![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slimequestConsidering that I'm supposed to be getting the re-re-remake of this game in the mail tomorrow, I thought I'd type out some words relating to this game for people to read about. Join me, won't you, into the magical world of this black sheep of the FF series.
As a preface, many people consider FFII to be the "worst Final Fantasy". It's debatable, of course, but FFII does have quite a bit to at least poke fun at, in a good way. Taken in the context of a classic-style RPG, it can be quite enjoyable to play through.
For starters, at the time of its release it was a pretty revolutionary game in the RPG world. You had actual characters, with names and supposed backgrounds, not just random sprites you named and sent off into the unknown. While the original Final Fantasy had a pretty deep storyline for its time too, FFII began the time-honored tradition of a group of rebels fighting against... wait for it... THE EVIL EMPIRE! A plot most recently reused in FFXII, and let's see... FFVI featured it heavily too, among others. Still, this was BEFORE it became cliche, so we'll cut the game some slack there.
Our heroes consist of Frioniel/Frionel/Firion (depending on the translator's mood that day), Maria (it's always Maria!), Guy (inexplicably called "Gus" in the Playstation version), and Leon (Leonheart, like, you know, Squall's last name. The family crest has "..." and "Whatever" emblazoned on it).
Firion, in the NES version, was.. well, he wasn't even a pallette swap of the Fighter from FFI, he just kind of had white stripes added to his outfit and they called it a day. Nevermind the fact that his character is supposed to have silver hair. Although Yoshitaka Amano is credited as "character designer", most of the characters' sprites look nothing like his designs. This would be featured in many other Final Fantasies. Another FF first, right here folks! INNOVATION.
He's the leader, the kind of leader where everyone just kind of decides to let him make all the decisions and do all the work while they file their nails and take naps in the corner. Other than getting seduced and almost killed in one scene (rated "T" for TEEN), he's pretty much the straight-laced good boy.
Maria comes equipped with a set of female genitalia. This is her defining characteristic. It's actually somewhat notable because she's the first actual girl playable character in an FF game, since at the time the White Mage in FF1 was kind of questionable. Even from the beginning, this series has had gender confusion. Also, again with the redheads from nowhere look in the NES version. (She's supposed to have purple hair)
Not that I'm complaining, I mean I'm a redhead too. I just don't have green hair on my driver's license picture and expect people to know they're both supposed to be the same person.
Guy is the kind of GUY (haha) that could fail a math test on a day when they weren't even giving a math test. He is dumb and is purposely made to talk like a retard. He can communicate with animals (although really, there's no way to tell whether he's actually speaking with them or whether he's making it all up) and is generally the tough guy who is along for the ride but has little to do with the main plot. Palette-swapped thief from Final Fantasy I. And goddamn, thieves sucked in the NES version. You can't even palette-swap right, Guy.
Then we come to Leon, who disappears shortly after the game begins and doesn't show up again until much later. He has an important role in the story but that's a big SPOILER (and one of the more memorable ones from the game, so I won't discuss it here). He is like the more badass, assholish guy compared to the main character. Cooler hairstyle, too. He actually somewhat resembles his Amano art. (that isn't the huge spoiler)
The game literally begins with you thrust into a battle. A battle that's impossible to win, you get pretty thoroughly destroyed and humiliated, quite frankly. This sets the tone for most of the rest of the game - it's as emo as a game could be in the late 80s. This is best exemplified by the notorious 4th party member - let's just say, never get too attached to whoever is rounding out that bottom slot of your party. They will almost certainly die at some point during the game, possibly in a humiliating or futile kind of way. It starts out shocking but ends up being almost comical in the right frame of mind. I'm sure a decent drinking game could be made out of it. "If your fourth party member dies, take a drink. If they were useless in battle the entire time up until their death, take another. If they are crushed by a boulder or some other kind of blunt object, down the whole glass". It's a quick path to liver damage.
This game also features a "keyword" system, where certain important characters will mention a special word like "Wild Rose" (the password for the resistance group) and it'll show up in a red font so that you just KNOW it's important. You can then memorize this word so you can say it to other people (like say, a resistance member) to get special conversations and move the story along.
It's actually quite innovative for its time, letting the player interact a little bit more in story scenes. On the other hand, you can also try saying random unrelated keywords to townspeople and they'll all give you the same "?" reaction. I think it would have been more realistic if after maybe 5 times doing that they'd cast "Restraining Order 3" on you, and then you got to do community service. Maybe in the next remake.
FFII's leveling-up and ability system is where most of the controversy lies. It is the only Final Fantasy that does not use experience points and levels as its primary gauge of your character's strength. Instead, it uses what could be considered a more "realistic" method, as realistic as getting stronger from battling monsters gets, that is.
Basically, if your characters swing swords (or axes, or spears, or just their bare hands, to name just a few of the weapon types available) around all the time, they'll get buff and their strength stat will increase. Naturally, they won't get too smart doing manual labor all day, so their intelligence won't increase because of this. The opposite is also true, using magic exercises your brain but not your brawn. The more you get beat up by monsters, the tougher (aka more defense and HP) you get. And so on and so forth. When you think about it, it makes a lot more sense than most systems. The Square series SaGa uses this kind of system in most of their games, it adds a bit of fun and replayability to be able to mold your characters into whatever kind of fighters you want them to be.
However, this system isn't without its weak areas. In the original NES (and later on the nicer-looking but faithful to the original Playstation version), you actually LOST stats doing this. Your physical fighters would occasionally lose INT while gaining STR, and vice-versa. I guess this was put into place so your party couldn't be full of all-powerful magical warriors or something, but in the end it's kind of an annoyance if you happened to have your mage run out of MP and they HAD to attack, but then gained strength they didn't need and lost intelligence which is their primary stat.
This also lead to one of the other things FFII is "famous" for - having your party members attack themselves (or each other) to gain HP easily. Just smack each other around or stab yourself in the eye with your sword and you'll be toughened up in no time! Just ignore those horrible disfiguring scars.
The magic system is kind of a trainwreck as well, each spell has a "level" which increases the more you use it, to a maximum of 16. The main problem is that most of your spells don't become useful enough to use in battle until they gain a few levels. Thus you're stuck with a sleep spell which might put the enemy to sleep 1% of the time at its initial level, and the only way to increase its usefulness is to cast it in vain over and over again on monsters, who will not fall asleep and will chew on your leg the entire time.
To add to this, most spells aren't that useful even if you do level them up, and attack spells will regularly do less damage than physical attacks on most monsters. You'll essentially find yourself only using magic for healing and to attack certain enemies who are resistant to weapon attacks. There is a major plot point to recover the FORBIDDEN MAGIC ULTIMA with much struggling and sacrifice involved (you'll never guess what gets sacrificed) and... it's not all that great, really. Pretty much a letdown, honestly. You'll go back to stabbing things soon after.
HOWEVER~!!!... this was all in the NES version. In all honesty the NES version is pretty flawed and is only worth playing if:
A. You actually are from the year 1988 and Japanese,
B. You want to enjoy the NES style graphics and sound (fair enough, but just download the OST and stare at some sprite rips why don'cha?),
C. Parasites from a distant galaxy have bored into your skull and you need to expose them to appropriate brainwaves to kill them off,
D. You are the character Guy from Final Fantasy II. (probably the same thing as C)
Here's a quick rundown of the various major versions of the game that were released, for easy reference:
NES - Hey I'm the original version. Check out my lazy FFI graphics, P.S. my leveling system kind of sucks. But what are you gonna do? It's HOW I WAS RAISED.
Playstation - I've got an FMV in the beginning and the characters don't look anything like their Amano art OR their sprites in it! I'm just that cool. You know you want me. Also I have an easy mode but the leveling system still sucks, I'm the abused child of the NES version and I'm continuing the cycle of destruction.
Gameboy Advance - Hi I'm here to make up for the horrible crimes of my ancestors. Social services finally came to our rescue. The leveling system has been fixed so please pick me up and play with me? I can't fit that FMV in my little cartridge but my conjoined twin Final Fantasy I is pretty fun to play with. I also have a bonus dungeon where all the dead 4th party members go on adventures, they might even die again, who knows?
PSP -
In conclusion, I was so moved to tears by the scene where Guy talks to some beavers that I have to recommend this game to all my friends and family, repeatedly, until they politely ask me to stop. No, really, it's a pretty fun classic RPG so if you're into that kind of thing you should give it a go. Just... play the GBA version or anything released afterwards.
As a preface, many people consider FFII to be the "worst Final Fantasy". It's debatable, of course, but FFII does have quite a bit to at least poke fun at, in a good way. Taken in the context of a classic-style RPG, it can be quite enjoyable to play through.
For starters, at the time of its release it was a pretty revolutionary game in the RPG world. You had actual characters, with names and supposed backgrounds, not just random sprites you named and sent off into the unknown. While the original Final Fantasy had a pretty deep storyline for its time too, FFII began the time-honored tradition of a group of rebels fighting against... wait for it... THE EVIL EMPIRE! A plot most recently reused in FFXII, and let's see... FFVI featured it heavily too, among others. Still, this was BEFORE it became cliche, so we'll cut the game some slack there.
Our heroes consist of Frioniel/Frionel/Firion (depending on the translator's mood that day), Maria (it's always Maria!), Guy (inexplicably called "Gus" in the Playstation version), and Leon (Leonheart, like, you know, Squall's last name. The family crest has "..." and "Whatever" emblazoned on it).
Firion, in the NES version, was.. well, he wasn't even a pallette swap of the Fighter from FFI, he just kind of had white stripes added to his outfit and they called it a day. Nevermind the fact that his character is supposed to have silver hair. Although Yoshitaka Amano is credited as "character designer", most of the characters' sprites look nothing like his designs. This would be featured in many other Final Fantasies. Another FF first, right here folks! INNOVATION.
He's the leader, the kind of leader where everyone just kind of decides to let him make all the decisions and do all the work while they file their nails and take naps in the corner. Other than getting seduced and almost killed in one scene (rated "T" for TEEN), he's pretty much the straight-laced good boy.
Maria comes equipped with a set of female genitalia. This is her defining characteristic. It's actually somewhat notable because she's the first actual girl playable character in an FF game, since at the time the White Mage in FF1 was kind of questionable. Even from the beginning, this series has had gender confusion. Also, again with the redheads from nowhere look in the NES version. (She's supposed to have purple hair)
Not that I'm complaining, I mean I'm a redhead too. I just don't have green hair on my driver's license picture and expect people to know they're both supposed to be the same person.
Guy is the kind of GUY (haha) that could fail a math test on a day when they weren't even giving a math test. He is dumb and is purposely made to talk like a retard. He can communicate with animals (although really, there's no way to tell whether he's actually speaking with them or whether he's making it all up) and is generally the tough guy who is along for the ride but has little to do with the main plot. Palette-swapped thief from Final Fantasy I. And goddamn, thieves sucked in the NES version. You can't even palette-swap right, Guy.
Then we come to Leon, who disappears shortly after the game begins and doesn't show up again until much later. He has an important role in the story but that's a big SPOILER (and one of the more memorable ones from the game, so I won't discuss it here). He is like the more badass, assholish guy compared to the main character. Cooler hairstyle, too. He actually somewhat resembles his Amano art. (that isn't the huge spoiler)
The game literally begins with you thrust into a battle. A battle that's impossible to win, you get pretty thoroughly destroyed and humiliated, quite frankly. This sets the tone for most of the rest of the game - it's as emo as a game could be in the late 80s. This is best exemplified by the notorious 4th party member - let's just say, never get too attached to whoever is rounding out that bottom slot of your party. They will almost certainly die at some point during the game, possibly in a humiliating or futile kind of way. It starts out shocking but ends up being almost comical in the right frame of mind. I'm sure a decent drinking game could be made out of it. "If your fourth party member dies, take a drink. If they were useless in battle the entire time up until their death, take another. If they are crushed by a boulder or some other kind of blunt object, down the whole glass". It's a quick path to liver damage.
This game also features a "keyword" system, where certain important characters will mention a special word like "Wild Rose" (the password for the resistance group) and it'll show up in a red font so that you just KNOW it's important. You can then memorize this word so you can say it to other people (like say, a resistance member) to get special conversations and move the story along.
It's actually quite innovative for its time, letting the player interact a little bit more in story scenes. On the other hand, you can also try saying random unrelated keywords to townspeople and they'll all give you the same "?" reaction. I think it would have been more realistic if after maybe 5 times doing that they'd cast "Restraining Order 3" on you, and then you got to do community service. Maybe in the next remake.
FFII's leveling-up and ability system is where most of the controversy lies. It is the only Final Fantasy that does not use experience points and levels as its primary gauge of your character's strength. Instead, it uses what could be considered a more "realistic" method, as realistic as getting stronger from battling monsters gets, that is.
Basically, if your characters swing swords (or axes, or spears, or just their bare hands, to name just a few of the weapon types available) around all the time, they'll get buff and their strength stat will increase. Naturally, they won't get too smart doing manual labor all day, so their intelligence won't increase because of this. The opposite is also true, using magic exercises your brain but not your brawn. The more you get beat up by monsters, the tougher (aka more defense and HP) you get. And so on and so forth. When you think about it, it makes a lot more sense than most systems. The Square series SaGa uses this kind of system in most of their games, it adds a bit of fun and replayability to be able to mold your characters into whatever kind of fighters you want them to be.
However, this system isn't without its weak areas. In the original NES (and later on the nicer-looking but faithful to the original Playstation version), you actually LOST stats doing this. Your physical fighters would occasionally lose INT while gaining STR, and vice-versa. I guess this was put into place so your party couldn't be full of all-powerful magical warriors or something, but in the end it's kind of an annoyance if you happened to have your mage run out of MP and they HAD to attack, but then gained strength they didn't need and lost intelligence which is their primary stat.
This also lead to one of the other things FFII is "famous" for - having your party members attack themselves (or each other) to gain HP easily. Just smack each other around or stab yourself in the eye with your sword and you'll be toughened up in no time! Just ignore those horrible disfiguring scars.
The magic system is kind of a trainwreck as well, each spell has a "level" which increases the more you use it, to a maximum of 16. The main problem is that most of your spells don't become useful enough to use in battle until they gain a few levels. Thus you're stuck with a sleep spell which might put the enemy to sleep 1% of the time at its initial level, and the only way to increase its usefulness is to cast it in vain over and over again on monsters, who will not fall asleep and will chew on your leg the entire time.
To add to this, most spells aren't that useful even if you do level them up, and attack spells will regularly do less damage than physical attacks on most monsters. You'll essentially find yourself only using magic for healing and to attack certain enemies who are resistant to weapon attacks. There is a major plot point to recover the FORBIDDEN MAGIC ULTIMA with much struggling and sacrifice involved (you'll never guess what gets sacrificed) and... it's not all that great, really. Pretty much a letdown, honestly. You'll go back to stabbing things soon after.
HOWEVER~!!!... this was all in the NES version. In all honesty the NES version is pretty flawed and is only worth playing if:
A. You actually are from the year 1988 and Japanese,
B. You want to enjoy the NES style graphics and sound (fair enough, but just download the OST and stare at some sprite rips why don'cha?),
C. Parasites from a distant galaxy have bored into your skull and you need to expose them to appropriate brainwaves to kill them off,
D. You are the character Guy from Final Fantasy II. (probably the same thing as C)
Here's a quick rundown of the various major versions of the game that were released, for easy reference:
NES - Hey I'm the original version. Check out my lazy FFI graphics, P.S. my leveling system kind of sucks. But what are you gonna do? It's HOW I WAS RAISED.
Playstation - I've got an FMV in the beginning and the characters don't look anything like their Amano art OR their sprites in it! I'm just that cool. You know you want me. Also I have an easy mode but the leveling system still sucks, I'm the abused child of the NES version and I'm continuing the cycle of destruction.
Gameboy Advance - Hi I'm here to make up for the horrible crimes of my ancestors. Social services finally came to our rescue. The leveling system has been fixed so please pick me up and play with me? I can't fit that FMV in my little cartridge but my conjoined twin Final Fantasy I is pretty fun to play with. I also have a bonus dungeon where all the dead 4th party members go on adventures, they might even die again, who knows?
PSP -
In conclusion, I was so moved to tears by the scene where Guy talks to some beavers that I have to recommend this game to all my friends and family, repeatedly, until they politely ask me to stop. No, really, it's a pretty fun classic RPG so if you're into that kind of thing you should give it a go. Just... play the GBA version or anything released afterwards.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-07-30 04:26 am (UTC)While the main group was mostly cardboard, some of the fourth party members were pretty interesting. I liked Gordon (because of his issues with his brother) and Mindu.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-30 03:33 pm (UTC)I really have a soft spot for this game too, which is why I try to "defend" it every now and then. Or just tell people it isn't QUITE as bad as they might have heard.
The GBA and PSP versions had much more interesting scripts, you might want to check one of them out eventually ;D