Oh, Final Fantasy II… what can I add to the conversation surrounding this game that hasn’t already been said. Often seen as an anomaly in the Final Fantasy series for its unique leveling system and plot progression techniques, I walked away loving this game much more than I expected I would, and I found myself understanding, yet questioning, some of the common qualms that fans have with this entry in the timeless RPG series.
An Underdog’s Story
Originally released in 1988, and reintroduced beautifully to modern platforms with the Pixel Remaster version, Final Fantasy II introduces a story focusing on three orphans who, in an effort to find their lost companion, partner with a rebel force to defeat an oppressive, evil empire. Listen, I know it’s not incredibly boundary-pushing by 2023 standards, but at the time of this game’s release, having the main party be composed of a band of lost misfits, as opposed to a squad of young royals or fabled warriors-of-lore, was fresh and innovative. I, for one, greatly appreciate this about the game, so much so that it might be my favorite aspect of Final Fantasy II.
As a seasoned “I don’t care about the story, I just want to see the numbers go up” guy, I found myself surprised by how much I actually cared for the characters and their histories. Their status as innocent, underdog orphans being caught in the destructive cycle of violence at the hands of global powers struck a chord in me, and felt oddly similar to how, in 2023, oppressed and marginalized folks are often collateral damage in the greed and schemes of the rich and powerful….
But hey! Maybe I’m just looking too much into it!!
Gameplay Quirks
Unlike other JRPG’s of its time, and quite frankly our current day, Final Fantasy II bucks the tradition of gaining experience points from battle and leveling-up your party members. Instead, the game employs a system wherein individual stats and weapons are leveled-up through use and prioritization. This means that if you want a character’s attack stat to increase, you need to attack in battle. Want your white magic spells to become more powerful? Use them! Do you want a spear-wielding black mage? Then you had better start attacking with a spear and casting offensive spells! This system also applies to defensive attributes wherein taking physical and magic damage will increase your ability to withstand them in future fights.
One common criticism that I heard of Final Fantasy II prior to playing it is that this leveling system is easy to exploit and can quickly become broken, and to be honest, this is completely true, especially with the quality-of-life features added in the Pixel Remaster edition (more on this later). When researching this game leading up to my playthrough, I read numerous accounts of casting meaningless spells, attacking your own party members, and stalling out battles in the name of grinding for experience in specific stats. In my time with the game, however, I found this practice to be largely unnecessary, pardoning a few specific instances of having to grind for late-stage bosses and very rare difficulty spikes. Sure, the leveling system is there for you to exploit if you want, and I’ll admit it can be pretty fun to do exactly this, but it is by no means required to enjoy and complete Final Fantasy II.
To put a pin in the experience and leveling topic: I found the system to be a breath of fresh air and an incredible canvas on which to customize your party members to your own specific tastes. During my playthrough I had a party member focused on both melee and magical offense, another member focused on white and black AOE spells, and my last character serving as a high HP, high defense damage-sponge. I’m glad the Final Fantasy series ultimately chose not to adopt this leveling system going forward with later entries, as I find the more structured class and leveling strategies found in those games to be a more rewarding and interesting way to play JRPGs, but I admire and appreciate the fact that the Final Fantasy team decided to take such a creative gameplay risk, especially this early in the series’ tenure.
Another oddity employed in this game is its keyword system in which the plot progresses by talking with NPC’s, finding keywords in their dialogue (thankfully these words are highlighted in either red or green text; this game would be excruciatingly frustrating to play without this), inquiring and learning about those keywords, and then receiving an often heavy-handed hint towards the next story location from said NPC. It’s a system that’s stiff and can lead to aimlessly scouring the world map to find the right person to talk to in order to get the next critical keyword, but it serves its purpose well enough in helping the story progress. Like the previously mentioned leveling system, this feature is an interesting change to a series that otherwise chose to play it fairly by-the-books in its early years, but in the end I’m glad the franchise decided to leave this quirky plot-device behind.
Fighting Words
Less odd than Final Fantasy II’s leveling and progression systems is it’s combat; good, old fashioned turn-based battling is on tap here and it’s as fun and solid as ever (*glances towards FFXVI*). As was common in JRPG’s of this era, the encounter rate is rage-inducingly high. On one hand, this plays well into the use-it-or-lose it leveling system by giving the player ample opportunities to train their individual stat values in combat, but on the other hand it makes this game, especially its dungeons, incredibly frustrating to navigate. Thank God for the Pixel Remaster version, which allows the player to lower, and even turn off, the encounter rate. Without this feature I’m not sure I would have had the willpower to see this game through to completion.
You’ll have most of these random encounters in dungeons, which is another often complained about feature of Final Fantasy II. I don’t know that I’ve ever played a JRPG where a higher proportion of the total time spent playing took place in a dungeon. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing, but towards the end of my playthrough I was beginning succumb to dungeon fatigue. In the final quarter of the game there were instances when I would complete a lengthy and sprawling dungeon (often doors and staircases in these dungeons only lead to a single, empty room), only to have 15 or so minutes of time in the overworld before finding the NPC that I needed to talk with, learning their keywords, and then being shepherded off to the next labyrinthine dungeon. This may have just been my experience and others might not have found the proper NPC’s as quickly, but I can’t imagine I’m the only one out there who found this to be the case when playing Final Fantasy II. I’m an old-school JRPG type of guy, and I love a lot of this game’s forlorn elements, but it would have been nice if more time had been devoted to fleshing out the story and in-town interactions in between these massive dungeon segments, or at least making them fewer in number
A New Coat of Paint
I’m aware that I’ve pointed out mostly negative aspects of Final Fantasy II thus far, but a particularly bright spot for this game, and possibly the only reason I saw it through to completion, comes in the new features that have been added with the Pixel Remaster version. A plethora of quality-of-life additions are at the player’s fingertips, most impactful for me being the aforementioned ability to decrease the random encounter rate and/or turn it off completely. The game also features the ability to swap back and forth between the original music and the beautifully orchestrated remastered arrangements. I found myself sticking to the orchestrated version for the most part, but it was still fun to go back to the nostalgic 8-bit tunes every now and again for a change of pace.
As alluded to earlier when discussing the stat-specific leveling in Final Fantasy II, this version of the game allows the player to adjust the rate at which their attributes grow after battle. If you’re a player that’s intrigued by the idea of exploiting Final Fantasy II’s broken leveling system, then this option makes it easier and much, much faster! I actually found myself using it to speed up the grinding process before the final boss fight, and it was much appreciated.
The Long and Short of It
So…my final thoughts….
If I were playing the original version of Final Fantasy II, it would have been easy to not recommend this game. Positive aspects aside, its archaic drawbacks would likely prove unpalatable for modern audiences accustomed to more refined and polished games, and I likely wouldn’t have seen it through to completion.
I didn’t play that version of the game though, I played the wonderful Pixel Remaster which ushers in so many helpful features that better enable modern players to realistically experience the fun this game has to offer, and boy, am I grateful for those features! They allowed me to enjoy Final Fantasy II and experience this unique piece of JRPG history.
This game is a wildcard in the Final Fantasy franchise, and it took an incredible risk in deviating so far from the traditional JRPG path that was well established at that time. Not all of those risks pay off, that’s for sure, but they’re admirable and interesting enough that, when paired with the unique cast of misfit characters and the tried-and-true turn-based combat system, make for an overall enjoyable and worthwhile experience in Final Fantasy II. I recommend it, SPECIFICALLY THE PIXEL REMASTER VERSION (I can’t stress this enough), to any longtime fans of the franchise looking to delve into its history and/or anyone interested in old school JRPG’s that aren’t afraid to shake up the traditional formula!
But seriously though, make sure to play the Pixel Remaster version specifically!