After beating DQ1, I kept thinking “how on earth did 8 year old me figure all this out?” Answer: it took me 6 months and a notebook where I wrote down clues and mapped the caves and dungeons. I recall as a child starting DQ2 but don’t remember why I didn’t play it after a couple weeks. DQ2 difficulty level has to be 100X that of DQ1. The world is 4X as big, you need a boat, the dungeons are nearly impossible to figure out without a guide/walkthrough, there are 147,000 villagers to talk to and decipher their Ye Olde English clues. DQ1 had a handful of items you needed to acquire in order to complete objectives. I can’t even guess how many were in DQ2. You gain 2 characters, each with their own rules on what armor and weaponry they can don. Do you sell items back to the shops or try them on your partner first? So much thinking involved. It’s a slow go getting started and I bow my head in shame that I resorted to a walkthrough and auto save scrumming. Nonetheless, by the end I was addicted and neglected my wifely duties to beat this game. Wasn’t the biggest fan of Atlas. His power was very random and it didn’t seem fair that he killed my full HP level 36 Princess in one swipe. But what the original game lacked is more than made up for in this version. It plays flawlessly, there are no ads or hidden fees. Very enjoyable RPG.