Final Fantasy II.
Um RPG que parece fazer força pra impedir o jogador de se sentir evoluindo enquanto joga.
Pelo menos, é como me senti mesmo após planejar quase todos os aspectos da minha jornada antes mesmo de começa-la e, ao chegar à última dungeon do game, descobrir que eu deveria treinar mais um peso morto (o quinto, pra ser exato) para ser viável em combate enquanto o time que construí durante esse tempo ainda tomava surra das mecânicas de jogo.
Assim como seu antecessor, a premissa para a história de Final Fantasy II se baseia em uma profecia antiga que lança nossos heróis escolhidos em direção ao perigo para que eles conquistem a paz. Aqui, em vez de monstros caricatos e desalmados, temos um imperador autoritário expansionista. Apesar de supostamente nos tornarmos membros de uma resistência, absolutamente nenhum conflito é visto durante todo o jogo (mesmo que o rei moribundo nos diga, logo no início do jogo, que levou uma ferida mortal). Fazendo parecer que a líder da resistência — a princesa regente — está lutando contra a própria sombra durante todo o maldito jogo.
Grande parte da história se resume a atravessar o mapa em fetch quests para receber a próxima palavra-chave e descobrir onde nossa "jornada" nos levará.
Com isso dito, a primeira peça de gameplay se apresenta: as palavras-chave. Obtidas durante as conversas, servem unicamente ao propósito de repeti-las a algum NPC e, se elas forem relevantes, eles nos darão alguma informação sobre o que devemos fazer em seguida.
Por que elas existem, eu não sei. Nem tampouco por que parece que elas são introduzidas em diálogos únicos que, via de regra, não podem ser repetidos e poderiam manter um jogador travado em algum ponto sem saber o que fazer.
E, considerando que a história parece ser pouco mais que um acessório para justificar o grinding de gameplay, não me surpreenderia ouvir de outros jogadores que eles frequentemente não sabiam o que fazer alguns minutos depois de receberem instruções.
Final Fantasy II tem como diferencial o fato de que aqui, a progressão dos personagens se dá, em teoria, pela aptidão deles com as armas e feitiços usados. De modo que, resumidamente, quanto mais se realiza uma ação, mais proficiente nos tornamos nela e, juntamente, nossos atributos se ajustam e fortalecem (ou reduzem, no caso dos jogos com a fórmula de crescimento antiga).
Acontece que, apenas armas e feitiços seguem uma fórmula matemática que, inevitavelmente vai resultar em crescimento ou estagnação (estagnação esta que em teoria deveria impedir o jogador de se tornar excessivamente forte ao derrotar inimigos fracos).
Os demais atributos, entretanto, são aumentados dentro de condições que, salvo exceções, tendem a ser inconstantes ou mesmo contrassenso.
Por exemplo:
Enquanto a resistência e a quantidade de HP aumentam quase naturalmente quanto mais nos envolvemos em combate (e sofremos dano), a tendência é que nossa capacidade de causar dano se torne suficiente para derrotar pequenos grupos de inimigos sem receber nenhum golpe.
O resultado disso é que nossos atributos tendem a estagnar rapidamente e, quando enfrentamos inimigos ligeiramente mais fortes ou em maior número, o deficit em nossos atributos se torna um problema. Nesse exemplo específico, a solução mais simples, embora estranha, é fazer os nossos personagens agredirem uns aos outros em combate, a fim de forçar o crescimento.
Outro exemplo estranho é que, para tornar os personagens mais ágeis, é necessário utilizar o mínimo de equipamentos e armadura (ou nenhuma, de preferência) e garantir que a evasão esteja alta, pois, aparentemente ela contribui na chance aleatória de que a agilidade seja aumentada no fim do combate. Isto é, desde que nossos personagens sejam alvos de golpes e nossos inimigos errem.
Naturalmente, o personagem mais lento da equipe é o primeiro a se ferrar com essa lógica torta.
Eventualmente, o jogador se verá forçado a fazer coisas que quebram a imersão no jogo a fim de fazer seus personagens crescerem, mesmo que à força, alcançando um novo estado de quase equilíbrio com a dificuldade do jogo, apenas para ver esse equilíbrio sendo rapidamente perturbado quando a história precisa progredir.
Não é difícil imaginar que sustentar a parte mais significativa de gameplay em uma progressão tão tortuosa e inconsistente provavelmente vai gerar mais frustração e tédio do que diversão.
Adicionalmente, considerando que Final Fantasy II parece funcionar com uma nova abordagem dos encontros aleatórios que os dá uma frequência quase fixa, é altamente provável que os jogadores vão se ver iniciando uma luta com inimigos que vão atacar primeiro e provavelmente deixar o jogador em uma situação desfavorável antes mesmo de escolher uma ação.
Não posso esquecer de dizer que, de todas as escolhas do jogo, talvez a mais gritantemente estúpida seja a de fazer o quarto membro do grupo ser rotativo e, para piorar, terminar fora da equipe (seja temporariamente ou permanentemente) levando todos os itens equipados e jogando fora todo o tempo investido neles.
Ainda pior é notar que o jogo tenta supercompensar o crescimento errático de personagem ao tornar esses "convidados" mais fortes que o resto da equipe, porém fazendo isso porcamente, ao introduzir os personagens com cerca 500 de HP (e nenhum feitiço, salvo uma única exceção) em uma área onde um único inimigo pode causar cerca de 300 a 400 pontos de dano com um único golpe básico.
O resultado é termos um quarto membro que tende a servir como um mero saco de pancadas até que a narrativa decida se livrar deles.
Eu gostaria de trazer alguns elogios à parte audiovisual do jogo, mas, considerando que nem mesmo a soundtrack conseguiu me fazer tolerar os combates a cada 5 passos (+/-) e que ver as lentas animações de feitiços se repetirem à exaustão cansou bem rápido, isso seria desonesto.
Apenas uma vez em 20 anos eu consegui chegar até o fim de FF II e ver os créditos.
Aqui estou, alguns anos depois e desistindo de jogar, sem ter tido a chance de me divertir, mesmo que o objetivo final esteja à minha frente.
Cá entre nós, nenhum jogo me parece valer todo esse estresse apenas para ver os créditos.
Se você tiver algum interesse em jogar Final Fantasy II, tente a versão de GBA ou o Pixel Remaster, talvez, assim como eu, você dê a sorte de chegar até o fim.
Um RPG que parece fazer força pra impedir o jogador de se sentir evoluindo enquanto joga.
Pelo menos, é como me senti mesmo após planejar quase todos os aspectos da minha jornada antes mesmo de começa-la e, ao chegar à última dungeon do game, descobrir que eu deveria treinar mais um peso morto (o quinto, pra ser exato) para ser viável em combate enquanto o time que construí durante esse tempo ainda tomava surra das mecânicas de jogo.
Assim como seu antecessor, a premissa para a história de Final Fantasy II se baseia em uma profecia antiga que lança nossos heróis escolhidos em direção ao perigo para que eles conquistem a paz. Aqui, em vez de monstros caricatos e desalmados, temos um imperador autoritário expansionista. Apesar de supostamente nos tornarmos membros de uma resistência, absolutamente nenhum conflito é visto durante todo o jogo (mesmo que o rei moribundo nos diga, logo no início do jogo, que levou uma ferida mortal). Fazendo parecer que a líder da resistência — a princesa regente — está lutando contra a própria sombra durante todo o maldito jogo.
Grande parte da história se resume a atravessar o mapa em fetch quests para receber a próxima palavra-chave e descobrir onde nossa "jornada" nos levará.
Com isso dito, a primeira peça de gameplay se apresenta: as palavras-chave. Obtidas durante as conversas, servem unicamente ao propósito de repeti-las a algum NPC e, se elas forem relevantes, eles nos darão alguma informação sobre o que devemos fazer em seguida.
Por que elas existem, eu não sei. Nem tampouco por que parece que elas são introduzidas em diálogos únicos que, via de regra, não podem ser repetidos e poderiam manter um jogador travado em algum ponto sem saber o que fazer.
E, considerando que a história parece ser pouco mais que um acessório para justificar o grinding de gameplay, não me surpreenderia ouvir de outros jogadores que eles frequentemente não sabiam o que fazer alguns minutos depois de receberem instruções.
Final Fantasy II tem como diferencial o fato de que aqui, a progressão dos personagens se dá, em teoria, pela aptidão deles com as armas e feitiços usados. De modo que, resumidamente, quanto mais se realiza uma ação, mais proficiente nos tornamos nela e, juntamente, nossos atributos se ajustam e fortalecem (ou reduzem, no caso dos jogos com a fórmula de crescimento antiga).
Acontece que, apenas armas e feitiços seguem uma fórmula matemática que, inevitavelmente vai resultar em crescimento ou estagnação (estagnação esta que em teoria deveria impedir o jogador de se tornar excessivamente forte ao derrotar inimigos fracos).
Os demais atributos, entretanto, são aumentados dentro de condições que, salvo exceções, tendem a ser inconstantes ou mesmo contrassenso.
Por exemplo:
Enquanto a resistência e a quantidade de HP aumentam quase naturalmente quanto mais nos envolvemos em combate (e sofremos dano), a tendência é que nossa capacidade de causar dano se torne suficiente para derrotar pequenos grupos de inimigos sem receber nenhum golpe.
O resultado disso é que nossos atributos tendem a estagnar rapidamente e, quando enfrentamos inimigos ligeiramente mais fortes ou em maior número, o deficit em nossos atributos se torna um problema. Nesse exemplo específico, a solução mais simples, embora estranha, é fazer os nossos personagens agredirem uns aos outros em combate, a fim de forçar o crescimento.
Outro exemplo estranho é que, para tornar os personagens mais ágeis, é necessário utilizar o mínimo de equipamentos e armadura (ou nenhuma, de preferência) e garantir que a evasão esteja alta, pois, aparentemente ela contribui na chance aleatória de que a agilidade seja aumentada no fim do combate. Isto é, desde que nossos personagens sejam alvos de golpes e nossos inimigos errem.
Naturalmente, o personagem mais lento da equipe é o primeiro a se ferrar com essa lógica torta.
Eventualmente, o jogador se verá forçado a fazer coisas que quebram a imersão no jogo a fim de fazer seus personagens crescerem, mesmo que à força, alcançando um novo estado de quase equilíbrio com a dificuldade do jogo, apenas para ver esse equilíbrio sendo rapidamente perturbado quando a história precisa progredir.
Não é difícil imaginar que sustentar a parte mais significativa de gameplay em uma progressão tão tortuosa e inconsistente provavelmente vai gerar mais frustração e tédio do que diversão.
Adicionalmente, considerando que Final Fantasy II parece funcionar com uma nova abordagem dos encontros aleatórios que os dá uma frequência quase fixa, é altamente provável que os jogadores vão se ver iniciando uma luta com inimigos que vão atacar primeiro e provavelmente deixar o jogador em uma situação desfavorável antes mesmo de escolher uma ação.
Não posso esquecer de dizer que, de todas as escolhas do jogo, talvez a mais gritantemente estúpida seja a de fazer o quarto membro do grupo ser rotativo e, para piorar, terminar fora da equipe (seja temporariamente ou permanentemente) levando todos os itens equipados e jogando fora todo o tempo investido neles.
Ainda pior é notar que o jogo tenta supercompensar o crescimento errático de personagem ao tornar esses "convidados" mais fortes que o resto da equipe, porém fazendo isso porcamente, ao introduzir os personagens com cerca 500 de HP (e nenhum feitiço, salvo uma única exceção) em uma área onde um único inimigo pode causar cerca de 300 a 400 pontos de dano com um único golpe básico.
O resultado é termos um quarto membro que tende a servir como um mero saco de pancadas até que a narrativa decida se livrar deles.
Eu gostaria de trazer alguns elogios à parte audiovisual do jogo, mas, considerando que nem mesmo a soundtrack conseguiu me fazer tolerar os combates a cada 5 passos (+/-) e que ver as lentas animações de feitiços se repetirem à exaustão cansou bem rápido, isso seria desonesto.
Apenas uma vez em 20 anos eu consegui chegar até o fim de FF II e ver os créditos.
Aqui estou, alguns anos depois e desistindo de jogar, sem ter tido a chance de me divertir, mesmo que o objetivo final esteja à minha frente.
Cá entre nós, nenhum jogo me parece valer todo esse estresse apenas para ver os créditos.
Se você tiver algum interesse em jogar Final Fantasy II, tente a versão de GBA ou o Pixel Remaster, talvez, assim como eu, você dê a sorte de chegar até o fim.
Took a few hours to get on its wavelength, but once I did I had a surprisingly decent time. I don't think I would call its leveling system good--too much of its rules are pointlessly arcane and counterintuitive--but it is interesting, and maybe sometimes I prefer interesting to good. And the near-constant barrage of stats going up in battle is real satisfying in that Skinner box way. From what I hear this is a system that's carried over and refined in the SaGa series, so maybe it's time for me to finally give that a try.
Also dug how ambitious it is in the way it tells its story--basic plot's a naked, halfassed Star Wars ripoff, but I was impressed by the way the world state changes as you progress through the game, something I don't think other NES RPGs were doing at the time. Also liked the rotating cast (even if nobody has much of a personality to speak of), and the game's surprising willingness to kill people off. It's easy to see why this is nobody's favorite Final Fantasy, but, I dunno. There's something here.
Also dug how ambitious it is in the way it tells its story--basic plot's a naked, halfassed Star Wars ripoff, but I was impressed by the way the world state changes as you progress through the game, something I don't think other NES RPGs were doing at the time. Also liked the rotating cast (even if nobody has much of a personality to speak of), and the game's surprising willingness to kill people off. It's easy to see why this is nobody's favorite Final Fantasy, but, I dunno. There's something here.
The biggest criticism of FFII is definitely the leveling up system. However, once you know how it works, it becomes quite fun to exploit it and then it's up to you to define the difficulty that you want to set.
What really pisses me off are the dungeons with tons of dead ends and room traps with monsters and no treasure chests. That's a jerk move that appears throughout the entire game. Why?!!
I guess it gets more hate than it deserves.
What really pisses me off are the dungeons with tons of dead ends and room traps with monsters and no treasure chests. That's a jerk move that appears throughout the entire game. Why?!!
I guess it gets more hate than it deserves.
Masterpiece. Best game ever made.
bu oyunda gerçekten bir hikaye ve hikaye anlatımı var çok iyi değil ortalama bir hikayeye sahip oynanış mantığı ilk oyun gibi item stoklaman gerekiyor sürekli son dungeondan önce de iyi bi grind da istiyor ben hile ile grind sorununu çözdüm size önerim de o yönde bir de blood sword efsane bi kılıç kesinlikle kullanın.
This review contains spoilers
didnt care for any character in the story im glad they almost all died
Like many others i also wasn't a fan of the leveling system (especially the way to gain MP is retarded). The story is fine for it's time, a lot of stories in that era were about an evil empire and rebels in some shape or form (maybe the star wars influence from around that time). The characters are bland personality wise but it's the start of some of the epic designs final fantasy will get known for. Minwu's design is amazing, and this is the first time we see a dragoon and a dark knight (and chocobo's!). I give it credits for that, but gameplay wise it felt more archaic than even the first game. Still glad i did a complete playthrough, it wasn't as bad as it's reputation suggested (but still bad). The Arcane Labyrinth that got added in this version i didn't really grasp, even with a reference guide. You can get ultimate weapons but you have to do confusing stuff with the name learning mechanic. The playthrough was long enough as it is, so i skipped it.
This is the ultimate version to play FFII, but i wish they changed the leveling system to what it was in the other games. I understand why they didn't and it would be blasphemy for an anniversary edition, but the game would be better for it.
This is the ultimate version to play FFII, but i wish they changed the leveling system to what it was in the other games. I understand why they didn't and it would be blasphemy for an anniversary edition, but the game would be better for it.
The level system is quite unique amongst RPGs. The more you use a certain command the stronger it gets so you level up stats individually based on your own play style. It does take some luck sometimes but I enjoyed how unique it was. This version of the game fixes a few problems the original version had gameplay wise but it is still a noticably older game in some aspects.
The story isn't insane but is definitely one of the better NES game stories. There's some nice NPCs although the main party could've been fleshed out more. This version of the game did give them some more personality but I wish they did a bit more.
This version of the game comes with the Souls of Rebirth extra storyline which is about all the major characters who died in the main story fighting the main villain in the underworld which is a insanely cool concept. They reused a lot of assets and it's fairly short so I think it could've been handled a bit better but it's definitely a nice addition.
If you're going to play a version of Final Fantasy 2 I definitely recommend this version.
The story isn't insane but is definitely one of the better NES game stories. There's some nice NPCs although the main party could've been fleshed out more. This version of the game did give them some more personality but I wish they did a bit more.
This version of the game comes with the Souls of Rebirth extra storyline which is about all the major characters who died in the main story fighting the main villain in the underworld which is a insanely cool concept. They reused a lot of assets and it's fairly short so I think it could've been handled a bit better but it's definitely a nice addition.
If you're going to play a version of Final Fantasy 2 I definitely recommend this version.
this is the first pleb filter ever made
Yep. It's still bad.
This review contains spoilers
By now, Final Fantasy 2 is infamous for being arguably the worst mainline entry in the series, but I was curious, is it really that bad? Yes, yes it is.
It didn't take me long to feel this way since after about 10 minutes of grinding in the overworld, I went about 6 steps south of Altair and ran into high level enemies that killed me. That's my first, of many, issues with Final Fantasy 2. If you don't go exactly where the game wants you to, you'll stumble on late-game enemies that kill you, and you won't be able to flee from them either since levelling up Agility in this game is non-sensical. I hate the levelling up system in this game (or lack thereof). The Nature vs Nurture system of Final Fantasy 2 makes sense in concept, the more you do something, the better you are at it, and this works for some stats like Strength being tied to how many times you use the Attack command or the potency of your Magic spells being determined by how often you cast them. But to use this system optimally you have to do some really non-sensical things. Firstly, to get the most HP upgrades, you're best off taking of all your armor so you take more damage. If you want to increase Agility, you need to increase Evasion, to increase Evasion, you're best off defending while the enemies absolutely wail on you. If you want to level up the Life spell so characters are revived with more than 1 HP, the best thing to do is constantly kill and revive your party members like its I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. Granted, none of this is ever necessary since the game is pretty easy all things considered (to the point of being mindless), but it just goes to show how poorly implemented this system is. Also, this system just does not work for magic spells, by the time you get spells like Holy, Flare and Ultima you're never using them because they're Level 1 while your other spells like Fire are level 10 and above.
The way stats are raised isn't even my main issue with the game, it's the dungeons. It's like they're designed to be as frustrating as humanly possible. This is because these dungeons are completely loaded with dead ends, or they have a treasure chest with a Monster-in-the-box, FF2 is the first to introduce them, yey... There's also an absolutely ungodly amount of trap rooms where you're thrown into the middle of the room, and these rooms have such a sky high encounter rate that you'll often fight 2 battles in these areas. These dungeons also drag on for about 4-10 floors and it's exhausting and the constant encounters everytime you take 5 steps drove me nuts. The dungeons are designed to drag on as long as possible to drain you of your MP so when you fight the boss at the end, you're Fucked, because the bosses have an absurd amount of physical defence so magic is the only real way to damage them. FF1 dungeons were basic but you never felt like the designers were going out of their way to piss you off like they do here.
Another thing I don't get is the temporary party members that assist you throughout your adventure. Minwu and Josef are useful, but Leila, Ricard and Gordon suck, they have no magic, die in record speed and you never want to use them because having them perform actions decreases the chance of your other characters levelling up. Leon also joins way too late for him to be useful.
The reason they're temporary is because most of them die. FF2s story is surprisingly depressing and it's the high point of the game for me. Right from the start you see the Empire wreaking havoc and that continues for the entire game as NPCs you once interacted with get killed by the Dreadnought and towns get completely destroyed to the point where you can't go to them anymore. It does wonders in establishing the Empire as a threat and some moments are genuinely gut-wrenching like when you inform Nelly about Josef's death. There's too many deaths for them all to hit hard though and the characters are all very basic, but the story is a huge step up from FF1 regardless. I also like Emperor Mattheus as a villain, you feel his presence for the entire game and him going to hell and overcoming Satan is hilariously badass, he's my favourite villain out of the ones from FF1-5. The music (atleast on the PSP) is pretty solid, with highlights for me being Magician's Tower and the Rebel Army Theme.
The PSP version also does a lot of things to improve on the original FF2. Grinding spells doesn't take forever, you don't have a limited inventory, spells aren't insanely expensive and improving one stat won't lower a different one in this version.
But even with the improvements, it doesn't salvage what I think is a pretty terrible game overall. I can appreciate FF2 for introducing a lot of series staples like being the first game to have Cid, Chocobos, the Ultima Spell, Phoenix Downs, enemies like Flans, Malboros, Behemoths, Bombs etc. Most importantly though, I admire the fact it set the precedent for other games to follow by having a standalone story that doesn't tie into the previous game. But appreciating and enjoying something are two different things, and I got almost no enjoyment from playing this.
It didn't take me long to feel this way since after about 10 minutes of grinding in the overworld, I went about 6 steps south of Altair and ran into high level enemies that killed me. That's my first, of many, issues with Final Fantasy 2. If you don't go exactly where the game wants you to, you'll stumble on late-game enemies that kill you, and you won't be able to flee from them either since levelling up Agility in this game is non-sensical. I hate the levelling up system in this game (or lack thereof). The Nature vs Nurture system of Final Fantasy 2 makes sense in concept, the more you do something, the better you are at it, and this works for some stats like Strength being tied to how many times you use the Attack command or the potency of your Magic spells being determined by how often you cast them. But to use this system optimally you have to do some really non-sensical things. Firstly, to get the most HP upgrades, you're best off taking of all your armor so you take more damage. If you want to increase Agility, you need to increase Evasion, to increase Evasion, you're best off defending while the enemies absolutely wail on you. If you want to level up the Life spell so characters are revived with more than 1 HP, the best thing to do is constantly kill and revive your party members like its I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. Granted, none of this is ever necessary since the game is pretty easy all things considered (to the point of being mindless), but it just goes to show how poorly implemented this system is. Also, this system just does not work for magic spells, by the time you get spells like Holy, Flare and Ultima you're never using them because they're Level 1 while your other spells like Fire are level 10 and above.
The way stats are raised isn't even my main issue with the game, it's the dungeons. It's like they're designed to be as frustrating as humanly possible. This is because these dungeons are completely loaded with dead ends, or they have a treasure chest with a Monster-in-the-box, FF2 is the first to introduce them, yey... There's also an absolutely ungodly amount of trap rooms where you're thrown into the middle of the room, and these rooms have such a sky high encounter rate that you'll often fight 2 battles in these areas. These dungeons also drag on for about 4-10 floors and it's exhausting and the constant encounters everytime you take 5 steps drove me nuts. The dungeons are designed to drag on as long as possible to drain you of your MP so when you fight the boss at the end, you're Fucked, because the bosses have an absurd amount of physical defence so magic is the only real way to damage them. FF1 dungeons were basic but you never felt like the designers were going out of their way to piss you off like they do here.
Another thing I don't get is the temporary party members that assist you throughout your adventure. Minwu and Josef are useful, but Leila, Ricard and Gordon suck, they have no magic, die in record speed and you never want to use them because having them perform actions decreases the chance of your other characters levelling up. Leon also joins way too late for him to be useful.
The reason they're temporary is because most of them die. FF2s story is surprisingly depressing and it's the high point of the game for me. Right from the start you see the Empire wreaking havoc and that continues for the entire game as NPCs you once interacted with get killed by the Dreadnought and towns get completely destroyed to the point where you can't go to them anymore. It does wonders in establishing the Empire as a threat and some moments are genuinely gut-wrenching like when you inform Nelly about Josef's death. There's too many deaths for them all to hit hard though and the characters are all very basic, but the story is a huge step up from FF1 regardless. I also like Emperor Mattheus as a villain, you feel his presence for the entire game and him going to hell and overcoming Satan is hilariously badass, he's my favourite villain out of the ones from FF1-5. The music (atleast on the PSP) is pretty solid, with highlights for me being Magician's Tower and the Rebel Army Theme.
The PSP version also does a lot of things to improve on the original FF2. Grinding spells doesn't take forever, you don't have a limited inventory, spells aren't insanely expensive and improving one stat won't lower a different one in this version.
But even with the improvements, it doesn't salvage what I think is a pretty terrible game overall. I can appreciate FF2 for introducing a lot of series staples like being the first game to have Cid, Chocobos, the Ultima Spell, Phoenix Downs, enemies like Flans, Malboros, Behemoths, Bombs etc. Most importantly though, I admire the fact it set the precedent for other games to follow by having a standalone story that doesn't tie into the previous game. But appreciating and enjoying something are two different things, and I got almost no enjoyment from playing this.
For this I've only played the GBA and PSP versions, so I can't speak to the original. The growth system here developed into something much better in the SaGa games, but so much of it is ill-considered. Speed increases when you dodge attacks and HP increases more the more damage you take, but armor decreases damage taken and also decreases evasion, so wearing armor is usually counterproductive. This is incredibly silly, but also kind of funny to figure out and take advantage of. It feels like this system was only implemented because the idea of getting better at the things you do sounds intuitive, but it was never considered how this would actually work in-game. Each spell having to be leveled individually also makes more situational spells pretty cumbersome, and most spells are situational.
Most enemies are pretty ineffectual at dealing damage if you know how to take advantage of the system. But eventually they start spamming status effects, including AoE instant death that can be impossible to prevent, which is about where my patience runs out.
Most enemies are pretty ineffectual at dealing damage if you know how to take advantage of the system. But eventually they start spamming status effects, including AoE instant death that can be impossible to prevent, which is about where my patience runs out.
This review contains spoilers
Great story but it suffered from a lot of the problems that FF1 had. Leveling system was a pain. Really wanted Firion to be cooler but he's kinda just there along with the rest of the cast. Minwu, Leila and Ricard were dope though. Soul of Rebirth was a cool addition and was a saving grace for this game for me personally. Not a bad game, just lacking in some areas. Still a good follow-up to FF1 all things considered.
I hate this game absolutely just because of the leveling system.
I tried the GBA version a number of years back and quickly dropped it when I found the progression system to be too obtuse. Now that I'm older and better able to wrap my head around why it's as odd as it is, I was able to work through it, but I still think it's a very dumb game. I understand the strengths of a system with such complete control over how your characters will grow, but implementation of a system with this much freedom needs to be tight, and Final Fantasy II is the exact opposite of that. The way in which you level up each individual stat based on singular battle performances is easily manipulated, but due to the game's overall poor difficulty scaling, making a team that can actually take on some of the game's challenges becomes a slog. I then, of course, made the mistake of spending about an hour grinding various stats, only to find out I had overpowered myself to such a high degree that I was finishing off bosses in two or three turns. The end result of my experience was one of utter befuddlement over the ideas presented in this game. I guess it makes sense when viewed from the lens of a 1988 video game where this sort of experimentation was commonplace. However, this was the 20th anniversary release. The game was given 20 years to marinate before they shat it out in an upgraded fashion, yet this unbalanced and poorly thought-out system was not addressed. Perhaps it was improved in some fashion when compared to it's roots, and I suppose there is some value in allowing this game's flaws to remain intact for a modern audience, but that doesn't really change the fact that this game could have been retooled and rebalanced to provide an experience that may actually feel engaging. The fact that Square-Enix decided to preserve this instead of Dragon Quest III, which required a fan translation and emulator to play the optimal version, is a bit frustrating, since the latter actually did have creative ideas which have stood the test of time. Final Fantasy II isn't the type of game which should be celebrated as it was, since what it was was a mess and a mistake. My computer actually froze in the final portion of the game, so I did not actually complete it, but since I lost about 2 hours of progress, that was enough to make me give up. Fuck Final Fantasy II, this game deserves all the flack it gets. 1/6
Progression system is really cool but its pretty bad balanced, maybe i'll be playing this seriusly some day.
esse jogo eh bom e nada muda minha opnião
most disappointing twenty two hours and fifteen minutes ive spent on a videogame
Barely scratched the surface on this one because the growth system actively makes me upset. No, thank you.
Boring world. Too much grinding. Lame story. This game is awful.