While the RPG series may not have received as much love in recent years as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and its many numbered and spin-off titles present solid RPG experiences which keep it relevant in the market even today. Although the franchise may have found its new home on the Nintendo 3DS, non-Nintendo platforms received some love in 2015 through an Omega Force developed hack-n-slash spin-off – Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree’s Woe and the Blight Below. This was overall a respectable and enjoyable game from a development team well-versed in one-vs-many hack ‘n’ slash games through Koei Tecmo’s long-running Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors franchises.
Dragon Quest Heroes is not a one-title spin-off however, with Square Enix and Omega Force working on a sequel known by a much shorter title – Dragon Quest Heroes 2. Now available for purchase on the PlayStation 4, this second Dragon Quest hack ‘n’ slash game takes the concepts introduced the first time around, and adds more Dragon Quest charm to them. Do these concepts work in a different gaming genre however? Read on to find out.
Dragon Quest Heroes 2 follows a different set of lead characters from the first game, and once again allows you to control either a self-named male or female character. The story takes place in a world comprised of seven kingdoms, which following past events and a harrowing prophecy, has seen no war take place for many years. However, a series of events involving one of the nation’s being attacked and the subsequent feud, leads the protagonists and their growing number of other-worldly allies to traverse each of these kingdoms, with the goal of both reclaiming peace and preventing the world-ending prophecy from coming true.
The storyline is acceptable, on par with its predecessor. It offers a very “Dragon Quest-y” plot, presenting a fantasy, world-saving experience which wouldn’t be too out-of-place in one of the main RPG instalments. It is however a rather simple and somewhat predictable story however, and does at moments feel like it is designed to simply bring you from one battle to the next. That said, provided you aren’t looking for the next masterpiece in video game storytelling, the narrative is decent enough in what it presents.
While the value of each character may vary based on personal preferences, they have chosen a great assortment of crossover characters from many Dragon Quest RPGs. While more focus is put onto the game’s new characters given Dragon Quest Heroes 2 is about their world, each of the crossover characters are handled well in terms of their role in the story and their own development.
As this is an Omega Force developed hack-n-slash game, you will ultimately find yourself going up against many same-looking opponents on the battlefield. In terms of enemies, the development team have drawn from the designs of many iconic Dragon Quest foes to work with. In terms of the main characters, each are distinct and (in the case of cross-over characters) faithful to their original designs. While battles do mostly come down to mashing the same buttons repeatedly, each character is adequately animated with individual weapons, battle stances and movements. Battlefields are designed to be open expanses, with the regions of each kingdom drawing from different RPG world themes – desert, forest etc.
At its very core, the battle system is what you would expect from Omega Force. Battles come down to you taking control of one of four characters on a large battlefield at any one time, which is teeming with swarms of weak and a handful of more dangerous monsters. To complete a battle, you must complete a number of objectives while hacking and slashing your way through the crowd with weak attacks, strong attacks and more powerful skills and avoiding environmental hazards and oncoming attacks. It is a game which is very easy to dive into, and its active, action-oriented battle system continually provides moments which capture your attention. In return however, it doesn’t require much in the way of complex strategy most of the time. Nevertheless, battles are satisfying, and there is a good degree of difficulty even at the beginning which I found kept me on my toes.
One of the new additions is an explorable overworld, which brings Dragon Quest Heroes II a little more in-line with traditional RPGs. Rather than navigating between battles from either a menu screen or a small hub, you can travel across the game world to reach a destination offering either a new story event or a series of battles. While these areas are well designed, offer quests (both optional and required) and provide something more meaningful between battle zones – they don’t offer as much challenge as big fights and aren’t particularly memorable. One minute you could be taking down a challenging boss with dozens of smaller enemies whittling away at your health, and the next spending five minutes walking across a map taking down harmless monsters.
Separating this from other Omega Force-developed Warriors games, “Monster Medals” return and takes full advantage of the game and series’ wide range of monsters. Collecting medals dropped from defeating monsters allows you to resummon them temporarily to assist you – some being good for a single attack, some being a temporary ally, and larger beasts granting transformation into them (Complete with individual attacks). While there is unfortunately no ability to raise summons, it remains a system which not only links this game to the concepts behind Dragon Quest, but makes battles a little more interesting and helps tackle some of the enemies which are not necessarily dangerous, but have a lot of hit points.
Character development is a standard RPG affair, with each party member able to access their own distinct weapon, defensive equipment and accessories. They all have slightly different skill options, which can be unlocked as you level up. Both protagonists also have the ability to switch between classes, providing access to different skills and weapons at the cost of having different “levels” for each. The classes are relatively standard Dragon Quest options, ranging between different types of physical and magical attacks. Although completely optional, I found it was nice being able to control a mage among my party of heavier hitters.
This is not a game where each battle needs to have you strategise every move you make as you might while playing a Dragon Quest RPG, favouring fast-paced action instead. Although sometimes slow paced, it does prove to be a satisfying adaptation of this franchise by a developer who knows how to develop hack ‘n’ clash games.
Final Words on Dragon Quest Heroes 2
When Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree’s Woe and the Blight Below was first released a few years back, it felt like the similar “Warriors” experience albeit a few Dragon Quest setting with a few tweaks. While this provided a reasonably enjoyable experience, its successor has brought more to the table and proven to be a notable improvement. The development team have evidently worked towards not repeating the same formula, making the ‘Monster Medal’ system a little more useful and bring some of the series’ recurring RPG concepts into the mix. While the pacing in moments during battles can be slow and the strategy required in battle doesn’t come close to that of a numbered Dragon Quest game, it was ultimately an enjoyable experience which might be worth checking out if you are into the series and hack ‘n’ slash genre.
Special Thanks
Bandai Namco Entertainment Australia for providing a PlayStation 4 review copy of this game.
