Quest Log 2

Game - Dragon Warrior II, Log 2
Hours Played/Hours Total - 4 hrs / 4 hrs
Starting Point - Beginning of the game.
Current Goal - Beat the game. Move on through the series.

What Happened - And thus begins Dragon Warrior II! This game was also remade for the GBC, and the game was actually packaged together on the same cartridge as Dragon Warrior I. (See here.) Like I've stated before, I actually own a copy of this, but I'm playing it on an emulator to throw up screenshots as I play. (It livens up the post a bit, but I won't be doing it once I hit Dragon Quest IV.) Anyways, let's get going!
     Dragon Warrior II starts by naming my character. I choose Keep to keep with my general naming convention. After that, I'm shown some cool GBC style cutscenes.


Looove me some old-style, GB cutscenes~



And now we have a timeline established!

Of course, "cutscenes" really isn't the right word here. The more accurate wording would be pictures. Anyways! The story starts off 100 years after the descendant of Loto went and defeated the Dracolord. As we know, Lady Lora and he went out to found their own kingdom together. As it turns out, he founded SEVERAL kingdoms in his adventures. His heirs currently rule all of the kingdoms, and it mentions one of them called Lorasia, but then it immediately jumps over to the Kingdom of Moonbrook.
     The King and Princess are chatting all nice-like when suddenly EXPLOSIONS!

Hargon makes the first move. Damn you Hargon!

Now monsters are invading Moonbrook, and the King is pushing the princess to escape via a secret staircase. He tries to fight off the pursuing monsters but then... he is killed. The game plays a sad tune as people are being slowly but surely slaughtered. One soldier manages to escape from the castle and runs off to warn Lorasia.

This part... pretty depressing actually.

     A time skip later, we see the guard slowly limping towards a castle. He makes it inside, but then some guards have to help carry him to see the King. He wants to deliver his message immediately and directly. The soldier tells the king that Hargon (the villain of this game) destroyed Moonbrook with his army. Le gasp! This is quite distressing, and the wounded soldier is now dead.
     Hargon is some sort of evil wizard, and he plans to summon a demon to destroy the world! Being a descendant of Loto, the king leaves it up to my character (Keep again) to go out and prove myself by defeating Hargon. He tells me I won't be alone in my quest though! I'm to seek out the Prince of Cannock and the Princess of Moonbrook. They are also descendants of Loto, and we must band together to defeat the evil Hargon. (To be fair, the game intro made it sound like EVERY kingdom would have descendants of Loto since he started every single one.)
     Before I'm sent on my way, the King offers me a chest. Inside it contains a Copper Sword and 50 Gold. (AKA a waaay better start than the last game) The castle has an actual shop this time, so I buy a few herbs and antidotes before heading out. Then it's time to go out into the field... and begin my adventure!

Everybody please ignore the dead soldier on the floor.

THE ADVENTURE BEGINS!

     Only a battle in, and the game's already taken on quite a few changes. Random encounters can now have MORE than one enemy, and they generally contain at least two or three. That, and the enemies can even differ around you by simply walking on different terrain types. (To be fair, that was present in the last game, but it seemed more prominent here.) I honestly almost died during the second encounter of the game. The game didn't really give me any hints or direction of where to go at this point, but I figure I can follow the bare grass plains to a different destination at least.

Here comes the Slimes! Also a slug... way to ruin the image slug!

     I head west of Lorasia and begin my search. Along the way, I go through a few battles and arise victorious with little trouble really. I did have a few close calls, but nothing will stop me this early! (Or I was hoping so at least...) The first town I find is the town of Leftwyne.

It's the town of Leftwyne!

I have enough gold now to pick up supplies, and this town offers a bit more variety than Lorasia Castle. I heal up at the Inn and head north from here. (Kinda on a whim?) Heading north, I run into a small shrine. I talk to an old man there that suggests I visit a shrine south of Lorasia... Also a couple of guards prevent me from going through another entrance there because I need at least two people to go through. SO TIME TO BACTRACK ALREADY!
     I leave that shrine and head south of Lorasia to find the other shrine. And this was basically a huge waste of my time. The old man there simple tells me about the keys in the game. There are two major kinds of doors, Gold and Silver. You need a key for each one, the Gold Key and Silver Key. The Silver Key supposedly exists in a cave west of Cannock, and he advises I head that way next. However, he also suggests I find a partner because going alone is dangerous. Thus, it's time to head for Cannock! NEXT PARTY MEMBER... HOOOOO!
     It takes a little while, but I manage to finally wander into the kingdom of Cannock. I say "wander" because I took my time and gained a bit of extra experience along the way. It's north of Leftwyne but northeast of the Shrine. Once inside, I heal up, buy supplies, and then search for the King. He informs me that Prince Art already left a while back to head for the Hero's Spring. I'll have to follow after him and try to catch up. This next bit leads to quite a chase around the kingdom in search of Prince Art.
     The Prince was heading for the Hero's Spring to receive a blessing from the water there, so I've got to find it first. It's supposedly north of Lorasia, so I figure to head east from Cannock and hope it takes me to the right place. Before I left Cannock though, I spoke with the Prince's sister, and she told me that her brother tends to take his time and make stops along the way. It's just a nice tidbit to know for later, but I'm heading to the Hero's Spring first regardless.
     To get there, you simply have to follow what little directions I've been given. I actually got there from a different direction than the game instructed, but you can head from either point. You can either go east of Cannock OR north from Lorasia. east of Cannock seems easiest/fastest since you're probably already started from there though. Also, if you head north of Lorasia, you HAVE to pass through a marsh area, so again... head east from Cannock. It leads a bit northward from there, but then I ran right into the Hero's Spring.

Wait a minute... That's not the Spring, that's a COBRA! COOOBRAAAA!

     Lucky for me, the Hero's Spring turned out to be a pretty small cave. Also, this game has eliminated the "dark caves" from the first, so that makes things easier. I didn't ever dislike the having to light up a cave, but it did kind of force you to either carry around a torch or waste MP on the radiant spell. All in all, there's no real loss there. The enemies aren't anything new for me either, so I'm able to pass through with very little trouble.

That's one heck of a Hero's Spring.

     I quickly found the spring and was given a blessing by the priest there. Unfortunately, he informed me that the Prince of Cannock has already been and gone from here. He was headed to Lorasia next to find other descendants of Loto, AKA me. Well...crap. No point sticking around here now. I leave the Hero's Spring and head south to Lorasia. I enter the Castle, look around, and speak to the King to find... The Prince is in another castle. He was looking for me, and the King informed him that I was heading to Cannock to find him. We are just going around in circles now!
     Now, I didn't use a guide at this point, but I already had an idea of where he'd be. Remember what the Prince's sister (technically princess I guess) said earlier? I start the path to head for Cannock, but I make a quick stop at Leftwyn first just to test out the theory. Hurray! It's Prince Art of Cannock!

Yes, I am.

I know. We went around in circles buddy.

FINALLY!

     He talks about how I'm a hard person to find and then joins my party as the second of three members. Aaaawwww yeaaaah~ Just one more person left to find. Art joins as a "Paladin" (whereas my character is a "Hero"), and what that translate to is that he can perform some magic while I am a magicless brute. The tradeoff is that I can equip any weapons and armor while he is unable to equip the heavier things. It works out quite nicely, and he at least knows the heal spell. I'll go ahead and ruin it now by saying the Princess trades out even more. She has the strongest magic in the game, but she can only equip like... cloth-style armor.

My current equipment and some stats.

Art's current equipment and some stats.

     Anyways, Art comes in at level 1, so I have to do a bit of grinding real quick to earn him enough levels to survive the harsh world out there. He did start with a bit better stats than my character though, so I don't have to spend forever gaining extra levels. Now if you remember, there's supposedly a lake cave west of Cannock that contains the Silver Key. The Silver Key replaces the constant need to buy keys by just being a permanent key for silver-framed doors. I've seen a handful of silver doors around, so I figure that's my next goal.
     I head west of Cannock, then a little north, and a bit more west to find... THE LAKE CAVE! And as it turns out, the cave isn't too much of a challenge. The monsters weren't very hard at all, but they were capable of poisoning. So my suggestion? Just carry several antidotes on you just in case. The cave is only a couple floors so... SILVER KEY ACQUIRED! From here, I figure it's time to do a bit of backtracking to find some silver doors. And so the search begins!
     Then the search goes nowhere. After looking through every town and area up to this point, I found that all of the silver doors were pointless. They didn't really lead to any treasure or knowledge for me to use. So... yay for pointless! I guess from here, all that's left is to find the Princess of Moonbrook. Of course, there's two problems with that. One, we already know that Moonbrook was destroyed, but I have to find it and figure out where to go from there. Two, I'm not very prepared level-wise at this point. Anyways, I don't really have much of a choice... I figure it's time for more grinding! It'll help produce better equipment and levels, so why not?
     I wasted around an hour getting extra gold and levels. During this time, I ventured into a new area to continue onwards. Basically, if you head north from Leftwyn and then go slightly west when you can, it leads to a shrine. The shrine covers a tunnel that leads to a southern continent. I take the tunnel to the next continent and then head south to find the next town... of Hamlin!

I'd like to thank all the towns for having people whose exclusive job is to inform me which town I'm in. It really helps me out at times. I know it can be rough to stand there all day, but I'm glad you do. Thanks Sign People!

     The enemies in this area are pretty tough, so I ended up taking a bit of time to grind levels. I know I'm looking into another character I'll have to level, but I have to survive long enough to get that character! The grinding does get old after a bit, and I've got enough new equipment to adventure further and safely. From Hamlin, it's just a short walk south, west, southwest, and there's Moonbrook Castle!

This place is all messed up. :(

     What little is left of Moonbrook Castle is quite sad really. There's just destruction and ruin all about. There's a few "souls" wandering the castle as well, and one of those is the King's soul. He tells me that his daughter, Nana, was cursed! She was changed into a dog but escaped to a nearby town. Hmmm... I did see a random dog in town that would follow me around. A nearby spirit says something about an item called the Lar Mirror. It claims that it lies in a nearby small swamp east of here that is within sight of two bridges. I'm assuming this is related, so I set out straight from the castle and head east.
     I don't have to walk too far to find the small marsh. It's only four spaces, so I the search is pretty quick for the Lar Mirror. Now to head back to Hamlin and investigate this dog that lives there. There's a specific way you have to do it, or the dog will simply follow you around town. You have to walk next to the dog and then use the mirror without talking to the dog. (It sounds weird, but I figure it's a common mistake... It was for me.) Upon using the mirror, the game says that the reflection of a beautiful princess is present. The mirror shatters, and Princess Nana is free to join our party!

Dat Princess~

And now the party is THREE!

     Before joining, she briefly explains her story, but this is pointless because I already know and/or have seen most of it. Anyways, she joins the party and comes in at a lovely level 1. Following the change from Keep to Art, Nana comes in as a different class, the Mage. She can't equip anything that's remotely heavy, so the equipment available to her is even less than Art. Hamlin only offers a knife for her to hold... She also came with some cloth armor, so this is going to go GREAT!
     Of course, this is followed by a little bit of grinding to get her to a manageable level. Much like Art, she came with improved stats (comparative to Keep) so that you can just get her a few levels and then head right along. Unfortunately for me? I don't have a dang clue where I should go from here. I mean I did briefly revisit Moonbrook Castle to see if different dialogue was available. Nana did have something special to say to the King's soul, but it seemed to only feel her presence there. It couldn't actually speak directly to her. (Sad face...) Not much else changed here though, so it's back to Hamlin real quick.
     I gained enough levels at this point that Nana was able to use the Healmore, Sleep, and Infernos spell. Time to head out! Aaaand according to the guide I looked at. (I AM SORRY! I AM WEAK AND READY TO PUSH ON!) It's time to head for the Tower of Winds. You have to take a path northeast from Hamlin along the river. You go over the second bridge and simply follow the path around to the Tower of Winds.

That's a very nice looking tower located in the middle of NOWHERE!

That middle staircase is a pile of LIES!

     Going to be honest, I tried climbing the tower without consulting the guide because it seemed pretty straightforward. Turns out it is NOT straightforward. If you take the stairs in the middle, you just continually climb up to the tower and reach a dead end. You have to take a set of stairs located along the east wall of the tower. If you simply follow that set of stairs, it takes you right to the goal of this tower.... The Wind Cape! I equip it to Keep and then leap right off the tower.

That's a very fancy cape to just be randomly sitting in a tower...

     This seems to make me leap a small distance from the tower as opposed to directly falling next to it. That's all the cape does that I know of... Now, the trip to and through the tower cost me all of my healing equipment and much of my MP. I wasn't necessarily struggling to get back, but I had to be careful. Probably the only reason I was able to make it back without a problem was through the use of a "Wizard's Ring." It's an item I found in the tower while searching for the cape. If you use it, your character has part of their MP restored. I do hope it doesn't have a limited number of uses because I used it twice...
     Regardless, I made it back to Hamlin, saved my game, and decided to call it quits for this post. I could have made this longer, but I doubt the game has a whole lot more to go. I figure I'm somewhere around the halfway point, so it felt right to stop around here. That and I haven't released a post in what feels like forever! I'm getting slower and slower to the punch because work, life, and other games. I'm going to try to finish the game before the month is up, and as long as I'm not interrupted, this should be pretty easy to do. ANYWAYS! Thank you for your patience and for taking the time to read. Stay tuned for more Dragon Warrior II! ~TO BE CONCLUDED IN QUEST LOG 3~

Ending Point - Hamlin.
Screenshots - Imgur.
Current Party -

• Keep - Level 13
• Art - Level 11
• Nana - Level 7

Goals Accomplished - Find the Prince of Cannock and recruit him. Acquired the Silver Key. Visited the Hero's Spring. Broke the curse on the Princess of Moonbrook and recruited her. Acquired the Wind Cape.
Next Goals - Find and defeat Hargon!

~May the Crystals Guide Me~