"One to be born from a dragon..." -- Let's Play Final Fantasy II

After traversing a cave floor about the size of the entire Mist Cave, the group arrives at B2F. That's right, kids; we're just getting started.


♪♪ Fanfare ♪♪

A little ways in, we manage to kill one of those annoying WaterBugs! Unlike the hard-to-kill mooks in other RPGs, though, they're not worth some exuberant amount of EXP. Which is a shame, because Rydia, fast-growing little tyke that she is, could really use it.


This floor of the cave is a tangle of bridges, stairs, pools of water and rocky landings. And as always, there are minor treasures to be had.

Treasure placement is a subject that has always interested me in RPGs. This is something most players will never be consciously aware of, but most of your "out in the open" treasures, like this Cure1, are mostly fluff. The tougher ones to find, like back in the waterfall, are usually much, much better sorts of fluff. If this seems like common sense to you, go back and re-read any of my forty-seven FF1 LPs. That game was full of treasure rooms that weren't worth the random encounters it takes to open all the way-out-of-the-way boxes.

FF2 is kind of a fluke in this regard. The original version of the game, Final Fantasy IV, had a much larger variety of consumable items, the vast majority of which were useless junk. The NA version condensed this massive inventory into just a few useful items, doing away with a lot of them entirely. This sounds bad at first, but I think it works better in practice. All those weak, one-shot black magic items are replaced instead with a simple Cure2 or Life potion, which are instantly recognizable and obviously useful.

Keep in mind, too, that you have limited inventory space. Reaching that cap is a lot easier when all your spots are clogged up with Bomb Fragments and Antarctic Winds.


♪♪ Fanfare ♪♪

Hey, did you guys know monsters drop items in this game sometimes!? Score!


♪♪ Into the Darkness ♪♪

Another Ether1 later, and we've reached just about the halfway point in the dungeon. Whether you leveled her up or not Rydia is probably about tapped of MP at this point, and if you've been poking your head in all the corners looking for treasures Tellah is probably not far behind.


Fortunately, just inside this room is the game's first save point, which also makes it the first save point ever. Tellah gives a little tutorial about how they work, and then offers to let the team rest up in his nice, shiny Tent.


That night, Cecil and Tellah have a heart-to-heart after Rydia konks out. They discuss first the young Caller's abilities, and then their respective reasons for needing to get to Damcyan so urgently. Tellah's daughter Anna became enamoured with a no-good bard and ran off with him, despite her father's disapproval, and he's in a rush to get there and interrupt the wedding.

Judging by Tellah's age, my guess is Anna is in her forties and just finally decided it was time to get laid no matter what her father said. That's just speculation, of course. All we ever really learn for certain about Anna is that she's really into spooning.

Difficult to tell whether or not it's actually morning this deep in the earth, but we press on nonetheless. Figured I'd give the old man a turn at point.

The next treasure is the second-best in the dungeon: a rod that allows Rydia to cast Ice-1. This replaces the Rod as her generic attack, which is handed down to Tellah. Now everyone on the team can dish out at least a bit of reliable damage without spending MP.


♪♪ Fanfare ♪♪

Rydia's next spell is Venom, a black magic attack that poisons an enemy. There is a pretty bomb-ass-tacular poison spell in this game, but Venom sure as heck ain't it.


♪♪ Into the Darkness ♪♪

B3F is a gaggle of islands connected by wooden bridges. With this much water in the region, it's a wonder the people of Kaipo and Castle Damcyan haven't simply looked into the concept of irrigation.

What ho! Treasures!?


I kind of don't need any more Cure1s, but I sure won't say no to 200 GP!


♪♪ Battle Theme ♪♪

Oh Jesus hell. TinyMages. These guys suck out loud. They have lots of HPs compared to the other monsters around here, and have no trouble resisting both physical and magical attacks. Left to their own devices they'll just sit there and spam *-1 spells at you, which is bad enough.


What's worse is their tendancy to counter everything you throw at them. They counter magical attacks with Psych, which steals a target's MP. 18 MP is three castings of Lit-1, you son of a bitch! Physical attacks are countered with Hold, which is surprisingly effective when monsters cast it.

There's no real easy way to deal with these guys. If you're lucky, Cecil will land a crit and send one to the floor without any hassle.


Another series first is the Back Attack, where monsters will attack your group from behind. This has two effects: first, it switches your front and back lines. And second, it starts everyone off with an empty ATB bar. The combination of being stuck out front and giving the opposition a full round of free hits means a Back Attack can really devastate your squishies.

Fortunately, a single application of the Change command will right your group again, after which the battle can continue as normal. Late in the game, though, I tend to just run from these kinds of fights, since it's quicker than using Change and then spending a round or two putting my injured mages back in order.

♪♪ Into the Darkness ♪♪

One of FF2's most prominent dungeon features are secret passages. If you look carefully you'll notice a slight discoloration in the wall at the end of this tunnel.


That means you can walk right through the wall! Dungeons are just lousy with these hidden tunnels; sometimes they lead to treasure, other times they merely let you skip long walks, but they're pretty much always worth seeking out.

This Leather Cap is better than the Cap Rydia was already wearing. The Cap gets handed off to Tellah, who was previously hatless. Seriously, a hatless Sage? Like not even one of those pointy ones with the stars and moons on? Shittiest Sage ever.


The first time I played this game for myself, I thought the healing potions were called "Curels". Like they were manufactured by a shampoo company, or something. "Curel. Treat your Imp bites with the tenderness they deserve."


The northern stretch of the Watery Pass is a pair of sheer cliffs overlooking a winding underground river far, far below. Also featured: another Ether1 for the stockpile!

In case it's not clear, I don't actually touch any of these Ethers until very late in the game. At 10k GP a pop, their use can't be treated likely.


♪♪ Battle Theme ♪♪

Jelly-style monsters are tough nuts to crack. They can absorb non-critical attacks all day long, and are resistant to most forms of magic.


The trick is to match your magical attack with the color of slime you're dealing with. Jellies are red, so Tellah has no problem frying the whole pack of them with Fire1. (And it has to be Tellah, too, since Rydia can't cast Fire1.)


♪♪ Into the Darkness ♪♪

The other treasure on this side of the gorge is an Ether1, too!

I don't know how Cecil managed to get a grieving toddler and a jittery octogenarian over this rickety, narrow bridge... but don't those stone columns look just absolutely bad ass?

Also note: another Heal potion. As you can see, these items are plentiful and (if you were to actually buy them) inexpensive. This has the dual effect of taking the bite out of most of the game's status ailments, and making white magic users with access to the spell version slightly less useful. In other versions of the game, every status ailment has its own remedy, and the "heal-all" white magic spell is virtually indespensible.


No, I have no idea how that bridge isn't crumbling into the abyss.

This is the second of Cecil's three dark swords, good for a +10 increase in attack power. So much for Rydia being able to outdamage him with Chocb!


Most dungeons of this size have two save points: one at about the halfway mark, and one a little closer to the boss. The second "save point" in the Watery Pass is actually a break in the dungeon proper, which opens back up into the overworld long enough for you to use a Tent.

None of the dungeons in previous FF games had save points, but if they wanted to include them this is how it would have been done.

Entering the second cave brings the team to the top of a huge underground waterfall. And we all know what vidjagame heroes do when faced with a perfectly good cascading tower of H20!


Ahhh! Refreshing.

Actually, removing you from the dungeon for a screen is a pretty boner move on the game's part. If you find yourself unprepared at this point and try to Exit out of the dungeon, you'd still have to slog all the way back through the Watery Pass in order to reach Kaipo.


Cecil continues to get more and more awesome with some new defensive upgrades.


♪♪ Battle Theme ♪♪

Cecil's recent equipment upgrades allow him to sword a TinyMage to death in one hit, rather than two. Thank goodness.

Rydia's spellbook continues to grow as well. Warp is black magic which works a bit like Exit, only it hops back a single floor rather than escapes the entire dungeon. There's a rather infamous bug later in the game that employs this spell which I intend to point out (but not actually use).


Aligators are notable for being able to attack twice in a single round. You'll know this happens because monsters flash briefly before taking an action. What you'll see is, the Aligator will flash, then someone on your team gets hit, then the Aligator will flash again, then the second target gets hit, and then both heroes will sustain damage.

I mention this because it almost looks like a game bug when it crops up. Fortunately Aligators aren't very powerful, and are weak to ice like the rest of their reptile bretheren.


♪♪ Into the Darkness ♪♪

The final map of this dungeon is a vast underground lake. This is where those sea snakes are supposed to be hiding out.

Just before the end, Cecil gets his last armor upgrade as a DKnight. As far as I know there is no Darkness Shield in the game, which seems like a strange oversight. Oh, and another Ether1 for the stack.


Finally, the party reaches a waterfall guarded by a pair of insidious snakes!


Wait, what? Octo-- what?


♪♪ Boss Battle ♪♪

Oh my god you guys it wasn't snakes!!

Octomamm looks scary, but is really nothing to be afraid of. It really can't do anything except attack you, so as long as you have the mages on the back line and remember where to find Tellah's Cure2 spell you are in good shape.


Cecil and his Darkness Sword are the stars of the fight. He could win this fight single-handedly without breaking a sweat.


Rydia's Chocb spell takes a sizable bite as well. Judging by these numbers, Cecil is approximately as tough as two little girls put together!


Bringing it up the rear is Tellah with Lit-1. This is the best he can do in this fight.

Hurr hurr this isn't the first time Tellah brought it up the rear, lol gay joke roflbbq.




Unlike most bosses in the game, Octomamm isn't actually much of a gimmick fight. It loses tentacles as you hack away at it, but other than the visual indication of its health it doesn't do anything particularly interesting. Once you've got it pretty close to dead Tellah pipes up to helpfully point out how much ass you kick.

Fun fact: first time I played this fight, I hadn't yet learned that I was supposed to be putting mages in the back row. As a result I lost both Rydia and Tellah within just a few rounds and let Cecil carry the fight. Tellah had to deliver this little pep talk while faceplanted, which given the watery location should have sounded something like this: "Glub glub blub."

One last lightning strike sends Octomamm under for good, and Tellah congratulates us on a job well done!


♪♪ Main Theme ♪♪

Back out in the sweet embrace of glorious sunlight! Looks like the northern expanse of the Damcyan Desert is just ahead.


Ah yes, there we are! Just a few more steps before Tellah gets his daughter back and the Damcyan royal family fills Cecil's pockets with SandRubies so he can restore Rosa. All will soon be right in the world.

Wait a minute... what's that sound?



♪♪ Run! ♪♪

Holy shit!!

Next: "Worry not. Antlion is tame."

Okay. Did you know that only Edge can score critical hits? A somewhat famously-obscure factoid about FF2 is that the only character who can land crits is a Ninja named Edge who joins the party about halfway through the adventure.

Well, that's not strictly true. We saw Cecil land a crit in the last update, after all. So what gives?

What gives is this: there's a bug in the game that removes a character's ability to land critical hits permenantly. Of the game's large and colorful cast, only five make it to the final party: Cecil, Kain, Rosa, Rydia, and the aformentioned Edge. What's really being observed here is somewhat illusory; you can't crit with the Black, White, Call or Jump commands, so naturally Kain, Rosa and Rydia will never trigger one. The player is only really using Fight with Cecil and Edge -- and Cecil never crits. That just leaves Edge, whose critical hits are something of a neat, infrequent bonus.

While "only Edge crits" is a myth, the bug itself is absolutely real. By the time you get to the endgame every other character has been hit with it, so he's the only one left with the ability.

I've heard two completely different explanations for where this bug comes from:

1) Characters lose their crit ability when they leave the party.

This is actually two explanations, since there are two ways a character can "leave the party". First, they can actually leave the group entirely, the way Kain does after torching Mist. Obviously this can't be the case, since Cecil never leaves the group in this way, and Cecil's lack of crits is notoriously well-documented.

There are certain story battles, however, where characters who are in the group will be "dummied out" so as not to appear in combat. (We'll see the first of these at the beginning of the next update.) In this way the game can remove someone from the party temporarily without actually doing so. Cecil is manhandled in this manner a few times as the game goes on, providing ample opportunity to get bugged.

Edge, however, never leaves the group and is never dummied out -- not until just before the very last fight in the game. Ergo, he never has a chance to get bugged until just before the ultimate battle. And really, who's going to notice someone's critical hit capability evaporating during the final boss fight?

2) Characters lose their crit ability when equipping certain weapons.

This explanation states that certain weapons in the game are flagged with a "no critical hits" property. Supposedly these weapons are unable to crit, but once applied the property can never be undone. In theory, if you knew what these weapons were you could simply avoid them, allowing Cecil to crit as much as he wants all the way through the endgame.

I did a bit of sleuthing, and the weapons on this supposed list are basically: all whips, all two-handed axes, the Rune Staff and Cecil's final sword.

Well, we'll very likely never see the Rune Staff, as it's a super-rare drop from I-don't-even-remember-what-monster.

No-crit whips mean Rydia (the game's only whip-user) is destined to lose her crit ability no matter which explanation is true. When she joins the party for the final time she comes pre-loaded with a goddamn Whip, so there's no hope for her.

No-crit axes, however, pose a serious problem. At one point in the game you will find an axe that is better than whatever Cecil currently has equipped. You have to give up his shield to use it, but for many players the trade-off will be absolutely worth it.

Edge can't equip any of these weapons, so there's no way for him to lose his crit ability even accidentally.

Either way, the result is the same: most players get to the end and, over the course of hours and hours of dungeon-slogging, will say to themselves, "Hmm. You know? The only guy who ever lands a critical hit is Edge. That's weird!"

I think I'll start keeping careful track of my crits as I go forward, so we can finally nail this bizarre glitch to the ground. Let us learn together.

Unless some jacknapes know-it-all posts the actual solution in the thread before I get to it, thereby spoiling everyone's fun. In which case, sorry for wasting everyone's time!

Listen, you go to church right now and apologise to God or whatever deity you worship for a pun that awful / awesome.

This has been said before by others, but to really get Final Fantasy II, you had to be there when it came out. Coming off the NES and its rudimentary RPGs, the audio-visual splendor of FF II was unlike anything I had ever seen. I remember thinking that the animation on the spells, Lits 1-3 in particular, was simply jaw-dropping compared to what I had seen in the original Final Fantasy. I can recall having a conversation with my cousin in the early 90s where he was trying to sell me on the virtues of Betrayal at Krondor (a much deeper, more complicated and well-written game). At the time, my reply consisted of "Yeah, but when you cast lightning, like, does it look really awesome? 'Cause in Final Fantasy II, it's so awesome."

So many things about FF II that seem primitive today were huge steps up for the NES generation, at least in North America. This isn't my favorite FF game, but at the time it was a damn revelation.

Exactly, and I felt similarly about FFVII. Like IV, it shows its age, but the newness of it all was shocking.

Also, I miss weird spells like Sight, though I guess they don't have much use anymore with, as Brickroad said, minimaps and other such technical breakthroughs.

You don't know how long I jammed on B+Select on the assumption that the map was there.

This. . . this just blew my mind.
How is it that in all the times I played this game, I never bothered to cast this spell? I just always assumed it was like peep.

Huh, I had no idea about the Crit thing. I guess I just never paid enough attention. Fascinating.

So does this mean Paladin-Cecil can get crits until he's removed from battle? (Which would be, when, Tellah's Meteoing?) Or is this what we're going to find out?

Just because someone had to eventually...

More instantly recognizable tracks from FF4-10:
Theme of Love
Long Way to Go
Land of the Dwarves
The Magic Ship
Locke's Theme
Overture, Aria de Mezzo Carattere, The Wedding, and Grand Finale
Blackjack
Searching for Friends
Dancing Mad
Aerith's Theme
Those Chosen by the Planet
WEAPON Raid
One-Winged Angel
Liberti Fatali
The Landing
Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec
Only a Plank Between Heaven and Hell
Ride On
Bailo a la Flamenco
Festival of the Hunt
Airship Hilda Garde
You Are Not Alone!
Melodies of Life
Otherworld
Song of Prayer
Calm Before the Storm
Suteki Da, Ne?
Pretty much every boss battle theme in the series

Unfortunately more instantly recognizable tracks from FF4-10:
The Gold Saucer
Shuffle/Boogie
Eyes on Me
Eternal Harvest
Ceremony Before the Gods

And most of FF:MQ's soundtrack, if that counts. Also, how the hell did they manage to mangle Lydia into Rydia in every single translation of this game? I'm guessing the answer is "the same way they managed to get a certain infamous quote in every translation". That being Rule of Cool (or more likely, Rule of Familiarity, if such a trope existed).

I don't understand your use of the word "mangle" in this context.

Tellah is the best character and you are a crazy man.

Apparently Cecil (or Kain as you called him during the Soldier attack) isn't the only one to lose out on commands in this game. In the GBA version, Tellah has a Recall command, where he spends a turn wracking his brain to try to remember one of his spells. If it succeeds, he gets the spell forever, otherwise he just goes ! and loses his turn. An early Osmose (or whatever it's called here IF it's here) can really turn him into a valuable asset to the team.

Maybe he just likes Beetlejuice.

Did I?

*goes to check*

No I didn't. =)

OBJECTION!

Wait, what? He remembers the spell permanently? I always thought Recall just got you a one-off casting of any random spell in the game, so I never bothered using it. But that's way better!

I... I have to go.
where the hell's my gba

If I could make one change to how this game plays, I'd make Kain squishy. He needs all the air time he can get, so it only makes sense that he'd either travel as light as possible, or maybe wear spring boots and a dragon wing-shaped glider which wouldn't help with defense. Also, his defenses don't matter while he's airborne, and by being squishy you'd be more motivated to keep him there. As is, Kain feels somewhat overpowered.

Didn't they make these changes to Freya?

This update reminded me of two things I always loved about FF4:

The spell and casting animations. The fact that spells were animated blew my mind, too, and I always thought having different casting effects was a nice detail. I've always been sad that they got phased out more as the series progressed.

Also, look at the cave backgrounds. That chasm right before the first exit! Wow! There's a whole unexplored world under that chasm that you'll never approach, and which the battle backgrounds only hint at. It really helps build this world.

Geez, if I'd known it was permanent I'd have ground with him in the party for hours. I assume it's a low success rate....

I always thought it was because the was a different sort of Call. Less "in the name of the great wizard I conjure thee" and more "hey, buddy, lend me a hand?". The Mist Dragon fiasco serves to explain why Rydia's summoned monsters don't usually stick around long.

That was truly an awesome thing to behold. That sort of thing makes the world you're traversing seem just a bit larger and more mysterious than the areas you visit.

So what you're saying is that Octomamm is one of the most interesting JRPG bosses.

Not nearly! I think at least seven, maybe more, commands were dummied out. Most of them were no loss, in terms of utility.

Not that I would ever want to give up modern automatically-handled mapping, but I do have a certain fondness for Sight... that feeling of wandering out into the unknown, using your magic to peer just a little farther over the next set of hill to chart your course... good times.

And yeah, like everyone else, I adore this game's dungeon backgrounds. Especially in the context of the time, they were amazing.

"Tina," "Melody of Lute," "Toroia," "Kingdom of Figaro," "Children run around the corner," whatever Mog's theme is called, "Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec," "One Winged Angel" (puke,) "J-E-N-O-V-A," "To Zanarkand," "Dancing Mad," "Phantom Forest"......


Wait, what?

People gush about Galuf all the times. All of them. And Balthier has a worldwide harem because of those pants and that accent.
I don't get any of this. Nuke is my primary go-to attack spell from the moment she learns it --all nines, instant casting, and at a piddly 50MP a shot, there's no reason to go with anything else unless you're facing groups. And she has a LOT of MP by the time she learns it (unless there's a massive MP increase between that and Meteo that I don't remember.) Besides, she can drain enemy MP all she wants and never run out, at least during the major battles where she'd actually need a high-caliber spell, because those enemies are excellent MP sources.

As for Call, it's the other way around. Bahamut is the best unless you're facing single foes, in which case Sylph makes a valuable substitute.
4) She heard of the military detachment sent out to capture Cecil, tagged along/followed it, and gave them the slip shortly before reaching Kaipo. We just have to use our imagination to understand that running around Kaipo takes more than a minute and a half, so she collapsed in the desert earlier in the day while Cecil was looking around town.

...and I wonder if they're references to FF3, and those dungeons where you had to cast Mini on yourself and rely on magic instead of physical attacks.


The huge, loud flash for Lit-3 has been my measuring rod for spell animations ever since. Only FF8's Thundaga has ever managed to impress me as much as this.

I forgot to comment on the underground river, but yes, that was a huge thing. Combining that with "Into the Darkness" made for major atmosphere. That's a seriously deep pit, though.

I was indicisive on which version I wanted to play, so I went though the opening on the PS1 and the GBA, and Kain's dialog in Mist is slightly different in both. On the PS1, he sounds more like a dick who knows he can't take out Cecil, so he says he'll back him. GBA is close to the SNES, but still with a bit more "ah, hell, I guess I'll join you" than "I knew you'd say that." I'll have to see if I can track down the scripts.


--Yeah, late in the game I barely touch Call. I stick to Bio and the -aga spells.

--Is it cheating to talk about Terra's theme, since it's also the map theme? Because damn, that's an iconic song.

-- ... I had no idea Recall made him learn the spell for good!

Into the Darkness is the best song. I think the watery cave is my favorite bit of any Final Fantasy, just for the atmosphere.

Downright generous. How much MP is each one good for?