MY EYES! THE GOGGLES DO NOTHING! Let's Play Dragon Warrior II

Let's play Dragon Quest II! Or rather, Dragon Warrior II, since I'll be doing the NES version.




I've always loved the old NES licensing screens for the old localizations.



Like how the torches lite up the title in the US opening too, though those people only look vaguely like our protagonists. Let's find some more accurate boxart.



W-wait, who the crap are those people? Wrong boxart, just a sec.



There we go, that's better.

Dragon Warrior II is the awkward middle child of the Erdrick Loto trilogy. It was the first in the series to have player and enemy parties larger than One Versus One, but your allies were usually more of a liability than a help, you can only warp back to the last place you saved, and there's not much guidance on where to go or what you're supposed to really do.

Still, while it's aged horribly compared to every Dragon Quest game after it, I do enjoy getting lost in its world once in a while. Aside from the level walls, once you get the ship you can go nearly anywhere you want. And I can't help but like its protagonists' designs too, with both princes wearing goggles for no apparent reason. I guess we'll never know what those are for.



Okay, now we need a name for Prince Midenhall. Eight characters max. Start suggesting!

Goggles.

Ah, what the hell. Name him Goggles.

I suspect they were auditioning for parts in Castle in the Sky. They're about dressed for it, after all. Certainly I wouldn't be surprised if that was an influence on their design; the game came out the year after the movie.

I'm gonna be off the wall and suggest you name him Lubydonk. No reason other than it just sounds silly.

I've always been fond of the name Gomez whenever I want to give a party a bit of Spanish flair. Yeah, I think I want the entire group to have Spanish names.

GOGGLES.

He shall be called "Esteban."

I like Goggles.

Edit: Bleh, totally forgot that only the MC can be named in this one.

In which case:

Well, that's gonna be a problem since I'll be doing the NES version for my LP. The Japanese one has a code that lets you change your companions' names, but it doesn't work in the US localization.

Now if I was playing Game Boy Color it'd work fine, but that one only allows for four-letter names.

Spanish for goggles is Gafas.

GOGGLES.

It influences the other two character names, I think.

You can't name them all? That's a shame. I still think the hero should be named Gomez, though.

I would like you to come work for my business.

Seconding Goggles.

Goggles is the obvious choice.

Especially since he does everything.

It may have aged horribly, but I like it too. How about in honor of the first Dragon Warrior Quester (as well as your downright anemic stats at the start - Lotobomy.

I already seconded it, you swindler!

Yeah, but I seconded it way better. You could learn a thing or two about seconding things, Kishi.

As a kid, I had the hugest crush on Princess Moonbrooke. Based solely on the US boxart, of course.

It wasn't enough to get me to actually stick with the game once you get a boat and are all like, what do I do now. Being spoiled by having already partaken of DQ3's infinitely more useful Return spell didn't help.

The three approaching with torches through the darkness is one of the great moments of the NES.

Goggles will yield Esgar(guide typo? Edgar?) and Ollisa, if I did this right. I didn't, Numor and Kailin. Loto will yield Orfeo and Gwen. The FAQ even includes instructions for how to hex in your own names for the prince/princess, as they ARE still looked up in a table.

Esteban->Bran+Illyth

I like Goggles.

The main character guy on the boxart looks just like one of my characters from DQIX.

Ah, but through the magic of editing posts...

Soren has you both beat.

Wasn't my intention, but nonetheless.

Oh, hey! I jumped onto this LP just in time! Never finished this game, but I have tried many, many times. The GB remake was as ugly as hell, I'm sad to say.



Always liked this screen, too. Dragon Quest III made mention of the Dragon Queen, and I always kind of figured that's who this gal is.

No. Through some unholy pact with a great evil, he shall be known as Orlando and she Francesca. (The unholy pact will extend the number of spaces for naming to nine)

I'm gaga for Goggles!

I don't care what the main character's name is, so long as it's something that causes the princess to be named Varia. Here is the arcane weirdness needed to fulfill this request.

Ideally, you want to avoid Prince Bran too. That's just sad.

I already linked that faq.
Varia is painful to get, if you use one capital and rest lowercase. "Stupid" would do it. (Only first four characters matter.) (yields Talint/Varia)