The Dragon Quest series is arguably one of the biggest and most popular franchises to ever come out of Japan. There are eleven numbered entries in the series at current count, plus a massive number of spin-off titles, too...

A different take on the hack and slash genre, but let down by sticky controls, dropped inputs and terrible voice acting.

Fans of Dynasty Warriors or the Dragon Quest series will enjoy this second-edition genre mashup. Dragon Quest Heroes 2 strikes a great balance between complexity and action and weaves an entertaining story through and around its fast and furious battles.

Japanese developer Omega Force, the creators of the Dynasty Warriors series, has been churning out hack and slash games for over 20 years. It has taken the tried and true formula of its main series and applied it to various established franchises with games like Hyrule Warriors , Attack on Titan ,...

Honors the Dragon Quest brand; Great variety of vocations/skills; Combat is fast; fluid; and fun; Good presentation

Uneven difficulty spikes; Tags

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.

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.

Over the last few years Omega Force has done an excellent job of adjusting its reputation to be more than just "the Dynasty Warriors studio." It has been taking on high-profile franchises like Zelda and Attack on Titan, and delivering novel experiences within its self-established action boundaries.

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

There are far worse things to do with an afternoon than spending it on Dragon Quest Heroes II . For instance, playing a game that doesn't let you fight with warfans.