Having completed Final Fantasy I, I immediately caught up with Final Fantasy II. While it has its own flaws, the game takes several significant strides forward in many aspects. The most noticeable improvement lies in its story. While its predecessor relied on a simple premise of "You are four heroes. Cleanse the four crystals and defeat the evil," Final Fantasy II introduces a plot centred around a world-spanning war between nations, offering a more substantial storyline. Admittedly, compared to modern games and movies, the narrative may still be somewhat shallow, but it serves its purpose and provides a semblance of depth to the world. The game features a dialogue system that allows us to gather information about places, characters, and objects, enabling us to ask the right questions at the right time to acquire more information about our ongoing adventure and where we should head next. Personally, I found this to be a fascinating idea, although there were moments when it wasn't entirely clear where to go or whom to ask for answers. Our own characters still lack complete development, but they do exhibit more depth than the cookie-cutter heroes of the first instalment. Additionally, the party of three is occasionally joined by a fourth member at specific points in the story, sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker, providing variety and a breath of fresh air in battles. Unfortunately, the battles themselves, aside from boss fights, remain unchallenging. Most of the time, activating the auto-battle feature and waiting is sufficient. In longer dungeons, I even found myself listening to podcasts on the side. However, the new level-up system occasionally throws a wrench into the equation. Rather than having traditional character levels, each weapon type, spell, and even stats level up based on their usage or the frequency of being attacked. While this sounds intriguing on paper, it leads to grinding, primarily for spells (which can now be learned by all characters) even when they are not immediately necessary. Aether, in particular, is quite expensive. The repeated use not only increases the effectiveness of spells but also raises MP and HP when attacked. Unfortunately, because one of my party members, Maria, was rarely targeted, she eventually ended up with approximately 50% less HP than her colleagues. So, what did I do? Naturally, I attacked her myself to boost her health. It feels incredibly silly but becomes necessary to make the character viable.

The weapon system, on the other hand, is relatively straightforward. It allows for easy switching between weapon variants to keep everyone at a similar level. However, determining which weapon to level up lacks clarity, which diminishes the strategic planning element. Yes, the game does have its fair share of problems. These issues also extend to the dungeons, which are sometimes confusingly designed with stairs going up and down without a map to navigate between floors. Instead, you can only see the current level, making it somewhat challenging to traverse the dungeons. Furthermore, most of these dungeons are rather poorly designed. Each dungeon is filled with rooms behind doors, where you never know if they lead further into the dungeon or contain chests. However, 90% of the time, these rooms are empty, resulting in additional steps and triggering more tedious battles. Despite these setbacks, the game excels in enemy design. The major strength, compared to its direct predecessor, remains the story, which presents unexpected twists, tragic events, and surprising turns. We travel far and wide, encounter new people and companions, and learn about the fate of ancient organizations and civilizations, all leading up to the final confrontation with the ultimate boss. Unfortunately, Final Fantasy II hasn't learned much from the boss encounters of its predecessor. Once again, we face an overpowering boss whose attacks can almost wipe out the entire team. Proper use of spells like Vita can help counterbalance the challenge, but even with buffs like Blink, Berserk, Protect, and others, the battle becomes an endurance test that goes on and on for several minutes. Unless, of course, you possess a special weapon (which can be missed) that allows you to defeat the boss in about two minutes without much guidance from the game. This is a point where significant improvements are needed in future games. Overall, the game is not as bad as the numerous mentioned shortcomings may lead you to believe. Final Fantasy II is still in the process of propelling the FF series towards becoming one of the greatest JRPG franchises in video game history, and glimpses of this greatness are already visible. I am eagerly anticipating how the series will progress.