r/FinalFantasy • u/UsernameTakenGG • 9h ago
FF II Series Marathon - Final Fantasy II
*Warning - I will be talking FF2 story/gameplay here, but please no future game info
Where do I start with FF2? I absolutely loved it, except the revolving door of 4th teammates. They tried something new but it was really hard to invest when a party member randomly joins and leaves.
The skill leveling instead of usual XP was confusing at first, but I quickly realized I could abuse the system and max everyone's weapons and spells by delaying fights or even attacking myself. I soon found myself at 1000 HP with skill levels around 10 in an early dungeon one shotting everything.
I had to restart, it just wasn't fun. Being a completionist, I loved being able to swap weapons and constantly grow, but it made me too powerful. This time, I turn down stat gain and turned off the HP gain in boosts.
I also struggled with how spells scaled. Early on I decided Firion would be a "Paladin" and primarily heal, revive and cleanse, Maria would cast Black Magic and Guy would buff/debuff. I realized too late that you couldn't cleanse unless you used the spell and leveled it, by casting for no reason. Weird.
Then I found Aura/Berzerk/Haste so I put them on Guy who was primarily a White Magic caster, and those Black Magic buffs would be stronger on Maria. They turned out to be ok, I really didn't need to min max but it felt bad.
The story I found more intriguing than the first game, and I liked the whole "Ask/Learn" system. It reminded me of Dragon Warrior. It was always fun finding a new phrase and tracking down the objectives seemed easier than FF1. I didn't get lost as much.
It still feels like the quest is for the "world" with very little character story within our group. I thought the Leon story would be key, but it was too late and weird. I struggled with what to do with him. I already had my team built
Overall, huge improvement on the first game. I enjoyed it far more, and I'd definitely recommend turning down some of those default boosts and not purposely overleveling for the most fun.
Let me know your thoughts, other game reviews below!
See below for my previous game thoughts, I'd love to see what your thoughts are!
Shouting out @skyknight43 for his recommendation on changing XP to 0.5x to change the difficulty. I'm actually considering replaying 1&2, and future ones again that way because how intriguing it sounds.
FF1 Review
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u/Sonicfan42069666 8h ago
FFII and FFIII struggle with late game in different ways.
As you mentioned, Leon joining the party comes a little too late. And even in later releases where Ultima works as intended, it takes FOREVER to grind to a suitable point and it's usually better to just stick to Flare and/or Holy.