There is definitely a huge grind regarding spells. But I think the damage output scales just fine. You don't NEED Level 16 spells to beat the game. People really exaggerate the progression system. You can play the game just like normal.
The biggest misconception people have about this game is that it is grindy, when it is in fact the exact opposite. Very few people actually understand that you are not suppose to grind at all in this game, this progression system is completely anti-grinding and will lock your progression if you try to. The real frustration with this system comes from the fact that it is actually balanced for a game that would be twice as long and hard, which makes maxing skills and spells (to level 16) impossible unless you cheese the system to grind them. But maxing skills or spells will then make the game extremely easy and unsatisfying, as you will kill the final in one round. So basically two things to really enjoy the game : don't waste any of your time grinding, and accept that every skills and spells will be locked around level 9-11 at endgame and that is well enough to beat the final boss without any problem.
AGREED! I actully enjoyed this title alot compared to FF 1. In fact, it's my favorite out of the 8-bit trilogy. This entry Introduced my favorite monsters, spells, the chocobos, Cid. And I actually enjoyed the story and characters especially since this came out before DQ3. And I managed to reach the end without cheesing the game like the toad or mini spells. Really my only issue is the pacing and some of the dungeons become tedious, but I love the customization. I really wish people can see the Game for what it DID NOT IS!
I'm kinda on the fence about my favorite 8 bit FF. Because I prefer the remake/remastered versions of FFII, because the classic is a bit of a chore to get through for me. I think I'm more of a FFIII guy, not as broken as FFI, not a slog as FFII, and with the Job system allows for a decent enough amount of character customization. Then again, I bounce between the different versions FFII and FFIII alot, so... who knows.
@@dakatzman9244 I've played FF3 recently and it's now my actual favorite in the 3 NES ones. it's honestly a shame that not to many people really give FF 2 or 3 a shot since I really enjoyed them.
@@gavinlucas9761 This I will absolutely friggin agree... I'm thankful that there are fanbases for these games, but am sad that not more people enjoy them or at least try em out and see if it's their thing. I get the classic love for FFI, but yeah 2 and 3 are sorely underrated entries... Still my favorite moment from FF3 is when you're fighting the penultimate boss and the MFer nukes you with Meteo. "You feel as though you are gonna have a bad time..."
I loved FF1 as a kid, played it multiple times no clue why i never tried this game. Just started another older rpg (breath of fire 2). Will probably try this game next. Only bad thing about these older rpg’s is they always have multiple “WTF do i do” moments and find myself having to consult a walkthrough a bunch or going town to town to town hoping to talk to the right person.
Back when these games first came out, that's how people acquired information in the real world. Video games were an immersive reflection of the real world. Before walkthrough guides and internet people interacted with each other. Fun fact!
I love this game, too. But I see where some people's hate for it spawns. Granted, it IS mostly from a taste perspective and they overblow the progression system out of proportion. Personally, I biggest gripe with it is not the customizability of the party, but the lack "goal" information. Most RPGs will tell you how EXP to reach the next level, how many times to perform a special skill or move to master it, and so forth. Because of that, I guess we'll call it, uncertainty about what the threshold is unless you do a code dive into the game, drives people bonkers mad. And I won't lie, it frustrates me too, especially since there's a bug in the PSP version that only displays weapon skill progression at 25%, 50%, and 75% percent completion... There's no info about how many attacks or points are needed to improve, so you're mostly blindly grinding. But I'd that's perhaps the biggest issue, is that there is the occasional confusion as to how many actions or what flags translate into stat gains. Besides that and some balancing trouble, it's great.
daKatzman92 that’s the problem with all these critics, in particular I think ProJared is the worst offender here presenting his opinion as fact instead of what it is, preference. Gotta say a lot of these people come across as disingenuous in their “reviews”. FFII is a game that doesn’t do well with people trying to Min/Max their playstyle and instead they opted for customizability and adaptive stat increases to better suit your character as you please. People expecting fast payoff WILL be disappointed considering how the game “encourages” grinding for optimal development of your character. You can always try to speed through it with reckless abandon, but that will probably just make the game harder for you. Just my take
When I got my PSP back in the day, the very first game I got with the system was the psp remake of final fantasy 2 and I loved this game to death. I don't get the hate I enjoyed it
Along with FF1, FF2 is my favorite in the series. I was impressed by the amount of hate that this game has. -The game isnt broken, at least the GBA and PSP remakes. All the spells works, hitting your characters isnt neccesary, just optional, and is much better than newer games where this is just useless and level up is very quick if you fight with high rank monsters. -Contrary to what some people said, the game explains you the mechanics, at least in these two remakes, in a room on the rebel base. -The game never makes you grind a lot, in fact, i found it one of the less grinding games in the franchise along with FF1. -Even if all of these was true, the game was released in 1988 in a console that was a potato. And in terms of character level up, is one of the most realistic RPGs i ever seen. -I can understand why some people think the dungeons are somewhat annoying, although the combats itself arent really too hard, and is very funny when the fanbase praise FF5, 6, 7, 8 when this games have like 10 times more grinding and 10 times more annoying encounter rate! Welcome to the hypocrites club! I will show you the way.
I actually loved the character stat progression of this game. Though there are flaws like you mentioned in the video. This title actually ranks pretty high on my FF list, but I like game mechanics shifts away from the norm like this, which is why I think FFXII IZJS is the best FF of all time. It's funny to think about this comparison, but the way you increase in power in FFII, is not unlike how you do in games such as Kenshi (amazing game btw). I wouldn't mind a revisit to this type of character progression in future FF games.
I agree, the only thing I would implement though is a tangible goalpost or something to show a threshold at which a boost or gain is achieved. I think that's where most people, especially casual players get hung up, because besides the magic and weapons (for the most part) the other stats aren't given clear goals to achieve the level up. Like, they could say "to improve STRENGTH from 5 to 6, you need to attack 30 times" or something like that. Just something so that player is less in the dark about certain gains. And I feel that if they made the advancement system a little clearer in some regards, then the encounter rate could've been dropped a bit so getting from point A to point B wasn't a chugging chore. That said, love virtually everything else about the game. It is sadly underrated and hated by fans and gaming in general. That said, I do agree that the system is perfect for action RPGs, but needs a few tweaks to make it work smoothly in a turn based setting, but the hate is overblown.
For sure. I suppose there will understandably always be generalisations and subjective experiences when it comes to a series that's epic in scope at this point, save to mention the comparisons and associated expectations. Here, looking at something more in it's own regard (and as an initial sequel at this point in the series), after hearing this entry very commonly referred to as such a black sheep,- let's just say this was a refreshing perspective. haha
Those PSP remakes are nice, so far all I have is FF IV, eventually I need to get 1-3 as well, though 3 is a Japan only release, and is in 3D. The third game however, plays in English if played on a western version PSP amazingly. The third one however is the highest cost one, and might be a bit tough to get on Ebay from someone within the US, but I'll snag one eventually. Of course there's always the DS version if push comes to shove.
I wanna know how many people hate this game but love the SaGa series, just to laugh at the hypocrisy. In a sense, FFII feels like SaGa 0 or "Beta SaGa," which makes sense as the director (after Sakaguchi stepped down as director) and one of the designers of this game, Akitoshi Kawazu, would go on to be the director, and later the producer, for the SaGa franchise. Also Koichi Ishi, the director for Seiken Densetsu/Mana series for decades, was also a designer for FFII. honestly, though, the most underrated (or rather overhated) FF game is probably XIII
The gameplay, while it sounded good on paper, I think was poorly executed, at least in the original Famicom version. I haven't played any of the remakes, so I'm not sure if they improved the gameplay after the Famicom version. However, the story is phenomenal and I can definitely understand why this was the first game in the series that received a novel adaptation, because the story was just that good
This game is great though a bit complicated,I’m glad that the creators understood that this complicated way to gain levels in this game is not good in general and didn’t use it again in later games.The story is great though.
I wouldn't say the leveling system is not good it is good you just need to know what you are doing. I don't get why people hate this style of play so much Lol it adds more variety as opposed to the regular exp system. and while it is not as polished as what it wiuld eventually become the reason no other final fantasy came like this is because after this game one of the makers Kawazu went off to start making his own games and that is when the SaGa games started I am sure you have heard of saga frontier and romancing saga. So the skeleton formula of this game was taken and revamped a bit and improved upon for SaGa games and Final Fantasy went back to doing its own thing. I like Final Fantasy games too along with SaGa but man folks need to give it a rest already with the leveling system it was quite unique and despite its less polished set in this game worked really well. I actually kinda wish another Final Fantasy game did this but with a more polished approach to that of SaGa.
I would really love to watch more of your videos but for some reason they don't load past 20 to 40 seconds. I've watched one, and it was great, but why won't they load? Please fix.
I played the pixel remaster 1-6, and by far ff2 is the fuckin worse. It's the worse on the series to the point I made 'I hate about it' list. - the dungeon is too complicated only for the sake of padding the play time - so many empty rooms in every dungeons - grinding magic is taking too much effort, it's not worth doing. - you can survive the game only using life, esuna, and cure - all the bosses too fuckin easy - I beat the main boss less than 1 minute, I didn't even try to grind - Leviathan dungeon is a fing disappointment - the game is very meh, not worth buying. If you do want to play, go play it in the psx emulator for free. Edit, I forgot how annoyingly high the encounter rate
What was the most memorable part of Final Fantasy II to you? Please consider supporting me at www.patreon.com/xygorgaming OR through TH-cam membership by clicking the JOIN button above to subscribe!
There is definitely a huge grind regarding spells.
But I think the damage output scales just fine.
You don't NEED Level 16 spells to beat the game.
People really exaggerate the progression system. You can play the game just like normal.
THANK YOU
The biggest misconception people have about this game is that it is grindy, when it is in fact the exact opposite. Very few people actually understand that you are not suppose to grind at all in this game, this progression system is completely anti-grinding and will lock your progression if you try to. The real frustration with this system comes from the fact that it is actually balanced for a game that would be twice as long and hard, which makes maxing skills and spells (to level 16) impossible unless you cheese the system to grind them. But maxing skills or spells will then make the game extremely easy and unsatisfying, as you will kill the final in one round.
So basically two things to really enjoy the game : don't waste any of your time grinding, and accept that every skills and spells will be locked around level 9-11 at endgame and that is well enough to beat the final boss without any problem.
AGREED! I actully enjoyed this title alot compared to FF 1.
In fact, it's my favorite out of the 8-bit trilogy.
This entry Introduced my favorite monsters, spells, the chocobos, Cid.
And I actually enjoyed the story and characters especially since this came out before DQ3.
And I managed to reach the end without cheesing the game like the toad or mini spells.
Really my only issue is the pacing and some of the dungeons become tedious, but I love the customization.
I really wish people can see the Game for what it DID NOT IS!
It was definitely better than most people think.
@@Xygor APOSLUTLY AGREE!
I'm kinda on the fence about my favorite 8 bit FF. Because I prefer the remake/remastered versions of FFII, because the classic is a bit of a chore to get through for me.
I think I'm more of a FFIII guy, not as broken as FFI, not a slog as FFII, and with the Job system allows for a decent enough amount of character customization.
Then again, I bounce between the different versions FFII and FFIII alot, so... who knows.
@@dakatzman9244 I've played FF3 recently and it's now my actual favorite in the 3 NES ones. it's honestly a shame that not to many people really give FF 2 or 3 a shot since I really enjoyed them.
@@gavinlucas9761 This I will absolutely friggin agree... I'm thankful that there are fanbases for these games, but am sad that not more people enjoy them or at least try em out and see if it's their thing.
I get the classic love for FFI, but yeah 2 and 3 are sorely underrated entries...
Still my favorite moment from FF3 is when you're fighting the penultimate boss and the MFer nukes you with Meteo.
"You feel as though you are gonna have a bad time..."
I loved FF1 as a kid, played it multiple times no clue why i never tried this game. Just started another older rpg (breath of fire 2). Will probably try this game next. Only bad thing about these older rpg’s is they always have multiple “WTF do i do” moments and find myself having to consult a walkthrough a bunch or going town to town to town hoping to talk to the right person.
Back when these games first came out, that's how people acquired information in the real world. Video games were an immersive reflection of the real world. Before walkthrough guides and internet people interacted with each other. Fun fact!
Without this there would be no saga series, and I would not have learned to embrace the grind of saga frontier.
the dislike is from projared
looks like Clement and Dean joined as well
I loved this game. I never understand the hate it gets.
Me too~!
I love this game, too. But I see where some people's hate for it spawns. Granted, it IS mostly from a taste perspective and they overblow the progression system out of proportion. Personally, I biggest gripe with it is not the customizability of the party, but the lack "goal" information. Most RPGs will tell you how EXP to reach the next level, how many times to perform a special skill or move to master it, and so forth. Because of that, I guess we'll call it, uncertainty about what the threshold is unless you do a code dive into the game, drives people bonkers mad.
And I won't lie, it frustrates me too, especially since there's a bug in the PSP version that only displays weapon skill progression at 25%, 50%, and 75% percent completion... There's no info about how many attacks or points are needed to improve, so you're mostly blindly grinding. But I'd that's perhaps the biggest issue, is that there is the occasional confusion as to how many actions or what flags translate into stat gains. Besides that and some balancing trouble, it's great.
Currently playing on iOS since I can't find my PS1 copy anywhere :D IMO the most underrated FF together with XIII.
daKatzman92 that’s the problem with all these critics, in particular I think ProJared is the worst offender here presenting his opinion as fact instead of what it is, preference. Gotta say a lot of these people come across as disingenuous in their “reviews”.
FFII is a game that doesn’t do well with people trying to Min/Max their playstyle and instead they opted for customizability and adaptive stat increases to better suit your character as you please.
People expecting fast payoff WILL be disappointed considering how the game “encourages” grinding for optimal development of your character. You can always try to speed through it with reckless abandon, but that will probably just make the game harder for you.
Just my take
The leveling system, like in 8, is well...weird
nice review, makes me want to play this! :D
When I got my PSP back in the day, the very first game I got with the system was the psp remake of final fantasy 2 and I loved this game to death. I don't get the hate I enjoyed it
the series as a whole owes a lot to this game, undeniably so. It's a great game. Not my favorite of the series for sure, but i Love it.
Subbed. Nice work man. Really digging your channel. It's inspiring me to get back to making videos again.
Along with FF1, FF2 is my favorite in the series. I was impressed by the amount of hate that this game has.
-The game isnt broken, at least the GBA and PSP remakes. All the spells works, hitting your characters isnt neccesary, just optional, and is much better than newer games where this is just useless and level up is very quick if you fight with high rank monsters.
-Contrary to what some people said, the game explains you the mechanics, at least in these two remakes, in a room on the rebel base.
-The game never makes you grind a lot, in fact, i found it one of the less grinding games in the franchise along with FF1.
-Even if all of these was true, the game was released in 1988 in a console that was a potato. And in terms of character level up, is one of the most realistic RPGs i ever seen.
-I can understand why some people think the dungeons are somewhat annoying, although the combats itself arent really too hard, and is very funny when the fanbase praise FF5, 6, 7, 8 when this games have like 10 times more grinding and 10 times more annoying encounter rate! Welcome to the hypocrites club! I will show you the way.
Say, where did you get this FFII medley orchestral rendition from?
I actually loved the character stat progression of this game. Though there are flaws like you mentioned in the video. This title actually ranks pretty high on my FF list, but I like game mechanics shifts away from the norm like this, which is why I think FFXII IZJS is the best FF of all time.
It's funny to think about this comparison, but the way you increase in power in FFII, is not unlike how you do in games such as Kenshi (amazing game btw). I wouldn't mind a revisit to this type of character progression in future FF games.
I AGREE!!!
I agree, the only thing I would implement though is a tangible goalpost or something to show a threshold at which a boost or gain is achieved. I think that's where most people, especially casual players get hung up, because besides the magic and weapons (for the most part) the other stats aren't given clear goals to achieve the level up. Like, they could say "to improve STRENGTH from 5 to 6, you need to attack 30 times" or something like that. Just something so that player is less in the dark about certain gains. And I feel that if they made the advancement system a little clearer in some regards, then the encounter rate could've been dropped a bit so getting from point A to point B wasn't a chugging chore.
That said, love virtually everything else about the game. It is sadly underrated and hated by fans and gaming in general. That said, I do agree that the system is perfect for action RPGs, but needs a few tweaks to make it work smoothly in a turn based setting, but the hate is overblown.
It's more like SaGa 0
great review, thanks!
This game's awesome, really like it
Great retrospectives and great game!
Agreed! I think it gets too much flack.
For sure. I suppose there will understandably always be generalisations and subjective experiences when it comes to a series that's epic in scope at this point, save to mention the comparisons and associated expectations. Here, looking at something more in it's own regard (and as an initial sequel at this point in the series), after hearing this entry very commonly referred to as such a black sheep,- let's just say this was a refreshing perspective. haha
Xygor Gaming I agree.
man i love your videos
Thanks, glad to hear that!
whats the ost for last track its relaxing love your reviews
Those PSP remakes are nice, so far all I have is FF IV, eventually I need to get 1-3 as well, though 3 is a Japan only release, and is in 3D. The third game however, plays in English if played on a western version PSP amazingly. The third one however is the highest cost one, and might be a bit tough to get on Ebay from someone within the US, but I'll snag one eventually.
Of course there's always the DS version if push comes to shove.
Nice review. It could have gone on longer as I really enjoyed the content.
Currently playing on iOS, played this several times on PS1 but I can't find my copy anywhere. Works well with touchscreen controls too :)
I wanna know how many people hate this game but love the SaGa series, just to laugh at the hypocrisy.
In a sense, FFII feels like SaGa 0 or "Beta SaGa," which makes sense as the director (after Sakaguchi stepped down as director) and one of the designers of this game, Akitoshi Kawazu, would go on to be the director, and later the producer, for the SaGa franchise.
Also Koichi Ishi, the director for Seiken Densetsu/Mana series for decades, was also a designer for FFII.
honestly, though, the most underrated (or rather overhated) FF game is probably XIII
Because in saga the character development is good and balanced, it's not hypocrisy it's logic
The gameplay, while it sounded good on paper, I think was poorly executed, at least in the original Famicom version. I haven't played any of the remakes, so I'm not sure if they improved the gameplay after the Famicom version. However, the story is phenomenal and I can definitely understand why this was the first game in the series that received a novel adaptation, because the story was just that good
This game is great though a bit complicated,I’m glad that the creators understood that this complicated way to gain levels in this game is not good in general and didn’t use it again in later games.The story is great though.
I wouldn't say the leveling system is not good it is good you just need to know what you are doing. I don't get why people hate this style of play so much Lol it adds more variety as opposed to the regular exp system. and while it is not as polished as what it wiuld eventually become the reason no other final fantasy came like this is because after this game one of the makers Kawazu went off to start making his own games and that is when the SaGa games started I am sure you have heard of saga frontier and romancing saga. So the skeleton formula of this game was taken and revamped a bit and improved upon for SaGa games and Final Fantasy went back to doing its own thing. I like Final Fantasy games too along with SaGa but man folks need to give it a rest already with the leveling system it was quite unique and despite its less polished set in this game worked really well. I actually kinda wish another Final Fantasy game did this but with a more polished approach to that of SaGa.
Rly good review.
i just download it into my mobile emulator, hahaha at last i can play back to complete the game
I would really love to watch more of your videos but for some reason they don't load past 20 to 40 seconds. I've watched one, and it was great, but why won't they load? Please fix.
Never played it, but it looks miles ahead of ff8.
I played the pixel remaster 1-6, and by far ff2 is the fuckin worse. It's the worse on the series to the point I made 'I hate about it' list.
- the dungeon is too complicated only for the sake of padding the play time
- so many empty rooms in every dungeons
- grinding magic is taking too much effort, it's not worth doing.
- you can survive the game only using life, esuna, and cure
- all the bosses too fuckin easy
- I beat the main boss less than 1 minute, I didn't even try to grind
- Leviathan dungeon is a fing disappointment
- the game is very meh, not worth buying. If you do want to play, go play it in the psx emulator for free.
Edit, I forgot how annoyingly high the encounter rate
I’d argue ffcc eot is the most underrated tbh
What was the most memorable part of Final Fantasy II to you?
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When i sold the game back to gamestop
The Beginning
Castle Pandemonium, man that place was brutal!
When i finished the game so i could never play it again in my life
The Story In Final Fantasy II is More Astounding Than The First One. But The Gameplay of FF2 is Shit.
I assume you hate SaGa?
@@GiordanDiodato No I love SaGa
@@Ponakalaranjit456 fucking hell, man. Make up your mind.
There's that fake Final Fantasy origin story again.
Na, this game sucks.
The absolute worst final fantasy such a terrible game
Great review thanks!