Yuck.
Final Fantasy II separates itself from the first installment mostly by giving it actual storytelling with drama and stuff. The story is pretty intriguing and keeps your attention, despite the gameplay (explained later). Character are developed (and have actual names!), there's romance, betrayal, twists, and (permanent) death. It's a huge step up from the first game in terms of narrative.
Unfortunately, this is one of the few things I can praise it for. The standard experience system was scrapped for a different version of leveling, which is somewhat confusing to the first-time player. Actually, I've played through the game and still don't fully understand it. While I can appreciate the developers trying something new, they still left a bunch of loopholes in the system that allow extreme abuse. Instead of:
Battle Won!
Experience Gained!
Level Up!
Stats Increased!
It's more like:
Battle Won!
You used White Magic, so Spirit Stat levels up!
You used a lot of Physical Attacks, so Attack Stat levels up!
You used a Sword a lot, so Sword ability levels up!
You took a lot of damage, so Max HP levels up!
You used Fire Magic a lot, so Fire Magic levels up!
You used Magic, so Max MP levels up!
Etc.!
So basically, the equipment/abilities you favor level up and shape your characters in a unique and specific way. On paper, it sounds pretty neat. However, in-game it failed miserably. Most players quickly figured out they could get into a battle with weak enemies and beat down their own party to skyrocket stats. You are also able to lose stats if you're not paying attention to what you're doing (e.g. You used a lot of Magic, so Physical Stats level down!). In addition, characters seem to level up/down without any rhyme or reason. And there's no guarantee you'll gain any stats at all, regardless of your performance in battle. The system is not implemented well whatsoever. The culmination of this failure rears its ugly head at many points in the game. My favorite being that you can reach the last boss, but be unable to win because you fought too many battles. Your stats are skewed so that statistically, it is impossible to win. You must a) start the entire game over again, b) grind endlessly to de-level and re-level your characters the "right way," or c) chuck that cartridge into the nearest fireplace and weep for time lost.
The main reason this game is so incredibly different from the first installment (not to mention nearly all the later ones) is a man named Akitoshi Kawazu. A designer who joined Square in 1985, his distinct style permeates this entire game. He revels in defying standard RPG conventions, which could be an excellent trait if executed correctly. However, his justifications are odd to say the least, and his unmistakable style is something to actually avoid. When asked why Final Fantasy III goes back to the more "traditional" gameplay, Kawazu had this to say:
"I don't know that much about Final Fantasy III because at that point, I wasn't really involved. Final Fantasy II was basically my system, and it's an eclectic kind of system. Eclecitic because I made it, you know? There was nobody else I could hand the torch off to afterwards, because there was nobody else who could fathom it. That's why it changed."
Wow. So in addition to having an ego the size of a continent, he justifies his actions pretty much the same way all crazy people do. I will point out that Square kept Kawazu away from core Final Fantasy titles for over fifteen years. Because he was too good, you guys.
Hironobu Sakaguchi, the main person responsible for the core of most Final Fantasy games (including this one), creates games to take the player to a world where they can explore and have fun, while at the same time becoming emotionally attached to the characters and story. Kawazu, on the other hand, wants games to feel like work. You're not having fun unless you're frantically working towards an impossible goal, while getting screwed right and left along the way! He seems to mess with the gameplay for the sole purpose of messing with the gameplay, not thinking (nor caring) about who is going to be affected down the road. I'm pretty sure George Lucas had a pretty similar mentality when the Special Editions were created.
Example: Sakaguchi inserts a story event where a character dies (permanently). The player feels for this character since they went through a lot of big events and character development with the party, so the death has an impact. Kawazu, smirking in the background the whole time, ruins the entire moment by making it so that after the character dies, you cannot retrieve their items or equipment. It's gone forever. You just equipped them with outrageously expensive or entirely unique items? Haha, that stinks! Aren't you having fun? Now your whole party is at a crippling disadvantage! This kind of crap happens constantly throughout the entire game, never giving you a chance to catch your breath between blows.
Kawazu was designing this game as a living thing. You're going to try and beat Final Fantasy II? Well, Final Fantasy II is going to try and beat you! You think you've got a system figured out? Well, here's some irrationality to make it impossible to predict! It's a purely psychological battle. I'm trying to enjoy this game, but the game is doing everything in its power to prevent me from doing so.
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| "If you're not feeling pain, you're not having fun!" |
I'm not saying Kawazu is an idiot, he's incredibly intelligent, and arguably way ahead of his time. But he approaches game design solely as a math problem: stats, figures, and probability. His obsession for constant innovation is admirable (and a trait we need developers to have today), except he takes it in the opposite direction of where it should go. It's still incredible to me that he and Sakaguchi worked on a game together when their outlooks, styles, and goals could not be more different.
While the plot points feel much like the first Final Fantasy ("get this" in order to "do that"), the fact that there's an actual interweaving story with named characters and scripted event make the whole thing meld together much better. It's also notable that the narrative was developed first, before anything else was created. It's too bad the actually gameplay throws it all down the drain. My favorite part of the story is near the end, when the Emperor (main villain) is killed by our heroes after desperately trying to gain control of an ancient power in order to take over the world. Hooray! But lo and behold, he's such a jerk that after going straight to hell, he grabs the ancient power anyway and zips right back as a crazy demon. He is adamant on taking over the world, so our heroes have to defeat him again. Today, this story is so boringly rehashed that it's laughable. But at the time, not so much.
Some people argue that somehow the introduction of Chocobos and Cid make the game better. I mean, now it's a wink and nudge when Cid shows up in a Final Fantasy title, but at the time it wasn't notable. Same thing with Chocobos. Now they're everywhere, but back when this game came out, nobody was like, "Oh, hell yeah! Chocobos! Kwehkwehkwehkweh! Yeahhhhhhh!!" I think it's just that some people desperately want this game to be good just because it has a "Final Fantasy" sticker slapped on it.
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| Pictured: Nothing memorable. |
The (very few) good things about this game are just tiny quirks that are shoved off to the side in favor of mental violation. Things like introducing a back row in battle, being able to fight with less than four members in your party, secondary characters temporarily under your control, and a coherent engaging story. The music, composed again by Nobuo Uematsu, is pretty good. There's not a ton of variety, but that's to be expected from the hardware limitations of the time. The mood and style match the situations quite well, and the Rebel Army Theme remains one of my favorite 8-bit Final Fantasy tracks.
It's interesting to note how many mainstays of future Final Fantasy games were introduced here first, not to mention the majority of JRPGs in general. Final Fantasy II's influence stretches farther than any other game in the series. If it had actually been good and fun to play, this would definitely be highly ranked on many lists of the greatest RPGs. But in reality, it's only good on paper, which is what I think Kawazu cares about the most. We didn't get an official release in North America until 2003 on the PlayStation, but I consider that a blessing. All the re-releases (GBA, PS1, etc.) really only update the visuals and alter base difficulty. Sometimes they'll add an extra dungeon or two. None of them do anything to actually fix the major problems of the game. Sakaguchi created this game to be "emotionally experienced" by the player. Kawazu did everything in his power to prevent the player from doing so.
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