     Hey there, and welcome to Backlog Game Reviews.

    For today's review let's take a look at Dragon Quest 2 for the Gameboy Color. It was originally released for the Famicom on January 26th, 1987 in Japan. It then came to North America on September 1990 and it would go on to be remade for the Gameboy Color along with the original Dragon Quest as a two in one compilation. I already reviewed the first Dragon Quest, and if you're interested you can check out that review here: Dragon Quest review. Let's take a look and see how this sequel holds up.

The opening cutscene isn't animated, but has very nice pixel art.

   The game begins with the Kingdom of Moonbrooke coming under attack by monsters. Moonbrooke is destroyed, but a lone guard manages to survive. Using the last of his strength he travels to the Kingdom of Lorasia and informs the king of Moobrooke's fate. It's here we learn that a powerful monster named Hargon has amassed an army and is waging war against humanity.

The second half of the opening cutscene.

   After hearing the news, the king of Lorasia assigns his son with the mission of defeating Hargon. He tells the Prince of Lorasia that he’s the descendant of the hero that defeated the Dragon Lord 100 years ago, and thus also the descendant of Erdrick, the hero of legend. But before going after Hargon the king orders the prince to find the Prince of Cannock and the Princess of Moonbrooke, as they are also descendants of Erdrick and their help will be vital in the battle against Hargon. With his quest laid out before him, the Prince of Lorasia sets out to return peace to the world.

 

Finding the Prince of Cannock.

  

    I like that story-wise this game is connected to the first one, it makes it feel like a real sequel. Other than that, the story is nothing special. It feels very similar to the last game and doesn't try to do anything new. The story isn't bad, but it plays it very safe and throughout the whole game it doesn't amount to anything more then Hargon is evil and needs to be stopped.

The battle screen.

     The storytelling may not have seen any improvements but the gameplay is a different story. One of the biggest changes this time around is that you now have party members. You start the game as the Prince of Lorasia, The Prince of Cannock and The Princess of Moonbrooke will join you fairly early on. Each character is drastically different from one another. The Prince of Lorasia is your tank, he has the highest HP, defense and attack strength. He can also equip a large variety of swords, shields, and heavy armor. His only downside is that he can't use magic.

The Prince of Lorasia arriving at the Kingdom of Cannock.

   The Prince of Cannock is a mixture between a fighter and a mage. His HP, attack, and defensive aren't bad but it's not great either. He has a decent MP pool and learns a mix of healing, attack, and support spells.

The three heroes.

   The group's third member, the Princess of Moonbrooke is a traditional mage. She has low HP, defense, and attack strength but she has the highest MP pool and the best healing and attack spells. In terms of magic, the only thing she lacks is support spells such as buffs or debuffs.

One of the many towns in the game.

   The addition of teammates is a huge improvement from the first game. The original Dragon Quest was incredibly simplistic because you only had one character and every battle boiled down to attack and heal when low on HP. But now that there are three characters to control a lot of options become available. Unlike the last game, you can have one character try to put a monster to sleep and have another character attack so it never feels like you wasted a turn. The ability to cast spells that increase your stats or decreases the enemy's stats adds a new layer of strategy to the game. And now that the offensive spells are in the hands of characters with low physical strength these spells are actually useful.

Some of the spells that the Princess of Moonbrooke will learn.

   Another change that you would notice pretty early on in the game is that battles pit you against more than one monster at a time. This makes random encounters a little more difficult, mainly because enemies that can cast sleeping spells will spam it as often as possible. This can cause battles to drag on and on because every time you wake up you get put right back to sleep.

Some mid-game enemies.

   While that is annoying, having multiple enemies is a nice change. It forces you to think about how you want to approach each encounter. If you see an enemy that can cast a sleeping spell maybe you should take him out first, or maybe you should focus on the strongest monster in the group. The addition of extra enemies has its problems but it's a good step forward.

This is a common group of monsters that you'll run into alot.

   While Dragon Quest 2 manages to improve upon the gameplay of the first game it doesn't do everything right. My biggest problem with this game is how cryptic it is. After finding the Prince of Cannock and The Princess of Moonbrooke your new goal is to find 5 crests. It's at this point the game becomes open world and you're left to your own devices to explore the world and find the crests. They can be gathered in any order and some are relatively easy to get. To get one of the crests all you have to do is climb a tower and beat the boss at the end.

The first dungeon in the game.

   Other crests though are literally lying on the ground in seemingly random locations. One crest is on the ground in the Fire Shrine, there's no indication that it's there so the only way to find it is to search the whole shrine until you stumble upon it. As you can probably guess it's not a lot of fun doing so.

The Fire Shrine.

   By talking to NPCs, you can get hints to each crest’s location but most of these hints are vague and riddle-like so they're not very helpful. To make searching for the crests a little easier there is an item called the echo flute. If you're in the same room as a crest and play the flute it'll echo thus letting you know a crest is nearby. It helps a little bit but it's incredibly tedious stopping everywhere you go and playing the flute.

You can view the world map after you find it.

   I like the idea of exploring the world and collecting several items as the main quest, but the game is just too cryptic for its own good. If you want to play this game then I suggest using a guide of some kind. With a guide, this is a pretty enjoyable game, but without one, you'll be left confused and frustrated trying to figure out what to do and where to go.

The whole world opens up after you get the boat.

   Another complaint I have is with the difficulty. For the most part, it's not that hard. You won't have to stop and level grind while searching for the crests. But when you make it to the area before the final dungeon known as Rhone the game spikes in difficulty. You'll suddenly find yourself encountering monsters that can easily take out your party in two or three turns.

Low level early game monsters.

   There's also an abundance of monsters that can insta-kill you. Insta-kill spells have a low success rate but because there's nothing you can do to protect yourself from them it's really annoying to get taken out by one.

The first town in the game.

   Once you make it to this part of the game you're going to have to spend a lot of time grinding to not only survive this area but to also stand any chance of defeating the final boss, as he makes anything you've come across so far look like a joke. The game does a very poor job at preparing you for the endgame so it feels like you hit a brick wall once you get to Rhone.

No two towns look the same.

   There are a good amount of problems with this game but it does have its fair share of improvements. All things considered, it's a fun game, but as I said before, to get the best experience possible you should use a guide. With that in mind, I would say this is a game worth playing if you're a retro RPG fan or a Dragon Quest fan.

I completed the game with the Prince of Lorasia at level 43, the Prince of Cannock at level 38 and the Princess of Moonbrooke at level 31.

   Moving on to the visuals they're largely the same as the first Dragon Quest as there are a lot of reused assets. I do feel that the battle screen has been downgraded. The backgrounds featured in the last game are gone and all that's left is a white screen. I assume this is because the Gameboy Color can't handle displaying multiple enemies and backgrounds at once. And if that's the case then I can't really complain, but it does make battles less visually appealing.

The battle screen was reduced to a simple white background but Dragon Quest 2 has more monster types then the first Dragon Quest.

   The music, on the other hand, is much better. The overworld theme is a huge improvement from last time, it's super catchy and you'll find yourself humming along while playing the game. The main menu theme is an impressive 8-bit rendition of a Japanese pop song called "Love Song Sagashite". The final boss theme does an excellent job of making an already physically imposing enemy even more intimidating. The music in the first Dragon Quest wasn't bad, but the soundtrack this time around really stands out.

That's all I have to say about Dragon Quest 2. It has its ups and downs, but it's a worthy successor to the original Dragon Quest. Give this game a try if you ever get the chance, just make sure to have a guide on hand.

Thanks for reading. Next time let's talk about a Gameboy Advance game. I hope to see you again here at Backlog Game Reviews.

   Dragon Quest 2 Gameplay Video