Welcome to our review of Dragon Quest 2: Luminaries of the Legendary Line, out now on Nintendo Switch as part of their ports of the original first three Dragon Quest games!
The second installment of the classic RPG comes to Nintendo Switch with updated controls. Join the descendants of the legendary hero Erdrick as they embark on an epic adventure to defeat the diabolical High Priest Hargon!
A century has passed since the events of the first DRAGON QUEST, during which time the descendants of the hero of Alefgard have forged three new nations. But the peace they have known is no more. Demon hosts summoned forth from the darkness by High Priest Hargon have brought the land to the brink of ruin once again. Now, the young prince of Midenhall must set out to find the other two descendants of Erdrick so that together they might defeat the nefarious Hargon and restore peace to their world.
Wander the wilds, brave monster-infested dungeons, or take to the seas in search of new lands with your ship. Discover a wider array of powerful abilities and valuable treasures along the way! Experience the classic Party system: control multiple heroes and battle group of enemies and get more strategic.
Experience the multi-million selling series, beloved both in Japan and beyond, and see how the masterful talents of series creator Yuji Horii, combined with the revolutionary synthesizer sounds of Koichi Sugiyama and the wildly popular manga illustrations of Akira Toriyama to create a gaming sensation.
So when I got to play this game, the second of the Dragon Quest franchise, I was hoping it would not be such a disappointment considering the high expectations I had heading into playing the first game. Luckily, this one is already performing a lot better than the first game, but it still has minor issues.
Storywise, it is a classic good versus evil story where you get your band together to fight off the ever so present evil forces. On a more comical sidenote, it has to be so hard living in these phantasy worlds as there is always evil a-brewing. Dragon Quest 2 is no different and unlike the first entry, it does a lot more to provide guidance in going from one place to the next. Prior to getting Thomas to join my efforts against evil, I was trying to track him down and it was clear how and where to go. Talking to people brings information.
I also had the delight not to die as often.
For some reason, that was really the biggest upside when comparing both games. Game 1 was hard and sometimes just going too far and the difficulty in the second game is much more balanced. You no longer encounter way overpowered enemies and I got to say that I loved it a lot. I was also able to power up a lot easier and even the money came in more easily, allowing for better attack and defensive items to be bought.
I must also say that this game aged a little better than the original. It had a much smoother gameplay all round and I have to say, while still rather empty and the pure 8-bit style might not be appealing to all gamers, it does do a much better job at appealing the RPG lovers out there. As this is also a port of the IOS game, I never did buy it on my iPhone so unlike the original game, I can not compare.
In conclusion, Dragon Quest 2 confirmed to me why this series is so well-loved in Japan and beyond. It is like they literally improved on all parts possible at the time of developing the game. I would still call the game a little empty feeling in the big worlds, also town names are something I like to see when entering a place… Still not a big bucks game, but it is getting there!
