The road to the West for FFII ended rather quickly. While the game was being translated into English, the third part of the series managed to come out, and the NES was hopelessly outdated, giving way to the more powerful SNES. Therefore (I suppose this phrase is inserted into any more or less serious description of FFII), what came out in the West under the name "Final Fantasy II" is the English version of Final Fantasy IV, although the "prototype" of the English version is someone else. posted it on the net. Out of pity for the players - not otherwise. In the future, FFII returned to them many times. Various versions added FMV cutscenes, bonus dungeons (including those unlocked after beating the original game), improved graphics, and tweaked small plot details. For example, the names of the main characters. To avoid confusion, we will consider as canonical those names that are used in the European PSP version of the game.
The evil emperor intends to conquer the whole world, but rebels stand in his way, led by the will of fate, Princess Finn (Fynn) Hilda (Hilda) and Prince Kashuan (Kashuan) Gordon (Gordon). It is in their shelter that the white magician Minwu manages to revive three young guys - Firion, Maria and Guy - who, fleeing from the emperor's troops, lost their family, friend Leon (Leon) and, being beaten and mutilated, they might well have lost their lives. But the future heroes were pumped out, caressed and sent for reconnaissance to the camp of the enemy ...
FFII is often not exactly scolded, no (too rude word), rather, they are scolded for a primitive plot and unpretentious dialogues. This must be done mainly by those who are familiar with the game exclusively from the opening screensaver and the stories of acquaintances who read a brief description of the game on one of the countless torrent trackers. A story that basically has no plot branches is quite capable of surprising the player with unexpected plot moves. Of course, I do not include the countless deaths of the main characters to the latter: if at least one positive character does not die during the passage every 4-5 hours, then you are marking time. Everything is much more interesting. Flying ships, awesome weapons, kidnapping princesses, the hero's transition to the side of pure evil, followed by his pulling onto the slippery path of good, stained in the blood of enemies - the parallels with the classic Star Wars trilogy are obvious. Death Star, Leia, Darth Vader and, of course, the emperor. The amazing feeling that the story has on the player is enhanced by the unusual world for these characters: a typical fantasy Middle Ages interspersed with fantastic mechanisms and mythical monsters.
Side quests are missing as a class. However, due to the fact that in principle there is no information about the current task in the game, it may very well be that there are also optional goals, and we solve them in passing, by chance. In general, in those distant times (we are talking about the late 80s, when the game was released), the difference between jRPG and CRPG was not yet so great, and therefore FFII, with its open world and undefined tasks, can be considered an imitation of the CRPG of that time (and How do you think jRPGs got started?). A typical scene: Hilda rolls her eyes and exclaims, “Where can we get mithril? Without him, we will not defeat the empire in life! Indeed, where? Think for yourself. The most you can count on is non-obvious clues received in dialogues with the inhabitants of the next town. And that's it. No problem, that *precious* mithril is not quoted at the end of the first third of the game in principle - it is rather weak, and the *legendary* spell with the telling name "Ultima", which, according to the scriptwriters, will help save the world, is easier not to use at all, given the peculiarities of the game mechanics. The Great Goal is primary, and everything else is trifles.
The main thing that distinguishes Final Fantasy II from *every* other parts of the series and for which it is often criticized (sometimes not unreasonably) is the role-playing system in general and the character leveling system in particular. Despite the fact that above I called Minva a white magician, there are no classes in the game in principle. Each character is free to develop in the direction that the player prefers. FFII has perhaps the most logical leveling system (a unique case for Final Fantasy) - growing what is most often used. Do you like to cut enemies with a sword? Get a plus sign to the corresponding weapon skill and character power. Do you often throw lightning and heal your comrades? That's the level up for "cure", "thunder" and maximum magic points. By the way, there is no "series" of spells in the game like "cure" - "cura" - "curaga" from the later parts of FF - only the name of the spell and the level of possession of them. However, the use of Fire 8 does not yet mean twice as much damage as Fire 4 - in addition to the level of the spell itself, the game takes into account the level of possession of magic by one or another character. In general, there are a lot of subtleties that somehow affect the gameplay in the game, and although the interface and character statistics system have become somewhat ... more obvious than they were in the first part, they still hold many surprises for the player. Nowhere in the game is it said that heavy armor worn by a *conditionally* mage reduces his spellcasting abilities. However, it is. And it's better to know about it in advance... - in addition to the level of the spell itself, the game takes into account the level of possession of magic by one or another character. In general, there are a lot of subtleties that somehow affect the gameplay in the game, and although the interface and character statistics system have become somewhat ... more obvious than they were in the first part, they still hold many surprises for the player. Nowhere in the game is it said that heavy armor worn by a *conditionally* mage reduces his spellcasting abilities. However, it is. And it's better to know about it in advance... - in addition to the level of the spell itself, the game takes into account the level of possession of magic by one or another character. In general, there are a lot of subtleties that somehow affect the gameplay in the game, and although the interface and character statistics system have become somewhat ... more obvious than they were in the first part, they still hold many surprises for the player. Nowhere in the game is it said that heavy armor worn by a *conditionally* mage reduces his spellcasting abilities. However, it is. And it's better to know about it in advance... Nowhere in the game is it said that heavy armor worn by a *conditionally* mage reduces his spellcasting abilities. However, it is. And it's better to know about it in advance... Nowhere in the game is it said that heavy armor worn by a *conditionally* mage reduces his spellcasting abilities. However, it is. And it's better to know about it in advance...
Strange things happen too. Are you often and painfully beaten? You may get a bonus to agility and be able to dodge attacks better. But, most likely, they will add hit points to you, which, of course, in no way negates the fact that you will continue to be beaten often and painfully. It's no joke: by the end of the game, one of my characters "increased" HP to an astronomical 9000, which any dragon and almost all other monsters in the game would envy. However, these 9000, if not equipped correctly, are quickly reset to zero in case of direct contact with the *wrong* enemy. With Maria, I tried for a long time to pump up a sword fight: the fifth level is not bad (with the maximum sixteenth), but for the entire time of “pumping” she never hit anyone. Strange game logic, coupled with software bugs, allows you to pump the game almost without leaving the first city.
There are four characters in total in the party, but there are only three key characters, the last place is almost always vacant and it is occupied by those characters who are supposed to help Firion and Co. at this stage of the plot development. And if FF at one time was distinguished by the almost complete lack of attention of scriptwriters to the history and fate of the characters, then in FFII the rudiments of what we love so much (or maybe not) modern Final Fantasy are already visible. Moreover, it was the "invited stars" who were lucky - Leila's childishness, the tragedy of the last dragoon Ricard (as in the case of other names, the name of the miserable dragoon changes depending on the version of the game), Minvu's self-sacrifice - of course, it is unlikely that all the tragedies of FFII characters taken together will be able to Emotionally beat just one final scene in Final Fantasy X, however, a certain movement of the series in the * right * direction is impossible not to notice.
The world of Final Fantasy II is vast and difficult to navigate without a map and dangerous to travel on foot. Random fights, which the FF universe struggles with with varying success to this day, happen here after two steps to the third, which is especially infuriating in small but rather unpleasant dungeons. In general, the whole gameplay, roughly speaking, is finding the desired cave on a huge and virtually empty world map, descending into it and paving the way with fire and sword directly to its farthest nook, where the most valuable artifact is lying around (which, after completing the quest in four out of five cases, no one will need it for nothing), or another Terrible Enemy is sitting. Not only are the bosses nothing special, but most of them are stuck in ... chests and jump out to the party only in those moments, when she retrieves a brand new combat mitten from the drawer. Many (modern) reviewers note the high complexity of the game, which personally did not seem so to me. Except for minor changes (among other things, the interface), there are practically no differences between the NES and PSP versions, while the death of the entire party in one battle happened extremely rarely, in fact, by accident. Well, the man decided to experiment, it's okay. Moreover, in the PSP version, you can save at any time - the best of all cheats, but even without it, the game is really not too complicated and very accessible. there are practically no differences between the NES- and PSP-versions, while the death of the entire party in one battle happened to me extremely rarely, in fact, by accident. Well, the man decided to experiment, it's okay. Moreover, in the PSP version, you can save at any time - the best of all cheats, but even without it, the game is really not too complicated and very accessible. there are practically no differences between the NES- and PSP-versions, while the death of the entire party in one battle happened to me extremely rarely, in fact, by accident. Well, the man decided to experiment, it's okay. Moreover, in the PSP version, you can save at any time - the best of all cheats, but even without it, the game is really not too complicated and very accessible.
Как ни странно, самые страшные враги попадаются партии исключительно в случайных схватка: вампирши, способные зачаровать вашего лучшего бойца, какие-то вариации на тему пантер-оборотней (в игре используется один и тот же спрайт различных раскрасок для врагов - соседей по справочнику зоолога), убивающие слабых персонажей с одного удара, и монструозные черные рыцари, снимающие за раз половину хит-поинтов. Если бы игра не была пресыщена такими вот товарищами, неприятными во всех отношениях, то ее можно было бы пройти с закрытыми глазами, даром что подземелья, пусть и имеют большое количество переходов с уровня на уровень (да и то не всегда), зачастую линейны и просты для прохождения.
По миру, конечно, можно путешествовать пешком – такой вариант сулит героям долгие путешествия, длинные крюки и страшную смерть от лап случайного, не по *уровню* крутого монстра: что делать, не туда забрели. Если повезет, то можно прокатиться на чокобо – такой вариант хорош тем, что противники буквально не успевают за цыпленком, а потому боев удается избежать. Зато чокобо не может преодолеть водные преграды – пересаживаемся в каноэ (для рек и озер) или на корабль (океан) и вплотную знакомимся с обитателями морской пучины. Лучший и поступающий в распоряжение игрока позже всех вариант – летающий корабль.
Помимо данного корабля, есть в игре немало других вещей и персонажей, которые, впервые появившись в FFII, встречаются почти во всех частях FF. Тут вам и Сид – капитан корабля, и, собственно, чокобо – цыпленок-переросток, а также множество отсылок от поздних частей в виде имен и фамилий ключевых игровых персонажей. Может быть, кто-то и забыл о существовании Final Fantasy II, но уж точно не Square.
Графика в игре по современным меркам не ахти какая: вспоминаются некоторые рецензии (как отечественные, так и зарубежные), которые высмеивают в практически дословном пересказе истории двадцатилетней давности всё, начиная историей и не заканчивая графикой. Не смешно, господа. Прогресс в сравнении с NES-вариантом очевиден, но расстраиваться из-за отсутствия трехмерности, которой, вроде бы, балуются на NDS любители ремейков SNES’овских «финалок», я бы не стал: игра хороша в том виде, в каком она есть, большего и не нужно.
Пожалуй, самый необычный из всех игровых иллюстраторов, Йоситака Амано в очередной раз создал целый ряд запоминающихся персонажей. И пусть его стиль подразумевает стремительный полет фантазии и изображение мужчин и женщин бесполыми существами, едва обозначенными тончайшими линиями и необычными формами, персонажи FFII наверняка запомнятся вам надолго (равно как и герои остальных «финалок», к внешности которых приложил руку Амано). Эффект усиливается за счет как всегда великолепной музыки Уемацу: после прохождения игры и прослушивания всех мелодий в специальном проигрывателе – бонусе за прохождение – я всё равно так и не понял, почему в *приличном* обществе FFII считается весьма ущербной, в том числе и в плане музыки. Видать, такие вот «поклонники» у культовых jRPG, которые когда-то спасли от разорения Square.
Summing up, I can say that if you know nothing about the jRPG genre, but do not disdain the role-playing hits of the distant past - the early 90s or even the mid-80s - then you should almost certainly take a look at FFII, no matter what platform (a real old-gamer role-player is not afraid of pixels on a quarter of the screen and a monotonous black background, so go ahead - to conquer NES emulators). Of course, now, more than twenty years after the release of this project, there are other - more interesting, beautiful, after all - new games in the world. But getting to know the second part of the legendary saga is unlikely to hurt anyone, and besides, you are guaranteed 15-25 hours of exciting adventures in the world of Final Fantasy II.