As a sequel, Dragon Warrior 2 was a game that delivered. Nowhere is this more clear than the Overworld map. Allow me to... illustrate (pun intended.) Have a look at this:
In that little box there, is the original map from DW1. Yes, not only did Dragon Warrior 2 introduce Enemy Groupings, a party of three characters to play and a ship to cross the sea, but it also expanded the world map, so greatly that the entire map of the original game is able to fit in one corner of our new, expanded world. Each one of these additional continents is full of towns and dungeons for you to explore. You just can't beat that.
Enix could easily have invented a new world, of comparable size to the original. They could have introduced new features, or simple shuffled around the old ones. Instead they built a much larger world around the location of the original map, the inclusion of which is not only great for the sense of scale, but also a sense of time and history (Dragon Warrior 2 takes place 100 years after the first game).
-D
P.S. There is some loss of detail between the two maps. The continent of Alefgard is actually slightly smaller than in the first game. Hills no longer slow you down as you walk. But these losses are small in comparison to the amount of real estate you gain.
I've been thinking about maps lately. Fictional maps, specifically. Great fantasy authors like J RR Tolkein, L Frank Baum, George RR Martin and a newcomer named Ian Silva -- have grasped the power of maps to draw a viewer in and to lend a new dimension to a fictional world. I'd like to draw special attention to Ian Silva's Maps as they are the only one of this small collection that are of a Modern design, but they also contain a history of a fictional society, and 100 years of baseball records. In the case of video games, maps come in different forms. Overworld maps in RPG games are the most prevalent, where players will navigate the continental structures of the given video game world. The navigation of an overworld is often aided by a sub-map which displays the entire planet, highlighting the players current position in a 'you are here' style. There are also Dungeon maps, made popular in the first Legend of Zelda. And there is another style of map which you can find on a website I just found, called VGMaps.com - The Video Game Atlas. This website uses screen captures to map out entire games, from the NES, SNES and even Nintendo 64, among others. The database is extensive, and if you were a former Nintendo Power subscriber, you might lose some time wandering through their library. VGMaps is an old site, it just celebrated its Tenth Anniversary. It reminds me of the old internet, when commercial interests hadn't moved in, and everything you could find was put there by dedicated people, doing it out of love. I miss that internet, but I don't think it's ever coming back. Still, there are sites like VGMaps, more like outposts in deep space, or oases in the desert. Or something. Anyhow, go have a look, have fun. They're doing a Map of the Month thing, and the one for December is from a Japanese Sequel to Paladin's Quest that I never heard of. Enjoy -D
The music, composed by whomever it was that actually did it, is very good, considering it came out of an 1989 era NES music chip, although other note worthy games with great soundtracks were Mega Man 2 and Dragon Warrior (1989 being their North American release).
The three tracks that I want to highlight are the "Overworld," "Mini-Boss Battle" and the "Title" themes.
Overworld:
Aside from the title music, this is the first in game music you hear, but unless you're there to listen to the music, you're only going to hear snip its of it in the first level as you're mainly in the sewers and not above ground a lot until the third level. It's a great little ditty that got stuck in my head when I first played the game. I've always wanted to drive around town in a van with this blaring. It doesn't have to be in New York or with three other dudes (mutated or not), just a van and this music, because that doesn't sound shady at all. Although Conklederp has a pseudo-van, so we might have to make this happen.
Mini-Boss Battle:
I actually like this piece of music better than the "Main Boss" music. There's just something more driving about it. And even though the song itself is only 20 seconds long, I feel it's one of those songs that can be repeated indefinitely and I just don't care. And I think it's an easy song to sing/hum/whistle. However, due to Youtube not wanting to allow me to embed the video I want, I will then just have to link it here: TMNT Mini-Boss Battle Music
Title:
Just listen to that MIDI electric guitar wail!! I've heard some people (youtube "let's plays" mostly) complain about the music not being directly related to the cartoon, but if the cartoon music had been anything like this intro music, damn that'd be hot. But, like I said, there's a riff that sounds an awful lot like the main riff to Queen's "Stone Cold Crazy." That's one of the reasons why I wanted to know who the composer was to see if I could find out if they were influenced by Queen to properly attribute that one riff during the beginning of both songs to Queen.
With all of that in mind, I leave you with only three of 15 sound clips and songs from Konami's (pain in the ass) 1989 release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. However, because I like all of you who read our blog, I leave you with the best cover of the music that I've found. It's by the NESkimos off their album "NESkimo Bloodshed" and the track is simply titled, TMNT.
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian Now Go And Scoop Your Brains Back Up.
