Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line, known as Dragon Warrior II when first released in North America, is a 1987 role-playing video game created by Chunsoft and published by Enix for the Nintendo Entertainment System as part of the Dragon Quest series. Enix’s U.S. branch company released the North American version, Dragon Warrior II, for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990. Dragon Quest II takes place 100 years after the events of the first game.
The story follows the prince of Midenhall, who is tasked with stopping an evil wizard named Hargon after Hargon destroys Moonbrooke Castle. During his journey, the prince is joined by his two cousins: the prince of Cannock and the princess of Moonbrooke (who is also the princess of Cannock in the Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake). Compared to the first game, Dragon Quest II features a larger party, more areas to explore, multiple heroes and enemies in battles, and a sailing ship. The game’s sequel, Dragon Quest III, follows the ancestor of the main characters, the legendary hero Erdrick. Together, the three games are called "The Erdrick Trilogy."
Development of Dragon Quest II began one month before the release of the original Dragon Quest. A key goal was to create a more exciting combat system, inspired by similar systems in games like Wizardry. The artwork for characters and monsters was painted by Akira Toriyama and then converted into pixel art. The game faced delays due to issues with game balance, which were only fully fixed in the early parts of the game. These delays, along with a team that included students unfamiliar with coding and debugging, caused the release to be pushed back by one month. Some ideas had to be removed because of the technical limits of the Famicom system, though some were later added to remakes and the sequel, Dragon Quest III.
Dragon Quest II was successful in Japan, with the original Famicom version selling over 2.4 million copies. Later, the game was remade for the Super Famicom and the Game Boy Color and combined with the original Dragon Quest game in a release titled Dragon Quest I & II. A version for Android and iOS was released in Japan on June 26, 2014, and worldwide on October 9, 2014, as Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line. The game was praised for improving many aspects of the original, including better graphics, a larger world to explore, and more characters in battles.
Dragon Quest II is known as one of the most challenging Dragon Quest games, especially in its later stages. This difficulty remained even in later versions of the game released on other platforms, which made the game slightly easier to play.
Gameplay
Dragon Quest II is a role-playing video game. Players can control more than one character, each with their own traits. It is the first game in the Dragon Quest series to allow this. The game introduced a party system where players start with only one character and gradually add more members during the game. Players control their characters as they move through the game world. They can open treasure chests, speak with villagers, trade items, wear weapons and armor, and use spells.
As players explore fields, towers, caves, seas, and dungeons, they may encounter monsters by chance. When this happens, the game switches to battle mode. Battle mode includes groups of monsters, which is different from the one-on-one battles in earlier Dragon Quest games. During battles, players give commands to their characters to fight monsters. After defeating all monsters, characters earn experience points and gold. Experience points help characters level up, improving their abilities and allowing them to learn new spells.
To win, players must defeat monsters to gain experience and gold to buy better weapons and armor. As characters grow stronger, they can reach new towns or dungeons. This process repeats until players face the final boss and defeat him. The game is not strictly linear, especially after obtaining a boat. Exploration is an important part of the game. Players can save their progress in certain towns by talking to a king or minister. In the American version, players can also delete or move saved games by speaking to the king, using a battery instead of a password system.
Dragon Quest II improved upon the gameplay of the earlier game, Dragon Quest. It was the first game in the series to include multiple heroes and enemies in battles, as well as a sailing ship. Players could land the ship anywhere, allowing them to explore the game world freely. New features included weapons that cast spells during battles. Compared to its predecessor, it offered more spells, items, and a larger world. The game also updated the inventory system by giving each character their own inventory space for up to eight items, encouraging careful item management. Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line was the first game in the series to include a game of chance (using Lottery Tickets) and introduced multiple key types and travel doors (warp gates).
Plot
Dragon Quest II takes place 100 years after the events of Dragon Quest. The story starts with an attack on Moonbrooke Castle by the wizard Hargon, who wants to summon the demon Malroth to destroy the world. A wounded soldier escapes the battle and runs to the kingdom of Midenhall, where he tells the king about the attack before dying. The king then orders his son, a descendant of Erdrick (called Loto in Japanese translations and some later versions), to defeat Hargon.
The prince begins his journey alone but later meets two cousins: the Prince of Cannock and the Princess of Moonbrooke (as well as the princess of Cannock in the HD-2D Remake of Dragon Quest I & II). After finding the Prince of Cannock, who started his journey at the same time, they help restore the Princess of Moonbrooke to her human form. She had been turned into a dog during Hargon’s attack, which destroyed Moonbrooke Castle. As the heroes travel to find and defeat Hargon, they find a ship to cross oceans and reach new lands, including Alefgard, where the first Dragon Quest took place. There, they meet the grandson of Dragonlord, the villain from the previous game, who gives them important information. He explains that collecting five crests hidden around the world (crafted by the hero of Dragon Quest I with the help of faeries in the HD-2D Remake) allows them to create the Charm of Rubiss, which can defeat Hargon and his illusions.
After obtaining the Charm of Rubiss, the heroes travel to Hargon’s castle on the icy plateau of Rhone and fight him in his throne room. Hargon is defeated but offers himself to Malroth, allowing the demon to appear and attack the heroes. Together, the heroes kill Malroth and return to Midenhall, where the prince becomes the new king.
In the HD-2D Remake, after certain events in the postgame, the Will of Darkness covers Malroth and sends the Scions of Erdrick into the void, revealing Malwrath, a stronger version of Malroth controlled by Calasmos. With the help of Rubiss and Ramia, the heroes destroy Malwrath, bringing a new dawn to the world. As Malwrath dies, it is revealed that Hargon was possessed and controlled by Calasmos to achieve his goals. The ending then follows the same events as before. Later, Ramia takes the party to Aliahan, the birthplace of the hero from Dragon Quest III, where they learn about their ancestor’s origins.
Development
Yuji Horii wrote the story for Dragon Quest II, just like he did for other main games in the Dragon Quest series. Akira Toriyama created the artwork, and Koichi Sugiyama composed the music. Koichi Nakamura, who helped create the game, directed it and did part of the programming.
Planning for Dragon Quest II started in April 1986, one month before the original Dragon Quest was released. After deciding the system and memory map, development began in early July. Producer Yukinobu Chida asked director and programmer Koichi Nakamura for a release date, and Nakamura gave one casually. The team split into two groups: one worked on the story and monsters, and the other handled programming. The initial goal was to finish by early November, but the game was delayed slightly. By the time of the first deadline, most programming was done, and the team believed the game could be released by the end of the year. A Japanese magazine, Weekly Shōnen Jump, announced in November 1986 that the game would be released in late December. However, developers found the game too difficult, so they delayed it for a month to fix the balance. They finished the final version by mid-December and rushed to deliver it to Nintendo for physical game cartridges. The game was released on January 26, 1987.
The developers thought the original Dragon Quest’s one-vs-one combat system was too simple and boring. They decided to use a party system in Dragon Quest II, allowing players to control multiple characters. In another game called Wizardry, players could control up to six characters, and Nakamura liked this idea. Because of technical limits, they used only three characters. The Famicom system could show up to eight sprites side by side, and each character used two units in a direction, so three characters could interact with non-playable characters (NPCs). Yuji Horii believed many players would play Dragon Quest II without first playing Dragon Quest, so he designed the game to let players find the other party members. During development, the team debated removing the “stair” command from the original game. Nakamura said the Cave of Rhone in the game was inspired by a classic maze-solving trick: always moving forward while staying close to the right wall to avoid traps.
In the story group, monsters were the first thing designed. Their names, skills, and personalities were decided first, then artist Akira Toriyama drew them. Yuji Horii let Toriyama paint full drawings instead of creating pixel art directly for the game. The artwork was then converted into computer graphics. Since Toriyama was not familiar with computer graphics, other staff handled this. Many new monsters were added to make the game feel real, and the process was hard for Toriyama. However, he said he enjoyed painting more than drawing manga, so the experience was mostly positive. Yuji Horii said he quickly outlines the story’s plot in his mind, like other manga and film creators. For map design, a blank map was used to create the shape of places like castles or caves, and key elements and story details were added later. The scenarios were mostly written by his friend Hiroshi Miyaoka. Staff wrote both the story and map designs on 5 mm graph paper for easier organization; the manuscript was 15 cm thick.
Compared to its predecessor, Dragon Quest II had more advanced technology in nearly all areas. Koichi Nakamura programmed with several students. However, since it was his first time working with a team, he did not know how to delegate tasks or share goals clearly. The students were not familiar with coding, so they did not know how to debug or track whose code was used. Nakamura had to do this himself, which caused delays. Programming started with maps, then characters, including numbered characters in maps for assigned lines, and the movement routes for NPCs. Next, they programmed items, and finally, they set monster data and converted Toriyama’s artwork. This work was completed by the end of October.
Because of balance issues, the game was very difficult, especially in the later stages. Nakamura created a program to simulate every combat scenario to adjust character leveling and enemy strength. However, this program did not account for larger monster groups, which made the game too hard. Enemies and weapons were designed by area, but Nakamura did not consider the boat’s role, so players might be defeated quickly if they reached certain lands. Developers fixed this by limiting enemy groups in Midenhall to three and moving Cannock Castle closer to Midenhall Castle.
Because of limited cartridge space, some ideas were not used, such as an alternate ending where the Lorasia Prince is killed by the Prince of Cannock’s sister if he dies in the final battle. Some elements were later used in remakes or sequels: a subplot about the Prince of Cannock being cursed was added to the Super Famicom remake and later versions. The Promontory of Olivia in Dragon Quest III was originally an idea for Dragon Quest II. The game cartridge had a 1 Mbit ROM capacity, but only about 10 bytes of space remained unused in the final version.
The North American release of the game as Dragon Warrior II was made by Enix and published in 1990. Unlike the original Japanese Famicom version, which used passwords to save progress, the NES version used an internal battery backup instead. The storyline introduction in Moonbrooke was only in Dragon Warrior II. In the Japanese version, the game starts with an injured soldier from Moonbrooke entering Midenhall Castle to seek help from the king. The American version used archaic English vocabulary in dialogue, among other differences. Like Dragon Warrior, the American version of Dragon Warrior II had some censorship, such as using a ghost-like sprite instead of the original defeated character’s coffin with a cross.
Koichi Sugiyama composed and directed the music for the game. The first album of Dragon Quest II, Suite Dragon Quest II ~Gods of the Evil Spirits~, was released in February 1987. It includes ten orchestral soundtracks and a 25-minute “original sound story” performed by the Tokyo Strings Ensemble. Some tracks are classical, and others are jazz. On August 20, 1987, the first “Family Classic Concert” was held, where music from Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest II was performed by the Tokyo Strings Ensemble. The concert recording was released as a symphonic suite CD in October 1987 under the title Dragon Quest in Concert. Music from Dragon Quest II was also released as a piano CD, a drama CD, and several symphonic suite albums. Songs from Dragon Quest II were later collected in music compilations, such
Other media
Three guide books were published: the first by Shueisha in February 1987, the second by Tokuma Shoten in July 1987, and the third by game publisher Enix in 1988 as an "official guide book."
Like other early main games in the series, Dragon Quest II was turned into a novel and made into game books. The Dragon Quest II Novel was written by Hideo Takayashiki and published in 1989; it was reprinted in 1991 and 2000. The Dragon Quest II Game Book series was also published in 1989.
Reception and legacy
Dragon Quest II was very successful in Japan, both in terms of reviews and sales. The Famicom version sold 500,000 copies when it first came out, and by the end of the year, it had sold 2.4 million copies, making several hundred million dollars in sales. By 2008, the Famicom version had sold a total of 2.41 million copies. The Super Famicom and Game Boy Color remakes together sold more than 1.92 million copies worldwide. The Japan Mobile version was downloaded more than one million times. The game was included in a 2011 compilation called Dragon Quest Collection for the Wii, which sold 403,953 copies.
Readers of Family Computer Magazine gave it a score of 28.02 out of 30 and named it the best overall cartridge game of the year. In 2006, readers of Famitsu magazine voted the game the 17th best video game of all time.
The game fixed problems from the first game, including improvements such as allowing parties of three characters, a larger world, better graphics, and the ability to carry more items. Other changes included keys that could be used multiple times and new strategies due to larger parties and more enemies. The game’s music was praised, even though it used limited 8-bit technology. Considered a classic in the RPG genre, the game was widely appreciated. Japanese reviews noted the Famicom version’s difficulty, such as the many traps in the Cave of Rhone and the final boss’s ability to cast a "Healall" spell. This difficulty led some critics to call it "the most difficult Dragon Quest." After Dragon Quest III was released, director Koichi Nakamura said, "In result, Dragon Quest II received favorable reviews from everybody, but as myself on the creator’s side, I feel that I did about only half what I wanted to do."
Remakes of Dragon Quest II were also successful and well received. Famitsu gave the Japanese Super Famicom remake a score of 35 out of 40. The Game Boy Color remake received a score of 30 out of 40 from Famitsu. The U.S. version, Dragon Warrior I & II, received high marks, including an 8.0 out of 10 from IGN, a 9.6 out of 10 from GameSpot, and an 8 out of 10 from Nintendo Power. It also won the RPGamer’s Game Boy Color Award of the Year for 2000.
The release of Dragon Quest II helped increase sales of the original Dragon Quest. With the success of Dragon Quest II, the series became a major part of Japanese culture. The sequel to Dragon Quest II, Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation, was released in Japan in 1988. It serves as a prequel to the first two games and follows the ancestor of the main characters, the legendary hero, Erdrick. The three games are collectively called the "Erdrick Saga Trilogy." With the success of the Game Boy Color remake, Enix released a Game Boy Color version of Dragon Warrior III in 2001, which was based on the Japan-only Super Famicom update of the original Dragon Quest III. The world of Dragon Quest II was later used as the setting for Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart on the Game Boy Advance.