Reading this review will fully restore your HP and MP
The game takes place in a massively open world where an evil force has begun taking over and slaughtering everyone. You play as four...wait...nope....three people that join up with the rebels to take down the emperor. The game opens up with you getting your face kicked in and immediately sets the tone for the next 40 hours.
Graphically the game looks really fantastic for being ported from the NES and the music quality is awesome. I can't express the deep joy as I heard the sounds that defined the frustrations of my childhood as I fought bravely through the first disc of Final Fantasy 7, then cried when I saw how feeble my attempts were. But the problems that I experienced are the same as everyone else's. It's not the graphics, or the sounds, or the constant asking of questions. WHICH YOU WILL DO. It's the leveling up system that literally takes so much time, my college GPA SUFFERS.
Instead of being a classic Final Fantasy level up system, each player has a different skill level for all weapons, magic, and stats. Winning fights boosts stats. Makes sense yeah? The only problem is, THIS IS STILL FINAL FANTASY. You still have to train to beat the bosses. You need to take those skills and pump heroin directly into their veins. This means a lot of time, a lot of mountain dew, at least five fights of whether you are spending enough time with your girlfriend, and absolutely no sleep. If you can do that though, this game will be a cake walk.
The final problem that I had in this game was really just something that I didn't enjoy personally. Throughout the story they constantly switch out a fourth person in your group. Really not that annoying unless you take the time to train the first one, then they steal him from you like the fourth character stealing whore Final Fantasy 2 is.
Other than those two issues I found the game rather enjoyable after a while. The storyline starts out slow but eventually it truly picks up and after that it will be hard to put the controller down. Final Fantasy 2 is a new land for us players who are truly adventurous but are just to lazy to go to taco bell to get a party pack to eat alone. It is a world so large that you WILL lose your ship and spend SO much time desperately trying to find it.
Leveling up problems aside, Final Fantasy 2 is a fantastic addition to the franchise and truly helped lay the foundations for the story lines and game play that we RPG players love from our Final Fantasy's.If you are a veteran then I recommend picking up the Playstation copy but if you are just interested in trying it out (because its kind of a ****) download an emulator.