The Masochists that Destroyed an Empire - Let's Play Final Fantasy II Advance

Table of Contents

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
Part VII
Part VIII
Part IX
Part X
Part XI
Part XII
Part XIII

LP Complete!

Ironman Challenge

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
Part VII
Part VIII
Part IX

Ironman Challenge Complete!

Guess what time it is? That's right, it's Final Fantasy II time!



Hey, get back here!

Final Fantasy II tends to get a bad rap, and it's not entirely undeserved. It sports a pretty poorly realized game system, though it contains a core concept that eventually evolved into the very model that JRPGs today are embracing: a departure from the standard "gain experience and levels to pass beef gates and continue the plot" model that RPGs have clung to for so long. Here's FF2 on paper:

Imagine an RPG where there are no levels. You don't grow in fixed intervals, you grow gradually and see results from your efforts after every single battle. But not just overall boosts to everything; no, your abilities grow based on how you play. Want to make a sword-wielding tank? You can do that! Want a powerful spellcaster? You can do that, too! Want a character who is a jack-of-all-trades? Completely possible! With a dozen weapon types to choose from and a huge number of spells, you'd be hard-pressed to call this game lacking in content!



Now let's look at the realities that bog FF2 down. The first and most egregious problem is that FF2 was confined to the limitations of the FF1 engine. Specifically, it's turn-based and round-based, with all results being tallied after battle. This, by far, was the biggest flaw in the system and the only flaw that they never tried to fix in any of the re-releases. In a real-time system, incremental growth of abilities over time for measurable returns can work, and indeed this is the basis of a number of later Squenix games (most notably Brave Fencer Musashi, though it does simplify the model quite a lot), and numerous WRPGs today (particularly the Elder Scrolls series).



The other problems with the system were mostly a product of the times, and a poor grasp of what made RPGs "fun". In the NES release, all levels of skill took 100 skill points to gain, and the most you could acquire per action was 2 (save for your first attacks against powerful enemies, but that only helped at relatively low skill levels, when you would never want to use those such underpowered options anyway). This was completely overhauled in the GBA release and now skill levels are tiered practically so that you can get your skills up to a level of not-terrible fairly quickly. Stats can also go down after a battle in accordance with their counterpoint stats going up (Strength and Spirit/Wisdom are opposed, most notably). This was done away with in the GBA version as well. And HP only had a chance of going up if you took enough damage in a fight, which meant your back-row characters were inevitably going to be weaklings. The GBA version tries to solve this by giving your party members HP boosts every 6 to 8 battles (nevermind that it does not do this to your Stamina, which still only goes up when you get hit and is the sole determinant of how much HP you get from those bonuses).



Out of all of the re-releases, I most recommend the GBA port (or the PSP port, as it's effectively an upscaled version of the GBA one with a little more needless optional content tacked on). So the GBA one is the one I'll be LPing, naturally. And in grand tradition (plus because the game is borderline-impossible otherwise), I will be breaking this sucker. HARD.



Before we can begin, however, we need names for our protagonists! Our cast includes:

* The stereotypical personality-free JRPG lead seen in most JRPGs until the SNES! (Canon name(s): Firion or Frioniel)
* The stereotypical personality-free JRPG female lead seen in most JRPGs until the PS1! (Canon name: Maria)
* The stereotypical personality-free brawn-over-brains tank seen in most JRPGs until the PS2! (Canon name(s): Guy or Gus)
* The stereotypical personality-free brooding emo guy seen in most JRPGs that have ever existed! (Canon name(s): Leon or Lionheart)

6 letters is the limit for each. Name 'em up, folks! The LP proper will start in 5 days with the four top-voted names.

Ziggy
OneCup
Beefy
Zapp

I'm going to break LPing tradition slightly here and cast my own votes for the main cast names. I'm quirky like that!

...
...?
...!
*sigh*

Yes, really.

Jerry
Elaine
George
Kramer

Frinel (Closest I can get to the actual name, cos Firion is lamesauce.)
Maria
Brick
Alcard

Perfect.

Oh, you mean SaGa Frontier?

Fixed that for you.

Not coincidentally, another Kawazu invention.

Fry
Leela
Zoidbg
Bender

(I mean, her hair is even purple!)

And so restarts the LP i left abandoned in a format people will actually read... Can't wait to see ya do it justice
... name Guy Beaver

Seconded.

I seem to be the only one on the internet who likes the name "Firion". I guess I'm weird!

Fun fact: The GBA ports of FFI and II were actually the first games I made an LP of, as one big thread. It... was pretty bad, to say the least (or the FFI portion was, anyway; the FFII portion was merely okay). It'll be nice to see someone with more experience make a proper LP of this game, especially since Sky Render seems to actually know how to break this game like it was meant to be.

As for names, I got nothin'. *shrug*

Lionheart should be Linhat.

Yep, this.

Male lead = Picard
Female lead = Janway
Brawn-over-brains = Kirk (or JTKirk)
Brooding & Emo = Sisko

Fourth'd?

Also, will you be breaking it in different ways than the old SA LP? I'll probably still follow it anyway, but it'd be nice to see something other than reducing every single enemy in the game into small amphibious life.

I've never read said SA LP of the game, but I can assure you that my main tactic is not and has never been relying on kill-spells constantly. Once I have what I need, those spells go by the wayside.

Wait, why does the turn-based format ruin the level-up style found in this game? Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song and SaGa 2 manage just fine.
THIS THIS THIS

I'm voting for this too. I've read LPs using Futurama names before, but I don't remember ever seeing a Seinfeld-themed one.

The Mother LP on SA almost went that route, but I think it works better here. So yeah, Seinfeld it up.

Having played neither of those, I had no real solid comparison base.

(Secretly hoping the Seinfeld names win over the Futurama ones. Mostly because, by some strange twist of fate, I have seen next to no episodes of Futurama. I have no idea how that happened!)

I was about to say that you should fix this, but I haven't really seen any Seinfeld myself. Considering that, I'll stifle my first impulse to give a "me too" vote to the futurama team.

I'm looking forward to this LP. I've played this game on a few different systems and I've found this version to be the least-irritating. I might almost call it fun.

SEINFELD SEINFELD SEINFELD

(seinfeld)

I also vote for the Seinfeld names.

I want to vote for the Seinfeldisms, but come on, George should totally be the emo.

Not that I like to see Kramer reduced to... Guy...

More importantly, do you guys really want George in your party for most of the game, and not Kramer?

yes

a thousand times yes

It's be much funnier in the originally suggested order, given how things turn out in FF2's plot. I could totally see Kramer accidentally supporting the guys trying to off his buddies and not realizing it until someone pointed it out to him later.