Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster Cinematic Playthrough

Channel:

FefnirIRL

Subscribers:

358

Published on May 10, 2024 5:00:45 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhwB0PDFEJY

Game:

Final Fantasy II (1988)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 8:42:40

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It's the Return of the Je-... I mean, it's Firion and company against the evil emperor, Palpat-... It's Star Wars Final Fantasy. Make of that as you will!

Steam review: https://steamcommunity.com/id/fefnirirl/recommended/1173780/

REVIEW: 3/5

Final Fantasy II is embodied well by the age-old adage, "Second verse, same as the first." Is this true? I mean, it's true-ish, anyways. Though FF II does have a few unique systems and oddities, in general it is fairly identical to the first game. Beyond its key differences that I'll expand on later, the outline reads the same: Meet your party, find out you're landlocked, get a boat, find out you're also waterlocked, get an airship, go fly around until the final boss, the end, gg ez, etc. Given that there was almost exactly a year's time between the first and second entries however, it makes sense that its successor would try and stay true to the formula that proved successful.

At the very beginning of the game, a familiar scene greets us: four warriors, whose names are to be decided by us. There is one huge difference right off the bat, however: these characters have names already! Though you're free to rename them, the game does have canon names for the warriors in your party, contrasting the first game's decision to have you leading a party of four nameless Warriors of Light. I do enjoy this aspect, as it's much easier to immerse myself in a story where I'm familiar with the characters as opposed to nameless, faceless mooks. That said, the story isn't this overly incredible epic by any means either, so it's a minor improvement at most.

Another notable difference is noticed shortly after that. Your party faces an insurmountable foe and just after your untimely demise, you find that you've been rescued!... Sans one member of the team you'd just decided on. Throughout the game, this fourth party slot will be filled by a myriad of characters that are aiding you in your quest, with your final member not making an appearance until the very last bit of the game. I don't inherently hate this idea; had it been implemented a bit differently, I think it could've been really cool. However, in its current form, it doesn't give you much reason to focus on leveling or equipping your temporary members, as the levels they gain don't reflect in your future members, and the gear they are equipped with is no longer in your possession when they leave your party. I think it would've been great if, for example, when Temporary Party Member number 1 left, they'd return your gear and Temporary Party Member number 2 joined with their same level. However, strictly speaking, this would be impossible due to a new system introduced in FF II.

Welcome to Final Fantasy II, where the levels are made up and the stats don't matter! The first part of that is true, anyways. FF II does away with the traditional system of getting enough XP to level up, which would marginally increase your stats across the board. Instead, it takes the approach of you leveling each skill or proficiency independently, and awarding stat bonuses based off of that. Get hit a bunch? Nice, here's some extra HP. Swing that sword a ton? Nice, your sword proficiency has increased and you'll do more damage. You have a token White Mage-esque character to spam Cure? Congrats, your Cure spell will level up, restoring more health per cast, and your MP pool is increased. I see a lot of discourse for this system, but I actually really liked it. Using the skills that you want to actually gain experience makes sense to me, and I didn't find myself missing the original level system at all.

I played this entry with the remastered soundtrack as well and, much like the first game, I was more than happy with its toots and tones. I think my favorite track in this one was the general purpose boss theme that played when you fought one of several bosses in the game. Something about the, (what I think is a flute?), gives me the feeling of the fight heating up and really lends itself to an intense encounter.

Between the first two games, I'd say I prefer the second one, with the winning points being the actual protagonists and the weapon/skill proficiency system over traditional levels. The difference isn't much, like I'm not about to tell someone Final Fantasy II is leagues beyond the first game, but I do think they are just distinct enough that most people would have a preference for one over the other.