AN: It’s time to go backward and revisit the game in this franchise that has given me the most hassle. Final Fantasy has been difficult to get running, let alone getting it (in)completed. You can read about that saga here if you want. Needless to say, I know the opening of Final Fantasy II by heart. With that said, let’s get to this review, shall we?

We go back in time to 1988. Fresh off the success of a project vested with all their hope, Squaresoft kept the hype train going. And so Japan got Final Fantasy II. In the west, it wouldn’t see an official release until 2003. At that time it was bundled with Final Fantasy on the Playstation as Final Fantasy Origins. Some may remember that I played the Origins version of Final Fantasy. The Final Fantasy II port on that disc was less than stellar. This means the version we are playing was actually released the next year. Bundled again with Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls on the Gameboy Advance. Before either of these, I actually played (and beat) a fan translation on the NES!

It is the Spring of 1994 and in Japan, a new RPG has hit the shelves—Final Fantasy VI. A few months later in Autumn, the US would get a new game as well. This game was—Final Fantasy III? Another victim of the SNES number debacle, but it was indeed the third U.S. Release. I first played this during the rise of the SNES emulators and I always got stymied at the same point. Every time I got onto the Floating Continent I wouldn’t be strong enough to survive. All three previous attempts to beat the game ended at this same point. I own an in-box copy of Final Fantasy III. Yet, for our needs, we would be booting up the Advance version of this game.

Squaresoft was on a roll with their second generation of games, giving us a new game after only a little over a year. Final Fantasy V of course wouldn’t see this release until the Playstation release in 1998. Well, officially at least, unofficially we had the first fan translation patch for the SNES version in 1997. An endeavor I encourage people to read about here. This is hands down, as of playing the game, my favorite game in the franchise. I’ve played the SNES, Playstation, and Advance versions, and I’ve loved all of them. The Advance version was the one I beat and mastered. I maxed out all the classes, beat all the secret bosses, and loved doing it! This would again be the version I would be playing for the stream.

Months after the release of Final Fantasy III, the next generation of consoles came to homes. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System had arrived. This means the next installment of the franchise would be a whopping 16-bits of action! We got Final Fantasy IV the same year as Japan: 1991. This was the first official sequel for the west. And this is where the confusing numbering of games begins. After Final Fantasy IV came out, Japan got a second version that same year. A simplified version removing some spells, abilities, and items. This was Final Fantasy IV Easy Type, and it was this game that got sent to the West as Final Fantasy II. I first played on a cart with a ruined battery which meant every time I powered off the console I had to start over. The furthest I ever got was the Tower of Zot. Now it is time to finish it finally, using Final Fantasy IV Advance on the Gameboy Advance.

Only two years after Final Fantasy II, Japan got another sequel. An exclusive close to the first trilogy of games: Final Fantasy III. Released on the Famicom, it would remain that way for quite some time. Outside of fan translations, there was no official release of this version. In 2006, the world got its first official taste of this game in the form of a 3D remake on the Nintendo DS. While I played a large portion of the fan translation I didn’t sit down with it until the DS version. I only got so far into the game before the forced social networking frustrated me enough to stop. Mobile phones got a port of the 3D version and so we are playing the PC version of that port. Which is great since they replaced social media with monster hunting!

The desire to play the beginning of the Final Fantasy franchise has proven to be a cursed endeavor. So far we have had some kind of issue or less than stellar gameplay for some reason or another. So while we are making the transition to the 3D generation of games, enjoy a compilation of the issues we have had to struggle with!

Describing my attempts to play Final Fantasy II as anything less than frustrating would be a disservice. All the nonsense I’ve had to put up with has been insurmountable. I have to admit, I almost just skipped this entry due to frustration. I persevered and got about 1/3rd of the way into the game. However, more issues cropped up and so I put it on hold. With the end of Final Fantasy VI, I decided I wanted to finish the 2D era of games before moving ahead. To explain this delay, I have chronicled my adventures here.

Final Fantasy—first released in 1987—reached the English-speaking market in 1990. It has seen approximately 20 different releases over the years. My first encounter with it was as a child when I visited the U.S. for the first time. I’m going to go ahead and say that my first impressions were not great. I never left Corneria. I didn’t understand combat. The monster sprites kinda scared me. I was very young. And bad at games.

Not even including direct sequels and spin-offs, Final Fantasy has a long legacy. I’d recently discovered a fondness for RPGs I had forgotten. Where better to express that fondness than some classic games? So I decided to play the first 10 of the mainline Final Fantasy games throughout 2020. At least that was the plan, I’ve since decided to take my time. The first thing to decide on is which version of each game I was playing. And also all the work that is going to entail for streaming it.