Sora96's FINAL FANTASY II Review

[Sora96 17,256]

FINAL FANTASY II is the sequel to the original FINAL FANTASY. Both were originally developed by Square’s A-Team (the team that made FINAL FANTASY I, II & III) for the Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System. It was later remade alongside the first game for the WonderSwan Color before being ported to the PlayStation and later Game Boy Advance before receiving a second remake to celebrate the 20th anniversary on PlayStation Portable. In 2010 it was ported to iOS and in 2012 to Android. I've been playing the Android version.

 

Unfortunately, I wouldn't even call this a solid game. The “level-up system” is so broken it’s laughable. Square’s A-Team tried to reinvent the level-up system and failed. You have to take damage in order to increase your HP. This is just the start of this horrible system. Grinding is normal for a JRPG but you're going to have to do it even more than usual and even then it’s painfully boring.

 

For 2D graphics they're quite nice, but it’s nothing amazing. They have not been remastered in HD yet, neither has I. One of the few main entries left in the series yet to be remastered in HD. In other words if you're playing this on a tablet it’s going to look like crap, it’s just a small square surrounded by black.

 

There’s also bugs. A big one being if you press the back button on your smartphone or tablet the game will crash.

 

Thankfully, the bonus dungeons, bestiary and music player have actually been included this time around but you'll probably never use them since you need to complete the game to unlock the dungeons and use the music player.

 

The controls are really basic as well, in the HD remasters of III, IV, V and VI, Square Enix’s business division 9 took the time to remake the controls and parts of the user interface even the bonus dungeon in FFIV was remade. For II and I they did not, the controls are still the same as the PSP versions. They just threw on basic, ugly touch screen icons. It’s like they didn't even care about the ports of I & II but considering how awful II’s gameplay is I can't really blame them much.

 

Obviously there’s no gamepad or cloud saving support either. And of course no achievements or auto-battle features.

 

The HD remasters of III, IV, V and VI have continued to receive updates from division 9 years after release with requested features added and the games improved even more. But I & II have been forgotten about despite being the worst state of all. Since they're finally nearly done with various other iOS & Android titles maybe they'll get back to these but can't say I blame them either way, II in particular is pretty bad.

 

The music is good but nowhere near the best in the series.

 

From what I've played, the story is pretty good but the shocking gameplay is making it hard to keep playing. It’s hard to keep track of what to do in this game as well.

 

The key word system is just weird.

 

And if you walk the wrong way early in the game you'll instantly die due to facing very powerful monsters. And the random encounter rate is of course very high.

 

All in all, FINAL FANTASY II is a bad game and one you should be careful about purchasing. Do not purchase the Android port. I'd suggest getting the PSOne Classic or the PSP version but don't pay too much. Or the GBA port if you can find it cheap. There is most likely a 3DS port on the way as well so you might want to wait for that.

 

I adore this franchise and company but this is just a joke, I'm glad this was a once off as FINAL FANTASY III was a lot better than even the original and then the franchise took off with an amazing streak of some of the greatest JRPGs of all time.

 

5.8

[Isaix 924]

Yeah,FFII had a lot of problems, its one of my least favorite game in the serie,but I still had fun playing it,its a ok game to me. 

[twilight_roxas 326]

While its a bad FF game but remember we were introduce to Firon, Emperor Mateus plus its the also the introduction of Cid.

[Sora96 17,256]

While its a bad FF game but remember we were introduce to Firon, Emperor Mateus plus its the also the introduction of Cid.

 

Not a big fan of Firon.

[twilight_roxas 326]

Not a big fan of Firon.

What about Emperor Mateus? Plus you know this was the debut of the Cids?

[Sora96 17,256]

What about Emperor Mateus? Plus you know this was the debut of the Cids?

 

He seems cool. Yeah, but the Cids are all over the place. Haha.

[Shulk 8,623]

The gameplay might be broken, but I personally like the idea behind it. II was my favorite of the original trilogy (And I liked all three a lot), it just takes a lot of time to get used to the system. I'd love a game with a similar concept, just not quite as time consuming or buggy.

[The Transcendent Key 12,109]

I had read something once about this game's gameplay, and thanks to your review, now I have a clearer grasp of it.  I want to get the game since I'm trying to play all the numbered entries in the Final Fantasy series, so I'll probably get this game sooner or later.  I'm just going to have to get used to the level up system. Nice review, Sora!

[Sora96 17,256]

I had read something once about this game's gameplay, and thanks to your review, now I have a clearer grasp of it.  I want to get the game since I'm trying to play all the numbered entries in the Final Fantasy series, so I'll probably get this game sooner or later.  I'm just going to have to get used to the level up system. Nice review, Sora!

 

Thanks, glad I could help.

[Shulk 8,623]

I get a feeling I'm the only one who really liked this game.

[Sendou Aichi 2,356]

I get a feeling I'm the only one who really liked this game.

Don't worry,

(Had to make that joke)

[Joker 1,560]

I get a feeling I'm the only one who really liked this game.

lmao same i loved ff2