FFII – Why the hate?

OK, I am seriously having trouble understanding what people didn’t like about this game. I can understand that the battle system was a little weird but does it really deserve all the hate it gets just because of it?

I was just checking out this other thread where people posted their best and worst FF and most of the answers for the worst were II! Why? Please tell me why you hate it so much.

FO DA LULZ

I suppose it’s because it’s a not very memorable game.
I found it a little plain, but I still liked it better than many other FF games.

The battle system wasn’t bad, it’s the execution that made it bad & it’s full of bugs, but it’s a little fun. What kills me of II it’s the Random Encounters, 2 steps for every battle.

About it’s storyline, it’s a decent evolution, I mean from the 4 warriors of destiny that save the world from evil to what proposes II, it’s OK.

I don’t hate II, in fact I think is one of the best FF out there. The weird battle system is attractive.

Maybe it’s hated because they don’t understand fully why the game is like that, plus there’s no classes in the game.

Oh! I was forgetting something very important, THE KEY WORD SYSTEM, now that is something that makes the game stupid xD.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind reminds me a lot to FFII.

Veredict: The game was very experimental in a lot of ways, it didn’t result well & in the remakes/port they didn’t do anything to fix or to make it a little better. It’s hard for the regular gamer to see this perspective, maybe that’s why it’s hated.

The keyword system was what put me off for the longest time :O But I really can’t see anyone hating this game, unless the battle system was just too much for them. I’ve beaten it, and found the challenge to be welcome. I love that the game has this certain charm to it; you know its intentions as far as the story, but sometimes you have to kind of fill in the gaps yourself. I dunno, I guess the best way to put it is, it’s easy to see what was so endearing about games back then, before it all became about ‘looking cool’.

Wow there isn’t as much hate as I thought.

I’ve never really seen II as a hated game; it’s challenging, and a lot of players might not be up for the challenge, but as long as they are it’s got plenty to offer 😀 I, II, and III are all increasingly difficult and they all just have this retro-y goodness to them, no matter which version you’re playing, that the only reason I can see people hating them is if they’re so spoiled by the relative ease of later titles such as VII, IX and X that the thought of playing a game that really exercises their skills is repulsive :O

I loved the battle system AND the keyword system AND the plot. I’m glad to hear that I’m not alone. *Plays "You’re Not Alone" on iPod*

I really don’t get the hate about it, either. I liked it better than FFIII DS, which was…meh. But I’ll save that rant for another topic.

Oh believe me, it’s the most ignored-underrated-hated FF game out there.

I like how you leave out VIII, while I consider it the easiest FF game ever…

Edit: Referring to Centercore7989

I wasn’t really intentionally leaving it out, I was just naming them as they came to mind in terms of personal difficulty for me. I’ve never completed VIII, because I find its battle system to be very frustrating, but that’s not why I didn’t include it.

I wasn’t really intentionally leaving it out, I was just naming them as they came to mind in terms of personal difficulty for me. I’ve never completed VIII, because I find its battle system to be very frustrating, but that’s not why I didn’t include it.

FFVIII battle system is a failure because monsters lvl with you, but once you master the Junction System, you can easily finish the game without thinking & without any effort.

I hated that part of the game; I like to know, Okay, ‘this’ part of the world map houses weak enemies, while ‘this’ part holds more formidable ones. It’s a change, and I like change, but I also like to be able to complete a game. I dunno, I’m just a total FFVIII noob to this day, and I really need to get back to play it and actually play it right this time.

I only hate FFII because party members join you only to die.
Otherwise it wasn’t all too bad.

Yes, but even though they die, you still get to play as them, in Dawn of Rebirth. I mean, what other game do you have a party of dead people? That was pretty cool. Also, not all guest party members had the same fate – Leila survived.

Also, before Ricard died, I gave him not one but two Masamunes (I had 10 of them from the Toad games). I pretty much killed everything in Dawn of Rebirth from when I recruited him to the Emperor himself. Too bad Josef sucked ass because I never leveled any stats up or taught him any magic in the actual game. Dunno why I didn’t. Maybe because he was butt-ugly?

It’s hard.

CUZ IT SUCKS

CUZ IT SUCKS

and
:noonecares:

…
Oh! I was forgetting something very important, THE KEY WORD SYSTEM, now that is something that makes the game stupid xD.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind reminds me a lot to FFII.

…
That’s true. If they had made use of the keyword system like it is in Morrowind, it might have been better as far as that.

CUZ IT SUCKS

^What he said.

I can understand that the battle system was a little weird
A little? The most effective way to "level up" in FFII is to go into an easy battle near an inn and repeatedly select and cancel commands (you don’t have to actually hit an enemy for the game to count it as a hit), heal your enemies (to use magic and increase your MP and magic stat), and damage your own characters (to increase your HP after every battle). If that’s not a broken battle system, I don’t know what is.

but does it really deserve all the hate it gets just because of it?
Yes, yes it does.

Sounds like you guys played one of the improved ports. Try playing the original, and just try to convince yourself that you like that game.

a game that really exercises their skills
Well, if you consider enduring mind-numbing tedium to be a skill, then yeah…

Seriously, skill? To beat a Final Fantasy game? What?

A little? The most effective way to "level up" in FFII is to go into an easy battle near an inn and repeatedly select and cancel commands (you don’t have to actually hit an enemy for the game to count it as a hit), heal your enemies (to use magic and increase your MP and magic stat), and damage your own characters (to increase your HP after every battle). If that’s not a broken battle system, I don’t know what is.

While it does seem strange, personally I never used any of the "tricks" you mentioned and I had a perfectly normal playthrough.

Sounds like you guys played one of the improved ports. Try playing the original, and just try to convince yourself that you like that game.

I have. The original is probably pretty bad as you say, but it’s not like the remakes are getting much attention either. I’ll give it a try if I can.

A little? The most effective way to "level up" in FFII is to go into an easy battle near an inn and repeatedly select and cancel commands (you don’t have to actually hit an enemy for the game to count it as a hit), heal your enemies (to use magic and increase your MP and magic stat), and damage your own characters (to increase your HP after every battle). If that’s not a broken battle system, I don’t know what is.

Yes, yes it does.

Sounds like you guys played one of the improved ports. Try playing the original, and just try to convince yourself that you like that game.

Well, if you consider enduring mind-numbing tedium to be a skill, then yeah…

Seriously, skill? To beat a Final Fantasy game? What?

Yes, skill. Some of us aren’t FF masters afterall.

A little? The most effective way to "level up" in FFII is to go into an easy battle near an inn and repeatedly select and cancel commands (you don’t have to actually hit an enemy for the game to count it as a hit), heal your enemies (to use magic and increase your MP and magic stat), and damage your own characters (to increase your HP after every battle). If that’s not a broken battle system, I don’t know what is.

That’s not a broken Battle System, that’s a bugged game, which is different.

That’s not a broken Battle System, that’s a bugged game, which is different.
It’s not bugged. To use HP as an example, it’s programmed so that you get more max HP the more damage you take in a battle, regardless of how you take the damage. This means that the most efficient way to increase your HP is to enter a battle with weak enemies, and just hit your own characters. And it doesn’t even matter if this was intentional or not, it makes for a pretty terrible game either way. If you choose to not increase your stats in the most efficient way, that would be to put an artificial restriction on yourself in order to make the game harder, like a no materia challenge in FFVII. If you don’t like the materia system in FFVII, or think materia makes the game too easy, it doesn’t actually make FFVII better if you choose to play the game without using materia. Increasing your max HP in FFII by waiting for enemies to attack you instead of just hitting yourself to speed up the process would be like choosing to grind against enemies that give less EXP instead of enemies that give more EXP.

Yes, skill. Some of us aren’t FF masters afterall.
But just completing a Final Fantasy game normally doesn’t actually require anything I would call skill. Grinding for hours upon hours requires patience, but I wouldn’t call it skill. Doing challenges that limit you to a certain level, or certain equipment/abilities often requires some skill, but beating FFII normally just requires a bit of patience.

Try telling yunalesca there is no skill involved in FF. Damn she was tough.

Plus grinding levels is boring and I avoid it a lot because I game to have fun.

Try telling yunalesca there is no skill involved in FF. Damn she was tough.

Plus grinding levels is boring and I avoid it a lot because I game to have fun.

I don’t know how, but I managed to best Yunalesca in one try; first time I’d ever done it, too. In my case that wasn’t skill, but rather luck. But there’s plenty of battles that require skill, such as planning your strategy and executing it based around your enemies’ attributes and own personal tactics. It’s not all about leveling up to demigod status and just one-hit killing everything. Wtf is the point? That’s not only pointless, but it completely ruins the experience. But, apparently that’s how some people play, so to each their own.

Yunalesca must be the only boss that took me 2 tries instead of one 🙂

I beat Spectral Keeper, Yunalesca, and Sanctuary Keeper all in the first try :O I think somebody’d snuck a little Red Bull into my cereal that morning 😀

who thinks that the hate towards this game is unfair?

It’s not that I hate the game, but it certainly threw me off guard. Especially since you’re about five tiles away from certain doom.

But the gamebreaking leveling system(that they fixed in the ported version) was muy helpful tbh.

I just wanted to add, I think FFII it was a necessary step into the evolution of FF in general.

FFII was a bit annoying at first, considering how the leveling system works in the game. Once you get the hang of it though, it does work in the end.

FFII was a bit annoying at first, considering how the leveling system works in the game. Once you get the hang of it though, it does work in the end.

To be honest, it kind of feels like the most ‘natural’ leveling system to me. While I do prefer the games which stick to predetermined character classes, it’s easy to immerse yourself into FFII because your transformation from an archer into a melee attacker isn’t instantaneous like with FFI, FFIII, and FFV’s job class system; you have to work hard to build up your strengths in various areas.

Greeting snad salutations. I started playing FFII a couple months ago then got distracted and while waiting fo rsomeoen to finally bring me my copy of FF12 (yes 12, not 13) I decided to pick it up again.

I’m not quite done yet. I have to get through Pandemonium but I figure I can comment on a few things.

1. I have no problem with the leveling system. It makes sense. You only get physically stronger by using your physical attacks and you only get magically stronger by casting spells.
Sensible.

2. What’s with people telling me you don’t really need magic in this game? Some bosses can pretty much shrug off physical attacks and others can deal sick physical damage. Without Protect and my Level 10 Fire and Blizzard, I’d be majorly fucked many times.

3. This game has some great music.

Rebel Alliance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRpqv0LaMbY)
Ancient Castle (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UTFx62k_Qc)
Battle Theme (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVU9un_8RcA&feature=PlayList&p=BA263E218EFBEC97&index=1)

4. The story is decent. Not much character development but the plot is presented well.

5. The best character is Leon.
The worst is Ricard. Fucking worthless Ricard.

Overall, I don’t see why it’s hated. FF1 and 3 sound like they’re the worst.

Yes exactly! FFII is a good game!

Also Ancient Castle is my favorite track from the soundtrack.

Greeting snad salutations. I started playing FFII a couple months ago then got distracted and while waiting fo rsomeoen to finally bring me my copy of FF12 (yes 12, not 13) I decided to pick it up again.

I’m not quite done yet. I have to get through Pandemonium but I figure I can comment on a few things.

1. I have no problem with the leveling system. It makes sense. You only get physically stronger by using your physical attacks and you only get magically stronger by casting spells.
Sensible.

2. What’s with people telling me you don’t really need magic in this game? Some bosses can pretty much shrug off physical attacks and others can deal sick physical damage. Without Protect and my Level 10 Fire and Blizzard, I’d be majorly fucked many times.

3. This game has some great music.

Rebel Alliance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRpqv0LaMbY)
Ancient Castle (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UTFx62k_Qc)
Battle Theme (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVU9un_8RcA&feature=PlayList&p=BA263E218EFBEC97&index=1)

4. The story is decent. Not much character development but the plot is presented well.

5. The best character is Leon.
The worst is Ricard. Fucking worthless Ricard.

Overall, I don’t see why it’s hated. FF1 and 3 sound like they’re the worst.

x2

(except I do like Ricard.)

Why hate Final Fantasy games before Final Fantasy X. Final Fantasy XIII, was far worst than Final Fantasy II, hell, it didn’t even feel like Final fantasy anymore when i first played it, it was so bad and unrecognizable i had to turn it back in to Gamestop and get a refund because

IT SUCKED! and go ahead and argue with me about Final Fantasy XIII for the PS3 or Xbox 360, it didn’t have that Final Fantasy feeling every Fan craves for.

Lets hope for the best for Final Fantasy Versus.

Very nice soundtrack, FFII has.

Grinding is such a monotonous chore.