I was very excited for this game when I first read about it in Nintendo Power, but never actually ended up owning it. I got a SNES not long after this came out, but it never got on my wishlists (Final Fantasy Mystic Quest did... maybe I'll replay that one soon...).
Because I rented this instead of owned it, for many years, I only ever made it to the dolls, which feels like it should be halfway through, but is instead only about a third. Eventually, I borrowed it from a friend and completed it, some time after Final Fantasy III came out, and after playing (and replaying) FF III, this one was a bit rough...
At the time, as we didn't get FF II or III, this did feel like a second entry in the series. It referred back to the first entry plenty, but within a completely, unrelated story. We got the four fiends, we got the music and scrolling text post-prologue, we got the rat tail, we got the vehicles, we got the crystals, it was all there.
But this time, there was also MORE! A LOT more! And while much of that "more" is clumsy, at least they tried to really push the SNES to its limits (its 1991 limits, at least).
There are a ton of playable characters, but they come and go, and sometimes never come back. Plot points are raced through in order to get to the next section or story beat, and then sometimes they just draaaaaag (the robot walking just takes for fucking ever).
But it's beautiful and the music is great, and there's no way to actually describe what it was like to see everything we loved from the first entry, but in 16 bits. It was revelatory.
I will say, while the DS complete remake of this entry is much better in just about every way, I prefer this version for one reason: The Tower of Zot/Babel. For whatever stupid reason, Square started to undo the sci-fi elements they put into their entries. The Tower of Zot was like the flying castle in the first game: a sudden surprise. Here we are in this fantasy world, and suddenly there's future tech (see also: Might and Magic III)? That was a shock, and Square just made the tower into a brown, dusty tower. Boring as shit.
Because I rented this instead of owned it, for many years, I only ever made it to the dolls, which feels like it should be halfway through, but is instead only about a third. Eventually, I borrowed it from a friend and completed it, some time after Final Fantasy III came out, and after playing (and replaying) FF III, this one was a bit rough...
At the time, as we didn't get FF II or III, this did feel like a second entry in the series. It referred back to the first entry plenty, but within a completely, unrelated story. We got the four fiends, we got the music and scrolling text post-prologue, we got the rat tail, we got the vehicles, we got the crystals, it was all there.
But this time, there was also MORE! A LOT more! And while much of that "more" is clumsy, at least they tried to really push the SNES to its limits (its 1991 limits, at least).
There are a ton of playable characters, but they come and go, and sometimes never come back. Plot points are raced through in order to get to the next section or story beat, and then sometimes they just draaaaaag (the robot walking just takes for fucking ever).
But it's beautiful and the music is great, and there's no way to actually describe what it was like to see everything we loved from the first entry, but in 16 bits. It was revelatory.
I will say, while the DS complete remake of this entry is much better in just about every way, I prefer this version for one reason: The Tower of Zot/Babel. For whatever stupid reason, Square started to undo the sci-fi elements they put into their entries. The Tower of Zot was like the flying castle in the first game: a sudden surprise. Here we are in this fantasy world, and suddenly there's future tech (see also: Might and Magic III)? That was a shock, and Square just made the tower into a brown, dusty tower. Boring as shit.