This review is long overdue, and all I can do is apologise. I've been going through a rough patch, especially these past few days, but with the help of fun game, any kind of stress and anxiety can float away. A fun game is what we all need from time to time.

Large roster of Dragon Quest Heroes; Nice balance between free roam and battle sections; Some great boss fights; Lots of collectibles and extras to do

Lock-aim only works for bigger enemies and isn't all that great; Vocations are fairly redundant; Some of the voice acting is off; Skill trees are limited

Going the long rout

Charming looks; More RPG than musou

Being asked to go the long way; Most of the cast is forgettable; Friendly monster AI isn't great

"Fanservice is the name of the game in Dragon Quest Heroes II." © 2017 Square Enix, Omega Force. All rights reserved.

Beautiful visuals; complementary new gameplay systems; expanded scale; lots of fan-favorite characters; plenty of customization options; great localization

Too much padding; later battles are too long; some difficulty spikes; story is bog-standard; fundamentally not too different from the first Dragon Quest Heroes

Dragon Quest Heroes 2 is a Musou game set in Square Enix's enormously popular RPG universe. The one with the blue slimes and the Dragonball hair, not the one with the Calvin Klein models swinging huge swords at each other.

Delicious Musou combat; Tons of characters with unique abilities; Distinct Dragon Quest flavour

Character growth is so boring; Non-combat quests interrupt momentum; Some combat quests felt padded

Buy Dragon Quest Heroes II Dragon Quest Heroes II follows the story of two cousins, Lazarel and Teresa, who live in the land of Dunisia. The world lives in peace and harmony and fear bringing about another terrible war.

The PlayStation 4 has been on an absolute tear lately with quality titles from Japanese developers. After NieR: Automata and Persona 5 came out, I figured it was time for a drought of games that would last well into the summer.

Dragon Quest Heroes II Review Once again the Dynasty Warriors formula of taking your heroes out on the open road to flatten war mongering monsters that have the artificial intelligence of a plank of wood is back again.

With most Dynasty Warriors games and spinoffs, you have a good idea of what you're going to get going in: big maps with multiple objectives, huge amounts of enemy soldiers, and lots of hack-and-slash gameplay with flashy combos.

Great localization; Lovingly rendered versions of classic Dragon Quest monsters; A wide open world to explore

Dungeon puzzles kill the flow of the game; Camera controls are way too sensitive

Dragon Quest Heroes II is a JRPG on fast forward. The gradual addition of new party members, the rollout of plot twists, and other typical genre roadmarkers come at you at a fast clip.

Expansive environments rich in rewards; Large cast of characters lend depth to combat; Engrossing multiplayer yields a lot of loot; Great mission diversity

Mediocre AI partners; Underutilized class change system

feels like a step forward in some ways, but a step back in others. The new additions to combat are nice, but the attempts to bring more RPG elements to the story missions don't always work out for the best – at worst, they wind up transforming an enjoyable action game into a boring slog.