Dragon Knight II
| Dragon Knight II | |
|---|---|
 PC Engine cover art | |
| Developer(s) | ELF Corporation NEC Avenue (PC Engine) |
| Series | Dragon Knight |
| Platform(s) | MSX, NEC PC-8801, NEC PC-9801, Sharp X68000, TurboGrafx CD |
| Release date(s) | December 20, 1990 (MSX, PC-98) August 7, 1992 (PCE) |
| Distribution | Floppy disks, CD-ROM |
Dragon Knight II (ドラゴンナイトII) is a fantasy-themed eroge role-playing video game in the Dragon Knight franchise that was originally developed and published by ELF Corporation in 1990. Its remake was created by NEC Avenue in 1992. Both versions were released only in Japan. The game is an erotic dungeon crawler where the protagonist fights to overthrow an evil witch and lift her curse that has turned young girls into monsters. The game was followed by Dragon Knight III / Knights of Xentar in 1991.
Gameplay
The gameplay has not changed much since the first Dragon Knight game. It is still a standard dungeon crawler, with first-person view perspective and 2D graphics. The player spends most of the time navigating mazes and fighting monsters in search of artifacts (three scrolls, armor and weapon). As progress is made, the mazes will become more complicated, but as in the first game there is an aid for the player in the form of a of mini-map with grid coordinates.
The battle system has also undergone only cosmetic changes and still features turn-based battles that are mostly randomly generated, but the fights are better balanced than in the first game. The player can can attack, defend, use spells and items to deal with monsters. The monsters are actually cursed girls and whenever player character defeats one of them, the enemy loses her clothing. Later, when they revert to their normal self, in their grattitude they give themselves to the protagonist.
Plot
The hero of the first Dragon Knight, the young warrior Takeru Yamato (ヤマト・タケル) (voiced by Akira Kamiya) wanders into the small town of Phoenix (フィーニックス). However, it turns out Phoenix was overtaken and the evil sorceress Mesaanya (メサーニャ) (voiced by Yumi Nakatani) who banned the love between men and women. After the law was broken by Takeru, she turns all the girls into monsters and other enemies (angel, berserker, catgirl, centaur, elf, harpy, ninja, mummy, werewolf, etc.) and also possesses the town mayor's granddaughter Kate (voiced by Aya Hisakawa). Hearing that, Takeru embarks on a quest to break the curse and rid the world of Mesaanya.
In order to restore peace to the town, Takeru must find the three sacred writings in the witch tower. Then he has to find the legendary Falcon Sword (フォールコン·ソード) able to slay Mesaanya, and the Genji Armor (ゲンジー·アーマー) capable of resisting her powerful spells. Along the way, he meets the mighty brute-force warrior Baan (バーン) (voiced by Banjō Ginga) and the mysterious magic-wielding priestess Sophia (ソフィア) (voiced by Sumi Shimamoto) who join him on his quest.
In the course of the game, it is revealed that Phoenix was once ruled by two demon clans of the Witches and the Dragon Knights, who then fought and almost wiped each other in a fierce battle 300 years ago, and Mesaanya is a descendant of the queen of the Witch clan and Burn is the descendant of the Dragon Knight survivor who sealed his evil and became a human. It turns out that Sophia was really Meesanya all along, but Takeru is able to successfully challenge and defeat her one and for all. After rescuing Kate, he goes back on his journey and further adventures. (Both Burn and Kate both return in the sequel, Dragon Knight III, where the former Tower of Mesaanya is now known as the Tower of Takeru.)
Release
The game was originally released in 1991 for the MSX, NEC PC-8801, NEC PC-9801 and Sharp X68000, followed by an enhanced PC Engine port developed and released by NEC Avenue in 1992.
Two soundtracks: Dragon Knight II Fantastic Remix! (ドラゴンナイト II ファンタスティック・リミックス!) and Dragon Knight II PC Engine World (ドラゴンナイト II ～ＰＣエンジンワールド) were released in Japan in 1991-1992 by NEC Avenue (distributed by Nippon Columbia).[1][2]
Reception
According to Electronic Gaming Monthly, the game "became a sleeper hit with Japanese role-playing fans."[3]
References
Information from a Russian article at Square Faction, a Japanese illustrated walkthrough and detailed plot guide at f-long.com, and the Japanese Wikipedia.
- ↑ "NACL-1043 | Dragon Knight II Fantastic Remix!". VGMdb. Retrieved 2013-12-17.
- ↑ "NACL-1078 | Dragon Knight II PC Engine World". VGMdb. Retrieved 2013-12-17.
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly 43 (February 1993), page 64.
External links
- Official website (Japanese)
- Dragon Knight II at MobyGames
- Dragon Knight II at the Visual Novel Database
- HonestGamers review
- English strategy guide
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