I completed Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster for the first time.

Twelve days ago I finished Final Fantasy I Pixel Remaster and posted about it here so I'm back to say I completed Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster. I've made it my goal to play every mainline Final Fantasy game or as far as I can for now on my Android phone.

Final Fantasy II was interesting given that it ditched classic levels and classes/jobs in favor of levelling weapons and magic. It's not that bad but it feels too random for what stats are increasing so it makes it feel like you aren't progressing too much. Dual wielding was a fun addition I ditched shields in favor of increased attack power. With no restrictions on who can cast magic I gave everyone magic and eventually used all 16 magic slots on Firion, Maria and Guy. This made everyone rather same-y except for weapons so not much diversity with this system.

The story is an improvement over the first game with actual characters and a plot that wasn't just fight bosses and restore crystals. FFII relied too much on backtracking and empty rooms in dungeons so some of the game feels like padding with the random encounters in-between. There's less new locations compared to FFI as well so the exploration and adventure aspect isn't as good. The Emperor was a neat villain but I expected him to be stronger since Chaos had a lot of HP. I also missed having a permanent 4th party member but Leila was my favorite of the temporary ones.

I'm not sure how I should rank Final Fantasy II relative to the first game. I think the gameplay was improved a little bit with a more interesting magic system and dualwielding made combat more fun but levelling inconsistency combined with the backtracking design and more maze-y dungeons meant that Final Fantasy I was the better straightforward linear experience.

Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions remains my favorite game in the series so far. I will start Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster later today or Sunday. I'm not burned out on Final Fantasy yet.