Defender's Quest 2: Mists of Ruin

I was a very big fan of the original Defender's Quest. I have put many hours into it and was always excited at the prospect of a proper sequel. I had lost hope for the sequel ever coming out, until I was suddenly surprised by a news update on the first game saying that the sequel had been released. I rushed to the Steam Page for II, only to be surprised by a "Mixed" review rating. Surely it couldn't be that bad, right? I noted that the new characters were prominently People of Color, so took the Mixed reviews with a grain of salt. I've seen good games flooded with poor reviews from racists upset that brown people are in their video game before. I decided to try it for myself.

I am immeasurably disappointed by how Defender's Quest II has turned out. After only an hour and a half of gameplay I can see clearly the glaring flaws that the Negative reviews are touting. I'll break down my thoughts in detail in specific categories.

1) The Art
The art style of this game is notably different from the first game. That's natural, we were explicitly told that the art would be improved in the sequel and one of the biggest criticisms of the first game has always been the art. But unfortunately I think it was a step in the wrong direction. The first game's art was a clear relic of it's origins as a browser Flash Game. A cartoony style that lacks professional polish. But the sprite-work was of good quality and the characters had straightforward, iconic designs. Moving forward into the second game, I would have expected a step-up in art quality and either an improvement on the sprite animations for combat or a transition to smooth 2-D animated models.

Unfortunately, what we got was a downgrade. While the new, more stylized art is arguably more professional, the character designs come across as very busy and over-designed. Every character has excessively stylized clothes and bodies to point that it, honestly, falls in line with character design trends in Tumblr amateur art circles.

The color choices for this game are also very unappealing. The backgrounds of cutscenes and battle maps often blend together in bright clashing colors that attempt to have an aquatic aesthetic, but just sort of blur together into the same thing over and over again. The main characters also have gaudy color palettes that are frankly unpleasant to look at for extended periods. It feels like the overall art design was being experimental for the sake of being experimental.

2) The Story
The first game had a very memorable story. It wasn't anything extraordinarily groundbreaking, but the writer clearly put an extensive amount of work into the world building, characters, and making a cohesive narrative with story arcs, character arcs, and clear goals the characters were working towards. The story was generally received positively by critics, if not lukewarmly.

The Second Game, on the other hand, is a bit letdown. It honestly feels like they wrote an outline of what the story was supposed to follow, then just used that for the final game. The game begins with a infodump of the setting. An (honestly fairly cool) concept of a world beseiged by monsters spawned from an evil miasma radiating from the skull of a dead mad king. I was excited to learn more. What is the the greater world like? Who was this evil king? Where will the cast of character fit in? What are the forces at play here?

Unfortunately, the cool concept begins and ends where it started. Monsters are coming from the mad king. You are bounty hunters that fight monsters. Go fight the monsters. That's it.

There is no overarching villain, like the first game's Zelemir, to drive the narrative forward and act as an antagonistic force. There are monsters. They are attacking you because this is a tower defense game.

There is no equivalent to Azra's Journal. The world is never built out in cutscenes. You are traveling in a straight line to go fight the monsters. You also unlock the ability to buy new gear seemingly at random with no connection to arriving at a settlement like in the first game. Just an unending parade of straight-line point to point to fight more monsters.

3) Characters
The first game had an interesting cast of characters from a variety of walks of life. A royal librarian, a crazed barbarian, a cynical Nomad, a loyal Knight. They may have some straightforward character traits, but they all come with depth and develop as characters over the course of the game. Slak is notably the most one note character, but even he comes across as charming and a pleasure to have in the cast of characters.

The second game's characters are all extremely one note. Evni is a Badass TM Leader TM who is so Cool TM and the ONLY ONE who's brave and cool enough to save the world. We are told this in the opening cutscene. Very much telling instead of showing. Overall she comes across as very bland, as her one and only character trait is being the Badass TM Leader TM.

Roland is the ship's chef and is a gentle giant in heavy armor who wants to help his Captain. This is the entirety of his character. Every scene involving him is either a conversation about food, him being tough, or him wanting to protect his Captain.

Warren is a former drug addict. She used to do drugs. Have I mentioned that, in the past, she had a drug addiction? This is the entire sum of her character. Every scene involving her will be about how she used to be a drug addict but now she's trying to do better. And the other characters trust and believe in her.

Cordelia is an obnoxious, insufferable scientist who uses her political connections to manipulate the other characters into accepting her disruptive presence. Why is she in the game? The Captain even orders her to be dropped overboard and abandoned, but Roland refuses to do it and she just... accepts this?

The final character introduced for me, the pirate, is Slak if he were a bumbling pirate captain instead of a wandering berserker. He is clearly intended to be comic relief, much like Slak, and is probably the most amusing character, if only because he's a copy of another better written character.

4) Gameplay
Honestly, I could look past everything else. The story and characters can be skipped past to look at the core gameplay. And I walk away from this game being disappointed by that as well.

Mechanically, this game is almost identical to the first game. They copied over the engine basically 1:1, and everything functions exactly the same. The layout, the controls, the types of enemies. All completely identical but with new designs for the enemies and a new coat of paint for the menus. This game has been in development for over a decade and they give us literally the exact same game?!

Sorry, let me correct something there. Less than the exact same game. The first game featured recruitable Generic units that could flesh out your army and add tactical depth and complexity to the maps you play. The sequel has removed that, leaving only the 'Hero' characters. You are limited to two groups of 4 Heroes. Meaning you can only ever have 4 towers at once. In a tower defence game. Facepalm.

Weapons and Armor have been reduced to flat stat boosts with no special abilities. Higher rank maps (there's only one difficulty above normal instead of two) only reward EXP and Scrap. EXP gains have been drastically cut, making leveling up a chore. Maps have to be simplified to account for the extremely limited towers to place.

In terms of towers, the character are all clear copies of the roles filled by characters from the first game. Evni is Slak, the main melee DPS tower. Roland is Markus, the tanky heavy hitter that can stun enemies. Warren is Ketta, only even more overpowered because she can deal damage at close range as well. Cordelia is Bakal, healing and buffing allies. The new cast don't stand out mechanically at all.

Overall, I do not recommend this game. Some additional thoughts will be in the comments, since I ran out of room.

Unfortunately, this feels like another generic tower defense game. So many of my favorite features from DQ1 were gutted. I'm bored with the limited character options and getting irritated by enemy abilities.

Thought I'd put way more time into this game considering my love of DQ1, but I'm just not having fun.

The story and the game play are much better in the first game, this game is okay, but doesn't live up to the first game.

The customization of your team is way below that of the first game. You're shoehorned into the setup they want you to have. Leveling up your characters isn't exciting because you just pick the skills they give you. This game is a massive disappointment. Go buy the first game instead.

It's hard not to compare DQ2 to DQ1, and the fact is: DQ1 is a better game in every way except the underlying engine. I don't think I've ever been this disappointed about anything in my entire life. If you haven't played the first Defender's Quest, go check that out. It's worth the 10-15 minutes of fussing it will take to get the graphics to work on a modern PC.

Hard to leave a review for this game as it's a flawed one in many ways as it's not a good game, but it's not a bad game either... a rough C+ or a 7/10.

1) This isn't exactly a sequal to Defender's Quest 1. That game was an RPG with Tower Defense elements where each unit you leveled up and gear up gave you customization either from 'Hero mode' by leveling up the named ones or getting units that act like the hero units for extra coverage.

This is not that game.

2) This is a puzzle game first. A tower defense game second... and a messy one at that.

You do not get to pick your units. The game picks which units you get to utilize and for most of the game it is only 4 units. So you don't get to pick which ones to utilize. Also made a bit worse by the fact that the game gets to determine when you can get new gear.

3) Puzzle game first. Rpg second.

This may sound odd to put in again, but your 'scrap' is just going to sit in the background as you can't buy better gear unless the game lets you unlock it. You can't grind old levels well for exp as you only get a lot of EXP when you beat a level the first time.

So most encounters have you play the game on the 'normal star level' until you progress to a point in the story in which you need to grind up... which then means going back through the previous levels to then do the 'max star' levels now that your characters have leveled up enough to then allow you to grind through them just to progress on the story levels again.

Playing an old level again that you haven't already defeated... barely grants you any exp.

4) EXP problem dragging out the game.

As mentioned above you just start running into moments where the game remembers it's an RPG and thus you are punished for not being a high level... and thus you have to play the max star levels to get that needed EXP and trying to repeat old levels to get that tiny bit of exp needed to level up... doesn't really work.

So that means you start feeling the grind and it starts sucking the fun out of the game.

5) It's a puzzle game first... Not an RPG.

Placement of your units is key in this game and unlike most Tower Defense games... due to your limited units that means that for most maps... you are actively punished if you do not select the right skills and placements of the units along with when to level up each unit.

The first character you get has an ACTIVE BONUS that is based upon if any units are touching her and for some maps you need her next to your other units... and other maps you need her actively alone. That means going into the skills and removing points on the Solo or Buddy points which continues to be a slight drag.

You have to repeat a few maps sometimes in order to learn how the enemy units operate and which was the correct placement order needed which adds to the drag. Made a bit worse since returning to the map on harder star levels is needed for the exp to advance.

5) This is not Defender's Quest 1.

In the first game you did have to grind and face certain choices, but it was give and take. You level, arm your heroes, maybe level up and gear up your soldiers, and then continue on with how you wanted to play the game.

Maybe you need to grind, but that's what new hero placements or the variety of what the previous game allowed. Want an all dragon team? Want to focus on multiple mages and archers? What to go pure Heroes?

This game lacks that spice of variety. It has your money sitting around as a random number with no value. Your EXP is restricted as you can't grind for it, and running around older levels to grab that needed exp to advance the story makes the game drag on... especially when you can't pick the units you want for the level.

6) Time between the first game and this one.

It sounds stupid, but it's true. There has been a large time gap between when both games were released and that left a few... expectations.

The previous game had minions, customization, RPG with tower defense elements, along with a cast of characters that stood out even if they were a bit 'generic'... but they did it in a good way.

You remember the crazy swordsman, the ice mages, getting to have a dragon on your team, and the story you had with the villain...

This game has you tend to forget the heroes of this game... you feel more of the drag and while there are some new interesting gameplay systems in this game...

The story feels lacking (possibly due to grinding issue). The heroes feel generic, but not in the 'good generic' way like the previous game. The units you utilize and the enemies you face lack the charm... and you really feel more of a 'puzzle element' in this game rather than an RPG element like the first game.

7) This is not Defender's Quest 2. Just a game utilizing the title. This is something you really need to remember if you get it.

It makes you wonder why this game took so long to make and why it was released as a sequal. The time feels like it could have been released a lot sooner since a lot of assists felt re-used from the first game except not done as well.

The customization is lacking especially since the game gets to decide what units you use and when... and the game just... can feel quite boring because of it.

You can try it. You can play it. But it feels like a little bit of a drag.

I mean I will go through and try and finish it... but it feels LACKING when compared to the first game, the time we waited, and the question of why this game is so DIFFERENT than the original one.

Waited so long for the 2nd part and then it was... just not good. 8h to 100% it, definitly not worth the price. Sad.

Edit: tried to play it on Steam Deck before the update, but that was horrible. Don't know how it is now.

TL;DR: Nostaligaware. If you haven't played the original I'd recommend playing that one.

This game comes across to me as a soulless steampunk re-skin of the original.

Sure there is a couple of new mechanics. Like the ability of the berzerker (or whatever he is called now) to teleport freely between 2 predetermined spots and a class that pre-casts heals and damage spheres.

BUT they removed the ability to recruit several characters of the same class. Thus completely wiping away a whole strategic level of the game.

The first defenders quest is one of the greatest tower defense games of all time. It has an incredibly memorable cast, and a storyline that is simple but told well. A marriage of great game play, story, and art, that I put multiple hours into.
It's sequel feels like a fan game that didn't understand the genius of the first game.
Defenders Quest 2 is practically it's own thing, with very sparse tie in's into the first game. It's a downgrade in every aspect from the first game. The characters feel lifeless and tropey. Their motivations are forced for the story line, and the world building is just missing. There is no shady shopkeep, who provided context of where you are in the first game, you just craft stuff arbitrarily without explanation on why you couldn't earlier. It could have added the sense of urgency to the hero's journey, the motivation on why they are heading to certain peril. Instead we get a little interaction from the world in the beginning, and then nothing but exposition from the crew members.
The art style is a choice, and it's just not a good one. It didn't add anything to the game, and aesthetically is a downgrade. You have eye's, if you like it more than the first game, then your in the minority of people.
The final part is the gameplay. It just doesn't feel as good as the first game. It's difficulty is considerably easier, but it feels like it is so because of a lack of passion. I don't think I hit the 1/2 button in the game at all, I didn't need a moment to see the doom ahead of me, it wasn't what felt like a carefully planted trap by the dev for grouping slowing at a choke point to force a break, overwhelm and then end my run. The first game was as hard as you wanted it to be, and the dev balanced it in so many amazing ways.

I know that this is a sequel to a game that they felt obligated to finish considering they got paid 12 years ago through kickstarter, but it feels like a lot of incredibly talented people doing cameo's in a directionless film.

I found it to be a solid, enjoyable experience--entirely worth it. Nevertheless I understand why some are disappointed. At least as it stands at release, it does not live up to its predecessor in many ways, particularly in the amount and variety of content/material. DQ1 is an all-time classic, and this has not reached those lofty heights. But it is still a solid thumbs up from me. The art style seems to be divisive, but I appreciate the creativity/strangeness of it.

And, if you know (or are willing to look into) some of the history here--struggle and heartache in the dev's circumstances that may have prevented this game ever coming to light--you might find as much or MORE inspiring than DQ1 for what it represents. I found the ending's message especially moving, knowing a bit about these circumstances. So that has definitely influenced my perspective. Without that context, I would still likely have recommended it with significant reservations. I had certainly hoped for something closer to the the standard set by DQ1. So--if you haven't played that, start there!

I loved the first one and when i saw this game and came to the computer it was an instant buy. I played about 60% of the game and about half of it on normal and advanced mode. I don't get into it.
- The story doesn't catch me
- The towers/heroes don't catch me
- i don't like the setting
- The balancing is more like random ( some missions are insanely easy and playable at first time on 8x speed. others need at start the exact placement of the correct heroes. Sometimes i had problems with a mission on the first tries and when i finally have beaten it the next 1 or 2 missions where instant 8x speed perfects.
- The gear and weapons unlock by missions and i had yet always much more resources then needed to buy them
- Yet there are no recruitable heroes so you are forced to use exact the preset heroes and every hero only once. In the first about 10 missions you have only 4 different heroes, then it changes to other 4 heroes and then it changes depending on the missions later to have 8,6,4 ... but you mostly don't have all in 1 mission available. Some of them are really weak and others more like everything killing gods

For me yet a huge downgrade to the first and i hate it to say it because i wait since years for its release

Saw it came out, instantly bought it and was playing, waiting for all the features the first game had to unlock. Turns out there is none.
I can't recommend if for the following reasons:
Despite being in development for 10+ years it has massively less / worse content than DQ1.
- No character / unit creation.
- Upgrade perks on the units don't feel that varied. (Hinders build variety a lot)
- No special gear (like with extra effects)
- No side missions.
- No extra mission reward (like special gear) for playing on the higher difficulty.
- The shop gear upgrades are very linear, no variety either.
- Most maps are limited to only certain units.
- Average game completion time seems to be 10h +- (In DQ1 I had 70h and still stuff to do)

Concerning art style and story:
- I do like the uniqueness of the art style, but on the maps it can make stuff "cluttery".
- I find the story a bit too serious, not too fitting for the art style.

I followed the updates over the years and I know it wasn't an easy ride at all, but for example not giving updates since 2023, then releasing the game in this state in 2025 is very sad to say the least. I expected more.

Edit: I finished the game in 11h and took 2 more for achievements and I did not once need to use the advanced targeting options.

In 10 hours I managed to get 100% achievements. The first game I did play through it a couple times before I got them all which ended up around 75 hours.

This isn't a bad game in of itself, it's just people had higher expectations from a sequel ~10y in the making. It's more casual, no recruits, no reason to play higher difficulty, no optionals. Feels more like a first game setting up a sequel than being a sequel and expanding on the first.

Unfortunately, this game is a strict downgrade in most respects from its predecessor. The only aspect that surpasses the original is the music, which is all excellent.

The RPG elements have been stripped down to the point of near absence. Weapons and armor are simply numerical modifiers to your attack and defense with no further attributes and thus no reason to choose between multiple options. There are no side paths whatsoever; the level progression is completely linear. On top of this, level difficulties do not reward gear, just generic currency, so there is little motivation to complete them.

On top of that, the "world map" is a mess. It is less of a map and more of a desktop background on which levels have been haphazardly placed. The levels in the first game felt like they existed in the location where the level icon was placed on the map. Here, the level icons just snake back and forth across a jpeg with the vaguest connection to the spot on the background where they are placed. There are no shops on the map. Instead, there is a shop button at the bottom of the screen where new equipment just shows up after certain levels with no rhyme or reason.

As far as the "tower" designs, I feel they are just slightly weaker than the original. There are definitely some creative designs here, mainly the orb guy who accumulates attack charges while not engaged and the pirate dude who can teleport between two preset locations. But it also feels that the character abilities lack identity compared to the original, where characters had more of a defined role. Here characters feel like a bit of "status effect soup", where the same character can inflict 5+ different status effects, and many characters overlap in which status effects they inflict.

Obviously the art style is very divisive. I don't mind the general art direction; I find it a bit reminiscent of Wizards (the Bakshi film). The character designs, on the other hand, lack cohesion. They primarily look like they got dressed in the dark in a Spirit Halloween store. Since the game is light on world-building, there is never really a chance to motivate their various methods of dress or the cultures they come from, so they just end up feeling rather nonsensical and like they don't belong to the same world. The first game was fine being light on world-building because it relied on a standard fantasy world with standard character tropes, so the player could fill in the gaps with outside knowledge. That doesn't work when the game is set in a completely unique universe.

The game is well balanced, with only a few levels that are strange difficulty spikes compared to everything around them. And the game is overall not bad by any means; for games that have been in some form of development hell and/or developer silence, there have been far worse outcomes than this (Sports Story). But when the original exists there is little reason to play this in its stead.

I've waited for so long and after 100% completing the game I can't say I recommend it.

Gameplay-wise it feels okay-ish. Never used any "castle guns" because they're just too weak or boring. Deal damage, heal, slow enemies and that's it. Most of units you might want to use them on are immune to those effects anyway. In the balance department it's also quite sad. Developers didn't learn their lesson from DQ1 and two ranged units just break the entire game and solo almost every single level.

Progression is worse that in its predecessor. The dev seemingly wanted to make it more interesting, but as a result you have 5 abilities per character, and each ability can be upgraded by three skills. However, only the captain has somewhat interesting upgrades, cause all other units' upgrades are the same. The shooting lady has damage for skill 1, enemy penetration and electricution. These three upgrades are used in all 5 of her skills. The guy that pushes enemies back? The same: damage, push, side-effect like stun or slow for all 5 skills. Store upgrades are extremely cheap. I just played the game casually and managed to buy every single weapon and armor, cause the game providesa lot of materials for that. And there is no choice involved: everyone has 1 armor slot and 1 weapon slot, but you can't select anything, because you simply upgrade current weapon (to gain +4 damage!) and this is it.

And... art. This is subjective, cause everyone has their own definition of beauty, so you might like it! just open the community hub first and look throught the screenshots cause in-store ones don't show the things I'll mention here. My eyes literally hurt. Cutscenes and dialogue backgrounds use a lot of anaglyph effects, I had to skip the story because I just couldn't read the text with backgrounds like these. Characters are drawn extremely well, but... I’d call them ugly! Disproportional, weird, with strange facial expressions, following them was also pretty hard for me. People did have their problems with DQ1 artstyle because it was too simple, but here... It feels like a Picasso's acid trip. And this goes to everything here, from backgrounds to map and enemy design. Just a mesh of colors, shapes and objects that sometimes don't even fit within the chosen artstyle. I do prefer DQ1 here cause simple isn't necessarily bad, cause at least it's universally recognizable.

I do shake my hand to the art director for this bold decision to show their unique vision, but this is just not for me. 10 years and I can't say what was done in that time besides the art. No secret levels. No side quests. No interesting progression. No balance. No cute turtle castle. And a lot of small inconveniences that were solved by many other games in the genre. All of this just made me disappointed cause I did wait for the release since the first announcement. 10+ years later, and the penultimate level is a freaking spiral map as if it’s baby's first TD map, are you serious?!

I bought the game largely because I enjoyed DQ1, and as many other players, wanted a contunuation and a bit better game.

Unfortunately, since DQ1 times had moved on, but DQ2 didn't move at all, and even notably regressed.
DQ1 wasn't rich on mechanics, but nevertheless was a reasonably complex TD game. In DQ2, mechanics regressed towards the point of *really* simple flash games from 00s era.

And perhaps the worst insult to injury here is that for quite a decent amount of missions you amount of heroes (=towers) is restricted to... 1 or 2.

Then you progress further and will be welcomed with single hero missions again, this time all about clicking just in time to move the hero (again =tower in in DQ terms) between 2 positions. Naturally, it requires playing on low speed to be able to do in properly, so enjoy your (pretty long) levels that now you kinda HAVE TO play at 1/4 speed setting.

It's like the dev spent all the time since DQ1 not playing any other games in genre and instead thinking hard on a single topic "how'd I do the game more obnoxious in such a way that it won't be immediately evident?"

I wanted to like the game I really did, I've been waiting ever since the game was announced so you could say I was fairly invested.

If you had asked me what I wanted from DQ2 I would have said "DQ1 with slightly improved systems, nothing groundbreaking". But it seems that was hoping for too much as most of the systems in the game seem to have been completely gutted and as a result the game feels like it has the depth of a puddle.

The game just feels very... not fun. As it stands I'm about 35 maps in and have had zero opportunity to recruit new units like you could in the first game, I haven't been tempted with raising the difficulty because the unique items from mission rewards that DQ1 had as an incentive have also been removed. The overworld map feels disjointed from the actual game, I don't think I would have felt any different if you replaced the map with nothing.

I kept playing on the easiest difficulty to blitz through maps in the hopes that I would eventually encounter something of interest, but it just never happened.

It's more of a traditional TD game and less of a TD RPG game like DQ1 was. Since I enjoyed DQ1 because of the RPG elements I just can't recommend this game even though I desperately wanted to like it.

Was a huge fan of the first game - played it endlessly.

This game has gone the route of squeezing balance and constraints into the formula at the cost of fun. It's unfortunate. To improve the balance, the creators have done two things: (1) reduced unit variability and customizability and (2) reduced most talents to a variant of "increase damage under certain circumstances." Maps are also more constrained with placements, and you no longer get to choose which units accompany you on a mission.

Units are now more annoying, to put it mildly. Enemy units have uninteresting but irritating mechanics, you don't get to choose which units to play with, your units are flat, etc. The visual clutter on the screen makes keeping track of things oblique, so you spend more time in the pause or slow mo speeds - does that sound fun to you? A tower defense where you meticulously track every pixel to optimize your run?

There are simple solutions to SOME of these problems (eg, for those who want a frankly irritating experience, make bonus difficulties with specific restrictions etc). For others, they're hard-coded into the game - gear is ONLY a linear damage ladder (so... why bother including it?), spells ONLY draw from a fairly anemic and uninteresting pool, etc.

They focused on balance and threw out the fun in the process, and I'm not sure it's salvageable at this point. Always bizarre when a game prioritizes anything other than the enjoyment of the experience over some other ethereal design principle. I'd understand if the game had come out a year or two after the first but this is a sequel over a decade in the making and it's... eugh. What were they thinking.

I really loved DQ1, but I'm sorry, this quality doesn't pass in 2025. I started writing what I thought sounded like constructive feedback, and then realized it was too unkind to publish, so I'll just say that I'm sorry I cannot enjoy your game, but I wish you the best of luck.

Really great continuation of the Tower Defense gameplay that made the first one great. It is fairly safe in terms of what's new but, even as a new iteration of the old formula, it is better than most Tower Defense games out there. Congrats to the company on the release.

Just wanted to give a special shout-out to Lars Doucet. Hope you're proud of this release and all the love and care you poured into it. Thanks for sharing your passion and creativity with us. Wherever life may find you, I pray you are healing and are well!

Artistically, the game is far above the first game but stylistically, this game is far below the first game in my opinion. I'm going to get a lot of hate for what I'm going to say but it's like Concord, in which I was fine with how the game played but I hated looking at it. Not a single thing looks appealing to me and that is just on me. I loved the way the first game played, the RPG aspect of leveling your characters, choosing their play style via skill points, equipping items to further improve them, etc. This game also has that from what I've played and I was excited to see how they possibly improved upon it all, but I'm sorry. I could not bring myself to care about anything when it was all so unappealing to me.

Let me give some examples:
1. The main character Evni just looks weird. Her hat just makes me think crocodile dundee, her shoulders look ridiculous, her in-game model looks like she's wearing parachute pants and steeltoe work boots. It just looks ridiculously cluttered and ugly.
2. Warren just stands really weird in-game. I get she's like planted in place with support standoffs for her I guess powerful arm cannon but was there not like a cooler way to draw it? Like down on one knee, left arm on the cannon to support it, like Samus Aran or anything?
3. I don't even want to get started with Roland and the McDonald's playhouse with legs.....

I get it. It's not like the game is mechanically flawed or has optimization issues or game-breaking bugs. I'm mostly just talking about how much I don't like the art style and the way things look. But if you're like me and you do not find the things you see in the screenshots or videos appealing then I can't recommend this game.

I really liked the first game a lot. I'm no hardcore fan but I love tower defense games and RPGs and it was the perfect combination. I'm really sad I cannot like this game but if you do then I'm happy for you. I hope the game succeeds and we get a third game that looks better.

game is great so far, stopped playing tho and posting this as an emergency announcement to anyone interested in the game (will post authentic review later <3)

WARNING!: to anyone buying the game on release. steam seems to have distributed the DEMO version to anyone buying the game on launch day...
EDIT: VERIFIED FIXED!!!

if your start screen shows Universal DQ2 0.0.69 2023-11-11
you have the demo version. do not play it and wait for the issue to get fixed (1.0 exists and alpha testers have access to it so this appears to be a steam error)

Beautifully nostalgic of the original Defender's Quest. You can tell devs put hundred of hours into crafting this game. I recall fondly enjoying the first title about 10 years ago if not more, being as one of the top notch tower defense along the kinds of Bloons and I can tell this one will be much of that as well.

Each map is carefully crafted to be challenging whilst remaining fun and not too brain-busting. The art style is unique and while the general HUD might feel archaic to some, i think it's more in the vibe of nostalgia to remain close to it's original title.

Definitely plan on playing several hours of this. Must protect turtle ship waifu.