Defender's Quest 2: Mists of Ruin

Bland girl boss story. The first one was amazing. This one was funded by Black Rock and it shows.
I hope the devs got their money's worth 'cause they ain't getting any more of mine.
Do not buy.
Wait until it gets the Veilguard treatment and you can get it for free, if you are foolishly interested. Just stick to the first one. Keep your politics out, devs. Not one of your "fewomxn" are compelling.

Put together by a team heavily influenced by consultants that resemble SBI, I'm sure.

Just a garbage, forgettable, bland game that doesn't come close to its predecessor.

Fun, but not as good as the first one. It also crashed quite a few times. 2.5/5.

RPG tower defense glory

Defender's Quest is a really good game. I grabbed the sequel the moment I saw it was released, even after all these years. Defender's Quest 2 seems to be less of all the things that made the first one as good as it is. Why cool features of the original were left out, even with over a decade of time passed since the original, who knows.

If you haven't played either of them, and want a good tower defense game. Get the first one. Totally worth it.

I spent the whole game going "So when does this game become Defender's quest" all the way up to the credits.

It's like Defender's Quest 1, but:
- only "hero" mode (1 of each type of unit - fine by me)
- no "NG+" hard mode replay (fine by me)
- no unique weapons from certain levels ... I miss that a little bit. Equipment was perhaps too simple in this game - you can almost always buy the upgrades, and there's no tradeoffs to any of the upgrades
- characters, art, story, music - different style (but fine by me :))

I got 100% completion in <10 hours.
For Defender's Quest 1, I somehow spent 100+ hours collecting everything. I was relatively new to the genre, as I didn't enjoy other tower defence games. DQ was something special.

DQ2 loses some features and replayability of DQ1, but for £15 I got a good few hours of fun steamrolling through the game.

I don't know what people are complaining about, this is a good game.

I'm still in the tutorial phase so I can't comment on difficulty, but I do like that there are fewer, more specialized fighters and multiple "teams" that you swap between. Each team has a very different gameplay dynamic that keeps things from getting dull.

I also LOVE the artstyle and character designs. I can truly say I've never seen art like this, and it's extremely endearing. The characters have really nice dynamics and every time a worldbuilding element is revealed it kind of blows my mind, the creativity is off the charts.

Also I'm obsessed with Cornelia. I don't expect everyone will like her but she is exactly the chaotic, yet calculated energy I adore.

It's interesting. It's a completely different cast, towers, setting and art style. This time you're a... cop maybe? traveling in a submarine (which is alive) with a bunch of green people fighting against fish monsters. Nothing at all like DQ1. The heart of DQ1 was the writing and this one plays a bit like a visual novel too. There's less writing (no journal to read, just the between map conversations) and i don't think it's as good as DQ1 but it's still good.

Like before you have a melee character, ranged, healer and expensive big guy but unlike before you can't name or color them and you can't buy copies of them - you get exactly one archer guy per map, no more.

i finished the game in 26 hours, which is short for a TD game but not that short. And you can always play again at the harder difficulty level, although i won't. It's not the cheapest game but i still feel like i got my money's worth.

It breaks my heart that this game is not a stand-out title.

- Builds are not very exciting. The characters are very one-dimensional, despite each having multiple "skills" to spec into.
- Some of the map designs are horrible
- The gear may as well not even be a part of the game. It's entirely linear, and never adds any wow-factor. You occasionally can buy an attack increase and/or a defense increase for the characters. That's it. There's no thought or anything of interest. It's only there to help power-creep the cast
- The game relies on active abilities that the player can use during a level, but the player is disincentivized to use them, making for an awkward and bothersome experience
- The map is strangely large and winding for no reason. It makes navigating back to older levels a chore.
- The UI/UX needs a consult.
- The game feels and plays like it was made in the same era as DQ1, but comes out worse in every imaginable way.
- Some skills affects have poor art. Some icons need work.
- Sound design is weak. Some are downright annoying, especially at high speeds.
- Character motivations are bland. The supporting cast outshines the leaders in every possibly way. Overall story arc is dull. Some dialogue is compelling and interesting, and the world design is clever.
- The only benefit to sending waves early is that you can stop playing faster.

The pros?
- Cool (looking) characters
- Unique art style

No choices, no deep tactics, almost no nothing. There is one item to buy, so buy it. There is one talent to pick, so pick it, there are only the given towers to play with, so use them. Basically boring. Not worth the money and the time.

Weak shadow of first game. Boring. Complete/forget.

DQ2 uses the same formula the first game used for the + game. You'll play with a limited number of characters, each one being a tower with special powers. Artistic choices have been made, colors are too bright and shapes are vague. Problem is that the settings are confusing. You don't know if you are on a planet, inside a planet, a city, a forest or whatever. Characters suffer from the comparison to the first game. They have very little personality, dialogues are unremarkable because the story is unremarkable, and their reactions do not correspond to the dialogue. Dialogues and reactions were the best thing of DQ1. Noun choices are also puzzling. You gain "juice" while fighting, and use "juice" to improve the characters. You are in the "Mirk", or something. Progression is the same, somewhat simplified, which is an improvement, but very repetive. For example every character can slow down enemies through electricity. On the other hand, DQ1 had much longer and mostly useless ability branches to research. Useless because you needed less than a third of them to finish the game, and the rest needed too much time to reach.
Outside the comparison, this is a decent tower defense game, not too difficult, supported by a nice progression, some interesting bosses, and an uninteresting story.
Enemies may be quick, armored, or can fight back. Bosses force you to move characters several times to keep hitting them, which requires some strategy and "juice" management.
Each map can be played twice, earning two or three stars. You'll play eight maps in a row to earn the first two stars and gain enough power to be able to play the first four again, to earn the third star. Then you repeat. They actually did a good job to decrease the grind that plagued DQ1.

Currently it's not the game to spend 100+ hours (as in DQ1). Nethertheless the journey was fun. Hope the'll be addon or two...

Beautiful game - superb follow-up. Progression is much the same as DQ1, but that's nothing to snuff at. The art and core mechanics are truly remarkable. Well worth the wait!!

Great game and imagination! It was challenging at times! Also, love the music!

Its worth the asking price.
A lot of people seems to have had impossible expectations, which is understandable given how exceptionally good DD1 was. But this is a solid game and its not even expensive.

I don't get the negative comments. I might agree it may not be quite as good as the 1st one but it is still a lot of fun and I'm really enjoying it! I think the writing is good, again, maybe the story isn't quite as fleshed out as the original, but the game doesn't have to be just as good or better than the original to be a really fun game! Outside of the character drawings (which I'll admit are pretty ugly), the rest of the artwork is really good in my opinion! I loved the first game, I'm loving this one, and I certainly hope there's a 3rd in the future!

I liked the game. Similar to the original one, bigger characters. I wish it had an endless mode for the maps. Glad they finally made the 2nd game. Hope they make more tower defense types, i like the rpg elements they bring into it. Nice game, I enjoyed it very much and the time they put in to make it.

I loved valley of the forgotten, and I love this game. Rather than pointing to specific aspects of the game, let me leave it with this:

The mixed reviews made me hesitant. I wouldn't be surprised if the flaws many negative reviews are pointing out are indeed present. Nonetheless, the very special feeling that the first game inspired in me that made me love it is reignited by this game. That's what matters to me.

Very similar to the first game. Which means it's good, but will disappoint anyone expecting a meaningful evolution of the formula.

To preface this review: the main developer of the game has gone through personal hell, and the fact that this game is out at all is frankly against the odds.

That said, this game is rougher around the edges than the first Defender's Quest, though I do not find it as grating as some other reviewers. I did enjoy playing this game, and I expect I'll play it again some time. My first playthrough, which was not 100%, took me 9 hours. I think that's a fair amount of time for this game and the price.

If you're not sure whether you'll like this game, I recommend buying the first Defender's Quest and if you like that, try this game.

I've given this a few hours of gameplay and think I now have a pretty good idea. This game is a letdown imo.

The shop is uninteresting. There are no special equipment or choices to make. You reach this level? Well, you should buy this upgrade for which you will definitely have enough scrap. A new cannon upgrade? Sure, you can afford it the map it becomes available. The shop is dull and uninteresting and doesn't offer much in terms of customization - just buy the new thing whenever it comes out. A flat stat boost to a specific character would have been as interesting as this. The map is linear with no sidequests with hard bosses like the first game that you'll have to revisit later or something interesting to do.

The tower defense is good and the characters definitely have strengths and weaknesses which I do admire and offers some interesting choices to make in terms of placement. However, it's not enough to make up for the glaring flaws in the game.

So we have an uninteresting shop, boring map, decent tower defense, and rather one-dimensional characters with no real villain. I think the author of the game spent more time on the art style and should have focused on creating a RenPy game rather than a spiritual successor to the first.

Despite the EXP / leveling system in this game, you cannot farm EXP.

This was a long time coming. As a massive fan of the first Defender's Quest I, like many, was very excited to hear about the sequel over 10 years ago. Years passed with what seemed to be no updates or progress made on the game, only for it to pop up on steam randomly.

The sequel brings a lot from the first game and trims away some of the complexity. You get your heroes, and their ship(s) get the abilities. Heroes level up and you get points to increase their skills. Certain skills and certain modifiers to those skills unlock via levels. You can buy gear with scrap. Improve abilities for your ships by buying canons. Win for a blue star, perfect for a yellow star. Casual to get by. Normal, and Advanced for increasing challenges. The music is done by the same guy who did the soundtrack for the first game. None of the levels feel unfair, and some make you reconsider you load out. However most can be beaten through brute force rather than tactics.

I won't go into detail on the story just know that they try to tie it to the first game. Do they do it well? Not really, no. The series was meant to be an anthology, allegedly. While this game is in the same universe and the impacts of which seem to lead to the events of the first, they are almost entirely separate.

For those of you who have been itching for this sequel for years as I have... This is it. What was shown years ago is gone, and I would love to see that game at some point. This isn't the sequel you may have wanted but when you look at the bones, this is all the game was ever going to be. Art and story are dressing on the skeleton. Maybe it looks better to some than others.

I'm trying to reconcile my own disappointment, because this is a good game. I enjoyed it very much and do recommend it. However after ten years it feels like it isn't enough. When you look into some of the things that happened to the original creator you may think to yourself "how was this even completed?" I think it's important to remember that years ago one guy set out to make a game. He did and we all loved it. Then he tried again and much as it always does, life happened. Life happened to all of us, and where ever you find yourself when you play this game don't think about the wait. Don't think about the concept art from years ago. Don't think about the weaselmancer. Think about how you felt playing Defender's Quest. Think about how one guy tried to give you that feeling again. Life is hard on all of us, but that one guy's passion moved a group of others to try and take up the mantle. Don't fall to cynicism. Bring out the you from a decade ago and just enjoy the game.

Cause right now, there is a man out there with a child who can't.

Review after finishing the base game, which took about 12 hours. TLDR, this is good narrative-driven tower defense game. It is a little rough mechanically in spots, but the story and core game play is worthwhile. You do not have to have played the first game to understand this one (they are unrelated). It is definitely worth picking up on sale, or off-sale if you want to support the developers.

The Good
This is a narrative-driven tower defense game. Each of the towers are actually the story characters. All of them function uniquely. You will likely think of each tower by the person's name, which is a clear win. Also most modern tower defense games are more like Bloons, Gemcraft, or Emberward where is no story, so this game pulling that off well is a nice change.

Mechanically, each of the characters has its own set of skill toggles instead of a skill tree. You can freely reassign skills outside of the actual maps. So there is a lot of room for experimentation. It makes the actual missions feel a bit like a puzzle to work out. You'll get skill points by gaining levels based on the XP of the mission. That does mean that you can outlevel missions so that they can be easy if you push for that. I found with the difficulty that it was easy until it was not, and the difference between the two could change pretty fast.

There's about 40ish missions in the game (I did not count them), and each has an Easy/Normal/Advanced mode. Getting the rewards at a higher tier marks off the lower tier so you don't have to just repetitively grind away. I appreciated that.

Nostalgia
This is a type of game that I don't see as much in 2025 as I used to. I did play the first game when it was new, and after finishing this one I went back and took a look at the old one. Looking directly at the older game (which I loved at the time) it looks bloated while this one looks more streamlined. I am noticing in a lot of the other reviews of this game there must have been some sort of pre-order situation a few years ago. I feel like people got their hopes up with that pre-order and folks are comparing the reality of this game with the memory of that game. That's pretty unfair imo. I for one am a different person than I was then and this game is more in line with what I like now than what I liked then.

The Issues
The game clearly went through the throes of development hell over the last 12 years. There are some rough patches. The equipment system is way too simple and just equates to a flat damage or armor boost with each new item. I also ran out of things to buy and have an enormous amount of money left over at the end of the game. There was also a 4th tier "Expert" in the previous game for each level so that there is more to do. And it feels a bit like an old flash game, maybe that's just me. The last game did a "deluxified" patching to improve things like this, so if they do that you can ignore this piece.

As a personal gripe (YMMV) I get a little turned off by tower defense games that force me to interact with manual abilities during game play. There is a character who's main draw is that he can teleport between two locations. That is very tactical and useful, my gripe is that in some maps it is required. Also, one of the main recurring bosses in the game has the ability to one-shot most of your characters while giving you an 8 second heads up. The solution is to recall that character and then replace them before he does that, I just found that annoying.

Conclusion
Defender's Quest 2 is a solid, story driven tower defense game. It is definitely worth playing though it does have some issues at this point (a bit less than a month after launch). It is definitely a 'buy on sale' game for me, but if they patch in fixes to some of the problems it could be great.

The game brings nothing new to the table and is significantly worse than the first game. Theres a lot of modern tower defense features not in the game. They should have made an expansion pack for the first game, and included all of the features of modern tower defenses instead of making a second game. I think I can beat it in three hours and im not a speedrunner. Do not recommend at this time :(

Loved the first game, over 60 hours in it and was a great tower defence game. This one I have refunded just because it's not my style and not like the original sadly. Does it mean it's a bad game, not sure, may have done better as a new franchise rather than tethering itself to something that is different it most aspects of game play.

On it's own, it's a solid tower defense game with an intersting story. There's strategy and customization involved.

However, it's not as good as the first Defender's Quest. Neither in story, nor in gameplay, I feel. So play that one first, if you haven't yet.

I enjoyed the game. I beat the game in less than 10 hours which is ok, but I was expecting a longer game. I wish they had more than just DQ1 but a couple of things different. I still recommend the game.

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.

I don't know what happened with this v2. The first one was memorable in numerous ways, which led to excitement getting this one years later. Take a look at the dialog in the store screenshots above - that's as good as it gets. seriously.

Defender's Quest 2 is a fun new story with the same energy and vibe of the original. There's no huge surprises in the story, nor big revelations: do you enjoy meeting weirdo characters and figuring out their strengths and weaknesses over a couple hours? Then this is honestly a great experience.

Does it feel quite as special as the original? Maybe not, but that can't possibly be the standard! You'll have a good time, I promise.

You'll see many comparisons to the first game, and they're true enough, the original is better in most ways, longer, more to do.

(Minor edit) I went back to DQ1, and this is much closer to trying to do the Hero (No generic units) challenges there. This might be a + or - to you, but it does mean something.

However, on its own merit, Defenders Quest 2 is still a good game with a decent story and an excellent soundtrack. It's more puzzly than the first, but also less grindy.
The art might not be to your taste, but it is very consistant, it's not bad art, just an unusual style.

I'd recommend playing the game. Perhaps before DQ1 if you've played neither, if you have played 1, I think you get your moneys worth here at the least.

I LOVE the first game. Its still one of my favourite tower defence games and I was looking forward to this one the moment I knew it was being developed. I bought it the same day it was released and.. I kept playing waiting for things to get better, but its just not here.
-One of each type of class? What? Did the devs even play the first one?
-New gear is basically non-existent.
-Only 2 difficulty levels on the locations.
The art is cool, I guess, but this game feels like an abandoned child. I know one of the main creators left because of personal reasons outside the development. I was hoping whoever took it over would do the game justice, but this is just sad and Im so disappointed.

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?"