I hadn't actually played Final Fantasy II until recently. In fact, the first Final Fantasy game I ever played was VII. I remember borrowing FF7 from a good friend at the time, as well as his Playstation because I only had a Nintendo 64. Since then I have played most of the games after VII, but only a couple of the games that came before that entry in the series. I decided to give Final Fantasy II a try as I was curious about the beginnings of the series. I'm glad that I did, and will look into catching up to VII in the series.
Final Fantasy II opens with the main character, the Dark Knight Cecil, flying aboard an airship toward a city neighboring his own kingdom. Cecil leads a group of the king's soldiers known as the Red Wings as they seek to collect the mysterious and powerful water crystal. According to the king, the inhabitants of this neighboring city are planning to use the water crystal's power to destroy Cecil's home kingdom of Baron. Upon arriving at their destination, the Red Wings are met with very little resistance in claiming the crystal for their own, something that sets uneasily on Cecil's mind. On their way back to Baron, a number of the Red Wings give voice to the concerns already on their leader's mind. Cecil assures his men that the king would not send them to kill innocent people, and that the people of the raided city surely must have been planning to destroy Baron - though he barely believes his own words as he speaks them.
Once the Red Wings land in their home town, Cecil rushes to report to the king that his mission was successful. On his way into the castle, Cecil mistakenly speaks his concerns about the mission to the king's steward, who in turn reports ahead to the king that Cecil questions his motives and should be disciplined. Upon meeting with the king, Cecil is stripped of his rank in the Red Wings and is sent on a delivery mission to another local kingdom without the aid of the airship fleet. Cecil is sent off along with one of the king's trusted men, Kain, to make sure that the mission is completed successfully.
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| Mmm 16-bit graphics goodness. Are those airships, or weird birds? |
When Cecil and Kain reach their destination, the package they were sent to deliver opens by itself and unleashes numerous monsters on the helpless city which proceed to lay waste to the peaceful town. Cecil watches in horror as he realizes that he has been used once again to kill innocents so that the king of Baron could acquire another crystal of power. Cecil denounces his king and vows to fight and protect other cities from the king's greed.
Not long after embarking on this new quest, Cecil meets many people who share his desire to fight back against the king of Baron. One of these new friends explains to Cecil that the king is actually working for a greater evil, an evil which seeks to collect all of the elemental crystals in order to awaken an ancient weapon and destroy the world (of course he wants to destroy the world, what else would an ancient evil want?). The adventure that follows will send Cecil all over the planet's surface, to islands of land amidst lakes of magma in the earth's underground, and even to the crater pocked surface of the moon.
Luckily Cecil will not face this evil alone. A total of twelve other party members will help to save the world by joining Cecil in battle. Each character has their own special abilities and back-stories which greatly enrich the game's plot.
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| Too bad Cecil doesn't have as many friends as this monster has arms! |
Battles in Final Fantasy II follow the tried and true JRPG menu-driven system.Characters in combat take turns taking actions chosen by the player through selecting commands from the battle menu. Normal attacks, magic spells, and a number of character-specific abilities fill out the menu, adding a variety of ways to combat enemies. Final Fantasy II is unique in that it was the first Final Fantasy game to introduce the Active Time Battle(ATB) system to the series. The ATB system changes battles from simple turn by turn actions to a more real-time experience by giving action timers to every character in battle. This system would go on to be used in many more Final Fantasy games, including my first experience with the series Final Fantasy VII.
When not in battle, the party explores the world of Final Fantasy II by traveling across the world map. Once a dungeon or city is reached on the world map, the party is able to explore the area by coming into contact with the location on the map. Inside dungeons and on the world map itself, the party is far from safe. Enemies will randomly attack the group as they explore, forcing the party into battle. There are a number of safe areas, mainly cities, that the party can rest and recover in as well. Hidden throughout the game's world are a huge number of treasure chests and shops which contain new weapons and gear for the party to upgrade their current outfit with.
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| Erm, excuse me miss, your pixels are showing... |
As a gamer who is quite familiar with the Final Fantasy series, I was actually very surprised by the story presented by Final Fantasy II. There are quite a few moments in the game that caught me off guard. Cecil's story is full of betrayals, sacrifices, self-discovery, plot twists, and even the death of friends. I guess I was fooled by the cartoony 16-bit graphics that the game would not have such a mature story. I found that I really enjoyed the game's plot the whole way through. Along the same lines, the world presented in Final Fantasy II has an incredible atmosphere. Playing the game makes you believe that this could be an actual world, and that the characters would actually have motivation to continue in their quest due to their past experiences. Overall I was quite impressed with the game's presentation.
Final Fantasy II's graphics are about what you'd expect from an early '90s SNES game. What makes the game stand out from others released at the time is the excellent monster and character design. There are so many unique monsters throughout the game that I would have a hard time counting them. Some of the most impressive creatures are the bosses fought throughout the game, the most notable likely being the final boss of the game. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in the game's simplistic dungeon design. Most dungeons consist of two or three paths, two of which lead to treasures or dead ends, and the final path leads to the next area. It almost seems as though every dungeon is one large square area filled in with a few paths randomly.
In a era where games are constantly judged solely on how pretty their graphics are, experiencing the rich story of Final Fantasy II was quite refreshing. Most things which people would now call flaws in the game are actually just due to the game's age and the state of the gaming industry at the time. The game's difficulty is quite tolerable. Surprisingly, Final Fantasy II doesn't require a lot of level grinding to continue on to new areas as other JRPGS did at the time. I really found Final Fantasy II to be an enjoyable experience and actually found myself wanting to play it more than some of the modern games on my shelf. I highly recommend the game for anyone who is interested in the roots of one of the most popular gaming series in history.
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