Dragon Quest II

***Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line*** (ドラゴンクエストII 悪霊の神々 lit. *"Dragon Quest II: Pantheon of Evil Spirits"*), originally released as ***Dragon Warrior II*** in North America, is the second installment of the *Dragon Quest* series. It was initially released in Japan for the Famicom on January 26, 1987, with a North American release in September 1990.

## Gameplay

*Dragon Quest II* greatly expands on the gameplay of *Dragon Quest*, with a wider array of spells and items and a world with double the size of the previous game, with a sailing ship and travel gates. Some weapons also cast spells when used in battle.

*Dragon Quest II* is the first game in the series to feature multiple player characters and enemies in a single battle. However, to save memory for the monster portraits, battle screens have plain black or white backgrounds.

There are only three save points, in which talking to a king or minister will create a save file. The Japanese version of *Dragon Quest II* retains the Spell of Restoration password system, but the North American version replaces it with a battery backup ("Imperial Scrolls of Honor"). The chimaera wing and Zoom spell instantly warp the party back to the last save point they used.

## Version differences

Since its original release on the Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System, four remakes have appeared, with the first being on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, second the on Gameboy, third Mobile Cell Phones in Japan, and the most current being an iOS/Android release in the Japanese app store on June 26th, 2014. All the remakes feature updated graphics and music as well as a few other new features, such as quick-saving on the world map, animated battles, and the automatic redirecting of attacks that target defeated monsters. Starting with the cell phone version, all three descendants of Erdrick are capable of attaining level 50, with the two magic users' stat growth and exp requirements being adjusted accordingly.

Due to the constraints of the Game Boy and Game Boy Color's screens, the English release of *Dragon Warrior I & II* in 2000 reverted the localized names of Erdrick, Gwaelin, and others to a closer approximation of their Japanese counterparts. These changes would be undone by Plus-Alpha in 2010 with their localisation of *Dragon Quest IX*, which elected to retain the NES names as a surprise for older fans. As of the 2014 iOS/Android re-release, while several of the names of characters and locations have retained their NES designations (or very slight edits of such, like Midenhall instead of Middenhall), other characters and locations have elected for new translations that are closer to the meanings and puns of the original Japanese version. In addition, monsters, spells, and items have been updated to their modern naming conventions.

## Characters

### Prince of Lorasia

*See main article: Prince of Lorasia*
Known as the prince of Midenhall in the original US version, the prince of Lorasia is the classic warrior of the three heroes. He can use any armor and weapon in the game. He has no magic ability (this is the only game in the series in which this is true for the main hero), but his physical attack and defense are the greatest of the three. This is the character the player starts out with in the castle of Lorasia. His name is directly selected by the player.

### Prince of Cannock

*See main article: Prince of Cannock*
The prince of Cannock is a blend of the classic warrior and priest archetypes. He cannot use as wide a variety of weapons and armor as the Prince of Lorasia but compensates for this with the ability to use magic. However, it should be noted that his magic is not as powerful as that wielded by the Princess of Moonbrooke, although he is better at healing magic. This character is hard to track down, but is a great ally. His name is generated from a list of eight names stored in the game data and based on a formula used by assigning numerical values to the letters in the name selected for the Prince of Lorasia, although there is a cheat code to alter his name.

### Princess of Moonbrooke

*See main article: Princess of Moonbrooke*
The princess of Moonbrooke is the classic wizard of the three heroes. She can use few types of armor and weapons in the game. She shares some of the Prince of Cannock's magic, but in addition has several powerful damage spells. This character has been cursed and needs to be freed before she will be able to join her cousins. Like the Prince of Cannock, her name is determined by formula in the game's data, but can be changed by a cheat code.

### Hargon

*See main article: Hargon*
Hargon is the evil wizard that attacked Moonbrooke, cursed its princess, and threatened to destroy the world. The goal of the game is to guide the descendants of Erdrick to defeat Hargon.  Only after Hargon's defeat can peace return to the world.

## Plot

*Dragon Quest II* is set 100 years after *Dragon Quest*. A century of peace is suddenly ended when the evil wizard Hargon destroys the country of Moonbrooke. One lone guard, an injured survivor of the attack, makes his way towards the kingdom of Lorasia. There with his dying breath he informs the king of the dire circumstances. The king then commands his son, the prince of Lorasia and a descendant of Erdrick (also known as Loto in the GBC English localization), to defeat Hargon.

The prince is not alone on his quest. He has two cousins, the prince of Cannock and the princess of Moonbrooke. However, he must find them first. The prince of Cannock already left on a similar journey, and the princess of Moonbrooke was in the castle of Moonbrooke when it was attacked. It is up to the prince of Lorasia to find them, join together, and defeat Hargon.

## Legacy

### Ports

* *Dragon Quest II* had a port for the MSX platform in Japan.
* *Dragon Quest II* was released in North America, under the name *Dragon Warrior II*, on the Nintendo Entertainment System in December of 1988.
* *Dragon Quest II* was released in Japan on the Nintendo 3DS in August of 2017

### Remakes

* *Dragon Quest II* was remade and combined with *Dragon Quest*. It was released as *Dragon Quest I & II* on the Super Famicom and Game Boy Color.

### Sequels/Prequels

*Dragon Quest II* is the second installment of the *Dragon Quest* series. *Dragon Quest III* is the prequel to *Dragon Quest*, and *Dragon Quest* is the previous entry in the series.

## Trivia

* Alefgard, the main world of *Dragon Quest*, is featured in the northwestern part of the map.  In this game, it is smaller and more simplified version with many of the game's locations being taken out due to memory issues on the NES.  Tantegel and the nearby castle are now combined into one location.
* The prologue scene depicting the attack on Moonbrooke was added for the North American release of the game, but included in all subsequent Japanese remakes as well.
* *Dragon Quest II* was the first *Dragon Quest* game to include a game of chance, a slot-machine-like card game. It is played using lottery tickets distributed randomly by merchants, and prizes are awarded directly if the party wins a game.
* *Dragon Quest II* was also the first *Dragon Quest* game to use multiple key types, and persistent keys.
* *Dragon Quest II* was the first *Dragon Quest* game to include multiple save points in the form of kings, priests and old men.
* *Dragon Quest II* was the first to have status ailments, and churches for removing them.
* *Dragon Quest II* was the first game in the series to feature pits and tower balconies from which the party can fall. (As always, they take no damage from this.)
* The MSX version of the game contained a special scene involving the "Dangerous Swimsuit." This was removed by the time the game made it outside of Japan.

## Soundtrack

Koichi Sugiyama composed the music and directed all the associated spin-offs. *Dragon Quest II*'s symphonic suite was bundled with *Dragon Quest I*'s symphonic suite and a disc of original compositions as *Dragon Quest in Concert*. Here is the track listing of the *Dragon Quest II* portion of that release:

1. Dragon Quest March (1:39)
2. Only Lonely Boy (2:42)
3. Pastoral ~ Catastrophe (3:21)
4. Château (3:03)
5. Town (3:30)
6. Fright in Dungeon ~ Devil's Town (4:02)
7. Requiem (2:09)
8. Endless World (5:43)
9. Beyond the Waves (2:13)
10. Deathfight ~ Dead or Alive (3:56)
11. My Road, My Journey (4:10)

## Gallery

Dragon Quest II.jpgFamicom coverDragon Quest II back.jpgFamicom back coverDragon Quest II MSX.jpgMSX coverDragon Quest II MSX back.jpgMSX back coverDragon Warrior II.jpgNES coverDragon Warrior II back.jpgNES back coverDragon Quest II Switch release promo.jpgNintendo Switch promotional image
## Videos

Dragon Quest II (Dragon Warrior II) Commercial 1987, FCFamicom TV ad longDragon Quest II (NES) Japanese TV CommercialFamicom TV ad shortドラクエ2 あぶないみずぎSkimpy swimsuit easter egg exclusive to the MSX versionNES Longplay 198 Dragon Warrior IIGame Boy Color Longplay 063 Dragon Warrior I & IIThe History of RPGs Ep. 2 Dragon Quest II (Dragon Warrior II) Analysis (1987)
## Related

* "Only Lonely Boy"
* "My Road My Journey"
* *Love Song Sagashite*
* *Suite Dragon Quest II*
* *March Dragon Quest*
* *CD theater Dragon Quest II*

## External links

* Official page at Square Enix
* Android/iOS version official page at Square Enix
* Game (Nintendo Switch) at Nintendo
* Game (PS4) at PlayastationStore
* Game (3DS) at Nintendo Japan
* Game (Switch) at Nintendo USA / JP
* Game info at MobyGames
* Game info (Android, iOS, 3DS, PS4, NSW) at MobyGames
* Game info at GameFAQs
* Game info (MSX) at GameFAQs
* Game info (Android) at GameFAQs
* Game info (iOS) at GameFAQs
* Game info (Nintendo Switch) at GameFAQs
* Article at Wikipedia

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