Final Fantasy II (Super Nintendo, 1991)

Why I bought this game:
1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, and Tactics have been played and completed thus far. FF4 was left out and I've been wanting to see what the game was like. Knowing how I seem attracted to the music of Final Fantasy, I thought I may add to my growing collection. Note: I refer to this game as Final Fantasy 4 (FF4), since it's actually the fourth in the series.

Story (grade A-):
I found this game's story both good and weird. Basically, the story revolves around Cecil, a dark knight who works for the Red Wings of Baron. The Red Wings are a military-like force of airships. For the beginning 2/3 of the story, it's good. There are many twists and turns around that make you wonder what will happen next. The last 1/3 is where the story takes a turn for the weird end. Overall, it was an enjoyable story.

Gameplay (grade C+):
Like most any RPG, you often venture through forests, deserts, and grasslands to get between towns or to a cave, temple, or other special place. Along the way, random battles occur, which are used to gain experience (for levels) and GP (I refer GP as gil - it's what I'm used to). The lack of protection against status effects (e.g. paralyze, poison, and, most annoying of all, confusion (known as charm)) adds considerably to the challenge. One thing that would be of use is what changes a new weapon or piece of armor has, all changes. Equipping a new weapon may appear to lower the attack, but it may increase the attack count by 1 which actually makes it more powerful. Armor does the same, only it's the evasion (defence% - it's misspelled like this in the game). It is an old game so I do expect some limiting aspects of it. Restoring MP is also a pain - ethers restore little and they are extremely pricy. Fortunately, you can have hundreds of HP-restoring potions (late in the game, I've had 800 cure2's on hand and the final area uses up nearly 400 of these, ignoring any leveling I may do...). The damage limit of 9999 is an annoying one, but, unless your character's level reaches near the maximum, you're unlikely to see it, of which I find a nice thing - it makes the effort of reaching level 99 much more rewarding (and it takes countless hours of battles just to do that - I'm 34 hours in and only level 73, needing nearly 180,000 EXP when you get only 10,000 per battle). One thing I'd have liked to see is customizing the party. At the end, I'd like to have swapped out Rydia for Yang or reduce the party size to 3 or even 2 for fast leveling (Cecil, Yang, and Kain).

Sound (grade A-):
The music is done somewhat well. The battle music is the weak point - it doesn't really sound like a battle is going on, unlike FF6 and later. Otherwise, the sound is well-done, adding a great deal to the atmosphere. However, none of the game's songs are of any interest to me which I found a bit disappointing (this doesn't affect the grade).

Graphics (grade B+):
8-bit color is not attractive nowadays, but this game does very well with such a limited supply of colors. There could still be some more detail to the textures though. Overall, for the time the game was made, the graphics are excellent.

Overall (grade B+):
I'm somewhat satisfied with this game. It's the weak points in the game play that hinders the overall quality of the game. At least it comes with a good story and I didn't have to consult gameFAQs to get "unstuck" because I never got stuck.

US RELEASE DATE: 11/23/1991
JAPANESE RELEASE DATE: 7/19/1991

Plot Basics (From Wikipedia): "Most of Final Fantasy IV takes place on Earth, also known as the Blue Planet,[9] which consists of an Upper World and Underground. The Upper World consists of territories populated by different character classes from the series. The Underground is primarily inhabited by dwarves and is covered in rock and magma. A red moon orbits the planet, upon which people called the Lunarians and Hummingway live. Travel between the three realms is accomplished through airships.

Final Fantasy IV offers twelve playable characters, each with a unique character class. The protagonist, Cecil Harvey, is a Dark Knight of Baron who serves the king alongside his childhood friend Kain Highwind. Kain was once asked to become a Dark Knight, but instead followed his father's example and became a Dragoon. Rosa Farrell is Cecil's girlfriend; she became a white mage and archer to protect a Dark Knight as her mother protected her father. Cecil is the captain of the "Red Wings", an elite air force unit constructed by his friend, the engineer Cid Pollendina.

During his quest, Cecil is joined by others. Rydia, the first, is a young Summoner from the village of Mist. Cecil gains her trust by saving her life. Tellah is a legendary sage of Mysidia; he is very protective of his daughter Anna. Edward Chris von Muir, the prince of Damcyan, pursues her courtship and travels disguised as a bard. Yang Fang Leiden is the well-mannered head of the Monks of Fabul. Palom and Porom are twin wizards from Mysidia who assist Cecil in in a difficult trial. Edward "Edge" Geraldine is the rowdy Ninja prince of Eblan who has a crush on Rydia. Lastly, FuSoYa is the guardian of the Lunarians during their long sleep."

"Final Fantasy II" is the "easy version" of the Japanese release of "Final Fantasy IV." The main differences between the games are some minor story edits (to "Westernize" the game), toning down some monsters/bosses, and changes in some character classes (for example, Cecil as a Dark Knight cannot use the "Dark Wave" attack in "Final Fantasy II," although his "alter ego" uses it in the "Paladin Trial" sequence).

The game itself, however, is still an RPG masterpiece. Although Square failed to release "Final Fantasy II" and "Final Fantasy III" in the US, they made a good decision to bring this title over. The game has a very involving story that draws the player in, helping them get to know each of the game's many characters (up to five characters can be in the party at any one time). The game can take anywhere from 30 to 40 hours to complete (or more), and while this is short compared to the 60-100 that FF7 would take, the game has plenty of "extras" to draw players in (such as getting "lost" characters to rejoin the party and to try to achieve higher levels to make the final battle easier).

All said and done, the game plays very fluidly and is easy to come back and play even today in the "new age of gaming." The game has been remade for the WonderSwan Color, PlayStation, and GameBoy Advance (those remakes are of the "full" version), but this version is still very fun to play and very approachable for gamers of all skill levles.

Thus, I give it a rare 5/5...An "excellent" score!

This is the game that made me a fan of old-school rpg's. If any retro game could be made into a movie, it would be this one. One of the best stories I've ever seen in a game: You play as Cecil, a dark knight and captain of Baron's airship force called the Red Wings (being a hockey fan I thought that was hilarious) who's orders are to collect a number of dark crystals from different cities at all costs... Cecil is uneasy about this and approaches the king of Baron about it, only to get banished... Cecil sets off on a quest to find salvation from his blood-stained past, and to stop the crystals from being used by evil forces... This game also features memorable characters like Cid and Tellah, along with a super-cool ninja named Edge. This is one of the best rpg's I own, and one of the best for the time.

If anyone wants to have a complete RPG library for their SNES, they need to include the Final Fantasy series of games by Square Soft. I am an avid fan of the Final Fantasy games and the best of which (in my opinion) is Final Fantasy Three (six in Japan), but a close second is Final Fantasy Two (Four). I will not get into the US v. Japanese numbering and the tragedy that the other early games were never released for their US counterpart systems. I will say that Final Fantasy Two (4 in Japan) has a special place as that it was the First 16 bit adaptation of a great game series. It has a solid plot-line, great playability, and a timelessness that makes it hold up. In my opinion, the 16 bit Final Fantasy games represented a golden age of RPGs and something that is lost on the more advanced games of today. The games had their strong points in: plot, character development, simplicity, and not relying on 3D graphics or animated-cut-scenes to drive their enjoyment. I wanted to see games like this but larger, not with the bells and whistles, and that use the same simplicity of style. This game is not hard to understand, it does require the player to think and problem-solve. At the time, the world of video games were in the middle of a bit war, and the 8 and 16 bit game-play was left behind, because the characters were not fully rendered 3D images. These games required level-grinding, at a time when you would run into the same three monsters over and over, but this also was fun because it meant that you could just hang out with a few friends that wanted to see how far you had come in the game and what items you had or had missing. The technology worked for what was needed. It is like the game Tetris... No matter how advanced computers and their graphics get, people will be playing Tetris. there is no way to make Tetris better than it already is. The game will always be what it is. It does not need to have an upgrade or cut-scenes. If the format of the game was changed, it would not be Tetris. It is the same principal behind the Rubix Cube and chess. With RPGs, all you need is: a good plot with twists, locations on a over-view world map (or two or more maps), many items and enemies, and characters with good back-stories.

"Final Fantasy II" did all of this, sold millions copes, and all on 16 bits. The game is still sells for around $25-$50 to this day, because it was made to be good NOT FLASHY. It was a nod to all of what made RPGs good on the 8 bit Nintendo Entertainment System. It took what was good, made it better, but it did not change the basic simplicity that made the games fun enough to sit and play for hours or days on end. The audience for these games was not the largest group of gamers out there, but that is part of what made it cool to be a fan. These were games that made you think, have patients, and some critical thinking ability. It was not the type of game you just pushed start and mindlessly mashed buttons at, in order to kill all of the enemies, or to side scroll your way through the levels.
Buy this game, knowing that it is part of something that has been lost in today's games, but sorely needs to return.

This was the 1st SNES game that I completed. It was extremely challenging and enjoyable. The ability to buy and sell and then make each character as powerful as possible was a great part of the game itself. For anyone whom enjoys the challenge of an RPG, this is a must. Also the ending was worth all the time it took to play! This is one of my all-time favorites!