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I'm not sure if a topic like this exists back in the mists of time, before I joined. Anyway...

Everyone seems to hate FFII (the original FFII, by which I mean the FFII that never reached America), and the main reason seems to be the levelling-up system.

I've been replaying Dawn of Souls recently, and I've actually found the game more fun than its reputation. The magic system is, IMO, better than Materia, and certainly uses more skill than Espers. The music is perfect, and the storyline is solid, if a little cliche.

So, I just wanted to sort of find out if I'm the only one who likes this rough diamond of a game.

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I think it was the abscence of a leveling up systm that did me in. I was never a big fan of the you need to use magic to get more powerful in magic, and such.

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Personally I loved it. I'm glad to see I'm not the only nutcase who loved the level up system.

IMO FF2 was very advanced for its time. Back then RPGs were very simple and straightforward: kill stuff, gain level ups, learn spells at certain fixed levels. FF2 adapted to your characters' playing style: your fighters end up being more fighters than your magic users, who end up getting MP increases and such. It's great.

My only problem with it is the magic system: it's too hard to level up a new spell late into the game. Ultima does pretty low damage compared to physical attacks, and takes forever to level up. And your other spells are already at really high levels by then.

Romancing SaGa III was a lot like this game - give it a shot. It's a really open-ended game with a great system and nice graphics/music. The final battle is among one of the best I've seen to date (the best is, hands down, in Rudora no Hihou - THAT'S a challenge )

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well i played the game boy advance version, and i seemed to hate it even before i got to the point where i could even level things up.

I find that getting the spells as soon as possible helps, then going to the latest dungeon/area of the map and levelling up there helps. Heh, I know Holy is a bit useless, but I always like to "sequence break" and get to Mysidia as soon as Leila joins the party. Yes, I make games too easy...

Quote ("SilverLance")

Romancing SaGa III was a lot like this game - give it a shot. It's a really open-ended game with a great system and nice graphics/music. The final battle is among one of the best I've seen to date (the best is, hands down, in Rudora no Hihou - THAT'S a challenge)

Hmm, which console is it on?

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FF II's experience/leveling system is a decent concept executed very poorly. It lacks balance, sensible progression, or satisfying speed of level-up, not to mention the fact that mutilating one's own characters is the only good way to increase HP.

And yeah, as a general rule I avoid older games that RL/SL says are good. I mean, he hates Earthbound and likes Lagoon? Something wrong there, chief.

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Meh. Emulators pretty much mean that I give anything a shot. I've played Earthbound before; hate to say it, but the battle system is annoying, and dull. The graphics and storyline make up for it.

And as for Lagoon - Bahamut Lagoon, you mean? Heard of it, not played it.

This post has been edited by Sinslayer on 14th February 2007 20:40

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Quote (Sinslayer @ 14th February 2007 15:38)

And as for Lagoon - Bahamut Lagoon, you mean? Heard of it, not played it.

No I just mean Lagoon. Despite what anyone tells you, it's an awful game. Avoid it like an STD.

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END SPOILER

Well, any site that saves their sprites as jpgs don't get any plus-points for their games.

*is obsessive about filetypes*

But seriously, it looks too... FFI-ish.

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At first I didn't like it that much. The weapons seemed to level up regularly, and then stop altogether. Even so, since then it has grown on me. It's an extremely versatile system, and doesn't allow you to play through the game using only, swords, say, and then get a really good spear and go, "ooh, cool, super powerful spear deals lots of damage". It's very realistic, and as Silverlance said, very advanced (For its time).

I know SMad likes it (and compares it to Star Wars ), so maybe you could ask his opinion.

I actually love this game. It's pretty fun and the storyline was much better than FFI's. I also loved the world map song as well as the boss battle song from the Lamia Queen onwards. The leveling system was broken, but I made it so that my characters didn't overlevel and I still had fun with the game.

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Pft, Lagoon rocks. It has that oldschool feel to it that really owns. But terrible hit detection - its main failing. That aside it,s great, the music is great, and the graphics are great (for its time.) Worth a try if you've never played it - make up your own opinions. Then again, I loved Parasite Eve but most people didn't. >"<

Romancing SaGa III is on the SNES - I don't think it was ever released here though. You get to pick one of... 8 characters I think? Most of them meet up at some point and they all get their own opening bits, though the storyline sorta merges after a while into one main story. You can act very out of turn, doing things as you want to do them instead of in the order you normally should. It's cool. The level up system is like FF2's but a bit more complicated - you learn spells based on your weapon and spell usage - for instance, you might learn a new skill after using your sword, then after using that skill for a while your character will suddently think of a new way to attack and learn a new ability. My memory's a bit hazy though.

I especially liked the extra bit in the GBA version. Every new fight made your characters feel more powerful and mattered. It was pretty hard until you got to that town, then, well, you just level up (sorta) and take trips back into town when you run low on HP.

And yeah, Earthbound did suck. Sorry, it just had no redeeming quality other than potty humor and a decent level of challenge. Bite my opinion.

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

I can't really say FFII was a decent game, but it's hard for me to hate it. What I didn't like was the difficulty. It was way too hard, and most fights are impossible to beat unless you max out your HP. But I thought that the Mastery system wasn't too bad. It was a nice alternate to EXP, and you could just quickly max out your stats, although it was pretty confusing at first.

Best part I liked about FFII was how you could master any kind of weapon to increase your perception and attacks with it. I really wish they put that feature in other Final Fantasy games for the innovation of weapons and shields mastery.

The plot in defense was pretty good. Not the best in FF, but it was almost the same as FFIV's (airships, evil powerful empire, dark knights, etc.). And the characters weren't bad either, yet they didn't have very strong personalities.

All in all, it's a WAAAAAY better game than FFVIII and FFX-2 (Thank God). The gameplay was the only flaw, but I can forgive FFII for trying.

Quote

And yeah, Earthbound did suck. Sorry, it just had no redeeming quality other than potty humor and a decent level of challenge. Bite my opinion.

I'd rather embrace it. That game already bored me to death. Don't know what's with all the hype about Earthbound.

This post has been edited by NeoEx-Death on 14th February 2007 22:49

I loved FFII. When I first picked up FF Origins, I expected to find myself playin' FFI more, but I'm on FFII more often than I. The leveling up system took me a while to get used to, but after I got the hang of it, I'm lovin' it. I love the magic system 'cuz the more you use it, the stronger it and your magic stat becomes. The weapon mastery system is pretty sweet as well. Right now, my PS2 won't read CDs, only DVDs, so I've gotta' take it in to get it fixed, or buy a new one. Regardless, FFII is pretty done, but like Laszlow said, could've been executed better.

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Quote (Silverlance @ 14th February 2007 21:52)

And yeah, Earthbound did suck. Sorry, it just had no redeeming quality other than potty humor and a decent level of challenge. Bite my opinion.

*Gnaws as painfully as possible*
And I dare you to find a SINGLE fart joke or anything of that nature. Earthbound's "potty jokes" are pretty much entirely limited to piles of vomit attacking you, and there's a grand total of 3 enemies of that type.
You bash Earthbound, you may have just slapped me And I mean that in the most playful manner.
/stab


I played FFII for the shortest time, and just like FFI, nothing catched my interest enough to make me want to sit down and try it again.
I didnt like the system in Chrono Cross, and I dont like it here.

I found it to be a good game, aside from the fact that some of the dungeons were a little complicated, like the Wyvern Dragon dungeon... Unfortunetly, that's where I'm currently stuck at.

Anyway, I do love the spell system and the weapon handling is much easier, in my opinion.

But I don't know why it got such a bad rap, I loved the game...

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I have to admit, the story was Starwarsish, and it kind of intrigued me. I jus t couldn't embrace the battle system

And Silverlance, the EB comments made me cry...

/me cries.

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Dead Winter. A nice comic.

It was pretty cool. I can't really complain about the story, being made a year after FFI, you can tell they definitely improved in that department. xD The leveling up system was executed rather poorly, of course. But this game started the awesome trend of 'trippy outer space crystalline final dungeon', so I have to thank it for that.



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I wasn't aware that there was another FF that deviated off of the traditional level structure! I totally need to check that out! FFV, FFVIII, and FFX-2 are some of my favorites, and probably the most "out there."

Moreover... Earthbound is "teh suck," and not in a good way.

And I've found that when it comes to a variation in the way a game plays, RL/SL is actually a pretty good reference, because he knows very well the acutal required programming structure. I give props to that. I wish I understood all as well as he does, but instead I just pretend I do. (I'm a VB geek so I know linear patterns, but not of the actual RPG persuasion.)

And for the sake of checking out a game that has the potential to go either way, and I usually stray to the obscure anyways, I'm going to look into Lagoon, just because it was mentioned here.

... not that I'm taking sides or anything.

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Quote (Silverlance @ 14th February 2007 15:14)

Personally I loved it. I'm glad to see I'm not the only nutcase who loved the level up system.

IMO FF2 was very advanced for its time. Back then RPGs were very simple and straightforward: kill stuff, gain level ups, learn spells at certain fixed levels. FF2 adapted to your characters' playing style: your fighters end up being more fighters than your magic users, who end up getting MP increases and such. It's great.

My only problem with it is the magic system: it's too hard to level up a new spell late into the game. Ultima does pretty low damage compared to physical attacks, and takes forever to level up. And your other spells are already at really high levels by then.

Romancing SaGa III was a lot like this game - give it a shot. It's a really open-ended game with a great system and nice graphics/music. The final battle is among one of the best I've seen to date (the best is, hands down, in Rudora no Hihou - THAT'S a challenge )

While the experience system was way ahead of its time, (i liked the idea, I liked it in-game)

the game was boring as hell. I don't know how, I haven't bothered with it in years, and never made it that far in the game. It was just too boring. dull.

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I'll only say this:
FFII is my fave FF.

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On the GBA it wasn't so bad, on the PS it was tolerable, but on the NES it was down right painful. FFIII on the NES was much better.

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FFII has the best boss battle music of any game in the series, I think, and it really shines in the Origins version. I really feel like I'm in a fight for my life when it starts.

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Unfortunatly, I've only heard the first boss battle song, which is really dull

I do like the main battle song though. The story was slightly interesting. I've only played it on the GBA. I have the NES prototype ROM, but I can't even imagine beating that...

AND I OBJECT TO THE EARTHBOUND COMMENTS, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!11!1

This post has been edited by Barrylocke on 26th February 2007 21:37

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Dead Winter. A nice comic.

Quote (ultimage @ 25th February 2007 03:38)

FFII has the best boss battle music of any game in the series, I think, and it really shines in the Origins version. I really feel like I'm in a fight for my life when it starts.

You like it? I thought that song was crap in both the NES and PSX. Sounded "ancient", and not "decisive". But I agree with you if you mention the final boss fight theme. That one was Grrrrrrreat.

Quote (NeoEx-Death @ 27th February 2007 00:22)

Quote (ultimage @ 25th February 2007 03:38)

FFII has the best  boss battle music of any game in the series, I think, and it really shines in the Origins version.  I really feel like I'm in a fight for my life when it starts. 

You like it? I thought that song was crap in both the NES and PSX. Sounded "ancient", and not "decisive". But I agree with you if you mention the final boss fight theme. That one was Grrrrrrreat.

Yeah the final battle music was good... but I do like the battl music for the first boss the best (on the soundtrack it's just called Battle Scene B, for whatever reason). It moves like a slithering beast. Love it!

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Do you think we're forever?

Personally, other FF's were better, and the leveling system was kinda shaky for me to keep track of, especially around the leveling up of magic, but seeing the spell "Ultima 9" in action is well worth it, like the first viewing of the Knights of the Round from FFVII

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The GBA's version's leveling is different from the NES and PSX versions, they made it so stats only increase, never decrease. In the original and Wonderswan/PSX remake, stats go up and down depending on what skills you use. Increasing your Magic power by using Black Magic spells makes your Strength go down, for example. This was to keep you from having powerful warriors who could use powerful magic spells, i.e., more balanced, but it just made the game a real hassle to play.

And the GBA version, from what I've played, is still pretty challenging even though stats don't go up and down, so it's a much needed change.

FF1 on GBA is WAY too easy, though. Blah. As such there is no one definitive version of FF1 & 2 to be had, to fully enjoy FF1 requires the Origins version and to fully enjoy FF2 requires the Dawn of Souls version.

I really enjoyed FF2, primarily for the music.

Also, Earthbound was AMAZING. You guys who say you didn't like it are joking, surely? Right?

This post has been edited by L. Cully on 10th March 2007 06:58

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What the--who said such a thing?! leilong?! WHA?

Hopefully he was kidding or he will have to be banished to the n-zone or something else equally dire.

All the FFs have good music, FF2 is no exception.