Ah good catch. I was so focused on using the Excalibur in FF1, I forgot about the Masamune in that game. I love how all the games have their own Masamune in them
@@seansullivan7928Not true, the Nintendo Power strategy guide actually had some of the spell bugs mentioned, such as Lamp. But they didn’t know about the elemental and crit bugs and such, just saw some spells weren’t actually working as intended.
The quality of life updates really help this game. Its still a shame that the bonus dungeon isnt around. I enjoyed the backstory of the destroy spell and the guy doomed to spend an eternity protecting it.
@GiordanDiodato They were just like everything else in this game. Either you were over-leveled and crushed everything. Or you were not, and it was a struggle to neigh impossible to beat. The two super bosses were like that, too. Unfortunately. :/
@@jimmyrolls37 I love the PSP versions too but at least the PR has auto battle that also fast forwards things. Which means I don't have to play FF2 as much.
@@GiordanDiodato It is. Your party starts at early-mid game levels of power (minus Ricard) while the final dungeon is en par with Pandemonium in power level. You have to grind for quite awhile in the Jade Passage to even stand a chance, and even then I kept going in, fighting a few fights, and having to leave because I simply wasn't powerful enough yet. It's a 1 hour story surrounded by 6 hours of grinding.
I mean, Final Fantasy was not always completely fantasy. The first installment has bits of sci-fi with the appearance of robots and the Flying Fortress.
Some of this guy critics were quite forced imo and don't make a lot Sense. Like we know that the fourth party member is constantly Changing due to story reasons,this happens in 4,2,5,6 and many others so i don't get how that's bad or wastes your time
The Teleport and Toad spells absolutely destroy 90% of the game once you get them. Both sre effectively instant-death spells, but you can access them much earlier than the actual Death spell, and work on far more enemies, even most bosses.
28:37 Kain's last name in IV is also Highwind. Also the King of Tycoon in V is named Alexander Highwind Tycoon, though I'm not sure if his full name is ever mentioned in the game. The battle mechanics of this game really do feel like a prototype of the SaGa series sometimes.
i actually really like final fantasy 2, despite its flaws. I've beaten the nes version twice, and the pixel remaster twice. the battle system is actually a really unique, intuitive, and natural way to level up, despite its flaws. pixel remaster is the way to go, but if i had to pick flaws, the battle system obviously, lack of end game grinding/unique high level monsters to keep it interesting, lack of optional side quests which considering its an nes game is understandable, and the dungeon 'doors to nowhere' ugh. the music is just great. i love this game though. EDIT: another minor qualm i have with this game is the bosses. often times, the bosses are just higher level monsters that you eventually fight later in the game. in other ff games, they have unique bosses that aren't just high level monsters.
The GBA and PSP versions add a story quest after the main quest witch is played with the charecter that have died and its really worth playing if you are a fan of ff2
I don't care what anyone says, I loved FF2. I've only ever played the pixel remaster but I still enjoyed it a lot. The leveling system is different and innovative but it's not a deal breaker. The story is fantastic and the music is phenomenal. Eventually I'll play every version of FF2. The one complaint I have is that your last character is always rotating, which is odd considering you can't expect to max that character's stats because there's essentially no point if they die off later in the game. But being able to dual-wield is fun as hell! And giving anyone any spell in the game is wild, I enjoyed the progression of my spells the more I use them.
I’ve been playing the pixel remasters and using the boost options. Holy crap has it made the experience so much more enjoyable. I remember playing the old versions on roms and they were brutal. I don’t care if they trivialize things a bit, I’d rather have a fun gameplay experience.
I agree, that the boost is the best way to enjoy the game. But when I use it, I can’t help but feel like “this is wrong”. It’s sad that the intended way to play the game makes it such a slog to get through.
Man came across this randomly. Instantly got my like and subscribe. The 333 subscribers is absolutely not reflective of the quality. Great audio sound and volume, good video structure. Good editing and background visuals. We need to get this guy’s stuff out there is this is top tier in my opinion. Good stuff man.
Cool video. While Final Fantasy 2 is not a game I'd really play for fun, it has some merit as paving the way for things that would come later, those things namely being Final Fantasy solidifying its direction away from the quirks of Final Fantasy 2 and the SaGa series. Maybe if Final Fantasy 2 was originally localized for territories outside of Japan and if it had been positively received then Final Fantasy and JRPGs would probably be a lot different.
I really like Final Fantasy II- I always have. I stick Maria in the front row and make her use swords. Make Firion a white mage, Maria a black mage, and Guy a support. I've never done the nonsense where you hit yourself to get stronger- I just play the game and only grind for less than 5 minutes when I'm in over my head in an area (which isn't too often). Darker story, great soundtrack, tight experience than be finished in under 10 hours. I like it a lot! This game gets way, way too much hate. Same with FFVIII.
No it just isn't made for casual JRPG fans. Think about it, the people who hate Final Fantasy II...what do they think of other 8 bit JRPGs and what do they think about the SaGa franchise? Final Fantasy II is both of those. People say the Mastery system is "good in theory but bad in execution" are lying to themselves. They have redone the mastery system for Final Fantasy II 6 times,there's 12 SaGa games,The Legend of Legacy and The Alliance Alive (both were made by former SaGa staff members) if they haven't thought it has worked even a single time...they just don't like the Mastery system. Final Fantasy II "wastes your time" as much as any other 8 bit RPG. Ys I is only 6 hours long but it would be about 3 if it wasn't for the backtracking. People in the west legally only got Final Fantasy II in 2003 so it was going to be seen as archaic no matter what. Even judging it to the SaGa series it came across as archaic, it came out 4 years after SaGa Frontier II. 😊
Played it for the first time as the Pixel Remaster. After doing some grinding in the early zones, I ended up over leveled for most of the game. Not ridiculously powerful but strong enough to continue without much trouble. Additionally I would just hit optimize and my party would swap weapons. Eventually they all ended up skilled with most weapons.
People will drag FF2 for the exact same reasons they praise Morrowind and TES games. -use skills to level skills -spend hours grinding -open world go anywhere even if you arent supposed to yet -branching dialog and keywords -hitting yourself for HP is literally falling off buildings to boost acrobatics
I see you renamed the cast to later FF games. When I play FF7, I'll be sure to do the same and rename Cloud, Tifa, and Barret to Firion, Maria, and Guy respectively to balance the pettiness.
@@sunderwire Indeed I know the feeling. I'm totally guilty of renaming my first FFT Generics Luneth, Refia, Arc and Ingus, and pretending that they got Isekai'd into Ivalice somehow to fight alongside Ramza in the final battles at Murond Death City...
Just beat the PSX version of the game today! I love this game, despite all of its flaws. My biggest problems with the game were that the game had a nack for being annoying, either for the sake of padding or from not properly implementing mechanics. Dungeons regressed from FFl thanks to adding empty rooms with forced battles, which makes maps a must have. Magic leveling took too long since magic increased by 1 point per use, meaning you'd have to cast a spell 100 times before it raised up a level; the exception to this was Cure since you could cast it multiple times in the overworld if your party was low health, and it would raise by 2 points per use. Without the cursor select bug, you'd never get proper use of magic except for buff spells if you used them enough. Even if you were willing to level up these spells individually, only a select few spells have any real uses. These spells are: Osmose at any level, Holy/Flare if you get them high enough, Cure, Life, Berserk, Haste, Shield/Shell, Warp at any level, Blink, and a high level Swap if you plan on increasing your MP and HP. All of the buff spells are useful at any point, but I can't say the same for offensive spells at all. Almost all enemies that get annihilated by a type advantage spell are killed just as easily with simple attacks, although Holy and Flare are good for all enemies with high physical defense. The same can't be said for Ultima, which is this game's ultimate disappointment. The wrath of the ancients said to annihilate ancient evil gets out done by *EVERY* spell that can deal damage, with Flare 16 dealing 1000 damage less than Flare 16 at a measly 560 damage, and getting outclassed by Holy 10 by over 500 damage. The coveted war-ending spell that people died trying to obtain is completely obsolete in comparison to everything short of a wooden staff, all according to the developer's flawed intentions. There is basically no reason you should use offensive spells after the beginning of the game outside of pure curiosity, since you can do just about anything with a Berserk or Haste cast. There is also the 4th party member slot, which is less of an issue compared to everything else, but still. You get temporary party members of various strength, who range from being above average to deadweight. Since the game assumes how much experience you have at certain points in the game, you typically get members who only serve as a fourth member and nothing more. The exceptions to this are Mindu, a powerful white mage for the early game, and Leila and Josef, who are strong fighters with an Ice Bow and unarmed respectively. Excluding Leon, if your fourth party member is underleveled, they are going to stay that way until they leave your party since there is no point in powering them up. These are my main gripes with this game, and they are singlehandedly responsible for giving this game a bad wrap. If you get around this game's status as a black sheep, however, you get to experience one of the unique RPGs around. You get a grim war story with a heavier narrative than in FF1, with a depressing story where victories are almost always followed up by another loss, music that pairs excellently with the courageous but hopeless, and a flawed but functional experience system that allows for a lot of replayability. This game is good, and Final Fantasy as a series only got better from here. Whenever you get the chance to, you should give this game a try.
Most importantly, FFII paved the way for SaGa which is an absolutely fantastic series. Minstrel Song and Romancing SaGa 3 ranks higher for me than most FFs.
the game designed to help you progress NATURALLY with those dungeons encounter rate, and most dungeon only have 5 floors, except on the late game (Typhoon/Mysidia/Pandaemonium). but projared worshippers surely HAVE TO beating themselves to this very date and cursing the game, because their only REAL LIFE ACHIEVEMENT is by having 9999 HP. Its short, and fun FF entry with ton of replay value. You can finish the game easily in under 10hours with around 3k HP on each characters and 200MP on Firion/Maria without projaredWorshippers masochist exploit.
You find out the Empire is building a death star and then the Death Star blows up Alderaan and then you find out it has a single weakness that blows it up? You weren't kidding about this being Star Wars
Final Fantasy 2's growth system reminds me of FF8's junction system but without leveling stats. If it was just drawing magic and junctioning the magic would purely change the stats of a character..
If nothing else final fantasy 2 is proof that final fantasy was always experimental. Honestly it's actually not terrible once you adjust to its oddities
FFII is pretty low on my list, but I don't hate it. I really like rotating fourth characters, Minwu in particular. I also appreciate what they were trying to do with the leveling system, even if it is clunky and easily abused.
This game has a bad reputation, but I still like it. This game's many battle system oddities was enough for a lot of people to say no to. I thought it was an interesting choice, but in the end you could swear all your party members were channeling their inner Darkness when you can literally punch yourself in the face for stat increases. The story was what stood out for me with a memorable main villain in the Emperor and a complex story that was told well in an era when such things were not very common. It is worth a playthrough.
Plus part of FFII was a easter egg in FFIX. Was able to beat FFII on the playstation myself. Sadly kinda like the artwork from the playstation more than the latest version.
My first experience with FF2 was a translated rom, and my first full playthrough was Dawn Of Souls on the GBA. The training style of character growth, I had already enjoyed in Daggerfall and Quest For Glory, so while it did take me off guard at first, I figured out an optimal way of grinding, which involved putting a shield in the dominant hand, nothing in the other hand, and a weight on the A button. They'd punch themselves in the shield while I walked away, and when I got back, they'd reach the next tier of monk damage. I laughed when the Emperor claimed to be "beyond the hand of man," and then my party punched him to death pretty quickly. Of course, the experience was helped by the fact that Dawn Of Souls actively increases how quickly character get powerful, thus reducing grind times.
I got through the game. But I cheesed it by attacking my own characters and casting spells on them to level myself up faster. Lol. But its a weird game. I didn't find it that bad. It was enjoyable.
I played the Origins version. The game has a lot of problems. I can’t imagine it being anyone’s favorite. Trap rooms with tough encounters after 1-step, trap floors with ridiculous encounters on the lower floor (looking at you ghast), and one section in particular requiring me to ferry my party back and forth across a long stretch of ocean to refill my magic for grinding. I did grind, and went out of my way for as many weapons/armor chests as I could find. Blood Sword definitely made a particular fight an absolute joke which I rather enjoyed after all the bullshit I went through. Maybe I’ll play the Pixel Remaster version someday if they ever add boosts from the console releases. It’s the only one I haven’t touched in that collection.
The Pixel Remaster was the first version where that was finally good. It's still the most grindy one, but the auto-battle helps immensely here. I'd just equip my characters with weak versions of whatever weapon I wanted to build up and let it do its thing. Meanwhile, have my spellcasters work on healing or buffs of something. It proved quite effective.
I think most people don't like FF2 because it's gameplay is more close to the Saga games (Instead of leveling up, the characters' individual stats increase) which I feel that makes it the predecessor to the Saga games.
My personal justification for those trapped dead-end high encounter chance rooms They're janitor closets, bedrooms, break rooms, jail cells, storage rooms, dining rooms, and everything with similar uses, but they've been emptied out after the construction of whatever dungeon you're in, and since then, infested by the Empire's Monsters. That said, if the dungeon is the Dreadnought warship or the Emperor's place or like, Pandemonium or Hell, it's probably left unfinished or meant to be a deliberate trap. In fact, that could very well be the case for the dungeon creators too, making it so Monsters' breeding grounds n nests can fit in there, because possibly they're hoping it'll trap hostile fellas. Like with Kashuon, the castle is probably deliberately trapped and bugged with all sorts of creatures in all sorts of useless rooms, and Gordon seems to not know much about the Castle. Masamune is a sword in nearly every game, and it's first seen in Final Fantasy 1 in the Chaos Temple 2000 years ago, found on a diagonal path before slaying a buffed Tiamat clone. Biggs as well as Wedge are found first in Final Fantasy 6, assuming we aren't counting naming FF1's party members, FF3's, or subsequent material in FF4, revealing Biggs and Wedge to have been part of the Red Wings with Cecil. Cid dying in this game is singlehandedly the worst thing about this game. In fact, it's only bad because of that. Dude didn't deserve it, he was just being a chill grandpa... That kid n his mom at Deist, the kid's apparently named Kain. This probably isn't the same Kain we see in FF4, I'd assume this is either hundreds of years after FF2 or that it's a sort of Marvel Earth-616 situation where different things happen differently. It's implied Leon left a sword in Fabul long ago. This also isn't the only game with a Wyvern, or only one Wyvern left, given Hiryuu is all that remains (ignoring any other wyverns that supposedly are elsewhere). The Emperor is slain, goes to Hell, defeats Satan and becomes the ruler of Hell, and returns as an extremely life-threatening extinction level event. The fact that Firion, Maria, Leon, and Guy are literally just four kids who lost their families in Fynn and almost died themselves really solidifies the message that anyone can be a hero if they simply choose to and put all of their willpower into making the world a better place. While Chocobos aren't in FF1, there are often depicted statues of them in royal castle areas. What that indicates to me is that because of FF1's events causing a bunch of time alteration, chocobos were once extinct and this is no longer the case. I wonder why Highwind got to be a popular last name. That said...anyways, thanks for the video, I myself love FF2 almost as much as FF1 and FF4, my other two favorites. After FF4, I'd honestly put FF1, 2, 6, 3, and 7 as my favorites so far. I also really enjoy FF5, FF8, FF9, and I also wish people hadn't treated FF2 like it was irredeemable garbage for this long. It's only coming around to be enjoyed now, but I also think it's awful because Cid shouldn't have been killed and that's a load of--
Wait... FFII is the one they hate for NES? FFII was my favorite for thr NES. If anything FFIII was the one I could see being hated. And it's definitely better than Final Fantasy 13! Did I just shift into a different universe?
Agreed, everyone overrates ff3j because of it's job system, but the job system in 3 is really shit and horribly balanced. For instance the fighter job stops being useful after you get knights and the fighter job itself stops getting new gear to equip forcing you into the knight, this happens with almost all the air jobs. The water jobs have the opposite problem, you get them and they can't equip shit because the game won't give you gear for them until you do more the story, like why even give you the jobs. Thankfully the ds version fixes a lot of these issues and I'd recommend that over the famicom version any day, unless you really like the OG ninjas or sages for some reason.
Empty rooms in dungeons aren’t an issue if you use the map properly. Go in one room and you see inside every room on that floor, then you know where to go
the leveling system is easy to understand the tougher the enemy encounters the better stat growth your party members get easier enemy encounters net you next to nothing only wasting your time fighting weaker trash
There was little balance and if you hit a TVtropes beef gate, you automatically lose. Good idea to cast weaker area of effect spells to hit yourself and survive, especially if you used a bow as back row doesn't take much damage. Leveling esuna to cure debuffs was a pain too, but Boost helped a ton.
played this first on the PS1 so i knew what i was doing , it was differernt but still love this game . is it bad no . but just like mario 2 , zelda 2 , castlevania 2 and other games , they tried something new and they were all good.
Mario 2 USA was orignally a different, licensed IP that the Mario Bros team developed; and all of the those games took ideas from them and incorporated into later entries.
I just beat the Pixel remaster, 100% it too. I thought it was 0K but the last dungeon got pretty annoying. I don't think the game was well balanced either, tbf most FF games suffer from balancing (funnily enough 13 is prob the best in this aspect, the one people always cry about). Overall it's probably bottom tier for me, even below 12 and 15, but it wasn't terrible.
i mean Between FF13 and FF2 FF13 gate keeping power leveling made sense. the only thing that was balanced bad in FF13 was the summons. the ff13 summons feel like DPS chainers than Finishers like in other final fantasy games. I did discover the different weapons that have different effects in FF13 do affect summon gameplay like Lightinings axis-blade giving lightning more summon drive attacks max's out at 50 drive attacks for lighting when she summons Odin compared to the usual 24-27 drive attacks without axis-blade.
Before I watch, when I originally played this in the mid to late 90s I didn’t like it; it was different and we don’t like things that are different. It didn’t help having only a fan translation and no formal manual to understand the game mechanics. It wasn’t until I got it on PS1 and had some form of instructions to understand how the game is played that the game opened up to me and I had a new appreciation for the game. Considering the memory limitations of the NES I think the story was good for its time The story contained a strong theme of loss. It’s is now my 4th favorite FF game.
The interact barracuda 2 programable controller can make it easier to power up. Getting unarmed skill to 12 or higher allows you to plow through battles. Max sword skill combined with 2 blood swords makes the final boss a joke.
I mean I think Mega Man 3 is one of the best ones too. I myself have my favorite at Mega Man 1, so I think _that's_ a stranger opinion overall. That in mind, I don't entirely think those apply as well considering they're a very similar experience barring Mega Man 7, 8, & Bass, and 11, but while they're similar they're still wonderful in their execution except for & Bass and I cannot stand listening to or playing 8. I'd say Final Fantasy 2 is the Mega Man X 5 of JRPGs; not perfect and definitely glitchy and buggy and stinky but you know that it has potential and promise and if it had even more time maybe it'd be a perfect game. That and it shifted the formulaic approach really hard.
Mega-Man 1 and 5 are generally regarded as the least favourite entries either for some bad game design or just being underwhelming. 3’s got it’s detractors but it’s mostly regarded as one of the good ones.
Have two characters cast berserk, one cast blink, and one cast haste on everyone to start, no weapons go unarmed and you'll punch your way to the final boss.
Final Fantasy II's mechanics aren't bad, just poorly implemented. The progression-by-use system is the very foundation of (among others) the Elder Scrolls series, and we all know how popular *that* series got over time. But because of how... janky it was, and because Square wanted a more defined progression system, they lured Akitoshi Kawazu (the brainparent of Final Fantasy II's system) away from Final Fantasy, and he went on to create the SaGa series (which started off titled "The Final Fantasy Legend"), which... is an eccentric series, to say the least.
Normally you'd get a guaranteed encounter with an enemy whenever you tried to exit those empty rooms. They used to be an absolute pain in the butt. I suppose they undid that with the pixel remaster, which is actually a very good thing. Those rooms were pretty much the incarnation of frustration before. With that factor gone, they are just empty rooms and meh. Pretty much one of the worst parts of the game was alleviated. Try one of the older ports, it will drive you insane. I can promise that, haha
I just recently completed ff2 from the pixel remaster and I didn't care for the magic system. For the majority of the game, I didnt even equip a weapon on anyone and had everyone punching away.it wasnt until the final dungeon that I finally equipped weapons on people.
I've loved this since I first played it (I pre-ordered Final Fantasy Origins to get it) and its among my five favorite games in the series. Final Fantasy Legend/Saga II was the first Square RPG I ever played so the stat growth system was familiar and I've always had a soft spot for rebellion against evil empire stories.
I also love this game but we clearly are the minority within the community 😅 I was around ten years old when I played this the first time. English is not my first language, so at the time I wasnt able to understand that I need to find the secret wall in the pub in the beginning. Instead I wandered around the world map until I basically was strong enough to explore all of it 😂 That’s why it has a special place in my heart
@@suchendelokidottir5673 Honestly FFVIII is getting more love these days, I'd say FFXIII is easily the most hated while XII remains the weird black sheep, granted I've played through the XIII trilogy more than 3 times and will do so again lol
What are you talking about Final Fantasy II is an amazing game! I can remember having so much fun playing it on Super Nintendo over thirty years ago. Memories that will last a lifetime. *Mutter mutter* What's that, say that again? *mutter mutter mutter* Final Fantasy II was actually Final Fantasy IV? Oh...um, well. *Runs*😅
Enjoyment of this game can depend on a lot of seemingly arbitrary choices with consequences the game doesn't explain. The back row, bows, and heavy armor are all basically traps that can be safety ignored or (if you really really want to) saved for the endgame. They'll all inhibit crucial stat growth in one way or another. The biggest problem with bows is that you can't equip a shield, and shields are your very best friends. It helps so much to keep your evade% as high as possible at all times to improve agility growth.
I think the overall biggest fault of the game over anything is how boring and tedious all the back and forth fetch quest stuff really was. I completely lost count at how many times I was forced to go back to Altair which was wayyyy too much.
This game wasnt terrible but it had some serious flaws and oversights. Such as becoming overpowered way too early by manipulating the battle to hit yourself or the totally broken magic system.
Hitting yourself will come to bite you later with enemies with life drain physical attacks. In versions before the Pixel Remaster having only one nude for the most of the game frontliner serves better. It can put your evasion at absurd levels and Evasion is the god stat of the game.
In a proverbial sense, it is fair to say that Final Fantasy is a D&D fangame. Whereas Final Fantasy II is the first real Final Fantasy. I also find it funny how many later tropes that started in FFVI that you've attributed to FFVII.
The only problem I had with this game was the advancement of the storyline. . . I got so lost trying to figure out how to move the story along that I was an absolute demon by the time I figured out what went wrong. . . Some advancements in the story required interactions I had to guess at and wander aimlessly talking to folks I never thought of to unlock things . . . . It was incredibly complicated
FF2 for Famicom was translated into English, put on a NES cart and even advertised in Nintendo Power. The only reason it wasn't released on the NES was the system was at the end of its life cycle. Nintendo of America made the decision not to release it or 3 in North America.
~25:00 -- you didn't even need Blood sword cheese to beat the emperor! 😲 But yeah, that's some cheese you can use for this particular game is to hit the emperor with the blood sword (think there are two in the PSX version, don't recall about PR) and itt'll do a TON of damage. That said, looks like you didn't need it.
I recently 100% ff2 myself. I thought it was good maybe not the best in series but not the worse either though I don't think I could rate a worse I loved all the ones I played so far even spin offs like type 0 and world of final fantasy. Actually i just started 8 for the first time and was so confused when they used squall instead leon because they call him leon in my favorite sqaure enix series kingdom hearts. Although i have been trying to keep to defult names as much as possible i had to make exception for 8 i couldnt play with the main charcter named sqaull so he's leon doing my gameplay
Pixel remaster rebalances it so it isn't near as annoying as it used to be. Unfortunately that also trivializes a lot of it makes it super easy. That said, will mention the good, excellent soundtrack that is one of the best in the series. Very ambitious game on release with it's focus on story. That said, other games have done the story focused game much better. Leaving Final Fantasy 2 in the unfortunate position of not being much fun to play. It is definitely the worst of the first 9 games. It isn't even a really bad game, and one could argue that it is better than FF III, but this series peaked about Final Fantasy 5 - 9. The earlier games all have their issues, the later games have a massive identify crisis and suffer from the curse of popularity. Final Fantasy XIII is worse though.
You can always Halve or remove Boost gains 😂. I halved that in ff6 until I got my espers so my stat gains and setzer'a fixed dice with a black belt would be epic.
@MrVariant Wasn't available on release unfortunately. I like halving encounter rates and upping the exp gain 25%. Makes the game harder but also less frustrating as encounters are rarer.
@MrScigeek101 hm when did they update Boost to tweak encounter rates and experience like that? I remember playing with on/off for random encounters, and 0, 1/2, normal, double and quadruple exp/gil or whatever special levels the games had (like ff2 weapon/magic levels or ff5 ability points/ff6 esper growth). Wish ff3 told ya about defending 5 times to job level every battle, which I doubt Boost fixed (only helps to max shurikens end game as its too much for onion knight and they need rare drops of onion gear and hopefully not duplicates), but do tell me if I am wrong. Surprisingly, the improved font and original music were console exclusives, and discounted bundle after buying 1 of the games, a steam/ios exclusive (I got 1, 2, 4 and 6 for $14 after only buying 3 and 5 when they updated boost for iOS).
Really great video! I've owned the PSP version of FF2 for a very long time now but never really got around to beating it. Figured the pixel remasters would be a good chance to give it another go, and from watching this it honestly comes across as just a nice little fun rpg romp with some kinks here and there. Keep up the good work!
I've played FF2 on GBA and while I couldn't say I hate it I also didn't like it, Pixel Remaster's exp toggle and turn off encounter sounds like a godsend to me as those are what I have problems with. Skill & stats grind is kinda absurd for this game so the faster the better, and while I don't really mind encounter rate but some of the enemies do being either annoying or shot up in difficulty spike at some points and don't get me started on that horrible Dungeon design with all those empty rooms. Would give it another shot with PR version. Also f**k Soul of Rebirth, glad PR didn't include it even tho it's good for the lore but it waste more time having to grind more party members when you know they will be dead in the main story.
Anyone see the similarities to star wars and fft? Or did anyone read the memory of heroes book version of ff1-ff3? Fun times. 27:27 smoking marlboros for bad breath 😂
A review of a game, with a focus on its achievements/trophies? Surprised I haven't seen that more to be honest. Still sad these Pixel Remasters skipped Xbox as that's my main system, but I do have a PS4 as well.
I've played the Famicom version of this game at least 7 times over the years. For the time it was made, the ideas in this game were just incredibly revolutionary. The real problem was it was rushed out the door. I know a lot about how the stat leveling works and have spent some time thinking about how I would have solved the balance issues. If FF2 had been given the time to be properly polished, it could have really changed the genre. EXP/level systems may have been the uncommon one instead
I think FF2 set the bedrock for how Final Fantasy stories would be told in the near future. I actually do like the gameplay, but that's only because I have the free reign to emulate it and abuse the fast forward mechanic to get through battles faster. I can imagine leveling spells, beating yourself up and purposefully running full shields for evasion grinding would be such an agonizing process in the long run, especially for completionists.
Holy fuck those empty rooms were fukin KILLER in the NES version. I used am emulator to play it and I learned to just use save states for those rooms. You had like a 50% chance per goddamn tile to get a fight and they were rarely pushovers lol So I just cheated to ignore them. It was the laaaaziest move Ive ever seen compared to the company behind it.
I thought it was cool game personally. That's whats good about final fantasy games each game has its own adventures styles with it own fair share of surprises and experimental systems to play. 3 and 5 are the only ones that have the same systems to eachother. A Great and legendary series.
I thought FFII would have made a great candidate for a souped up "remake" approach to show off the story (possibly including the novelization) and characters, and tweak the progression system a little bit and revamp the dungeons
It's a strange game. It's not one I would recommend for a chill time. However, if you know the game mechanics well and how to "level" your stats, you can break this game in half and turn it into a power trip. I went away from the plot, grinded against enemies I found until I reliably kill them, and slowly made my way across the map. When I came back, I blitzed through most of the game easy.
The game isn't terrible by any means it's just that they concepts were executed poorly. The enemy placement was wildly imbalanced. You could run into mid-game enemies not three steps from the starting town, and escaping is borderline impossible, leading to unavoidable game overs. Magic was useless when you were multitargeting, unless you were hitting a weakness. All multitarget spells divide their effectiveness by 8 (there can be up to 8 enemies onscreen, and there are usually less than that). Status effects were useless unless you cast them hundreds of times and by then, you could have just leveled and attack spell or weapon and just killed them (which is a problem in a lot of JRPGs, which is pronounced a hundredfold here). It was a shame to because status effects were actually elementals and certain enemies were weak to them or could absorb and be healed by them. Hell, even the Final Bosses super meteor attack is a joke. Magic was expensive to regenerate, what happened if your HP and MP is low and you can't afford an inn(You can't even heal up partially, it has to be all or nothing)? Permanent status effects that were expensive to remove. You could raise people to 1 HP for free and that's it. Esuna and Basuna needed to be leveled if you wanted to remove the nastier effects. The aforementioned trap rooms were used constantly and wore out their welcome to the point I didn't want to explore dungeons and I cringed when I was forced to select one of several to progress a dungeon. Not to mention, they fucking teleport you inside of them when you enter. It's not like you can just poke your head into a room, see it's empty and leave, no you have to endure the same gimmick over and over and over again. Encounter tiles from FF1 were actually interesting and had a point and can be used to power level your characters if you knew what you were doing. Certain stats were a pain to raise more than others. You could raise HP and Str to god tier levels, but forget raising Agility. The battle music was obnoxious, imagine listening to it for hours and hours do tedious grinding driving you insane. Playing it on the NES and casting a spell on multiple enemies and watching an animation play out and then text boxes popping was pure torture. Once you got the canoe from Minh (which you can get in the first 10 minutes of gameplay), literally 90% of the world opens up. There is very little the Ship and Airship can take you can't get on foor. The world map doesn't feel designed very well. The antagonists in this game are built up very poorly compared to the original. Garland, Astos, and Vampire all had build up to them comparable to the Four Fiends (Vampire dies from one Fire 3 attack and appears as a random enemy later in the game). Even Bikke the Pirate left an impression on me. Not a single boss from this game sticks in my mind like the FF1 bosses, even the ones you just meet on encounter tiles like the Piscodemons that guarded the crown or the Zombie Dragons that guard the tail, or heck, even the random assortment of Mummies and Cockatrice you run into in the room that has a robot with a Cube in it. What do I remember about FF2 bosses? There is a Soul Flame thing that absorbs all magic, even status effect magic, there is the Behemoth in the "Monster Tournament" who is literally the only enemy you fight. Random Elemental Dragons in boxes that guard treasure you don't really need because Swords and Fists pretty much take care of everything (well that and Demons from AD&D mythology like Azaroth and Beezlebub.... like did we treat Lich and Tiamat this way?). The overall plot of the game has a smaller scale than FF1s. You actually have a grand quest to go fight the Four Elemental Generals and the first boss you fight Garland(and the 5 bats in the room you fight him in), actually has a major role in the grand scheme of things. The overworld music is happy and upbeat and the battle music doesn't drive you insane. Here you are just four random kids that get their ass kicked the first 2 minutes and you are you are just common refugees who are told to just stay there and be good little NPCs and you have to go right back to your Doomed Hometown that still had the same people who just curp stomped you in it and you have to go there and do a thing (i forget what) to even officially inducted into the La Resistance. The music in the second game is lonely and sad the whole time. The major antagonist is just a guy who wants to "Rule the World" but he just doesn't do much in the grand scheme of things other than destroy random towns and build a gigantic airship to terrorize people. I remember more about the one-shot villains in the third game than this guy. The motivations from the antagonists from FF1 were more understandable than this guy. He doesn't even have a name, he's just called The Emperor. All in all the game felt like it had a bunch of ideas that sounded good and then stuck to each other without anyone thinking how you everything would fit together.
FF3 is obviously the best of the original Famicom Final Fantasies, but I still have a soft spot for FF2 because I love the leveling system. I know many people don't like it, but I've never understood why, because it just makes so much sense. Use a weapon or a spell enough, you get better at it. So simple, and very true to life. But because there are no level numbers or anything I guess it confuses people.
I think most people enjoy the leveling system as a concept, the issue most people have with it is the _execution._ It's agonizingly slow to level thing when it gets near the 7-10 mark, and then there's butchering your party for stat boosts since monsters eventually net very little EXP. Not to mention that if you spend enough time grinding MP and HP, really easy to do mind you, then you become effectively unkillable for most of the game.
@@somethingsomething9006 Yeah, I can get how people can find it tedious. However, I don't see becoming effectively unkillable for most of the game as a bad thing. Sounds fun to me 😂
@@Arkholt2 Oh it's fun for sure, BUT if you're looking for a game to challenge you or actually give you a reason to pay attention to battles and take it seriously? Then I can see why people getting too powerful too easily is an issue for them,
The thing is final fantasy two tried to do what skyrim did before skyrim did it. Having the ability to create your perfect party by playing the game how you wanted to was entirely ingenious. It's just they needed more time in the oven to cook this because it's already hard to balance a 2d turn-based RPG. But yeah aside from Final Fantasy 5 and 15, this is my favorite Final Fantasy game.
The main developer on this game would go onto developing the Saga games. The Romancing Saga games on the Super Famicom were a natural evolution of this game.
It does make sense and its not a waste of time to level up the character that leave your party in the GBA and PSP version with the souls of rebirth sidequest witch is one of the best and very satisfactory after you end the normal game.
If I can make an honest critique here, I think your videos could do with a bit more attention to sound. For most of this video I fight to hear you over the sound track.
The wonderswan/ps1/gba/psp/pc remakes really improved Final Fantasy II. The original Famicom release had a great set (it was the first "dark and depressing" rpg) and music but the gameplay was totally broken. The remakes corrected that and also introduced one of the best boss themes of the series:Batle scene A.
I thought it was pretty decent, I played a bootleg translation back before it was officially translated to English so the dialogue was a little rough. But it basically had the leveling system of the Elder Scrolls in 1988, which is pretty impressive.
I played ff2 and I watch 2 other people play it as well. I was like and had no issues with the emperor. I also played on PC where the boosted xp and gil is not a thing. The two people I watch had a lot of issues being him. One didn't even beat him. I really liked this game, it had its faults (all those stupid empty rooms) but in general it was fun. I actually like it better than ff3. The entire time I played ff3 I kept thinking that the jobs were useless. You kept getting better versions of them and in the end I beat it with 2 ninjas and 2 sages.
Just played through it. It’s ok and introduced many staples like chocobos, Marlboro, CID..et cetra but the constant character swapping wasn’t great. If I play an RPG I want to shut my brain off and just play. It’s got a mediocre story and if you want you can break the game…very early.
I still call the leveling system in this game my worst enemy, there’s a reason it was never done again the story was good, but god that leveling system will always leave a poor taste in my mouth
My problem with FF2 is the game is too short and lacks bulld up. Whereas most others keep you hanging and then you feel the big "oh that's what's happening." And they really missed an opportunity to expand the game when the 4th hero (Leon) comes bsck, but tries to be the bad guy after the king is defeated, but bring the king back immediately, so again there is no build up and suspence. It just makes the game a lot shorter and less interesting than it could have been. Yeah, Leon was the dark knight. They should invested a little more time into that. I'm not saying Leon should have been the final boss, but he should have brought some drama....well for more than 5 seconds anyway.
I wouldn't call it particularly good. Specially the rereleases, with their automatic HP gains after certain number of battles (thus making the game even easier than it already is.) Thank God they added the option to turn those off in the PR version.
Masamune was in the original game just before facing Tiamat the second time near the end of the game.
Ah good catch. I was so focused on using the Excalibur in FF1, I forgot about the Masamune in that game.
I love how all the games have their own Masamune in them
@@sunderwire No problem, I loved this game growing up even with all its bugs on the NES.
Be careful tho its protected by a monster-in-a-box and it's tough think its either belzebulb or another "super" boss
@hvhs0you didnt know it was bugged until about a few years ago when you heard it on UA-cam
@@seansullivan7928Not true, the Nintendo Power strategy guide actually had some of the spell bugs mentioned, such as Lamp. But they didn’t know about the elemental and crit bugs and such, just saw some spells weren’t actually working as intended.
The quality of life updates really help this game. Its still a shame that the bonus dungeon isnt around. I enjoyed the backstory of the destroy spell and the guy doomed to spend an eternity protecting it.
tbf I heard the bonus dungeon was hell on earth.
@GiordanDiodato They were just like everything else in this game. Either you were over-leveled and crushed everything. Or you were not, and it was a struggle to neigh impossible to beat. The two super bosses were like that, too. Unfortunately. :/
The pr updates are sweet. But I am in love still with the psp version
@@jimmyrolls37 I love the PSP versions too but at least the PR has auto battle that also fast forwards things. Which means I don't have to play FF2 as much.
@@GiordanDiodato It is. Your party starts at early-mid game levels of power (minus Ricard) while the final dungeon is en par with Pandemonium in power level.
You have to grind for quite awhile in the Jade Passage to even stand a chance, and even then I kept going in, fighting a few fights, and having to leave because I simply wasn't powerful enough yet.
It's a 1 hour story surrounded by 6 hours of grinding.
'The fantasy is missing as it is grounded too much in topics of war'
That is such a bizarre statement it doesn't make sense to me.
Just compared to other FF's, this game focus' on war quite a bit, its not really until the end that any fantasy really kicks in at all.
I mean, Final Fantasy was not always completely fantasy. The first installment has bits of sci-fi with the appearance of robots and the Flying Fortress.
Some of this guy critics were quite forced imo and don't make a lot Sense.
Like we know that the fourth party member is constantly Changing due to story reasons,this happens in 4,2,5,6 and many others so i don't get how that's bad or wastes your time
@@Dfenecka year later but, it wouldn’t be no different then FF12?
The Teleport and Toad spells absolutely destroy 90% of the game once you get them. Both sre effectively instant-death spells, but you can access them much earlier than the actual Death spell, and work on far more enemies, even most bosses.
Fun Fact: FF9's pandemonium is the song you hear at 29:40, only slowed down.
Also the the story ramuh tells you in ff9 is the same as what happens to Josef
28:37 Kain's last name in IV is also Highwind.
Also the King of Tycoon in V is named Alexander Highwind Tycoon, though I'm not sure if his full name is ever mentioned in the game.
The battle mechanics of this game really do feel like a prototype of the SaGa series sometimes.
it had the same guy behind it.
@@GiordanDiodato explained why I actually liked ff2 so much.
Biggs and Wedge first appear as characters in Final Fantasy 6, not 7.
i actually really like final fantasy 2, despite its flaws. I've beaten the nes version twice, and the pixel remaster twice. the battle system is actually a really unique, intuitive, and natural way to level up, despite its flaws. pixel remaster is the way to go, but if i had to pick flaws, the battle system obviously, lack of end game grinding/unique high level monsters to keep it interesting, lack of optional side quests which considering its an nes game is understandable, and the dungeon 'doors to nowhere' ugh. the music is just great. i love this game though.
EDIT: another minor qualm i have with this game is the bosses. often times, the bosses are just higher level monsters that you eventually fight later in the game. in other ff games, they have unique bosses that aren't just high level monsters.
Couldn't agree more
I liked it a lot, too! I beat the Famicom versión on an nes repro cart.
@@PaulRockey nes repro cart? what's that?
@@bryansmith7758 Reproduction cartridge that plays on an American Nes, with an English fan translation patch.
The GBA and PSP versions add a story quest after the main quest witch is played with the charecter that have died and its really worth playing if you are a fan of ff2
I don't care what anyone says, I loved FF2. I've only ever played the pixel remaster but I still enjoyed it a lot. The leveling system is different and innovative but it's not a deal breaker. The story is fantastic and the music is phenomenal. Eventually I'll play every version of FF2. The one complaint I have is that your last character is always rotating, which is odd considering you can't expect to max that character's stats because there's essentially no point if they die off later in the game. But being able to dual-wield is fun as hell! And giving anyone any spell in the game is wild, I enjoyed the progression of my spells the more I use them.
I love Astaroth and the Final Emperor! They were amazing and subverted what I was used to in fights. Very refreshing to see.
Romancing Saga particularly the second and third are what the FF2 system was grown into. Check them out if you haven't already.
I’ve been playing the pixel remasters and using the boost options. Holy crap has it made the experience so much more enjoyable. I remember playing the old versions on roms and they were brutal. I don’t care if they trivialize things a bit, I’d rather have a fun gameplay experience.
And IMO that's say a lot about how bad the game is, where in order to enjoy it you have to use "cheat" codes added by the devs.
I agree, that the boost is the best way to enjoy the game. But when I use it, I can’t help but feel like “this is wrong”. It’s sad that the intended way to play the game makes it such a slog to get through.
@@nesoukkefka1741Nonsense. I played without those boosts and had some fun playing this one.
@@muffetmissulena6540I played the PR to platinum without a single boost. It's not hard.
"some fun" sounds pretty disappointing. @@Vayne_Solidor
I was always hesitant to try it because everybody bashed it. But I tried the pixel remaster and loved it!
Man came across this randomly. Instantly got my like and subscribe. The 333 subscribers is absolutely not reflective of the quality. Great audio sound and volume, good video structure. Good editing and background visuals. We need to get this guy’s stuff out there is this is top tier in my opinion. Good stuff man.
Thanks, I appreciate it!
Cool video. While Final Fantasy 2 is not a game I'd really play for fun, it has some merit as paving the way for things that would come later, those things namely being Final Fantasy solidifying its direction away from the quirks of Final Fantasy 2 and the SaGa series. Maybe if Final Fantasy 2 was originally localized for territories outside of Japan and if it had been positively received then Final Fantasy and JRPGs would probably be a lot different.
I think if II & III came over and were hits we probably wouldn’t have a delineation between rpgs and rpgs
You’re probably right. If it hadn’t of taken 5 years to release outside of Japan I doubt it would’ve gotten so much of the scrutiny
I really like Final Fantasy II- I always have. I stick Maria in the front row and make her use swords. Make Firion a white mage, Maria a black mage, and Guy a support. I've never done the nonsense where you hit yourself to get stronger- I just play the game and only grind for less than 5 minutes when I'm in over my head in an area (which isn't too often). Darker story, great soundtrack, tight experience than be finished in under 10 hours. I like it a lot! This game gets way, way too much hate. Same with FFVIII.
No it just isn't made for casual JRPG fans. Think about it, the people who hate Final Fantasy II...what do they think of other 8 bit JRPGs and what do they think about the SaGa franchise? Final Fantasy II is both of those. People say the Mastery system is "good in theory but bad in execution" are lying to themselves. They have redone the mastery system for Final Fantasy II 6 times,there's 12 SaGa games,The Legend of Legacy and The Alliance Alive (both were made by former SaGa staff members) if they haven't thought it has worked even a single time...they just don't like the Mastery system. Final Fantasy II "wastes your time" as much as any other 8 bit RPG. Ys I is only 6 hours long but it would be about 3 if it wasn't for the backtracking. People in the west legally only got Final Fantasy II in 2003 so it was going to be seen as archaic no matter what. Even judging it to the SaGa series it came across as archaic, it came out 4 years after SaGa Frontier II.
😊
Played it for the first time as the Pixel Remaster. After doing some grinding in the early zones, I ended up over leveled for most of the game. Not ridiculously powerful but strong enough to continue without much trouble. Additionally I would just hit optimize and my party would swap weapons. Eventually they all ended up skilled with most weapons.
Honestly, the game is not bad on the Remaster version, compared to the NES or FF Origins version.
People will drag FF2 for the exact same reasons they praise Morrowind and TES games.
-use skills to level skills
-spend hours grinding
-open world go anywhere even if you arent supposed to yet
-branching dialog and keywords
-hitting yourself for HP is literally falling off buildings to boost acrobatics
One of the reasons I loved it when it came out for the GBA. Once I knew where everything was I could become overpowered really early.
I see you renamed the cast to later FF games.
When I play FF7, I'll be sure to do the same and rename Cloud, Tifa, and Barret to Firion, Maria, and Guy respectively to balance the pettiness.
Haha yeah it’s funny seeing the other FF characters names in the wrong games
@@sunderwire Indeed I know the feeling. I'm totally guilty of renaming my first FFT Generics Luneth, Refia, Arc and Ingus, and pretending that they got Isekai'd into Ivalice somehow to fight alongside Ramza in the final battles at Murond Death City...
@@Guntank That's actually a sick story ngl!
Just beat the PSX version of the game today! I love this game, despite all of its flaws. My biggest problems with the game were that the game had a nack for being annoying, either for the sake of padding or from not properly implementing mechanics.
Dungeons regressed from FFl thanks to adding empty rooms with forced battles, which makes maps a must have. Magic leveling took too long since magic increased by 1 point per use, meaning you'd have to cast a spell 100 times before it raised up a level; the exception to this was Cure since you could cast it multiple times in the overworld if your party was low health, and it would raise by 2 points per use. Without the cursor select bug, you'd never get proper use of magic except for buff spells if you used them enough.
Even if you were willing to level up these spells individually, only a select few spells have any real uses. These spells are: Osmose at any level, Holy/Flare if you get them high enough, Cure, Life, Berserk, Haste, Shield/Shell, Warp at any level, Blink, and a high level Swap if you plan on increasing your MP and HP. All of the buff spells are useful at any point, but I can't say the same for offensive spells at all.
Almost all enemies that get annihilated by a type advantage spell are killed just as easily with simple attacks, although Holy and Flare are good for all enemies with high physical defense. The same can't be said for Ultima, which is this game's ultimate disappointment. The wrath of the ancients said to annihilate ancient evil gets out done by *EVERY* spell that can deal damage, with Flare 16 dealing 1000 damage less than Flare 16 at a measly 560 damage, and getting outclassed by Holy 10 by over 500 damage. The coveted war-ending spell that people died trying to obtain is completely obsolete in comparison to everything short of a wooden staff, all according to the developer's flawed intentions. There is basically no reason you should use offensive spells after the beginning of the game outside of pure curiosity, since you can do just about anything with a Berserk or Haste cast.
There is also the 4th party member slot, which is less of an issue compared to everything else, but still. You get temporary party members of various strength, who range from being above average to deadweight. Since the game assumes how much experience you have at certain points in the game, you typically get members who only serve as a fourth member and nothing more. The exceptions to this are Mindu, a powerful white mage for the early game, and Leila and Josef, who are strong fighters with an Ice Bow and unarmed respectively. Excluding Leon, if your fourth party member is underleveled, they are going to stay that way until they leave your party since there is no point in powering them up.
These are my main gripes with this game, and they are singlehandedly responsible for giving this game a bad wrap. If you get around this game's status as a black sheep, however, you get to experience one of the unique RPGs around. You get a grim war story with a heavier narrative than in FF1, with a depressing story where victories are almost always followed up by another loss, music that pairs excellently with the courageous but hopeless, and a flawed but functional experience system that allows for a lot of replayability. This game is good, and Final Fantasy as a series only got better from here. Whenever you get the chance to, you should give this game a try.
Most importantly, FFII paved the way for SaGa which is an absolutely fantastic series.
Minstrel Song and Romancing SaGa 3 ranks higher for me than most FFs.
rs3 is legit a magical RPG.
@@snazzydrew
Indeed.
the game designed to help you progress NATURALLY with those dungeons encounter rate, and most dungeon only have 5 floors, except on the late game (Typhoon/Mysidia/Pandaemonium).
but projared worshippers surely HAVE TO beating themselves to this very date and cursing the game,
because their only REAL LIFE ACHIEVEMENT is by having 9999 HP.
Its short, and fun FF entry with ton of replay value.
You can finish the game easily in under 10hours with around 3k HP on each characters and 200MP on Firion/Maria without projaredWorshippers masochist exploit.
i despise cheating in video games i will never ruin the enjoyment of playing a game how its meant to be played
You find out the Empire is building a death star and then the Death Star blows up Alderaan and then you find out it has a single weakness that blows it up? You weren't kidding about this being Star Wars
Final Fantasy 2's growth system reminds me of FF8's junction system but without leveling stats. If it was just drawing magic and junctioning the magic would purely change the stats of a character..
If nothing else final fantasy 2 is proof that final fantasy was always experimental.
Honestly it's actually not terrible once you adjust to its oddities
FFII is pretty low on my list, but I don't hate it. I really like rotating fourth characters, Minwu in particular.
I also appreciate what they were trying to do with the leveling system, even if it is clunky and easily abused.
This game has a bad reputation, but I still like it. This game's many battle system oddities was enough for a lot of people to say no to. I thought it was an interesting choice, but in the end you could swear all your party members were channeling their inner Darkness when you can literally punch yourself in the face for stat increases. The story was what stood out for me with a memorable main villain in the Emperor and a complex story that was told well in an era when such things were not very common. It is worth a playthrough.
Plus part of FFII was a easter egg in FFIX. Was able to beat FFII on the playstation myself. Sadly kinda like the artwork from the playstation more than the latest version.
My first experience with FF2 was a translated rom, and my first full playthrough was Dawn Of Souls on the GBA. The training style of character growth, I had already enjoyed in Daggerfall and Quest For Glory, so while it did take me off guard at first, I figured out an optimal way of grinding, which involved putting a shield in the dominant hand, nothing in the other hand, and a weight on the A button. They'd punch themselves in the shield while I walked away, and when I got back, they'd reach the next tier of monk damage. I laughed when the Emperor claimed to be "beyond the hand of man," and then my party punched him to death pretty quickly.
Of course, the experience was helped by the fact that Dawn Of Souls actively increases how quickly character get powerful, thus reducing grind times.
1:09 dated to break rpg standards? This was 1988 how many dogs were there?
It's not a bad game.
It's 100 times better than the FF 7 remakes.
I got through the game. But I cheesed it by attacking my own characters and casting spells on them to level myself up faster. Lol. But its a weird game. I didn't find it that bad. It was enjoyable.
I played the Origins version. The game has a lot of problems. I can’t imagine it being anyone’s favorite. Trap rooms with tough encounters after 1-step, trap floors with ridiculous encounters on the lower floor (looking at you ghast), and one section in particular requiring me to ferry my party back and forth across a long stretch of ocean to refill my magic for grinding. I did grind, and went out of my way for as many weapons/armor chests as I could find. Blood Sword definitely made a particular fight an absolute joke which I rather enjoyed after all the bullshit I went through. Maybe I’ll play the Pixel Remaster version someday if they ever add boosts from the console releases. It’s the only one I haven’t touched in that collection.
The Pixel Remaster was the first version where that was finally good.
It's still the most grindy one, but the auto-battle helps immensely here.
I'd just equip my characters with weak versions of whatever weapon I wanted to build up and let it do its thing. Meanwhile, have my spellcasters work on healing or buffs of something. It proved quite effective.
I think most people don't like FF2 because it's gameplay is more close to the Saga games (Instead of leveling up, the characters' individual stats increase) which I feel that makes it the predecessor to the Saga games.
Biggs and Wedge got their start in FF6
My personal justification for those trapped dead-end high encounter chance rooms
They're janitor closets, bedrooms, break rooms, jail cells, storage rooms, dining rooms, and everything with similar uses, but they've been emptied out after the construction of whatever dungeon you're in, and since then, infested by the Empire's Monsters. That said, if the dungeon is the Dreadnought warship or the Emperor's place or like, Pandemonium or Hell, it's probably left unfinished or meant to be a deliberate trap. In fact, that could very well be the case for the dungeon creators too, making it so Monsters' breeding grounds n nests can fit in there, because possibly they're hoping it'll trap hostile fellas. Like with Kashuon, the castle is probably deliberately trapped and bugged with all sorts of creatures in all sorts of useless rooms, and Gordon seems to not know much about the Castle.
Masamune is a sword in nearly every game, and it's first seen in Final Fantasy 1 in the Chaos Temple 2000 years ago, found on a diagonal path before slaying a buffed Tiamat clone.
Biggs as well as Wedge are found first in Final Fantasy 6, assuming we aren't counting naming FF1's party members, FF3's, or subsequent material in FF4, revealing Biggs and Wedge to have been part of the Red Wings with Cecil.
Cid dying in this game is singlehandedly the worst thing about this game. In fact, it's only bad because of that. Dude didn't deserve it, he was just being a chill grandpa...
That kid n his mom at Deist, the kid's apparently named Kain. This probably isn't the same Kain we see in FF4, I'd assume this is either hundreds of years after FF2 or that it's a sort of Marvel Earth-616 situation where different things happen differently. It's implied Leon left a sword in Fabul long ago. This also isn't the only game with a Wyvern, or only one Wyvern left, given Hiryuu is all that remains (ignoring any other wyverns that supposedly are elsewhere).
The Emperor is slain, goes to Hell, defeats Satan and becomes the ruler of Hell, and returns as an extremely life-threatening extinction level event. The fact that Firion, Maria, Leon, and Guy are literally just four kids who lost their families in Fynn and almost died themselves really solidifies the message that anyone can be a hero if they simply choose to and put all of their willpower into making the world a better place.
While Chocobos aren't in FF1, there are often depicted statues of them in royal castle areas. What that indicates to me is that because of FF1's events causing a bunch of time alteration, chocobos were once extinct and this is no longer the case.
I wonder why Highwind got to be a popular last name. That said...anyways, thanks for the video, I myself love FF2 almost as much as FF1 and FF4, my other two favorites. After FF4, I'd honestly put FF1, 2, 6, 3, and 7 as my favorites so far. I also really enjoy FF5, FF8, FF9, and I also wish people hadn't treated FF2 like it was irredeemable garbage for this long. It's only coming around to be enjoyed now, but I also think it's awful because Cid shouldn't have been killed and that's a load of--
Ff2 and ff4 aren't connected at all. It's definitely not the same kain as a kid here that's the kain in ff4.
Nice work. Looking forward to the rest of the remasters.
Wait... FFII is the one they hate for NES? FFII was my favorite for thr NES. If anything FFIII was the one I could see being hated.
And it's definitely better than Final Fantasy 13! Did I just shift into a different universe?
Agreed, everyone overrates ff3j because of it's job system, but the job system in 3 is really shit and horribly balanced. For instance the fighter job stops being useful after you get knights and the fighter job itself stops getting new gear to equip forcing you into the knight, this happens with almost all the air jobs. The water jobs have the opposite problem, you get them and they can't equip shit because the game won't give you gear for them until you do more the story, like why even give you the jobs. Thankfully the ds version fixes a lot of these issues and I'd recommend that over the famicom version any day, unless you really like the OG ninjas or sages for some reason.
@ThatWanderingDude yeah the ds version of FF3j was a huge improvement in gameplay, graphics, and narrative. Definitely the definitive version.
Empty rooms in dungeons aren’t an issue if you use the map properly. Go in one room and you see inside every room on that floor, then you know where to go
Biggs and wedge from 7? They were also in 6 (usa 3) though in the original snes cart they had it misspelled as vicks
They were in FF6 too yes, I should have mentioned them in the video as well
the leveling system is easy to understand the tougher the enemy encounters the better stat growth your party members get easier enemy encounters net you next to nothing only wasting your time fighting weaker trash
There was little balance and if you hit a TVtropes beef gate, you automatically lose. Good idea to cast weaker area of effect spells to hit yourself and survive, especially if you used a bow as back row doesn't take much damage. Leveling esuna to cure debuffs was a pain too, but Boost helped a ton.
There was 1 trap room on PS1 Origins version. Sadly I don't remember where it is but exactly every single step there was an encounter with boss music
played this first on the PS1 so i knew what i was doing , it was differernt but still love this game . is it bad no . but just like mario 2 , zelda 2 , castlevania 2 and other games , they tried something new and they were all good.
Mario 2 USA was orignally a different, licensed IP that the Mario Bros team developed; and all of the those games took ideas from them and incorporated into later entries.
Having just beat it myself. It was ok. Not great, not terrible, ok. Like a C on a report card, bit annoying to deal with but not a bad grade.
My brother actually played Final Fantasy 2 this October and he just gotten the crystal rod and asked me "when is this game supposed to get bad?"
I just beat the Pixel remaster, 100% it too. I thought it was 0K but the last dungeon got pretty annoying. I don't think the game was well balanced either, tbf most FF games suffer from balancing (funnily enough 13 is prob the best in this aspect, the one people always cry about). Overall it's probably bottom tier for me, even below 12 and 15, but it wasn't terrible.
i mean Between FF13 and FF2 FF13 gate keeping power leveling made sense. the only thing that was balanced bad in FF13 was the summons. the ff13 summons feel like DPS chainers than Finishers like in other final fantasy games. I did discover the different weapons that have different effects in FF13 do affect summon gameplay like Lightinings axis-blade giving lightning more summon drive attacks max's out at 50 drive attacks for lighting when she summons Odin compared to the usual 24-27 drive attacks without axis-blade.
You can turn off the encounters with boost now, easier to get those epic weapons and avoid trap doors.
Of the 3 NES game remakes, FF2 is actually my favorite.
Before I watch, when I originally played this in the mid to late 90s I didn’t like it; it was different and we don’t like things that are different. It didn’t help having only a fan translation and no formal manual to understand the game mechanics. It wasn’t until I got it on PS1 and had some form of instructions to understand how the game is played that the game opened up to me and I had a new appreciation for the game. Considering the memory limitations of the NES I think the story was good for its time The story contained a strong theme of loss. It’s is now my 4th favorite FF game.
I wonder how many people who hate FF2 also like SaGa. cause if that's so, they're hypocrites.
I missed one key term for the platinum, I talked to someone in the wrong order and now I have to replay the entire game if I want the it 😩
The interact barracuda 2 programable controller can make it easier to power up. Getting unarmed skill to 12 or higher allows you to plow through battles. Max sword skill combined with 2 blood swords makes the final boss a joke.
I got ff origins for my 12th birthday day and finally got to the final boss at 25 yrs old.
Two words: TRAP ROOMS.
I really hate FF2 (I'd even put it below 13) but I can't say people can't like or love it. I mean, my most favorite Megaman is Megaman 3 lol
I mean I think Mega Man 3 is one of the best ones too. I myself have my favorite at Mega Man 1, so I think _that's_ a stranger opinion overall. That in mind, I don't entirely think those apply as well considering they're a very similar experience barring Mega Man 7, 8, & Bass, and 11, but while they're similar they're still wonderful in their execution except for & Bass and I cannot stand listening to or playing 8. I'd say Final Fantasy 2 is the Mega Man X 5 of JRPGs; not perfect and definitely glitchy and buggy and stinky but you know that it has potential and promise and if it had even more time maybe it'd be a perfect game. That and it shifted the formulaic approach really hard.
Mega-Man 1 and 5 are generally regarded as the least favourite entries either for some bad game design or just being underwhelming. 3’s got it’s detractors but it’s mostly regarded as one of the good ones.
Have two characters cast berserk, one cast blink, and one cast haste on everyone to start, no weapons go unarmed and you'll punch your way to the final boss.
Final Fantasy II's mechanics aren't bad, just poorly implemented. The progression-by-use system is the very foundation of (among others) the Elder Scrolls series, and we all know how popular *that* series got over time. But because of how... janky it was, and because Square wanted a more defined progression system, they lured Akitoshi Kawazu (the brainparent of Final Fantasy II's system) away from Final Fantasy, and he went on to create the SaGa series (which started off titled "The Final Fantasy Legend"), which... is an eccentric series, to say the least.
Normally you'd get a guaranteed encounter with an enemy whenever you tried to exit those empty rooms. They used to be an absolute pain in the butt. I suppose they undid that with the pixel remaster, which is actually a very good thing. Those rooms were pretty much the incarnation of frustration before. With that factor gone, they are just empty rooms and meh. Pretty much one of the worst parts of the game was alleviated. Try one of the older ports, it will drive you insane. I can promise that, haha
I just recently completed ff2 from the pixel remaster and I didn't care for the magic system. For the majority of the game, I didnt even equip a weapon on anyone and had everyone punching away.it wasnt until the final dungeon that I finally equipped weapons on people.
I've loved this since I first played it (I pre-ordered Final Fantasy Origins to get it) and its among my five favorite games in the series. Final Fantasy Legend/Saga II was the first Square RPG I ever played so the stat growth system was familiar and I've always had a soft spot for rebellion against evil empire stories.
The only final fantasy I love more than this one is everyone's other most hated final fantasy. Final fantasy 8
My top five are II,VI, VII classic (Haven't tried the remake yet), VIII, and XII
I also love this game but we clearly are the minority within the community 😅
I was around ten years old when I played this the first time. English is not my first language, so at the time I wasnt able to understand that I need to find the secret wall in the pub in the beginning. Instead I wandered around the world map until I basically was strong enough to explore all of it 😂
That’s why it has a special place in my heart
@@suchendelokidottir5673 Honestly FFVIII is getting more love these days, I'd say FFXIII is easily the most hated while XII remains the weird black sheep, granted I've played through the XIII trilogy more than 3 times and will do so again lol
What are you talking about Final Fantasy II is an amazing game! I can remember having so much fun playing it on Super Nintendo over thirty years ago. Memories that will last a lifetime.
*Mutter mutter*
What's that, say that again?
*mutter mutter mutter*
Final Fantasy II was actually Final Fantasy IV? Oh...um, well. *Runs*😅
5 hours in the pixel perfect collection and i haven't even done the first quest yet. I want to see just how op I can actually get
Enjoyment of this game can depend on a lot of seemingly arbitrary choices with consequences the game doesn't explain.
The back row, bows, and heavy armor are all basically traps that can be safety ignored or (if you really really want to) saved for the endgame. They'll all inhibit crucial stat growth in one way or another.
The biggest problem with bows is that you can't equip a shield, and shields are your very best friends. It helps so much to keep your evade% as high as possible at all times to improve agility growth.
I think the overall biggest fault of the game over anything is how boring and tedious all the back and forth fetch quest stuff really was. I completely lost count at how many times I was forced to go back to Altair which was wayyyy too much.
This game wasnt terrible but it had some serious flaws and oversights.
Such as becoming overpowered way too early by manipulating the battle to hit yourself or the totally broken magic system.
Hitting yourself will come to bite you later with enemies with life drain physical attacks. In versions before the Pixel Remaster having only one nude for the most of the game frontliner serves better. It can put your evasion at absurd levels and Evasion is the god stat of the game.
i recently finished my playthru of FFII, your words perfectly sum up my experience with this game aha. I look forward to your future videos :)
In a proverbial sense, it is fair to say that Final Fantasy is a D&D fangame. Whereas Final Fantasy II is the first real Final Fantasy. I also find it funny how many later tropes that started in FFVI that you've attributed to FFVII.
The only problem I had with this game was the advancement of the storyline. . . I got so lost trying to figure out how to move the story along that I was an absolute demon by the time I figured out what went wrong. . . Some advancements in the story required interactions I had to guess at and wander aimlessly talking to folks I never thought of to unlock things . . . . It was incredibly complicated
FF2 for Famicom was translated into English, put on a NES cart and even advertised in Nintendo Power. The only reason it wasn't released on the NES was the system was at the end of its life cycle. Nintendo of America made the decision not to release it or 3 in North America.
~25:00 -- you didn't even need Blood sword cheese to beat the emperor! 😲 But yeah, that's some cheese you can use for this particular game is to hit the emperor with the blood sword (think there are two in the PSX version, don't recall about PR) and itt'll do a TON of damage. That said, looks like you didn't need it.
I recently 100% ff2 myself. I thought it was good maybe not the best in series but not the worse either though I don't think I could rate a worse I loved all the ones I played so far even spin offs like type 0 and world of final fantasy. Actually i just started 8 for the first time and was so confused when they used squall instead leon because they call him leon in my favorite sqaure enix series kingdom hearts. Although i have been trying to keep to defult names as much as possible i had to make exception for 8 i couldnt play with the main charcter named sqaull so he's leon doing my gameplay
Pixel remaster rebalances it so it isn't near as annoying as it used to be. Unfortunately that also trivializes a lot of it makes it super easy. That said, will mention the good, excellent soundtrack that is one of the best in the series. Very ambitious game on release with it's focus on story. That said, other games have done the story focused game much better. Leaving Final Fantasy 2 in the unfortunate position of not being much fun to play. It is definitely the worst of the first 9 games. It isn't even a really bad game, and one could argue that it is better than FF III, but this series peaked about Final Fantasy 5 - 9. The earlier games all have their issues, the later games have a massive identify crisis and suffer from the curse of popularity.
Final Fantasy XIII is worse though.
You can always Halve or remove Boost gains 😂. I halved that in ff6 until I got my espers so my stat gains and setzer'a fixed dice with a black belt would be epic.
@MrVariant Wasn't available on release unfortunately.
I like halving encounter rates and upping the exp gain 25%. Makes the game harder but also less frustrating as encounters are rarer.
@MrScigeek101 hm when did they update Boost to tweak encounter rates and experience like that? I remember playing with on/off for random encounters, and 0, 1/2, normal, double and quadruple exp/gil or whatever special levels the games had (like ff2 weapon/magic levels or ff5 ability points/ff6 esper growth).
Wish ff3 told ya about defending 5 times to job level every battle, which I doubt Boost fixed (only helps to max shurikens end game as its too much for onion knight and they need rare drops of onion gear and hopefully not duplicates), but do tell me if I am wrong.
Surprisingly, the improved font and original music were console exclusives, and discounted bundle after buying 1 of the games, a steam/ios exclusive (I got 1, 2, 4 and 6 for $14 after only buying 3 and 5 when they updated boost for iOS).
Really great video! I've owned the PSP version of FF2 for a very long time now but never really got around to beating it. Figured the pixel remasters would be a good chance to give it another go, and from watching this it honestly comes across as just a nice little fun rpg romp with some kinks here and there. Keep up the good work!
I've played FF2 on GBA and while I couldn't say I hate it I also didn't like it, Pixel Remaster's exp toggle and turn off encounter sounds like a godsend to me as those are what I have problems with. Skill & stats grind is kinda absurd for this game so the faster the better, and while I don't really mind encounter rate but some of the enemies do being either annoying or shot up in difficulty spike at some points and don't get me started on that horrible Dungeon design with all those empty rooms. Would give it another shot with PR version.
Also f**k Soul of Rebirth, glad PR didn't include it even tho it's good for the lore but it waste more time having to grind more party members when you know they will be dead in the main story.
Not a bad review but your constant increased intonation at the end of sentences make it sound like you're just pausing during a huge run-on sentence.
Anyone see the similarities to star wars and fft? Or did anyone read the memory of heroes book version of ff1-ff3? Fun times. 27:27 smoking marlboros for bad breath 😂
A review of a game, with a focus on its achievements/trophies? Surprised I haven't seen that more to be honest. Still sad these Pixel Remasters skipped Xbox as that's my main system, but I do have a PS4 as well.
11:15 YOU SAID DOO DOO! … anyone got the reference?
I've played the Famicom version of this game at least 7 times over the years. For the time it was made, the ideas in this game were just incredibly revolutionary. The real problem was it was rushed out the door. I know a lot about how the stat leveling works and have spent some time thinking about how I would have solved the balance issues.
If FF2 had been given the time to be properly polished, it could have really changed the genre. EXP/level systems may have been the uncommon one instead
I think FF2 set the bedrock for how Final Fantasy stories would be told in the near future. I actually do like the gameplay, but that's only because I have the free reign to emulate it and abuse the fast forward mechanic to get through battles faster. I can imagine leveling spells, beating yourself up and purposefully running full shields for evasion grinding would be such an agonizing process in the long run, especially for completionists.
Holy fuck those empty rooms were fukin KILLER in the NES version. I used am emulator to play it and I learned to just use save states for those rooms. You had like a 50% chance per goddamn tile to get a fight and they were rarely pushovers lol
So I just cheated to ignore them. It was the laaaaziest move Ive ever seen compared to the company behind it.
I thought it was cool game personally. That's whats good about final fantasy games each game has its own adventures styles with it own fair share of surprises and experimental systems to play. 3 and 5 are the only ones that have the same systems to eachother. A Great and legendary series.
It's my least favorite and one i can't defend or enjoy much at all. The high encounter rate alone, especially in treasure rooms is rage inducing.😭
Hiii amazing vídeo!!!! Ost song around min 6 and 7 ?
Thanks! I believe that song is “Rebel Army”
I thought FFII would have made a great candidate for a souped up "remake" approach to show off the story (possibly including the novelization) and characters, and tweak the progression system a little bit and revamp the dungeons
I got the 1+2 GBA version 20 years ago and loved it
It's a strange game. It's not one I would recommend for a chill time. However, if you know the game mechanics well and how to "level" your stats, you can break this game in half and turn it into a power trip. I went away from the plot, grinded against enemies I found until I reliably kill them, and slowly made my way across the map. When I came back, I blitzed through most of the game easy.
The game isn't terrible by any means it's just that they concepts were executed poorly.
The enemy placement was wildly imbalanced. You could run into mid-game enemies not three steps from the starting town, and escaping is borderline impossible, leading to unavoidable game overs.
Magic was useless when you were multitargeting, unless you were hitting a weakness. All multitarget spells divide their effectiveness by 8 (there can be up to 8 enemies onscreen, and there are usually less than that). Status effects were useless unless you cast them hundreds of times and by then, you could have just leveled and attack spell or weapon and just killed them (which is a problem in a lot of JRPGs, which is pronounced a hundredfold here). It was a shame to because status effects were actually elementals and certain enemies were weak to them or could absorb and be healed by them. Hell, even the Final Bosses super meteor attack is a joke.
Magic was expensive to regenerate, what happened if your HP and MP is low and you can't afford an inn(You can't even heal up partially, it has to be all or nothing)?
Permanent status effects that were expensive to remove. You could raise people to 1 HP for free and that's it. Esuna and Basuna needed to be leveled if you wanted to remove the nastier effects.
The aforementioned trap rooms were used constantly and wore out their welcome to the point I didn't want to explore dungeons and I cringed when I was forced to select one of several to progress a dungeon. Not to mention, they fucking teleport you inside of them when you enter. It's not like you can just poke your head into a room, see it's empty and leave, no you have to endure the same gimmick over and over and over again. Encounter tiles from FF1 were actually interesting and had a point and can be used to power level your characters if you knew what you were doing.
Certain stats were a pain to raise more than others. You could raise HP and Str to god tier levels, but forget raising Agility.
The battle music was obnoxious, imagine listening to it for hours and hours do tedious grinding driving you insane. Playing it on the NES and casting a spell on multiple enemies and watching an animation play out and then text boxes popping was pure torture.
Once you got the canoe from Minh (which you can get in the first 10 minutes of gameplay), literally 90% of the world opens up. There is very little the Ship and Airship can take you can't get on foor. The world map doesn't feel designed very well.
The antagonists in this game are built up very poorly compared to the original. Garland, Astos, and Vampire all had build up to them comparable to the Four Fiends (Vampire dies from one Fire 3 attack and appears as a random enemy later in the game). Even Bikke the Pirate left an impression on me. Not a single boss from this game sticks in my mind like the FF1 bosses, even the ones you just meet on encounter tiles like the Piscodemons that guarded the crown or the Zombie Dragons that guard the tail, or heck, even the random assortment of Mummies and Cockatrice you run into in the room that has a robot with a Cube in it. What do I remember about FF2 bosses? There is a Soul Flame thing that absorbs all magic, even status effect magic, there is the Behemoth in the "Monster Tournament" who is literally the only enemy you fight. Random Elemental Dragons in boxes that guard treasure you don't really need because Swords and Fists pretty much take care of everything (well that and Demons from AD&D mythology like Azaroth and Beezlebub.... like did we treat Lich and Tiamat this way?).
The overall plot of the game has a smaller scale than FF1s. You actually have a grand quest to go fight the Four Elemental Generals and the first boss you fight Garland(and the 5 bats in the room you fight him in), actually has a major role in the grand scheme of things. The overworld music is happy and upbeat and the battle music doesn't drive you insane. Here you are just four random kids that get their ass kicked the first 2 minutes and you are you are just common refugees who are told to just stay there and be good little NPCs and you have to go right back to your Doomed Hometown that still had the same people who just curp stomped you in it and you have to go there and do a thing (i forget what) to even officially inducted into the La Resistance. The music in the second game is lonely and sad the whole time. The major antagonist is just a guy who wants to "Rule the World" but he just doesn't do much in the grand scheme of things other than destroy random towns and build a gigantic airship to terrorize people. I remember more about the one-shot villains in the third game than this guy. The motivations from the antagonists from FF1 were more understandable than this guy. He doesn't even have a name, he's just called The Emperor.
All in all the game felt like it had a bunch of ideas that sounded good and then stuck to each other without anyone thinking how you everything would fit together.
FF3 is obviously the best of the original Famicom Final Fantasies, but I still have a soft spot for FF2 because I love the leveling system. I know many people don't like it, but I've never understood why, because it just makes so much sense. Use a weapon or a spell enough, you get better at it. So simple, and very true to life. But because there are no level numbers or anything I guess it confuses people.
I think most people enjoy the leveling system as a concept, the issue most people have with it is the _execution._
It's agonizingly slow to level thing when it gets near the 7-10 mark, and then there's butchering your party for stat boosts since monsters eventually net very little EXP.
Not to mention that if you spend enough time grinding MP and HP, really easy to do mind you, then you become effectively unkillable for most of the game.
@@somethingsomething9006 Yeah, I can get how people can find it tedious. However, I don't see becoming effectively unkillable for most of the game as a bad thing. Sounds fun to me 😂
@@Arkholt2
Oh it's fun for sure, BUT if you're looking for a game to challenge you or actually give you a reason to pay attention to battles and take it seriously? Then I can see why people getting too powerful too easily is an issue for them,
The thing is final fantasy two tried to do what skyrim did before skyrim did it. Having the ability to create your perfect party by playing the game how you wanted to was entirely ingenious. It's just they needed more time in the oven to cook this because it's already hard to balance a 2d turn-based RPG. But yeah aside from Final Fantasy 5 and 15, this is my favorite Final Fantasy game.
The main developer on this game would go onto developing the Saga games. The Romancing Saga games on the Super Famicom were a natural evolution of this game.
It does make sense and its not a waste of time to level up the character that leave your party in the GBA and PSP version with the souls of rebirth sidequest witch is one of the best and very satisfactory after you end the normal game.
If I can make an honest critique here, I think your videos could do with a bit more attention to sound. For most of this video I fight to hear you over the sound track.
Appreciate the feedback, it helps!
The wonderswan/ps1/gba/psp/pc remakes really improved Final Fantasy II.
The original Famicom release had a great set (it was the first "dark and depressing" rpg) and music but the gameplay was totally broken.
The remakes corrected that and also introduced one of the best boss themes of the series:Batle scene A.
I thought it was pretty decent, I played a bootleg translation back before it was officially translated to English so the dialogue was a little rough. But it basically had the leveling system of the Elder Scrolls in 1988, which is pretty impressive.
I played ff2 and I watch 2 other people play it as well. I was like and had no issues with the emperor. I also played on PC where the boosted xp and gil is not a thing. The two people I watch had a lot of issues being him. One didn't even beat him.
I really liked this game, it had its faults (all those stupid empty rooms) but in general it was fun. I actually like it better than ff3. The entire time I played ff3 I kept thinking that the jobs were useless. You kept getting better versions of them and in the end I beat it with 2 ninjas and 2 sages.
Just played through it. It’s ok and introduced many staples like chocobos, Marlboro, CID..et cetra but the constant character swapping wasn’t great. If I play an RPG I want to shut my brain off and just play. It’s got a mediocre story and if you want you can break the game…very early.
I don't know why you don't have more subscribers. This was a great review!
I still call the leveling system in this game my worst enemy, there’s a reason it was never done again the story was good, but god that leveling system will always leave a poor taste in my mouth
My problem with FF2 is the game is too short and lacks bulld up.
Whereas most others keep you hanging and then you feel the big "oh that's what's happening."
And they really missed an opportunity to expand the game when the 4th hero (Leon) comes bsck, but tries to be the bad guy after the king is defeated, but bring the king back immediately, so again there is no build up and suspence. It just makes the game a lot shorter and less interesting than it could have been.
Yeah, Leon was the dark knight.
They should invested a little more time into that. I'm not saying Leon should have been the final boss, but he should have brought some drama....well for more than 5 seconds anyway.
I wouldn't call it particularly good. Specially the rereleases, with their automatic HP gains after certain number of battles (thus making the game even easier than it already is.)
Thank God they added the option to turn those off in the PR version.