Vimm's Lair: NES Reviews - Dragon Warrior II

Nintendo
Dragon Warrior II

Graphics:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Overall:
8.44
8.59
8.90
8.90
Votes: 41
Reviews: 2


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Reviewer: znr4123 Date: Jun 4, 2003
The Dragon Quest/Warrior series are stories of a bloodline of hero's out to save the world from some evil force/entity. In this second chapter, you can have two partners, your cousins. You have to seek them out and round them up. After which you search for a series of crests and verious other items (such as The Eye of Malroth, The Cloak of Wind, and the Silver, Golden, and Jailor keys). These all enable you to advance on Hargon and restore piece to the land.

Graphics: 6
The graphics are marginal by the standards set back then. There was no varriety in the different terrain sprites. Two trees in perfect alignment with all other surrounding tress to represent a forest. This did it's job, but nothing more. I gave it a 6 because the graphics were improved from the first. The terrain sprites showed improvment. The first Dragon Warrior showed one single tree in perfect alignment with all other trees. The sprites for the monsters were improved and more varried. Although I'm not sure if I would change it too much. It is almost a trade mark of the Dragon Quest/Warrior series.

Sound: 9
I thought the game music and sound effects were pretty good. The fight song is a great example. In some games the music just strums a few cords over and over and over. In this game, the fight song repeats it's patern every 22 or so seconds. It's upbeat and signifies the danger you may be in. Most of the games music is like this. A fairly long repeat pattern, so as not to become terrably borring, and set to the mood. The sound effects are timely and adequate.

Gameplay: 8
The game play is very good. My biggest complaint is the inertia effect. When you first touch the controler, lets say left, your character turns left but does not move. A second or two later your character begins to move. However, if you are moving left, and you change directions. The directional change is smooth. Now this effect does have some benifits. Some game terrain tiles cause damage when stepped on. If this "inertia effect" was not used and I wanted to face the opposite direction. I might have to turn completely around and cause more damage to my party members. I still could do with out this "feature". Majority of the time proper path planning can solve the turnaround problem. Pluss these tiles are rare. The first few times I played this game I had sore thumbs. For some reson it seemed logical to press harder on the controler. As if this may solve the "problem".

Overall: 8
Overall everything works well. The storyline is well structured. There is plenty to do, and not all tasks must be completed. The sound mixes in well with what you are doing. The enemies generally provide an adequate challange. The monsters increase with you and are not super tough (unlike 7th saga, old monsters are gennerally easy, but the next step up.. one shot and they take 40% to 90% of your hp). The one thing that shot the overall rating down was the end. At the last castle, the majority of the monsters you meet can use the spell of DEFEAT. This spell CAN kill you instantly regardless of level or hp. Other monsters can use HEALALL, such as Hargon. Which refills all thier hp. This means the game can be almost impossible to beat at ANY level. You achieve victory not by skill, but by probability. I find this a BIG disapointment.


I think this game has an 9 for replay. You, have control over the storyline. Most elements can be done in what ever order you choose. Unlike a lot of games, such as Final Fantasy 2/4 and up (FF7). This means you can form a favorite story line path, or follow the one the game intends, or spend the rest of your life attempting all possible combinations. It may not have modern graphics, sound, or a (boring) unchangable movie like plot. This game, this series, has everything an RPG should have. It is still a rival for todays RPG's.

 

Reviewer: RayTapia Date: Dec 3, 2001
This game improves on everything that DW1 didnt have!!!

Graphics: 10
The grahics are beefed up. they are cleaner smoother and sharper. the enemies have been hand drawn once again, but with more quality, and there can be more than 1 at a time in a battle.

Sound: 10
The sound changes with the environment, and its nicely done for MIDI format. Nothign beats the feeling when you step off your ship and hear that familiar music... you think where have i heard it. you remember ALEFGARD from DW1... dure enough when you get to a town on that island. its alefgard. complete with the Dragonlords castle.(you can even go in there and collect ERDRICKS PIECES and fight the dragonlords son.) CLASSIC!!!

Gameplay: 10
Perfect!! nothing less. the control is fast responsive and smooth. It feels good when you master your buttons and open up a can of EXPLODET on your enemies, SLASH then and put them to SLEEP, with out even having one of them touch your crew.

Overall: 10
This is the greatest game ever on the NES. if anyone can arge this point please do so. Not only is this my favorite game on NES but of all time. If you dont play this then your missing out on the 2nd chapeter of the greatest hero saga of all time!!! Erdrick lives on.

If you dont play this game for fun, then play it just to say, i played the greatest game ever, and beat it. because unlike the 1st one, this game is long, hard, and will drive you to your limit. the plot is flawless. in the end, its worth the 4 days of non-stop playing.