Final Fantasy II

"Good RPG. The detractors of the game are fools who probably never finished it!"

MY BIAS

Just in case you were wondering:
I am a sucker for RPGs.
Zelda (NES) was my first RPG.
I have never played any Final Fantasy beyond FF6. They just do not look "right."
The most "modern" RPG I ever played was Fallout 2 (perfect game).
I played FF2 over the course of four days.



OVERVIEW

I beat the game an hour ago. It was fun. If you have not played it, you need to be aware of the chief complaint of the the game: the modified leveling system. I found the system to be very confusing at first. I then grew accustomed to it. Some players could not get over the different leveling system. I doubt that they finished the game. If you like console-style RPGs, you will definitely enjoy this game.



GAMEPLAY

The gameplay is just as you would expect. The leveling system is not what you probably expect. There is NO broad category of LEVELS. You do not go to a higher LEVEL. You do not earn exp. points. In FF2, you boost different skills and traits. To gain HP, you must lose 40%+ of your total HP. To gain MP, you must lose ?% of your MP. To gain M.POWER, you must cast magic (and use a % of your total MP). To gain POWER, you must fight often. To gain weapon skill, you must fight. There are shortcuts to boosting all of these skills and traits. Apart from the leveling system, the game is quite familiar. You have a world map. You have dungeons and castles. You have towns with inns and shops. At times, you will be frustrated with how many battles you encounter. Another complaint of mine is the duration of battles. I do not mean that I had difficult fights. I mean that the little menu and text info prompts during battle take much longer than they should. SQUARESOFT later improved this, though. Apart from that, the story is easy to follow. You are rarely left confused at what you must next do. Variety can be found in travel: chocobos, ships, and an airship. The gameplay is good.



STORY

The story was original for a NES RPG in 1988. The story is interesting and inspiring! Four youths can save the world!



SOUND/GRAPHICS

Anyone who complains about the audio and video is probably not quite right. The game is 20 years old, as of this year, 2008. The sound and visuals are good quality considering the hardware limitations. The graphics are bright and clear. The sound is nicely varied, with pleasant music on the world map and appropriate boss music for the big bad guys.



REPLAY VALUE

The game took me four days to beat. I guess it was about 16+ hours total, but I am not sure. In retrospect, I spent too much time leveling...I beat the final boss in one round. I would like to replay the game to take a different approach to specializing the characters. For some reason, my mages could not advance any of their spells past certain levels. Also, the game is full of false walls and hidden rooms. The exploration might be fun. Having said that, the story is quite linear, and I am not likely to replay the game.



FINAL RECOMMENDATION

All real RPG fans will play this game. I played the NES version. There was a PSX release. The PSX version probably has nicer CD-quality audio.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/17/08

Game Release: Final Fantasy II (JP, 12/17/88)