My first impressions after beating Final Fantasy II. Better than the first, but not nearly as remember-able or classic.
Starting out FFII I have to say I don't like how they surprise you with hard monsters if you make a wrong turn. I understand it's a turret to keep you from exploring everywhere right away and giving you a sense of direction, but I find it very off putting that there is no way for me to escape or survive if I accidentally go where I shouldn't, thus losing unsaved progress. Other than that, well, I love the skill based system. Admittedly it involves grinding, but honestly it makes a lot of sense and lets me plan my characters how I want. It's only logical that a character gets better the more they use a spell or weapon. As well, the music was lackluster compared to the original or IV, but the story was better than the original so I suppose it's a trade off. As for the characters, they are more or less there and really the only other character you get later on could easily just be seen as a side character, so he feels a bit shoehorned compared to being an actual plot twist. Although I have to say my favorite character in this game is the Emperor as he is such an amazing villain for the fact he dies on purpose to conquer both worlds in the afterlife.
As for the extra chapter you get after beating FFII, Souls of Rebirth, I have to say it's quite annoying. Considering the fact they give you all the side characters that die during the quest. Characters that you're not likely to train or even give a second thought to being useful again makes things quite difficult to begin this chapter. So by giving us some rather useless characters in a dungeon that is just as hard as the last one you just faced in FFII things get out of hand fast. It's not even harder, but more so bad luck that you're always up against. And till you are able to become a decent level so you can handle yourself, you still have two more places to go to finish the chapter. Really SoR just feels very unfair in the beginning and it would have been nice if they gave some sort of warning or help along the way. Put really it just comes down to "grind to survive". It's not even that this little chapter is bad either, I like the idea, the fact there is a parallel between you and your party in FFII, but given the situation it just tends to piss me off more than make me enjoy it by the time I'm done. It's certainly challenging, but in a bad way, and just by giving a little aid to players in the beginning would have made this whole chapter a lot easier to bear.
Conclusion: I like Final Fantasy II, and I'm sure it's because of the skill based system. The story is promising from such an old fossil of a game, but nothing compared to later entries. In the end it feels exactly like a step up from the Original, but not exactly a classic like the original. Souls of Rebirth is also a nice addition to FFII, expanding upon its universe, but in the end it just comes out like a bad hand in poker.