Just Finished - Observations and Questions

[Ender]

Well, I just finished the NES ROM version. Blood Sword = Total Ownage

First I'll start out with the questions, so those of you uninterested in hearing another "random encounters" rant can skip the rest.

1. Where is the Masamune? I pride myself on opening every door and every chest and talking to every character (over and over), but somehow I missed this one. Ironically, I missed it in FF I the first time through as well (possibly the one cooridor I overlooked in the entire game holds the weapon I've been looking forward to getting from the start! )

2. Where is/are the Chocobo(s)? I wandered the wide world as much as I could stand and never encountered it/them.

3. There is a chest sitting in a jail cell in the airship. When I try the door it says the jail is empty. Is there any way to get to the chest or is it just there to drive players nuts?

If you want to revel in other's misery regarding all the battles one fights in this game, read on, otherwise, thanks for your help!

<rant>

FF II was one of the worst gaming experiences of my life. Except for a desire to complete the entire series of numbered (minus XI) FF games, I would have stopped around the time I was doing the airship level. In short, IMO, this game is NOT fun.

Yes, the story was interesting, and for its time may have been revolutionary. Deviating from the standard "go to the temples, defeat the bosses, and retrieve the [keys] that will unlock the way for your final confrontation with the big bad villain (ie FF I and many other fantasy/adventure games)" to tell a real story with the characters is what FF is, and should be about, and this was the start of that, so it deserves applause for that regardless of how "loose" the story was in places.

On the other hand, they took a plot that was probably worth five to ten hours of game and turned it into a forty hour odyssey, not by adding any fun diversions or interesting areas or developing characters or locales, but by making you fight battle after battle and so on and so on. I fought a battle approximately every twelve steps/tiles while on foot. TWELVE!!!

Now consider a noob, who has done some research into the stat-building system and has a decent grasp of it such that he doesn't find the individual battles overly difficult, but who is not consulting a walk-through. Even having built stats such that I hardly got touched and was never in threat of a "game over" situation after the early going, the battles become an exercise in supreme patience.

Having never played before, exploring the dungeons to find each of the treasures was a maddening process. Twelve steps down a dead-end cooridor is two extra battles, 120 steps is twenty more, which is a huge disincentive to check out that chest that you can see you missed once you reach the exit of the level but which requires you to walk all the way through a maze-like level and passed the entrance, all because you decided to take the right fork instead of the left. And I swear, the dungeon designers were experts in gamer psychology, because they always seemed to know that I would be taking the long path to the exit first rather than the short path to the treasure. Throw in the fact that Warp doesn't work in all of the dungeons and it gets maddening really fast.

Finally, the monsters were just not interesting or fun to battle. For the most part it seems they just took random monsters of a particular difficulty level and threw them in a map area or dungeon to fit the stage of the game you were at. For the most part they lacked thematic consistancy in terms of matching the type of monsters with the locale or with each other. Lots of generic undead, soldiers/captains/generals, bombs/grenades/etc., puddings/mallows/etc., and later they might throw in a gigas or golem but I miss seeing, for example, what kinds of fire monsters they could come up with in the Volcano of FF I, etc. etc. Rather, it felt more like the designers decided to throw at you whatever would be the biggest pain in the butt...and oh, we'll make most of the battles inescapable too.

At any rate, one of the good things that can be said for FF II is that it feels truly refreshing to get started on FF III, where I actually have to seek out battles to level up rather than have them thrust on me over and over and over again.

</rant>

[Captain Maxx Power]

Seeing how you hate the game so much, why ask these questions in the first place?

[Ender]

Seeing how you hate the game so much, why ask these questions in the first place?

Seeing as how you felt the need to leave a useless, smartass comment, why reply?

Anyway, the Chocobos and the Masamune are big things to miss in a FF game. I was just wondering...for my mental well-being. Peachy?

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

The Masamune is in a small room accessed by walking through a series of walls along the top of Pandemonium's fifth floor, where Zombie Borgen is.

The Chocobo can be found in a tiny patch of forest surrounded by the large forest directly south of Kas'ion Castle. It's pretty hard to miss.

I don't remember that specific chest, but reaching it probably involves walking through a wall.

[Sefie1999AD]

The Masamune is in a small room accessed by walking through a series of walls along the top of Pandemonium's fifth floor, where Zombie Borgen is.

Yeah, I remember the Masamune being in another room after the walls. The treasure chest that contains the Masamune isn't guarded by any boss monsters, but on that room, I remember fighting loads of very hard monsters that you can encounter really frequently.

It's good that you beat the original NES version. I thought the gameplay was a nightmare there. The dungeons were so slow, the battles were so slow (try casting a spell on 8 monsters, or a spell on your 4 characters, it's extremely slow), everything took ages to level up. After the first dungeon or so, I just started to overuse the fast forward function to make the walking and battle speed even somewhat tolerable.

[rubah]

The battling is a lot faster than if you were doing the same things in ff1 on nes.

I thought the battles were fun, even if they were overabudant, but I'm the type that saves before walking too far so I can tell if I'm going the right way or not, then resets so I don't have to fight so man battles xD

[DarkLadyNyara]

3. There is a chest sitting in a jail cell in the airship. When I try the door it says the jail is empty. Is there any way to get to the chest or is it just there to drive players nuts?

Yeah, you have to go through the side wall. As a general rule, if you see a chest you can't seem to reach, try to find gaps in the wall.

[Zeromus_X]

Yeah, lots of those in the later dungeons.

I'd pretty much agree with everything you said here, but you gotta admit, the final dungeon was spectacular, wasn't it?

Maybe not?

Please?

And yeah, I would've never completed the game on a NES ROM without save states, the Cure trick, and lotsa reloads. And of course, the speed-up function. I really have gratitude to all those Japanese youths who had to play the game normally sixteen years ago...

But yeah, you should enjoy FFIII alot better. It's a really fun game.

[Ender]

Yeah, lots of those in the later dungeons.

I'd pretty much agree with everything you said here, but you gotta admit, the final dungeon was spectacular, wasn't it?

Maybe not?

Please?

Yeah, Pandemonium was awesome. But then, I knew I was coming up to the end and was expecting to wade through waves of monsters in addition to fighting some uber baddies (dragons and demons/devils are just more fun to fight than 8 random undead monsters or pudding globs, over and over). I also thought the floor layouts were better than the rest of the game. They weren't always generic "spiral" mazes that were obviously made to force you to walk the longest distance possible, and the payoffs in treasure made exploring to open the chests worth it despite the battles. And of course the final few floors when things got trippy-looking were great.

I really have gratitude to all those Japanese youths who had to play the game normally sixteen years ago...

So right.

But yeah, you should enjoy FFIII alot better. It's a really fun game.

Yeah, I'm already having a blast. And after the "chore" that was FFII, III seems like a tropical vacation.

[Paul]

FF2 is a good game, but you should have played the GBA version.

where FF1 NES was awesome and people complained about the GBA changes
FF2 NES was terrible, and the GBA changes were a godsend.

[DJZen]

It's called a Famicom RPG. Back then RPG meant something very different than what it means now.

[Bart's Friend Milhouse]

Masamune = Total Ownage

[Sefie1999AD]

Yeah, Pandemonium was awesome. But then, I knew I was coming up to the end and was expecting to wade through waves of monsters in addition to fighting some uber baddies (dragons and demons/devils are just more fun to fight than 8 random undead monsters or pudding globs, over and over). I also thought the floor layouts were better than the rest of the game. They weren't always generic "spiral" mazes that were obviously made to force you to walk the longest distance possible, and the payoffs in treasure made exploring to open the chests worth it despite the battles. And of course the final few floors when things got trippy-looking were great.

Agreed, Pandemonium was a cool dungeon. A lot of interesting monsters, great and dramatic background music, nice dungeon graphics, a neat branch where you can get a lot of great equipment (usually guarded by major bosses) and the things getting quite epic by the time you reach the end. First some special-looking floors, then space... and the final battle.

[DJZen]

That so called great equipment in Pandemonium is actually pretty terrible. You'll take more damage for wearing it.

[boys from the dwarf]

i agree with a lot of the stuff you said regarding random encounters. they were usually a nuisance and not even worth battling. pandamonium was good because of the music, slightly more challenging random encounters and bosses and habing to survive all of those floors to get to the final boss. FF2 wasn't great gameplay wise and square didn't do too great a job on making it fun but the storyline and feel of the game makes me want to continue despite the annoying encounters. so FF2 is a good FF in my opinion. just a bit boring and a little bit simple storyline-wise compared to others. good luck witht the rest of the FFs.