Game:

Final Fantasy II (1988)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 24:47

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What is Final Fantasy II?

Four youths are fleeing from their hometown of Fynn as the Empire declares war on Fynn for the evulz, I guess, the name never really gives him a reason as to why he declared war, he just does. Hey, man, it was a game from the 80s, storytelling in video games, RPGs included, weren't seen as important back then. Unfortunately, the four youths fall during the escape but are saved by the princess of Fynn, Hilda. The four join the Wild Rose Rebellion, but who knows if they knew just how far their journey would take them.

As mentioned in the previous paragraph and in a manner similar to Final Fantasy I, Final Fantasy II once again sees the player commandeering a party of four youths to adventure throughout the game's world and right wrongs left, right, and center, but things are considerably different this time around. A good example of this is the game's level up system. Rather than having a class and character level, your characters all have various weapon proficiency levels and spell proficiency levels. For example, Firion, Maria, and Guy all have a sword skill, as does every other party member in the game. If you have these characters all equip swords, then their sword skill will increase and they will become better at fighting with swords. The same applies to all other weapons: the more a character fights with that weapon type, such as swords and axes, the better the character will be when fighting when they have a weapon of that type equipped.

Your characters also have spell levels, too, but only for the spells that they have learned from scrolls, which can either be purchased from shops or won from battles with certain types of monsters. There is no Cura spell or Cure2 spell this time around, it's just Cure and you have to level it up yourself, a lot, with each character. Honestly, I actually prefer this system compared to Final Fantasy I's because it's more realistic, as poopy an argument as that is for such a system, but think about it: in real life, if you have a warrior spend his entire life fighting with a spear, and then you suddenly go and give him, say, and axe instead? He's gonna know a thing or two about fighting with spears, but when it comes to fighting with axes, he's a complete noob. That's not to say that I don't see the criticisms that others have with this system, it's just that I prefer it like this, and believe it or not, we'll be seeing this system in at least one other game on this channel at some point in the future, i.e., Quest 64.

Final Fantasy II is also the first Final Fantasy game that tried to tell an actual story when compared to Final Fantasy I's "go save the crystals" story. The characters still don't really have any backstory to speak of, which is a shame, but again, it's a game from the 80s, so again, what can you do?

One criticism that I see others bring up is the password system, where you can learn a word and repeat it to certain other characters, and if that word is important to the plot point that you're at, then you'll get some info. If it isn't, everyone just stares at you like you're some sort of mental patient. If you were to remove the entire password thing entirely, you wouldn't lose anything, story-wise.

Now, please note that I am playing the Pixel Remaster version of Final Fantasy II, so that means that I can't exploit some bugs and glitches from previous versions of Final Fantasy II to, say, make the grinding faster, but from my experience, Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster has tons of other fixes that more than make up for, say, not being able to have your characters attack from the back row and miss constantly and still somehow build up your weapon experience. Hey, at least I have the platinum achievement for this game, do you?

All in all, Final Fantasy II is a bit of a black sheep amongst the main series Final Fantasy games, but if you want to play Final Fantasy II and you don't want to suffer through the nonsense of the earlier versions, or if you're like me and prefer the learn-by-doing system that this game pioneered, then I definitely think you should check it out. Just remember that grinding in this game will take a fair little amount of time.

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