Final Fantasy II is a role-playing video game made and sold by Square for the Family Computer in 1988. It is the second game in the Final Fantasy series. The game was later released on WonderSwan Color, PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation Portable, and mobile phones. At first, it was only available in Japan, but later versions were sold worldwide, including the 2021 Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster edition. The story follows a warrior named Firion and his friends as they fight against the growing Palamecian Empire. The game’s play style is similar to the original, with exploration of open areas and dungeons, but the combat system was changed to a growth system where characters become stronger based on how they are used or obtained.
The game was created after the success of Final Fantasy. The team used a new setting to make the game easier for players. Key members included Hironobu Sakaguchi, who started the series, as director; Akitoshi Kawazu as designer; Nasir Gebelli as programmer; Yoshitaka Amano as artist; Kenji Terada as writer; and Nobuo Uematsu as composer. The team wanted to make the game different from the first Final Fantasy, including a story inspired by The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and a redesigned combat system. Kawazu created the growth system, but later said the team changed the game too much from the original.
When it was released, Final Fantasy II received very good reviews in Japan. Later reviews praised its stronger story compared to the first Final Fantasy but noted that its progression system made it one of the most controversial games in the series. By 2003, the game sold over one million copies worldwide. Final Fantasy II introduced important elements that became common in the series, such as chocobos and the character Cid. Because of negative feedback, the next game, Final Fantasy III (1990), returned to the original combat system. Kawazu later used his growth system in the SaGa series, starting with Makai Toushi Sa・Ga (1989) for the Game Boy.
Gameplay
Final Fantasy II has gameplay similar to its earlier game, Final Fantasy. Players can explore an open world with towns and dungeons. A menu system lets players equip characters with gear and assign up to two items for battle. Magic spells are chosen from the item menu, and some spells, like "Cure," can be used outside of battles. Players can save their progress on the overworld. Items, weapons, armor, and spells are available for purchase in shops, and townspeople offer helpful information for completing the game. A new feature called the "Word Memory" system allows players to ask non-player characters (NPCs) about and remember special words or phrases during conversations. These phrases can later be used with other NPCs to gain more information or unlock actions. Some special items can also be shown to NPCs or used on objects during conversations, with the same effects. In battles, characters and monsters are no longer shown in separate windows as in the first game. Players can see their current and total hit points below the battle screen. Players can also fight with fewer than four characters in their party, which was not possible in the first game. Final Fantasy II introduced the chocobo, a well-known mascot that lets characters ride quickly without being attacked. The character Cid was also introduced and has appeared in every main-series game since.
On the overworld and in dungeons, players can fight random enemies to improve character abilities. Unlike the original Final Fantasy, players cannot change their characters' classes. This game is one of the few in the series that does not use experience-based levels. Instead, characters grow based on the actions they take during battles. For example, characters who use a specific weapon often become better at using it and gain more strength and accuracy. Attributes include hit points (HP), magic points (MP), magic power, stamina, strength, spirit, agility, intelligence, and evasion. HP and MP increase when used; a character who takes heavy damage may gain more maximum HP, while one who uses a lot of MP may gain more maximum MP. This system had unintended effects, such as players making characters attack each other or cast spells repeatedly to grow their abilities quickly. Final Fantasy II uses the same turn-based battle system as the original game, with parties of up to four characters. The game introduces a "back row" in battles, where characters or enemies are mostly immune to physical attacks but can be harmed by bows or magic.
Plot
Final Fantasy II is set in a fantasy world divided into several countries, including the Palamecian Empire and the kingdom of Fynn. During the game, the Palamecian Empire aggressively expands, conquering or destroying nearby lands such as the kingdom of Kashuan and the dragoon homeland of Deist. A rebellion is formed to stop the Empire’s expansion, with its base located at Fynn Castle. The game’s starting event is an attack by the Empire that destroys Fynn Castle and the surrounding town.
Final Fantasy II features four main characters and several other characters that the player controls briefly. The main characters are Firion (called "Frioniel" in the Japanese version), a young warrior; his childhood friend Maria; Guy, a man raised by wolves who later becomes friends with Firion and Maria; and Leon, Maria’s brother and a temporary ally of the Empire. Other important characters include Hilda, leader of the rebel army; Minwu, a mage who helps Hilda’s family; Gordon, the heir to the throne of Kashuan; Josef, a villager in Salamand; Leila, a pirate who joins the rebellion later; and Ricard Highwind, the last surviving dragoon. The main enemy is the Emperor of Palamecia, a powerful mage who wants to conquer the world and summons monsters from Hell to achieve this.
Firion, Maria, Guy, and Leon are attacked by soldiers from the Palamecian Empire and left for dead. They are rescued by Princess Hilda, who has set up a rebel base in the town of Altair after her kingdom of Fynn was invaded by the Emperor. Hilda refuses their request to join the rebellion because they are too young and inexperienced. The three travel to Fynn to search for Leon and find a dying Prince Scott of Kashuan, Hilda’s fiancé, who tells them that a former nobleman named Borghen betrayed the rebellion and joined the Empire. The group returns to Altair to inform Hilda, who allows them to join the rebellion and sends them north to find mythril, a strong metal that could be used to make powerful weapons. The group travels north to the occupied village of Salamand, where they save the villagers forced to work in nearby mines, kill Borghen, and retrieve the mythril.
For their next mission, the group is sent to the city of Bafsk to stop the construction of a large airship called the Dreadnought. However, the airship takes off just as they arrive. After obtaining the Sunfire, a weapon that can destroy the Dreadnought, they watch helplessly as an airship carrying Hilda is captured by the Dreadnought. When the Dreadnought lands to gather supplies, the group rescues Hilda and throws the Sunfire into the airship’s engine. Before escaping the explosion, they meet a dark knight that Maria recognizes as Leon.
On his deathbed, the king of Fynn asks the group to seek help from the dragoons of Deist, who were thought to be extinct. There, they find only a mother and her son, learning that most of the dragoons are dead due to poison used by the Empire. After placing an egg of the last wyvern in a cavern, the group returns to Altair and discovers that the Hilda they rescued is a lamia in disguise. They defeat the imposter and save the real Hilda before reclaiming Fynn from the Empire. The group then travels west to find a powerful magic item, joining forces with the last surviving dragoon. When they return to Fynn, they find many towns destroyed by a cyclone summoned by the Emperor. The group calls upon the newly born wyvern to travel to a castle inside the cyclone, where they confront and kill the Emperor. Everyone celebrates the Empire’s defeat until a wounded Fynn soldier arrives and reveals that Leon has taken the throne and plans to destroy the rebels with the Empire’s army.
The group enters the castle of Palamecia and confronts Leon. The Emperor reappears in a new demonic form, revealing he has become the ruler of Hell and plans to destroy the world. Ricard sacrifices himself to allow the group to escape with Leon and the wyvern. Palamecia Castle transforms into Pandaemonium, the capital of Hell. Leon agrees to help the group seal the Emperor away. The group travels to the Jade Passage, an underground tunnel to the underworld, and finds the portal to Pandaemonium, where they finally defeat the Emperor. Afterward, Leon chooses to leave, but Firion assures him he will be welcomed back if he returns.
In the Dawn of Souls, a special story follows the spirits of Minwu, Josef, Scott, and Ricard as they arrive in Arubboth, the palace of Heaven and twin to Pandaemonium. There, they meet the spirits of those killed by the Empire. They reach the top of Arubboth and find the Emperor’s "light side," which split from his dark counterpart in Pandaemonium when Firion killed him. The light side offers them eternal life in exchange for forgiveness, but visions of their loved ones show that the Light Emperor is also evil. The group defeats the Light Emperor, and their spirits visit the living world one last time to watch the celebrations before fading away.
Development
Production of Final Fantasy II started after the success of the original Final Fantasy. The game's developer and publisher, Square, made more copies of the first game to help fund the sequel. According to Akitoshi Kawazu, after the first game was released, the team wanted to create something new. The staff grew slightly compared to the first game, but the team remained small, with about ten people. Hironobu Sakaguchi, the series creator, was the director, and Kawazu worked with Hiromichi Tanaka and Koichi Ishii on the design. Masafumi Miyamoto, who was the founder and former president of Square, was the producer. Nasir Gebelli, a programmer from the first game, returned but had to leave to go back to Sacramento, California, because his visa expired. The team brought equipment with them to finish the game with him.
Yoshitaka Amano returned to create character, monster, and promotional art. Like the first game, Amano used black-and-white ink drawings to design monster concepts. Kazuko Shibuya was responsible for designing all the sprite art, though other artists also helped with monster designs. A notable addition was the Chocobo, designed by Ishii based on a chicken he had as a pet as a child. When Ishii first suggested the Chocobo as a constant companion for the party, Sakaguchi rejected the idea and instead used it as a mount. Another creature, the Moogle, was designed by Ishii but was not included in the final game because there was no place for them in the story. Their sprite art was later redesigned as a different enemy. During production, disagreements happened among the team because adding too many monsters made it hard to complete a finished version of the game.
Kenji Terada returned as the scenario writer. He mentioned that some members of Square were hesitant to make the game a numbered sequel because it did not continue the world or story of the original. The team decided to include some elements from the first game, such as crystals, while creating a new story so players could buy the game without confusion. Sakaguchi said he created the initial idea for the game after watching The Empire Strikes Back (1980), using the concept of a rebel group fighting an evil empire. Terada wrote the script based on a request from a young staff member for a story that would make people emotional. He focused on complex human relationships. One character who became a recurring figure was Cid, an engineer created to be wise and intelligent, similar to Yoda from Star Wars.
Using lessons from the first game, which focused on fitting story ideas into a new gameplay system and world, the developers first created the story for Final Fantasy II. Then, gameplay was built around the story. Sakaguchi said the combat system was Kawazu's idea. The usage-based growth system was created to match the story-driven style, allowing players to naturally develop into certain classes instead of choosing them at the start. He disliked the unpredictable nature of experience point systems and wanted something more unique for players. The goal was to make a game different from the original, but Kawazu later said the team became too focused on this goal and had to return to a traditional model for later games. He also said he was the only one who understood the system among the staff.
The music for Final Fantasy II was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, who also worked on the original game. Like the first game, Uematsu had limited sound channels on the Famicom and had to work around space limits for the number of songs he could include. He said the restriction to three-note chords on the Famicom helped spark his creativity. A notable theme was the music played when characters rode the Chocobo, which was later used in different styles in future games.
The music was later arranged by Tsuyoshi Sekito for the WonderSwan Color, PlayStation, and Game Boy Advance remakes. Though the two soundtracks were created separately, the soundtrack for Final Fantasy II has only been released together with the soundtrack for Final Fantasy I. They were first published as All Sounds of Final Fantasy I•II in 1989 and republished in 1994. An arranged album titled Symphonic Suite Final Fantasy was also released in 1989. A combined soundtrack for the PlayStation versions of the games, Final Fantasy & Final Fantasy II Original Soundtrack, was released in 2002 and re-released in 2004. The music from Final Fantasy II has also appeared in official concerts and live albums, such as 20020220 Music from Final Fantasy, a live recording of an orchestra performing music from the series, including pieces from the game. Additionally, songs from the game were performed as part of a medley by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra during the Distant Worlds – Music from Final Fantasy concert tour, and another medley was performed by the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra during the Tour de Japon: Music from Final Fantasy concert series.
Release
Final Fantasy II was released on December 17, 1988, close to the same date as the original game from the previous year. The original version was later released on several systems in Japan, including Nintendo's Virtual Console platform for the Wii (June 16, 2009) and the Wii U (December 11, 2013).
After the successful release of the original Final Fantasy in North America by Nintendo in 1990, Square's North American branch began working on an English version of Final Fantasy II, titled Final Fantasy II: Dark Shadow Over Palakia. Kaoru Moriyama, who later translated scripts for Final Fantasy IV and Secret of Mana, was assigned to the project. Although a beta version was created and advertised in Square Soft publications, the long development time, the age of the original Japanese game, and the arrival of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (the successor to the NES) caused Square Soft to cancel the English localization. Instead, they focused on Final Fantasy IV, which was renamed Final Fantasy II for North American players to avoid confusion.
A prototype cartridge of the English NES version was made, but the project was incomplete. Moriyama explained that memory limits forced developers to shorten and rearrange text rather than fully translate it. A fan translation was later created using the original Japanese version, as the prototype was not widely known. The first international release of the original game was part of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series, released on Windows and mobile platforms on July 28, 2021.
Final Fantasy II was also ported to the WonderSwan Color as part of a deal with Bandai to bring the first three Final Fantasy games to the console. Square supported the WonderSwan platform during its time, and the port was released on May 3, 2001. The game's visuals were updated for the console and included with a special themed edition of the device. A PlayStation version was released in Japan on October 31, 2002. It was later bundled with the original game and released as Final Fantasy Origins in Europe (March 14, 2003) and North America (April 8, 2003) by Infogrames and Square Enix, respectively. The PlayStation version was the first English release of the game and included improved graphics, a new CGI opening, a monster database, and an art gallery. It was re-released in December 2012 as part of the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Ultimate Box. Both the WonderSwan Color and PlayStation ports were handled by Kan Navi.
An expanded remake of the game was released for the Game Boy Advance (GBA) in 2004, bundled with the original under the title Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls. It was published by Square Enix in Japan on July 29, then by Nintendo in North America (November 29) and Europe (December 10). The remake was developed by Square Enix's Development Division 7 and Tose, with Takashi Tokita overseeing the project. It included redrawn character art and updated terminology to match the rest of the series, but gameplay remained unchanged. A new storyline focused on characters like Minwu, who became the main character in this version. The character art was redrawn by Gen Kobayashi, making the characters appear more child-friendly.
In 2005 and 2006, Square Enix released a mobile version of Final Fantasy II for Japanese networks. To celebrate the series' 20th anniversary, the game was released on the PlayStation Portable in Japan in 2007. This version included improved graphics, cutscenes and music from Final Fantasy Origins, and new content from the GBA release, such as additional dungeons and bosses. On February 25, 2010, Square Enix released a modified version of the PSP game for iOS devices with touchscreen controls.
Reception
According to Square, the original Famicom version of the game sold 800,000 copies. By March 2003, the game, including all re-releases at that time, had shipped 1.28 million copies worldwide. Of these, 1.08 million copies were sold in Japan, and 200,000 were sold in other countries. By September 2007, the PlayStation Portable version had shipped 90,000 copies in Japan and 70,000 in North America.
When it was first released, Famicom Tsūshin (now Famitsu) gave the original Famicom version a score of 35 out of 40. This score was based on four reviewers who gave ratings of 9, 9, 9, and 8 out of 10. This made it one of the magazine’s top three highest-rated games of 1988, along with Dragon Quest III (38/40) and Super Mario Bros. 3 (35/40). It was also one of the magazine’s top five highest-rated games up to 1988, along with Dragon Quest II (38/40) and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (36/40). In the 1989 "All Soft Catalog" issue of Famicom Tsūshin, Final Fantasy II was listed among the best games of all time and won the Best Scenario award. Later, G4 described the game’s stat-building system as an "Innovation," noting that while computer RPGs borrowed the "level" system from tabletop games, Final Fantasy II removed levels entirely. However, some found this system confusing.
Famitsu magazine gave the WonderSwan version a score of 30 out of 40. GameSpot noted that the game’s graphics were outdated but praised its length and bonus content. IGN highlighted improvements in the story’s translation compared to Final Fantasy I and the addition of features like saving anywhere in the overworld map. The Dawn of Souls version was named the "Game of the Month" for March 2004 by IGN and ranked 76th in Nintendo Power’s Top 200 Games list. Some reviewers found the dialogue system slow and awkward, but it was considered a milestone for interactivity. The story was seen as more complex than Final Fantasy I, including themes of romance and character deaths. Some reviewers noted that the plot shared similarities with Star Wars: A New Hope, such as an orphan joining a rebellion against an empire building a large ship with a captive princess. GameSpy praised the ability to save the game at any time, calling it essential for a handheld console, and praised the graphics as "well-suited" for the Game Boy Advance. The leveling system from Final Fantasy II was later used in the SaGa series.
The PlayStation Portable version received average reviews. GameSpot noted the story and "key words" system as important for the series’ development but called the leveling system "chaotic" and mentioned the absence of Final Fantasy I. IGN praised the story and a "proficiency system" similar to The Elder Scrolls but criticized the gameplay. Both sources praised the graphics. GameSpy agreed with the criticism of the leveling system but praised the graphics and noted the game was easier to play, reducing the need to rely on the leveling system.
The Pixel Remaster of Final Fantasy II received mostly positive reviews. It scored 77/100 on Metacritic and 81% on OpenCritic. Jenni Lada of Siliconera gave it a 7/10, calling it the best of the first three Final Fantasy games for how well it aged and praising its story and leveling system. Chris Shive of Hardcore Gamer called it a weaker title in the franchise but praised the expanded story. Audra Bowling of RPGFan gave it a 72/100, calling it divisive and criticizing its dungeons but praising the story. Robert Ramsay of Push Square gave it a 6/10, calling it the best version of a divisive game. Donald Theriault of Nintendo World Report gave it a 6.5/10, praising quality-of-life features that made the game easier to finish. Shaun Musgrave of TouchArcade gave it 3.5/5, calling it a "lovely remake" but noting the Game Boy Advance version was better due to the absence of the Dawn of Souls story in the Pixel Remaster.
Legacy
A book version of Final Fantasy II: The Labyrinth of Nightmares was written by Terada and illustrated by Amano. It was published in Japan by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko on March 20, 1989. A second book version, written by Takashi Umemura, covered the events of the first three Final Fantasy games. It was published in Japan by Square Enix in 2019 and by Yen Press worldwide in 2020.
Several elements from Final Fantasy II, such as the character Cid and the chocobo, became common features in later Final Fantasy games. Firion was the hero and the Emperor was the villain in the fighting game spin-off Dissidia Final Fantasy (2009) and its sequels. The Emperor also appeared as a character in the Different Future downloadable content expansion for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (2022).
Because of negative feedback and confusion among Square's staff outside of Kawazu, the next game, Final Fantasy III (1990), returned to the traditional role-playing systems used in the original Final Fantasy. Kawazu continued using a system where character stats increased based on how often players used certain abilities in his next project, Makai Tosho SaGa (The Final Fantasy Legend), released in 1989 for the Game Boy. This game marked the beginning of the SaGa series, with Kawazu playing a major role in most of its entries.