 |
| Oh, is that so? Let me take that bauble off your hands then. |
This is it, folks: the emperor is destroyed, and my country is free again.
Hooray! That last stretch was a piece of cake, honestly. For once, my party was
outrageously overleveled, and pimped up with the finest gear to boot. That
finest gear included the HP-sucking Blood Sword, which made the final showdown
ridiculously smooth: I just let Firion lash out with that fabulous blade while
Guy and Maria healed the whole crew, and the whole thing was over in less than
ten turns with nobody kicking the bucket. Easy-peasy! For another, I used maps
to navigate most of the last dungeon. It was a slick and sweet piece of
crawling, yes it was; and it was not even really cheating, since I still bore
the brunt of that crawling by vanquishing the endless waves of foes crashing on
my party. I daresay that this experience even opened a new door for me, and
that maybe I'll use walkthroughs and FAQs more readily from now on.
FFII reminded me of Trails
in the Sky in more ways
than one. I already praised the lovingly detailed and very Nihon Falcom-ish
graphics; I can also praise the Guest system, which saw the fourth spot in my
party being occupied by a slew of temporary party members. The fact that a good
half of them left the party by kicking the bucket added a suitably harrowing
element to my liberating epic; needless to say, I'll be more than happy to play
Soul of Rebirth and cruise with those fallen heroes again. (Not right
now, though: I've had my fill of all things FFII for the time being.)
And since I'm mentioning the story, I must say that it was unfortunately too
disjointed to live up to its full potential. Not only did it include way too
many in medias res elements for comfort, but the (rare) in-game events
didn't even get a decent development. (SPOILERS!) Like, shouldn't there
be a long and serious heart-to-heart about Leon's life as the Emperor's Dark
Knight? I know the world is in dire danger, but are we just gonna brush this
off without even checking his motivations for such a turnaround? Looks like it
indeed! Heck, I really wanted to know if he was blackmailed, brainwashed or
hypnotized into becoming the Emperor's peon, or if he did it on his own free
will for some obscure and unspeakable reason. Guess I'll have to fill in the
blanks myself then, and craft my own little story about Leon! (END OF
SPOILERS.) All in all, FFII really calls for a sequel AND a prequel
to clarify things on the narrative front.
So, did I love FFII? Absolutely. Would I recommend it? Yes and no. It
has plenty of things going for it, and the 27 hours I spent playing it were
utterly delicious; but the harsh truth is that FFII is really just a
total fighting fest. Don't like grinding and crawling? Too bad, so sad —
because there is literally nothing else to do in that game. The story is
too evanescent and inconsequent to matter, and the open world is too shallow
and empty to enthrall; if those things matter to you, then you should avoid FFII
at all costs. But if you live for grinding and have a serious itch to
scratch in that department, then FFII is your game indeed! Heck, it
scratched my own grinding itch so thoroughly that I'm totally in the mood for
more story-infused stuff now. And so, on to the next game!
>Don't like
grinding and crawling? Too bad, so sad — because there is literally nothing
else to do in that game
:shutter:!
Man, I have this weird thing with Final Fantasy. I love the game worlds and the
whole culture surrounding it, but the earlier games (and even the games I have
played already) just have too many darn random encounters. I just can't handle
it.
I played FFXIV: A Realm Reborn for probably over 2000 hours when it was still
in beta, and it was my favorite thing ever because it finally combined the vibe
of FF with a combat system that I really enjoyed. That was definitely a
highlight for me. I also enjoyed FFXII for the same reason and recommend that
if you like that type of combat.
2000 hours?! I
think my heart stopped for a second there. That's... mind-blowing! I'm
seriously impressed. I'm torn between wanting to love a game enough to pour
that many hours into it, and NOT wanting it at all for my backlog's sake :P
Now here's another wild coincidence: I purchased the Switch version of FFXII no
later than yesterday! It's an FF entry I've always wanted to try, maybe the one
I wanted to try the most of them all; so when I saw that it was ported to the
Switch, I HAD to secure it. The combat system was precisely what drew me to the
game, so I really can't wait to try it at long last.
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