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~

Day 16

Game - Final Fantasy 2, Day 15
Hours Played/Hours Total - 9-1/2 hrs / 40-1/2 hrs
Starting Point - Inside the Mysidian Tower, 2nd floor.
Current Goal - Climb to the top of the Mysidian Tower and obtain the Ultimate Magic Tome.

What Happened - That's one small step for Keeper. That's...just a small step for Keeper. Hoping to push it today and finish the game. Apologies for a REALLY long post right now!
     So, I start off today's journey part way into the Mysidian Tower. The tower is said to hold the ultimate magic tome, and Minwu was sent here to retrieve it...Of course, he hasn't come back yet, so my group is now going in to retrieve the tome and find out what happened with Minwu. With my goal ahead of me...I began heading onward and upwards.
     Definitely one of the more interesting dungeons in the game, Mysidian Tower is elementally themed as you move upward. The first one you run into is FIRE! At the 3rd floor, you are greeted by fire and lava! And just as it goes, whenever you walk through lava, you take damage. This could be a problem if you have no way to heal yourself outside of magic (which you get to constantly conserve...unless you stocked up on Ethers!). Regardless, it doesn't do THAT much damage, but it can get annoying. After a bit of searching and a few floors up, you run into a mage who congratulates you for making it that far...but then challenges you for the right to climb the tower! (I think?) He transforms into a giant Fire Gigas, and BOSS BATTLE! This would be pretty bad, if not for Blizzard magic. I cast Blizzard with everybody, and it was dead by the second Blizzard spell. With him out of the way, I continued up.
     Guess what the next theme was? Lovely, fun-time ice! It's not what you are thinking either! It's not a pile of slip and slide all over the place. They have piles of ice...spikes on the floor or something. I ran around getting all the chests I could see, and kept going up until I ran into...another mage! He had the same speech as the last one and transformed into...SURPRISE! An Ice Gigas. I got in the battle, flung Fire spells at him, and he went down without any form of a fight. The next floor's theme was!...not sure when I first entered. Honestly, the only clue is later on when you find some electrified floor panels that shock you. You eventually come face to face with Mage #3! He changes into a Thunder Gigas and attacks! Although it was an easy battle, he didn't go down as quick as the others because...I don't know what his weakness was. I tried several of them but nothing seemed to do the extra kick of weakness. With that going down, I just stuck to smacking the hell out of him until he fell. Now that is strategy!
     With the 3rd Gigas out of the way, I was hoping that it was the final one...and yay for me! It was! I continued upward, collected some more goodies, and finally made it to the top floor. Up there, I ran into Minwu, who seemed to be doing okay. He said that he was going to attempt to open the door by throwing all of his magic at it He's a White Wizard...nothing destructive about that. You are treated to a small scene of him unleashing a HADOKEN! right at the door. The door (after quite some time) explodes open, and Minwu is flung backwards. With the door opened, I was allowed to continue on. Inside the room was 5 orbs: 4 blue ones and a single yellow one. Picking up the blue orbs first, each one of them gives you a boost to Strength, Spirit, Intelligence, and Agility. Not sure why they choose those 4 over the other stats but whatever. After that, I grabbed the yellow orb which gives you the ultimate magic tome - Ultima. With the ultimate magic in hand, I headed back towards Fynn to figure out the next step.
     Upon arriving at Fynn, it appeared that something else might be wrong...The massive cyclone behind the castle MIGHT have been a hint at that. I went inside the castle and talked to Hilda and Gordon. Both claimed that the cyclone must be the work of the Emperor, but they were clueless how to get up there really. I mentioned the wyverns, and Hilda told me that wyverns are generally called using a pendent and a mirror. Apparently I had a pendent on hand (I forgot about it), and the castle had a fancy mirror that I had stumbled upon earlier. So with those things in mind...I went to the mirror, showed it the pendent, and cue cutscene! The mirror lights up, shows the egg, it hatches into a wyvern, and then...Ricard gets a wyvern. I put the time and effort into getting it, but then the game hands it over to the dragoon. Lame. Anyways, with the wyvern at my disposal, I am able to enter the cyclone..and finally take down the Emperor.
     I entered the cyclone. I was immediately treated to a small cutscene of the wyvern flying around and then into the cyclone. Emperor sure is something...has a fancy flying castle inside of a cyclone he can control. There's really not much to say about this dungeon other than branching paths and annoying enemies. The most annoying of which are vampire ladies. And yes, they are literally called vampire girls/ladies. Anyways, I proceeded to the top after multiple detours for treasure chests. You finally come face to face with the Emperor...after fighting 2 squads of Imperial Guards (super easy). After defeating them, he claims to have underestimated you, and that he will gladly take the pleasure of killing you now. Thus begins a boss battle with him defended by 2 Imperial Guards and a Wood Golem. Oh yeah, he's really taking care of business himself. Regardless, he and his lackies went down pretty fast with minimal damage to me. As he was dying, he yelled something about not really dying. Whatever. You are then whisked out of the cyclone-castle place and into the Fynn Castle! There you are treated to Princess Hilda thanking you for defeating the Empire and wining the war. After that, you are treated to a scene of...sprite dancing...and celebration! However, the scene is cut short.
     A guard rushes in and tells everybody that the Dark Knight has claimed the throne at Palamecia and is going to send the Palamecian Army to invade. Hilda asks your group to go to Palamecia and stop him. However...that would be hard considering it is in the mountains and inaccessible to normal means (makes you wonder how they get in and out). So I began by trying to find a means to leave...and after trying and finding nothing, I looked at a guide (I did it quite a bit this time...really tired of this one) and found that I needed to make a visit to Paul the thief. Paul had nothing to say, but he did have an unusual visitor...Cid. Cid was badly wounded and offered to loan me his airship. He crawled over to a bad and parted from the game. Poor, poor Cid. With Cid's airship at my disposal, I can easily enter Palamecia and defeat the Dark Knight, hopefully ending this game. Before doing this, I visited a few locations to restock and check some things. A short time later, I was heading for Palamecia.
     I landed in Palamecia and was immediately treated to a TRAP DOOR! This plummeted me down to the bottom of the castle, so I get to climb back up. Many, many monsters later, I come face to face with the Dark Knight (Yeah, I apologize for the speeding of up, but it is nearly the end of the game.) You find out at this point that the Dark Knight is most definitely the group's lost friend, Leon. He comes forward and starts talking about how the powerful must rule the weak (all that sort of stuff), and as he is just about to go further into the speech, the ground begins to rumble. Loud sounds and rumbling later, a demon-like figure appears on the throne. It's the Emperor himself! He has risen from hell as its leader with all-new super demon powers! He conjures up a ring of demon fire to kill the group, but Ricard leaps forward to hold him off! He tells the group to call the wyvern and go...goodbye Ricard. :[
     I am quickly returned to Castle Fynn where the group retells the details of the re-risen Emperor. It is obvious that our group needs to go back and kill him, but we don't have any way to get there. He raised Palamecia so that you can't get in by airship. However, some NPC-talkery later, I am told that there exists a passageway through hell to get to his newly risen castle. Another present problem is that the group has the Dark Knight/Leon with them. Hilda is unsure about it, but she left it up to the group of what to do with him. Of course, they let him stay. I stocked back up on everything I needed, visited a few locations to check things out, and bought a pile of spells for Leon (HE CAME WITH NOTHING BUT THE CLOTHES ON HIS BACK! /endallcaps). Along the way, the lady and child that were left at Deist told me that they would be leaving to go elsewhere. However, before she left, she handed over the fabled dragoon sword Excalibur! That's a nice treat. After a little leveling up for Leon, I proceeded into the depths of...the Jade Passage! (Actually kind of a cool name).
     The Jade Passage is said to lead into the very depths of hell itself! I traveled along battling stronger and stronger monsters as I went. Many of them were boss monsters and dragons that I hadn't previously seen before! It was a treacherous journey going to hell...although it wasn't too bad at this point. Before leaving Jade Passage, there is a awesome secret shop to visit! Under the water fall, I found a tome salesman with some really rare and powerful spells like Haste and Flare! I bought it up and filled up some of the final spots for my part. Too bad I got them so late in the game that they don't matter...anyways. A short distance later, I finally enter into hell's castle known as Pandaemonium! (Which I think is actually a really cool name!)
     Pandaemonium...the final dungeon of Final Fantasy 2. It's full of evil demon hellspawns and incredibly hard monsters. Most of them can be taken down pretty easily if you are prepared with the right spells and such, but I had a pretty big problem with a few ones. To single out my biggest problem, it was a monster known as a Death Rider. They didn't have much health, but they were able to do 1000s of damage per hit on characters, and they absorbed at least half of the damage they did back into them! A group of four took down my party with no problem. Thankfully, I saved right after entering Pandaemonium, but I was not up for another set of these guys. I looked up on a guide that their weakness was fire, so I became more aptly armed to their attack. I apologize for my guide looking up, but I'm ready to move on from this game! Many, many floors of winding passages, annoying yet hard enemies, but also kick-ass super equipment are present throughout this dungeon. You just have to love how they always give the best stuff when you are mere moments from finishing it. Referred to the guide (again), to help locate some of the best stuff, but most of it didn't come free. For the best armor stuff, I had to fight special mini-bosses. They weren't super hard, but many of them put up quite a fight. You climb and climb...with constant battles every 5 steps sometimes. Finally, I reached the final floor of Pandaemonium (Floor 10 if you were curious).
     It was finally time...for the final battle to end all battles! The evil superdemon hell king Dark Emperor was ready to crush the party and rule over everything. However, I was armed, dangerous, and ready to slay him! Unfortunately for me, I was a little TOO ready. I beat the Dark Emperor in 3 rounds...THREE ROUNDS! Apparently, if you happen to get this weapon known as the Blood Sword, you can take him down without trying. Each attack of the Blood Sword can do as much as 2500 damage to him WITHOUT adding any bonuses from Berserk, Haste, and so on. Now keep in mind, the Dark Emperor only has 10,000 HP. I would like to add that this was the most disappointing final boss battle ever. I could have redone it and made it harder without the Blood Sword, but I've honestly had my fill of this game. So, I went with it! The Emperor cries out as he is finally slain and disappears into nothingness. The Emperor (for the 2nd time) is dead, and the land can finally return to peace.
     The game comes to a nice little finale. Your group is greatly thanked by the multiple people you meet throughout the game. Hilda and Gordon are very grateful to finally have peace and plan to start rebuilding everything immediately. After getting a word in from just about everybody, your group finally takes their leave...and you are treated to a cut scene with some nicely worded bits followed by the ending credits.
Final Fantasy 2...is finally over! WOOOOOOO!

Ending Point - End of the Game! I beat it!
Goals Accomplished - Defeated the elemental gigas. Found Minwu. Obtained the Ultimate Magic Tome (Ultima). Entered the Cyclone and defeated the Emperor. Almost celebrated. Entered Palamecia and confronted the Dark Knight. Made it through the Jade Passage to Pandaemonium. Made it to the top of Pandaemonium. Defeated the Dark Emperor and beat the game!
Next Goals - Start Final Fantasy III on the DS!

Final Game Stats
40-1/2 hours of Gameplay
Levels Achieved...no idea. No real level system!
Overall Satisfaction...Insanely low. I have no plans of playing the Soul of Rebirth side-game dungeon thing you unlock when you beat it.

Final Side Note! - I will write up a review sometime soon. I will do my best to be friendly with the game review/final thoughts. My annoyance with the game came mainly from the large urge to want to finish it faster and get to later games.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

Day 15

Game - Final Fantasy 2, Day 15
Hours Played/Hours Total - 6 hrs / 31 hrs
Starting Point - Nearby the city of Fynn.
Current Goal - Locate Mysidia. Discover what the Masks do. Figure out what happened to Minwu.

What Happened - Got another decently long session in here. Really hoping to finish this title up soon. Looking forward to some of the earlier Final Fantasy titles like 3 and 4. Anyways...
     Starting from Fynn, I had to find the city of Mysidia. The first and foremost problem with this was that I had no idea where it was. Thankfully, this version of the game comes with an accessible world map. With the world map in hand, I was able to determine places I haven't gone to yet. I immediately set sale for a location southwest of my current spot. Some sea travel and a little land travel later, I found the city of Mysidia. The best part of this town..the magic shop! This store contained almost all of the magic that was possible to buy in the game up to this point, and it even had some new spells including the fabled Holy spell! I bought it up and gave it to two of my three main people. Checked out the local weapon shop and armory for some better equipment. After talking to a few NPCs, I found out that I needed to head to the Cave of Mysidia.
     The cave wasn't too hard to find. I had already happened upon it while looking for the city, and so I began the dungeon crawl. However, this was stopped quickly when I ran into a doppelganger! It would have been a daring and interesting fight, but instead of that, it was a minor inconvenience. If I tried to talk to him, it would just do a set event where the characters walked around a bunch and then back to the beginning spot. Since I couldn't go any further, I went back to Mysidia to see if I missed something. Once back, I talked around to the NPCs some more. I hadn't paid attention the first time, and what I had missed was a goddess statue below the middle of town. I went to the statue and placed the White Mask on it. This started part 1 of what I assumed was a 2 part event. With the mask on the statue, I returned back to the Cave of Mysidia.
     Cave of Mysidia...take 2! I went back to the doppelganger, and now it gave me the option to actually DO something with it. I placed the Black Mask on the doppelganger, and it immediately disappeared. With it out of the way, I was able to continue my downward crawl to the bottom. The reason I was in the Cave of Mysidia was to retrieve a Crystal Rod so that I could gain access to Mysidia Tower. (Whole lot of Mysidia up in here!) Anyways, this was a relatively boring dungeon crawl (not that any have been super exciting). Almost all of the enemies in this dungeon were variations of the common Final Fantasy enemy Flan. Flan are giant blob monsters that are generally impervious, or highly defended, against physical attacks. This forces you to use magic on them. After traversing the cave, I was rewarded with the Crystal Rod! With the rod in hand, I teleported out and began the next step to journey to Mysidian Tower.
     The only tower I knew of was just north of my current location. Figuring that it was bound to be the correct one, jumped back on my ship and sailed northward. Just as I was getting close to the tower...the ship was swallowed up by a massive whirlpool. Oh noes! Not the giant whirlpool side plot! Your group wakes up (minus Leila) inside a weird cave...which turns out to be a giant sea monster! You have to crawl through the monster's insides...constantly running through acids (mostly assuming) and fighting off dastardly monsters. Many of the monsters were electrified fish, which I think would cause some major distress to a giant sea creature. Anyways, it's a small event dungeon, and only housed a couple areas, some nice treasure chests, a boss monster, random people, and a lost dragoon! That's right, inside the Leviathan (name of the monster I assume), you find the final, surviving Dragoon named Ricard. You tell him about what you are trying to do and about the status of his people. With these couple of things in mind, he joins your party and your cause. This would be totally awesome...if he came with dragoon-like abilities. Turns out, they gave you a incredibly weak and meh-ly equipped character that you get to raise from nothing. So...yay!
     Ricard informs you that you should be able to escape the Leviathan fairly easily, but you have to go through a large monster near the mouth to get out! This would be a problem if my main characters weren't greatly powered up. After checking a few more chests, I charged at the giant worm monster and began the battle. As usual, I got everybody buffed up one way or another and began my onslaught! A few rounds later, the worm went down. Right behind the worm, was a somehow-intact and working sailing ship. The group jumped on the ship and sailed right out of the Leviathan. That sure was easy...
     Now that I was out of the Leviathan, I continued towards the tower, used the Crystal Rod, and then began my descent to the top. As I was typing this, I remembered (and am going to remind) why I'm going up this tower. Apparently, this tower houses the Ultimate Magic tome at the top, which the rebellion hopes to use against the empire. However, it seems that the tome will wait a bit longer as I close up game for the night. I saved on the second floor and stopped there for now.

Ending Point - Mysidian Tower, 2nd Floor
Goals Accomplished - Found Mysidia. Obtained the Holy Spell! Found out what the masks do. Placed the White Mask on the goddess statue at Mysidia. Placed the Black Mask on the evil doppelganger in the Cave of Mysidia. Recovered the Crystal Rods at the bottom of the Caves of Mysidia. Escaped from the Leviathan. Found the final dragoon who joined my party. Opened and entered the Mysidian Tower.
Next Goals - Climb to the top of Mysidian Tower and obtain the Ultimate Magic Tome.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~