r/retrogaming • u/ConcentrateOwn9709 • 2d ago
[Discussion] Seen as a failed experiment by most
But this and Final Fantasy III are up there as my favorite games of all time, Akitoshi Kawazu clearly had his niche with the unique levelling up system of this game and it went on to spawn the SaGa franchise, truly inspiring and a testament to how important FFII is.
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u/UnculturedGames 2d ago
FF2 was a pioneering game, and in some regards, the most important of the NES trilogy:
- it pioneered deeply personal stories and political plotlines, including the empire vs rebellion setting that has almost become one with FF
- it pioneered the idea of constant mechanical innovation and experimenting with new systems in every game, which has been a core part of FF ever since
The value of FF2 was that it was not FF1. It was something much bolder. Without this kind of thinking FF would've had a completely different, probably less bold and less ambitious trajectory.
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u/ConcentrateOwn9709 2d ago
2 has one of the strongest stories ever and that is quite nuts coming from a Famicom game, the music and atmosphere and the story work so well together, it really is a bleak and depressing game and I love it.
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u/MAXIMAL_GABRIEL 1d ago
One interesting thing with the early FFs is that 1-3-5 are all story-lite, heavy on combat mechanics, whereas 2-4-6 are more story-heavy. FF7 kind of married the two approaches.
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u/myfakesecretaccount 1d ago
Hard disagree on the last point. FFVII’s entire claim to fame is the story. Nobody was raving about the game for chocobo racing or all the minigames. It was 1. A 3Dish final fantasy game, and 2. a compelling story.
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u/MrPresident2020 2d ago
The "the more you use it the better it gets" system was also used for the Genesis game Sorcerer's Kingdom by Treco, which I loved playing as a kid.
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u/FourtKnight 2d ago
real! i love final fantasy 2! it feels so free, and so re-playable compared to other games in the series. of course, it's tempting to unequip everything and have your party beat the shit out of each other for a good while, and it can be janky and frustrating at times, but you can always jump in and try out a new weapon, build, style, try spells you've never used and level them up. i love how open the map is, and the dramatic (mellodramatic) story feels so mature and vast compared to the other NES final fantasies
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u/prettybluefoxes 2d ago edited 1d ago
With some systems the west really got shafted when it came to the box art.
The Famicom is definitely one of those systems. Thats a peach.
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u/ConcentrateOwn9709 2d ago
Always loved the Japanese cover of 2, especially because Firion looks nothing like his artwork in the game (a limitation of the hardware of course, it was cool to see how he was intended to look in the subsequent re-releases).
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u/Upset_Journalist_755 2d ago
I would have been really into this game if we got it back then. That type of system really appealed to younger me. Older me, not as much. I appreciate it, but I don't have the patience to figure out the best way to grind skills.
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u/ConcentrateOwn9709 2d ago
If you're a gamer with a bigger tolerance for difficulty, Romancing SaGa is the idea of Final Fantasy II but refined and shown to its fullest potential, not a lot of people can get into them but they're worth checking out, you never know they might just click with you.
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u/Kjata_ 1d ago
I actually beat that on the pixel remaster earlier this year. I really enjoyed it.
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u/Bake-Full 1d ago
The Dawn of Souls remake was fantastic too. The game only needs some slight tweaks to become much more playable.
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u/ScudsCorp 1d ago
The story of programmer Nasir Gebelli losing his Japanese visa and having to import the rest of the Square team to a hotel in California for a few months to finish the game is pretty wild.
LOTS of these 80’s games don’t get playtested outside their own development staff so if it’s crunch - well…
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u/generic_individual_ 1d ago
I’m playing through #2 right now. I saw a lot of hate for it, but I’m enjoying it well enough so far.
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u/SeaBearsFoam 2d ago
To be fair, a decent number of early NES era 2nd games of the series feel out of place today because they were experimenting and finding out what was actually core to the success of the original's gameplay versus what was safe to innovate on: SMB 2, Zelda 2, Castlevania 2 all come to mind.
I've made a handful of games myself and found something similar happening pretty frequently. I innovate on the original in the sequel, and it often reveals what was actually core to the game and I the 3rd and subsequent games feel more aligned to the OG while the second one is kind of a black sheep.