Final Fantasy II
Categories: Final Fantasy games | NES games | PlayStation games | WonderSwan Color games | 1988 computer and video games | 2001 computer and video games | 2002 computer and video games | 2005 computer and video games
- This article is about Final Fantasy II, the Famicom title. For information on the SNES title, see Final Fantasy IV.
| Final Fantasy II | |
| Image:Ff2logo.jpg | |
| Developer(s) | Square Co., Ltd. |
| Publisher(s) | Square Co., Ltd. See release dates section |
| Release date(s) | December 17, 1988 (Japan) See release dates section
|
| Genre | Role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo Entertainment System, WonderSwan Color, Sony PlayStation, NTT DoCoMo FOMA 901i |
Final Fantasy II is a computer role-playing game developed and published by Square Co., Ltd. in 1988. Originally released for the Nintendo Family Computer in Japan, there was some initial talk that either Nintendo of America or Square Soft (Square's North American subsidiary) might localize the title for American audiences as had been done with its predecessor in 1990. Such a project was announced and an early prototype cartridge was produced in 1991, but the game was ultimately cancelled in favor of the more recent Final Fantasy IV. The game was never released outside of Asia in its original form. Enhanced remakes of the game were later issued for the Bandai WonderSwan Color ("WSC"), the PlayStation (as part of the Final Fantasy Origins collection) and the Game Boy Advance (GBA) (as part of the Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls collection), and the latter two titles were finally released in English language form in both North America and Europe.
Final Fantasy II is notable for being one of the first story-intensive RPGs released for a console system, and for being the first game in the series to feature many elements that would later become staples of the franchise, including Chocobos and a character by the name of Cid. It was also unique for eliminating the traditional experience-based advancement system, instead favoring a system wherein the statistics of playable characters increased according either to how much they were required, or how much they used. In other words, a character who frequently cast magic spells would have their proficiency at casting increase faster than a character who specialized in physical attacks. Although abandoned by subsequent installments in the series, a similar system was adopted by the SaGa series, also produced by Square.
Because of the popularity of the series in America during the 1990s, Final Fantasy II was one of the first games to undergo fan translation, in this case by NeoDemiforce.
Final Fantasy II was originally scored by Nobuo Uematsu, and it was Uematsu's eighth work of video game music. The game was rescored by Tsuyoshi Sekito for the Wonderswan Color, PlayStation, and Gameboy Advance remakes.
Contents |
Gameplay
Final Fantasy II is unique in the Final Fantasy series for not utilizing experience-based levels. Rather than earning experience points at the end of every battle, each character participating in battle develops depending on what that character does during battle. For instance, characters who use a particular type of weapon frequently will become more adept at wielding a weapon of that type, as well as increasing in physical strength. Characters who frequently cast a particular magic spell will learn to cast more potent versions of that spell, as well as increasing their magical power rating. Hit points and magic points, similarly, increase depending on need: a character who ends a battle with only a small amount of health remaining might earn an increase in maximum hit points, and a character who uses the majority of their magic points during a single battle might increase their maximum magic points.
A handful of bugs related to this advancement system remained in the released version of the game. The most notable of these bugs was the ability to cancel a previously issued command and still gain the statistic-increasing benefits of having performed it. The game's turn-based battle system gave the player the opportunity to input commands for all four members of the battle party at once. At any time before the command for the final character in the lineup was issued, the player could hit a button and return to the previous character to reissue a command. Since many statistics, such as weapon and magic spell proficiency, were based on how many times a particular command was used in battle, a little patience meant it was possible to quickly advance in proficiencies in the space of a single battle round. A similar problem manifested in the way hit point increases were granted, which allowed characters to attack members of their own party to increase their maximum hit points. These problems were faithfully replicated in both the Wonder Swan Color and the PlayStation ports of the game. The Game Boy Advance remake eliminated the command cancel bug, though the hit point increase trick remained. Various other changes were made to the Game Boy Advance version, including regular maximum hit point increases outside of those gained as outlined above, were implemented to decrease the difficulty of the game.
Battle parties consist of four characters at a time. Three of these characters are present throughout the entire game, but the fourth position rotated amongst a variety of characters throughout the course of the game. Final Fantasy II was the first game in the series to allow a friendly character to be placed in the "back row" during battles. Characters placed in the back row were immune to most physical attacks, but could be harmed with bows and magical attacks. In a similar vein, enemies could be arranged in up to four rows of two creatures each (for a maximum of eight hostile creatures on screen at one time). Only the two rows closest to the player's party could be damaged with physical attacks: by eliminating the two closest rows the player could then physically damage back rows of enemies.
Throughout the course of the game, when in conversation with non-player characters (NPCs), the player has the ability to "learn" special words or phrases, which can later be repeated to other NPCs to gain more information or unlock new actions. Similarly, there exist a handful of special items that can be shown to NPCs during conversation, which have the same effect.
Story
The story concerns the adventures of four youngsters from the village of Fynn, Frioniel (renamed Firion in the English translation due to length restrictions), Maria, Guy and Leonhart (Leon), whose parents are killed during an invasion by the army of the emperor of Palamecia, who has summoned forth monsters in his quest to dominate the world.
Fleeing the emperor's monsters, the four are attacked and left for dead. Frioniel, Maria and Guy are rescued by Princess Hilda of Phin, who has established a rebel base in the nearby town of Altea. Eager to prove their value to the resistance movement, the three remaining youths undertake a variety of missions against Palamecia and join forces with a variety of allies not only to defeat the Emperor, but to locate Maria's brother Leonhart, as well. Eventually, the quest is finished by the four reuniting and walking into the very pits of Hell itself to save the world.
The game starts off with Firion and company coming back to Fynn to visit the dying Prince Scott, brother of Prince Gordon of Kas'ion. Scott was to be in love with Princess Hilda, but he was critically wounded by the Palamecian Empire and subsequently died. After Scott dies, Firion goes back to Altair and informs Princess Hilda of Scott's death. Then Firion talks with the King of Fynn, who was critically wounded by the Palamecian Empire. The King of Fynn tells Firion that the reason why the long peace ended was because Duke Borghen betrayed the kingdom of Fynn and defected to the Palamecian Empire, and Borghen became an imperial general.
Unreleased English version
Following the successful release of the original Final Fantasy by Nintendo in 1990, Square Soft, Square's North American subsidiary, began work on an English language localization of Final Fantasy II. Assigned to the project was Kaoru Moriyama, whose later work included script translations for Final Fantasy IV and Secret of Mana. Although a beta version was produced, and the game was advertised in several Square Soft trade publications, the age of the original Japanese game and the arrival of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the NES's successor console, led Square Soft to cancel work on the Final Fantasy II localization in favor of the recently released Final Fantasy IV (which, to avoid confusing North American gamers, was retitled Final Fantasy II to reflect the jump in releases).
Although a prototype cartridge of the NES Final Fantasy II was produced (with the subtitle Dark Shadow of Palakia), the project was, by Moriyama's own admission, still far from complete:
| Image:Cquote1.png | We had so very limited memory capacity we could use for each game, and it was never really "translating" but chopping up the information and cramming them back in... [Additionally] our boss had no understanding in putting in extra work for the English version at that time. | Image:Cquote2.png |
In 2003, when the game was finally released to English-speaking audiences as part of Final Fantasy Origins, it was released with a brand new translation produced under the supervision of Akira Kashiwagi. NeoDemiforce's fan translation of the game, similarly, made use of an original translation, as the existence of the prototype cartridge was not common knowledge at the time.
Screenshots
 Family Computer battle |
 WonderSwan Color battle |
Sony PlayStation battle |
NTT DoCoMo 901i battle |
 Sony PlayStation cutscene |
Game Boy Advance cutscene |
Scene from the Neo Demiforce fan Translation |
Release dates
Stand-alone releases
| Platform | Release date | Region | Publisher | Media |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nintendo Family Computer | December 17, 1988 | Japan | Square | 2 megabit cartridge |
| WonderSwan Color | May 3, 2001 | Japan | Square | 32 megabit cartridge |
| Sony PlayStation | October 31, 2002 | Japan | Square | CD-ROM |
| NTT DoCoMo 901i series | February 2005 | Japan | Square Enix | Paid download |
Compilation releases
| Platform | Collection name | Release date | Region | Publisher | Media |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nintendo Family Computer | Final Fantasy I-II | February 27, 1994 | Japan | Square | 4 megabit cartridge |
| Sony PlayStation | Final Fantasy Premium Package | October 31, 2002 | Japan | Square | CD-ROM |
| Final Fantasy Origins | March 14, 2003 | Europe | Atari | ||
| April 8, 2003 | North America | Square Enix | |||
| Game Boy Advance | Final Fantasy I & II Advance | July 29, 2004 | Japan | Nintendo | 128 megabit cartridge |
| Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls | November 29, 2004 | North America | |||
| December 3, 2004 | Europe |
Packaging artwork
 Final Fantasy II |
Final Fantasy I-II |
Final Fantasy II: Dark Shadow Over Palakia |
Final Fantasy II |
Final Fantasy II |
Final Fantasy Premium Package |
Final Fantasy Origins |
 Final Fantasy Origins |
Final Fantasy I & II Advance |
Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls |
 Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls |
References
- Chris Collette. Spotlight: Final Fantasy II.
- Lost Levels Online.
See also
| Final Fantasy series |
|---|
| I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII |
| Compilations and collections |
| I-II | Collection | Anthology | Chronicles | Origins | Dawn of Souls |
| Spinoffs and related titles |
| Before Crisis | Crisis Core | Dirge of Cerberus | X-2 | Rise of the Zilart | Chains of Promathia | Treasures of Aht Urhgan | Crystal Chronicles | Mystic Quest | Tactics | Tactics Advance | Kingdom Hearts | Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories | Kingdom Hearts II |
| Film and television |
| Advent Children | Last Order | Legend of the Crystals | The Spirits Within | Unlimited |