That one was fun! You can really see the step up from the first game, and what aspects went on to influence the genre. Expanding the party to three characters definitely helped give the game more flavour, even if the writing isn't anything special. I don't expect more from what was originally a NES game, though, so that's fine. The Switch version added some nice quality of life, though we once again lost the amazing spritework from the SNES remakes. Ah well. I still had a good time with this one, it's worth a look if you enjoy retro RPGs and videogame history.

As I mentioned in my review for the first Dragon Quest, I bought the mobile versions of the original Dragon Quest trilogy on a whim years ago. Last year I decided to finally finish the first game, and now I've chosen to finish its sequel this year. Dragon Quest II is a sequel that is surprisingly a vast improvement to its predecessor.

In terms of gameplay, its exactly the same as the first game, but considering that Dragon Quest is a series known for following tradition that is no surprise. This time however, you're not alone. You get two party members to assist you on your journey, the Prince of Cannock and the Princess of Moonbrooke. Having these party members is pretty much a necessity as the character you play as doesn't have magic this time and the latter parts of the game, especially the final boss would be much harder without them. The other noteble addition is the ability to sail across the land on your ship which has been included in every other game in the series onward. These additions come a long way in making the game feel fresh and interesting in comparison to the first game.

Dragon Quest II is a massive step forward, but there were some things I didn't like about it. My first issue is something that bothered me with the original as well, and that issue would be the random encounter rate. While I can understand why they were a thing in the RPGs of old, it gets really annoying getting spammed with encounters every two steps I make, especially when I'm lost or trying to traverse a new area. My other issue is that the game can be pretty cryptic at times when it comes to finding all the things you need to progress. I looked up guides significantly more this time than I did for DQ1 mostly just to find out where to go or where to find a certain item.

As for grinding in this game? Surprisingly, it wasn't too bad. Enemies drop reasonable amount of exp to where if you do need to grind, you won't need to for long. It's probably just an improvement they added in later versions they made, but considering that grinding seems to be a gripe that most people seem to have, I expected worse.

Dragon Quest II is in my opinion an underappreciated game that laid a lot of the groundwork for the rest of the series. It felt much more like an adventure in comparison to its predecessor. Considering how the original trilogy is on basically everything these days, I'd suggest either emulating or dropping a couple bucks on either the Switch or mobile versions. It may not be as good as the entries afterwards, but with the amount of improvements it makes its definitely worth a playthrough.

Dragon Quest 2 is a classic JRPG remade for mobile and ported to switch. It is an undoubted classic and the plot and the game play are as good or better than the original. The new graphics probably split opinions, I would have prefered more original style pixel art for nostalgia, this style seems to me a bit off like a clip art show from cheap asset pack, but it's still recognisable dragon quest characters. Other way to think of it, the graphical style is really similar to kemco's shovelware mobile jrpgs. The port is well-made and it's mostly nice to play with few quality of life improvements compared to the original, but few nes era annoyances are still there like having to faff about with the inventories and menus a lot. Since it's decently sold at budget title price and not full price like some other remakes on switch, it's definitely worth the money.

Next up on my Dragon Quest kick was the second game! Popo had warned me that this one had some really god damn mean bits, and damn wasn't he kidding x3. This game has some really serious design issues, but it really is more up to the growing pains of the genre it was helping pioneer, so I really can't blame the game too much.

I'm just SO glad I was playing the Japanese 3DS remake, because it has the DS remakes' art style but the balancing of the GBC port, so it gets rid of a lot of the miserable grinding of the Famicom original as well as making a lot of the formerly empty or crap loot chests have better loot. I had read the game takes like 20 hours for this version, but it took me only like 14, so right about double what the first game took me, and that's being a little over leveled. (My characters were levels 40, 38, and 33 at the end of the game).

The story is an evolution in depth over the original as well as the world building. A LOT more towns and dungeons really make DQ2 feel like a more real world than the comparatively small scope of the first game. Some of the towns are a bit too far apart and/or guarded by monsters whose level curve is a bit harsh, but it's nothing totally game breaking. It certainly makes it apparent when to grind, that's for damn sure x3

This game has some really serious design issues that come about from pioneering new systems while not addressing problems from the original. There are no magic stats, just as in the original. As a result, spells never scale with levels either offensively or defensively. This means that the only way to guard against enemy spells is just raising your HP which will take a crazy level of grinding. And all the grinding in the world won't save you from instant death spells like Sacrifice which I only had happened twice but did a full-party wipe every time it happened.

The other big freaking problem is the dungeons, which are just so mean and maze-like. Some of them, particularly near the end of the game, are just so damn full of annoying enemies that put you to sleep or can 1 or 2-shot half the party in just one turn. This is all on TOP of having bullcrap like pitfalls to previous floors, stairways that lead you backwards, and Lost Woods-style puzzles that constantly lead you back to the start of an area. Some of the dungeons could literally take you hours to get through without a guide map, which is why I used them liberally in the second half of the game. That's probably why my game timer was only about 14 hours instead of 20.

Verdict: Not Recommended. It's a piece of history, that's to be sure, bit it's also really obvious why this is considered the worst Dragon Quest game. It's got a lot of good ideas, but the execution is just so flawed that it's really difficult to recommend as a game unless you're just hellbent on playing all of the DQ games. There are a ton of far better DQ games out there to play, so just go play those and save yourself the frustration x3