Dragon Quest Heroes 2 | Review
The Dragon Quest series is a massive
hit in Japan, which finds itself rivalling the likes of Final Fantasy and other
series alike in the Land of the Rising Sun. It has amassed a huge following in
its home country and whilst it has more a cult following here in Australia, the
Dragon Quest series returns to our shores with an entertaining package and a worthy sequel to the 2015 original.
Dragon Quest Heroes 2 begins with the
story of peace that has lasted for a 1000 years among the lands of the Seven
Kingdoms, but suddenly as though enchanted by an ancient prophecy, the kingdoms
begin to wage war amongst one and another, and it is up to our Heroes to band
together to restore peace. Even though this game is a sequel and takes
characters from the Dragon Quest series, one doesn’t need any knowledge or
context from the original game or the series to understand or follow this original story.
The game sees you initially control
one of two selectable characters (both male and female) who are cousins, and
the tutorial sequences introduces you the basics of combat and gameplay. However,
after the initial battle and cut scenes, the game opens up into traveling the
large world and the RPG element kicks in. The game can be split into a few
different styles of gameplay, the first of which is the Dynasty Warrior
influenced battles which take place in a fixed area. This generally sees you
hack your way through several waves of minion warriors before a large boss
fight with one or more larger characters. It usually ends with you ducking and
dodging the enemy attacks before timing your own in return.
The
other form of gameplay sees you travelling through the Seven Kingdoms, with the
whole world available to explore and travel at your leisure. There is the
opportunity to unlock fast travel as you progress through the land and as you
travel between battles which form a large part of the story, these large open
areas are there to be explored, full of enemies that can be fought for XP, as
well as side quests which allow you to pursue bonus tasks of collecting items
or fighting specific enemies.
Early on in the campaign, most battles
can be won through button mashing and dodging enemy attacks, and whilst fun
at the time, there is no real threat or feeling that you are up against it,
even when bigger monsters and enemies spawn into the game. However, as you
progress through the game the RPG element begins to take over and forces you to
pay more attention to your party, and which characters you select to join you
in your travels. Having a healer and a ranged fighter is a tip, as well as
constantly upgrading equipment, and paying close attention to mission
objectives. The more difficult battles usually came in the form of escort
missions, which involve protecting a King or other important NPC, as you
traverse a massive multi stage conflict. The gameplay does at times move away
from the hack and slash combat to bring different types of gameplay through
puzzles, platforming, and stealth sequences, but these are very brief and return
to the main button mashing very quickly.
In terms of graphics Dragon Quest
Heroes 2 is a beautiful game. The scenery whilst not photo realistic, the
detail and care given to colour, textures, effects and lighting are quite
impressive. As you spend your time slashing and hacking your way through hordes
of enemies it all comes together rather nicely on the screen.
Overall
Dragon Quest Heroes 2 is solid effort from Omega Force and Square Enix, which
fans of the series shouldn’t be disappointed with. It maintains the items that
worked with the original title but with the addition of character customisation
and upgrading it expands upon its RPG elements. The nature of the gameplay
(hack and slash) whilst can get repetitive doesn’t distract from a solid story.
The game does offer multiplayer to play online and join forces to share your
adventures and battles with friends, but a local co-op is sadly lacking. Dragon
Quest Heroes 2 is a great sequel to the series and nor should it be the last.
Initial release date: 22 February 2011
Platform: PS4 (April 28 2017), PS Vita, PC (April 25 2017), Nintendo Switch (March 3 2017)
Genre: Action Role Playing, Hack and Slash
Developers: Omega Force
Publishers: Square Enix
Platform: PS4 (April 28 2017), PS Vita, PC (April 25 2017), Nintendo Switch (March 3 2017)
Genre: Action Role Playing, Hack and Slash
Developers: Omega Force
Publishers: Square Enix
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