Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
NintendoComplete
|
Beetlejuice (Game Boy) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
🔇 TAP TO UNMUTE
![Final Fantasy II (SNES) Playthrough [1 of 2]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zsPm6Tui7Ts/mqdefault.jpg "Final Fantasy II (SNES) Playthrough [1 of 2]
A playthrough of Squares 1991 role-playing game for the Super Nintendo, Final Fantasy II.
This is the first part of a two-part playthrough, showing from the beginning through the partys escape on the Falcon from the Tower of Babil. You can find part two at https://youtu.be/E3IA8Zd3-gU
Final Fantasy II was the fourth game in the Final Fantasy series, but it was only the second to see an official English release, coming to North America a little over a year after the release of the first Final Fantasy on the NES (https://youtu.be/A6sdvTUh9II).
When the game was rereleased for the PlayStation a decade later, Square renamed the English version Final Fantasy IV to reflect the games proper place in the series timeline and to differentiate it from the real Final Fantasy II (https://youtu.be/ViL0hbSbfhM), a 1988 Famicom game.
This was the game that turned me into a die-hard JRPG fan. I got it for Christmas, and it had me utterly enthralled. I had played and enjoyed stuff like Dragon Warrior before, but this was beyond compare.
Along with being the first 16-bit Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II was the first in the series to feature characters with firmly dictated roles and personalities. It dropped customizable classes in order to serve up a stronger character-driven narrative, and it succeeded in a big way. The extreme melodrama might seem quaint by modern standards, but the story taking center stage in such a way was a real revelation in the early 90s.
The plot takes several interesting detours, and I remember some of the twists really taking me by surprise when I first played it. The characters do a solid job of (at least attempting) to develop over the course of the game - Cecil was an awesome protagonist - and the story holds together remarkably well given how easily it could have flown off the rails at certain points. It somehow manages all of that while being saddled with one of the roughest translations to be found in an SNES RPG (pre-Breath of Fire II, that is), and it clearly defined the foundation upon which the rest of the classic series was built. I loved these characters by the time the game was over. Hell, I even have Kain incorporated into the mass of tattoos that run down my right leg.
The gameplay systems saw a fair jolt in the upgrade to the SNES, as well. The ATB (active time battle) system premiered here, marking the first time in the series that stats, casting times, and the amount of time you take to decide on a course of action all have an impact on the turn order in a fight.
And finally, the presentation set the bar for console JRPGs for quite some time following its release. The detailed enemies, mode-7 map, full-frame battle backdrops, and the quality of the spell effects were a huge leap from the 8-bit games, and the soundtrack is still among the best orchestral scores ever pumped out by the SNES. The quality of the compositions and the instrument samples garnered Uematsu and Squares sound programmers a great deal of praise, and its difficult to overstate just how much of the games tone and emotional impact relies on its music. If push came to shove, Id have to say its my all-time favorite video game soundtrack. (I had so many cassette tapes filled with tunes that Id recorded while playing!)
Final Fantasy II was a landmark game, and even though https://youtu.be/wpKEFXrkGzc surpassed it in many ways, I always find myself coming back to this one. Its my favorite JRPG, and I think its one of the best games in the series.
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!")
