Final Fantasy II -Famicom- 8.5

March 13, 2023

I just finished Final Fantasy II for The Famicom/Nes. This is not to be confused with FF4 released in the US as FF2 on the Super Nes — this is the real second game in the series made for the 8bit Japanese Famicom, but never officially brought to the American NES. I played through the game on a fan-translated repro cart, and I really liked it overall. The battle/experience system is very unconventional, but I still had fun with it. The only huge amounts of grinding I had to do were when I started the game, right before Mysidia Tower (very hard dungeon), and right before the final dungeon. Other than that, the game flowed fine. The game has a more narrative-driven approach than FF1, but it’s pretty dated compared to what was done in the 16bit and 32bit entries. The lead characters talk a little bit, but have very little backstory & development. Same thing with the evil emperor. There are some cool twists and backstories with the supporting cast and Npc’s, though. spoiler alert There is also a cool reveal when the girl in your party hears her brother’s voice and it’s one of the bad guys. But his turn back to good towards the end is very quick. Another part that felt rushed is early in the game when the Emperor’s warship attacks a couple villages and kills a bunch of people…but when you visit the villages, there is no damage on the buildings. end spoiler Despite some of the dated story beats and quirks in the battle system, I still really enjoyed playing through Final Fantasy 2. If you’re in the mood for an old school jrpg, it offers a vast globe to explore (using an online guide is highly recommended), fun dungeons to grind through, a beautiful retro soundtrack (the overworld theme really gets me), and an interesting battle system that I thought was fun to learn how to use (Buying the best equipment is more important than hit points and using the cancel trick is key to leveling up your spells). I am giving Final Fantasy II an 8.5 out of ten. I think it gets a bad rap from a lot of fans. It's not quite up there with the very best in the series, but I still think it's a very admirable game for its time.