Final Fantasy II was something of an experiment. There's a lot it did right though the same could be said against it. For starters, the level system. If you've heard anything about the game, chances are it's probably been regarding how you level. On paper, it showed ingenuity; cast/attack more to get stronger and tank hits to boost defence. The problem is you can exploit the system by having your party members attack each other. It will still count towards stat levels. It's a system that feeds grind addicts such as myself.
Furthermore, the game's map doesn't have a hard limit on where you can go once you get the canoe(some exceptions like the Snow Plains). Instead, it uses difficulty barriers which can be punishing to someone on their first playthrough. Going too far to the left as soon as you leave the first town could easily pit you against mid-game mobs. The spawn map is a welcome addition because of this. You could argue they're only a problem if you go out of your way to break your stats.
Trap rooms unfortunately take the dungeon design down a peg. The dungeons are littered with doors that lead nowhere, warping you to the middle of an empty room. Each step you take trying to leave yields a high chance for an encounter. I wouldn't mind it as much if there were only a few or if you got something out of it.
That's not to say it's a bad game. I liked that Square gave it more of a fleshed-out story and identities to its main cast. It helped steer the future games in a better direction. I was a fan of the re-orchestrated OST especially on classic gems like "Rebel Army".

Fantastic Version of FF2
Outside of what is mentioned on the box for improved sound and graphics.
- Weapon Leveling and stat growth have been accelerated
- No more stat regression
- Status Ailments no longer prevent you from getting stats up
- Stacking items/equipment. No longer heavily limited in inventory.
- Int/Soul penalties have been reduced
- Chocobo Theme

Fantastic version for FF2 fans or new players alike.

Final Fantasy II ought to be a game about choice, but in this version of the game, it is not. Why? The magic penalty is back.
FFII easily has the most complex EXP progression system compared to any RPG before it, and is still more complex than every subsequent Final Fantasy game. This is the game that inspired The Elder Scrolls' progression system -- every physical attack gets you a chance at gaining Strength, every magic attack can get you boosts to Intelligence, every dodged hit can get you Agility boosts, and every hit taken can boost HP or vitality. Every weapon and spell has its own skill to level up, to a maximum of 16. In theory, this "gain what you use" approach means the player could have ultimate freedom to build their party however they choose. Want a battlemage who's really good at wielding swords and axes? How about a rogue who also specializes in debuff spells? This progression system could accommodate those unique builds, in theory. This *seems* to have been the developers' intention when making the game, and it would have been a great departure from other games on the market: Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Wizardry, Ultima, and of course, Dungeons & Dragons all placed party members in rigid, inflexible roles.
But it is not a departure at all, because there's one massive, game-ruining problem: The INT/SOUL penalty. This was a "feature" in the Famicom version that had been removed in the GBA and PSP ports of the game, but now it's back in the Pixel remaster. It operated like the magic check penalty in Dungeons & Dragons. If you have a weapon or armor equipped, expect to see a *severe* penalty to magic, to the point where it becomes useless. If you tried being, for example, a paladin healer who physically attacks sometimes, heals other times, or use the "Life" spell to turn undead, you would have to go into the item menu during battle and unequip everything sometimes every. other. turn. It's a tedious, slow, painful process made only slightly better with improved UI compared to the Famicom version.
Even though the system seems to encourage freedom, the game actively punishes you for making your party anything but your average, boring Fighter, White Mage, and Black Mage. This was a horrible misstep. If the idea was to branch out and multiclass, the INT/SOUL penalty made it impossible. This is literally the standard job system in disguise. What was even the point of having a "gain what you use" progression system if you're forced into narrow classes just like every other RPG on the market? With the INT/SOUL penalty, Final Fantasy II is worse off, and has zero replay value.
Some argue that this is a balancing mechanism. If the INT/SOUL penalty didn't exist, you could just have every party member max out every weapon and spell and be a master of all without any drawbacks. However, this is a 15 hour game where grinding isn't required if you plan ahead and form effective strategies. Maxing everything out is a tedious, unnecessary process that will easily quadruple the game length, at least. If you want to powerlevel and make the game boring, go crazy, but it's at a cost of time and sanity. What this means is the game was already balanced without the INT/SOUL penalty for any normal playthrough. The penalty was an overcorrection that breaks any freedom the novel progression system may have otherwise introduced.
This worst part of all this is that none of this is told to the player. There's no message when equipping armor, no tutorial, or no dialogue from NPCs. Users who datamined the Famicom version found that the weapons and armors all had different penalties, and again, there's no way to know this in-game, or whether the Pixel remaster has the same penalties as the Famicom version. The only people who would possibly know this system exists are the small handful of people who bothered to emulate the Famicom version and actively read the guides. This will undoubtedly alienate new players, who will more likely than not give their party members both magic and armor, then wonder why their spells are so terrible. Not knowing to unequip the armor, they'll be more likely to stop using magic altogether, then get stuck at the Sargeant and/or Adamantoise fights where physical attacks only do single digits of damage. If Square insists on bringing this awful mechanic back, players need some indication that it exists, or new players *will* rage quit and get a refund.
The INT/SOUL penalty ruins the Pixel remaster for me. I hate to say this, because I love all the other Pixel remasters so far. To date, these are the best graphics and music we've seen in the classic final fantasy games. I wish there were difficulty settings or some way to turn off the INT/SOUL penalty. Now I'll have to choose between strong presentation in the Pixel remaster or engaging gameplay on the PSP.
There is no definitive version of FFII.

Pixel Remaster aside, FF2 is best treated as an exploratory entry in the saga. It proposes some interesting ideas for the JRPG formula that ultimately disappear just like the many companions that took the P4 slot. I wouldn't call this game my favorite, but it does fit into the bigger picture of progression to see how we ended up with such deeply satisfying FF titles later down the line. Appreciate it for what it is—a short trailblazing JRPG adventure that has some very weird mechanics.

I played this one to 100% without grinding attributes more than what I needed for completion. In essence, I left my attributes up to fate/pseudo-RNG. For several hours, I really thought the game had something against my healer because she basically developed with 1/3 the HP of my 2 other party members throughout the entire game. It's not so bad though because, at its core, the game isn't difficult.

I recommend this game to anyone who is picking up ANY of the Pixel Remaster titles. You owe it to yourself to see how the FF games' mechanics developed over the years. Before you dive into it though, it's important to set expectations and understand a few things about Magic in this game:

1. Magic is largely ineffective without the time investment of leveling each one up. You can beat 90% of the game by just dual wielding your weapons.
   
2. Adding onto that, negative status effects are also ineffective because they require each status spell to be improved individually via repetition to even have a chance of hitting. This means you will need to spend many turns missing inflicting something like Blind before you can see results.

If you end up playing it, expect an insanely good OST that has some truly epic tracks for the overworld and final dungeons! Give the Pandaemonium theme a listen and thank me later.

I'm that one weirdo that loves Final Fantasy 2

Final Fantasy II is quite the odd duck in the franchise. This is going to be quite a bit of a lengthy review, so please bear with me.

On one hand, it introduces staples from the franchise like Cid, Chocobos and a stronger narrative which would become the norm since FFIV, but on the other hand, the mechanics for this game couldn't be more different than the rest of the franchise, considering it would be more akin to the SaGa games. It can be kind of opaque and confusing to grasp at first, but having an understanding of these mechanics can get you really far.

First, we'll start with the gameplay. This FF iteration doesn't have a level up system, but instead, you gain stats randomly after each battle depending on your actions. This means that you can mold your characters the way you want to, as everyone can equip everything, but keep in mind that there's better pieces of equipment than others for certain roles, and this is because of a thing that isn't revealed to you in-game: Spirit / Intellect penalties. In short, there's pieces of armor that can be detrimental for you to cast spells, as it nerfs your mages significantly. For example, equipping a Shield to a dedicated White Mage / Black Mage character would nerf their potential, and this restriction makes it so a more physically offensive character wouldn't use Spells as effectively as a Mage-dedicated class. I don't mind this, as this is for balancing purposes, and it adds a layer of strategy that wasn't seen in the previous game.

Of course, there's this thing called "difficulty". It can be easy or hard, depending on how well seasoned you are with the gameplay mechanics. Here's two tips for this journey that can help you a lot:

1. In the early game, attack yourself without getting killed to get HP and stamina. This will help you with the early game hell, and whatever you do, DON'T GO TO THE FAR WEST OF GATREA OR ALTAIR, OR FAR TOO NORTH FROM FYNN RIGHT OUT THE GATE, AS THE ENEMIES ARE WAY TOO ADVANCED FOR THE EARLY GAME AND YOU'LL GET KILLED IN RESPONSE.

2. Shields (for DPS characters) and evasion-increasing weapons are going to be your friends. They're essential for agility increases, as there's a higher chance to get an agility point the more evasion percentage you have. Agility is a very important stat, as it increases the chances of going first and reducing the chances for ambushes.

*phew* That was a lot for just gameplay, but really, that's the meat and potatoes for this game, as understanding them at its fullest can get you really far.

Now, the story. Back in the day, the story for this game was quite revolutionary for a Final Fantasy game, as it tells the story of a Rebel Army that's opposing the Palamecian Empire, and the characters had "personalities". It's more in air quotes, because they're kinda basic. Firion is the good guy, Maria is the girl of the group, and Guy is like the dumb muscle. This is a deep contrast from the previous iteration, which was a simple story of reviving the crystals to save the world, and the characters you had were blank slates for you to control.

The graphics are quite on par with the previous game for the Pixel Remaster, so I don't have any complaints in that regard, and the music? Excellent arrangements. I didn't notice a "meh" song this time around, and hey, the Chocobo theme is the full version instead of the four bars that was the original one. My stand-out song for this remaster, has to go to the final dungeon music. It's simply... sublime and foreboding. Really makes you feel like you're prepping up for the final battle.

Overall, even if this is the odd duck in the franchise, I'd say I can recommend it, providing that you can have a grasp of the deep mechanics this game has. it also includes the QoL features from the FFI remaster: Quick Save anywhere, even in dungeons, running button, a map to check where you need to go and track the chests you may have missed, and the arranged soundtrack I have mentioned before. I just had a blast with this game, but I can see why people wouldn't like this one, and that's perfectly understandable.

A great remaster of a busted game.

Since its release in 1987 FFII has had numerous re-releases, each serve to make the game marginally better, like adding full saving and removing stat-atrophy but still unable to fix the game's fundamental issues. The Pixel Remasters ups the artwork and OST once more, and adds a checklist feature, auto-battle, and mini-map.

PLOT: I'll give the game credit for having an original plot, a consistent antagonist, and not ripping off AD&D. Sadly it did come a console-generation too early so none of the characters are all that developed, outside of Firion being a virgin and Guy speaking Beaver. The moment you get the airship is a wet fart since there's no new music, no new places to go to, and half the places you could go to get nuked before then.

PROGRESSION: A system where your core stats increase after every battle is a good idea. A system where you have to manually level-up every weapon-type and magic-spell for them not to be useless is a terrible idea. This progression was better done in the later Saga series though its utterly botched appearance meant it never returned in Final Fantasy. What's the point of buying a Flare spell in the last dungeon if it's completely worthless unless you grind?

DUNGEONS: Absolutely irredeemable. About two-thirds of the game's maps are sprawling dungeons with high encounter-rates, branching paths that span multiple floors, and numerous doors that lead to rooms containing nothing but an enemy ambush. FFI's dungeons felt like a product of the time, FFII's dungeons are actively horrible and date the experience far more than I or III.

ART & MUSIC: They're fine, but nothing remarkable.

CONCLUSION: FFII is hard, oddball, experimental, and ultimately not rewarding. You can safely skip this one as none of its innovations continue into the rest of the series, and the concepts it did introduce are done better in the immediate sequel, the excellent Pixel-Remaster of Final Fantasy III.

Hello friends,

Today i will be reviewing the game Final Fantasy 2 Pixel Remaster edition. Unlike previous entries into the final fantasy games, this one tried some new mechanics, such as the code war in learning new things in the game. This mechanic is not seen in other games in the series, and was used to test it to the fanbase in ff2. The leveling system is also different than in the other final fantasy games. This one uses a similiar system found in final fantasy 8 and in in saga games. Basically, you level up using weapons and skills. Each skill and weapons is associated to certain stats. For example, using swords increases your strength and hps. Using a wand increases magic points. Anyways, here are my pro/cons list:

PROS:

- First time on steam, Final Fantasy 2.
- Different mechanics found only in saga games and later final fantasy games.
- This version has a built in beastiary in the extras menu that is very good.
- Nice music and pixel perfect graphics.

CONS:

- Some bugs are in this version. For example, if you miss some code words and do not learn them in a certain order, it can cause issues with progression in the game.
- Some repetition is required if you want to learn skills and magicv up to max, with the exception to cure, which is very easy to level to max since you use it quite alot.
- You can miss certain items and beastiary in the game if you do not use a guide to help you.

Recommended since this is only way to get final fantasy 2 legitimately on steam. If you also are a big fan of the older retro games on systems, then i also recommend this as it really keeps the old pixel feeling of those retro games.

After spending nearly 7000 Hours in Final Fantasy XIV, I figured that it would be a good idea to see where everything started, and thanks to these lovely Pixel Remasters of the first few Final Fantasy games, it is easier than ever to do.

Story
The world is threatened by the evil Palamecian Empire, which tries to conquer the world with hell spawn. As part of the resistance, it is your job to save what is left and hunt down their Emperor to put an end to his madness.

Gameplay
Like Final Fantasy I, FF2 is a classic turned based JRPG.
Unlike their previous game, FF2 has no classic job system. Your party has no set jobs and does not level up through fights. Instead, you decide the roles with the weapons and magic tomes you give to each party member. Each time you use a weapon or spell in a fight, you gain experience for it and level it up this way.
Personally, I am not a fan of the system they went for with FF2, but I appreciate the thought that they wanted to try something new. It isn’t a bad system and it works quite well, but the classic job system just feels better to me.

Graphic and Audio
Lovely pixel look, with charming music that will become stuck in your head for a while.

Tech
Stable 60fps, never encountered a bug, or crash or any other problem.

Final Thoughts
As with FF I, the Pixel Remaster of FF II feels like a small, very enjoyable, time travel journey to the origins of RPG’s, that, even with a in my eyes worse job system, I can still wholeheartedly recommend.

Final Fantasy 2 is commonly listed as one of the, if not the single worst game in the series. This version of the game is an improvement on the original in my opinion, even if it was my first time playing, I can tell the Pixel Remaster alleviates many of the issues that earned FFII's rank at the bottom. Older games suffered from artificial difficulty, punishing consequences & grindy leveling. Sometimes you feel overpowered in this game, but that's OK.

The QOL additions (fast-battle, menus, etc) help a ton to make the older systems flow as you'd expect. The Skyrim-style skill progression feels OK in this game, not great, but I can appreciate what Square was going for. The obvious balancing done to make the game easier is what makes this old game flow nicely - older games were very grindy, and while some people will be annoyed that the game is less challenging; it makes it that much more digestible for someone looking to experience the first real Final Fantasy game. (By which I mean it introduces many of the games' iconic features - Chocobos, Cid, larger storyline, etc...)

If you haven't played the original games (like I hadn't) this is a great way (if not THE way) to dive in. If you're a fan of the old-school difficulties this and other early JRPG's can throw at you, this will probably be too easy. I think it's still worth supporting releases of legacy games in either case.

Overall, great to experience one of the most influential games in the series.