Game:

Final Fantasy II (1988)

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Final Fantasy II, the one Final Fantasy game that everyone seems to hate, alongside Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy XIII, this one, however, while I do like quite a bit, can understand where a lot of that hatred comes from.

For example, there is no traditional level-up system. Instead, your characters' stats will grow depending on what actions they take during battle. Fight with Swords long enough, and eventually, that character's Strength will increase as will their Sword Proficiency Level. Another thing is that nobody is restricted on what equipment they can use. Everyone can use Swords and so they all have a Sword Proficiency Level that will increase the more they fight with swords, and there are other weapon skills, too. You also have Spell Proficiency Levels, so no Fire 2/Fira or the like, there is just Fire and it's strength increases the more a character who knows that spell uses it. Now, I was using the Boosters to speed up the grinding, but I do actually like Final Fantasy II's character progression system. It makes more sense from a realism standpoint, you see.

I noticed during this playthrough that the random encounter rate is through the roof. I mean, I got Leila and Ricard stronger than I ever had prior to this playthrough, but still, it was so annoying, you know? Another annoying thing is that I now fully understand what ProJared meant about the dungeon design being crappy, and that's without the trap rooms that you're going to encounter in literally every single dungeon except for the last one. Thankfully, the Pixel Remaster lowers the trap rooms encounter rates to be the same as the rest of the dungeon, so no more of those trap rooms taking 2-3 battles just to walk back out the room, thank God.

Some of the updated music is okay, but I honestly would preferred that they use the PSP or GBA version's soundtrack. Thankfully, you can switch it over to the NES/Famicom version's OST, if you so desire.

Overall, Final Fantasy II is, for me, the weirdest of the mainline Final Fantasy games, as whether I like it or not depends entirely on which version of the game you're talking about. If we're going with the NES/Famicom or PS1 ports, then avoid them like the plague, but if we're talking about the GBA, PSP, Smartphone, or Pixel Remaster versions, then I say you could play worse. You could play better, but you could also play worse.

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