Final Fantasy II is Better than I Remember

Final Fantasy II has gotten a terrible reputation over the years. I know that when I first played the game, I really disliked it. It was in the mid-1990s, and I didn’t understand how to play the game. The game played differently from the first Final Fantasy.

I played this game on an emulator first, and never looked up how it was supposed to be played. What stood out to me was the story. It started pretty well, but I didn’t play much of it before giving up on it. Then I tried the PS1 version of the game, and had basically the same experience.

A few years ago, I played the PS1 version again. I figured out how the game was supposed to be played, and I got to see more of the story. While I still don’t like the gameplay, I found the story to be great. I enjoyed Final Fantasy II’s story more than the first game.

TLDR: Great story that is held back by tedious gameplay.

Narrative

Final Fantasy II has an awesome story. It is a big improvement over the first game. The characters have a better motivation, more dialogue, and it can be funny at times. I really enjoy how the developers worked everything into this story.

The game starts with four characters being attacked by knights. You get defeated and wake up in a rebel hideout. One of your characters is missing, which becomes a plot point later on in the game.

What follows is a “rebel group fighting the empire” plot that has been used in other games. Your party goes on some missions to acquire items and rescue a princess. In this case, the princess is leading the rebellion.

After destroying a superweapon, you learn that Leon, the missing party member, joined the Empire. This is where things get weird. I wasn’t sure if he was being mind-controlled or was simply a jerk.

You end up killing the Emperor, and then Leon takes control of the Empire. He becomes the main bad guy for a bit. When you finally confront him, it turns out the Emperor is back. Leon switches sides, again, and you have to defeat the Emperor. He’s in Hell, and you have to seal him away.

Overall, I really like the story. It was more enjoyable than the first game. By no means was it perfect, but it was very good. It was a step up from the first game. The main characters had more personality, and the plot was more interesting.

Gameplay

Final Fantasy II is one of the games that I really wanted to like. It can be a fun game, but the core gameplay isn’t all that great. I love the password mechanic, but the progression leveling system is tedious.

There are a lot of characters in this game. It is a huge step up from the first game. This game’s characters are one of the areas where FF II improves on the first game. Here are the characters:

• Firion
• Maria
• Guy – He was raised by wolves, and can speak beaver.
• Leon – This guy gets separated from the group early on and helps the Empire for most of the game.

While those are the main characters, there are a number of secondary characters. These act as replacements for Leon until he returns. It is really cool to see this from a console RPG.

Final Fantasy II has a very unique mechanic. You’ll learn passwords and other phrases during the game. Using these words can change the dialogue you get from NPCs. These phrases are needed to advance the plot, which is a lot of fun.

The part of this game that I don’t like is the progression system. You don’t gain levels like you do in the first game. Instead, your spells and weapon skill gain levels. It is a weird system. Here is a breakdown:

• HP – These go up if a character takes damage
• MP – It goes up as you use magic
• Weapons – Your skill with a weapon will go up the more you use it. For example, if you keep attacking with a sword, your sword level will go up.
• Magic – This works the same as weapon skill. The more you cast Fire, the more your Fire spell will improve.

This works with your other attributes as well. It is an overly complicated system to explain. When you play the game, it sort of makes sense. It is open to abuse, as you can simply attack your party to boost their stats.

The magic system is also annoying. The first game was easy enough for you to get through without using all your magic. That isn’t the case here. You need to level up the support magic along with the offensive magic. This really only comes into play with the final boss. It is an annoying boss fight, but not impossible.

There are parts of the gameplay that I like. It is a turn-based game, the password system is great, and I like the secondary characters. The progression system is tedious. This system comes close to ruining the game, and it is why most people hate it.

Visuals

The graphics in Final Fantasy II aren’t too different from the first game. I’m talking about the Famicom version. While I didn’t get too far into that version of the game, what I saw was decent. Most of my experience is with the PS1 version of the game.

Final Fantasy II is a more cinematic game. These all use in-game graphics, which was the standard for the time. I do like the graphics in this game, but I also liked the graphics in the first.

The battle animations look good. They aren’t as good as other series, but you get something. The magic looks good as well.

Final Fantasy II looks perfectly fine. Much like the Dragon Quest series, there isn’t much difference between Final Fantasy I and II. The graphics are a minor upgrade in II.

7.5/10. Final Fantasy II is such a strange game. I really like the story, and the graphics are good. There are parts of the gameplay that are great. The progression system is what I really don’t like, and it comes so close to ruining the game.  

Pros

• Good Graphics
• Unique Gameplay
• Great Story

Cons

• Leveling system
• Odd moments in the story

Conclusion

For me, the story in Final Fantasy II is the best part of the game. It is much better than the first game. The characters are also much better because they feel more real. They have more dialogue, and they have personality.

The gameplay is hit-and-miss. Parts of it are very good, and the only bad thing is the leveling system. If this had something closer to the first game, it would’ve been better. Square Soft was always trying new things with each entry in the Final Fantasy series. Some things worked out and would be refined in other games. Not much of Final Fantasy II was carried over to other games.

When I first played Final Fantasy II, I didn’t like it at all. I kept trying to like the game, but I just couldn’t. Plenty of people probably have games like that.

Part of the reason I started making videos and writing a blog was to revisit some games. Final Fantasy II was one of those games. After playing it again and really trying to beat it, I ended up liking it. Mostly, I liked the story.  

If you liked this post, please check out my other posts about RPGs. Some examples are Final Fantasy or Sweet Home.