The reason I think it's broken has a few reasons behind it. It's intensely much harder than the original especially on the back end of the game, especially the run up to the finish as it could be seen by any modern gamer is despicably cheap and harassing. The gameplay is barely refined over the original yet adds the party system so it comes off pretty wooden and confusing. There's some but not a huge benefit to the extra characters except you can do more per turn since you can attack and heal or whatever. But also like the original there's no finger pointing you where to really go next very clearly so it makes you often feel stupid, confused and lost on what to do next or how much to advance in an area so you're not just squashed like a bug going forward. It's bad in that they didn't do much to change the staples of the first to give it a more comfy and logical flow and DW3 does do this as it plays so much nicer as it's just better refined while DW2 feels like it was just rushed out almost slapping a long game and party system into the design of a small single character small environment.

Personally I would never own or play DW2 again at all unless it was the GBC version, maybe the translated SFC cart if you're into warezy hacks as I heard it's ok too. I'd think your best bet unless you're a masochist would be to get the Prima DQ1+2 guide and the GBC game and not so much cheat, but use the general map and town names to see where to go next so you don't get fed up with it as it's balanced far nicer. I only own DW1 and DW4, four is just straight up epic, it's on the level of the early 16bit Final Fantasy titles in style and it's cool it's uniquely done in chapters where each is like it's own micro-RPG that takes a few hours until the huge one at the back end where the hero picks up the leads of the other 4 chapters into one super party to use.