06-14-2019, 12:06 AM
Thank you both for the feedback. I'm going to rename this topic to "Ravenfreak's thoughts on Final Fantasy" since I plan on playing through other games! Speaking of which, I finished 2 the other day! Here's my review on it! Again I played the Origins version.
Final Fantasy 2 you either love it or you hate it, and more people tend to hate it. Do I hate it? Continue reading to find out!
Let's start off with the basic rundown on how this game works. Like any other turned based RPG, the goal is to defeat monsters, and save the world! Though this one does things quite differently, and that's the main reason why you see this game on the bottom of many Final Fantasy fans lists of the best games in the series. Just how different is it from your typical RPG? Well, there's no leveling system! Instead you master the use of weapons, and the way your stats increase depends on how much damage you take, how much magic you use in battle, etc. But you see, this game has a huge flaw with the system. If you continue to attack yourself, and keep selecting a target to attack your stats will increase! Anyways, I think that explains the basics of the battle system without going into too much detail. Because this is a review after all, and I'm sure you're more interested in what I think of the game!
We'll look past the battle system for now and focus on the characters. Right at the beginning we start with four characters, Firion, Maria, Gus, and Leon. However the player quickly realizes that the party of four will soon become a party of three. You lose Leon right at the beginning! We also learn quickly that Maria and Leon are sibblings, and our main objective is to find him. Gus seems to be the slow character as he speaks somewhat like a caveman. Maria tends to be the red mage of your party if we're going with the old class system from the original game. For most of the game you're only stuck with Firion, Maria, and Gus with the ocassional fourth party member joining in from time to time as the story progresses. We don't get too much of a back story for the three main characters, but this was an original NES game and you can only do so much with what limits you have. We know that each character comes from the same town, because we see this in a cutscene in the beginning of the game. The other characters you encounter don't have much of a back story either, aside from one or two. So the character development is really lacking in this title.
Alright enough of the characters, how about the story? Well the story is pretty similar to Final Fantasy 4 ironically. I say ironically, because Final Fantasy 4 was released as "Final Fantasy 2" in the states, because Squaresoft thought we couldn't handle 2 and 3 so we didn't get those on the NES. However, 4 came out later of course, so I think Squaresoft might have made 4's story a bit similar to 2's since the west didn't get it. Or I'm just reading into things, and they just accidentally made the stories somewhat similar. I don't want to give anything away, since there might be people who wish to play both games. I'll just say this, two characters have almost identical storylines. But what do I think of the story? It's a decent one, but I honestly like Final Fantasy 1's story a little better.
So let's get back to that odd leveling system. I've already explained it earlier in my review, so feel free to look back at it if you need to. I'm one of those few in between fans who actually quite enjoys the leveling system! Just the whole aspect of having to literally make the characters hit themselves to get more HP and better stats made it really enjoyable to grind rather than having to keep encountering monster after monster until you're at the "perfect" level. Don't get me wrong, I love turned base RPGs, but it was a nice refreshing break from the normal turned base RPG system. There's no way the game would be beatable IMO if you don't use the exploits to your advantages though. Most strong monsters would kill you instantly if you tried to play the game legitimately. I'll get more into that later on though.
Alright I think I've explained the many pros I have with Final Fantasy 2. So let's take a look at some of the cons. First, the most annoying aspect of the game is the inventory system. You only have 63 item slots, and items do not stack on each other! That means if you pick up three potions, those three potions just took up three item slots! Also most of those slots will be taken over by key items, which even after they serve their purpose you can't do anything with them! So you couldn't sell or toss them, they sit there for the rest of the game. Also in order to actually use items in battle, your characters must be equipped with said items! You can't access your inventory during battle! This really was my biggest complaint about the game. I also found the bosses to be quite easy, but I did have fun grinding so I was probably over powered for the entire game. Plus, I had the best weapons in the game so the final boss was a joke.
So do I love it or hate it? Honestly, despite the stupid inventory system Final Fantasy 2 was quite enjoyable. The fact that you could have your characters master the use of different weapons rather than relying on levels was a new, fun take on the traditional RPG. Plus, the whole entire leveling system was unique and fun! I did forget to mention the music, the soundtrack is decent but honestly I like the first game's soundtrack better. Overall if you like bizarre leveling systems, you will possibly enjoy this game. If you're used to the traditional system, you might find this one to be too odd. I rate Final Fantasy 2 a 7 out of 10.
Final Fantasy 2 you either love it or you hate it, and more people tend to hate it. Do I hate it? Continue reading to find out!
Let's start off with the basic rundown on how this game works. Like any other turned based RPG, the goal is to defeat monsters, and save the world! Though this one does things quite differently, and that's the main reason why you see this game on the bottom of many Final Fantasy fans lists of the best games in the series. Just how different is it from your typical RPG? Well, there's no leveling system! Instead you master the use of weapons, and the way your stats increase depends on how much damage you take, how much magic you use in battle, etc. But you see, this game has a huge flaw with the system. If you continue to attack yourself, and keep selecting a target to attack your stats will increase! Anyways, I think that explains the basics of the battle system without going into too much detail. Because this is a review after all, and I'm sure you're more interested in what I think of the game!
We'll look past the battle system for now and focus on the characters. Right at the beginning we start with four characters, Firion, Maria, Gus, and Leon. However the player quickly realizes that the party of four will soon become a party of three. You lose Leon right at the beginning! We also learn quickly that Maria and Leon are sibblings, and our main objective is to find him. Gus seems to be the slow character as he speaks somewhat like a caveman. Maria tends to be the red mage of your party if we're going with the old class system from the original game. For most of the game you're only stuck with Firion, Maria, and Gus with the ocassional fourth party member joining in from time to time as the story progresses. We don't get too much of a back story for the three main characters, but this was an original NES game and you can only do so much with what limits you have. We know that each character comes from the same town, because we see this in a cutscene in the beginning of the game. The other characters you encounter don't have much of a back story either, aside from one or two. So the character development is really lacking in this title.
Alright enough of the characters, how about the story? Well the story is pretty similar to Final Fantasy 4 ironically. I say ironically, because Final Fantasy 4 was released as "Final Fantasy 2" in the states, because Squaresoft thought we couldn't handle 2 and 3 so we didn't get those on the NES. However, 4 came out later of course, so I think Squaresoft might have made 4's story a bit similar to 2's since the west didn't get it. Or I'm just reading into things, and they just accidentally made the stories somewhat similar. I don't want to give anything away, since there might be people who wish to play both games. I'll just say this, two characters have almost identical storylines. But what do I think of the story? It's a decent one, but I honestly like Final Fantasy 1's story a little better.
So let's get back to that odd leveling system. I've already explained it earlier in my review, so feel free to look back at it if you need to. I'm one of those few in between fans who actually quite enjoys the leveling system! Just the whole aspect of having to literally make the characters hit themselves to get more HP and better stats made it really enjoyable to grind rather than having to keep encountering monster after monster until you're at the "perfect" level. Don't get me wrong, I love turned base RPGs, but it was a nice refreshing break from the normal turned base RPG system. There's no way the game would be beatable IMO if you don't use the exploits to your advantages though. Most strong monsters would kill you instantly if you tried to play the game legitimately. I'll get more into that later on though.
Alright I think I've explained the many pros I have with Final Fantasy 2. So let's take a look at some of the cons. First, the most annoying aspect of the game is the inventory system. You only have 63 item slots, and items do not stack on each other! That means if you pick up three potions, those three potions just took up three item slots! Also most of those slots will be taken over by key items, which even after they serve their purpose you can't do anything with them! So you couldn't sell or toss them, they sit there for the rest of the game. Also in order to actually use items in battle, your characters must be equipped with said items! You can't access your inventory during battle! This really was my biggest complaint about the game. I also found the bosses to be quite easy, but I did have fun grinding so I was probably over powered for the entire game. Plus, I had the best weapons in the game so the final boss was a joke.
So do I love it or hate it? Honestly, despite the stupid inventory system Final Fantasy 2 was quite enjoyable. The fact that you could have your characters master the use of different weapons rather than relying on levels was a new, fun take on the traditional RPG. Plus, the whole entire leveling system was unique and fun! I did forget to mention the music, the soundtrack is decent but honestly I like the first game's soundtrack better. Overall if you like bizarre leveling systems, you will possibly enjoy this game. If you're used to the traditional system, you might find this one to be too odd. I rate Final Fantasy 2 a 7 out of 10.
![[Image: UlpiYU4.png?1]](https://i.imgur.com/UlpiYU4.png?1)