My overall thoughts of this game...

I started playing Final Fantasy in 2000, when a pal of mine insisted on showing FF9 to me.
I was instantly hooked, what with the astoundning graphics and cool characters, and soon I realized that this is what I have always been looking for.
So, it was pretty inevitable that I would soon dig deeper into the series, and soon I'd played FF1, FF4, FF6, FF7 and FF8.
I always wanted more, and for a while I was completely in love with FF6.
One day I managed to find FF2 - on a ROM, of course - and at first I was pretty confused with the system.
I thought it stupid that stats would rise randomly (as it seemed to me), because I liked building my chars the "usual" way.
I soon found out that the system was pretty logically invented, though, and I found this system to be even cooler than the typical Experience system.
I didn't get very far during the first, ehm, weeks, because I thought the game was too hard; at least by FF standards.
I was totally stuck in the Warship forever, but when I suddenly finished it (mostly by pure luck, considering the battles in there), I went on and my interest in the game was rekindled.
I played till the end, and I remember I cheered when Leon finally returned, the char whose absence had left an empty "hole".
I was heavily disappointed with the power of Ultima, but since I'd leveled spells like FIRE, ICE, BOLT, AERO and FLAR a lot, that didn't matter.
I finished the game, and again I cheered.
FF2 was completed. :D

That being said, I can clearly state a personal opinion about this game, and I guess most of you will agree:
the game is VERY entertaining in the beginning; in fact it beats FF3 in the joy department, and it keeps doing so until the Warship blows up; with its destruction dies the true entertainment this game gave me up to that point, and from there on you'll have to struggle with crap like the Cave of Dist and the Mysidia Tower. :mad2:

I think this is a huge pity; if the game had kept progressing the same way as it does in the beginning, this game would seriously rock.
In the beginning you need not worry about über-magicians as opponents, that like to spend a life-time casting FIRE 8 and similar stuff. :mad:
The Mithril Mine is pretty linear, and you don't need to wander around for five hours trying to find the right path; you always know you're on the right way, and that's very nice.
I mean - sure, I wouldn't mind searching my way through a huge maze, but huge mazes filled with hopeless and frequent random encounters = no.
Nobody can stand that, and I doubt ANYONE has completed this game on the NES without going completely insane.
You could trudge through a dungeon for eternity, and one single DETH 8 spell could wipe your party away in a couple of seconds.
You restart, and the same thing happens - three hours spent, but absolutely nothing achieved, since you always die, in the most embarrassing kinds of ways.

You never see this stuff in the beginning of the game; the dungeons are pretty easy to navigate, and the worst you can suffer from is Poison, which is easily cured with HEAL 1.
Later on, you have to deal with mega-huge caves filled with annoying monsters, that pop up every fifth step.
Running is useless, because you never succeed.
This game falls from greatness to suckiness in the entertainment department, and this alone keeps me from rating this game higher than 7/10.