“The way we conquer… If we use the first step, we shall burn.. Under the morning light, our souls shall perish!” ~ These might be words that you could be saying after playing this game. Or better yet after seeing the changes that they made.
Year: 1988
Company: Square Soft.
Genre: RPG
Platforms: NES (Famicom), PSX, PSP, GBA, iPhone, Wonderswan color
Age rating: E- for everyone
After a huge success over the first game, Square quickly made a sequel and they improved some things while at the same time making some other things more confusing. Let’s see what they did!
World and the plot
The world in this one is somewhat different, yet the same from the previous game. Sure, the continents, towns, dungeons, everything is different, but the overlay is the same. You still have the same background and same stuff, but they have added some new features, one of them being introduction to chobos (the famous yellow birds from almost all Final Fantasy games). You can find them hidden in center of several forests and they make another way of traveling in this game along with airships, ships and so on.
The plot itself and the story are probably the biggest change that they did! The first one was the classic tale at first where the bad guy kidnaps the princess and you have to rescue her. That is for the first two or three hours of the game, later it adds many new elements which made something quite new for the gaming industry back then.
This one also adds new things to the storyline and these are, what else, rebels and empire, quite common for that time. Sure, it may seem different, but believe me it is even cheesier than from the first game. Still that is if you just look at it from one side, but from another you can see how the story and plot have many background stories to back them up every time they need to do something and even some story twists. That was quite new for the games of that time and I will be honest, even if it looks pretty common, it is actually pretty good and entertaining on its own way.
If you like medieval type of environment combined with fantasy feeling, then you will enjoy it.
Characters
Wow, what to say about them? Well you can pretty much guess after I say this. There are no classes to choose at the beginning. What that means? Well that means that this is the first Final Fantasy games (and one of the rare games to offer this in-depth from that time) that offers multiple characters all with different backgrounds. Okay, it is not groundbreaking and it is simple on that fact, but still it is fresh. While the first FF game didn’t have any backgrounds or anything like that to the characters, this one actually has and that adds to a whole completely way of looking at this game. Even at the clear beginning of the game, one of your main characters if going to get kidnapped, only to find him later as… Well that is for you to find out.
As for other characters, you can actually even feel their emotions as for the male character (I believe his name is Fion) and female one (Maria). Well even if they have their own names this time around, you can still change them if you wish)
Aside from the main characters, all other ones are pretty entertaining as well and have their own personalities. Yes, that exists in this old game, what a surprise. Many characters, from the king, to well queen, to the evil emperor and some famous FF characters who may appear as guests, each have their own tale to tell.
Pros: improvements over the story and characters
Cons: layouts of the maps is pretty much the same from the previous game with some new details
Now that we cleared of the characters and the story, let’s look at the graphics, shall we? As the first one, this game also had more ports then some games out there have sequels!
So I will talk about the main one and then add the changes that were seen with some other games.
NES (Famicom)
The original game had more or less the same graphics as the first one. Now don’t get me wrong, again for that time it was pretty good. The background stills looked black with some added details with the colors and such, but the enemies looked kind of better. Also the typical chess system formation was taken down from the battles, so that is a pretty nice touch.
Aside from battles, they also added more details to all the characters and NPC making them more different from each other.
The world map is at one hand better, but again pretty much the same, meaning average. Though I will give credits to the improvements over the dungeons and towns, as well as the castles. They now look a lot more lively and different.
The special effects may also seem somewhat good, but for that time and even for today, I am not even sure if you can call them that. It is still all around the numbers, but all the explosions and attacks still look nice on a certain level.
PSX, GBA, Wonderswan color
This version is a ‘huge’ improvement over the original one, the same as for the previous game. The layout is the same, but they added so much, like actual backgrounds for the battles. They also added sort of small pictures next to lines that characters speak so that was a nice touch.
Like I said, everything pretty much stayed the same, only better with higher resolution, better textures and smoother colors.
PSP, iPhone
Again, as the Play station version was that huge improvement over the previous original one, so is this version an improvement over that one. Now the differences aren’t that big, but the game does run smoother and the graphics look so much pleasant for the eyes. Again if you are looking for the prettiest version, for today’s standards nether might do because they do look outdated, but if you can choose, go with this one. You might actually even enjoy it~!
Pros: Classiness in its graphics, many remakes that make up for it
Cons: Outdated and almost no major differences over the first game
As for the soundtrack, this game has a pretty nice one. It definitely adds to the sort of medieval and fantasy theme that this game runs, but unfortunately that’s it. There is nothing impressive about it and not memorable at all. I only remember like one song from this game and that is the castle one and that’s it, nothing more, nothing less.
In fast, this game might have the worst soundtrack of all Final Fantasy main titles out there. Don’t get me wrong though, being the worst in the best group, still makes you good, but you get overshadowed from the other games, so most gamers even forget about it.
As for the effects and voice acting, there is nothing to say for it. When this game came out that still was a dream.
Again this game like the previous one has arranged and remade version of the OST making it actually more appealing. That is however in the later games, so if you don’t want to be attacked and reaped by the 8-bit midi style soundtrack, definitely get these.
Bad soundtrack might make you give up from a game sooner than graphics would, believe me on this one.
Pros: classic and yet nice fantasy music that plays around, remade version of OST
Cons: not really enjoyable and forgetful especially for the original releases
Gameplay:
What is the most important thing about having fun in a game? Well the gameplay itself. If this is bad, then everything can sink and as matter of fact, this game does it actually pretty nicely.
Now let’s talk about some details. One of them is that this Final Fantasy title is a RPG like every other there. So you do explore towns, buy equipment, talk to people, do various quests, go to dungeon and fight countless enemies? Yes, that is all also present here. But what is different?
Every Final Fantasy game is different on it’s own in terms how they made the game mechanics. The one of developing that is. So for example in the first game it was pretty typical and yet different, but for today’s standards it is considered the classic on how RPGs work.
As for this one… Well, let’s start from just saying that this game might be considered the black sheep in the series because of this. Why? Well that doesn’t mean that it is bad, it just means that it is different. You see, you don’t gain experience like in normal games of this type. You gain certain points by the way you fight. That means that there are no levels and that your status is growing depending how you play.
That seems alright at first, but since for that time this was something completely new, it also wasn’t finished. You might end up like me fighting and coming to the first boss and the beginning of the game, but having the status like you could fight the emperor himself. I mean, having 2.000 HP at that point of the game and managing to clear all enemies with one shot is crazy! Yet alone it get’s more crazy as you progress, because later you might gain HP for example with just fighting. That is good for keeping the balance, but you might leave the other statuses because of that and it gets really intense, because several of your statuses might be just too high, while others too low.
And while fighting it is not even fun anymore, because you will be casting spells or attacking your own characters to rise their power, while healing at the same time. Enemies are just for the show and enabling you the battles.
Other than that, this is still very unique and different type of leveling which might be interesting to some. It was to me, just that it can get pretty annoying. As for other things, some were improved from the previous game, like for items, more statuses, weapons, magic and such. The game also has like I mentioned before, new types of traveling and more interesting dungeons and enemies, so that might add to the fun fact there.
Overall, very different, which might is either good or bad to some.
Controls:
Another important thing about all games are the controls. Oh how they can get bad. But not in these ones and definitely not in a RPG that requires like eight buttons to use at total. It is a pretty basic stuff and everyone will get into it fast. Commands of the menu are also easily accessible, battles you can just use arrows, scroll what you want to do and that’s and of course at the end we have navigation. That one is purely arrow type going made, so nothing for you to bang your head about.
These ones are simple and how they should be, no matter on which platform you play. That is until you come to iPhone, there it gets different. I haven’t tried that version, but from what I have seen they did a pretty decent job on transferring the controls from PSP to that. It is playable and an interesting experience.
Pros: Enjoyable controls, unique game mechanic style for that time, classic at its best
Cons: Again, different and annoying game mechanic style for someone
Final opinion and verdict:
This game was a different experience that I had with other Final Fantasy games. It had that more magic and fantasy tone which was pretty common for 80’is. It also had some nice music to go by, but nothing for what the Final Fantasy series are famous for.
Gameplay was also a little bit off, but still pretty enjoyable if you know what you are doing and if you can get used to. The story and characters are something not seen in that time from RPGs, but pretty common. Still it is what this game needs and what we shall like about it.
Like it or hate or just skip it, it is up to you, but I do recommend that you at least check and see for what this Final Fantasy game is also famous for. Enjoy~!
(Again, all the ratings that I give are based on the most recent releases and also the originality that they kept. Also not that while I really enjoyed this game, I give my professional opinion about it)
Graphics: 7.5/10 – same as for the previous game with some light improvements
Sound: 7/10 – it is not bad, but also it easily forgetful not important
Gameplay: 8/10 – it is still Final Fantasy so it must be good.
Presentation and story: - 7.5/10 very outdated for today’s standards, but still has that nice magical medieval tone presented there
Overall: 7.5/10 – One of the less known Final Fantasy game and it definitely has its reasons for it
The original logo of the game
Start up screen. Nice and simple.
The first battle in the game... And you get defeat, just your luck!
