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The Story Behind Final Fantasy II

Following the successful North American release of the original Final Fantasy by Nintendo in 1990, Square's North American subsidiary began work on an English localization, to be called Final Fantasy II: Dark Shadow Over Palakia. Sakaguchi recalled creating the initial premise after watching The Empire Strikes Back (1980), carrying over the concept of a rebel faction facing an evil empire. He also expressed his frustration with the abstract nature of experience point systems, wanting something unpredictable for players.

Their sprite work was redesigned into a different enemy. Another creature designed by Ishii for the game, the Moogle, was ultimately left out due to there being no place in the story for them. The goal for a game that was different from the original, with Kawazu later feeling they had become so invested in that goal that they strayed too far and corrected back to a traditional model for later titles.

How Final Fantasy II Plays

The player can freely roam an overworld containing several towns and dungeons. Unlike the original Final Fantasy, players cannot upgrade their characters' classes. Final Fantasy II uses the same turn-based battle system seen in the original Final Fantasy, with battle parties consisting of up to four characters at a time.

Similarly, there exist a handful of special items that can be shown to NPCs during conversation or used on certain objects, which have the same effect. For instance, characters who frequently use a particular type of weapon will become more adept at wielding a weapon of that type, and will also increase in physical strength and accuracy. Final Fantasy II features gameplay similar to that of its predecessor, Final Fantasy.

Why Players Still Load It Up

GameSpy praised the addition of the ability to save the game at any time, calling the feature crucial for a game on a handheld game console, and in contrast to GameSpot, praised the graphics, saying that while they were primitive, they were "well-suited" to the Game Boy Advance. IGN described the "dialogue and story" as "much more interesting than" its predecessor and the "proficiency system not unlike what's found in The Elder Scrolls" as a "semi-innovation" for its time, but also complained about the gameplay. Conversely, Chris Shive of Hardcore Gamer described it as "one of the weaker titles in the franchise" and felt it "[suffered] from a bit of middle child syndrome", but praised the story as being "vastly expanded on from the first game".

This would become the first entry in the SaGa series, with Kawazu being heavily involved in most entries. Retrospectively, G4 described the stat-building system as an "Innovation", noting that "computer RPGs took the "level" system wholesale from tabletop role-playing games and made it a genre staple, but FF2 eliminated levels altogether", but that what "sounds novel at first wound up being a huge mess". The Pixel Remaster of Final Fantasy II received mostly positive reviews.

Final Fantasy II — Frequently Asked Questions