One of my favourite games of all time, an absolute gem and a huge highlight of the Final Fantasy series. This has the most mechanical depth of all the 2D Final Fantasies and introduces a huge amount of sidequesting and optional extras and powerups not present in IV. Beyond that it has a fantastic variety of dungeons, brought to life with excellent pixel art and music. The Ancient Library, the Ronka Ruins, Exdeath's fleshy castle, all great.
I won't wax lyrical about the Job system because it's already famous, but it's extremely good and the innovations this game offers over Final Fantasy III are huge. It's no surprise that the system is so enduring it pops in up X-2, or forms the foundation for the Bravely games.
This is also the only game where I've found Blue Magic to be super good, I don't think Square Enix captured it again on the Playstation os PS2.
One area where it falls down is the writing and characterisation, compared to IV and VI. The main characters feel thinly characterised, and while there are a couple of big revelations for them early on, they generally don't grow or change much or have strong individual relationships beyond direct familial ties. The supporting cast is small, and undermined by the fact that characters from the first act can't appear in the second act and vis-versa. Sympathetic characters like the Warriors of Dawn are introduced too late, while Cid & Mid are offscreen for too long. It feels much closer to III in terms of storytelling, and that's a big step back.
Still, I love the mechanics and presentation of this game so much I cannot give it less than a perfect score. An all timer, if you like old school JRPGs you've got to give this one a try.
I won't wax lyrical about the Job system because it's already famous, but it's extremely good and the innovations this game offers over Final Fantasy III are huge. It's no surprise that the system is so enduring it pops in up X-2, or forms the foundation for the Bravely games.
This is also the only game where I've found Blue Magic to be super good, I don't think Square Enix captured it again on the Playstation os PS2.
One area where it falls down is the writing and characterisation, compared to IV and VI. The main characters feel thinly characterised, and while there are a couple of big revelations for them early on, they generally don't grow or change much or have strong individual relationships beyond direct familial ties. The supporting cast is small, and undermined by the fact that characters from the first act can't appear in the second act and vis-versa. Sympathetic characters like the Warriors of Dawn are introduced too late, while Cid & Mid are offscreen for too long. It feels much closer to III in terms of storytelling, and that's a big step back.
Still, I love the mechanics and presentation of this game so much I cannot give it less than a perfect score. An all timer, if you like old school JRPGs you've got to give this one a try.