October 23, 2005
Retiring Dragon Quest II
Last night, I finally finished playing the keitai remake of Dragon Quest II. Now that I've successfully maxed out the levels of all three of my party members (they all go to level 50 in this version) and defeated the end boss, I doubt I'll ever turn it on again. I don't know what it is about Dragon Quest that gets me so addicted, but I'm glad this one's over, as I've got several other games I want to get back to ASAP, chief among them the US version of Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King.
The first time I played DQII was back in 1990, when it was released for the NES as Dragon Warrior II. A guy in my 10th grade gym class sold me his copy after we got to chatting about it in the bleachers, and the rest was history. DQII is probably the least memorable entry in the series, but it's still a solid game. It's definitely the most non-linear of them all -- once you get your party together and obtain a boat, you can pretty much go wherever you want for the rest of the game. This made things a bit difficult for me this time around, as my memory wasn't so sharp on the locations of some of the key items, but in the end, everything turned out okay. It probably took me about 15-20 hours to finish in total, not counting the extra few hours I spent maxing out everyone's levels.
To be honest, I'm starting to get a little tired of playing these old-school remakes over and over -- wouldnt it be nice if Squenix got Level-5 to remake the first three DQ games in full 3D using the DQVIII engine? THAT would actually be worth playing.
Before I get back to DQVIII, I'm planning to finish up Falcom's spectacular Ys: The Oath in Felghana, which I'm currently about 80% through. It's one of the best games I've played all year, and it's got me completely jazzed for Falcom's next RPG, Xanadu Next, which is scheduled to show up on my doorstep this coming Tuesday. I've been good about not buying too many games lately, but I couldn't resist Xanadu (Falcom's pre-order bonuses are always too good to pass up), and I also have the US versions of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Shadow of the Colossus on the way from America. Beyond that, I don't think I'll be buying too much for a while, as I've got plenty to keep me busy for a while.
Anyway, sorry for the lack of updates lately! Life's been busy -- what else is new? :)
Posted by john tv at October 23, 2005 09:00 PM