Final Fantasy II (SNES) review "When I first started playing this game I had already played through its sequel Final Fantasy III, and believed it to be the greatest game ever. I, however, had not played this game yet and was a little too early in that decision. Final Fantasy is everything Final Fantasy III had and maybe more. I dearly love this game, for it gives you a complete package with a memorable storyline, a perfect gameplay system, and just a feel that would become present in many Final Fantasy games to follow. Besides..."

When I first started playing this game I had already played through its sequel Final Fantasy III, and believed it to be the greatest game ever. I, however, had not played this game yet and was a little too early in that decision. Final Fantasy is everything Final Fantasy III had and maybe more. I dearly love this game, for it gives you a complete package with a memorable storyline, a perfect gameplay system, and just a feel that would become present in many Final Fantasy games to follow. Besides Final Fantasy for the NES, this is the first Final Fantasy game to grace American shores, and it was a complete and wondrous experience, one that every man should experience.

STORY (33/30): An intricate plot that spans three worlds, and a cast of fun characters. The biggest strength of Final Fantasy II lies in this category, for it's characterization is by far the best in any game. Every character has his own style and his own unique background. To see them in the credits makes you almost feel you were there and knew everyone of them. For in truth, you did know every character of Final Fantasy II, because they developed them on a level far and above that of a typical game. Whether it be Kain's inner battle, or Cecil's personal feud with good and bad, it all develops well and on a level of amazing porportions.

Now the story itself is very complex, and has to do with the hatred people have. There are multiple twists, as in the main characters family and such. These twists at a time almost seem to frequent, but that is what a storyteller tells, make it something that you will never forget. Also the decision between dark and light will rest in the hands of Cecil the Dark Knight, and a battle against a foe he has known a long time, and well result into him travelling above ground, underground, and even to the moon, where he soon will resolve the true story behind it all.

GRAPHICS (13/15): Ok, this graphics are definitely not great, even for an early SNES games standards. But they really don't stand out as being bad (unlike Ogre Battle), and you will really never notice their weakness. The characters all look interesting and complex and you can easily dicipher them. They move at clean pace, and while they may not like to fancy, they have the typical SNES RPG look, which truly is one of the most fitting graphics that I have ever viewed (in my mind). Plus the spells are pretty nice to behold, particularily Fire 3. These graphics do it's job and maybe a little beyond, and really that's all I ask.

SOUND (10/10): An almost perfect soundtrack. The music is perfect and almost makes you cry at the sad parts, and laugh at parts which are suppossed to be humorous. I have never seen a track that fully gave you a feel of moments and at such perfect timing. Besides that, the music changes whether you are in a cave, or out in the field, in the regular travelling scenes, which is a nice collection. The sound effects are few and far between, but the music more than fills in the space.

GAMEPLAY (30/30): It's a simple RPG game in which you select what your character wants to do. However this is the first game ever to have time-based attacks which every Final Fantasy game after has used. This gives a quickness to thought before you pick your move. Now it is not to difficult to figure out what you want to pick, because like future Final Fantasy's, it's either FIGHT, RUN, ITEM, or MAGIC. You can use each of these to their capabilities, because it is easy to control their menu's, and each character has it's specialty, like Cecil at fighting, and Rosa's magic. In Final Fantasy II, however, their characters specialties are picked by the game, instead of the gamer. Meaning you can't choose who your dragoon or mage will be, you will just have to leave with the default choices.

Final Fantasy II possesses a large world, with many towns and caves to visit, nearly all essential to the adventure. Along the way you will have to collect great magical spells, and powerful summons if you expect to conquer the realm into the light. The world has a nice feel, and everything links fairly smoothly, and it is very simple to move around the world map.

Final Fantasy II was a prelude to the future Final Fantasy games, and it is fairly obvious why. It gives you a complete feel at what you are experiencing, and the level up system is once again used from the first Final Fantasy, but also the turnbased system is added, and the full exploring feel that is so treasure in it's sequel Final Fantasy III. All I can say, is this game just makes you feel really good as it is fun, intense, and just addicting.

REPLAYABILITY (7/10): This is one hell of a long game. The ingame clock only said 20 hours, but that does not seem accurate at all with me, for this game took alot longer that that. However after you beat it and unravel the story, it is basically time to take a break before you start playing it again. But at one point or another I will be playing Final Fantasy II again, because it is an experience, and it is fun to travel through it all, at least one more time...

DIFFICULTY (5/5): Some people complain that this is the easy version, but this game is definitely not easy. However, for a change of pace, you don't constantly have to stop and train your members constantly to have a shot against the next monster. There are few puzzles to unravel, and they are not challenging, but they may take some thought. I am definitely happy this is the version we recieved from Japan.

OVERALL (98/100): The superior to it's sequel Final Fantasy III, for it has even thing FF3 had and more...If this game had good graphics it would have been perfect, but is still comes pretty damn close to that plateau. With some thinking I have determined that this game is better than Final Fantasy III because of it's characterization and I HIGHLY reccomend it to all buyers anywhere. I shelled out $30 for the game with an instruction booklet, and after playing it, it must be worth at least $100, for it is better than most of the game currently out for any of the new systems. If you are a fan of the Final Fantasy series, or in RPG's in general, I cannot see how you could pass up on this game, for it is one of the top games in this near perfect series, and I would highly reccomend it to any gamer, especially one who is looking for a great story, along with a good time.

Community review by ratking (Date unavailable) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.