| Introduction:
The story begins with five Air Ships, racing across the sky. They are
the elite Red Wings, the Air Force of the mighty Baron kingdom. Cecil,
the captain of the Red Wings, has been given a task by King Baron. He
is to "Obtain" the crystal from Mysidia Kingdom, and bring it back to
the King. Cecil, and his men, follows his orders, but do not agree
with them.
After giving the crystal to King Baron, Cecil questions the King about
his actions. Infuriated by this act of "Insabordanation" the King
sends Cecil along with his friend , the Dragoon Kain, with a message,
that he is to deliver, to the Village of Mist....
That's how the begining of Final Fantasy II starts. This game is
easily catogorized as one of the classic Super Nintendo games. FFII is
a pure RPG, there is no elements of other games, like Action, mixed in
with it. RPG's consist of a Story Line, Turn based Fighting,
Exploration, and Puzzles. That is exactly what this game is. I love
these types of games...Therefore, I love this game.
Graphics [8/10]:
There are two types of graphics in the game. The Over-head view, which
is where you explore, and talk to characters, and the Battle View,
where you well..battle!
The Over-head view is more or less the screen that is used more. The
characters are smaller on this screen, but surprisingly, very well
detailed. The characters are small so that you can 'see' further, than
if you were a huge character. The Over-head view is used in towns, and
while traveling the world.
The Battle view shows larger, more detailed characters. The Enemies
are pretty much just drawn, illistrations, but they aren't as
elaborate as they are in Final Fantasy III. Each character in your
party has a completly different look, they don't all look like
variations of each other, like in some RPG's.
The Backrounds of both over-head, and battle views, are full of
imagination and color. Although I do think that the buildings,
backrounds and enemies could be more detailed, that's why this
catogory was deducted.
Music and Sound [8/10]:
Square-Soft has a long history of making games with a great music
sound track. They did a good job on the music, but in certian parts of
the game, I found myself turning down the volume, because of one
serious problem. Once in a while, the music is too shrill! A few of
the sound tracks are such an annoyance, sort of like finger nails on a
chalkboard. Fortuantly, though, there is only one or two tracks like
this, the rest are done superbly, as are all Final Fantasy games. But
those 'Bad' track can get annoying...
The sound is a step above the music. There are no annoying sounds,
like there are in the music. The spell groups each have they're own
unique sound effects, like wise, the weapon groups do. Even though,
the sound of your weapon hitting the enemy, is the same sound, I never
got annoyed or bored with it. Overall I think that the Music and sound
could have been better. They were done good, but I was expecting more
from Square-Soft.
Game Play [9/10]:
This game is really fun to play. The only reason it was deducted was
because, there is one point in the game, you have to Level-Up on your
own or the enemies are imppossible! This means you have to go and find
some strong (but not too strong) enemies and keep fighting them until
you've reached a certain level. BUT the rest is all good!
Like I had said before, there are two types of screens.
theOver-head view, which is where you explore, and talk to
characters, and the Battle View, where you battle! There is also the
Menu screen which allows yout to heal your characters, manage they're
abilities and equip them.
On the Over-head view, in towns, you can talk with people, buy items
or find clues, and hidden items. In most friendly towns (and Castles)
there's an Inn-Where you can rest and regain all of your HP/MP. A
Weapons Shop-Where you can buy weapons for your characters. An Armor
Shop- Buy Armor for your Party. And an Item Shop- Where you'll find
numberous items to aid your Group on their quest. In Enemy towns,
castles, caves, and on the Over-head map, you can be attacked at
anytime. In most enemy overhead area's you'll be able to find treasure
chests, with many items, armor, or even monsters inside.
Once you have entered a Battle screen, by random encounters, you have
a side view of the characters. The characters are bigger and more
detailed in this screen. You can have up to five characters in your
party. (You DON't get to choose) There is about thirteen character
classes in all.
In the Battles there is a turned base style of fighting. Each
character/enemy has they're own speed as to how fast and often they
can move. When a character gets a chance to move they can FIGHT, use
an ITEM or use one of the character's special abilities, like, MAGIC,
THROW, BARD, CALL, and the list goes on. Each character/class has
their own ability.
There is so much variety in weapons, magic, items, and armor. For
those of you who like a lot of variety in these types of things..this
is your game!
Challenge/Replay [9/10]:
Depending on how you go at this game, is how the challenge is
determined. People just starting out with RPG's will have to learn
what you need to do to survive. Even experienced gamers find a lot of
challenge in this game. Less experienced RPGers will need to search
for the area's they need to go to, meaning they will meet more
enemies, getting higher exp, earlier in the game. The Experienced RPGers
will go to their destinations faster, meaning less monsters, less exp,
lower levels than usual. It all pretty much balances out.
There is a huge Re-Play Value in this game. I know that I haven't
found everything in this game. There are so many items to find, secret
levels to explore, I'm not sure if you can ever find them all! While
the game is not as long as it's sequel (FFIII) I'm sure it has about
as many secrets as it.
Conclussion/Overall [8.5/10]:
Final Fantasy II is a Great game. It has it's down points, but what
game doesn't? (Final Fantasy III :-)
This is a game for anyone wanting a true RPG game. This game defines
RPG, as do most/all of the Final Fantasy games. The Characters are
memorable, but sadly some of the music, I'd rather forget. No matter
how you look at it though this game is really only lacking one
thing...MOOGLES! It has the Chocobos, and the famed Big Chocobo, but
it really needs those mashmellow, powder-puff Moggles, who can whoop
anything, into dust.
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