11/05/2020

Final Fantasy II: Early stages


I was initially planning to give Romancing SaGa 3 the old college try; however, my plans were changed by a seemingly innocuous event. I wanted to get on with pimping up my PSP's library by following Geddy's excellent advice; upon taking the machine out of its pouch, I noticed that the battery was completely depleted. That kinda surprised me, because I was sure I had played my beloved PSP not so long ago. I went looking for my last PSP post — and got the shock of my life: I last played one and a half year ago. One and a half year ago, folks! How is that even possible? Of course, something needed to be done right away, namely giving that poor lonely piece of kit some much-needed love; and that's how I found myself enthusiastically tackling FFII — because indeed, I'm still very much in a grinding mood right now.

I've been playing for two hours, and that was more than enough to spot FFII's sheer experimental quality. This is a very daring game, all the more so considering its release date. The original Final Fantasy was content to merely follow in Dragon Quest's footsteps; FFII, on the other hand, walks its own rocky, pioneering path. Not only does it boasts a open world — which, while not entirely unknown in 1988, was still far from being the norm — but it also gloriously introduces the intuitive, non-linear character progression system later featured in the SaGa series. I was seriously astounded by that discovery, because I assumed that all Final Fantasy entries featured a regular leveling-up system and that SaGa was the series that first injected non-linearity in all things leveling-up. But it seems that things didn't happen that way indeed: instead, the non-linear character progression system was rerouted to the SaGa series after debuting in FFII.

This raises a number of fascinating questions, such as: why was that system removed so quickly from the FF series? (Educated guess: because players didn't like it, or because Squaresoft wanted to explore it in an ad hoc series, or both.) Was the SaGa series created especially as a vehicle for that system? (Educated guess: most likely.) Beyond that, it lets us imagine what would have happened if FF had kept sporting that system, and fantasize about a totally different RPG landscape: a landscape with no FFVII to introduce us Westerners to J-RPG, where Dragon Quest would be the unamovible turn-based RPG reference, now and for all eternity, and FF would be the forever niche contender. Now that sounds like some seriously good parallel universe stuff.

But I digress, dear fellow gamers; let's go back to my run. As much as the gaming historian in me relishes FFII's sheer forwardness and originality, the gamer in me is a tad miffed by that unexpected turn of events. See, I expected an uber linear grindy fest similar to the original FF, which would allow me to lose myself in grinding; instead, I got an avant-garde, non-linear (in every possible sense), where-do-I-go-next-ish RPG. The thing is, this is not what I wanted to play — neither now nor ever. I seriously pondered quitting, until I got a much better idea: cheating! I'm going to run to a walkthrough, and use it to erase all that fake longevity uncertainty regarding what I'm supposed to do and where I'm supposed to go next. Then I can keep the good parts, i.e. da roaming and da grinding. I consider this fair game, especially since FFII plays it nasty by forcing me to rove a world map that's much bigger than it needs to be. Jeez, it seems that the habit of inflating open worlds didn't start with Xenoblade, now did it? With that said, I'll see you soon with a fresh run report, dear fellow gamers. Take care and keep gaming!  

6 comments:

  1. Man, those graphics look gorgeous. Such a timeless style! I'm really glad my psp article resonated with ya, seems like I may have opened the floodgates considering the massive amount of JRPGs on there :)

    Enjoy!

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    1. Oooh yes you did! :D Apart from downloading all my PSP collection, I'll probably snatch a couple of SNES cult classic JRPGs. I want to play Terranigma again if it's the last thing I do >_<

      Having all my PSP games on an SD card will also nicely spare me the UMD running noise, which grates on my ears like crazy.

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  2. I've been meaning to comment on this for a while, but I've been off my PC for a while now; don't ever, ever, feel guilty for using a walk through. Especially if it's the key to even enjoying a game in the first place.

    I know a lot of people think of it as cheating, but two things:
    - Some games are utter bastards that will punish you for actually getting into the plot of the game. Case in point; I'm usually very thorough, doing things like talking to every NPC again each time I beat a quest, revisiting maps multiple times, making notes of locked chests and doors and checking them back constantly, etc, because I'm used to RPGs being petty games that demand such things from you if you want to get good endings/equipment.

    But even with all that, I still missed the true end of Omega Quintet when I first got my PS4 three years ago. Why you ask, given that IF games aren't that complicated to begin with. Well, there's a part in the story where the city you're the defending is in serious trouble, and the party even runs out of the main hub on their own and go to the correct map because the situation is that dire, and you should really put a stop to it right now. Stupid retarded me was actually really enjoying the plot and got into the mindset of the characters so I did as the game encouraged you too. PSYCHED. Turns out what you actually had to do, was turn your back on the issue, leave the map, and pick up a seemingly inconsequential quest that is only available right at the time. And that seemingly useless side quest is of course essential to get the true ending (most of the essential quests look to be just as useless as the errand quests BTW, mostly because they are almost all the same.).

    That was the only thing I missed. A stupid quest that you can only get at a very stupid time, going against what the game encourages you to do. Screw your 70 hours of playing and the fact that you played on the hardest difficulty so you wouldn't miss any post game content, no true end for you!

    Like I said, I checked every map and NPC after every quest. The one time I didn't do it, because the plot encouraged you to go forward, I got screwed over. This was not the first time that it happened to me, I think we all have a story like this, but maybe because I'm older now this left me realllllly salty.

    -Second reason is, we're adults and time is precious. Beating your head against a brick wall until you got every secret may have been fun as a kid, but nobody has time for that as an adult; heck I'm so tired sometimes that I'm struggling to even finish games now. And after so many years of gaming (24 years this year for me), no reward or way of getting to it is that surprising anymore, so might as well save yourself the time.

    Nowadays I always use a walk through to at least check the quest and item list, so I can make sure I miss no quest, and that no cool item is hidden from me. And this has only made me enjoy games more; nothing ever made so salty as missing out on that true end, but knowing all the cool equipment I just barely missed out on was never pleasant either.

    I never did get Omega Quintet's true ending BTW. Even though I recently bought the OP DLC weapons just to make the game that much easier when I do came back. But I always feel soooo bitter. Too bad, it's a truly lovely game, one of the early signs of improvement from IF after they were stuck in their Neptunia rut for so many years.

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    1. Wow, that arrangement was really nasty on IF's part. I'd be totally salty if I had endured that, and much more likely to run to FAQs indeed. I remember I was really miffed that Omega Quintet was not released on the Vita, but maybe I didn't miss on a cult classic after all. :P

      The way things are right now, I only use walkthroughs when playing 'where do I go next' RPGs, RPGs sporting stupidly huge open worlds and Visual Novels. And of course, I'll occasionally resort to internet wisdom when I'm irremediably and desperately stuck somewhere in an RPG. However, I may well run to walkthroughs more often in the future... But more on that point in my upcoming final post about FFII. ^^

      Anyway, you're totally right to point out that we're adults with limited time on our hands, and that we musn't waste that precious time by running aimlessly around RPG world maps. All the less so as in the end, all those 'where do I go next?' stories, arcane endings, niche quests and hidden super-duper items are really nothing more than blatant displays of fake longevity and/or fake difficulty. :P

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    2. Oh the thing is, Omega Quintet is an excellent game. The story and characters are pretty good, I love how it's more of a magical girls game than an idol one, it has the only female tsundere character I've ever liked, I like the male protagonist, the combat system is much deeper than what it initially seems (and you will need to master it if you want to beat the hardest difficulty and get all the postgame content), there's a pretty good amoutn of cosmetic customization even without DLC, and the fan service is enjoyable, but way more tactful than the Neptunia games.

      This was a huge, huge jump in quality for IF.

      Which only makes me all the more salty that I missed the true ending and the post game content because I didn't deliver a vitamin drink to a stupid NPC (yes that's what the quest is. Ignore the city being swallowed by monsters so you can go and give an NPC a vitamin drink instead!). Even more so because you only get to play as the tsundere character in the prologue and in said post game content.

      *Sigh* Never again. Quest and item lists barely have any spoilers anyways.

      I should really play Omega Quintet again.

      (Also now that I check the walkthroughs, you wouldn't believe the number of hidden chests that are so hard to get, yet give useless equipment. Go figure.)

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    3. I guess you should play it again indeed, with a FAQ firmly standing at your side. :P If it's a great game, it definitely deserves to be given a second chance! ^^

      Your description makes me wanna play it even more than I already did. So, fingers crossed for a future Switch port! :D

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