A classic, no doubt, but too late in the game for me.

User Rating: 8 | Final Fantasy IV Easytype SNES
By mikerad81 | Review Date:
I can remember many arguments about videogames from the years that seemed to me the height of the conflict between the PS and the N64: Goldeneye vs. FFVII, Tomb Raider vs. Mario 64, Resident Evil vs. nothing, and the ever popular "Good lord, WHY didn't Nintendo go with the CD format?" The bit of trivial history I find more intriguing, however, was my early teen friend's and I's enduring fascination with our Super Nintendo's and the best SNES games. This list included many games, not least (and not the least debated) of which were Final Fantasy's 2 & 3 (knowing they were actually 4 & 6 was still a mark of distinction back then). It was a superiority contest I could not weigh in on, for I had played neither and can only now, a decade later, talk in hindsight about what are now recognized as "classic games."

I suppose that I can concede some points to the review of Final Fantasy 2 as part of the "Greatest Games" list, the chief of which was that it came first. Yes, it was the first to weave a labyrinthine story with characters unusually complex for a gaming cartridge. Yes, it's graphics were above the playing field for the time (but were they really on par with other early titles like Mario and Zelda?). And, sure, Meteo was pretty badass.

And thus the point of contention: can one really equate innovation with greatness? As someone who was deeply frustrated by my NES games as a child and deeply fascinated by SNES games, I am more inclined not to take a Ricky-Bobby-if-you-ain't-first-you're-last approach to thinking about video games. All this to say that I like later titles like FF3 and Chrono Trigger better and I want to own up to my bias.

All that being said, I did enjoy playing FF2, enough to play it for hours at a stretch on a couple of occasions. But, man, it was short. I guess if you're used to investing at least 40 hours in an RPG that it's disappointing to beat a "classic" in under 25 on your first time through. I was fighting the final boss and didn't even know it because I expected there to be so much more story coming. It made the ending anticlimactic.

And, as innovative as the story may have been, I did not find it engaging. I didn't care -that- much about Cecil, Rosa and the rest, but I do agree that Kain's ambiguity was deliciously maddening, and Tellah's bitter drive for revenge surprisingly human. It was cool to witness Cecil's initial crisis of conscience and subsequent turn for good, but after that, doesn't the story sort of plod from him doing one right thing to the next? Harry Potter experiences more moral conflict than that.

Please don't misunderstand me, because Final Fantasy 2 is a fun game and worth it if you want a simple diversion, but it doesn't hold a candle to what Square has accomplished since. I just didn't want to write about the game's standard positives and negatives, because, given its 16-yr history, I'm sure they've all been said.

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