"How To Use Magic"
wait, how do you use magic?
I am so confused
Additional Comments:
Like most Westerners, I fell under the sway of Square's cruel localization hoax where Super Nintendo's Final Fantasy II masqueraded as the true sequel to Final Fantasy. However, since I never played the Final Fantasy series as a kid, I wasn't particularly affected by the misnomer like others were. As such, I had no issue calling the SNES titles by their real names, Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI, when Square's trickery became apparent, i.e. the west was finally introduced to the real Final Fantasy II via Final Fantasy Origins on the Sony PlayStation. Truth be told, I found out about the real Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III some years later when I fully realized how awesome the original game was. While I enjoyed FFIV (FFII for us Westerners), until I fell victim to bad save practices and very nearly threw my controller through the TV screen and chucked the disc out the window, I didn't share the same enthusiasm most players had for it. It should be noted I was playing Final Fantasy Chronicles, hence the term, "disc." The only reason I didn't chuck it was because I was borrowing the game from a friend of mine, and I was attempting to play through Chrono Trigger for the first time ever. It should also be noted that this was the only time in my gaming history that I had gotten angry enough at a game that I actually wanted to see harm befall it. I've had some other ill begotten doozies happen over the years, mostly all save related, but I've never had anything anger me as much as FFIV, something of which Sven and I jest about to this day. Point is, while I enjoyed FFIV up until said moment, I found the first game to be vastly superior and I always wanted to play more of the 8-bit Final Fantasy experience. I know that's probably blasphemy for most Final Fantasy fans, but as they say, to each their own. (Wow, talk about an overdose of the phrase, "Final Fantasy.")
It's foggy when I first learned about FFII and FFIII, but it was some years before I knew they were both Famicom titles. This was both a blessing and a curse - a blessing because it meant more 8-bit goodness, but a curse because, well, I can't read Japanese. And let's face it, while at a basic level RPG's are still playable under these circumstances, without being able to understand the story, what's the point? Of course, Origins solved that problem for us. Unfortunately, I don't own Origins and I didn't want to play a PlayStation reinterpretation of the game as my initial playthrough. While theoretically, it's no better, I dug up a translated ROM. Still not the real thing, but at least I'm on an emulated Famicom. Meanwhile, my actual Famicom is left to wallow in forgotten sadness for the time being (stupid TV connectivity issues to blame there).
Before I move on, I want to briefly touch on emulation. While I would always rather play the real thing, there's certain circumstances when that just isn't possible. Unfortunately, a few years ago, most of my gaming devices sat in a dark corner in the closet and I took full advantage of emulation. I mean, why not? The gaming library is literally endless. Thing is, emulation is great, except that it creates a lot of bad habits, namely the notorious save-stating. Save-stating can be a tough habit to break, especially when you wish/need to return to emulation due to extenuating circumstances, such as playing a translation. After all, we're talking about an RPG, and like I said, if I can't understand the story...? Yea.
Turns out, after reading a few reviews on the game, Final Fantasy II is a bit of a double whammy when it comes to legitimate play. Time and time again, I read claims how you need to abuse Square's new leveling process in order to even have a fair chance at beating the game. Instead of utilizing a simple kills = (n)XP with leveling at set intervals, like most RPG's, Square opted for a more dynamic system that is based on skill or attribute usage. I was skeptical, but soon found that it was vaguely reminiscent of Ultima Online's system, which I've always been a fan of, except for the fact that it is rife for abuse. No surprise here that so many claimants suggested the same stat-boosting tactics. I never abused the system in UO, and refused to do so here, so bring on the difficulty.
Based on what I've read, there's either a lot of love for Square's alterations, or a lot of hate. At first, I jumped right on board the hate bandwagon. Being used to the traditional leveling format, FFII's system felt confusing. Sure, it felt vaguely similar to UO's, but there was something awfully clunky about it. The magic system alone threw me for a loop. In fact, I put in a good hour or two of play before I finally discovered how magic works. The idea of buying what I can only assume are scrolls never triggered the idea that I had to learn the spells before I could make full use of them. Why? Why is there an extra step thrown into the magic system. This soured for some time until eventually I realized there is merit given that every character has a fair and equal chance at learning the various spells - not to mention making use of the various weapons and armor. Hmm....
I'm not a fan of this classless society used in FFII. It's similar to something that's always bothered me about the Elder Scrolls series: player characters using/doing whatever the hell they like, whenever they like. I miss the restrictions of the original Final Fantasy that present obvious strengths and weaknesses within each character mold. In FFII, my methodology included dependency based on each character's Agility score - typically awarding cures and defensive magics to whomever had the highest Agility therefore allowing for such magics to be used as early as possible in a given round of combat if necessary. Sounds reasonable, but it's a rather trivial way to contrast any potential differences between characters. Hint: there are zilch.
Another massive annoyance introduced in this game, and something that has equally irked me in any game that's made use of it, is disposable heroes. Whereas I can easily become attached to those characters who are in it for the long haul, I have no desire to nurture these one-off idiots that join my party only to leave after the next main objective is completed. Fuck them! I'm not going to waste money on them or invest any of my treasures. Therefore they're stuck with the same shitty gear they showed up with. Heck, if they died in battle, unless I really needed a fourth warm body to soak up a few hits or mildly chip away at some grotesque creature, I just left them where they fell. Even with the benefit of backstory I have no will to help these fools. Except for Leila that is. She turned out to be pretty badass near the end of her tenure. And there's that same aggravation as she walks away from heroism and fame. Fantastic! I get to putt around with Prince Cries-a-Lot again. What a useless fuckup.
I couldn't help but find myself continually returning to the question of Final Fantasy or Final Fantasy II given how drastically the leveling mechanics were changed. In the beginning, while I appreciated the system, I abhorred it. But as the game went on, I found that it kept the game in balance. Unlike the original Final Fantasy, I never had to grind for experience and I never felt like I had my back up against the wall. Sure, there were two locations that tripped me up a bit: spelunking deeper into Dist Cave to place the Hiryuu egg in the Spring of Life and tackling the inner depths of Jade, but for the most part, the game felt right on target. But I think a lot of Dist and Jade was a result of leisurely gameplay. I can confidently hypothesize given my half-assed yet successful battle strategies used in the Whirlwind, Paramekia, and Pandemonium, I could have easily swept these two areas as well. Honestly, if it wasn't for Dist and Jade, I'd say the game fares far too much on the easy side, despite the contrary opinion that the difficulty in this game far exceeds that of the first. Scratch that. Given how easy Pandemonium turned out to be, as well as the Emperor himself, of which I did not use the game breaking Blood Swords (sort of forgot to equip those before the battle), Final Fantasy II is an easy game. Yet even being considered easy, I'd still say the game is far better balanced than the first thanks to the dynamic leveling system. Of course, if the system's abused, the game's a cakewalk. I don't know - it blows my mind that people even need to abuse the system.
So Final Fantasy or Final Fantasy II? It's a tough call. They each have their pros and cons. I like the more open world feel present in the latter half of the original game. FFII felt too linear from beginning to end. FFII has a more fleshed out story which is amplified by one-off characters jumping in and out of the story. However, one-off characters remain alienated compared to the core party and sap just as much energy out of the game as they bring to the game. I like both leveling systems, and would like to hand my accolades to FFII's, but there is inherent flaws in it as well - such as the difficulty in raising one's HP when their combined Evade and armor pretty much prevents them from ever being hit. Not even kidding, I think Frioniel finally topped 1000 hp somewhere around Jade. I think I still prefer the original game, but only by a tiny margin as there were some definite improvements brought to the table by the sequel. If I had to recommend an 8-bit Final Fantasy, I'd go with the original as it's more "traditional" in an RPG sense. Of course, I've yet to play the third installment, so that could eventually change. But that's not to take anything away from FFII. While I thought it was a bucketful of poor decisions in the beginning, it turned out to be a solid game by the end with some incredibly fresh ideas.
Regarding music, there's some enjoyable tunes throughout, but much like the original game, the selection consists of only a few short tunes. Fortunately, they never become a nuisance, but you do eventually grow numb to them since you hear the same three or four tracks over and over for hours on end. However, a couple highlights include The Old Castle, Magician's Tower, and Castle Pandemonium.
Macro-Rant:
I'll admit that most or all my arguments are always subjective and highly opinionated, but there's one area of the game where I feel the term subjective can clearly be thrown out the window. The combination of inventory screen and item usage is disgraceful. I just don't understand what Square was trying to achieve with its unnecessary belt tightening. The inventory screen is a clear cut case of "if it's not broken, don't fix it." Not only did Square botch the inventory screen, they fucked it up beyond compare.
Up until Final Fantasy II, I always considered Super Mario RPG to have one of the worst inventory screens with it's 29 unstackable slots. At least equipment got their own sub-menus as did special items. Here, everything: items, weapons, armor, unlearned spells, and yes, even persistent quest items are subject to the inventory screen's mere 32 slots - ok, 40 slots if you count each character's Item slots as well. I'm unsure what's the bigger transgressor here, unstackable items or the fact that quest items are thrown into the inventory slowly depleting available space for useful antidotes and elixirs. And there's a lot of them too - nearly half the inventory screen falls into disuse thanks to these items. While I understand some are pertinent throughout the entire game, some serve no purpose beyond their initial use and I can't even begin to fathom why they are not removed from inventory. Items like the Egil Torch, the Sun Flame, the Warship Pass, the White and Black Masks etc. are all single use items that should be removed afterwards. Why do I still have these items? If anything, why can't I trash them after their sole purpose has expired? How can Square fuck up the inventory screen this bad!?
And speaking of character Item slots, why bother? Between the uselessness of battle items and the sub-par functionality of the various inventory screens themselves, it just isn't worth using these slots for anything outside of extra storage for some Phoenix Downs, an item I amazingly never made use of throughout the whole game, or other miscellaneous treatments that can be used between battles. I suppose limiting each character to so many potions or battle items per battle could constitute some form of strategy, but since the whole of the inventory can only hold so many items to begin with, it's potential strategy for maybe one battle. True, this could hold merit in terms of boss battles, but most bosses are no more a danger than any run of the mill battle. There's no need for extra strategy utilizing battle items unless you just don't understand basic RPG semantics and can't seem to wrap your head around any given battle. I played the game rather lazily in regards to most of my battle strats and never once did I regret trashing a Hellfire, a Fang, an Ice Wind etc.
Nano-Win:
For once, an RPG exists that properly values inn costs! This is something that has always bothered me in pretty much every RPG ever. I've never understood why developers can't devise basic equations that factor in HP into the cost of an inn as opposed to just up-charging the cost 100 gold or so in each successive town. That logic has never made sense to me and inevitably becomes broken if you can ever travel back to the starting town with ease as was evident in the original Final Fantasy. If for anything else, I can only graciously heap boatloads of praise on Square for finally retooling inn costs. Sadly, I don't remember how inn costs were handled in FFIV and have a suspicion that Square eventually returned to the flat rate scale.
Nano-Rant:
I found the Chocobo to be entirely useless in this game. The Chocobo Forest was way too far out of the way to add any intrinsic value to the game. Maybe if there was a second grove? I don't know, but as is - pointless.
Rating: 4 ORBS out of 5*
*SHUT UP!!
No comments:
Post a Comment