The Entropy Pump

by Chunsoft
2nd Dragon Quest game / enhanced American NES release as Dragon Warrior 2

The grinding from the first part remains, but some details have been improved in comparison to the first part. Instead of just one hero you have a party (but you can’t customize them), the dungeons are much easier to traverse and you automatically use stairways. The story of DW2 is still simple, but since the game is much bigger than the first part, there’s much more to do.

The hero and the princess from the first part have colonized other continents and now the kingdoms of their descendants are threatened by one evil dude named Hargon. Why? It’s never said, probably just because he’s evil, doh. The gameplay is similar to the first one, but as I said, there’s more to do. First you have to find your companions, then you have to find some crests and other items to advance in the game. At one point in the game you get your hands on a ship, which makes the gameplay progression much less linear than in the first game.

Apart from the endless grind (fighting to collect exp and gold to get more levels and better equipment), the game is actually fun. In some ways it reminds me how harder those games in the past were, you have to note down every little piece of information, since the game doesn’t hold you by the hand and shows you what to do next. But the fighting really wears you down.

Rating: 3/5

by Chunsoft
1st Dragon Quest game / enhanced American NES release as Dragon Warrior

DW is an interesting experience if you want to see how the evolution of console RPGs started. One word to describe the game: grinding. The game features a very simple story (evil bad guy terrorizes land, you have to defeat him and free a princess along the way). The gameplay is also extremely simple. It mostly consists of leveling up, catching some hints in the cities you travel to, unearth some items and find your way to the lair of the Dragonlord.

But mostly it’s leveling up, fighting monsters endlessly to get more experience. Since every defeated monster gives you only a small amount of experience and money, this can become a very tedious and boring process. Other annoying things about the game: the menu driven interface is just a way to artificially expand the play time without adding more depth to the game, the lighting and the need to use torches in dungeons makes traversing them rather painfully and the random battle encounter rate (which is extremely high).

Overall, interesting as a historical artifact to see where console RPGing started, but as a game in its own right rather tedious without the benefit of an interesting story or other aspects that could have made it more fun to play.

Rating: 2/5