Dragon Warrior 2 - Un-puppy-fying the Princess

Not too much to add with this update. Last time, we found this gigantic dog in Hamlin, right?

This bitch again.

Then after visiting the ruined castle of Moonbroke, the ghost of the king told us that dog was actually the princess under a curse. And since she is the last member of our adventuring party, we needed to lift that. Another ghost in the ruins of Moonbrooke told us about the item we needed... The mirror of Ra.

Why does this ghost even know this?

This place IS geographically southeast of Hamlin if you look on the overall map. However, it's actually a lot easier to get to from the ruins of Moonbrooke if you can manage it. For me, I had gotten worn down so much going to Moonbrooke, that I had to go back to Hamlin to rest. I also bought a Wyvern Wing to get back to the save point in Hamlin faster.

I wish I had remembered to take a screenshot where I found the mirror,but I forgot. Basically, not too far to the east of Moonbrooke, there is a patch of swamp with four bridges in sight on screen. If you use the SEARCH command on one of the squares, you find the mirror.

Then, when you go back to Moonbrooke, you find the dog and use the mirror on it to break the spell...

This dog has a pretty reflection.

She is super grateful to not be a dog anymore. So, that's got to be good for your karma. Now, I wonder of the English version is missing something in translation here, because I found it weird that escaping from Hargon's attack in the intro would somehow "curse" the princess into dog form.

Well, you're welcome. Want to come fight monsters with us?

And why would I need a magic mirror to release her? That whole plot point seemed tacked on as an excuse to give me busywork.

You are weak as hell, girl.

Anyways, she joins the party at the weak ass level one, and has no equipment. So, next order of business is to level her up, and maybe go back to the earlier town of Leftwyne and buy her a magic knife. Because she can't use any of the equipment for sale in Hamlin.

But after that, we are going after the "Cloak of Wind" that gimpy guy in Hamlin told us about. I have no other leads to follow up on anyways.

Dragon Warrior 2 - South to Moonbrooke

So - been a little while. Over a month without posting. I had some end of the year business to wrap up. I actually played and beat another game I will write about soon, but for now, I've just gotten back into Dragon Warrior 2.

 

Last time when we left off, I'd found Prince Lars, and had to put in a little time to level him up and buy him some decent gear. We did that pretty easily and with that wrapped up it was time to head south to the village of Hamlin. It turns out that is on the way to Moonbrooke castle.

 

Which is the castle we watched get destroyed by the forces of Hargon the wizard in the intro. As you may recall, we are looking for the princess, who will complete our little adventuring party.

 

Hamlin is the first time I can think of that a place name in the game has come from actual folk tales (that I know of). As you may recall, the pied piper is set in a town called Hamelin. Anyways...

 

Hamlin is on the continent south of the starting one, but there's no bridge there. There is this little shrine you can enter and it's a lot like the swamp cave with the green dragon from DW1. It's an undersea tunnel. I had found it when exploring before, but the guards at the gate didn't let me pass without the prince. Now that I have him, here we go...

 

Not a grave. Just a shrine.

On the southern continent, you bump into Hamlin pretty quick. As you do in any new town you find in these old console RPGs, you chat up everyone. People will give you clues as to what stuff you need to find, and where it can be found. Like so...

These dudes still look like bondage gimps to me...

In addition to that bit of useful intel, we also find this little doggie. If you talk to it, it follows you around. Cute. Probably important.

 

That dog is sort of huge, proportionally...

Of course we also find a new weapon shop with new gear to buy... And we find ourselves short on the gold we need to suit up. So that means grinding for levels and loot outside the town. And that means fighting guys like these below (along with baboons and centipodes and zombies and magidrakees).

 

Those snakes are poisonous, which is super annoying.

Instead of just grinding levels around town though, I decided to go on walkabout and find the ruined castle of Moonbrooke and see if I can find that missing princess. Turns out having Lars and his magical healing spell is VERY handy for this journey. You have to cross a bridge to get here, and as you know, crossing bridges means harder monsters in Dragon Warrior. But eventually, here we are...

 

Looks familiar...

The castle is surrounded by swamp, which damages you to walk through. And it is, indeed, ruined inside. And everyone who was killed has been turned into a flaming ghost. But they do have some useful info. Like this clue about the Mirror of Ra, and where I can find it...

 

Thanks for the tip, buddy.

Then the ghost of the king himself drops this bomb on me.

 

Ooh, a PUN!

That dog in Hamlin that follows you around IS the princess. We are going to have to figure out how to fix that. Probably one of these items I've been told about (the cloak or the mirror) will sort it. But first, back to Hamlin to buy the new gear: Broadsword, Full Plate, Steel Shield, and then an Iron Spear for our buddy Prince Lars.

 

 

Dragon Warrior 2 - the early game.

So, after a lot of DESCRIBING the opening sequence of Dragon Warrior 2 last time, I didn't do a good job of responding to it. I hope to do better with that in the future. The point of the blog isn't just to play the game and tell you what happened. It's an exercise in criticism.

So that said, that opening sequence would be hugely influential on later console RPGs. Especially the other series I'm focusing on as part of this project, Final Fantasy. I think the first in that series (which I will be playing next) was being developed concurrently with this sequel, as they came out only a few months apart.

It seems to me that one of the goals of that competing game was to insert more narrative. That desire for storytelling would bring criticism in the later games, becoming like a push button video novel with some monster fights woven in.

But anyways, especially after just playing the first DQ which is narratively sparse, it felt really fresh and expansive to begin this game with where the previous one ended, but jump us far into the future with prologue text and an "in media res" cutscene (ala Star Wars).

This makes the events of that previous game into the ancient history of this game - which parallels how the hero Erdrick's story was the ancient history of the first game. In fact, Dragon Warrior 3 (which we will play after FF1,) is a prequel, bringing this first "trilogy" within the series to a close.

So, though it was sparse, the narrative and plot lines quickly became a part of console RPGs, including backstory and in-references to the previous titles. It's no wonder this became an ongoing feature of both series when it was such an early development in the proto-genre.

Enough about all that - let's talk about the actual gameplay. The first thing to notice is that combat now involves MULTIPLE ENEMIES, even combinations of different types. It's amazing how a simple detail like that can really amplify the strategy of playing the game. Mainly because you want to take out the toughest monster first.

Triple trouble! Just kidding, slimes are still one hit wussies.

 

It also makes resource management a little trickier because the difficulty of the encounters can vary pretty widely. I find myself fleeing a lot more in the sequel. But anyways, grinding out levels is something you have to do.

While doing that, I explored the starting continent without crossing any bridges (since that invites MUCH tougher combats). My goal was to find the other two anscestors of the first Dragon Warrior and figure out how to fight this evil wizard.

Moving West and counterclockwise from the starting Castle of Midenhall, I found:

1. The town of Leftwyne. Someone in my own castle told me about this place. They had better armor and weapons, so I am rocking a chain sickle, some chain mail, and a leather shield. Sold that lame gear the king gave me to start. Earning the gold for this took a while, so I came back around and bough the stuff as I could afford it.

2. A cave to the west on the south side which had some kind of portal that the guards wouldn't let me use without the prince I am looking for.

3. A cave farther west on an island in a little lake, that I explored and looted. I found a metal key that unlocks all the metal doors in the game. The key handling is different in this game. In DW1, you need to buy one magic key per locked door, and they re-locked if you left the area. In DW2, keys of a certain type are reusable, but only open doors of a certain type.

4. Crannock Castle, where that prince is supposed to be. I healed up and saved and then went looking for him far to the east in the Spring of Bravery, which his sister told me he had headed off to.

5. The Spring of Bravery, where I met a nosy guy, got a magical bath from a wizard, and found out the prince it was looking for went to Midenhall to look for me. Doh! Full circle...

That's none of your business, weird gimp who lives in this cave...

 

Back at the starting castle of Midenhall, I saved and rested and the king told me the Prince left to go find me in Midenhall - which was confusing since that's where we were. Turns out that's a bug since he meant Leftwyne.

Back in Leftwyne. I spent my new loot and suited up (and also tried every metal door with my new key) and finally caught up to that evasive Prince. It's actually a neat way to advance you through the plot while letting you grind levels along the way.

I think the wandering search for the guy is designed to make you visit each major location on that first continent, and doing so will leave you strong enough to explore new areas.

Now that we've found him, we have another innovation in console games, successfully porting over a more common feature of more complex PC RPGs: multiple party members. Another first for the genre (which only involves one game and its sequel at this point.

I've been looking all over for you...

 

Of course, that creates a new problem. I'm level 8, and the prince somehow managed to get this far and still remain at level 1. And his gear sucks. The next step is to level his ass up, and buy him some matching equipment.

One last big twist in this game - in DW1, your main guy can cast spells. In DW2, he can't. But the prince can, so I can finally cast HEAL and not have to use herbs to recover health while wandering he countryside busing up on monsters. So that's nice.

Back in a few with the further adventures of Dragon Warrior 2 (which has not mentioned a dragon at all yet).

 

 

Starting something new - Dragon Warrior 2

I'm just getting into Dragon Warrior 2. Here are a few thoughts on it after only an hour or so in...
So far, it's better than DW1 in every way - it simply improves on every aspect - from graphics to music to user interface to story to combat...

I thought the intro screen was really well done. The game opens with your main character approaching in a dark cave, with his torch eventually lighting the title, but only partially. Then two more characters approach, with their torches eventually living the full title (See image)

Fancy compared to part 1

One big component that DW2 adds is the ability to have up to 3 party members. DW1 had only one. This is a neat way to highlight that new major feature right in the intro screen. You start the game with just one, though.

But unlike DW1, this game doesn't just drop you in immediately. This one has a full on intro cinematic sequence. According to a text prologue, the hero and princess from the end of the first game did successfully settle a new kingdom of their own. Generations later, their heirs rule their own parts of that old kingdom, and we start the story in he kingdom of Moonbrooke.

Already, that's a LOT more back story than the previous game. But it doesn't stop there.

Everything's fine...

In the opening in-game movie sequence, we see the king and princess of Moonbroke chilling in their castle doing royal stuff when BOOM. The evil forces of the wizard Hargon show up and start fucking shit up.

Well, shit.

So the king and princess are about to get away and he has to turn back to fight off these demon things. They end up surrounding him and killing him. She gets away. Then you see the castle get overtaken and destroyed and as royal guard gets away in hopes of warning the nearby kingdom of Midenhall.

Well, shit.

You get to see him arrive in Midenhall and get brought before the king and the prince. He collapses after telling his story, and the king then basically turns to you and tells you that you're the one who is going to stop this wizard business.

Lazy.

So, basically, that's how the game starts. Your goal is to set off and figure out how to set everything right. You get some gold and a sword and an implied pat on the buns. Time to be a hero.
Priority #1 as a gamer? Talk to everyone in the castle, get the best equipment I can buy, and get a few levels while checking out the lay of the land.