The cast of Dragon Quest II.
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Heroes
Common Tropes
- An Adventurer Is You: The Prince of Middenhall is the tank, hitting hard with physical weapons and absorbing damage with the heaviest armor. The Princess of Moonbrooke has both healing and offensive spells, making her a combination healer-area of effect fighter. The Prince of Cannock is a Jack of All Trades, having a better weapon selection than the Moonbrooke and a better spell selection than Middenhall.
- Badass Family: They are the descendants of Loto / Erdrick, after all.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The Hero is a brunette. His cousins are a redhead male and a blonde female.
- Chromatic Arrangement: Midenhall wears blue, Cannock wears green, and Moonbrooke (sometimes) wears red.
- Depending on the Artist:
- The heroes were depicted in the Super-Deformed style for the original Famicom release, but were given more detailed designs typical of Dragon Ball Z for the Updated Re-release on the Super Famicom.
- The original US release on the Nintendo Entertainment System featured an Art Shift depicting the heroes as Hotter and Sexier.
- Famous Ancestor: Their grandfather slew the Dragonlord, and their ancestor Erdrick killed Zoma.
- Power Trio: The Hero is the warrior with no magical skills, his male cousin is a magic knight (less physically powerful but able to cast healing and buffing magic), and his female cousin is the wizard (physically weak but wielding powerful offensive magic).
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: They're two princes and a princess who are trying to save the kingdom.
- Two Guys and a Girl: A non-romantic version.
- Warrior Prince: Three royal members who are both able and willing to fight to protect their respective kingdoms.
- The Wise Prince: They are royal heirs who willingly leave their kingdoms to protect their people from the ones who are trying to ruin the world.
Prince of Midenhall
Class: Hero (GBC), Descendant of Heroes (Mobile/Switch)
The Hero of the game.
Tropes Associated:
- Badass Normal: He is the only one of the main three who can't use magic. And the only lead character of any Dragon Quest game who can't use magic, for that matter.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: After the Magic Knight Player Character of the original game, Dragon Quest II took a notable step in casting a Magically Inept Fighter for the protagonist role. The Prince of Cannock is the Magic Knight of the game and only a supporting party member. After Dragon Quest III set the convention for The Hero to be not just a Magic Knight but The Paladin, the Prince of Middenhall still sticks out like a sore thumb when gathered amongst the other heroes.
- Goggles Do Nothing: Oddly enough, both Princes wear goggles as part of their headgear.
- Heavy Equipment Class: Has the best range of weapons and armour of the three, along being the only one capable of using the Thunderbolt Blade and Erdrick's armour set.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: He is normally the only one of the main three that can be named.
- The Hero: The one who first sets off on a journey to save the world.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: He is the hero and leader of the group, and a sword is his primary weapon.
- Heroic Mime: Continuing the trend started by the former Hero, the Prince never speaks up.
- Jumped at the Call: Even shown literally jumping from his throne to listen to the Moonbrooke guard in the Japanese manual.
- Lightning Bruiser: He is both powerful and fast.
- Magically Inept Fighter: His main weakness is that he can't cast magic.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: He wears a sky-blue outfit in contrast with his female cousin's purple-and-white ensemble.
- Warrior Prince: Crown Prince of Midenhall, and a powerful warrior.
Prince of Cannock
Class: Paladin (GBC), Armamentalist (Mobile/Switch)
The Hero's first cousin, he plays like a Magic Knight class.
Tropes Associated:
- Anime Hair: His orange crown of hair spikes is almost larger than his head.
- Balance Buff: In the NES, his best gear was roughly The Prince of Midenhall's early to middle-game gear, and due to everyone only having TWO non-HP/MP stats, he could die A LOT if you weren't careful. He was upgraded notably in the I+II Remix, particularly in weapon options.
- Brutal Honesty: He is said to be good-hearted, even if lazy and absent-minded, but he does not mince his words at all. If you go back to Cannock and talk to his sister after recruiting him:Princess of Cannock: "Oh, older brother! Please, take me with you!"
Prince of Cannock: "You're useless."
Princess of Cannock: "What?! Why do you have to be like that all the time!" - Canon Name: Cookie in the Japanese version, Princeton in the English versions (from his cameos in Fortune Street and Dragon Quest IX), and Rickerd in the mobile game Dragon Quest Tact.
- Chest Insignia: He wears the Erdrick's Emblem -a Phoenix's white silhouette- emblazoned on his tunic's frontal side.
- Combat Medic: He learns several healing spells.
- Elemental Hair Colors: He is a red-haired pyrokinetic.
- Fiery Redhead: He is rather bold and hot-headed.
- Goggles Do Nothing: Oddly enough, both Princes wear goggles as part of their headgear.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: In most versions of the game, his name is determined by the hero's name, but he can be renamed. In the mobile/Switch ports, you have the option of naming both the Prince and Princess at the beginning of the game.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: He can wield several of them.
- Jack of All Stats: He has the most balanced stats in the party due to being a magic knight instead of a pure warrior or wizard like his cousins.
- Magic Knight: Stat-wise, he has more in common with the other heroes of Dragon Quest games.
- No Sense of Direction: He's easily distracted and prone to wandering off the beaten path. The first part of the game has the Hero searching most of the northeastern continent to track him down as a result. In re-releases of Dragon Quest XI, the Prince ends up wandering out of his world entirely and has to be tracked down through multiple locations from across the series before he can be returned to Cannock.
- The Paladin: His class in the GBC version, though he has more in common with the heroes or ranger / armamentalist class from other games.
- Playing with Fire: He learns the fire Spells Sizz and Sizzle.
- Redhead In Green: His green robe and cap highlights his reddish spiky locks.
- Skintone Sclerae: In the original NES game artwork
◊, the Prince has sclerae the same color as his skin. - Taking You with Me: He eventually learns the 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 Random Encounters can also cast this for a Total Party Kill...
Princess of Moonbrooke
Click for her "modern" appearance in the 2010s.
Class: Mage
The Hero's cousin and descendant of the heroes of first and third game.
Tropes Associated:
- Badass Bookworm: Official art◊ depicts her as hard-working student. And even though she isn't physically imposing, she is a powerful mage.
- Black Mage: She is the only one who learns powerful destructive spells like Woosh and Kaboom.
- Blow You Away: She learns Woosh, a spell which summons a whirlwind.
- Canon Name: Pudding in the Japanese version, Princessa in the English versions (from her cameos in Fortune Street and Dragon Quest IX), and Peronel in the mobile game Dragon Quest Tact.
- Carry a Big Stick: She joins the party with a Cypress Stick equipped.
- Combat Medic: She learns several healing spells and a few buffing spells.
- Curtains Match the Window: In the original NES game, the Princess of Moonbrooke◊ had purple hair and eyes.
- Cute Witch: She is an adorable, young female spellcaster.
- Depending on the Artist:
- The princess always wears the same outfit, but she has two possible color schemes. Her character art for the original Famicom release depicted her with purple hair but a red and boots, but she wore purple in the game itself due to the limited palette. This purpled version appeared on the back of the Famicom box, depicting her as a blonde with purple hood and boots—this palette became part of her Super Famicom portrayal, and she's wavered back and forth between her Famicom and Super Famicom palettes ever since.
- The princess's dress is almost always white with red trim, but some magazine art renders the white of her dress as pink to better go with the two-toned greens and blues of the princes.
- Forced Transformation: The Princess of Moonbrooke gets turned into a dog before you meet her and is left to wander the nearby town of Moonahan, forcing you to find out how to break the curse before you can recruit her.
- In spin-offs like Fortune Street, the Princess sometimes barks when angry as a Call-Back to her cursed form.
- In Dragon Quest XI, a side-quest takes the Luminary to Moonahan to meet the Princess. Due to monsters meddling with the timeline, she has been cured of her canine curse ahead of the intended time while everybody in town has become dogs in her place. After receiving a Magic Water, she uses her magic to break the curse on the town, but has to return to being a dog in exchange.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: A blonde sorceress who sets off on a quest to save the world from destruction.
- Having a Blast: Your party's only member who learns the explosive spell Kaboom, and the first hero in the franchise to use a Blast type of spell.
- Healing Hands: She knows Midheal by default and is the only character that can learn Fullheal, the most powerful curative spell. Remake versions of the game also allow her to learn Kazing, the revival spell.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: In most versions of the game, her name is determined by the hero's name, but she can be renamed. In the mobile/Switch ports, you have the option of naming both the Prince and Princess at the beginning of the game.
- Lady of War: She is a graceful warrior princess dressed in elegant priestly robes and wielding a magic staff.
- Magic Staff: Her weapon of choice.
- The Medic: She begins with Midheal -unlike Cannock, who begins with the basic healing spell and takes fourteen levels to learn Midheal- and is the only party member who learns Fullheal.
- Morphic Resonance: The Dragon Quest II event in Dragon Quest of the Stars depicts her in dog form, needing to be rescued by the player, and its curly fur and red eyes share a direct resemblance with the full blonde curls and eyes of her human form.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: In the original game She wears pink robes in contrast with the Prince of Midenhall's blue outfit.
- Princess Protagonist: Crown Princess of Moonbrooke and one of the three playable characters.
- Princesses Prefer Pink: In the original Japanese box art and in some of the promo art, her dress was pink, not white.
- Random Effect Spell: First character in the franchise to use the Hocus Pocus' spell, whose description warns that "you will never know what will happen before it is casted".
- The Red Mage: She learns several healing spells a few buffing spells, and the most powerful offensive magic in the game.
- Revenge: One of her motivations is to exact revenge on Hargon for the murder of her father and her home.
- Squishy Wizard: She is a powerful, but physically fragile magician.
- The Smurfette Principle: The only princess in this party of playable royals and the first female playable character in the series.
- Took a Level in Badass: She goes from Hargon's helpless victim to one of his slayers.
- Useless Useful Spell: One of the last spells the princess learns in the game is "Click", which allows her to open any door in the game without using any keys. On paper, this is quite useful, since it spares you the trouble of lugging around four different keys, freeing precious inventory space. Unfortunately, as one of the last spells she learns, chances are you've already unlocked every door it might have been useful for.
- White Magician Girl: Quite possibly the Ur-Example. She definitely inspired a lot of copycats in Japan. Unlike most others, she can learn the most powerful offensive magic, as well.
Villains
Hargon
An evil sorcerer determined to summon Malroth, god of destruction.
For tropes relating to Hargon in Dragon Quest Builders 2, see here.
Tropes Associated with the High Priest:
- Art Evolution: In more modern illustrations, Hargon began to be depicted with five fingers on his hands instead of four.
- Badass Boast: When he is challenged by the Scions of Erdrick:Hargon: "If that is so, then there will be no forgiveness! You will soon realize your stupidity!"
- Big Bad: The primary antagonist of the game, he leads his armies of monsters to terrorize the realms and drive people into worshipping Malroth out of despair. As noted below, however...
- The Dragon: Hargon is the first right hand man of a much eviler villain and beating him in battle only ensures the High Priest sacrifices himself to summon Malroth.
- Evil Sorcerer: He is a corrupt wizard bent on world destruction.
- Grim Up North: Hargon's base of operations, the Hall of Hargon is located on Rendarak, a high, snowy plateau surrounded by an impassable range of mountains, and the game's only ice-themed location.
- Having a Blast: He can cast Kaboom, the most powerful blast spell.
- Healing Hands: Being an accomplished sorcerer, he is able to heal himself with Fullheal in the original version of the game, and with Midheal in remake versions.
- Human Sacrifice: Offers himself as one to Malroth after you defeat him.
- Magic Staff: Wields a tall scepter topped with a red crystal in his right hand.
- Master of Illusion: A good deal of the game is spent just trying to find a way to break through his illusions.
- Religion is Magic: Hargon is the High Priest of a diabolist religion, but he might as well be its Sorcerous Overlord. He wears the chasuble like a Catholic priest celebrating mass, but he also carries around a Wizard Staff—his underlings even divide themselves into either the priest category (the Wrecktors and Whackolytes) and the mage category (the Maguses, Shamans, and Sorcerers).
- Religion of Evil: The Children of Hargon that Hargon himself leads.
Malroth
A god of destruction who craves for the annihilation of everything.
For tropes relating to Malroth in both human and usual monster form, see here.
Tropes Associated with the Master of Destruction:
- Big Bad: The true villain of the game, he is the Children of Hargon's god who craves to destroy everything.
- Breath Weapon: He is capable of breathing fire via Fire, Inferno, Scorch, and Hellfire, as well as ice via C-C-Cold Breath and darkness, the later of which is achieved via Wave of Panic.
- Destroyer Deity: Though he doesn't have much of a chance to flex it thanks to Hargon arranging most of the plot, Malroth is a god of destruction.
- Dub Name Change: In Japan, he is named Shidoh.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: In the original English translation, at least. The only hint that he even existed at all was a quest item called the False Idol. More recent and accurate translations avert this, however... and include the one or two mentions he gets prior to the final battle. Even with that, he's still pretty out-of-nowhere and a general non-factor in the plot.
- Green and Mean: Malroth is a green-scaled evil god, though he'll also be blue in the Monsters series and other spinoff games.
- A Head at Each End: Malroth has a snake-like head on the tip of his crocodilian tail.
- Healing Hands: In the original NES/Famicom version, Malroth is able to heal himself by casting Fullheal. Thankfully, he loses this ability in all remake versions, but to compensate, he gained a lot more HP. However, he regains it from Dragon Quest IX onwards, but has Moreheal to start. In some of his crossover appearances in other games such as the Monsters series, Malroth even specializes as a monster healer.
- I'm a Humanitarian: He first ate Hargon's soul just to be brought into Torland and Alfegard, and eats many sacrificed souls of the Children of Hargon's followers, as stated in his Dragon Quest IX bestiary entry."This Deity of the Damned enjoys nothing more than the sacrificed souls of his most sincere followers. Mmmmm!"
- Shock and Awe: Not in Dragon Quest II, but other appearances onwards such as the Battle Road games and Dragon Quest X give him abilities and spells, like Kazapstrophe, Lightning, and Lightning Storm.
- Silent Antagonist: Zigzagged. Malroth prefers annihilation over conversation, but he does speak when he wants to, during the CD Theater and Enix Gamebook of the game, Dragon Quest Monsters, Dragon Quest of the Stars, Dragon Quest Builders 2, Dragon Quest Rivals, and Dragon Quest Tact.
- Vertebrate with Extra Limbs: Malroth has four arms, two wings, two legs and one tail.
Bosses
Common Tropes
- Chromatic Arrangement: Atlas is amber-skinned, Pazuzu is purple-furred, and Belial is yellow-skinned.
- Co-Dragons: The three of them are Hargon's
- Degraded Boss: Later DQ games would recycle their designs as common enemies and mini-bosses.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: Atlas is the physical attacker, Pazuzu is a speedy spellcaster specialized in Death spells, and Belial combines powerful physical attacks with Fire and explosive magic.
Atlas
Tropes associated with him:
- Carry a Big Stick: His weapon of choice is a huge wooden club.
- Cyclops: He is an amber-skinned, one-eyed, horned giant.
- Four-Fingered Hands: His design has four-fingered hands and three-fingered feet.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Unlike his boss and partners, he knows no spells.
- Slasher Smile: He is widely grinning when he is about to fight the heroes.
Pazuzu
Tropes associated with him:
- The Dreaded: Armed with the Thwack (instant death) and Kamikazee (self-destruction) spells, he will very easily kill the Scions of Erdrick unless they dispose of him quickly.
- Even as an on and off Degraded Boss, they are still feared due to knowing Kacrack, Kerplunk, Kaboom & Kaboomle, Kaswoosh & Kaswooshle, and other spells and abilities, such as Freezing Blizzard.
- Maniac Monkeys: He's an evil ape who works for a cult.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: He is a long-tailed monkey with wings and ears of bat.
- Shout-Out: To the Winged Monkeys from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, who also served a sinister, evil sorcerer.
- Vertebrate with Extra Limbs: He is a monkey with wings.
Belial
Tropes associated with him:
- Breath Weapon: He can breathe fire, as well as a ball of fire via Blistering Breath and a ball of darkness via Abyssal Breath.
- Devil's Pitchfork: He is armed with a dark violet pitchfork.
- Heal Thyself: Casts Fullheal in both II and X
- Our Demons Are Different: He is a winged, pointy-tailed, cow-headed, yellow-skinned demon.
- Shock and Awe: Knows Lightning Storm in Dragon Quest X.
- Stuff Blowing Up: He knows the Blast Spell Kaboom, as well as Boom, Kaboomle, and Bangmurta in Dragon Quest X.
