Video Game / Dragon Quest Heroes II: Twin Kings and the Prophecy's End

And that thing's just the first boss.

Should ever wicked war resume,
A dragon shall the sun consume,
And sibling souls be born as once before.
But till the land be steeped in blood,
May sovereign twins, however good,
Ne'er hope to rule in peace forever more.

— Prophecy delivered after the War of Kings

Dragon Quest Heroes II: Twin Kings and the Prophecy's End is the Sequel to the 2015 Dynasty Warriors Hack and Slash Spin-Off of the Dragon Quest franchise, Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and The Blight Below, developed by Koei Tecmo's studio Omega Force. Like its predecessor, Dragon Quest Heroes II blends traditional Eastern RPG mechanics of Dragon Quest with the Warriors formula of having one character defeat hundreds of Mooks.

One thousand years ago, the Demon Lord Fractos plunged the world into a horrific war that threatened to tear the world apart. However, under the leadership of the hero king Unos, Fractos was defeated, and man and monster came to live in peace as friends and allies in seven kingdoms. For generations, the world has known peace under the leadership of the kingdom of Accordia and its High King. However, when the king of the desert kingdom of Dunisia is found murdered and the king of the nation of Harba is implicated as a suspect, tensions between the seven kingdoms flare up and threaten to engulf the world in war once again. To prevent such darkness from engulfing the land, two unlikely heroes step forward to gather a group of like-minded and familiar warriors to find the true murderer and save the seven kingdoms from war.

Similar to the first game, Dragon Quest Heroes II brings pre-established characters across the Dragon Quest franchise into this Crossover:

• Torneko, Meena (Minea), and Ragnar (Nintendo Switch version only) from Dragon Quest IV
• Carver (Hassan) from Dragon Quest VI
• Maribel and Ruff (Gabo) from Dragon Quest VII
• Angelo (Kikul) from Dragon Quest VIII

Returning from the first Dragon Quest Heroes as part of the storyline are:

• Maya (Mara), Alena, and Kiryl (Clift) from Dragon Quest IV
• Terry from Dragon Quest VI
• Jessica from Dragon Quest VIII

The Sequel also introduces four new characters exclusively for Dragon Quest Heroes II:

• Lazarel (Razael) and Teresa, the respective male and female protagonist of the game. Players designate one as the headlining character, but both co-exist simultaneously.
• Cesar - The Prince of Dunisia and Vitriolic Best Buds with the two protagonists.
• Desdemona (Ornaze) - The King of Accordia's most trusted knight and a world-renowned warrior.

The game was released for the Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PlayStation 4 and the Sony Play Station Vita on May 27, 2016 in Japan, with April 25, 2017 being the launch for the North America version on the PlayStation 4 and PC. It was released for Nintendo Switch as part of the Dragon Quest Heroes I·II compilation on March 3rd, 2017 in Japan.

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Several thousand Slimes draw near... again! Command?

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• Artifact of Doom:
  • The Sword of Discord grants its user tremendous power, but also drives them to homicidal madness and fury.
  • The Cup of Kings, originally a benevolent artifact, becomes this thanks to Fractos' influence.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Kazapple Party Power. Despite its immense power that can wipe out all enemies, it requires all four party members to be at full Tension and you lose the ability to perform Tag Tricks.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: Loss Leaders, easily the most dangerous non-boss enemy in the game. To start with, they're a palette swap of Dhuran, who is himself a candidate for That One Boss. Dhuran is easier!. They're mindlessly aggressive, have a wide variety of attacks, do damage in the triple digits per hit, cast Oomph to boost their already immense strength, and have such an impressively high defense that if you're not equipped with the best weapons you can find, you can expect to see a nice bunch of 1's when you hit them. And god help you if you have to deal with two of them. Mercifully, they're only found in an out of the way area in the post-game.
• Call-Back:
  • Pazuzu, Belial, and Atlas, originally of Dragon Quest II as Hargon's top monsters, are the guardians who test the party for the legendary weapon of Mt. Neverest. The legendary weapon is a Monster Medal that summons Atlas himself, which is used to defeat the rampaging Drakulard.
  • The directional floor-tiles seen in multiple Dragon Quest games appear as an obstacle in the Black Manse. Alena, Maribel, and Carver openly speak of their past experience with them and all agree that they're annoying.
  • As he did in the original Dragon Quest, the Dragonlord asks the player to join him and rule half the world. In this case, however, the game automatically chooses No for you.
• Combination Attack: Tag Tricks allow a party member to immediately use an attack when switched in. The Kazapple Party Power replaces the Tag Trick ability with a tremendous blast of lightning that all the party members cast together.
• Crisis Crossover: The characters from previous Dragon Quest titles are brought into the Heroes II world to help stop the Big Bad in order to prevent him from invading their worlds with his world-destroying castle.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Done twice.
  • The King of Al-Kazaam is set up to be the final challenge to peace in the Seven Realms. Then the High King reveals his true colors.
  • The King of Accordia is set up as the Big Bad after revealing his true colors, only for Fractos to reveal himself as the true villain after defeating the King.
• Disc-One Nuke: The day one "Explorer" edition of the game comes with a dozen downloadable weapons. Most are about on par with starter equipment with some nice extra abilities, but a couple of pieces (particularly the Robo-Razor sword, and the Builder's Mallet Old Save Bonus) are more powerful than anything else you'll see for the first couple of areas.
• Elite Mook: If an enemy has a "WANTED!" text above its name, it is significantly stronger than the normal versions of its type. Especially-strong enemies will pull you into a mini-boss battle that you can't escape, though you can avoid these fights by not attacking them.
• False Flag Operation: The first half of the game was a large version of this. Fractos ran around doing their best to get the various factions at each other's throats. The most direct use of this trope was driving Cesar mad with grief and framing the king of Harba for the murder of the then king of Dunisa.
• The Fatalist: The High King is revealed to have secretly been this "in his heart of hearts", which allowed Fractos to easily turn him against humanity.
• Infinity +1 Sword: The Uber weapons, found only in the post-game as occasional prizes in the Dimensional Dungeons. They can go up to +3, based on how many randomly-assigned effects are on the weapon.
• Interrupted Suicide: After being freed from the Sword of Discord and realizing the extent of what he's done, the King of Al-Kazaam attempts to commit suicide in penance, but is stopped by Cesar, who convinces him to live and atone for his crimes as he did.
• Job System: Similar to other Dragon Quest games, Lazarel and Teresa can change their vocation. There are five vocations: Warrior, Martial Artist, Mage, Priest, and Thief. Each has its own experience level and skill set that are maintained during switching. Leveling the two physical and magical vocations to 20 will unlock their Prestige Class Gladiator and Sage after completing a side-quest to earn each of them, while leveling Thief to 20 unlocks a side-quest to obtain the Thief's Key, which can open the black treasure chests scattered through the overworld.
• Kamehame Hadouken: The High Tension attack for Lazarel and Teresa as Martial Artists entails them collecting magical energy in their hands and throwing it forward.
• Like Brother and Sister: Lazarel and Teresa are first cousins who grew up together and behave this way. Played straight upon the revelation that they really are twin siblings separated shortly after their birth.
• Limit Break: Entering High Tension returns along with its bonuses of negating all damage, curing all status ailments, and allowing infinite MP for its duration before ending with a Coup de Grace.
• Metal Slime: The familiar trio of elusive experience-rich enemies (regular, Liquid, and King) all appear as expected. The odds of finding them increase when playing on Wednesdays, On very rare occasions, one may drop a Quicksilver Key when slain, which can be redeemed at the tavern to enter a special Dimensional Dungeon filled with Metal Slimes.
• Old Save Bonus: If you have a Dragon Quest Heroes I save, you can unlock Luceus's and Aurora's costumes for Lazarel and Teresa to wear. If you have Dragon Quest Builders save data, you'll unlock the Builder's Mallet, which in this game is used like an Axe.
• Optional Boss: Estark from Dragon Quest IV and the Dragonlord from the very first Dragon Quest are the post-game bonus bosses. The Switch version adds a third bonus boss: Malroth from Dragon Quest II.
• Previous Player-Character Cameo: Luceus, Aurora, Doric, Isla, Yangus, Bianca, Nera, and Psaro from the first Dragon Quest Heroes can be used as playable characters, but only in the Dimensional Dungeons. They are extremely limited in their available skills and are unable to use anything but their default weapons, though it is possible to find Giga variants of them, which are similar to the Uber weapons that everybody else uses.
• Punny Name: Pretty much every location and half of the people some name that directly describes things. Dunisa is a dune. Harba is a harbor town. Cesar is a ruler.
• Puzzle Boss: As opposed to the normal speedy combat of the rest of the game, defeating the Drakulard as Atlas is a light puzzle boss. The player must recognize the Drakulard's next attack from its motions and react accordingly to counter and damage him.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Lazarel and Teresa, respectively. Ironically their default weapon set skills are ice and fire-based.
• Spell My Name With An S: Teresa and Cesar's official dub names are slight re-spellings of Teresia and Ceser, respectively.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: On the first visit to Ingenia, the party is stripped of their weapons and thrown into the dungeon. After Meena helps them out of their cell, the lead character must reclaim the party's weapons without getting spotted by the patrolling Killing Machines. This is later repeated in the side-quest to obtain the Thief's Key, made harder by the Killing Machines being replaced with faster Overkilling Machines.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Maya. She retains all of her skills from the previous game, and will periodically use her Puff Coup de Grace to deal heavy damage to anyone who forgets to block (or doesn't have Carver use Forbearance to absorb the damage any other party member would've taken from it). Fortunately, she decides to join your party after the battle, saying it's no fun to prolong the fight against her sister Meena.

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