4.5/5 ★ – crimson2877's review of FINAL FANTASY II.

Beaten: Dec 4 2021 Time: 17 Hours Platform: PC Final Fantasy 2 is usually considered the worst in the series. You see, being the second entry in the series, it’s a pretty radical departure from the first one. Rather than a typical leveling system, FF2 sports an effort based system, where the more you use a certain stat the better it becomes. In the original version, it requires a lot of deliberacy to train certain stats. You need to be using magic all the time, you need to choose a weapon type and stick to it, and infamously, you need to take damage regularly to increase your health. To that end, you can attack your own teammates, if enemies just aren’t causing enough hp gain on their own. Now, personally I love this system, but for a lot of people it just broke the experience for them. If that sounds like you, this pixel remaster is great. Level up chances are vastly increased, and health now increases much more passively. While I do kinda miss the player-driven style of the original, I’m down with making the game more accessible so it can get more love. And if there ever was a game deserving of love it’s FF2. Following the lore-driven sparseness of FF1, FF2 has much snappier pacing and a much more direct plot. This is where Final Fantasy became what it still is today, from recurring elements like Cid and chocobos to the extreme amount of Star Wars influence. All of your characters have canon names, and are really truly *characters*, or at least as close as an NES rpg could get to depicting them. On top of that, there’s a real sense of melancholy to the proceedings. Rather than wandering through a veritable wasteland like FF1, the darkness here comes from always being one step behind the villains, and being stuck watching as they leave massacre and destruction in their wake. There’s twists and turns and cutscenes and all in all every time you remember that it’s an NES game at its core you might get whiplash (or maybe I’m just underestimating NES rpgs, who knows). The dungeon design itself is good as well! It kind of splits the difference between FF1’s “straight outta D&D” style and more of a dragon-questy style. Progression is always clear, yet these places still feel real and sprawling as they twist pathways from staircase to staircase. Now, as a remaster, this is pretty great. Aside from the mechanical changes, all the art has been redone, and there’s a load of QoL improvements. The art is kind of a mixed bag for me, with flatter character colors looking a little bit eh, but not being outwardly bad during play. The enemy sprites are based off the NES sprites as well, which is fine, but I prefer the PS origins enemy sprites. As far as QoL, you can carry WAY more items now (which actually stack!) and walk diagonally! You also have a quick save, which is great if you need to take a break during a dungeon. Honestly I’d say this is a great way to try FF2, and you absolutely should if you have even the slightest craving. It’s not as punishing, but it still captures much of the spirit of the original, and just might get you hooked on SaGa!