A repost of the review I wrote for Final Fantasy II six years ago.
When the Death Emperor attacks Fynn, Firion, Maria and Gus are nearly captured. They manage to get away with the help of the Altair Resistance, although Maria's brother, Leon, is missing.
Still, they have more important things to worry about. Firion, Maria and Gus are roped in to help the resistance, with various other characters helping them along the way.
Your three basic characters are Firion, Maria and Gus, while the fourth character place is occupied by a constantly changing selection of characters. You have no choice as to when they join you, as it's based on plot.
Firion, Maria and Gus are all friends, whose parents were killed in Fynn. As there is very little plot in this game, compared to later Final Fantasies, there's very little character development, although Gus is able to talk to animals, and it's sometimes clear how much Maria misses her brother.
Gameplay is essentially the same as in many other Final Fantasies. There is a basic world map, with many more detailed town and dungeon maps. You are able to obtain a variety of vehicles, including chocobos, ships, canoes, sleds and airships.
Somewhat noteworthy is the fact that the world map is, like the world map at the end of Final Fantasy V, completely joined together. In other words, you can access almost any location fairly early on in the game, with sufficient grinding.
Speaking of grinding, the battle system of Final Fantasy II has lead to it being known as the bastard child of the series, and it's easy to see why that is. Unlike the other Final Fantasy's, II does not use an experience system. Instead, your stats increase or decrease based on how much they're used. For instance, a character's hit points will go up if they lose a lot of them in battle, as will their magic points. Their strength and weapon proficiency will increase as they attack, while their intelligence and the strength of their individual spells will go up as they use magic. Magic and Weapon proficiency levels work much as they do in Disgaea. Another similarity is the Inn system, which charges you according to the amount of hit points and magic points that need to be recovered. Unfortunately, you are unable to choose which characters to heal – it's all or nothing.
Essentially, what this means is that, rather than being able to wonder around and gain levels effortlessly, you must put some thought into training your characters. A glitch enables you to raise weapon and magic efficiency at a faster rate, which helps a little, although, still, much of the game will consist of training. Any character may equip any weapon or armour, and although at first, there is a slight difference between your characters stats, there is no reason for it to last. Much like Koudelka, you can train your characters to be proficient at anything you wish.
As in the first Final Fantasy, collection lists are kept, which show which percentage of items you have collected, and which monsters you have defeated. This is handy way of ensuring you don't miss anything.
The graphics show no great improvement over Final Fantasy – characters are still displayed as sprites over 2D backgrounds – but the world itself looks less fantastical, and the colours used are much more drab.
There are no real sub-quests in Final Fantasy II, although there is a small mini-game, which is unlockable once you have the sleigh. It's a basic memory game, consisting of matching paired images.
Final Fantasy II makes an interesting change from the more common experience systems. The characters are detailed only slightly more than the first Final Fantasy game, in both looks and personality, although the background characters and plot are far more developed. The game also includes many recurring features of the Final Fantasy series, including Cid and chocobos.
Every Final Fantasy has something to recommend it to a certain subsection of players, and this game is no different. It doesn't have the mainstream appeal of the overly hyped Final Fantasy VII, or the quirky memories of Final Fantasy IX. It would, I imagine, appeal most to die hard Final Fantasy fans, and to people who enjoy complicated leveling systems (Final Fantasy X, or Disgaea for instance).
In summary, I personally enjoyed this game, but felt that many elements could have been improved upon, and can see why some would not like it as much as other Final Fantasies.
Warning: The following contains major spoilers.
When the Death Emperor attacks Fynn, Firion, Maria and Gus are nearly captured. They manage to get away with the help of the Altair Resistance, although Maria's brother, Leon, is missing.
Still, they have more important things to worry about. Firion, Maria and Gus are roped in to help the resistance, with various other characters helping them along the way.
Your three basic characters are Firion, Maria and Gus, while the fourth character place is occupied by a constantly changing selection of characters. You have no choice as to when they join you, as it's based on plot.
Firion, Maria and Gus are all friends, whose parents were killed in Fynn. As there is very little plot in this game, compared to later Final Fantasies, there's very little character development, although Gus is able to talk to animals, and it's sometimes clear how much Maria misses her brother.
Gameplay is essentially the same as in many other Final Fantasies. There is a basic world map, with many more detailed town and dungeon maps. You are able to obtain a variety of vehicles, including chocobos, ships, canoes, sleds and airships.
Somewhat noteworthy is the fact that the world map is, like the world map at the end of Final Fantasy V, completely joined together. In other words, you can access almost any location fairly early on in the game, with sufficient grinding.
Speaking of grinding, the battle system of Final Fantasy II has lead to it being known as the bastard child of the series, and it's easy to see why that is. Unlike the other Final Fantasy's, II does not use an experience system. Instead, your stats increase or decrease based on how much they're used. For instance, a character's hit points will go up if they lose a lot of them in battle, as will their magic points. Their strength and weapon proficiency will increase as they attack, while their intelligence and the strength of their individual spells will go up as they use magic. Magic and Weapon proficiency levels work much as they do in Disgaea. Another similarity is the Inn system, which charges you according to the amount of hit points and magic points that need to be recovered. Unfortunately, you are unable to choose which characters to heal – it's all or nothing.
Essentially, what this means is that, rather than being able to wonder around and gain levels effortlessly, you must put some thought into training your characters. A glitch enables you to raise weapon and magic efficiency at a faster rate, which helps a little, although, still, much of the game will consist of training. Any character may equip any weapon or armour, and although at first, there is a slight difference between your characters stats, there is no reason for it to last. Much like Koudelka, you can train your characters to be proficient at anything you wish.
As in the first Final Fantasy, collection lists are kept, which show which percentage of items you have collected, and which monsters you have defeated. This is handy way of ensuring you don't miss anything.
The graphics show no great improvement over Final Fantasy – characters are still displayed as sprites over 2D backgrounds – but the world itself looks less fantastical, and the colours used are much more drab.
There are no real sub-quests in Final Fantasy II, although there is a small mini-game, which is unlockable once you have the sleigh. It's a basic memory game, consisting of matching paired images.
Final Fantasy II makes an interesting change from the more common experience systems. The characters are detailed only slightly more than the first Final Fantasy game, in both looks and personality, although the background characters and plot are far more developed. The game also includes many recurring features of the Final Fantasy series, including Cid and chocobos.
Every Final Fantasy has something to recommend it to a certain subsection of players, and this game is no different. It doesn't have the mainstream appeal of the overly hyped Final Fantasy VII, or the quirky memories of Final Fantasy IX. It would, I imagine, appeal most to die hard Final Fantasy fans, and to people who enjoy complicated leveling systems (Final Fantasy X, or Disgaea for instance).
In summary, I personally enjoyed this game, but felt that many elements could have been improved upon, and can see why some would not like it as much as other Final Fantasies.
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