History VideoGame / DragonQuestII

* DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to the Dragonlord, who was a fairly one-note villain of evilness that mostly kidnapped the first game's Princess Gwaelin and defeated would-be adventurers that came after him off-screen, Hargon outright starts this game off with the ''genocide'' of the Moonbrook Kingdom and is explicitly utilizing demons rather than merely monsters to aid his bid for conquest, immediately establishing a higher stakes adventure than the previous title.

* DubInducedPlotHole: Lorasia was localized as Midenhall, losing some of its significance. Lorasia is named after Princess Lora, but this is lost on those who know Princess Lora as Princess Gwaelin.

* TheCameo: The trio of heroes from this game appear as summonable helpers in the arcade game ''VideoGame/DragonQuestMonsterBattleRoadVictory'', both supporting the player and their monsters with defensive buffs and finishing their enemies off with Kazapple, -- a spell that didn't exist until ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV''. The Cousins also pop up in ''VideoGame/FortuneStreet'' spinoffs.

** The Falcon Blade. For the first time in the series, a character could strike twice in a row. Unfortunately, the Attack buff was only PLUS FIVE (Seven in the remakes, but still, whoopdeedoo).[[note]]In comparison, the Sword of Ruin, which is available at the same time, gives more than 11 times the attack buff of the Falcon Blade. Granted the [=SoR=] is cursed, but even comparable level non-cursed equipment is 7 or 8 times more powerful than the Falcon Blade.[[/note]]

* AntAssault: Iron ants appear as early-game enemies. They aren't strong, but they're still a step up from slimes and mauluscs. Their Palette Swap variants include army ants, which can call for help, and somnol ants, which can put one of your party members to sleep.

** Since there are no MP restoring items and only one item that can revive a character, some items can replicate magic spells with no MP cost. The Shield of Strength/Power Shield will cast Midheal on the character who uses it as an item in battle, for example. This lets you save MP from healing and use it for other spells, like buffs/debuffs and Kazing.

* BoringReturnJourney: The game does not conclude with the defeat of Malroth. You complete the game by returning to visit the King of Midenhall. You can go anywhere you like before doing this, including visiting towns to receive thanks from all the people you've saved. While getting to the Big Bad involves thousands of random battles, after his defeat, there are none to be found, even in the dungeons, since apparently defeating the boss results in the elimination of all his mooks.

* TheCameo: The trio of heroes from this game appear as summonable helpers in the arcade game ''VideoGame/DragonQuestMonsterBattleRoadVictory'', both supporting the player and their monsters with defensive buffs and finishing their enemies off with Kazapple, formerly known as Alldain or Thordain -- a spell that didn't exist until ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV''. The Cousins also pop up in ''VideoGame/FortuneStreet'' spinoffs.

* EnemyMine: A minor example; in the Dragonlord's castle, you'll find his descendant, who gives you a hint toward defeating Hargon rather than fighting you.

* EvilWeapon: Sword of Destruction/Demon Sword/Sword of Ruin. Really high attack, but curses the user. There's also other "Evil Gear" in armor.

* MinigameZone: First game in the series to include mini-game areas, although back then it was a simple Lottery/Tombola Shop which could be found inc almost every town.

* NostalgiaLevel: The Dragonlord's castle has more-or-less the same layout as it did in the first game. You even find the Sword of Erdrick in the same place you found it previously.

** The infamous "Mysterious Hat/Mad Cap". The only enemies who can drop it are the Tyrannodactyl (a normal late-ish game enemy that's only in a few select areas) and two of the bosses (Pazuzu and Hargon to be specific) in the final boss rush. It has a notoriously low drop rate well below 1%. This item is so infamous that ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' creator Satoshi Taijiri originally got the idea of trading collectibles in video games while grinding countless hours for the thing, only for his friend to somehow get two. The remakes add one in a chest in the Cave to Rendarak.

* JustAKid: Pretty much the Prince of Cannock's reason to his younger sister on why she can't come with your party. Given that the party is only about 16 or so, she can be assumed to be rather young. She likely didn't have any formal training either, which would have made her TheLoad in your group.

''Dragon Quest II'' (originally titled ''Dragon Warrior II'' in North America, and receiving the subtitle ''Luminaries of the Legendary Line'' in some later versions) is the second installment of the ''Franchise/DragonQuest'' series and acts as a DistantSequel to [[VideoGame/DragonQuestI the original]]. After the events of that game, the descendant of Erdrick married Princess Gwaelin and sailed away from Alefgard. They founded the kingdom of Torland where the couple and their children happily lived out their days. Generations later, chaos broke out with rumors of a powerful evil being emerging from the southern impassible cliffs of the frozen plateau, Rendarak. His name was Hargon, an EvilSorcerer bent on world destruction. He chose Moonbrooke Castle to launch his reign of terror.

This is reflected in its porting and release history - it did get an {{UsefulNotes/MSX}} port (complete with that salacious picture of Princess Moonbrooke), but that was more or less it until it got ported to the Super Famicom in a package deal with ''[=DQ1=]'', and even then, the porting felt rather perfunctory compared to ''[=DQ1=]'''s improvements (and nothing like the SFC port of ''[=DQ3=]''). It also got Game Boy Color and feature phone versions like its trilogy-mates, but again it was not particularly high-effort for a port. It got a smartphone version in 2014, based on the SFC version but with ''[=DQ3=]''-size sprites... on the unaltered SFC maps, which makes things look oddly scaled. The game was re-released as part of the ''Dragon Quest 1+2+3 Collection'' for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch on September 27, 2019. Of these, English speakers got the GBC, smartphone, and Switch versions, the latter two of which remain widely available.

* NintendoHard: Whoever said this game is easy is either a liar or very, ''very'' good at [=RPG=]s.
** You will need to level grind '''INTENSELY''' this time out, and even when you do, it isn't enough. This is because the game was made on such as short time span (development started in April '87 and ended in December '87), they just didn't have enough time to playtest the late game.
** Can go beyond NintendoHard to plain unfair. The Batmandrills will randomly cast Kamikazee when they're at about a third of their health, [[RocksFallEveryoneDies wiping themselves out and taking your whole party with them]]. [[{{UnwinnableByDesign}} There's no way to prevent this.]] Yes, that's right. You can get a GameOver ''through no fault of your own''. And they can do this ''in the very first round before you even have a chance to do anything'' if so inclined. At least the Rockbombs in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII'' and beyond would wait until you pounded them to near-death.
** Adding to this, in the NES version, the run option wouldn't always be effective in Rendarak Plateau (even if all characters are maxed out in levels).
** There is only ONE MP restoring item (Wizard's Ring/Prayer Ring). However it could break at any time and could only be won via the Lottery/Tombola.
** The remakes are easier, mostly thanks to extra stuff/boosts, but Rendarak Plateau remains pretty hard regardless.

* ObviousBeta: Yuji Horii once admitted in an interview that nothing after the Sea Cave was play-tested; there simply wasn't enough time.

** Haagon to Hargon.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: As with the first game, the Japanese version of 2 features a PasswordSave system; 3 was the first entry with a save battery in the cartridge.

* MinigameZone: First game in the series to include mini-game areas, although back then it was a simple Lottery Shop which could be found in every town.

** You will need to level grind '''INTENSELY''' this time out, and even when you do, it isn't enough. This is because the game was made on such as short time span (development started in April and ended in December), they just didn't have enough time to playtest the late game.
** Can go beyond NintendoHard to plain unfair. The Batmandrills will randomly cast Kamikazee, [[RocksFallEveryoneDies wiping themselves out and taking your whole party with them]]. [[{{Unwinnable}} There's no way to prevent this.]] Yes, that's right. You can get a GameOver ''through no fault of your own''. And they can do this ''in the very first round before you even have a chance to do anything'' if so inclined. At least the Rockbombs in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII'' and beyond would wait until you pounded them to near-death.

* ObviousBeta: Yuji Horii once admitted in an interview that nothing after the Moon Fragment Cave was play-tested; there simply wasn't enough time.

** From the NES version: The Dragon Potion, an item which allows you save your game anywhere (even the interior of a dungeon or tower) [[labelnote:note]]but it only saves gold and character levels, on reload you appear at the last place you physically saved at.[[/labelnote]]. It is a rare drop from Liquid Metal Slimes, provided you can find them and kill them. Multiple times.
** The infamous "Mysterious Hat/Mad Cap". The only enemies who can drop it are the Tyrannodactyl (a normal late-ish game enemy that's only in a few select areas) and two of the bosses in the final boss rush. It has a notoriously low drop rate well below 1%. This item is so infamous that ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' creator Satoshi Taijiri originally got the idea of trading collectibles in video games while grinding countless hours for the thing, only for his friend to somehow get two.

* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: All reptiles or reptilian creatures appearing in the game are hostile monsters (like Cobra Kings, Madusae, Terrordactyls or Green Dragons), or the BigBad itself, Malroth: a scaly, green monster with a snake for tail.

* ReligionOfEvil: The Children/Order of Hargon that Hargon himself leads.

* SmashMook: The Cyclops, the Gigantes, and (if you count bosses) the Atlas. These enemies do one thing only and do it well: smash your party into goo with a club.

* TotalPartyKill: The Batmandrills and their equivalents in the remakes are a late game random encounter enemy that can cast the spell Kamikazee. They rarely cast it, but if they do, your entire party will be instantly killed no matter what. You can't do anything to safeguard against it, and you don't get a saving throw. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200. The enemy technically dies too, but even if the last enemy casts it and the whole field on both sides is wiped out as a result, you still lose.

''Dragon Quest II'' (originally titled ''Dragon Warrior II'' in North America, and receiving the subtitle ''Luminaries of the Legendary Line'' in some later versions) is the second installment of the ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' series and acts as a DistantSequel to [[VideoGame/DragonQuestI the original]]. After the events of that game, the descendant of Erdrick married Princess Gwaelin and sailed away from Alefgard. They founded the kingdom of Torland where the couple and their children happily lived out their days. Generations later, chaos broke out with rumors of a powerful evil being emerging from the southern impassible cliffs of the frozen plateau, Rendarak. His name was Hargon, an EvilSorcerer bent on world destruction. He chose Moonbrooke Castle to launch his reign of terror.

* AlmostDeadGuy: One Moonbrooke guard escapes the besieged castle, limps all the way to Midenhall, and promptly [[EverythingFades dies]] after delivering the news. Given all the overworld threats, how urgent the message was, and that he's just some castle guard, he easily qualifies as BadassNormal and {{Determinator}}. He doesn't fade in the remix, he just lays there dead. Although the king makes sure he gets a proper burial.

** The Falcon Blade. For the first time in the series, a character could strike twice in a row. Unfortunately, the Attack buff was only PLUS FIVE (Seven in the remix, but still, whoopdeedoo).[[note]]In comparison, the Sword of Ruin, which is available at the same time, gives more than 11 times the attack buff of the Falcon Blade. Granted the [=SoR=] is cursed, but even comparable level non-cursed equipment is 7 or 8 times more powerful than the Falcon Blade.[[/note]]

** The remix is easier, mostly thanks to extra stuff/boosts in the remix, but Rendarak Plateau remains pretty hard regardless.

* UrbanLegendofZelda: You can't make a second set of Water Flying Clothes by recollecting the Dew's Yarn and Magic Loom after Don Mahone makes them for you: the items don't respawn. Pretty much every walkthrough from the old days suggested you do this, meaning that everyone though it worked, but no one could be bothered to do it.

* BalefulPolymorph: [[spoiler:The Princess of Moonbrooke gets turned into a dog before you meet her, forcing you to find out how to break the curse before you can recruit her.]]

** Haagon to Hargon

''Dragon Quest II'' (originally titled ''Dragon Warrior II'' in North America, and receiving the subtitle ''Luminaries of the Legendary Line'' in some later versions) is the second installment of the ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' series and acts as a DistantSequel to [[VideoGame/DragonQuestI the original]]. After the events of that game, the descendant of Erdrick/Loto married Princess Gwaelin/Lora and sailed away from Alefgard. They founded the kingdom of Torland where the couple and their children happily lived out their days. Generations later, chaos broke out with rumors of a powerful evil being emerging from the southern impassible cliffs of the frozen plateau, Rendarak. His name was Hargon, an EvilSorcerer bent on world destruction. He chose Moonbrooke Castle to launch his reign of terror.

Hargon's army swept in and decimated the castle, its inhabitants, and the King within minutes. A lone, injured guard escaped and walked to the nearby fortress of Midenhall/Lorasia Castle. No sooner had he told the king of Moonbrooke's defeat that he perished. Now, as a descendant of Erdrick, the Prince of Midenhall must venture out to meet his two cousins and stop the evil hand of Hargon. With a larger world and many new monsters (who now travel in groups), the heroes have a much harder and more dangerous adventure than their ancestor.

* AlmostDeadGuy: One Moonbrooke guard escapes the besieged castle, limps all the way to Midenhall, and promptly [[EverythingFades dies]] after delievering the news. Given all the overworld threats, how urgent the message was, and that he's just some castle guard, he easily qualifies as BadassNormal and {{Determinator}}. He doesn't fade in the remix, he just lays there dead. Although the king makes sure he gets a proper burial.

** If, for some reason, you don't find all the keys...worry not! The Princess of Moonbrooke learns the spell of Open/Click which will open any door in the game. It is possible to use this to your advantage, seeing as how it can also open up 3 item slots for your characters.
** Since there are no MP restoring items and only one item that can revive a character, some items can replicate magic spells with no MP cost. The Shield of Strength/Power Shield will cast Healmore/Midheal on the character who uses it as an item in battle, for example. This lets you save MP from healing and use it for other spells, like buffs/debuffs and Revive/Kazing.

* BossRush: In TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, your attempt to scale Hargon's castle to bring down the Big Bad is interrupted by fights with his most powerful servants, Atlas, Bazuzu, and Belial. To make matters worse, you can't defeat them then leave to save and heal and return. They come back if you exit the dungeon (unless you are playing one of the remakes, where they stay dead after getting killed).

* TheCameo: The trio of heroes from this game appear as summonable helpers in the arcade game ''VideoGame/DragonQuestMonsterBattleRoadVictory'', both supporting the player and their monsters with defensive buffs and finishing their enemies off with Kazapple, also known as Alldain or Thordain -- a spell that didn't exist until ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV''. The Cousins also pop up in ''VideoGame/FortuneStreet'' spinoffs.

** The Falcon Sword/Blade. For the first time in the series, a character could strike twice in a row. Unfortunately, the Attack buff was only PLUS FIVE (Seven in the remix, but still, whoopdeedoo).[[note]]In comparison, the Sword of Destruction/Ruin, which is available at the same time, gives more than 11 times the attack buff of the Falcon Blade. Granted the [=SoR=] is cursed, but even comparable level non-cursed equipment is 7 or 8 times more powerful than the Falcon Blade.[[/note]]

* GrimUpNorth: Hargon's base of operations is located on Rendarak (Rhone in the original NES translation), a high, snowy plateau surrounded by an impassable range of mountains, and the game's only ice-themed location.

* InterfaceSpoiler: In Wellgarth/Burrowell there is one shop that has a blank spot in the list of wares, and townspeople speaking of the Jailer's Key being sold at a shop. Hmmm...

* LuckBasedMission: The final battle with Malroth amounts to whether or not he decides to cast Healall/Fullheal. Unlike Hargon, Pazuzu, and Zarlox/Belial, who will only use it when near death, Malroth can use it at any time and completely at random.

** Can go beyond NintendoHard to plain unfair. The Gold Batboons/Bat Demons/Batmandrills will randomly cast Sacrifice/Kamikazee, [[RocksFallEveryoneDies wiping themselves out and taking your whole party with them]]. [[{{Unwinnable}} There's no way to prevent this.]] Yes, that's right. You can get a GameOver ''through no fault of your own''. And they can do this ''in the very first round before you even have a chance to do anything'' if so inclined. At least the Rockbombs in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII'' and beyond would wait until you pounded them to near-death.

* PermanentlyMissableContent: If you have a completely full inventory when you come across the Silver Key, do NOT decline to drop one of your items to make room for it, or else the chest holding the key will disappear. The "Open"/"Click" spell keeps this from being a GameBreakingBug, but it does mean a lot of extra grinding before you can open silver doors.

** From the NES version: The Dragon Potion, an item which allows you save your game anywhere (even the interior of a dungeon or tower) [[labelnote:note]]but it only saves gold and character levels, on reload you appear at the last place you physically saved at.[[/labelnote]]. It is a rare drop from ''Metal Babbles'' (Liquid Metal Slimes in the remakes), provided you can find them and kill them. Multiple times.
** The infamous "Mysterious Hat/Mad Cap". The only enemies who can drop it are the Magic Vampirus/Tyrannodactyl (a normal late-ish game enemy that's only in a few select areas) and two of the bosses in the final boss rush. It has a notoriously low drop rate well below 1%. This item is so infamous that ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' creator Satoshi Taijiri originally got the idea of trading collectibles in video games while grinding countless hours for the thing, only for his friend to somehow get two.

* ReligionOfEvil: The Shadowtime cult that Hargon leads.

* SchizoTech: In a medieval world, it might surprise you in the Cave to Rendarak to find robots! The Hunter Mech and Killing Machine make their first appearance in this game.

* TakingYouWithMe: The Prince of Cannock eventually learns the Sacrifice/Kamikazee spell. As he's also the only member capable of ''reviving'' others with his magic in the original version, this is a last-ditch tactic. Unfortunately, certain RandomEncounters can also cast this for a TotalPartyKill...

* TotalPartyKill: The Gold Batboons/Batmandrills and their equivalents in the remakes are a late game random encounter enemy that can cast the spell Kamikazee. They rarely cast it, but if they do, your entire party will be instantly killed no matter what. You can't do anything to safeguard against it, and you don't get a saving throw. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200. The enemy technically dies too, but even if the last enemy casts it and the whole field on both sides is wiped out as a result, you still lose.

* UndesirablePrize: The fifth prize at the tombola is the refreshing herb, an item that can be bought in many places, heals little HP and can be sold for a measly 4G.

** Played straight with Kamikazee, a spell that kills the user and all non-boss targets on the field, meaning it's the designated last-resort tactic. Problem is, the only playable character to learn this is the Prince of Cannock, and, barring remakes (where the Princess of Moonbroke can learn Revive/Kazing), he's the only one that learns Revive/Kazing. Even worse, you can only carry one Yggdrasil leaf at a time (a single-use revive item) and all revivals leave the revived character at really low HP, meaning spending more MP/items to heal back up. However, when used against you, Kamikazee is GUARANTEED to cause a Total Party Kill, since Kamikazee kills targets with perfect accuracy and to the enemy, 'all targets' means 'your entire party'.
** The Princess of Moonbrooke's Click/Open Spell spares you the trouble of lugging around four different keys, freeing precious inventory space. Unfortunately, she learns Click Spell at level 23 (NES/SNES/GB) or 36 (mobile/Switch). Unless you have been power-grinding, the odds are that you have no doors left to open by that point.

* GrimUpNorth: Hargon's base of operations is located on Rendarak (Rhone in older translations), a high, snowy plateau surrounded by an impassable range of mountains, and the game's only ice-themed location.

* AlmostDeadGuy: One Moonbrooke guard escapes the besieged castle, limps all the way to Midenhall, and promptly [[EverythingFades dies]] after delievering the news. Given all the overworld threats, how urgent the message was, and that he's just some castle guard, he easily qualifies as BadassNormal and {{Determinator}}. He doesn't fade in the remix. He just lays there dead. Although the king makes sure he gets a proper burial.

* NonIndicativeName: You would think Infernos is a fire based spell but is actually a wind spell. Later releases would change this to Whoosh.

* GetOnTheBoat: The series first. Which lets you explore the world, even returning to Alefgard!

* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: All reptiles or reptilian creatures appearing in the game are hostile monsters (like Cobra Kings, Madusas, Terrordactyls or Green Dragons), or the BigBad itself, Malroth: a scaly, green monster with a snake for tail.