Final Fantasy II

[Anonymous No.1337743]

So has anyone here played Final Fantasy II? And by that I don't mean gaming the system to min/max your guys as early as possible so you're basically gods by the time you reach Fynn. I mean has anyone here just played through it straight?

Because I have to say that although the story and characters kind of suck, in terms of it's battle and character progression system it's actually my favorite game in the series. It's practically open world, you can truly mold your party any way you want and making an awesome damage mage, healer or paladin type actually takes planning and forethought in a way no other game in the series does. But it seems almost no one else actually played it. Any other fans out there?

[Anonymous No.1337812]

I've been meaning to get around to completing I and II. It lives in one of my Gameboy Micros but I don't have much time lately.

Is the story as involving as later games? I liked the first game because you could largely ignore the story.

[Anonymous No.1337831]

>>1337812
The story in II is a little more in depth than I, but not by much. It is a little less obvious though, you learn a list of key words and there are certain points where to progress the story you need to ask the right person about the right key word. Generally though, story isn't what makes it good.

Why it's so much fun to me is that making say, a kick ass Black Mage means that character has to be constantly casting magic both to drain their MP to encourage stat growth and also to level up the specific spells. There are tons of spells in the game, many of which are available really early on. But leveling them up also takes a really long time.

So in the last game I just finished, I went with a sort of Paladin who had a sword and shield and mostly worked on attacking but also built up heal, haste and revive. Then I had a Black Mage type who I focused on black magics and various de-buffs as well as berserk. My third was a sort of Monk/White mage. I kept him bare handed and split his progression between attacking and leveling curing and support white magic like barrier, shell and wall. The 4th slot rotates with various characters for most of the game so I just let them be whatever.

[Anonymous No.1337869]

>>1337743
It's the only main series game I didn't play. What's the best version?

[Anonymous No.1337870]

Yes, I've played it. I have it for playstation. Have I beaten it? No. It wasn't fun.

[Anonymous No.1337873]

>>1337869
The GBA and PSP versions are the best in my opinion.

>>1337870
I'm sorry to hear that. What did you not find fun?

[Anonymous No.1337875]

I played it both ways and hated it each time.

[Anonymous No.1337876]

>>1337873
The "stand around and let your guys get hit" style of leveling. It isn't really a big deal that isn't fun though, because its bundled with FF1.

The remix battle music in the PSX version is pretty rad, though.

[Anonymous No.1337895]

>>1337876
>The "stand around and let your guys get hit"

That's why I asked how you played it. I don't think you're ever supposed to stand around and let your guys get hit. Doing that is the surefire way to make each battle boring as fuck and the game as a whole much too easy.

I just fought each battle as it came and had my guys act in accordance with how I wanted them to level. I didn't grind for extra battles and I didn't sit there and make each encounter more drawn out than it needed to be.

Played that way I found it almost perfect. Monsters were consistently pretty hard as I made my way through, especially some of the undead that hit you heavy with status attacks. Most of the bosses were hard but I won by the skin of my teeth. To me that's pretty much perfect.

[Anonymous No.1337897]

>>1337743
I've played through it straight a few times. I actually finally went through the PSP version two years ago. Since I like the SaGa series, it wasn't a big deal to go through the game's "leveling" system, even if it's not as fun as say, SaGa Frontier. Beat the PS version when I was in high school, and beat the NES/FC version a few years after that. I never actually played the GBA version, but since the PSP version's based on it, I know how it works.

Generally speaking, I like it the most out of the first three, even though FFIII does a lot of things better.

[Anonymous No.1337902]

Even with the ability to modify your characters into any role it still felt like their paths were still predetermined. I haven't played the game in years, but if memory serves, a character like Gus had a harder time leveling his magical stats, and Maria had a harder time leveling her physical stats.

I thought it was a nice try, but ultimately failed. Maybe if they just tweaked something to make it more valuable to have a varied party and changed the way certain stats were increased, it would have been better to me.

[Anonymous No.1337915]

>>1337897
I really should try SF again. The first one I found really ugly when it first came out and then never went back to it for some reason. I really liked a lot of what SFII did, but the constant character switching also kind of put me off and I never ended up finishing for some reason.

My first foray into RPGs were the FF Legend games though so I think that gave me a taste for this kind of leveling system. Even with everything archaic about FFII I still just freaking love that aspect of it.

[Anonymous No.1337924]

>>1337895
If I didn't, I would get to new zones and be underleveled. Or have too high of a dodge score, so that I could dodge, but if they hit, I died in one hit. It was just a bad system.

[Anonymous No.1337929]

>>1337812
The story in II has an interesting style but it's pretty light. Lots of deaths and memorable moments though, especially for an NES game. In fact, the guy who led the development for FFIV said that the emphasis on story was inspired by FFII.

[Anonymous No.1337937]

>>1337924
Maybe you were playing a different game from me? Because I found it worked really well. I will say, that upon getting to a new area or dungeon, the enemies were usually harder. But that's where the battle system really shines. For a while the fights are hard, but the harder the fight, the better your stat growth. Then by the time the monsters in that area were easy and my guys weren't getting much more powerful, it was usually time to move to another area and the process started again.

[Anonymous No.1337952]

>>1337743
I hear ya. Was a good game, but required more grinding as you could run into battles, from the get-go, and get minced.

I always found Gus became a power house pretty quickly, whilst Maria was always utter gash until a fair ways through. Thank Christ for Mindu, or Krishna