The Legend of the Moon

Final Fantasy II

First Released: November 23, 1991

Re-Released: December 12, 2005 (GBA), July 22 2008 (DS), March 8th 2010 (Virtual Console)

Sequels: Final Fantasy IV: The After Years

I love role playing games, and the Final Fantasy games have always been my favorites, the first one I ever played was Final Fantasy II, which in Japan was actually Final Fantasy IV but was released over here as Final Fantasy II because we didn’t get the second or third Final Fantasy games. The idea behind the series was that it was SquareSoft’s last attempt to make a game that sold and what they came up with was Final Fantasy, which went on to spawn thirteen sequels (the latest coming this fall as an MMO).

The first one in the series I played was Final Fantasy II, before playing this game I was mainly a fan of action games though I loved Legend of Zelda and perhaps from the love of that I found love for other RPG’s including Final Fantasy. I remember getting that box, those huge SNES boxes with the game logos on the front and on the back of the packaging was of course a description of the game and what it was about along with screen shots. I remember not really knowing what to expect with Final Fantasy II, other than it being a game with strange characters and cool settings.

Back then graphics were impressive if they did certain things and what Final Fantasy II did with its graphics, especially the overhead graphics when you were out and about on the map was impressive for a game of that time. When you first meet up with Rydia and she casts the Titan that rips the land in half that was really impressive. Seeing a summoned monster for the first time was always impressive. Some would argue that Square has lost focus with this in later incarnations of the series (starting with VII) I disagree. Even back with Final Fantasy II you could kind of see where Square was going to go one day with more games in the series.

I remember playing the game and being amazed by the story, I had never seen a game present a story in such a fashion before playing this game. You get thrown into the world of Final Fantasy pretty quickly when you play as Cecil a dark-knight in the service of his king and kingdom of Baron. He flies in an airship known as a redwing and with his group they go to a small town and take the crystal there which sets off events that will change Cecil and his friends lives forever. When he returns to Baron he is demoted, his command of the Redwings taken away and thus begins his journey.

The story is one of redemption, the bottom line is that this is not a story of revenge or even anger and tears though all of that is present. This is the story of Cecil and his redemption from a corrupted man into a just Paladin that can save two worlds and the people within them. You see the world of Final Fantasy II is in great danger, the crystals that keep the balance of the world are being gathered by an evil man named Golbez who has also taken Cecil’s best friend Kain under his wing and kidnapped Cecil’s girlfriend Rosa.

When you first meet back up with Kain and he is evil and there is no real explanation as to why it is like a stake into the heart and worst of all he takes Rosa with him and its obvious that he is in love with her as much as Cecil perhaps.   More than that Kain later becomes a member of your party again and in the end betrays you once more, going back to the side of Golbez, this just drives the dagger further in.  Yet at the end Kain does manage to redeem himself, and proves that he truly is Cecil’s friend.

Like most games in this series nothing is as it appears at first, II has some of the most twists and turns in the entire series, you never really know who the villain of the story is until the end of the tale, when the final revelation happens. There are other noteworthy things here though, first this game had not one, but three worlds for you to explore. More than that the game pushed the boundaries of what you could do, there were real relationships here. Cecil and Rosa felt like a real couple, two young people in love with one another who will do anything to protect each other.

There is also Tellah a man bent on revenge towards Golbez whom he blames for taking the life of his daughter. He is so bent on revenge that he unlocks a deadly Magic that has the potential to destroy the world all in his need for revenge. His story and the story of the bard Edward intersect in a very interesting way because of this and we get the classic line: “you spoony bard.” from this game though we have no idea what it really means.

The battle system is not too complex, each character has their own specific skill set and unlike earlier or later final fantasies there is no mixing, each character is set with their own skills and that is all that they can do. Square would not revisit this idea until Final Fantasy IX. Because of this and also the fact that for more than 3/4ths of the game you do not get to choose who is in your party it sort of reminds me of the recently released XIII.

Final Fantasy II didn’t have the most characters in the series, but it was the first game in the series to push the boundaries of what you could expect in an RPG, it is perhaps the game responsible for all others that came after it. Square used Final Fantasy II to prove what they could do with stories, and also with SNES graphics. The story is ultimately one of redemption and family and what it means to protect the world around you.

If you haven’t ever played it before I recommend it, especially the Nintendo DS remake which is called Final Fantasy IV, as that was the original name of the game when it was released in Japan.