Final Thoughts on Final Fantasy II

 I expected to finish Final Fantasy II either late Friday night or Saturday morning. I actually finished it just a few moments ago. The extra two days saw me having to grind out extra levels and raise skills to the place that I could defeat the Emperor for the last time. The credits are literally running beside this post as I type. I have been looking forward to writing this one. 

I am not sure I love the fact that I could get to the last boss of the game at 32 or so hours of gameplay, but my party was not strong enough to win that battle without an additional 20 hours of grinding. I seem to vaguely remember a conspiracy theory that the difficulty of Final Fantasy IV (which was on the SNES as Final Fantasy II and should have been Super Final Fantasy) was set to an impossible level until you had taken a certain number of in game steps and/ or played for 40 hours. I want to say I recall leaving the game playing overnight to run that clock up once upon a time. 

I felt that my party should have been strong enough to smack the Emperor down at that 32 hour mark. Still, Grind it Out is a rule. Running through the Jade Path and the Pandemonium Palace repeatedly was not the greatest grind of the game, but it did allow me to have several sets of Genji gear, a few million gil, and complete 99 item stacks of every consumable in the game except Elixirs which are 50k Gil each! 

Without using a strategy guide I spent 20 hours and 43 minutes to complete Final Fantasy. It is possible I could "speedrun" Final Fantasy II with both a Strategy Guide and a bit more focus on skill prioritization. That may be the primary difference between the two. Final Fantasy II feels like a more mature game which requires a bit more thought and strategy to complete effectively. 

Both games will have high replay value for me. They meet Cantrell's Cost Effectiveness Quotient (more on that in a minute.) Since you can randomize your character classes in Final Fantasy it is possible to run with a party of any combination of Warrior, Monk, Thief, Red Mage, White Mage, and Black Mage. Do not judge me that I did not run Red Mage for Final Fantasy in this play through. It is literally the only play through I have done without one and variety adds to replayability for me. 

Similarly Final Fantasy II should be replayable nearly at the level of Skyrim because of all the various ways you can build your characters. Want to play the game through completely unarmed and without magic? You can turn Firion, Maria, Guy, and your rotating 4th character into a group of Monks by stripping them of all weapons and armor. While this sounds just awful to me and might require 100 hours of play to pull off, it is possible that you COULD complete the game this way. 

I wish I had understood some of FFII's built in limitations before starting this play through, but as I indicated in my last post I have few memories of playing the game before. Knowing what I know now I would have built my team more efficiently. I would not have wasted time on my rotating 4th character's spells until I (spoiler alert) got Leon into the party. 

Just like I carry around my ideal Final Fantasy team in my head (Warrior, Red Mage, White Mage, Black Mage... expensive but the most fun) I now am chewing over how I will play if I revisit. This go round I built Firion, Maria, and Guy as weapon wielding Red Mages. On the next run everyone will get Fire, Cure, Life, and eventually Flare. Each character will have one buff spell each assigned from Blink, Protect, Shell, and Barrier. I will likely make Maria my Black Mage and Guy my White Mage based almost solely on their HP. 

Weapon wise Firion will run with a Sword and Shield beginning to end. On this playthrough I rotated him through all sorts of different weapons keeping him as a dual wielder until those last 20 hours where I realized higher evasion and defense was more important than the almost nil damage Firion was doing to the Emperor with his off hand. Similarly Guy will keep an Axe and Shield throughout the game. I ran Maria correctly with a bow though she spent the fight with the Emperor blasting away with Ultima.... which makes me doubt the choice. Hmmm. I wonder if double shield is an option for the casting characters. If not maybe Staff and Shield would be best. 

From the moment I pick up Leon he will run as a Black Mage with either a Sword and Shield, Double Shield (if it is possible) or a Spear and Shield. There is quite a lot to be said for a party that can auto battle with weapons only through the Jade Passage and the Pandemonium Palace.... yes. This is what my brain does instead of basking in the afterglow of completing a game. This is enjoyable to me. 

Anyway, Final Fantasy has a tone of adventure and good overcoming evil similar to the Legend of Zelda games. Final Fantasy II is the first dark, sad entry in a series that has quite a few dark moments (VI, VIII, and XV stand out immediately in my mind.) I can imagine that it was tough for younger players who were a fan of the first one. I wonder if FFII had come to the US in 1989 or the next few years if I would have stayed as devoted to the series. 

FFII launched several things that became Final Fantasy series staples such as Chocobos and Cid. They now feel conspicuously absent from the original game. Also, I think it introduced the world at War theme that recurs in several of the games along with the death of important characters tugging at the player's heart strings. The game was probably ahead of its time. 

I think it has aged beautifully with the Pixel Perfect remaster. 

So, what now?

I am torn on starting on FFIII. I have both the 3D version and the pixel perfect remaster. I rushed to buy Final Fantasy III DS when it released because it filled in a hole in the series which had never been released in English. So I both have and have not played FFIII. 

By that I mean that I have only played the 3D remake of III both on the DS and PC. The remake supposedly had some significant differences from the remake while still introducing the Final Fantasy series first job system. I absolutely love the job system. The remake was very much optimized for the DS. Elements of the game have felt missing the last time I played it on PC to the point I put it down without finishing. 

I am debating a palate cleanser or a little break from idle time gaming. I had planned to spend some time on something else between Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II, but I failed to get very engaged to anything other that Magic the Gathering Arena. Even the launch of Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword of the Switch (which has been sitting unplayed on my shelf since release) did not grab my attention. With a stack of fifteen Final Fantasy titles that I intend to play in order I am in no hurry to burn myself out on back to back games.

Also, since I have completed III, IV, IV the After Years, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, XII Zodiac Age, XIII, and XV all before do I make the complete strategy guide play through each time? Do I follow my own rules and stumble through X, X-2, XIII-2, and Lightning Returns Final Fantasy or break my rule to get all the games completed before taking a break waiting for a release of Final Fantasy XVI? 

There are all good questions to have. I feel like they could be answered with a decent fighting game to distract me for a few hours. Gosh I miss the 90s when I could get a new fighting game 3 -4 times a year.