Editor’s note: As if we haven’t given Brian enough love lately (he was the star of yesterday’s Reviews Spotlight), we figured it’s time we promoted the second edition of his “Final Fantasy vs. Dragon Quest” RPG Battle Royale series. See how the 2s match up, from intros to cast to music, which you can hear below. -Shoe
Anyone who’s been a fan of role-playing games for more than a few years is aware of the intense forum wars waged between supporters of the various genre titans. If you happened to tune into Bitmob recently, you may have even witnessed an all-out brawl between the first Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games for the NES. Soon after the epic battle began, Dragon Quest’s descendant of Erdrick was found buried in a cemetery (as he was in the first Final Fantasy), but its sequel is now ready to stage a comeback against a controversial installment of Square’s franchise.
Will Dragon Quest 2’s addition of multiple party members be enough to best Final Fantasy 2’s innovative battle system? Read on to find out.
ROUND #1: A Clash of Two Tales
Which game has a better introduction sequence?
Dragon Quest 2 begins with the evil forces of Hargon raiding a castle. This evil wizard quickly showed that he meant business by murdering the king and burning his castle to the ground. This set the stage for his ambition of world domination.
Similarly, Final Fantasy 2 begins with imperial forces conquering a village, leaving it in flames. The imperial guards assault four youngsters, who are then revived by a mighty wizard, and they set off hoping to prove their worth to the rebel princess, Hilda.
Both introductions are a vast improvement over their predecessors’, but they’re both quite similar, so therefore, it’s a tie.
Which game’s villain is the bigger megalomaniac?
Dragon Quest 2’s Hargon only assaults a kingdom during the game’s introduction, and then he goes into hiding until the very end. Final Fantasy 2’s Emperor, on the other hand, tricks you into getting arrested during a staged fight at the coliseum; he kidnaps and murders certain party members; and he bombards towns with a newly built imperial dreadnought. Oh, and did I mention that he aligns himself with the forces of hell? Final Fantasy 2’s villain is the clear winner.
Which game has the most interesting cast?
Dragon Quest 2 features a nameless descendant of Erdrick’s descendant and Lars and Olli (a prince and a princess clearly named after a set of famous Norwegian jokes). The entire cast is composed of royalty, but they never speak throughout the entire journey.
Final Fantasy 2’s cast includes four teenagers named Firion, Maria, Guy, and Leon. These characters all lost their parents thanks to the empire, and all of them end up joining the rebel forces. They may not say much, but these characters clearly showed initiative when risking their lives fighting the empire.
If this is all there was to FF2’s cast, this round would end up being a tie. But monks, dragoons, and wizards — all with their own backgrounds — join your group, plus your “friend” Leon betrays you. That all easily clinches this round for FF2.
ROUND #2: The Game World
Which game’s world is more fun to traverse?
Dragon Quest 2’s world is a significant improvement over its predecessor due to fewer enemy encounters and the addition of multiple party members. A ship and teleportation shrines allow you to move between continents, so traveling isn’t much of a chore. The game doesn’t offer a world map, however, and the layout is quite confusing, so it’s easy to get lost, especially when you’re hunting down crests during the latter portion of the adventure.
Final Fantasy 2 has massive environments as well, but it’s a bit easier to traverse with chocobos, canoes, boats, and airships. The game’s map is also quite handy in directing you toward your destination, but the world wouldn’t be too difficult to navigate even without the included cloth map due to smart layouts. Final Fantasy 2 is the clear victor in this department.
Which game has superior dungeon design?
Dragon Quest 2’s dungeons are a dramatic improvement from the dark, brick-built dungeons of its predecessor. They actually look like caves and towers, and they’re more fun to explore due to the removal of darkness that shrouded the interiors from the previous chapter. Some of Dragon Quest 2’s later levels can be incredibly long and annoying due to difficult mazes and plentiful pits, but the early portions of the game got things right.
Final Fantasy 2’s dungeons are superior from an aesthetic standpoint — the castles, caves, and airships look far more convincing, but ridiculous monsters that can easily petrify or instantly kill your entire party hamper the fun later on. If it weren’t for these pesky enemies in the game’s longer stages, this title would definitely go to FF2, but instead, it’s a tie.
Which game has the most memorable locations?
Dragon Quest 2 has fairly standard towers, castles, and caves — so much so that I forgot most of them immediately after this massive console adventure. I recall traveling to kingdoms only accessible by boat and gathering crests, but that’s mostly due to these chores being more painful than calculus exams.
Final Fantasy 2 has its share of fairly generic, albeit well-designed towns, but for each standard village, you’ll find an interesting dungeon. You get to blow up a dreadnought from the inside; you trek through the Jade Passage, which takes you to the crystalline Pandaemonium that has arisen from hell; and you travel through the belly of Leviathan. Final Fantasy 2’s exciting locales make it the clear victor of this round.
ROUND #3: Babbling About Battles
Which game has a superior battle system from a “fun” standpoint?
Dragon Quest 2 introduced players to multiple party members and battles that featured more than one enemy. The characters alternate turns with enemies and could perform physical attacks, cast magic, heal, and flee — each had different attributes and could learn different abilities. The main hero was strictly a physical powerhouse and could learn no magic, while the prince was a competent attacker that could learn a fair amount of healing and offensive magic spells. Dragon Quest 2’s third character was mostly a magic user who had a significant stock of MP.
Final Fantasy 2 certainly had a more interesting combat system with the characters able to gain weapon and magic levels while doing away with standard experience levels entirely, but it also had its drawbacks. In the Famicom original, you practically had to attack your own characters to level up to obtain more HP, and this was an excruciatingly painful process that led to a life of self-hatred for many players. Later versions removed many of these flaws, but since this is strictly a comparison of the originals, Dragon Quest 2 wins this battle.
Which game’s enemies are more annoying than Brittney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and Paris Hilton combined?
Dragon Quest 2 has some enemies that are surprisingly powerful and are also difficult to run away from, but they’re nowhere near as obnoxious as foes found toward the end of Final Fantasy 2. While traversing the last few dungeons of FF2, players will look death in the eye at each step, because enemies have the ability to cast spells that can wipe out your entire party at once, no matter how powerful they are. This might be acceptable if the game had save points, but it doesn’t, so this makes Final Fantasy 2’s fights worse than the no-panties brigade.
ROUND #4: It’s All About The Tunes
Which game’s soundtrack will bring you to tears?
The answer is neither, but both games have excellent soundtracks. Once again, Final Fantasy bests Dragon Quest when it comes to battle music, but both titles have some wonderful world-map themes. Ultimately, I chose FF2 as the superior soundtrack because so many of its tunes that resonate with me, but Dragon Quest 2 has a few great tracks that also make it a reasonable choice.
Dragon Quest 2:
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOrfzFPZLAs 425×25]Final Fantasy 2:
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeY26bH2Sn0 425×25]OVERALL WINNER: Final Fantasy 2
Even though Dragon Quest fans may walk away teary eyed after observing this battle’s final result, they’ll be happy to note that Dragon Quest 2 performed better than its predecessor — and some could actually consider it superior to Final Fantasy 2 from a gameplay standpoint alone (due to it having fewer battl-system flaws). As someone who also considers music, art, and plot to be important components for games, however, I had to go with Final Fantasy 2.
If a person looked at these games strictly from an innovation standpoint, FF2 would also be the winner, but most gamers want something that is fun to play — not something that gives you migraines. Perhaps Dragon Quest 3 will fare even better, but the result of the next conflict will have to wait until I have the opportunity to play the games.