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Final Fantasy II review

Check out our review of Final Fantasy II - an iPhone port of the classic RPG with improved graphics and gameplay

Final Fantasy 2 for the iPhone

Published on Mar 2, 2010

Chances are if you’re reading this review you’ve already sampled the delights of the first Final Fantasy title, which hit the App Store at exactly the same time as this lesser-known follow-up.

While the debut title was lucky enough to see the light of day in North American way back in the late ‘80s this iPhone re-imagining of the 1988 sequel is likely to be less familiar to fans because the game on which it is based was never published outside of Japan in its original 8-bit incarnation, and only got translated into English when it was ported to Sony’s 32-bit PlayStation console in 2002.

Compared to the first title Final Fantasy II is both alike and wildly different; the updated 2D visuals are just as eye-catching and to be honest there really is very little to choose between the two when it comes to raw aesthetic charm. Retro-heads will adore the cute look of the characters and positively swoon over the old-school locations and hand-drawn backgrounds.

In terms of gameplay Final Fantasy II is quite a daring deviation from its predecessor. The tried-and-tested formula of gaining experience points to boost your character’s statistics – represented by level ranks - has been modified to create a system where the more you do something, the better you become at that task.

For example, if one of your group happens to use magic attacks more than melee tactics then that particular character will become especially adept with arcane spells, whereas a party member who adopts the exact opposite approach will eventually turn into a battle-hardened warrior.

Likewise, to expand the amount of damage your party can take you have to make sure they get a sound beating every so often. Clever players will exploit this system to artificially boost the power of their characters; for example, you can have your own party members attack each other in order to push up their maximum health points.

Even if you decide to play the game as honestly as possible the lack of structured progression makes it difficult to determine what skill level your party is at and this can lead to moments where you venture off into sections of the game world before you’re really ready for the challenge. True to its roots, Final Fantasy II features random enemy encounters and these can catch you out if your party is both unprepared and inexperienced.

All things considered, Final Fantasy II’s experience system is a bizarrely illogical and doesn’t quite work as well as it should; it’s unsurprising that Square reverted back to a more traditional level-based experience system for subsequent titles in the series (although a similar approach would reappear in 1997’s Final Fantasy Tactics).

Putting aside this fairly radical change to the gameplay, everything else is very much as it was in the previous iPhone update. Controlling the action is achieved via a combination of touch-screen taps and a virtual D-pad and button setup, and while it never manages to reach the slickness of the GBA or PSP re-releases, you’ll never find yourself cursing the interface.

When you consider that this is possibly the first opportunity that many iPhone gamers will have had to experience this famous sequel you might assume that it would rank as a must-have purchase, but the unbalanced experience system manages to sully the good work done elsewhere.

If you’re undecided about which title to go for then we’d recommend you download the first Final Fantasy before attempting to play this. The original is a better game all-round and if you like what you see then you can always give this sequel a go – but just don’t go expecting a similarly enjoyable RPG romp, because Final Fantasy II sits very much in the shadow of its illustrious forebear.