I was hoping the remaster would fix some of FF2's more egregious issues, and to an extent it does, but not enough. Having to individually grind your stats based on the actions you take is one thing, but grinding out each and every individual spell was a piss-taking exercise in patience.

It didn't help that all that grinding later, and the spells were still next to worthless. According to Reddit though, this was because of the equipment I was wearing, which utilizes an invisible "weight" system that nerfs your magic. The game itself... does not ever hint of this (update: since latest patch, now it does. might update the review at some point in the future), and by that point, I've already beaten it by cheesing my way through it with regular attacks.

All this to say, I'm baffled to have played an RPG in which spamming your regular attack felt more encouraged than making use of any of your spells. You can imagine how dull that makes it to play. Little to no strategy required.

I do not know if there is a definitive way to play Final Fantasy II yet, that's something I'll be finding out as I tackle the other versions. As of this review however, I can't say this one holds up.