Final Fantasy II

:This article is about Final Fantasy II, the Famicom title. For information on the SNES title, see Final Fantasy IV.

Related Topics:
Famicom - SNES - Final Fantasy IV

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Final Fantasy II is a computer role-playing game developed and published by Square Co., Ltd. in 1988. Originally released for the Nintendo Family Computer in Japan, there was some initial talk that either Nintendo of America or Square Soft (Square's North American subsidiary) might localize the title for American audiences as had been done with its predecessor in 1990. Such a project was announced and an early prototype cartridge was produced in 1991, but the game was ultimately cancelled in favor of the more recent Final Fantasy IV. The game was never released outside of Asia in its original form. Enhanced remakes of the game were later issued for the Bandai WonderSwan Color ("WSC"), the PlayStation (as part of the Final Fantasy Origins collection) and the Game Boy Advance (GBA) (as part of the ' collection), and the latter two titles were finally released in English language form in both North America and Europe.

Related Topics:
Computer role-playing game - Square Co., Ltd. - 1988 - Nintendo Family Computer - Japan - Nintendo of America - North America - Subsidiary - Localize - Predecessor - 1990 - 1991 - Final Fantasy IV - Asia - Enhanced remake - Bandai - WonderSwan Color - PlayStation - Final Fantasy Origins - Game Boy Advance - English language - Europe

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Final Fantasy II is notable for being one of the first story-intensive RPGs released for a console system, and for being the first game in the series to feature many elements that would later become staples of the franchise, including Chocobos and a character by the name of Cid. It was also unique for eliminating the traditional experience-based advancement system, instead favoring a system wherein the statistics of playable characters increased according either to how much they were required, or how much they used. In other words, a character who frequently cast magic spells would have their proficiency at casting increase faster than a character who specialized in physical attacks. Although abandoned by subsequent installments in the series, a similar system was adopted by the SaGa series, also produced by Square.

Related Topics:
Console - Franchise - Chocobo - Cid - Playable character - Magic - SaGa

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Because of the popularity of the series in America during the 1990s, Final Fantasy II was one of the first games to undergo fan translation, in this case by NeoDemiforce.

Related Topics:
1990s - Fan translation

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Final Fantasy II was originally scored by Nobuo Uematsu, and it was Uematsu's eighth work of video game music. The game was rescored by Tsuyoshi Sekito for the Wonderswan Color, PlayStation, and Gameboy Advance remakes.

Related Topics:
Scored - Nobuo Uematsu - Tsuyoshi Sekito

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