Final Fantasy II - Like an old comfortable sweatshirt

[Zing]

I'm not talking about the Final Fantasy II that no one played. I am talking about the real deal: Final Fantasy II for the Super NES!

The past few years saw me tinker a bit with the GBA and PlayStation ports*, but today I decided that I needed to play a game that was comfortable, fun, and filled with memories. I dusted off the Super NES version of Final Fantasy II and started it up.

I was immediately sucked in. The music during the opening airship sequence is unforgettable. I found myself speaking all of the dialogue out loud in the voices of the characters. I have yet to play through Final Fantasy III, but this feeling must be the same that fans of that game have when they see the mechs walking across the landscape during the intro.

I got as far as the hunt for Edward and the Antlion before I had to quit for a bit.

There were a few oddities that I have noticed so far. "Summoners" are called "callers" in this game. This was clearly before Square had settled on a canon naming scheme for the jobs and spells. It just struck me that I had never noticed this change over time.

Another interesting thing is the phrase "falling down". I visit the desert town and a person said something about "saving a girl that was falling down". I had to read that twice because I had no idea what they were talking about. Then I entered a house and another person said that a girl had almost fallen down. I walk into the next room and it's Rosa in bed. Then it hit me… they are talking about death! At first I thought it was just a thematic euphemism, that people in this world actually referred to death as "falling down". Then I realized that it was probably just Nintendo of America censorship. It wasn't even done well. The bad grammar implies that someone did a simple copy and replace of the word "death".

Anyway, I love this game. I've played through it probably 5-6 times back in the day. I haven't seriously played it since then, and everything feels unknown and exciting, while at the same time comfortable and familiar.

Anyone else play this recently or have the urge to play it again?

* I found the GBA port to have an excellent script translation, but I didn't like some of the minor changes, and the turn order bug was very annoying. The PlayStation port, however, is probably the definitive version. The bugs are fixed. There is virtually no disc loading time. It has the increased difficulty of the Japanese version. And finally, the script was moderately updated, corrected, and there is no censorship of the text or in-game graphics. I only spent about an hour on each of these versions, however.

[GameMasterGuy]

The GBA version may have the annoying turn order bug, but the postgame dungeon is pretty awesome, as is being able to play as all the "dead" characters (the ones that seem dead but apparently survived, as is revealed towards the end. Teliah and that Lunarian are still off-limits). The DS one is a genuine remake, not a port, and has some interesting new content. The fact that you need to go through the game multiple times to reach its superboss is worth BAWWW'ing over, but it's definitely more challenging than any other version of the game.

[hashiriya1]

I've played through every port/remake of this game and I always go back to the Super Famicom version (FFIV). The real "real deal" The Super NES version is also great (You spoony bard!), but Square made the U.S. version much too easy.The only version I never finished was "The After Years" on my DoCoMo phone because I had to pay for each 'chapter'. Screw that! Good thing it was released on the PSP as one package.


BTW, the proper Final Fantasy II isn't bad at all.

[corn619]

Final Fantasy II aka IV is awesome. I played it to death when I got it for Christmas when it first came out. I've beaten every port except the PSP version which I'm working on now. I find it amazing that Square was never able to recapture that certain magic II had with any of the sequels.

Between the endearing characters, the amazing twists and turns of the story and that climatic final battle its as perfect as RPG gaming gets. I'm going to play part III aka VI when it arrives in the mail to see if it holds up. I haven't played it to completion since the 90s. I'll have to change that battery though before I start.

[Zing]

It is a shame that Square didn't wrap up the NES Final Fantasy II. It had to be relatively close, since they had advertisements and such for it.

I have III waiting in the wings for its turn, but I decided to go with something familiar for now.

[o.pwuaioc]

I play this game once a year. Oddly enough, I've never played anything but the SNES and Super Famicom versions. I now have it for PSP, but no PSP to play After Years. One day soon.

[Dylan]

BTW, the proper Final Fantasy II isn't bad at all.

You don't mean the original original Final Fantasy II, do you?

[Xeogred]

I play this game once a year. Oddly enough, I've never played anything but the SNES and Super Famicom versions. I now have it for PSP, but no PSP to play After Years. One day soon.

Is the SFC version the "hard type"?

I think bruno can back me up on this one big time (and you guys know how hardcore he is on FFIV himself, haha), but I'd say the essential version is honestly the PSX Chronicles release. It's got the better translation, higher difficulty and fixes, etc, with no loading issues like FFVI Anthology, and FFV Anthology was just terribad all around. FFIV PSX is what I played first and I couldn't get into the SNES version because of it, lol. I've never finished the SNES or GBA versions, they were so easy it wasn't fun or something.

I played the PSP remake last year which was glorious, but being based off the easy GBA release with the timing bug intact, yeah. It was a cakewalk, but fun to relive. And the new graphics and art was fantastic. I'd love to see all the old ones up to FFVI done in that style honestly (FFIII-J would be amazing).

If the SFC release is just like the PSX version then that's awesome, if not you gotta play it someday.

Zeromous was still a monster on the PSP remake without some power leveling, but just imagine him on the PSX version. Hilarious stuff. BIG BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG (x4 lol)

[Zing]

I was just browsing through Nintendo Power issue 65 and stumbled across this:


Final Fantasy V was planned for a USA release? I never knew that.

[AppleQueso]

*The PlayStation port, however, is probably the definitive version. The bugs are fixed. There is virtually no disc loading time. It has the increased difficulty of the Japanese version. And finally, the script was moderately updated, corrected, and there is no censorship of the text or in-game graphics.

Oh man thanks for saying this. I've been saying this forever, the Ps1 port is absolutely definitive! I love it!