Final Fantasy II ( ファイナルファンタジーII ? ) is a fantasy console role-playing game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) in 1988 for the Nintendo Family Computer as the second installment of the Final Fantasy series. The game has received numerous enhanced remakes for the WonderSwan Color, the Sony PlayStation, Japanese mobile phones, the Game Boy Advance, and the PlayStation Portable. Only the PlayStation, Game Boy, and PlayStation Portable versions have been released outside of Japan. As neither this game nor Final Fantasy III had been released outside of Japan by the time that Final Fantasy IV was, it was originally released in North America as Final Fantasy II , so as not to confuse players. The most recent release of the game is a release of the original version of the game for the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on June 16, 2009.
The game's story centers on four youths whose parents were killed during an army invasion by the empire of Palamecia. Three of the four main characters join a rebellion against the empire, embarking on missions to gain new magic and weapons, destroy enemy superweapons, and rescue leading members of the resistance. After defeating the empire and the Emperor, the trio discovers that the fourth youth, now a dark knight, has taken the place of the previous emperor and is preparing to attack the rebellion. Upon confronting him, the Emperor reappears as a demon, the "Dark Emperor", and prepares to attempt to destroy the world; the four characters agree to join forces to defeat him. They proceed to do so in his demonic castle. The Game Boy Advance remake adds a bonus story after the game is completed, following several side characters who died during the game as they attempt to defeat an alternate version of the Emperor, the "Light Emperor".
Final Fantasy II introduced many elements that would later become staples of the Final Fantasy franchise, including chocobos and the recurring character Cid. It also eliminated the traditional experience point leveling system of the prior and later games in the series, using instead a system where the characters' statistics increase according to how they are used or acquired. Despite being a sequel to Final Fantasy I , the game includes no characters or locations from the first game, the first video game sequel to do so. Final Fantasy II received little attention at the time from non-Japanese reviewers, though its remakes have garnered favorable reviews.
Gameplay
Final Fantasy II features gameplay similar to that of its predecessor, Final Fantasy . The player can freely roam an overworld containing several towns and dungeons. A menu-based system allows the player to outfit each character with equipment and up to two—often disposable—items for battle. Magic spells are assigned to the character from the item menu, and certain spells, such as "Cure", can be used outside of battle. The player can also save their progress on the overworld. Weapons, armor, items, and magic spells can be purchased at shops, and townspeople provide useful information for the player's progression through the game. One new feature is the "Word Memory" system: when in conversation with non-player characters (NPCs), the player can "ask" about and "memorize" special keywords or phrases, which can later be repeated to other NPCs to gain more information or unlock new actions. Similarly, there exist a handful of special items that can be shown to NPCs during conversation or used on certain objects, which have the same effect. Characters and monsters are no longer separated into separate windows in the battle screen as they were in Final Fantasy I , and players can see their current and total hit points below the battle. Players can also fight with less than four characters in their party, which was not possible in the first game. Final Fantasy II introduced the chocobo, the signature Final Fantasy mascot, which lets characters ride to a location at great speed without being attacked by enemies. The recurring character Cid was also introduced in II ; a character of the same name has appeared in every main-series game since.
On the overworld and within dungeons, random encounters with enemies can be fought to improve each character's attributes. Unlike the original Final Fantasy , players could not upgrade their characters' classes. The game is also one of the few games in the series to not use experience-based levels. Instead, each character participating in battle develops depending on what actions they take. For instance, characters who use a particular type of weapon frequently will become more adept at wielding a weapon of that type, and will also increase in physical strength and accuracy. Attributes include hit points, magic points, magic power, stamina, strength, spirit, agility, intelligence, and evasion. Players can also increase their ability to wield certain types of weapon, and repeated use in combat causes the ability to level up. Hit points (HP) and magic points (MP) increase with their use; a character who takes a heavy amount of damage in a battle might earn an increase in maximum HP, while a character who uses a lot of MP during battle might increase their maximum MP. This experience system had several unintended consequences that allowed characters to gain much more experience than intended, such as players having their characters attack each other and repeatedly cast spells, thus causing their HP and abilities to grow extensively. Final Fantasy II uses the same turn-based battle system seen in the original Final Fantasy , with battle parties consisting of up to four characters at a time. The game introduces a "back row" in battle, within which characters or enemies are immune to most physical attacks, but can be harmed with bows and magical attacks.
Plot
Characters
Final Fantasy II features four playable characters as well as several secondary characters who are only briefly controlled by the player. Primary characters include Firion (Frioniel in the Japanese release), a resident of the country of Fynn; Maria, a soft-spoken archer and dedicated enemy of the Empire; Guy (Gus in the remake for the PlayStation), a simple monk who communicates with animals; and Leon (Leonhart in the Japanese release), a conflicted dark knight who is missing for most of the game. Five playable characters temporarily join the party to assist Firion, Maria, and Guy in their missions for the rebellion. These are Gordon, the prince of Kas'ion and a member of the rebellion, Josef, a villager in the town of Salamand, Leila, a pirate, Minwu (Mindu in the PlayStation remake), who is a white mage with the rebellion, and Ricard Highwind (Gareth in the remake, but Ricard again in the later Dawn of Souls remake), who is the first dragoon to appear in the series.
While Final Fantasy was mostly focused on gameplay, Hironobu Sakaguchi decided for the second installment to put more emphasis on character development. Care was taken to make the characters feel like real human beings, able to experience various emotions that the player could similarly feel, such as sadness or happiness. Final Fantasy II was also the first console game in which playable characters could die as part of the normal storyline. Music composer Nobuo Uematsu was initially opposed to the creation of these death scenes, but eventually agreed with Sakaguchi's ideas. In terms of gameplay, once a guest character would die in a scripted event, the player would have no means to revive them or recover their equipment and weapons.
Firion and Mateus (the Emperor of Palamecia) are the respective hero and villain representing Final Fantasy II in Dissidia: Final Fantasy , a fighting game featuring characters from across the series. Firion is voiced by Hikaru Midorikawa in the Japanese version and by Johnny Yong Bosch in the English version; Mateus is voiced by Kenyuu Horiuchi in the Japanese version and Christopher Corey Smith in the English version. In the PlayStation's opening FMV of Final Fantasy II , Firion is also voiced by Hikaru Midorikawa, while Maria is played by Noriko Shitaya, Guy by Kenta Miyake, and Leon by Takayuki Yamaguchi. Final Fantasy II features and airship pilot named Cid; each Final Fantasy game in the series after II features a character named Cid as well.
Story
Final Fantasy II begins as Firion, Maria, Guy and Leon are attacked by Palamecian soldiers and left for dead. Firion, Maria, and Guy are rescued by Princess Hilda, who has established a rebel base in the town of Altair after her kingdom of Fynn was invaded by the Emperor. Hilda denies their request to join the rebel army because they are too young and inexperienced. The three set off for Fynn in search of Leon; there they find a dying Prince Scott of Kashuan, Hilda's fiancé, who informs them that a former knight of Fynn, Borghen, betrayed the rebellion and became a General in the Imperial army. The party returns to Altair to inform Hilda. She allows
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