[Blade Raider]

I've finished my playthrough of Final Fantasy II (PSX edition). Seems that my PS2 has issues with reading just this disc. I've tried others and everything works (side note, I loaded the Armada game and Gundam Battle Assault 2 for the first time in years, they're still fun). Because of that, I did long play sessions in hopes of finishing it before the PS2 craps out completely.

Anyways, about the game itself, I'm a little mixed on it. The story surprisingly engaging at first. It's basically Star Wars, but for a NES game that's kind of impressive. You are a group of rebels that are sent on missions to fight the Empire. The plot fizzle outs toward the end. I also spotted similarities to FFIV's plot, though mostly just the same tropes being used more effectively.

That said,There is also a lot of backtracking in II, mainly to the rebel's base. I think it helped sometimes as a good way to not get lost when you weren't sure where to go next. This is the kind of game plot I give credit for effort mainly due to the time it was made.

One of the more engaging things is the Keyword system. Some NPCs will say words in red. You can memorize those words, ask them about those words, or use items. Rather than the NPC just telling everything about says Dargoons, they'll just mention them and you have to memorize the word and then ask about Dargoons or maybe they don't know and you have to ask someone else. I've seen Western RPGs do this sort of thing with choices, but those all become convoluted very quickly. This is a simple version of that that only does what the it's suppose to, keep the player engaged in what being said. I wish Square tried to use this more, but then I remember how convoluted modern FFs are. Also, there's a bookcase that you can use most of the Keywords on to learn more about them.

As for the battle system, I think there's a good battle system here, but it's a mess. The idea is stats go up as they're used in battle (or menu for some things) and this gets rid of "Levels." The problem is it doesn't get rid of levels, it adds more. Instead of increasing the character's Level, you now have to level each stat one by one. There are 10 Attributes (HP, STR, etc.), 8 weapons (including unarmed and shield), and 16 Spells (there's more spells, but characters can only have 16 max). This would be fine if some weren't a pain in the ass to level.

The saving grace of this game's battle system are the 2 weapons that might be the 2 most broken things in Final Fantasy. The Blood Sword and Healing Staff. The Blood Sword will always hit for a precentage of the monster's MAX HP. Not current HP, but max. This means high HP bosses are easier than a lot random encounters. And you get 2 of that sword. Meanwhile, if the Healing Staff is used on a party member, they are healed. If the character has a good staff level, it will heal more HP than any spell could hope to in this game.

All in all, FFII was an experiment that went badly. I feel this game is mostly forgotten because later games followed up on every concept in this game and did it better...except the Keyword system. I kind of wish another FF title tried again with that.