Let's get started with FF2!
I'll stick with the default names this time.
The game opens with some sort of FMV... but it's dumb and it makes Maria look like an inept klutz girl.
So I'm just gonna skip it.
The game opens with our party being chased into a forest by imperial soldiers.
It's apparently not their fault that they are killing everyone. Much like when Bart Simpson flails his arms and walks forward, it is the villagers' own fault for getting themselves dead. We must avenge them.
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Battle Scene 1 ��
...Some other time.
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Revivification ��
The scene switches to a flash of light a large room with two people standing beside just Firion alone.
Apparently, they only found three of us. Leon, Maria's brother, is missing.
Not waiting to see if Firion is okay, they leave him alone in a room to recover on his own. Apparently, the empire is building a large airship, the Dreadnaught, and war is impending.
Firion finally wakes up, and we exit the room.
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Reunion ��
It seems that Hilda is the princess of Fynn, and she saved us, but just as we heard earlier, Leon is missing.
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Rebel Army Theme ��
As our trio are now orphans, Hilda offers to let us stay in Altair. She also tells of us of the password, Wild Rose.
FF2 has an interesting system for the time, which allows you to memorize key words and then ask other NPCs about them in order to gain information.
If you ask about the wild rose, Hilda says it's Fynn's crest. Mentioning it will let others know that you're on the side of the rebel army.
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Town ��
In town, we meet some characters who will be significant soon enough. For now, they're just kind of pathetic.
We start with very little money, but a clear objective: go north to Fynn.
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Main Theme ��
FF2 has a great world map theme, and it's really cool how airships go flying by at random intervals!
In a small town north of Altair, we learn that while Fynn has been completely beset by the empire, there is one pub where the owner is believed to not have made it out in time. This is probably significant!
Fynn is very large, and the streets are packed with imperial soldiers. Trying to engage one at this point will only result in tragedy. Fortunately, we can avoid battles simply by avoiding talking to any of the soldiers.
Navigating through the city, we eventually come across the pub we heard about earlier.
Inside, the place is lousy with soldiers. The bartender doesn't seem to care much for them. If we ask him about Wild Rose, he lets us into a hidden back room where he's been keeping an injured soldier.
He initially thinks we're with the emperor, but once again Wild Rose saves the day. It turns out he's Scott, the brother of that corwardly guy from Altair. Scott asks us to give a message to his brother, to tell him that he has all of the qualities necessary to be king, he just needs to believe in himself. He also tells us that the reason for Fynn's fall was due to Count Borghen's betrayal.
Maria asks him if he knows where her brother, Leon, has gone, but Scott doesn't know. He presents us with a ring to show his beloved Hilda, and passes on Double Dragon style.
'
Back in Altair, we relay the news and show the ring to Hilda. After a brief, non-dramatic-because-this-is-an-80s-RPG mourning, she's back to business.
So at this point, Mindu (Minwu, really, but we'll not dwell on that particular localization choice) joins the party. He also comes equipped with a gift: the ether he carries will sell for 1250 gil, which is a fantastic headstart for our party.
At this point in the game, I do the only bit of grinding that I ever do in the game. Which version if the game you play determines how painful this is, with the PSP version being the least painful (in fact, I'd say if you're playing the PSP version, don't even bother with this, because the game will get too easy regardless).
FF2 Tip Corner
One of the biggest mistakes people make when they play this game is that they don't specialize their characters. In order to do well in this game, you should specialize. I personally pick swords for Firion, staff+dagger for Maria, and spears+axe for Gus. I also give one attack magic spell to each of my characters. In this case, I give lightning to Firion, fire to Maria, and blizzard to Gus. Mindu will do well with an attack spell, as well, but he comes with his spellbook full, so you'll have to forget one of his spells first.
My usual goal is to raise at least 30,000 gil and then trek south to Mysidia to buy thief's gloves for all of my party members, and at least the flame lance for Gus. Anything else is a bonus, but the flame lance and thief's gloves help tremendously. However, I'll be putting that off for a bit in this playthrough.
To that end, though, I purchase the spells mentioned above, and then level them to level 2 or 3 for each character. Once the spells are leveled, I head north of Fynn to the swamps.
Here, you encounter more difficult enemies. Among them are wraiths and ogre mages, which drop spell books and mage's staffs which can sell for up to 5000 gil apiece. When you first start fighting them, they're quite difficult, but after a few successes, it becomes quite easy. Raising the money we want will take less than an hour with good luck.
Now, after finishing this, I used to go straight to Mysidia. Successfully doing so and making it back would certainly result in quite a leg up in the next parts of the game. However, it can also be quite a pain in the butt to make it there since enemies one-shot you at this point in the game. The "safest" way is to probably go east, taking the ship to Poft and then the airship to Kashuon and going south to the chocobo forest... and this is what I'll do, but not now. I now feel that the benefit of doing so at this exact point of the game doesn't outweigh the time investment, so I put it off. I just collect this money and stat boosts now so that when the time comes, I'll be ready.
This is where my party stands right now. I've never intentionally attacked myself, although I do use Mindu's "faze" or "anti" spell a couple of times on my party members to raise their MP. From this point forward, I intend to play the game just like I would play any other RPG. And hopefully I can show people how great it is as I go.
Note that if you're playing the PSP version, you should probably never even do the small amount I do here. Stats and spells level so quickly in that version, it's very easy to find yourself overpowered and with spells that cost too much MP.