Dragon Quest Heroes II

Dragon Quest Heroes II is an odd mix. It has some super smart enhancements to gameplay but is bogged down by a terrible, messy storyline. There’s a lot of fun to be had, but you may be best served just not paying attention to the story. The game’s expansive gameplay options may feel overwhelming at first, but mastering its systems will reward you with a great action RPG to play.

A fun and charming action RPG with robust gameplay and some great battles. It's just a shame that there are very few surprises.

An improvement on the original, but it throws in a few flaws of its own.

Even though Dragon Quest Heroes II might not feel like a full fledged sequel, it fixes our main gripes of the first game and offers an enjoyable adventure filled with charm and flashy but somewhat repetitive battles.

Dragon Quest Heroes II is an enjoyable hack and slash sequel with a great array of characters and enemies. It continues on the good work of the first title in conjuring the feel of the Dragon Quest series, but it’s still just a Musou title underneath it all with all the repetitive combat that entails. While the RPG elements add a nice level of customisation, it can all feel a little too prescribed to be truly enthralling.

What stands out to me is how all of the new elements and tweaked versions of older elements combine together to create something that, in many ways, feels less like a Warriors game and more like a proper Action-RPG. It's almost as if the team had ambitions of moving in that direction, but felt unsure about pulling too far from its roots. Who knows if we'll ever see a third game that will go all-in on that approach, but what we've been given here is a decidedly fun, if flawed, Dragon Quest adventure.

Dragon Quest Heroes II is exactly the kind of game that, one year from now, I won’t even remember playing. It’s entertaining enough, but in spite of that it never quite finds its stride. Each of its highest moments come with the knowledge of what the game is grasping towards but can’t quite reach, both as an RPG and as a Warriors game.

Dragon Quest Heroes 2 adds a substantial amount of traditional JRPG-ing to the Musou formula, Overworld-like areas allow you to explore more freely than the in-story battle missions. Equipment and skills customization rival anything seen in a mainline DQ game. It’s a passable, mostly mindless foray into the DQ universe, which is never a bad place to visit thanks to the colourful, buoyant art and character design from Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. But more than anything, its best features made me want to play a regular Dragon Quest game instead.

Action RPG in a very colorful design where you will fight the large armies. It's nice, but it can quickly turn tiresome. [Issue#274]

While the charming characters, stellar voice acting and cutscenes are all great, it's just not enough. [Issue#189, p.78]

While I loved Dragon Quest Heroes back in 2015, Dragon Quest Heroes II is a very safe sequel that doesn't add much to a stale formula. While this is a good sequel, it definitely has its moments where it could have ended much earlier than it did. Musou and Dragon Quest enthusiasts, of which I am both, will be easily sold on this game. Still, part of me feels that if this game had been a tad shorter and more cohesive, I would have loved it as much as the first.

What do you get when you mix Dragon Quest and Dynasty Warriors? A boring experience apparently bause Dragon Quest Heroes 2 is way too repetitive and offers a very dull story.

Dragon Quest continues to be the most successful partner for Dynasty Warriors, but the pace of improvement remains painfully slow.