Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster

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Date Completed: Sep 24, 2021 @ 9:42pm

The second game in the six part Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series is – Surprise! – Final Fantasy II. The original version of this game was not released in the United States and my first exposure to it was in the Final Fantasy I & II : Dawn of Souls release on the the Gameboy Advance.

I want ‘Urngah!!!’ carved on my tombstone

Final Fantasy II has slightly different mechanics than Final Fantasy I but feels very similar overall. The biggest difference between the games is in the story. Final Fantasy II tells a much more dramatic story with emperors and betrayal, rebellions and personal loss. Your party consists of three static members and a forth rotating party member. If you have a choice between taking that forth slot, or being a Red Shirt on Star Trek it isn’t obvious which choice to make. Most of the fourth slot characters die in a melodramatic blaze of glory.

“Oh, let me grab this giant boulder for you…“

Several times while playing the game I’d encounter a party of bad guys that have a particular move that both affects your entire party and inflicts some form of instant death. This meant an instant game over and would have been extremely frustrating except Pixel Remaster auto-saves between floors in a dungeon so there usually wasn’t too much ground lost.

Enemies using the ‘I win, you lose’ attack.

I didn’t mind the missing expansion from Final Fantasy I but in the case of Final Fantasy II I did. The Soul of Rebirth content tells of how the party members you lose along the way meet up in the afterlife and battle the other half of the Emperor’s soul. I thought telling a story about the members you lost was a cool idea for an expansion and a better way to send them off. Maybe Pixel Remaster expansion packs will be released in the future?

Overall I’ll rate this similar to how I rated Final Fantasy I Pixel Remaster. With the exception of the missing content this is currently the best way to experience the Final Fantasy II story. While it’s my least favorite of the original six games it is the version to buy if you’re going for completion.

Is it fun: Yes
Score: 5/10
Length: 15 hours
System: PC (Steam)
Genre: RPG

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