Final Fantasy II: Final thoughts

Oh, is that so? Let me take that bauble off your hands then.

This is it, folks: the emperor is destroyed, and my country is free again. Hooray! That last stretch was a piece of cake, honestly. For once, my party was outrageously overleveled, and pimped up with the finest gear to boot. That finest gear included the HP-sucking Blood Sword, which made the final showdown ridiculously smooth: I just let Firion lash out with that fabulous blade while Guy and Maria healed the whole crew, and the whole thing was over in less than ten turns with nobody kicking the bucket. Easy-peasy! For another, I used maps to navigate most of the last dungeon. It was a slick and sweet piece of crawling, yes it was; and it was not even really cheating, since I still bore the brunt of that crawling by vanquishing the endless waves of foes crashing on my party. I daresay that this experience even opened a new door for me, and that maybe I'll use walkthroughs and FAQs more readily from now on.

FFII reminded me of Trails in the Sky in more ways than one. I already praised the lovingly detailed and very Nihon Falcom-ish graphics; I can also praise the Guest system, which saw the fourth spot in my party being occupied by a slew of temporary party members. The fact that a good half of them left the party by kicking the bucket added a suitably harrowing element to my liberating epic; needless to say, I'll be more than happy to play Soul of Rebirth and cruise with those fallen heroes again. (Not right now, though: I've had my fill of all things FFII for the time being.)

And since I'm mentioning the story, I must say that it was unfortunately too disjointed to live up to its full potential. Not only did it include way too many in medias res elements for comfort, but the (rare) in-game events didn't even get a decent development. (SPOILERS!) Like, shouldn't there be a long and serious heart-to-heart about Leon's life as the Emperor's Dark Knight? I know the world is in dire danger, but are we just gonna brush this off without even checking his motivations for such a turnaround? Looks like it indeed! Heck, I really wanted to know if he was blackmailed, brainwashed or hypnotized into becoming the Emperor's peon, or if he did it on his own free will for some obscure and unspeakable reason. Guess I'll have to fill in the blanks myself then, and craft my own little story about Leon! (END OF SPOILERS.) All in all, FFII really calls for a sequel AND a prequel to clarify things on the narrative front.

So, did I love FFII? Absolutely. Would I recommend it? Yes and no. It has plenty of things going for it, and the 27 hours I spent playing it were utterly delicious; but the harsh truth is that FFII is really just a total fighting fest. Don't like grinding and crawling? Too bad, so sad — because there is literally nothing else to do in that game. The story is too evanescent and inconsequent to matter, and the open world is too shallow and empty to enthrall; if those things matter to you, then you should avoid FFII at all costs. But if you live for grinding and have a serious itch to scratch in that department, then FFII is your game indeed! Heck, it scratched my own grinding itch so thoroughly that I'm totally in the mood for more story-infused stuff now. And so, on to the next game!