Final Fantasy II

Final Fantasy II might not be the best game from the FF series (sorry, that title belongs to Final Fantasy III), but it's a solid RPG nevertheless. The fighting system uses menu selections and is turn-based. Pretty much like every Final Fantasy successor after it. You go through a lot of different characters throughout the course of the game, but you only manage five fighters at a time. Each character has their own set of moves and spells. Some of the different abilities include White Magic, Black Magic, and a Jump Technique among others. Unfortunately travel is a bit slow while in towns and dungeons as there is no run button. But you can easily maneuver around the map in a variety of vehicles ranging from Chocobos to an Air Blimp. And like most RPGs there are a load of items and equipment to manage as well.  

The storyline is pretty classic (or cliché depending upon how you look at it). Featuring a medieval setting with knights, magicians, and dragons aplenty. You as the game's hero, must ultimately collect all the crystals and stop the evil leader from taking over the world. Of course, there's a lot of plot twists and sub-plots during the game. Which breath life into your characters and explain their world's mysterious past. The only problem is that a lot of the scenarios presented in this title have been done to death in other RPGs. But at least Final Fantasy II was the first game to do them. And you just can't beat this game's old-school charms. 

The graphics (as you can obviously tell) are well dated by today's standards. They are far from horrible, but they aren't exactly spectacular either. At least they get the job done. The layouts of the towns and dungeons are done pretty well and show a lot of good variety. There's even some 7-mode effects during certain story segments and the world map of the game. Musically there's a lot of memorable tunes and trademark Final Fantasy sound effects. Newer gamers might not appreciate the graphics, but again there's a certain old-school charm to them.

Like I said before, Final Fantasy II is a solid RPG. I really enjoyed the classic storyline, solid game play, and early 90's graphics. The only thing that really hurts Final Fantasy II is the fact that so many other role-playing games have copied its format. And kind of ruined the originality of the game. Otherwise, you can't go wrong with this SNES oldie, but goodie. 

(pics by the pros at vgmuseum.com)

Overall 7.8

Review written by ShinjiZ for GameyPlace.com on May 13, 2001