Game #43: Final Fantasy Legend II (Game Boy) - World Wanderer (Finished)

Even better than the first

A solid game throughout. There were a few tough battles that took some reloading, but in the end I'm satisfied with the challenge. I'm not sure I'll play through it again, but it's one of the few I'd consider. Having a different party make-up would lend to a few different strategies. For one, I'd ditch the monsters unless I was using a guide to get the right meat. It's just too random otherwise. Mutants are good, but I think a mana based human could work out just as well. Agility seems very important though. In any case, back to the game.

Congratulations on reaching this world; we're just going to give you this

As soon as I entered the next world, a fairy was waiting inside a cave known as the Nasty Dungeon. She warned me of great peril, and gave me Pegasus, which allowed the party to warp to any previously visited location. The cave proved rich in spoils, though the enemies were on the difficult side. Luckily I found the samurai bow in Edo, capable of killing any one group in Celd's hands. Battles are limited to three groups of monsters, and each group can consist of up to nine enemies. Before too long the monsters grew too powerful for me to handle, so I moved on to the next world.

A waist of a Muramas, selfix auto-heals at the end of each turn, and parasuit is awesome full body armor

Valhalla was the next, and Odin was there waiting for my party. The reason he wanted to fight was that he grew weary of life as an immortal being, and wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. It took a couple attempts, mostly because I couldn't hit with Till very well until I equipped him with double samurai bows (the second found in the Nasty Dungeon). The Magi I gained from Odin opened up the next world, but meant I could no longer revive automatically if I fell in battle. Not too much of a worry since I was saving before boss fights anyway.

All the pretty Magi

Apollo was waiting for me, and although his minion proved easy, he forced me to hand over all the Magi in exchange for all the people I'd met along my travels. Seriously, even Taro couldn't take him on apparently. All was lost. Apollo had all the Magi, and was going to... do something with it. Then Celd's dad showed up to save the day.

Of course, Till is blinking again

Apparently the guardians were very crafty, and though the knowledge that there were 77 Magi leaked out somehow, there are actually 78. With the last piece the set was incomplete. Dad then escorted us over to Final Town, so we could get the Magi known as Heart from the Final Dungeon (yes, these are the names). This last town offered up a Flare book for sale, a powerful fire spell that hits every enemy. Books allow a character to cast a spell a limited number of times. The effectiveness is based on the mana stat. I stocked up on flare and cure for the final dungeon. Inside I found XCalibr, a staple now for Final Fantasy games, and every random encounter became trivial as it hits an entire group of enemies.

I am Iron Man

I was having a bit of difficulty with the WarMach above. That is, until I realized that Dad came equipped with a heal staff, which cures the entire party. I collected Heart, and then headed for Apo... actually, I went and finished off the Nasty Dungeon with Dad's help. Apollo can wait. I'm glad I did since there were a couple more nice items near the end, like Odin's spear Gungnir (not sure how it ended up there) and the Glass Sword. Apollo was waiting for my party behind the final Magi locked door. He'd just used the Magi. I'm still not sure what that did for him... maybe obtain godhood somehow.

Wait?! You can use those?

Apollo starts out his normal self, only using Aegis to protect himself from most attacks. He was still vulnerable to XCalibr, Flare, and the samurai bow, so I whittled him down until he transformed. Then he launched into alternating attacks of Masmune and Flare. This required both Dad and Ako to be on heal staff duty for most of the battle. Getting Till's build just right took some tweaking. Eventually I found a combination of offense and healing that balanced in my favor. The Magi Apollo used became unstable though, and he exploded with power. Dad somehow protected everyone from the explosion, and collapsed. No waking up stunned after this battle for him.

"I'm melting! melting! Oh, what a world! What a world!"

We collected all the Magi, and watched helplessly as Dad slipped into unconsciousness. Celd combined all 78 Magi in hopes it'd save her dad (little did she know that Heart heals the entire party). Doing that summoned Isis. Either her presence, or Apollo's attempt to use the Magi caused the security system to trigger. The whole place started shaking. Isis stabilized Dad, and asked that we joined her to handle the security system. Getting to the central core took a while, and there were two mini-boss enemies waiting for me. The first time down I foolishly didn't save, and had to redo the Apollo fight. Each mini-boss had a group of 2 - 4 enemies, but they acted first, and each one had an attack that could damage everyone in the party for half my hit-points. The luck of the roll landed twice against me.

Even with this on my side, wind magic proved too much

The final battle took place outside the security system with twin robots called Arsenal. Isis took one, and my party took on the other. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but my initial volley of attacks took out one of the four cannons. Disabling them all was only the beginning of my trouble though. Arsenal got to a point where he was using an attack called Smasher that hit for a great amount of damage. I was caught off-guard, but was able to pull it off on the second attempt by timing continuous heal staff uses just after I got hit.

Pure death if not caught early

Isis disabled the world collapsing mechanism after we dealt with Arsenal. Honestly, at this point I thought I might have to fight her next, but all was well with the world. She claimed to not be a real god, and only visited this world whenever she was summoned by the Magi every 1000 years or so. She wished the party well, as they returned to their world, and to checked up on Dad. He made a miraculous recovery, and was ready to return home to Jane (I guess that's the mother's name).

I knew I recognized that hat

Back at home things had returned to normal, with Celd's father headed out on another adventure. This time though, Celd was in on the action. Not just her though, mom breaks up the fun to announce she's tired of all this adventuring without her. So the entire family heads off to find the Lost Ark. A story that's never told.

Elapsed Time: 6h24m (Final Time: 16h14m)

Credit roll start

Combatant - Overall, combat was very easy, but also dependent on party make-up. Some parties are more challenging than others, and depending on the build with equipment it can change the dynamic quite a bit. There are a good number of strategies to play with that keep things varied. Enemy variety isn't quite there for random battles, and there aren't a good deal of rewards for fighting since without experience points some fights feel meaningless.
Rating: 6

Thanks for all the pretty pictures

Admirer - High customization really shines in this game. Unfortunately, due to the platform this game is on, a lot of features are limited. Appearance of the party doesn't really change, and some points here like advancement options only exist with some members.
Rating: 5

Puzzler - For a clearly defined main quest, one that keeps pushing the goal onward, this category scores as it does. There are no puzzles, no side quests, and without those this category tanks.
Rating: 2

Thanks for the English

Instigator - The plot progression is interesting, and I enjoyed the turns along the way. Descriptions are a bit lacking, but the platform and limited space on the cartridge are more to blame than anything. It was a fun, light journey right through the end. There aren't any decisions or branching paths, just the main line. Having each character speak a part seems a bit odd since they're so interchangeable. Almost like no matter what I choose, they always come with the same personality. The memo feature, which acts as a journal for key events, won't be seen in many games.
Rating: 5

Collector - There is a lot of stuff in this game, but good luck collecting it all or even knowing what's best without degrading durability. The gold economy does well to stay relevant until the near the final battle with Apollo where it just falls apart. Party inventory is once again limited, and there's nowhere to store things for later.
Rating: 3

Awesome music

Explorer - For a Game Boy game, the music and graphics are very well done. It's an interesting place to explore, and the world is consistent. Unfortunately, due to the size of the game, I think the number of places to find is limited only to the essentials. Worlds are closed off based on plot points, even when it doesn't make sense how some other characters can get through a door with much more limited Magi.
Rating: 5

Final Rating: 26 [43%]

Further confusion of the company name and date of release!

It scores a fair bit more than the previous game. With great improvements in a number of places, I'm looking forward to the next installment even though I hear it does some strange things. The battle system has matured, and I feel that the story has definitely taken a step in the right direction. The game world might be a bit too limited by the platform. I'd like to see the limited inventory done away with.

In any case, time for some The Bard's Tale. Remember when I ended the last game saying how I far behind I was in posting. Well, it hasn't improved. I'm already finished with that game. There's not much to talk about beyond the mechanics though, so I feel a single post will do. I'm also well into Final Fantasy II (IV), and will be due to make a post for that this weekend. It's amazing to see the jump in quality, but we'll get there soon.

Let's do this!