Recommended
A buffed rock with some real shine, but not quite a diamond
I have always overlooked Final Fantasy II so its pixel remaster was a great time to finally sit down and play it all the way through. Having just come off of FF1’s pixel remaster, there are some pretty noticeable differences between the two entries, though the soundtrack still carries a lot of the same DNA as the original, and honestly, that’s completely fine by me. This entry also introduced a surprising number of characters and enemies I never realized got their start here, like the Behemoth and the Iron Giant, and it was fun discovering those roots.
The magic system is a clear step up over the original, swapping out the fixed number of leveled spells for an MP based system that feels more natural to manage. That said, I still prefer how later entries handle things, since FF2 forces you to always use the most expensive version of a spell, and that spell only levels up the more you use it. In practice, that means your favorite spells end up being your most costly ones by default, which feels a little backwards compared to what came later.
Keywords and key items also get their own colored text, which makes it much easier to pick out what actually matters and adds a bit of variety to the dialogue. That same clarity carries over to directions as well, which feel a little easier to follow at times, though not dramatically so. The tradeoff on the keyword side is that it introduces an awkward keyword collecting system that I doubt anyone would call their favorite part of the game.
A couple of things landed more in the middle for me. Some status effects clear automatically once you exit battle, while others persist, and it’s not always clear which fall into which category. Poison and venom are a good example of this, since one resolves after combat while the other doesn’t, despite feeling like they should behave the same way. On top of that, Esuna and Basuna both exist as separate cures for these kinds of ailments, which feels like unnecessary bloat when one unified fix would have done the job just fine.
On the downside, while the weapon leveling system feels pretty satisfying in the early stages, it turns into a genuine slog once you push past rank 8. There’s also a noticeable amount of small, square, mostly empty rooms tucked behind doors that exist just to pad out transitions. It feels like a byproduct of the era, reusing assets to stretch the world out rather than filling it with meaningful content. That said, there are some genuinely cool areas scattered throughout that break away from the usual cave, castle, or dungeon formula.
Overall, the pixel remaster deserves a lot of credit for making Final Fantasy II a genuinely enjoyable experience, quirks and all.