Hall of Hargon

Dungeon
Hall of Hargon
	; HD concept art
Japanese	ハーゴンの神殿
Romaji	Hāgon no shinden
Game	Dragon Quest II
Old localization	Hargon's Castle

The Hall of Hargon (ハーゴンの神殿 Hargon's Temple) is the final dungeon in Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line.

It is located in the Rendarak region in Torland. The eponymous castle is where the heroes fight the two major antagonists of Dragon Quest II, Hargon and Malroth.

Appearances[edit]

Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line[edit]

The Hall of Hargon is disguised by magic to make its interior appear identical to Midenhall Castle. In order to dispel the magic, the Eye of Rubiss must be used upon entering the castle. Upon revealing the true castle interior, the False Idol must be used to reveal the hidden 2F stairway.

Monsters[edit]

* The Batmandrill can only appear as a static encounter by talking to two monsters on the main floor. The enemy cannot be fought via a random encounter anywhere in the castle except in the Mobile version.

Nearby monsters[edit]

Mini Bosses[edit]

These bosses are never mentioned in the game and do not appear on the floor maps. Their encounters occur in specific locations in the castle and begin the same as normal enemy encounters do.

Treasures (Remakes only)[edit]

Remake changes[edit]

The illusion of Midenhall Castle has several changes in the remakes compared to how it functioned in the NES version:
- The throne room and prison can be entered, while in the NES version, you can't go down the stairs.
- The Teleportal to the Shrine west of Zahan acts as if it's transporting you, only for the characters to remain in the castle. In the NES version, stepping on it, much like the stairs does nothing.
- In the NES Version, the dialogue from the NPCs are the same as the actual ones from Midenhall. In the remakes, each NPC tries to convince The Prince of Midenhall that Hargon is a fair and benevolent rule, thus it's unnecessary to fight against him.
The chests that remain after shedding the illusion contain nothing in the NES version, while in the remakes, they contain cursed equipment.

Dragon Quest II HD-2D Remake[edit]

The Hall of Hargon is in fact the remains of Castle Rendarak, which the lunatic priest invaded some several decades prior to the events of the game. The castle's outer walls are lined with several towering stained-glass windows and the first floor has a pulpit set before rows of pews, giving the impression of a grand cathedral and implying that the kingdom was quite religious in nature―a bitter irony. The once-proud has been left to ruin as Hargon makes his den in the apex, with the raging blizzards filling the lower halls with a soul-piercing chill. The gloom smothering the castle is underlined by the countless candles scattered over the floors. The room housing the plinth for the false idol is now hidden behind an illusory stained glass wall and on the floor is a magic sigil in the shape of a pentagon, evoking real-life sacrificial altars used by the occult.

As in past versions of the game, the player witnesses an illusion of Castle Midenhall upon entering the Hall of Hargon and the party seperates. The illusion is now personalized for each Scions, however, showing them an ideal world of peace suited to their own desires; the Prince of Cannock is encouraged to spend his days in idle bliss by his parents, the King of Dirkandor praises the Princess of Cannock as the mightiest of all heroes, and the King of Moonbrooke states his pride in his daughter's skill with sorcery. What the Prince of Midenhall sees is a world of peace where he is not ridiculed for his inability to use magic, with the King of Midenhall lounging in the throne room with a ginger bunny girl on his lap. The King welcomes his son, stating he was wrong about Hargon all along and that the two have united under the banner of justice. He beckons the Prince to join him as a follower of Hargon; should the player refuse, the bunny girl forcefully insists he submit to Hargon's will.

The Scions of Erdrick are then telepathically contacted by the Goddess Rubiss, who urges them to use Her holy artefact. Doing so causes the Eye of Rubiss to act as a channeling device, allowing Her power to manifest and dispel the illusions. The Princess of Moonbrooke is especially wounded by the deception of her father's likeness and of losing him once more, and her cousins console her in her grief. The bunny girl from the Prince of Midenhall's illusion approaches the group and attempts to lure them back into the fantasy by preying upon their insecurities, but to no avail. She then reveals herself to be Mariella, who declares that she will put an end to them. In a rare moment of craftiness, the Prince of Cannock turns the tables on the former human and plys her own insecurities, pointing out how she is just another puppet to Hargon and that her frequent affirmations of being his right-hand woman are just her coping in denial to the obvious. The witch grows furious as the truth pierces through her facade like a dagger, and she attacks the Scions.

Mariella is brought to her end in the fight and as she lays dying she reflects on her life, revealing that she was once a human whose village and family were destroyed by monsters. As she sat crying in a desolate forest Hargon approached her in the guise of a human to comfort her, telling her sweet words to lull her into trusting him, and showing the player that the Children of Hargon cult was grown one member at a time by the high priest himself in the beginning.

After Mariella is dealt with and the false idol is used, the four Scions make their way to the top of the castle, fighting each of Hargon's four champions along the way. Each Champion laments their lot in life in his or her own way, with Atlas astonished he would be felled by puny humans, Pazuzu revealing Hargon's plans to sacrifice the hearts of wicked humans to summon a God and bemoaning his master forcing him to fight until the bitter end, and Belial furious that his last attempt at deceit has failed. Once the three Deities of Destruction are slain, the four children make their way to Hargon's shrine at the apex of the castle.

Rather than delivering a self-aggrandizing speech that belittles the game's heroes, Hargon simply chastises them for interrupting his prayers. When the Scions of Erdrick state their intent to kill him, Hargon rebukes the four and proudly declares his status―not as the madman who would destroy the world, but as the high priest of the Dragon Queen. In the ensuing banter the children declare in the name of their ancestor that they will end Hargon, which causes him to realize they are the nemeses that have been destroying his forces and crushing his ambition. The priest was so absorbed in his obsession over the late Dragon Queen and his plot to remake the world into one where he would be reunited with Her that he did not even recognize the faces of his sworn enemy's descendants. Driven mad with fury and lusting for revenge Hargon engages the Scions of Erdrick in a battle that demolishes his shrine, losing what little grip he kept on his sanity and fighting as an unhinged lunatic. Laid low and brought to the brink of death, what Pazuzu said about priest's intent to summon a God through the offering of evil hearts materializes as Hargon sacrifices the most wicked heart of all―his own.

Hargon's body disintegrates as the ember of his soul floats before the Scions of Erdrick, giving way to a purple orb that distorts reality and cracks the barrier separating dimensions. What emerges is Malroth, the Master of Destruction, who instantly engages the children with no time for them to recover from the previous fight. The battle rages in the face of a lashing blizzard as the walls of the shrine crumble, and the Scions emerge victorious as the God dies. The voice of Rubiss rings out to them, congratulating the four to have brought lasting peace to Alefgard at last, and the castle collapses as they exit into the icy plateau below.

The game's true finale begins as the fight with Malroth concludes, should the player have retrieved the Sphere of Light from the Cave of Confusion and given it to the Dragonlord's great-grandson. Then, as Malroth is defeated, an unseen evil declaring that it will not allow light to triumph and pulls the four into a different dimension where they must face the ultimate threat.