Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line, or Dragon Warrior II as it was called in North America, was released less than a year after the original game. With Dragon Quest’s success of selling more than a million copies in just Japan at the time, a sequel was inevitable for players in the 80s. Dragon Quest II takes everything from the original title, enhances, and improves every facet. Bigger, better, and more detailed. A larger map, a party system, and multiple enemies to be fought at once, which had not been in the original’s one-on-one battles.
As mentioned in my previous piece, Dragon Quest II HD-2D Remake will be bundled alongside Dragon Quest I HD-2D Remake as a dual bundle–similar to how both of the original titles have been combined, such as on the Game Boy Color. It seems as though these two games cannot be separated from each other, but this time around, outside of graphical updates and styling to be more reminiscent of last year’s Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, Dragon Quest II HD-2D Remake succeeds as a complementary game in ways it had never been previously through this dual bundle.
Dragon Quest II is set 100 years after the original game, but this time, the party consists of three descendants of Erdrick: the Prince of Midenhall, the Prince of Cannock, and the Princess of Moonbrooke. These three are the luminaries of the legendary line, as mentioned by the title from 1987. One interesting aspect of Dragon Quest II is that even though the game is about these three characters wholly, you start the game as the Prince of Midenhall, then have to recruit the other two party members on your quest. It is pretty cool and I cannot remember–outside of the recent Fantasian Neo Dimension–an RPG doing something like that, since most games with multiple party members do not have you starting entirely alone before recruiting more.
A few years ago, I played about five to eight hours of Dragon Quest II, but did not end up finishing the game due to save data being unsalvageable. With this Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, I can start fresh on this quest, but with many new changes. One of the biggest surprises and changes the reveal trailer of Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake had was the introduction of a new playable party member in Dragon Quest II HD-2D Remake. This is not yet confirmed, but most likely must be the Princess of Cannock, since in the original game, she wanted to join our three luminaries on the quest, as well, but the Prince of Cannock, who is your first recruitable party member and also her brother, pushes her wishes to join the group aside.
Of course, the Princess of Cannock is also a descendant of Erdrick, so Square-Enix, including her this time as the fourth party member, allows the developers to add an immense amount of new story content. This new story content has been teased more and more from the dual bundle reveal remake trailer until now, and is all but confirmed. It will be pretty wonderful to have an all-new additional party member. She did wish to join our heroes in the original game, so it would not just be “righting a wrong” or pushing her into a more “active” role in the game–not that her passivity was “bad”–but allowing Dragon Quest II’s story to delve into all-new subplots alongside character motivations that were not present before close to 40 years ago. Having four luminaries can open up new combat strategies, since Dragon Quest II expanded spells, skills, and combat setups more so than Dragon Quest. She even sports a new look with a sword on her hilt and her hair tied up in a ponytail, looking more like a sort of unit that is agile, but we will have to wait to see her in battle proper.
Tonally, in comparison to Dragon Quest I HD-2D Remake, Dragon Quest II HD-2D Remake is a lot more boisterous, triumphant, and upbeat in its overworld music. This works very well, since our main protagonist is not the sole descendant of Erdrick like Dragon Quest, but is joined by their cousins from different kingdoms, all descendants of Erdrick. Having this bundled with Dragon Quest I HD-2D Remake makes this a stronger companion piece. We do not have the despair and anxiety of a lone warrior, but the camaraderie of a group of heroes that is reflected in the soundtrack and fighting squads of enemies together. Yes–they all rolled the blood lottery, but their destiny is not one to be tackled alone. They can and will unite their skills, covering each other’s weaknesses, and uplifting each other’s strengths to defeat whatever may come their way.
Playing around 15 minutes of the game, I was able to control the three main party members and travel to a few of the kingdoms on the map. There was a sense of levity with a group of party members, but this did not make the fights easier. Barely surviving some fights and with low HP, I tried running away from enemies, but could not–having the entire party almost fall had I not warped back to safety as soon as possible. Another new aspect to this remake is the cutscenes and fully voiced dialogue. Not every single line of the dialogue is voiced, but when I took the party to Moonbrooke to see its destruction, the Princess of Moonbrooke had a long, engaging, and exceptionally voiced conversation with the NPCs found in the destroyed kingdom that did elevate the writing and real effects this world has with people in harm.
I am looking forward to seeing how the story unfolds in this iteration, since this time around, there seems to be an entirely new narrative alongside a fourth playable character that changes the story beats older players were previously acquainted with. The all-new voice-acted cutscenes raise and breathe new life into Dragon Quest II that had not been there previously. Dragon Quest I and Dragon Quest II may never be separated from each other, but with these diametrically opposed tones from these two remakes, Square-Enix is unlocking and plunging into new territory to wrap up the Erdrick Trilogy that old and new players should be excited about all of these years later.
Dragon Quest II HD-2D Remake’s sense of uniting hope and kinship will be packed inside the dual bundled collection alongside Dragon Quest I HD-2D Remake, when it releases on October 30th for PC, Nintendo Switch 1|2, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5.
