Rate top gamesFinal Fantasy II (1988)
About
Final Fantasy II is a fantasy role-playing video game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) in 1988 for the Family Computer as the second installment of the Final Fantasy series. The game has received numerous enhanced remakes for the WonderSwan Color, the PlayStation, the Game Boy Advance, the PlayStation Portable, and multiple mobile and smartphone types. As neither this game nor Final Fantasy III were initially released outside Japan, Final Fantasy IV was originally released in North America as Final Fantasy II, so as not to confuse players. The most recent releases of the game are enhanced versions for the iOS and Android, which were released worldwide in 2010 and 2012, respectively.
The game's story centers on four youths whose parents were killed during an army invasion by the empire of Palamecia, who are using hellspawn to conquer the world. Three of the four main characters join a rebellion against the empire, embarking on missions to gain new magic and weapons, destroy enemy superweapons, and rescue leading members of the resistance. The Game Boy Advance remake adds a bonus story after the game is completed.
Final Fantasy II introduced many elements that would later become staples of the Final Fantasy franchise, including chocobos and the recurring character Cid. It also eliminated the traditional experience point leveling system of the previous and later games in the series, instead introducing an activity-based progression system where the characters' statistics increase according to how they are used or acquired. Despite being a sequel to Final Fantasy, the game includes no characters or locations from the first game. Final Fantasy II received little attention at the time from non-Japanese reviewers, though its remakes have garnered favorable reviews.
System requirements for Game Boy Advance
System requirements for iOS
System requirements for Nintendo 3DS
System requirements for Wii U
System requirements for Wii
System requirements for PSP
System requirements for PlayStation
System requirements for NES
Final Fantasy II (1988) reviews and comments
At first, I was pleasantly surprised of the amount of plot this game starts with, unlike its predecessor you'll unravel a lot of things and a lot of things will happen, this was the thing that I liked the most, the main cast is basic and somehow dull but the supporting cast is pretty good, I was genuinely moved by some of the plot twists within this game, also is safe to assume that this was the basis for a lot of things that happen in later entries.
Gameplay-wise is were things start to shake a little, before I continue, I have to say that this game has an exploit that power-ups your weapons and magic and is completely broken, I did use this exploit but mainly to fasten up the grindy parts of this game, and balance things up, this way I wasn't OP but I didn't have to grind, my advice is that you use it wisely to have fun and a good challenge. The part that is not fun in the gameplay is its individual growth nature, in order for you to upgrade your attack you have to attack, to have defence, get hit, and so on, is not that great but isn't terrible, if only they did it different with the HP and MP, if you want your HP go up for example, you have a good % of your total HP to go down, if you heal yourself before the battle ends your opportunity to grow up that stat will disappear, same with MP, when you get like 100 of MP you have to make a lot of spells in each battle for the system to recognize that you can upgrade it, this translates to slow and repetitive grind that can at times kill the mood this game has
As far as character design and environment design they're pretty good and the music is amazing too, I loved some tunes, particularly the overworld and the 1st boss battle theme, this one is incredible. For all things considered, FF II is superior to its predecessor in almost every therm, I can see why it has a bad wrap but it is also way too misguided and unfair. If you want to try this game please give it a go, my recommendation is that you use the "attack" exploit with moderation to have a nice balance of fun and challenge.