Final Fantasy 2 is a Disaster - A Video Essay

Final Fantasy 2 is an absolute disaster that released in 1988, and today i’ll be giving my commentary, and reviewing it piece by piece. I’m sorta experimenting with a more humorous, lighthearted style of video essay content, so it may be a little different from what you guys may expect
Anyway, sit back, relax, and enjoy seeing me rant about this game for 44 minutes straight. Thank you guys for 1,000 subscribers. I truly can’t think of a better celebration than to release this video for you guys to watch.
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Music:
Menu Screen-Final Fantasy Dawn Of Souls
Dungeon-Final Fantasy Dawn Of Souls
Battle #1- Lufia 2
Floating Castle-Final Fantasy Dawn Of Souls
Battle Scene 1- Final Fantasy Dawn Of Souls
Rebel Army Theme-Final Fantasy Dawn Of Souls
Main Theme-Final Fantasy Dawn Of Souls
Battle Scene 1- Final Fantasy Dawn Of Souls
Pillar Of Heaven-Final Fantasy Legend 2
Revivification-Final Fantasy Dawn Of Souls
Battle Theme 1-Final Fantasy Dawn Of Souls
Battle Scene A- Final Fantasy Dawn Of Souls
Battle Scene B- Final Fantasy Dawn Of Souls
Halberd Nightmare Worship-Kirby Super Star
Airplane-The Adventures Of Hourai High
Inn-Final Fantasy Dawn Of Souls
Fukiyose City-Pokemon Black & White
Memories Of Green-Chrono Trigger
Evening Star-Seiken Densetsu 3
Chocobo Theme-Final Fantasy 2 Pixel Remaster
Imperial Army-Final Fantasy 2 Pixel Remaster
Flight Into The Unknown-Seiken Densetsu 3
Masters Of Land Sea And Sky-Final Fantasy Dawn Of Souls
Attack The Enemy-Mario & Luigi Partners in Time
Spiritual Battle-Final Fantasy Legend 3
People Without Hope-Chrono Trigger
Zidanes Theme-Final Fantasy 9
Cinco De Chocob-Final Fantasy 7
Wutai-Final Fantasy 7
Anxious Heart-Final Fantasy 7
Temptation Of The Princess-Final Fantasy 2 Pixel Remaster
Got The House-Animal Crossing City Folk
Koopa Beach-Super Mario Kart
Finale-Final Fantasy 2 Pixel Remaster
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#commentary #finalfantasy #gaming

[@allthelonely4287]

I know this probably won’t help you now since you’re done with the game and all but the Black Flans are weak to fire. You’re supposed to kill them with fire.

[@pixaafterdark9915]

Bro I’ve been just using auto-battle to kill them, thanks man.

[@Applemangh]

So, there actually is a simple (but unintuitive) way play this game that's much more balanced and can be done without grinding. In simple terms, sheilds are your best friend, but all other forms of armor are your worst enemy. And always keep everybody in the front row. Played with these guidelines in mind, you'll end up with really good evasion and agility, so you'll have a much easier time with enemies that inflict status effects or drain health with physical attacks. So you can play without grinding much or at all, so bosses won't all be pathetic. You'll also find that magic can be quite practical in some situations, ESPECIALLY the one that boosts your evasion, but magic damage is great when dealing with large groups and elemental weakness. And berserk is just a pure (and stackable) attack power buff in this game. And finally, the strength of your enemies DOES matter for leveling up spells and weapon skills. Using weaker skills against stronger enemies are worth more XP for the FIRST use of a spell or weapon in that battle, which is worth noting.

[@pixaafterdark9915]

That's pretty interesting, actually. Looks like you know a lot more about this game than I do haha.

[@pixaafterdark9915]

This video was so good that my editing software crashed trying to export it. (I just realized I misspelled montage in that one part of the vid. Whoops)

[@judejudehh]

Rip

[@ronsorage78]

Only issue with 8 was junctions were shit

[@TheBrazilRules]

So the whole system was shit

[@Drekal684]

Gonna watch this in a minute, but first: I will always remember the end of this one LP of the NES version of FF2, that is on the LPArchive, where the guy basically abused Toad throughout the entire game. Then at the end of the game he had one character cast Wall on the end boss. Then cast a low level Toad on it - and it killed the boss. See, what happened is this: Wall is not resisted by bosses, while Toad obviously is. The higher level Wall was able to bounce the Toad spell off - but here's the problem. When Wall reflects a spell it plays the animation over the target first, and in the NES version, the Toad animation flags the death of the enemy character that got hit by it. You get it? So all of a sudden the Emperor is doing the whol dissolve thing. The NES version of the game was *broken*. But that in particular is just plain hilarious. Trying to figure out how to fix the game in a more general sense (plot and gameplay) has been an off-again, on-again thought experiment that I like to dip into now and again. One main thought I had was the Ultima sidequest, which is a massive waste of time. How about this? After retaking Fynn, you seem to rescue Leon, and he tells you about the Emperor's plan to take Ultima, which pushes you into your next quest. However, this turns out to be a ruse by the Emperor and Leon to get the party to open the tower so the Emperor himself can steal it! He takes most of the power of Ultima for himself and uses it to summon the Tornado, leaving the party with the only parts he couldn't take (for whatever reason). There. That whole part of the game now has a more definitive point to it, and doesn't just waste your time.

[@pixaafterdark9915]

They shoulda hired you to make this game. Also, the toad spell thing is actually hilarious, I always liked abusing that spell.

[@Drekal684]

@@pixaafterdark9915 Benefit of hindsight helps a lot for this kind of exercise. Like, for just one example of many from this game, making the world map a pangea is an interesting idea in concept - but it's only in execution you really see the inherent problems it brings to the overall design. You can very easily grab a chocobo and just. Run. Straight to Mysidia. There's literally nothing to stop you from going there. All you have to do from there is head back north to get to the first area of the game. So. Save your cash up, buy as much late game armour as humanly possible, maybe some spells too, and then savescum your way out. Also! Fun fact! Did you know that Megaman and Final Fantasy were released within a day of each other in Japan? Then, one year later, their sequels were also released within a day of each other. Another funny thing about that is, the original FF is viewed as a classic, while the original MM is kinda... not, while FF2 is viewed as kinda bad, while MM2 is the classic.

[@Kaze450]

Funny how you mentioned Final Fantasy Legend 2 (SaGa 2) both the first two FF games and the SaGa series are both helmed by Akitoshi Kawazu. So pretty much this game feels like a SaGa game prototype.

[@pixaafterdark9915]

I actually didn't know that. It's funny because SaGa 2 is one of my favorite RPG's ever. Amazing how they were able to improve so drastically.

[@TheBrazilRules]

You really understated Final Fantasy's 1 story. At a surface level, yeah, it is just oh go save the princes and then find the macguffins to open the way to the last boss. But then you are going towards the last crystal and then what do you mean a floating stone? Holy shit, an airship and i have been sailing in a normal ship this whole time? WTF, a flying fortress in MY TRADICIONAL FANTASY GAME? Then, after you avoid War Machine after he fucked you up and forced you to do the entire dungeon again the prophet tells you you have to go back to the Temple of Chaos from the beginning of the game because you have to... WTF? Go back in time because the source of the evil is there since the elemental fiends were sent from the past, and when you finally get to the end and talk to Chaos, he is Garland and tell how it was because of you that he became Chaos, the Ultimate life form, because the fiends took him back to the past and gave him those powers or something *mind blown* I bet you never considered how appropriate the title Final Fantasy is because of the fact that you cause a time loop of you creating Chaos and having to beat him again and again FOR ALL ETERNITY. Truly Epic! P.S.: I also think that it is truly astonishing that even the game being completely linear, it is able to give youbthis sense of adventure since after Pravoka it simply gives you the ship and say. You know, the Elves have a kingdom to the south, and you go there out of sheer curiosity.

[@atraxisdarkstar]

I loved the idea of the keywords to unlock conversations, I loved levelling up skills by using them. Having to constantly go into battle, whittle down all but one enemy, then spend as much time hitting yourself as you can without dying was no good, though.

[@pixaafterdark9915]

If you like leveling up skills without any of the bs, I’d try out final fantasy tactics. Or any of the final fantasy legend games. Heck, even the romancing saga games.

[@reloadpsi]

Yeah it's a good thing when a series makes some of its worst mistakes early.

[@ChazTheYouthful]

2 set the stage for the entire SAGA series, about 10 or 11 games in total.

[@pixaafterdark9915]

2 was goated, I prefer 3, but 2 is more memorable.

[@jmendoza6661]

This was a great video. I remember this from the 80's. I never owned it, but I rented it once or twice, I think. Video rental nights were cool. Congrats on 1k subscribers! Here's one more.

[@pixaafterdark9915]

Thanks broski

[@RetroNutcase]

Final Fantasy 2 didn't hit the states until the playstation version, which was most certainly not during the 80s.

[@pixaafterdark9915]

@@RetroNutcase How do you know they're from the states?

[@RetroNutcase]

@@pixaafterdark9915 Well they mentioned "renting it." You can't rent videogames in Japan. So how did he rent the Japanese version of FF2?

[@someyams]

This video is why my final rating for this disaster that doesn't have much to offer... is a broken marriage/10

[@jonothanthrace1530]

Hilariously, Mini and Toad 1) are instant kill spells when used on enemies and 2) work on most bosses. I cast Toad on the Behemoth and laughed my ass off when it actually worked.

[@pixaafterdark9915]

Man, I wish I knew this before I beat the game.

[@jonothanthrace1530]

@@pixaafterdark9915 I only found it out because I'd developed a boss strategy of "cast every spell I have once, then wail on the boss with weapons"

[@hrvstmn31]

Man FF1 in DoS is amazing, I played the ass off it as a kid. FF2 can go do a flip. Edit: lol I got to the final boss and my health was so high and I guess magic defense so low he kept one or two shotting me.

[@jonothanthrace1530]

I just quit FF2PR a few weeks ago after reaching the final boss and finding out that the best strategy for it involves one weapon I sold once it stopped being good and another I never got because the window to get it is incredibly narrow. In my opinion, it's a combination of really interesting gameplay concepts that just don't quite mesh. Being able to set up your characters however you please means very little if you get penalized for not going all in on either magic or melee, and damaging spells stopped being useful fairly quickly thanks to how spell damage was calculated. There are entirely too many status spells, and a lot of them seem to overlap, even if they have a better success rate vs. bosses than in later FFs. Also, the story's unrelenting bleakness wore me down over time. There's no chuckles or outright laughs to break up the tragedy.

[@reloadpsi]

You know what doesn't get talked about enough with this game? How utterly terrible the dungeon design is. I just got done replaying the pixel remaster version, and with all the QoL stuff that makes the battles go by faster and more efficiently, you don't half notice how every dungeon is identical, and it gets so, so boring after doing just a couple of them.

[@pixaafterdark9915]

Yeah, the dawn of souls version on GBA is even worse because there's no minimap and you'll be lost in a boring asf dungeon for potentially hours.

[@reloadpsi]

​​@@pixaafterdark9915 Yeah, and then you play Soul of Rebirth where you're not just playing a bad dungeon, you're also having to grind three early-game characters to late-game levels in order to proceed. The lore it establishes is actually really cool though.

[@pixaafterdark9915]

@@reloadpsi I didn't even know soul of rebirth existed until now. It sounds torturous.

[@reloadpsi]

​@@pixaafterdark9915 You unlock it when you complete the GBA version, and I think PSP as well.

[@Onomoki]

Great video! Also loved your unfun games! You’re gonna blow up! I’ll subscribe

[@pixaafterdark9915]

I appreciate it homie.

[@gravitationalpull1941]

changing the font is very easy. Original font Mod is on Nexus

[@pixaafterdark9915]

I was thinking of adding a few mods to make the game look better but I was lazy lmao.

[@nunyabusinesss1476]

Nice one. I played a Rom version with an english translation patch many many years ago and my younger self loved it though the keyword system was a lil frustrating at times. Otherwise I had a blast with it back then but, I must say if I tried it now my nostalgia prob wouldn't get me through it.

[@qduke8]

Excellent video, keep going with these!

[@realname2566]

You're funny bro keep at it, you're going somewhere.

[@pixaafterdark9915]

Appreciate that

[@levakis]

Yo I subscribed. This dude is funny as hell

[@frempy4426]

That montage was sick

[@Ianimations]

I've never played this game but this video taught me what i should look out for when i play jrpgs, good video!!!

[@hist150project5]

Hey! Final Fantasy 8 is one the best. It's probably tied with 7 as my favorite. As for 2, I played the Pixel Remaster version and I thought it was pretty good. No it doesn't compare to later games, but I thought it was a decent step up from 1. Sure you can do weird stuff like hitting yourself to gain HP, but the average player won't think to do that and just playing it normally the gameplay is pretty much identical to FF1.

[@empiar5481]

Haven't watched the video yet, just came here from you "Unfun games" video which I liked a lot. But I saw you called FF2 bad so I had to see this video to see why you're absolutely 100% wrong about everything ever. I swear if you complain about "needing" to hit yourself to gain HP I'm going to call you a bad gamer. Biggest two problems with this game is that character progression is extremely unclear and looks arbitrary, and the dungeons are too complex for their own good. But once you understand how everything works the original FF2 is actually really, really good (better than the GBA version anyway, idk about Origins), and once you learn how to let your characters grow naturally and keep up surprisingly well, the dungeon design is less torturous because you aren't either struggling or snoozing your way through everything.

[@jonathanplooij3666]

the berserk spell is much more usefull than ultima

[@NemoPropaganda]

Subscribed for the humor 😂

[@pixaafterdark9915]

Thanks lol

[@Piranesi-gc8gn]

I dont think ffii is that bad

[@ThommyofThenn]

First time on YT ive seen someone use a clip from that particular Blaxploitation film. And not to sound sociopathic, but the part about exes was so funny 😊 Edit: the first mention, not the 2nd one thats horrible

[@pixaafterdark9915]

I'm so glad someone finally recognized that reference.

[@ThommyofThenn]

@@pixaafterdark9915 I want to quote it but don't like posting such profanity 😂. Anyway I really like this channel so I'm looking forward to getting into it

[@marisabitch5578]

piss

[@TheDoctor35]

Love your work but 8 is 10x better than the 13 trilogy put together, so is ff2. lol love your videos.

[@pixaafterdark9915]

I really like 8, but the last 3rd of the game is probably the most unfun experience I’ve ever had with a game ever. I’m not even gonna play 13 cuz it looks like a waste of time.

[@atraxisdarkstar]

FF8 - one of the few that's fun to grind in, also the one that bones you for grinding.