When you think of combat in a Warriors style game, you no doubt picture a single badass hero cutting through tens of soldiers at a time, only stopping for a glance at the occasional named NPC before continuing his conquest. Monster medals do return from the first game, but rather than all being sentries that you place, they now come in three types-Saviors who cast a single ability then disappear, Substitutes who you take the form of in battle for a brief period, and the aforementioned Sentries. The majority have you venturing into mini-dungeons, where you'll fight your way down the corridors of tombs or up large towers, taking out anything that dares block your path until you reach the boss. The way these story battles play out varies as the game goes on, with some centered on taking out enemy spawn points and others on large-scale battles. These zones come in three types-the hub zone sits right in the center, wild zones stretch out in every direction from there for you to explore and fight baddies at your leisure, and war zones sit on the edges of the map and are home to most of your story battles. This time around you've got one big world split into zones that you can freely roam around as you move between story battles. However, while the goals of each map differed from the usual Warriors vibe, it was still very much a game of moving from level to level, but with the benefit of walking around in a hub area inbetween to spend skill points, swap party members out, and buy new gear.ĭragon Quest Heroes 2 moves away from this for the most part, taking ideas from the first title, as well as the other Warriors games, and combines them in a much more open setting.

This stood as a stark contrast to typical Warriors games, where you'd be roaming around a battlefield, taking down strategic positions, and reacting to the flow of battle and the movements of enemy generals.

You generally had to protect certain areas and you'd collect the medals of monsters you slew to deploy them as guards around the map. If you played through the first Dragon Quest Heroes, then you'll likely remember that many of the maps ended up feeling like some sort of twist on Tower Defense games. Dragon Quest Heroes 2 has changed things up even further, and, despite holding itself back in a few ways, it leads the series in an intriguing new direction all its own. The idea of crossing over the most classic of JRPG series with the fun but mindless Warriors style of games seemed ridiculous, but DQH managed to combine both quite well, and unlike Hyrule Warriors before it, it changed up the formula to stand out from the Warriors series.

The first Dragon Quest Heroes was a game that fought against the odds.

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