Is Final Fantasy II Actually Good? | EmceeProphIt Review

[@CractusJohn]

Talk to me smart beard man. Tell me about a game Ive never given much of a thought to

[@StilesReviews]

Oh Nice I got a shout out in this video! Funnily enough the one thing you quoted me on is an opinion I no longer hold because I've changed my outlook on the game quite a lot since then. FFI was just D&D as a video game... but FFII was meant to be a fantasy/adventure simulation... and with that mindset I GET the keyword system. Also Fun Fact about FFII's 'normal mode' It actually changes nothing from the easy mode except that auto targeting goes away, and auto-dash is turned off. You can play 'normal mode' in your first playthrough by just toggling those options in the config. I have no Idea why they did that. Great video as usual!

[@HybridAngelZero]

Final Fantasy II is fascinating, to me at least. I'm glad you explored the context of the time it released, something I think gets completely lost in a lot of reviews. I'll always appreciate what this game tried to do, even if some of it didn't work. I'd much rather a game fly too close to the sun than rest on its laurels, and it really comes into perspective when you realize this is the only FF game directed by SaGa series creator Akitoshi Kawazu, a series known well for being occasionally alienating and unintuitive, but almost always innovative and focused on player freedom. I may not always enjoy Final Fantasy II, but I do have a whole lot of respect for it

[@stevemanart]

I'm actually playing the pixel remaster now, my fourth time playing the game (the first was the PS1, then the GBA, then the NES on emulation... which I had to cheat to beat). One thing I love about the PR is levelling spells and weapons takes the enemy level into account to determine how much of an increase you get for using the spell or weapon. Spells are still pretty slow, but by time I got to the cave of Deist I was getting new weapons up to the same level as my main weapons in only a dozen battles of normal combat. In earlier versions of the game I felt like I had to choose a specific weapon class for each character and stick with it for the entire game but now I feel like I can actually just use what I am given as I'll generally have them levelled up enough by time I hit the next boss.

[@EmceeProphIt]

That sounds nice~ I absolutely felt pressured into specializing each character with one weapon type for the whole game in the version I played.

[@golgarisoul]

I've been playing a lot of Crystal Project in the past few days and this makes me realize how smooth that game is.

[@EmceeProphIt]

I really wanna try that game. I love job systems. I take it you'd recommend it?

[@golgarisoul]

@@EmceeProphIt it's starts off simple, and the classes get unlocked a tad slower than I'd like, but I do reccomend Crystal Project. Even if I'm 21 hours in and it feels like I have like 40 more to go.

[@golgarisoul]

I'm not good at describing games and the stream page does a better job than I ever could.

[@cygneturesounds]

I'm not a jrpg player or a retro player but I kinda like the idea of gaining stats and experience by attacking your own party. If you could go to a training room and do 2v2 battles with your own party; that seems like an interesting way to learn counters to specific types of attacks and debuffs. On top, building experience to strengthen your party. I hate grinding and I hate not understanding how mechanics work, so for a non rpg player that seems like an interesting compromise. Not necessarily in this game but in concept. Anyway, keep well emcee!

[@budbear4127]

Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis, a turn based tactics RPG, has something like this. You can initiate Training battles where you control both parties of your own characters. It's meant to bring up low level characters by having them smack high level characters for big EXP.

[@certifiedsorcerer3826]

Level ups? Old. Individual stat ups? Bold. Unnamed nobodies? Weak. NAMED nobodies? PEAK.

[@goranisacson2502]

Regarding the "did the programmer wake up on the wrong side of the bed"-thing with the trap rooms, Nasir Gebelli WAS quite a character what with him (according to legend) deliberately making the ancient spell Ultima WEAKER than the regular spells, even when grinded up, because in his view it didn't make sense that something old was stronger than something modern, modern spell-systems SHOULD be more polished and thus result in more power. So honestly, it may not neccessarily be the case that he woke up on the wrong side of bed, man just got an impulse and decided to go through with it and since he was the main programmer at the time... who was gonna tell him no?

[@jewthulhu]

I understand FF1 has trap rooms, too, and keep in mind the series starts as clones of Wizardry, and that king of punishing BS is p standard for a lot of old D&D-based stuff This is not a defense I hate trap rooms

[@ahriss8965]

FF2 is way ahead of it's time - hell, the leveling system is skyrim's 20 odd years before skyrim. Sure, the game is broken beyond belief in many ways, but honestly it just couldn't execute it's ideas properly due to how new game design was and how the technology wasn't powerful enough to handle it yet. Plus, the game is hillarious if you know what you're doing - like turning the final boss into a frog, despite his immunity to all status moves. Edit: Magic doesn't need to be cast x times to work. All of the stat leveling and magic leveling is on a % chance. The more you perform an action, the more likely you are to get a point at the end of the battle. Instadeath spells are notoriously powerful in this game. Also, grinding hp is both not needed and actually detrimental at later stages. You see, the agility stat improves your evasion, and you gain it through...evading things. This would be pointless, except the row system in this game is absolutely, positively busted. If there's only 1 character in the front row, only that character may be targeted by melee enemies. Sure, your back row people can't use melee attacks, but that means they're free to grind spells. Meanwhile, your only frontliner, with the help of time and a couple of shields (dual wield them for faster results) will become untouchable by every enemy. Which is good, because the undead enemies near the end of the game deal damage based on a percentage of your hp, and heal themselves for the same amount - and that includes the final boss. So being a big bag of hitpoints for them to drain is actively bad for you. By the way, the blood sword also works on the same percentile basis, which means a single sword user with haste up can beat any enemy in one or two turns due to doing 16 hits per swing. Sooo...yeah. Honestly, try and look up the inner workings of the game. It's hillarious. You do not need to grind if you know what you're doing, and most things work just fine. It's still extremely abuseable, sure, but all the nuisances disappear when you know what to do.

[@twkreviews6683]

Always enjoy seeing people find the good in flawed media. Just because something has problems doesn't make it not worthwhile.

[@Megumi0800]

I'm really glad you chose to review this particular FF. Honestly, I literally just decided to give it a proper go recently after deciding like you to explore the history of my beloved FF franchise. I remember trying FF2 (specifically the PSP remake) long time ago, but I never could get into it at the time. Of course, the lvling system was a huge reason, but also because of majorities of the FF2 mechanics were a turn off for me. Thankfully, after completing FF1 I decided to play FF2 and now look at it in a new light for what it is and realize the impact it had on the series. I really like the details and analysis you touched on in this video. Even with the unbalanced nature of this game and needlessly grinding, but I say it is still a game worth playing through and I will certainly have a huge desire thanks to this video to play and finish this game.

[@EmceeProphIt]

Hope you have a good experience with it~

[@mirandariggs1000]

This would be the one title in the series that needs a remake. I love the thought of a turn based JRPG with an Elder Scrolls leveling system.

[@Humbird00]

I tried this game on the PSP some years ago. Played it for a few hours. It's a little hard for me to remember some details after all these years, but I remember the game being kind of interesting to me. I actually found the story structure of this game fascinating compared to the first final fantasy. It's one of the few final fantasy games where it felt like the villains were directly reacting to the accomplishments of the player. You save a village, so the villain retaliates by sending a warship to blast your headquarters. The story has this a nice satisfying back-and-forth thing going on. The keyword idea was an interesting game-design experiment. I enjoyed it in games like Shadowrun on the SNES, but even that game had a slightly flawed execution. I think it works best as an optional puzzle instead of a progression requirement. It has the potential to create some interesting puzzles.

[@time4manmode945]

Yeah this game had a pretty dark plot for it’s time, filled with death, failure and loss, and while the rebellion vs evil empire is such a cliche plot these days, it was pretty innovative for its time, sadly the main characters are as bland as they can get, but the side characters are pretty interesting, shame most of them get killed off, also I was able to get to the final boss but I was never able to beat him, I played the psp remake, but I might give it another shot with the pixel remaster

[@reynaldosilva3088]

This is my favorite FF, i played in NES, also u can patch the it to restore the game to be faithful to the original idea and get rid of the bug's. Also it's important to understand the game in his context of time, and the idea behind of his creation.

[@CCNeverender]

I actually really enjoyed FF2 when I played it on FF 1 & 2 Dawn of Souls for the GBA. I think at the time, I was in middle school or so. The grinding is probably the hardest sell in the game, that much I agree with. I think at the time, I didn't mind it, because I just really liked how different the level up system was. I would mindlessly grind out the magic skills to get them ranked up. I love how the spell animations get bigger and cooler as you rank them up. I thought the story was really impactful, especially for a game of its era. I wonder if I could go back and play it today through its flaws, or maybe I played it at the perfect time in my life. Anyways, great video, as always Emcee :)

[@budbear4127]

I think every version past the PSX version is pretty good, tbh. Not like, amazing, definitely something to check out if you wanna see what was basically the first narrative driven RPG though.

[@EmceeProphIt]

Fair. The PSX version is closer to the original's design, so I wanted that perspective, if that makes sense. I feel like FF2 is mainly valuable to people who are interested in the history of games as an art form.

[@m34ch]

I have never played a console FF game but I loved the very old gameboy versions. So these games are still kind of new to me. Thanks for showing this one off and sharing your thoughts. I might give it a try

[@MrWasaki]

Imagine an anime where the protagonist has to punch himself during the training arc.

[@LibraScope]

More or less agree. The two versions of FFII I've played through are the NES version with a localization patch, and the GBA version. And it's a game that I've always had a lot of respect for, because of how far outside of the box it thought. But it definitely pays for those risks, particularly in older versions. It's a rough game for sure, and I'm still not quite sure whether I appreciate it more than it frustrates me, lol. I do respect it a lot regardless.

[@SapphireLibra3]

Well, I'll say this. I have a rom for this game on my computer. I've never truly given the game a fair shot, but I've never really minded grinding in JRPGs. I kinda love doing it, and have ways of viewing it where _that's_ the progression for me along with the story. So know what? I'll give it a shot, Emcee. You got me to check out the OG Dragon Quest, and I love that game now. Maybe you can pull off another miracle. Also, *hugs* this is for just being a cool guy with a soothing voice. You're awesome.

[@EmceeProphIt]

Thank you! :D Let me know what ya think of the game if you do check it out~

[@OmegaMetroid93]

If you want the progression system from FF2 done better, I'd check out the SaGa games. They are HIGHLY experimental, even more so than FF2, but they're fun cuz you never know exactly what you're getting. The progression system is pretty much consistent throughout though, and they've iterated on it and made it way better than it was back in FF2. In fact, the same guy, Akitoshi Kawazu, is behind both FF2 and the SaGa series as a whole. I've gotten into the series over the past couple years with all the remasters Square has released, and I find them to be really fun! Hidden mechanics is part of the series' DNA though, so don't expect to know everything during your first playthrough. They're also very, very replayable.

[@EmceeProphIt]

I've been curious about the SaGa games for a while now, so I'll def check them out at some point! Which game should I start with? Or should I just pick whatever looks interesting to me?

[@OmegaMetroid93]

@@EmceeProphIt Probably just pick whichever one looks interesting to you. Personally, I started with the remaster of Romancing Saga 3. It's the most like a classic 16 bit JRPG, which appeals to me a lot. It's still pretty experimental though, and unlike most JRPGs, even at the time, it's very open ended. This is true for most Saga games. Some would say Saga Scarlet Grace is a good one for beginners, as it actually has built-in tutorials that explain its mechanics, and the battle system is touted as being one of the best in the genre, with tons of depth and strategy. That said, maybe I'm just a big ol' dumbo, but I could never get through the game because of its difficulty. You might like it though, it's less JRPG and more single-player board game in its structure. You can also take a look at Saga Frontier, and Romancing Saga Minstrel Song, a ps2 remake of the first Romancing Saga. Minstrel Song in particular is probably my favorite in the series, though I dont know how beginner friendly it is. But if you like what you see/read about it, then go for it! It's a very unique game as far as JRPGs go.

[@junebunchanumbers]

I always try to keep Final Fantasy II in mind when thinking about some of the less successful decisions made in later games. Final Fantasy sequels nearly always try to subvert, or completely upend, the previous games, and sometimes that tendency leads to some pretty bizarre choices. So when I consider how FFVIII has you hoarding spells in order to boost your stats, or how FFX has you collect different types of spheres in order to apply them to a convoluted maze of individual abilities and minor stat upgrades, or everything FFXIII does, I try to remember that this kind of innovation for its own sake is baked into the series DNA. The thing is, for all FFII's weirdness, I find it a quite enjoyable game to play, and not just for its finer points. Apparently I actually enjoy having my characters punch themselves in the face in order to level up stats. I guess there really is no accounting for taste. Always worth remembering that when someone tells me they like FFXIII. On a related note, I always liked that bit in FFIX where you have to collect various paragraphs of a version of Joseph's story in order to retell it to Ramuh, and in doing so choose an interpretative ending of what the story might have to teach us.

[@DaviddeBergerac]

I know one thing and it's that I have a 4 hour FF13 video to listen do during work so thank you for that. Yours is a Great video and very thoughtful. I always enjoy your perspective on old games.

[@roguerifter9724]

I love this game. Its either my fourth or fifth favorite main series Final Fantasy depending on my mood, and I've put some time into every game in the main series besides the MMOs (I think I played XI some but I'm not sure and it wasn't for long in any case.) XVI and VII Remake (I'm in chapter five on VII Rebirth but I haven't played the first game of the remake trilogy yet). And I've beaten all the series games I've played besides XI, and VII Rebirth. Its stat growth system helped inspire that of the Saga games and the US Release of the second Saga game was the first Square RPG I played so I have a massive soft spot for it. Besides I love the old rebellion against evil regime trope.

[@bentonic4998]

the Ideal Grinding Method is OBVIOUSLY a commentary on grinding as a concept, putting yourself through something painful and repetitive to boost your stats. what im saying is FFII was actually a deconstructive masterpiece far ahead of its time and you are this 🤏 close to losing your Pretentious License pal

[@badwrongfun5541]

There's actually more going on with the spell accuracy. Shields and armor give you an accuracy penalty for the accuracy of your spells, with the heavier armors giving you the biggest penalties. Unfortunately, no version of the game actually tells you about this or how much of a penalty any piece of armor gives you. I think that's a very interesting as a way to handle D&D's restrictions on armor. But I hate that something very important like this is obscured information. You could have avoided the situation you were in entirely with careful equipment choice, but the game gave you no way of knowing.

[@EmceeProphIt]

Oh dang, I had no idea. Thanks for letting me know.

[@GFCOLCQuote]

How would you compare this system to "The Alliance Alive?" as they seem nearly identical.

[@UnseelieFaelass]

I have sadly let a game's rep sour my opinions too soon. Nowadays I do research before making opinions on them. Darksiders 3 is another case similar to this one I think. Darksiders: Genesis got less hate but still divided folks a bit.

[@alliesfrench]

“Flawed, but ambitious.” I really like the honesty of this. Not the usual “bad bad baddest baddiest of bad” clickbait that haunts the internet narrative of like. Most things.

[@Circus_Diabolique]

They actually took elements from this system and incorporated it in FFXI. Aside from natural stat progression from leveling up, you'd have skills that would need leveled up as well by repeated use. Their was a skill for each weapon type, magic type, guarding, evasion, ect. Some skills were easier to cap than others, and if you somehow steam rolled through leveling without capping out your skills, you'd be pretty useless.

[@timinou9915]

The 'Hit yourself' part gave me FF tactic flashback 🥴

[@justinfritz4817]

Only thing I remember about playing this game is that I trained everyone on unarmed and they were pretty quickly doing enough damage to one-shot every enemy, since it ignores defense. Completely trivialized the game. I guess you're supposed to think that unarmed is bad because it does almost no damage at early levels and they maybe didn't think about balancing it. I also equipped the overpowered temporary character with dual shields so that he couldn't take training opportunities away from the rest of the team. You couldn't have them defend or wait, but attacks with two shields do no damage. lol

[@BlueBidyaGame]

I actually really like the game. It's one of my least favorite FFs, but I think it still has a lot to offer. liked and subbed btw :)

[@EmceeProphIt]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the vid~ It's one of my least fav as well, but FF is good as a whole so that's not saying much, heh

[@davidmayer4374]

Games liked this should be always critisised considering the time they were made in. FF2 is one of the most groundbraking and revolutionary games in all of gaming history. It invented so many new gameplay elements for the first time. That are now in use in other games. But this things where brand new. Of course the systems where not perfectly thought trough in that time. Today kids can make RPGs that are better playable at home with some RPG Maker program after school in their freetime. But at the time this game come out game development was not so easy. All the tools we got today where not build yet. So saying this game is just bad, is just wrong. How much RPGs come out befor FF2 or at the same time that had a story or plot at all? Probably none or almost none.

[@starwars90001]

You've conivnced me to give FF2 a try after so many reviews put me off it, a say fair reviews like this get people to check out games more then reviews ripping into things or overly praising them.

[@EmceeProphIt]

Hope you have a good experience with it! It's a really fascinating piece of game design history.

[@SwordsmanOrion]

You can find enjoyment in the game's leveling system if you really break down how it works and understand what the stats do. In the pixel remaster I was able to make my characters completely unable to be hit by all attacks that weren't magic spells. It was kind of fun to see the numbers reach that level. Really, if you are the type that kind of likes seeing the rewards of your leveling, FFII can be pretty fun to grind in. But the biggest crime this game commits is honestly the dungeon design. FFII has by far the worst dungeon design in the series, and clearly they realized this because FFIII and beyond never does things this way again. Every dungeon has 4-10 of those pointless trap rooms and they are infuriating if you are trying to find every treasure chest, or even just the right door that leads to the exit.

[@veghesther3204]

Not really I hate the stat up system in EVERY version of the game you either need to almost kill your own party to lv them up or on the GBA/PSP version win battle and HOPE the SAID RANDOM stat that you want to increase does so.

[@Poruasecas]

amazing vid!

[@EmceeProphIt]

Thank you! :D

[@SEGAClownboss]

I know it's a running joke that every Final Fantasy story is echoing Star Wars but holy shit is this Star Wars. For the time it must have been splendid that every character was very much unique and scripted, and holy shit some of the high drama, constant sacrifices and boundless genocide that happens for the sake of edginess is a sight to behold. I'm not exactly sure what was going on in the creators' heads when they were making this but I guess they were banking that they were gonna make the most mellodramatic and stuffy RPG they could think of. Cos with every Final Fantasy, the idea was generally that this was gonna be their last shot. The grinding is stupid, but at least the many bugs make them so much easier to exploit.

[@_thejuicebox]

good takes! played it at the same as you haha

[@EmceeProphIt]

Awesome, hope you had fun!

[@-neurasthenie-]

I paused anime for this ❤️

[@Jebbtube]

I'd like to see SquEnix revisit this system...but not have it suck.

[@WPFreeinternet]

That's pretty much SaGa. It is refined. Rather than a bunch of skill proficiencies and stats that grow you either have stats that grow or fixed stats and grouped proficiency skills.

[@Dogman415]

Even as a certified 13 and 15 hater, I would say this one is worse. Though I think 13 and 15 being bad looks worse because of how late into the franchise they are.

[@davidmayer4374]

FF2 is the easiest to level up. You dont need much grinding. You easily hit 9999 hitpoints in just a few hours. Your characters increase hitpoints after every battle in which they loose a lot of them. Just make your party members fight easy enemies and let them hit themself. I got the hall party in one of the beginning doungeons to max HP and then kinda easily rushed trough the game. What enoyed me the most is that your fourth party member always switches out. So they where always useless, because they had less experience and died all the time.

[@NicolasCaja]

Yes, it is.

[@Humbird00]

One of your points baffles me. "The keyword system is obnoxious for people who aren't there for the story" But... Who plays an RPG for anything OTHER than the story? Are any people playing it for the grind? The mazes? There isn't much else. Maybe a few boss battles have interesting strategies. I suppose the boss-battle strategy fans might resent being forced to pay attention to the story.

[@EmceeProphIt]

Yeah, I consider old school FF (mainly the first 3) to be gameplay-first rpgs, since the stories simpley weren't complex yet. A lot of people like FF1 and 3 for the party building and difficulty of resource management and such.

[@Kaimax61]

You'd be surprised at how many people play JRPGS for the game system than the story. Especially Early Final Fantasies.

[@scattau41]

#TeamGordon

[@Kitsune10060]

i dislike it. never beat it, never will.