The Battle System: Insufficiencies and Irritations

I began FF2 with a lot of optimisim for the proposed battle system. Rather than the rigid class structure of FF1 we're given a "mold your own characters" system that allows any character to  use any weapon, piece of armor, or spell that you want them to, and rewards your battle strategies with stat gain that reflect your play style. How far from the truth these claims turned out to be.

To begin with, while you can most certainly equip any character with any combination of weapons, armor, etc., certain characters seem predisposed to gaining certain stats with greater ease. I set out early to turn Maria into a beefy warrior (just to play with the gender conventions a little) and found that, in spite of my efforts, Gus' strength, endurance, and hit points continued to rise faster and more easily than Maria's, making it quickly impossible for her to keep up with him in damage. Yes, this could probably be fixed with eteremely focused training, but the time that would take simply isn't worth it to me. If Maria naturally likes being a white magic user so be it.

Secondly, the "stat gains" that you theoretically get for performining different actions in combat are extremely arbitrary, and often have hidden requirements. For istance, according to the manual your characters gain HP by taking damage in battle. What the manual doesn't tell you is that in order to recieve an HP increase the character in question must take damage greater than or equal to half of his max HP. Obviously this happens less frequently as the game progresses. More HP and better defence naturally equal a lower probability of taking enough damage to gain HP. How do you solve this? Since your characters often deal far more damage than any enemy, you usually end up having to hit yourself in the face in order to do enough damage to cause an increase. The same concept applies to MP increase, which also require you to expend half of your max to get a boost. The end result is that you'll spend a good deal of time grinding stats in battle, pureposfully encountering lower level enemies and then ignoring them while you attack yourself and waste your MP casting spells that don't serve any purpose. Its tedious and boring.

What about spells and weapons, you say. Yes, spells and weapons gain experience through use and need to be used in order to become more powerful. Guess what. You'll get to grind for these too. A glitch in the game mechanics allows you to select an action (attack, for example) and confirm a target, and then cancel the action and still recieve points towards that weapon (or spell). So you'll find yourself going into battle, queueing up attacks, canceling, repeating, repeating, repeating, until your head explodes. You can also only do this with three out of your four characters (confirming a target with your fourth character intiates the attack round, with no chance to canel) leading to a constant strength imbalance between your three primary characters and whoever is currently filling your fourth spot. (If there's a way to reorder the characters I haven't found it yet.)

No, ladies and gentleman, the battle system here is a well conceived but terribly executed plan that breaks down at fundamental levels and leaves you with no option but to waste time grinding if you ever want to get anywhere. Trying to level your stats, weapons, and spells the natural way would take centuries. Use the cheats, grind until you can't stand it anymore, and then focus on beating the game. Bah humbug.

The Ship

After destroying the Dreadnought, Princess Hilda will ask that you travel by ship to the island where the Dragoons live. For those who aren't familiar, Dragoons, also known as Dragon Knights are soliders who've mastered the ability to communicate with and to fight from the back of a drake or dragon. In this case the Dragoons live on an island with the Wind Drakes, and Princess Hilda feels they will be a valueable ally in the fight with the Emporer.

Hed to Paloom and you'll encounter a butsy wench who's willing to sell you passage to the island. Unsurprisingly she turns out to be a pirate and tries to plunder all of your belongings. Beat the snot out of her and she'll change her tune, agreeing to join your party and turn over control of the ship to yours truly. Congratulations!

If you want to circumvent some of the tedious nature of the game you can take the ship and sail straight for Mystidia, which is roughly south west of Atlair. Farther west than south. If you choose to do so note that the monster's you'll encounter on the land while trying to reach the town will crush you, and you're only real hope is to run from every battle and pray you reach the town in time. That said, Mystidia sells weapons, armor, and spells that far surpass anything you're going to find for many more hours of gameplay. Its all very expenseive, though, so stock up on gil before going.

Taking down the Dreadnought

Blowing up your advesary's airship is a decidely satisfying experience, and one that you should savor. You'll need the Pass key item in order to gain access, if you missed it its back in the sewer where the dark knight thwarted your first attempt to board the vessel. Once you've obtained it the guard on duty will let you passed without a fight.

 Its safe to assume that, just as in Fynn, talking to any of the soldiers onboard will cause a battle that you can't possibly win, but as long as you don't bother them they won't bother you. Silence is golden. Sadly the same tactic doesn't apply to the regular enemies on board, you'll have to slog through them they way that you always have. There is a high prevelance of undead, so fire spells and/or weapons will ease your passage. A good deal of treasure is scattered about the ship, including one chest that requires you to find a secret passage in order to obtain it. Good luck. :)

There is no Boss in the traditional sense, but when entering the reactor room you'll discover three chests, one of which contains a monster in addition to its booty. Said monster is a Hill Gigas, and may prove more difficult than a traditional boss if you're not prepared. He deals out massive amounts of damage, so be prepared to cast sheild and blink as quickly as possible. He also takes very little in the way of physical damage,  but is not weak to a particular element of magic either. I found that casting Berserk on your strongest physical attacker seemed to yeild the most damage. The Beserk scroll drops from the Ogre mages that you been killing recently.

The last point of value on the Dreadnought arises from a chance encounter. As you throw the Sunfire into the reacter you'll see, across the flames from you, the Dark Knight who formerly foiled your destructive impluses. Maria wonders if the Dark Knight is actually Leon, her missing brother, but Firion argues that they don't have time to worry about it right now. Hurray plot developement.

FF2 - A Beginning

I've spent about 8 hours with FF2 so far and I can scarecely believe the incredible difference between this game and its predecessor. Gone is the rigid class system that dominated FF1 (though it will continue to crop up in later games throughout the series,) and in its place is are crisp, distinct characters with unique personalities and a detailed history.

The opening sqeuence that follows starting a "new game" clearly explains the primary story concept, that the empire of Palamecia has conquered and razed the kindgom of Fynn, and establishes the characters personal relationships as childhood friends who grew up living on the outskirts of the city. After their parents are killed in the fires that destoryed the city the kids are quick to enlist in the Wildroses, a rebel faction made up of remnants from Fynn and sympathizers from the nearby kingdom of Kas'ion.

This clear conception of what's at stake in the game is something that was sorely missing from the first installment, and the character's interpersonal relationships (they actually talk to each other this time) adds a welcome depth. Toss in the introduction of Chocobos, the first appearance of the air pilot Cid, and the origns of a combat system that requires players to actually use their skills in order to become stronger and we've got the foundations for a great game.

FF2 much more closely resembles my expectations based on my experience with the series, and I'm more than a little excited to see what else it the game has to offer.