Final Fantasy 2
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix
Genre: RPG
Release: July 24, 2007
Platforms: Playstation, Playstation Portable, NES, WonderSwam Color, Wireless, MSX 2
Reviewer: Eric
I got so much flak from people for rating Final Fantasy 1 on the PSP so high. Maybe I was a little nice with that
game, but you have to remember it's a classic and what they did to it was awesome. The graphics in that game are
top notch and there really wasn't any loading time at all, which I think I forgot to say. Now we have the next
Final Fantasy game that got the upgrade and this one won't get as high as Final Fantasy 1 got.
Final Fantasy 2, not Final Fantasy 2 for the SNES for you n00bs, was the black sheep of the series. This game
took everything people loved from the first game and tossed it in the trash. Did you like having to pick from different
classes in the beginning of Final Fantasy 1? I hope you hated it because that was tossed in the trash, same with leveling
up and strategy. You seriously can spend no time at all completing this game if you plan it out.
The loss of different character classes wasn't the worst
thing. Final Fantasy 2 had a fairly good story line that
revolves around four childhood friends, whom get their butts
handed to them in the first five minutes of the game. No I
didn't ruin the story here, if you play this game you will see
what I am talking about. For the most part each character is
developed to a certain degree, but nothing like modern RPG
games. Since Square got rid of the different character classes
you can make anyone in your party whatever you feel like it,
from a pure mage, fighter, or a fighter/magic user, it's all up
to you. This might sound neat and everything, but now let me
talk about leveling up in Final Fantasy 2, this is where the
game takes a downfall.
There
are no levels in this game, the end, I am finished. I could end
right there, but I will go more in depth with this, since most
people can't stand Final Fantasy 2 for this reason. Your
characters start out with nothing, no skills or anything. Each
of them start with a weapon, which for the most part you'll just
have them keep for the entire game (you will upgrade them
though). There are so many classes of weapons in this game, from
swords to staffs, each weapon has a level that you increase
whenever you use it. Alright that is pretty neat, but then you
have to do the same thing with magic. All your characters can
use magic if you want, but you only get so many spaces for
spells. The more you use a spell the higher the level. Spells
start at one and only cost one magic point to use, the more they
level up the more it costs to cast them. I don't like this,
after twenty minutes into the game my cure spells are on level
four and my magic points are not going up fast enough. Now my
friends with the weapons and magic out of the way let's go on to
part two of leveling up in Final Fantasy 2.
In order to raise your health, magic, speed, and so forth
you have to do certain things in battle. To increase magic you
need to use spells in battle. I hate this so much since the more
you use spells that might increase its level, but your magic
points may not go up after the battle. Oh and then you have your
health points. The more damage you take in battle you'll have a
greater chance of your health going up at the end of battle.
Guess what it doesn't happen too often, the best thing to do is
attack your own team, get them in red (near death) and win the
battle. Even if you do that your health may not go up, Final
Fantasy 2 is random on your stats going up, but you have to do
certain things to raise your chances to go up. You may spend an
hour just to raise one persons health to around the same point
as your other team mates. If you don't keep everyone at the same
point that one person will ALWAYS die in battle, the monsters
seem to be programmed to attack the weakest person all the time.
The
fun doesn't stop here with this game. Final Fantasy 2 must have
random encounters in every other treasure chest. This makes the
challenge to the game much greater than Final Fantasy 2 by a
hundred times. These encounters are not just normal enemies
either, half the time you are fighting full blown bosses. I am
not kidding here, but in one dungeon I fought the same boss
twice, once in a chest that contained one potion (I cried) and
the second time was when I was ready to leave, he was blocking
the exit. All these random encounters just makes the game
annoying, but thank God you can save your game whenever you
want. Oh yeah before we go on let me add about the random rooms
you enter. If you hate using hint guides you should reconsider
for this game. About fifty percent of this game has numerous
doors to go on in the cave or dungeon and only one is the right
door. If you pick the wrong one the game puts you in the middle
of a room and EVERY step is a battle. Again I know games are
suppose to be challenging, but this is just overkill.
If you can get past the leveling up and all the random
battles you can find a good game. The PSP version offers
beautiful graphics, much better than Final Fantasy 1 by far.
Though I was a little upset to find loading in this game.
Anytime you save you'll have to wait a few seconds, loading
whenever you turn your PSP back on, the game will have to load
for ten to fifteen seconds whenever you enter a new area, and
finally loading when you use cure/life/heal out of battle. Final
Fantasy 1 for the PSP had hardly any loading, if there was any I
didn't notice it, but Final Fantasy 2 has loading. It isn't too
bad, but it was very noticeable.
Final Verdict
Final Fantasy 2 is the odd-ball of the series. With no
levels, having the ability to make any of your characters be
magic wielding gladiators, this game won't make new fans to the
series. Anytime I play this game just to try and raise my stats
I get bored real fast, so I'll end up moving along in the game,
only to die fifteen minutes later. If you like challenging 2-D
RPG games then play Final Fantasy 2, but I think paying $29.99
is way too much. I recommended Final Fantasy 1 for the PSP, but
this one is just a disaster, Square should have changed the
mechanics of the game, that would have been a nice new feature.
Rating
3.50 out of 10
