But like its predecessor, and the boardgame it took its inspiration from, HeroQuest II was still aimed at being a friendly turn-based dungeon crawl that anyone could get into. No crunch, no THAC0, just taking turns finding your way through one corner of Rhia to the next in search of adventure!

Gremlin's sequel generally received solid marks from a number of critics including Computer & Video Games in the UK. In their May '94 review, Rik Skews gave it high marks with praise for the graphics, the "weighty" manual, and its gameplay (while not new) as "superbly implemented."

The game also had a few rough spots. Bigger and more detailed isometric maps mixed in more than the usual grey dungeon tiles promising plenty to do and explore. On the downside, saving the game only happened in between adventures. No autosaves or checkpoints.

The sequel attempted to emulate the boardgame as closely as possible. Characters were each allocated points used for movement and actions. Combat was as simple as clicking on an enemy. If you saw your character swing three times, you've had a successful fight!

This time, players could choose from eight different characters to build a four-member party with (or go in with less for even more of a challenge), adjust their stats, and then go on an adventure by choosing where they want to go from a big world map instead of a list like in the first game.

HeroQuest was a popular fantasy boardgame created by Milton Bradley and Games Workshop that was first released in 1989. With an included array of tiles and figures, players explored dungeons and slew beasties while following one of the included adventures.

(picture source: boardgamegeek.com )

Vay's ad in 1994 did its best to awe players and at a time when CD games were pushing expectations, was this RPG's chance to show off earning a few fans. In 2008, SoMoGa re-released the game on iPhone and in 2024, on Steam with a few QoL features, sharing this classic with a new generation.

Reviews ran the extremes. EGM's review crew didn't think the story was anything special and praised the music, rewarding the game with middling scores in their August '94 issue. On the other hand, Gamepro's September '94 review by Peteroo gave it high marks with praise for the dialogue.

As an example, a fairy met later in the game originally used the power of the wind to send you to a new location. With Working Designs' localization, that power was turned into "seismic flatulence" that did the same thing, but if your party wasn't wearing filtration masks, died on arrival. Yikes!

Vay also marked a milestone for Working Designs' digital editing/sync system which used the game as its "maiden voyage". WD's localization also made relatively controversial changes to a number of things from item balance to story elements from its original Japanese release.

Along with music, voice acting, and sound effects packed on the CD, the game was essentially your basic, turn-based RPG with a few rough edges such as lead-up dungeons of fairly normal fights to bosses that grinding clearly never prepared you for. Good thing that you can save nearly anywhere!

Vay took advantage of the CD format with fully voiced anime cutscenes for key parts of the story. For example, the lavish intro reveals the truth about Vay as a doomsday mech from a hyper advanced society crash landing on your world and sealed away thousands of years earlier following its rampage!