Dragon Force II (1998)
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Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Platform: Sega Saturn
Overview:
Five hundred years after the defeat of Madruk, a new threat emerges to threaten the continent of Legendra.
Gameplay:
The core game is essentially the same as the previous entry in the series. I'll recap in brief and then focus on the changes. You pick one of eight kingdoms and proceed to conquer the map, either by force of arms or story-based alliances. You divide your time between an action phase where you deploy your armies and an administrative phase where you manage resources. Combat occurs in battles between opposing generals and their armies of up to 100 units. If both generals are still standing after their armies are depleted, they can enter a duel to determine the victor.
Now let's talk about the changes. First off, you'll notice the map isn't remotely the same. There's some offhand comment about the continent changing, but whatever. Besides the castles, there are also caves that you can explore, fighting monsters in exchange for items. I don't know if there's a bottom as I never explored one too deeply. Besides getting items, it can also be a way to grind for XP (though your generals don't have to be that high of a level to beat the game). You can now fast-forward time during Field Mode, which is really nice when you're having to traverse wide swaths of the map.
We now have 20 types of units compared to the original game's ten, but I found some of them to be fairly redundant. For instance, there's little appreciable difference between Harpies, Falcons, Birdmen, and Machine Fliers, so why have four varieties of essentially the same unit? Besides the eight kingdoms, you fight demons known as the Dogul. The fights almost never change and it gets really tiresome. I didn't even encounter Ghosts, Zombies or Chimeras on my first playthrough and only had Dragonians thanks to a recruitable general. It's worth noting that there are some name changes (Archers are now called Battle Elves, for instance) and some alterations to the affinities (e.g. Monks are now weak to Horsemen instead of the other way around).
A big change is that your generals can now field two types of units (or the same unit in two groups). This allows more diversity in your tactics. Also, different units have different in-battle commands, which also has an impact. You have fewer options setting your initial formation, though, which is a bit of a drag, not that you need much more of a choice besides 'charge' and 'hold the line'. Just as some units get name changes, so do some spells. There's a wider variety of magic, though don't expect the AI to take much advantage of it, especially the Doguls.
On the administrative side, end-phase searches for recruitable characters and items are now automatic and you can also make construction automatic as well. You don't have to pick one or the other. There's now a research option to combine items for more powerful versions, but I didn't bother with this as the random pickups were more than sufficient for me.
Story/Characters:
One thing I like quite a bit here is that there's more characterization for the supporting cast. Naturally, that characterization is focused on your core generals, which is understandable, but there's also a lot more interconnection in the wider cast, as evidenced by pre-battle dialog. There are lots of hints to a deeper backstory that I'd like to see more of.
As for our leads, I personally didn't find them as appealing as the originals, but they do their thing and their main strength comes from their interactions with the rest of their inner circle. As for the larger narrative, it's nothing special. I feel we have even less going on here than in the previous game as the main villain doesn't appear until the end and there wasn't a whole lot building up to him, unlike the revival of Madruk in the previous game. (When the villain's name was mentioned prior to embarking to the final dungeon, I was left asking "Who?" Not a good sign.)
Graphics:
The graphics are at about the same level as the previous game, maybe even a little lower as the sprites felt a bit blockier to me. At least there was more modification to the generals' sprites to make them more distinct (even if it was just palette swaps in some cases). Nobuteru Yuuki of Escaflowne fame is the character designer here. Some of the characters look better than others. (You do have to like his style to appreciate the aesthetic.)
We get more animated cutscenes this time around, even if they tend to be rather short clips due to memory limitations. I can imagine it being a bigger deal back in '98.
Music/Sound:
The music and sound effects do their job. I think I liked the score of the previous game better, but I don't have any serious complaints about the music here. We do get quite a bit more voice acting, even if a lot of the seiyuu have to take on several roles. I'm not as big of a fan of it in battle because the CD lags a bit reading the voice file (and I had a couple freezes), which isn't worth it just to hear a "Yah!" or something like that. Occasionally I encountered cutscenes that were supposed to be voiced but the clips didn't load. Given that all of this is on CD, I can be a little forgiving, but it's worth pointing out.
Conclusion:
In the end, I consider this a worthy sequel that any fan of the original game will want to have. While there are a number of welcome quality of life improvements, there are also several points of subpar design that hamper the fun a little. It's worth getting if you liked the first game, but it doesn't manage to outshine its predecessor.
Rating:
Own It