Final Fantasy II

Genre: Turn-Based JRPG

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in the Final Fantasy I-VI Pixel Remaster Collection, along with Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy V, and Final Fantasy VI)

Final Fantasy II, originally released in Japan in 1988 on the Famicom console, was the first of three games in the series that were never originally released outside of Japan. At the time, text-heavy RPGs were undoubtedly one of the more difficult and time-consuming types of games to translate to a different language, and while a Western release of the game was worked on, the impending release of the Super Nintendo convinced Square (later Square Enix) to abandon the localization of this game and instead work on localizing the first Super Nintendo game in the series, Final Fantasy IV.

Famously, in an attempt to avoid confusing Western players with a sudden jump to number four in the series, Square opted to rename Final Fantasy IV to Final Fantasy II for the game’s Western release. So now, whenever you talk about Final Fantasy II, particularly with those who played the series back in the Super Nintendo era, you need to specify whether you’re talking about the American Final Fantasy II or the Japanese Final Fantasy II, which some called Final Fantasy IIj. These days, Square Enix refers to all games in the series by their original Japanese numbering, but this remains one of those odd quirks of the time, much like we saw with Super Mario Bros. 2.

Final Fantasy II was a groundbreaking title for the series in multiple ways. This game saw the introduction of series mainstays like Cid and the Chocobos, it introduced us to the series standard of each numbered entry in the series taking place in its own separate world with its own unique cast of characters, it was the first game where the player’s party was formed using distinct characters with their own personalities, it was the first game in the series to include guest party members who would only stay with you through part of the game before departing, and it experimented with character customization in ways that the prior game didn’t allow for.

In the time since Final Fantasy II’s original release, it has seen multiple re-releases and remakes. A second compilation release on Famicom alongside the first Final Fantasy gave the game a few more minor visual updates, a Wonderswan Color port remade the visuals, a port to the original PlayStation in the Final Fantasy Origins bundle reworked the visuals and added new pre-rendered cutscenes, remade music, art galleries, and expanded use of the save feature, Game Boy Advance ports of Final Fantasy I & II added new dungeons… I’m not even halfway through the list, but I’m going to stop there. Suffice it to say, this game has been remade multiple times, on multiple platforms, with some versions staying closer to the original, and some adding improvements to the presentation and gameplay.

This release, the “Pixel Remaster” version of the game, originally released on PC and mobile platforms in 2021, with a port to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch with a few extra features in 2023. I’m not about to compare this release to each and every other version of the game, but I will note some of the features and comparisons this release has to other versions. However, I’ll just say right now that I have not played all of the remakes and re-releases of this game, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that this could be the best release of this game to date.

The first and most notable change over the original game is going to be the presentation. The Pixel Remaster version of the game upgrades the simple 8-bit visuals of the original to something resembling 16-bit visuals, with some nice added effects like lighting highlights on the ocean, and a really nice flowing water effect in streams, and the overworld map even uses faux “Mode 7”-style visuals like the SNES games in the series did.

This release doesn’t include the pre-rendered cutscenes of the PlayStation release of the game, but it also doesn’t have the horrible loading times of that release, and I’d argue I’d much rather have the latter. And for players who complained about the modernized text in PC and mobile release of the Pixel Remasters, this version has added options to return the text to the pixelated original look.

Another major change here has to be this version’s newly-remade soundtrack using a combination of orchestrated, instrumental, and synthesized themes. While I never thought highly of the original Final Fantasy’s soundtrack, I had no opinion at all of Final Fantasy II’s soundtrack, as it never struck me as terribly memorable. And, truth be told, I still feel that way, even after listening to this game’s wonderfully-orchestrated version of the original game’s soundtrack. Still, for those who enjoyed the original soundtrack, you’ll surely be delighted with this new take on that soundtrack, and for those who really liked the original soundtrack, you can even opt to play with the original chiptune music instead if you prefer.

Beyond the presentation, there are also content and gameplay improvements here too. One of the most noteworthy improvements has to be the new Auto-Battle system, which can really cut down on the grinding this game puts players through. Want to cut down it even more? The PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch release include menu options to boost the amount of gold and experience you get from battles, allowing you to severely cut down on the grinding. If you prefer, you can even eliminate random encounters completely, though of course this could lead to being severely under-leveled when encountering scripted battles like bosses.

This release also removes the ability to save wherever you want, limiting it to the map screen, although you can still quick save in a town or dungeon. Speaking of the map, this version also adds a new map system. You can also change the button layout to suit your preferences. Finally, the game’s main menu includes a gallery where you can listen to the entire soundtrack and look at concept and publicity art for the game.

Okay, so now that we’ve talked about all the changes made to this release of the game, what about the game itself? How well has it aged?

Well, here’s where I need to take a moment to discuss one of the issues the early Final Fantasy games struggled with. With these early steps into the JRPG genre, many of these games struggled to find a balance between allowing players to customize their characters how they wanted, and ensuring that each character is distinct and unique. The first Final Fantasy, despite its’ generic characters lacking any sort of personality, still managed to make each character class distinct – wizards could use magic but had lower attack and defensive stats, only some classes could equip specific weapons and armor, that sort of thing. However, the first Final Fantasy was woefully poor at giving players the freedom to customize their party.

By contrast, Final Fantasy II seems to overcorrect way too far in the other direction. Your characters now all have their own distinct personalities, but as far as their abilities are concerned, they are completely interchangeable, at least until later in the game when they get their own unique weapons. Their differences in stats certainly lean in one direction or another – Maria, for example, has weaker offensive stats and higher intelligence, making her a better choice to be a designated spellcaster, but there’s no reason you couldn’t make all of your characters spellcasters – all you need is the money to buy each of them the spells they’ll need, and a bit of grinding to improve their skill with that spell. Likewise, there’s no reason you couldn’t equip Maria with an axe or sword – she may have a lower attack stat, but she can level up her sword and axe skills the same as any of the others.

This lack of distinctive character traits in battle makes all of these characters feel less unique and special, and this isn’t helped by the fact that this game’s story, while certainly deeper than the first game’s story, isn’t especially great.

This release of the game makes use of the PlayStation Portable localization for this game, which was quite excellent, and far superior to the original localization… but even with this improvement, this is still not a story that’s especially compelling. Your party consists mainly of some young survivors of an attack by an evil megalomaniacal empire who are enlisted to essentially run errands for a resistance group. It’s not a terrible premise, but it’s undermined by the simplistic characters, with your characters early on all sharing the same simple motivation of “we all hate the empire and want to fight against it!”. It’s kinda’ telling how Final Fantasy VI also focused on a story about a group of resistance fighters fighting against an evil megalomaniacal empire, but that game’s characters and story had far more personality and nuance.

Getting back to the gameplay, another issue with this game is that unless you’re in a particularly challenging battle, you’ll just be choosing “attack, attack, attack” over and over again – that auto-battle isn’t just saving you time, it’s saving you a ridiculous amount of boring tedium, which is to say, the majority of combat in this game.

Speaking of challenging battles, this game does nothing to warn players when they’re venturing into an area with enemies that are far too overpowered for them, and since it’s not always clear exactly where you’re meant to go, this means it’s very easy to stray in the wrong direction only to get horribly slaughtered. If you play this game, you definitely want to save often.

Then we have to look at this game’s price. I thoroughly appreciate all of the improvements and enhancements that this version of the game received, but even so, $12 seems a bit steep for a game that’s still very archaic and outdated in its story and gameplay, even with all of those improvements.

In the end, I think this release of Final Fantasy II is perhaps the best we can expect for a remake of the first game in the series, unless Square Enix were to do a full re-imagining of the game. However, for a release that opts to have one foot firmly planted in the past and one foot in the present, this is a solid remake with an outstanding presentation, and excellent upgraded features and content, even if it can’t completely hide how dated the game it’s remaking actually is.

tl;dr – Final Fantasy II is a Turn-Based JRPG with a storied history and innovations that shaped the franchise, and this is an absolutely outstanding remake that gives the game a gorgeous new presentation with absolutely beautiful remastered music and some excellent new gameplay features that help to cut down on the original game’s flaws… but those flaws are still there, from the laughably quaint story to the shallow gameplay. JRPG fans and especially Final Fantasy fans wanting to explore one of the franchise’s earliest games should find this to be a great way to do that, but definitely don’t expect anything especially great by modern standards.

Grade: C+

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