After Final Fantasy saved Square from bankruptcy, they decided to create a sequel for the game called Final Fantasy II. Like the original, this game was released on the famicom, but unlike it's predecessor, it didn't make it outside of Japan until the remake combining the original 2 games called Final Fantasy I and II: Dawn of Souls was released for the PS1 in 2003 and eventually the GBA in 2004. After that, Final Fantasy II wasn't remade again until this version of the game for the PSP was released in North America on July 24, 2007. Honestly though, I still to this day don't understand why this game keeps getting remakes. It's the worst JRPG I've ever played in my life. Final Fantasy III was better than this and it's only had one remake on the DS. Also, Final Fantasy VII-IX have never been remade yet this awful game has had too many to count... Now I think it's time to thoroughly explain why I hate this game so much by making this review.

Addictiveness: 1/10 Normally when I make a review, I start with the Graphics. But for this review, I'm making a special exception. The main reason why I feel that Final Fantasy II is such a horrible game is because of it's horrific battle system. In the original Final Fantasy and most of the games that came after it, the characters level up by defeating monsters and gaining experience points. In this game however, Square decided to try and change things up with the battle system by instead of using experience points, they decided to make you have to level up your party's weapons and magic, which even includes spells like teleport, which is absolutely absurd and stupid. The result of this terrible decision was that you'd have to attack your own party members in order to level up you weapons and magic quicker. This deeply flawed and horrendous battle system is by far the biggest reason why I feel like this game is the worst JRPG ever. Normally in order for me classify a JRPG as horrible, it has to have a terrible story, but Final Fantasy II is a special exception. If it weren't for the rating system being 1-10, I would've given the addictiveness a 0 but since the minimum has to be 1, I'm giving the addictiveness a 1.

Story: 7/10 Final Fantasy II was the first game in the series to have a compelling storyline. The game starts with the main characters, Firion, Maria, Guy, and Leon being attacked by the evil Empire and their hometown gets destroyed. Firion, Maria, and Guy are rescued by the rebellion and Leon has gone missing. Firion and his friends join the rebellion and together they help the rebels bring down the empire and bring peace to the world. The story may sound cliche, but at the time that Final Fantasy II was originally released, this was one of the better storylines out there. Since this is a remake, of course they aren't going to make a bunch of changes to the story. Overall, I think Final Fantasy II has a pretty decent storyline, therefore, I'm giving the story a 7.

Graphics: 8/10 Final Fantasy II for the PSP is the best looking version of the game that I've seen. The scenery and character designs look great on the PSP. The spells in the game also look fantastic such as Flare. The only minus I have about the graphics is that the final dungeon looks very strange. Overall though, the graphics are this game's biggest strength. I'm giving the graphics an 8.

Sound: 5/10 Final Fantasy II has a mediocre soundtrack. I'm not a fan of the game's main boss theme, which sounds more like a desert theme than an actual boss theme. The other music in the game sounds nice though. The final boss theme in this game is better than the one in the Final Fantasy I remakes. Other than that though, I feel like the soundtrack's very average, therefore I'm giving the sound a 5.

Depth: 7/10 Final Fantasy II is a pretty lengthy game that will take you awhile to beat if you can bear through the atrocious battle system I talked about earlier. The game has length you'd expect from a Final Fantasy game and it has plenty of battles as well. As far as the depth category goes, I've decided I'll give the depth a 7.

Difficulty: 10/10 I really don't know what's tougher, having to deal with the tedious battle system, or just THINKING ABOUT IT! I explained it before, but that battle system is completely flawed and it'll drive you nuts. If you want upgrade your weapons and stats, ATTACK YOUR FRIENDS! If you want to upgrade your fire spell, BURN YOUR FRIENDS! If you want to upgrade your pointless teleport spell, spam the spell... Final Fantasy II's battle system alone is why this game can be so difficult, how are you supposed to know that attacking yourself and your party members is actually more effective for raising stats than attacking your enemies? Yeah that totally makes sense! Because of how unreasonable this battle system is, I'm giving the difficulty a 10.

Overall Score: 4/10 Final Fantasy II is definitely the most overly remade game in video gaming history. Sure the graphics in this version are really good, but the one thing that never changes no matter how many times this game gets made is the horrendous battle system. Having to attack your party members or themselves to strengthen them is the stupidest idea I've ever heard for a video game. If it weren't for this game having great graphics, a good story and good length, I would've given this game a much lower score. But since the game has at least a few redeeming qualities, I'm giving the overall score for Final Fantasy II a 4/10. I would highly recommend playing just about any other game in the series before I'd even say anything about trying this game out. This should only be tried out by diehard fans of the series.

I have to agree with you there. The worst Final Fantasy game of all time belongs to Final Fantasy II in my opinion. They took a leap of faith and failed. The dawn of souls version is worse. I just started playing it and I hate it. The Origins version was a little better but not by a long shot.

Nice job on this review as well. It is very well structured and you clearly put a lot of thought and detail all through your review. Despite your position on this game, you actually do a good job providing reasons as to why you dislike it. This is something that I typically don't see with other review rants I guess you could say. Instead they simply state that they dislike it and then assign scores without thoroughly explaining why they deserved those scores. 


Nonetheless, I prefer FF II to the first one, but I think FF III is better than both of them, but that's just my opinion. Overall, great work on the review. It was definitely an intriguing read, while I do like this game, I can come to accept that it has its flaws. I don't really like the idea of attacking your team members to gain more strength either, but it is what it is. Keep up the good work! 

Having played the game myself I agree that the self-mutilation aspect of the game was incredibly frustrating. I don't know how it is on the PSP, but the NES and PSX versions had it rather easy because until you complete the Tower of Mysidia enemies around Altea were so easy that you could increase your levels easily.

Anyway while I disagree on the addictiveness and music part you have written another excellent review. You give it enough details to show what the game is about... but don't do the game justice

I mean it might be considered the weakest Final Fantasy game to some people, but Worst JRPG.. nope.. Just try playing some others from that era and you'll know what a bad JRPG is lol... 

Also a quick point.. I want to make is that FF3 is available on steam, I believe that 2 isn't... As for why 2 has so many remakes... you'd be surprised to know that most of the Final Fantasy games have been remade a bunch or have different versions of them... 

Also I've not played FF2 for a while but I find it amusing that your complaining about a game for being too hard when games back in that time period were designed to be harder so that they would have a longer shelf life... It's also a JRPG did you not expect to have to grind in it?

Whilst the review does have it's better points.. It seems more like a rant on why you dislike the game than an actual review that is all.