Three Makes a Party

While the Japanese RPG scene was huge over across the pond, in the West, on the NES (which was the dominant console for an entire generation) there were two titles that came to define role playing games: Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior (yes, I know it’s Dragon Quest in Japan, and that the series reverted to that name worldwide eventually, and I know the copyright reasons for this, but we’re talking NES era so just go with it). Final Fantasy became a smash hit and was later given sequels on the SNES (again, ignoring Japanese history on this) such that for years and years, if you thought RPGs you thought of Square’s Final Fantasy series. But for the NES, more than any other title, Dragon Warrior was the RPG.

That’s not because it was a massive hit when it was released. It was huge in Japan, and Nintendo thought it would be huge in the States, but it actually undersold projections and eventually Nintendo was forced to bargain bin off their copies as best as they could. But what Dragon Quest came to define in Japan – the mechanics, the perspective, the battles – became ingrained in the kinds of games Japanese companies produced. The first title of the series had the perfect blend of elements all shrunk down to work on the Famicom, which only had a D-pad and two main buttons, and it works. And as those games came to the U.S., our RPGs were defined by Japan’s RPGs, all thanks to Dragon Quest.

When you compare the two series on the NES, it’s interesting to note that both of the franchises had multiple Famicom entries, but for the U.S. Final Fantasy only saw that one release. The two sequels (Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III) didn’t see release on the NES. Plans were in place at one point, but Square decided to focus their time and efforts on porting the SNES title, Final Fantasy IV, over instead. But for Dragon Warrior, the four Dragon Quest titles of the Famicom era all made the move to the U.S. Despite these games becoming more and more complex with each passing entry, Enix felt it was worth the time and effort to make the push. This, let’s be honest, despite the fact that Dragon Warrior II kind of sucks.

Okay, I know the fans of the series are going to complain about that statement, but let’s be honest: it’s true. While the second game of the series, a series that got better and better with every passing NES entry, has a lot going for it, there’s so much that’s imbalance and wrong that the game feels unsalvageable. It’s hard, it’s mean, it’s beyond obtuse, all leading to a package that actively hates the player and wants them to quit. It’s not just a Nintendo Hard game but a vile cart with one goal: to ruin whatever fun you could have with the title.

Let’s address what’s good about this game, first. Dragon Warrior II (or Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line, which is fine to go either way) features a greatly expanded adventure over the original title. Your party, which was just one hero in the first game, goes up to a party of three with more traditional classes: hero, cleric, and mage. You gain these characters over time, each a royal descendant of the great hero Erdrick (or Roto in Japan) and work to build your party, gain levels, gain spells, and fight against expanded packs of enemies. There are more weapons and items to collect, more spells to gain, more of everything, in essence, to make this world feel bigger.

Oh, and torches are no longer a thing. The first game in the series required you to light torches (or use the Radiant spell, once you’d gained it) to light your way in all the various dungeons. The lights are out unless you have some way to turn them on. This was an annoyance, and most other RPGs of the era didn’t even bother with this kind of mechanic. It felt like something from a much earlier, and more punishing, form of RPG, and thankfully with Dragon Warrior II the series does away with that mechanic entirely.

And, honestly, on a purely technical level this game does seem good. There’s more dungeons, so there’s more to do in the game. There are plenty of bosses to battle and things to see. Everything is coded to work smoothly and feel right. It’s clear that the people making this game wanted to create something with the best presentation possible (barring the absolutely atrocious battle theme, which is a dissonant and discordant mess that I hate with a burning passion) and they worked very hard to achieve that goal. If you’re just watching the game as someone else plays it (with an overleveled party, I will note) then it seems like a ton of fun.

Actually playing the game, though, is something else altogether. The game is hard. Punishingly hard. From the very outset when it’s just your one character and you’re trying to figure out where you’re supposed to go, the game takes the gloves off and goes to town working you over. I died, a lot, in the early going just trying to reach the second town so I could find a way to my second party member and add some survivability to my team. I might have only been one person, but the game threw packs of enemies at me, many of which were higher in level and stronger than I was, and so I died. And I died. And then I died some more.

Now, sure, dying was a part of the mechanics in the original game, too. That was expected, though, because it was a grinding game, not a story game. From the outset you know your goal – collect the three items needed to build a bridge to go fight the evil Dragonlord – and then you’re sent to just wander and figure it out. Grind, collect, grind, collect, grind some more. That was it. But Dragon Warrior II is a richer game, with a more detailed story and actual characters. Forcing the same kind of basic grind heavy gameplay on the player gets tedious, fast, especially when there’s so much more of the game to explore than the first title. Dragon Warrior II still expects you to grind your heart out just to make progress, and if you don’t the game makes you suffer for it.

It’s not just the early game, it’s the middle and the late game, too. You’re always at a point where you feel underleveled, no matter how much grinding you perform, and there are always enemies bigger, meaner, and stronger than you. They hit like trucks, they refuse to let you run away, and then they bust out instant death spells that wipe your party. And it’s just constant about crap like this in every phase of the game. Even grinding doesn’t help that much when there’s a good chance some instant kill spell will come out, sending you back to start to try again. Especially true if it happens to your life caster and you have no way to bring them back. Deep in a dungeon, especially the end dungeon, if that happens (with no way to avoid it) you may as well reset because you’re not clearing the game that time.

The game expects you to spend hours, maybe even days, grinding just so you can make progress. Walking back and forth in a zone, trying to get anything while you’re ground to dirt by the enemies. And then it’s back to town to revive everyone that died, but only if you have enough money to do so. There’s no Quality of Life options to speed this up, or make this nicer. You just have to suffer and call it fun because the game isn’t properly balanced in any way. The designers might have played it themselves while making it, but they clearly meant for it to be a punishing and cruel experience, and so that’s what we got.

Of note, the remakes (Super Famicom, Game Boy Color, and more) try to rectify this, making leveling faster and toning the enemies down just a bit. But even then the game can only fix so much in something that’s so fundamentally imbalanced. Take it too far and then the game is a cakewalk and all challenge is removed. Leave things alone and they’re too challenging. Essentially this game needed way more time in the hopper before its first release, and the subsequent releases have struggled to find a way to make things better while keeping the core of the game intact. It’s an impossible play.

Dragon Warrior II came out in Japan and was a massive hit, even despite its imbalanced challenge and gameplay. In most respects this was the game players wanted, bigger and better and more of everything. Apparently that “more” also included challenge. But it was successful enough (with massive, 2.4 Mil sales over the life of the cart), which is big by any standard. Two more, much improved sequels followed, and thankfully we got those as well in the U.S. If this had been Square and not Enix, Dragon Quest II likely would have been kept buried for years while some later game took its place in U.S. markets.

And, honestly, I’m not certain if that would have been a bad thing. Playing this game, it feels as broken as Final Fantasy II (although obviously for different reasons). Enix was trying to figure out how to expand the games and make something bigger and better. They almost nailed it, but then failed to actually think about how the general public would play this game. That oversight sinks this title.