Posted in: Games, Review, Video Games | Tagged: Dragon Quest, Dragon Quest Heroes, Dragon Quest Heroes II, game review, koei tecmo, Square Enix

Dragon Quest Heroes II Might Just Be The Most Fun We've Had In Years

Published Tue, 25 Apr 2017 07:45:45 -0500

by Madeline Ricchiuto

Comments

I can't find anything not to like about Dragon Quest Heroes II and believe me, I have tried. I'm a tough reviewer and I know that, I usually walk into things looking for problems, glitches, or strange mechanics. But as much as I tried, I was unable to find any part of Square Enix and Koei Tecmo/Omega Force's Dragon Quest Heroes II that I absolutely hated. Sure, there were a few moments of sheer annoyance and a couple of things I wish were different, but even I recognize that all as me being nitpicky.

One of the best parts of Dragon Quest is just how bright and colorful, and in some ways cartoony, the games are. That trend obviously continues here with Dragon Quest Heroes II. Despite being a game that is mostly just a vehicle for Square Enix to pull the popular characters from their 30-year strong Dragon Quest series together, DQ Heroes II is an absolute joy to play. The controls are easy and intuitive. You can quickly assign skill points to customize your characters, and switching between party members is pretty much a breeze. In fact, most of the time your problems in combat come from having to chose which three party members you want to take with you.

I typically rolled with Desdemona, Torneko, and Lazarel because that combo worked out swimmingly in the early game stages and I figured I wouldn't mess with perfection. Sure, I'd slot in Maribel, Meena, and Cesare on occasion but generally rolled with those three. I played as Teresa, because I'm always going to pick the wittier character when given a choice, and the moment "flippin" came out of Teresa's oddly English mouth, I was sold.

There have been a decent number of changes between Dragon Quest Heroes and Dragon Quest Heroes II, with a new hub town, the ability to change the main characters' classes, and some general upkeep fixes, but it still feels very Dragon Quest-y. Omega Force did a fantastic job of melding the RTS tactical elements of their Dyansty Warriors games into DQH2, and it pays off fantastically.

Honestly, I did not want to put this game down, and that's damn fantastic.

Sure, the story is a bit hokey with the whole "seven kingdoms all lived in peace for thousand years, until now" and you have to stop a war waged with men and monsters on both sides, but, the story doesn't try to be what it isn't. And there are moments where it pokes fun at itself. Within moments of meeting you, the High King of the seven kingdoms decide you "just might be useful" and uses you as his personal gofer.

The game's multiplayer gives you three different types of lobbies to chose from. You can request help and start your own lobby, join the fight in someone else's game, or just let the system match you with whoever fits your current roster best. So, you've got the best of all worlds there. You get to chose your own name for online interactions, and those choices don't seem to be limited by who else is using the name, so you could very well end up in a party of three players all named MarioSux. That's online matchmaking at it's finest.

In fact, the only things I disliked were my inability to change the sound settings coming out of my PS4 controller. Not being able to mute that or turn it from volume 11 down to something saner was a bit irksome. Also up there was the selling. One of the most annoying aspects of that whole volume thing was that certain interactions would ping that speaker more than anything else. Sell something to the weapon's merchant and he'd turn around and shout "Cheers!" at the top of his lungs. And since you couldn't sell things in bulk higher than 9 units, you heard "Cheers!" over and over.

I ended up making a game out of it just to deal, see if I could get him to say "Cheers!" exactly on beat like a metronome.

But over all, my only problem was liveable. Because sure, the rest of the speaker box shouts were annoying, but they didn't occur too often. And that all was easily fixed by reminding me that the copymaker ghost made the kitschiest 'OoOoOoh' noise every time you started and ended a conversation with it. Made my night every time.

Overall, Dragon Quest Heroes II manages to compromise in all the right ways. The matchmaking allows you as much freedom as you can get in how you use it while still giving you the convenience of making parties for you, the combat is smooth and intuitive, and the game's menus, skill trees, and reliance on dialogue boxes manage to give just that perfect hit of nostalgia.

Honestly, Dragon Quest Heroes II might just be the most fun I've had playing a game for review in years.

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