Final Fantasy 2 - Final Thoughts

     Now, before I say anything, I'm going to try and be mostly friendly about this game. If you've kept up with my daily posts on it, you'll know that I really started to hate it about halfway through. I will have complaints though...so yeah! MOVING ALONG!

     Final Fantasy 2...to start off, did you know that the original Final Fantasy 2 released in America is ACTUALLY the title Final Fantasy 4? The only way to play the actual Final Fantasy 2 is a translation OR one of the re-releases on the PS1 bundle, GBA bundle, or PSP super-remake. To make this explanation short and sweet, I believe that Japan got a pile of Final Fantasies rapid-fired while the translation and porting took enough time that we didn't get another one til 4 WHICH was changed to 2. Either way...On to the actual final thought!

Final Fantasy 2 is an overall good but never great Final Fantasy title.
     The biggest thing it would have over the first Final Fantasy is a full story with characters. You have constant characters like Princess Hilda and Prince Gordon who play parts in a grand story. You have your trio of heroes trying to save the world. You have NPCs that you can grow to love and watch die constantly...Seriously, there are a lot of NPC deaths in the game. I did my best to hide them, but a lot of them are probably still obvious in the posts. It's a decent story overall with lots of things happening. As for our main bad guy, the Emperor, I'm not sure what to say about him. He is planning to take over everything, but you only see him a handful of times. Outside of the destruction of places and death of people, you could almost barely know he's there. Next up would be the gameplay itself...
     This would probably be one of the bigger flaws of the game. Wikipedia refers to the level-up system as the "activity-based progression system." First and foremost, it doesn't sound like greatness at all. At its core, it seems like a great idea. The more you use something, the better it gets, and so the better off you get to be with it. However, I looked over a guide and found out some of the details of it. The items you can level up are your abilities (strength, speed, etc), your weapon skill (sword, shield, axe), and your magic spells (Fire, Haste, Cure, etc). Things like spells and weapons level up as you use them, but your abilities...are all based on chance. In theory, if you get hit, your HP should go up, but it doesn't always go up! And it's even worse with the actual abilities like strength and intelligence. Their chance of going up seems to stay at the same percent regardless of being in a battle for 1 turn or hundreds of turns. This just doesn't work for me. It's especially worse if you get tired of battling the same creatures and are just trying to move on in the game. An interesting idea for the system, but I would like the chance of ability raising to be higher than it was. That and raising your spells to the max level of 16 would require way more time than I'd be willing to give. Anyways, I'd say this is one of the lower points of this game.
     The coolest thing about Final Fantasy 2 was probably just the overall seeing and playing. Locations aren't always the same! People change, people die, locations are destroyed! For what was a plain NES game, it really had a lot to it. The key terms system was also really cool for getting new information and directions out of people. Sometimes saying a key term to someone new would reveal something interesting yet random. The accessibility of the vessels is a nicety, but you don't get your own til way further in. But it is more realistic that you can charter all sorts of vehicles throughout to get pretty much anywhere.
     The two things that make me not want to like this game though...the length of time and the my final boss debacle. I played this game for 40 hours, and that feels like a LOT for what little really happened. It could have been 10 less hours had I focused a little better and buckled down, but either way, it just feels really long for such an old title. This isn't really a true negative, but I sure didn't like it. The thing that really got to me though...the final boss bit. If you read the Day 16 post, you will find out that I killed the final boss in THREE ROUNDS! How did I do this? With a little weapon called the Blood Sword. Apparently it's a super-kill-all sword meant to take out any and all bosses after obtaining it. It could deal 1/4th of the final Dark Emperor's HP BEFORE improving your physical attacks. After some improving, I was able to do half.  Either way, it took a final boss and made it feel insanely easy and cheap. I don't like this. Regardless if it was planned that way or not, and I'm not re-fighting him just to have it easier. It was a bad ending to not having a great time with the game, so it made it all the worse.


     My final statement...Final Fantasy 2 is a good, but I wouldn't list it among the "greats" in the Final Fantasy series. I would suggest it to those who are interested, but there are better ones out there to play. However, don't take my word for it! If you are straight up interested despite my claims, pick up a copy and see how much fun you have. I imagine it'll end up like my fun factor...but whatevers.

Side Note - I am planning to start Final Fantasy 3 next Tuesday. I got a copy of it for the NDS, and that's actually the only way to play it in America...outside of a translated ROM with an emulator.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~