Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line: Difference between revisions

Despite Yuji Horii's ambitions, ''Dragon Quest II'' was still limited by the Famicom's memory. At the time, computer RPGs used single sprites to represent multiple monsters, but Horii wanted all individual monsters in an encounter shown on-screen; as a tradeoff, battles are displayed on a plain black screen instead of the first game's varied backgrounds<ref>パソコンゲームでは5人いても画面上では1人が代表して移動するなどのシステムがよくあるが、それはパソコンユーザーだから許されるのであって、ファミコンユーザーには許されないと判断したからだ。

ということを考え、パーティーは3人とした。3人であれば、横に並んで町の人に話しかけても合計4人だから表示可能である。ファミコン通信　'87年7月10日号　ドラゴンクエスト2ができるまで</ref>. These compromises, alongside a compression algorithm written by Koichi Nakamura, also helped limit the length of passwords.<ref>『I』では経験値を6万5千（16ビット）で切ってしまったが、レベル設定がかなりキツかったので、今回は24ビットあてることにした。

With the matter of the Famicom's hardware limitations and the password system addressed, development of ''Dragon Quest II's'' scenario began in July of 1986. Meetings would be held to discuss what was possible within the aforementioned limitations, and those were passed on to Nakamura and his team of five men to program<ref>システム、メモリマップが決定されると、いよいよ作業はシナリオとプログラムの分業態勢へと入ってゆく。ここに至ったのが企画をスタートさせてからおよそ2ヶ月後、去年の7月初旬頃だったろうか。

その時点を境にして、それまでの会議につぐ会議が一転し、シナリオに関するデータを作成してはプログラム担当の中村くんに渡すという作業が開始される。ファミコン通信　'87年7月10日号　ドラゴンクエスト2ができるまで</ref>. The rough outline of the scenario was handled by Horii and his assistant Hiroshi Miyaoka as in the original game, which was fleshed out as Akira Toriyama turned in the finalized versions of the monster concepts the developers passed on to him. With the finalized art in hand, Horii considered the nature of the monsters and began drawing a map of the world based on them, placing castles, towns, dungeons, and so forth where they felt natural and expanded the rough scenario to match this world<ref>というわけで、シナリオづくりが始まった。

Development would continue until November of 1986, when the team decided that the title was in an unsatisfactory state and could not be sold as-is despite the looming December deadline. As such, it was agreed to delay the game until January of 1987 to give the developers more time to ease the steep difficulty curve and create a more enjoyable experience<ref>これが、ひと月のばした理由である。

もっとわかりやすくいうと、自分のキャラクターの強さとモンスター側の強さのバランスがペケだったというわけ。ファミコン通信　'87年7月10日号　ドラゴンクエスト2ができるまで</ref>. The main issue was the disparity between the power of the Luminaries and those of the monsters in a given area, which came about due to a flaw in the testing process: Nakamura had developed a simulation program that allowed Horii to play-test the battle phases for each region of the game, but these tests were done in isolated incidents and did not reflect the continuous battles players would face in a normal playthrough. Furthermore, each monster was tested on an individual basis instead of in groups, which meant that early game encounters were considerably more difficult than they should have been. To address this the code was altered so that the maximum number of monsters that could appear in battle on the Midenhall continent was limited to three<ref>これが、ひと月のばした理由である。

このため、最初にできてきたものはとても遊べたものではなかったのだ。ファミコン通信　'87年7月10日号　ドラゴンクエスト2ができるまで</ref>. Despite this improvement the beginning of the game was deemed to still be too difficult as the Prince of Midenhall was a swordsman who would never learn to cast [[Heal]] and was forced to use [[medicinal herb]]s or walk back to an inn when injured. As such the recruitment of his cousin was expedited by moving Cannock Castle closer to the town of Leftwyne, with the bonus of the player being naturally guided northwest towards the castle by the topography of the continent<ref>というのも、1人めはファイター。いくらレベルが上がってもホイミ（体力回復）の呪文を覚えないので、そのつど薬草をつかったり宿屋に泊まったりしなければならない。つまり、遠出をすればするほどツラクなってくる。

じつをいうと、最初、サマルトリア城は現在の湖の位置にあったのだった。しかし、そこは、宿屋のあるリリザの町からあまりに遠い。ここは仲間とふたりになってから来るようにしようファミコン通信　'87年7月10日号　ドラゴンクエスト2ができるまで</ref>. The original location of the castle would become the Lake Cave, and beta screenshots showing the castle on the lake were printed on the back of the LP of the game's soundtrack<ref>『ドラゴンクエストⅡ』のLPレコードが発売されていますが、なんとジャケットの裏に、湖に囲まれている城の写真が出ています。これが実は初期のサマルトリア城。ジャケットの撮影が比較的早めに行われたためジャケット写真は初期のバージョンのものになってしまったのでした。興味のあるキミはレコード屋さんで見てみてください）。ファミコン通信　'87年7月10日号　ドラゴンクエスト2ができるまで</ref>, but altering the overworld like this lead to the monster data becoming imbalanced and readjustments for their strength and the strength of the equipment available up to that point were necessary<ref>

Playtesting would expand to include the entire development team within the one month window, with feedback such as equipment being too expensive, levelling up taking too many experience points, and the introduction sequence taking too long being common. These critiques were sent directly to Horii who would judge whether the changes were merited or not<ref>

そういった意見に耳を傾け、さらにボク自身もプレイしてみる。そして、ここはマズかったという部分のデータを次々に変更してゆくわけ。ファミコン通信　'87年7月10日号　ドラゴンクエスト2ができるまで</ref>. The changes that were deemed necessary were faxed to the programmers at Chunsoft and altered beta cartridges would be distributed amongst the staff for further assessment. This back and forth process began as a four to five day cycle, but as the January deadline loomed the process was hastened to take place within a single day<ref>

そうしないことには、どれが一番新しい変更後のバージョンかがわからなくなってしまうからだ。ファミコン通信　'87年7月10日号　ドラゴンクエスト2ができるまで</ref>. The development would be finished in the middle of December, with the latter results of this extended fine-tuning being the reduction of the fees for church services, changing the order in which spells were learned to be more useful quicker, and moving Ra's mirror from the [[Pillar of Winds]] to the swamp next to the ruined castle. In an interview with Famitsu magazine, Horii would muse that while the game was not 100% complete, it was still over 90% of what he wanted out of the project and he could not force children to wait any longer to play the title <ref>というように、プレイしてみては、呪文を覚える順番を変更したり、モンスターの強さをかえたり、教会の値段を下げたりと、1ヵ月がまたたく間に過ぎ去っていた。

In a 2007 interview with [[Nintendo Power]] magazine for the 221st issue, Yuji Horii would describe the development cycle of ''Dragon Quest II'' as being very rushed due to tight deadlines and the more ambitious nature of the project compared to the simpler original game. The period was so nerve-wracking that Horii admitted that he developed ulcers from the sheer stress and was literal inches away from having a permanent hole in his stomach. The experience was so bad that he had since learned to look at deadlines as more of a suggestion than a strict guideline<ref>''"As for difficulties during development, Dragon Quest II was a big challenge. We didn't have much time and there was so much to do. It gave me ulcers—literally! I was only "inches away" from having a permanent hole in my stomach! Now, to prevent any further internal injury, I don't pay much attention to dead-lines anymore. So I always find myself a little behind schedule."''</ref>.

Content that was unable to be included in the game were cutscenes for important events, such as there being a view of the Plateau of Rendarak visible from the Lighthouse south of Alefgard, but there was simply no memory left in the cartridge. The only vestige of this idea is a blurry scan found in the game's instruction manual which depicts the dying Moonbrooke guard informing the King and Prince of Midenhall of Hargon's plan<ref>

ただし、友だちからその話を聞いて、「えへへ、オレも買ってあげよう」とうれしがっても、キャラクターの名前によっては、買ってあげても、「イヤよ。こんなの着られないわよ！」と着てくれなかったりして……。ファミコン通信　'87年7月10日号　ドラゴンクエスト2ができるまで</ref> and the scenario of [[Olivia's Promontory]]<ref>“オリビアの岬”はIIでボツったものが復活!!　まったく同じじゃないけどIIでは“ローレライの岬”っていうイベント名だったんだ。前回はメモリーの都合でボツ。で、今回（ドラクエIIIで）めでたく登場したというわけ。「堀井雄二のドラゴンクエストQ＆A」『ドラゴンクエストIII　マスターズクラブ』JICC出版局,1988年</ref>. The scenario of the Prince of Cannock being cursed by Hargon and the two remaining Luminaries curing him with a Yggdrasil leaf was meant to be included in the game, but the memory limitations forced this to be postponed until the Super Famicom remake.

One scenario that would not appear in any future games involved the murder of the Prince of Midenhall by the Princess of Cannock: in an alternate ending sequence the Prince of Cannock would sacrifice himself to destroy Malroth and during the closing cutscene at Midenhall Castle his sister would confront the Prince of Midenhall with a short sword in her hand. She would blame the Prince for her brother's death and plunge the sword in his chest, and his body would slump to the ground as the credits began to roll. Horii would deem this ending to be too sad and cut it even before memory limitations affected the rest of the development cycle<ref>それは、2番目の王子（サマルトリアの王子）が犠牲となって、最後の敵を倒すというものである。