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New-Old Skool

Concept: Recreate the feel and experience of playing an old 8-bit RPG.

Graphics: While severely lacking by today's standards, this game's graphics match the feel it creates perfectly. It really captures the style of the old games it mimics. Very well done!

Sound: Like the graphics, the music and sound all bring back fond memories of old RPGs. You might recognize some of the songs in the soundtrack, but they blend in well enough nonetheless.

Playability: It’s RM2K, and they didn’t do anything fancy with the controls, so that’s just fine. I’d only complain about the reduced hero speed, but that probably has more to do with recreating the old-school feeling.

Entertainment: Not bad for an RM game. The battles are tricky enough to keep you paying attention without mashing enter too much.

Playthrough Value: Moderately high, I played all that existed of it.

As a game that recreates the feel of the classic RPGs of the 8-bit era, Dragon Fantasy 2 succeeds wonderfully. The graphics and music come together splendidly and make you feel like you’re back in the good old days of RPG gaming.
The game itself is pretty tough. All the numbers are kept very small, so you have to be careful and pay attention during fights (both random and otherwise). While the battles are tricky, the strategy you use to beat them depends entirely on which heroes you choose at the beginning of the game. Much like in FF1, you can pick from a variety of classes. Their strengths and weaknesses are all explained to you, so you don‘t have to pick blindly and hope for the best.
The dungeons of the game are mostly lacking in puzzles, but otherwise do the job. This is another consistency with classic games that focused more on exploration and battle than puzzle-solving. I would’ve liked to be challenged a little more outside of battle, but it wasn’t that big of a deal.
I didn’t find much to complain about in the game. My only real gripes were with the reduced hero walk speed and the spell/item descriptions (which were non-existent). I like being able to know what something does before I use it, and especially before I buy it! I also like knowing what I do and don’t need so I can sell off fodder items like many of the game’s enemies drop. On a positive note, I like it that when you bump into walls, it makes a ‘BUMP’ noise. Sometimes, it was hard to tell what tiles I could walk on and which I couldn’t. This feature helped immensely (though it was sometimes annoying when it stopped you for that brief moment).
All in all, I’d say this is a very well made game. It recreates the experience it seeks to without going over the top. If you like the old dungeon crawling fun of past RPGs, then this is definitely worth a look. But, if you want something more than just treasure hunting and battles, you may want to try something else.