Honestly a really nice step up from FFI, this game included a more detailed and plot driven experience which included much more player freedom in terms of party customization, as well as delivering main characters that actually have their own dialogue!

The playable and even non-playable characters were interesting and the freedom to choose whatever combination of weapon classes and armor/accessories you wanted for the party was cool. As for the leveling system, I had zero issue with it. I thought it was a nice change of pace and a unique take on the typical, “fight enemies, earn experience”. There were tons of different methods you could use to buff any given character stat because of this leveling system, and it results in easy grinding thats also surprisingly quick to complete.

Story wise, it wasn’t too bad despite originally hailing from the Famicom/NES age, I really did feel immersed the whole time and was always looking forward to seeing what would happen next. I did like Garland/Chaos from FFI more than the Emperor when it comes to comparing villians, but the Emperor wasn’t horrible.

Overall I had a pleasant experience with FFII, especially considering how much I enjoyed it even after hearing the constant hate it receives. It might have to do with the Pixel Remaster and whatever changes were made (I never played the original or PSP version), but I’m definitely looking forward to replaying this again some time.