In the kingdom of Baron, a young swordsman full of hope named Cecil, trains as a 'Dark Knight' by the will of the king. After being sent on a series of missions, Cecil reluctantly realizes the corruptness of the kingdom and leaves on a mission to overcome the chaos in the world, wandering lost across the world until he can find the means to save his friends and his kingdom.

Final Fantasy II has a very dedicated following in the RPG world. There's a definite reason for this, too: for a large percentage of gamers, FF2 was their first RPG. For countless others, the only RPGs they played before that were the archaic originals, such as FF1 or Dragon Warrior 1, skipping the practically unknown Dragon Warrior sequels of 3 and 4. Meaning that for many people, this would make FF2 their first 2nd generation RPG, and how fondly they cling to those memories!

All this dedication has created a rather hyped-up image of Square's first 16-bit RPG. I, however, was clueless about the 16-bit market, much less RPGs, when the game came out. I later borrowed an SNES and a truckload of games from a friend; a virtual RPG feeding frenzy... so when I played FF2, I did so alongside other SNES classics like Lufia II and FF3. I'd just finished ranting about the 8-bit Dragon Warrior series, so at the time everything was a new experience, and all gaming eras were equal!

Final Fantasy II's gameplay is a mixed batch. On one hand, the menus gives you a remarkable amount of freedom. The variety of weapons is large, and gives you lots of options when equipping your characters, especially the magicians. Character advancement is in the classic RPG vein, meaning that each character has their own pre-set arsenal of spells (or no spells at all) which he/she learns over time. There's also a vast amount of exploration you can do when you're bored and don't want to advance in the plot. There's even an entire castle with nothing but treasure to find, and it houses some of the most ridiculously dangerous monsters in the game!

But for all the "classic" gameplay that so many RPG fans desire, this game's design is very flawed. Some enemies are such a task to fight, and so time consuming, that you'd rather just run away from them -- and running away in this game is extremely easy, since Square decided to compensate by making your characters drop cash as they flee. This was a silly idea that didn't work, which they promptly removed in the next game.

The menu system is oddly done, but nothing so bad that it can't be overlooked. The real blow comes in the battle system. This was Square's first stab at Active Time Battle, and they hadn't worked the bugs out. There is no option to switch characters during battle, nor are there visible time meters, making it very frustrating to get your characters to do what you tell them. Battles are unbalanced, as some tasks which are supposed to be very easy turn out to be furiatingly difficult, and others which are obviously meant to be long and challenging usually have an obvious loophole which makes them laughable. There is also a problem in the way the party characters are determined, but that effected the story more than the gameplay, so I'll leave it until later.

Overall, Gameplay was extremely messy, but sometimes quite fun. I gave it an 87%.

Graphics were the latest in Square's evolution, at the time. Unfortunately, this does not say much. Square never really had much skill with graphics until they finally perfected their techniques with Final Fantasy V, and then implemented them in FFVI (3US) and finally Chrono Trigger. The overworld and area maps is brightly colored and pleasant, but all the sprites and landmarks are extremely small; about the size of the ones in the original Final Fantasy. This is nostalgic, but not at all impressive.

Battle graphics are extremely messy. The spell effects don't look real at all, in fact they're quite cheesy and badly animated. The battle backgrounds use excessive tiling, and get to be very redundant... (*sigh* I long for the detailed and sometimes hand-drawn backgrounds you'll see in any other SNES RPG.) The monsters hardly make use of the color resolution the SNES is capable of, either, which actually causes an unpleasant reminder of the game graphics on my old Commodore 64, at times.

I gave graphics a score of 72%, because they really don't use much of the systems capabilities, and the battle graphics are messily designed.

The sound in this game is pretty good. I don't remember much about the sound effects, but they are usually one of the least important aspects of an RPG, so let's just move on to music...

The music in this game sounds full and emotional, and is a good first use of the Super Nintendo's sound capabilities. However, it's also as typical as it gets as far as its style, and often cheesy. You can expect well-written pieces which are pleasant to listen to, but they only elevate the gaming experience a little bit, whereas in Final Fantasy III it helped shape the dialog and create truly memorable scenes.

Overall, I gave sound an 87%.

Story... ooh, now I'm going to have to say it... this game is probably the corniest RPG I have ever played. Don't get mad at me just yet! Many blame this on the abominable translation Square spat out. True, it is awful, and annoying evidence of major censorship appears throughout the game. i.e. the group of mystics who bow to the setting sun day and night and say "All we can do is wish for you!" ...and the ever-infamous "You spoony Bard!!"

Unfortunately, translation alone can't account for the cheesiness of the plot. The setting is basically medieval fantasy, and yet they have tanks, robots, and even spaceships which look like something out of Lost in Space or Transformers. Events frequently happen for no reason at all except as a way for the programmers to get you to the next continent in a hurry. Also, the plot is riddled with little cliches, like the "kidnaped girlfriend" syndrome and the villain who, without fail, shows up and steals the Oh-So-Important-Artifact JUST before you get to it... D'oh!

Worst of all is the character/party problem I mentioned earlier. Only five characters are allowed to be in your party at any one time, but there are nine characters in the game, and no system to add or remove them at will. Therefore, characters come and go at major "plot points." This is a fine and dandy idea, if done right, such as in Lunar and parts of Suikoden, but in FF2 it always looks like just another excuse to get a new character in your party. A common reason for removing a character is "Ooooh... I was greatly injured in the accident, and should stay in bed for now." Not to mention that the members of your party rotate so much to fit all nine into the plot, that you'll rarely get your preference.

On that note, as cheesy and stereotypical as they are sometimes, the characters of this game are very loveable. I just can't help but chuckle at Cid in battle, and even more when looking at his profile picture in the menu window! If you can get over the fact that this story is completely ridiculous, and even cornier than many 8-bit RPGs, you'll enjoy the interactions of these little deformed sprites.

I gave story a 75% -- somewhat typical and very cheesy, but with a few refreshing additions.

Overall, I gave this game a 79%. It's a fairly fun game, or else I would have never stuck with it to the end. It's worth playing at least once through if you insist on getting your entire worth out of that dusty old SNES, but not quite worth the endless praise that some fans give it; Square's later games achieved so much more. There are other solid RPGs experiences out there you should try first, such as Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy III, and yes, even Lufia II... This second installment in the FF series (well, actually it's the fourth) doesn't really hold a candle to most Playstation games, either. However, it's a much better choice than Breath of Fire for your next Super Nintendo RPG.

Happy gaming!