Soul of Rebirth

Going through these best character essay things has got me thinking a lot about a few games. Mostly how bad FFXII and its follow up are. I'm also wondering about the characters in Final Fantasy II. I've said some good things about them, but the game is regarded as bad. Even I think it's one of the worst games in the entire genre. Hell, I thought it was the worst in the franchise, by a large margin, until I replayed XII. But there's something about all those fourth party members that's got me wanting me to replay it again for the first time in five years or so. I really want to focus on the Soul of Rebirth members, but we might as well get a reminder on all of them, yeah? For the record, I own the game on the Playstation, but I'm playing the PSP version, which has the good bits that even the Pixel Remaster doesn't.
 
Final Fantasy II starts with a slightly androgynous person with three inch fingernails. Knowing that this is a he, he casts a magic spell, and we cut to a small town beset by an army in black armored soldiers. We see four teenagers/young adults running away from things, but one of them gets caught. Two others manage to save her, but even the knife in his eye means nothing as the knight gets back up and starts shambling again. I'm thinking zombies... We next see the kids running through the forest as the girl overlooks her burning hometown. We're brought to the main menu now, and we can select "new game." The opening scene has that same stuff, but in a slightly different way that doesn't matter. Regardless, the four kids we saw during the FMV video had to keep running. They kept running until four black soldiers caught up.  And we come to our first fight!

Already?! But we're not ready? Even with cheats from my old playthrough still active, it doesn't go well. Firion, Maria, Guy, and Leon are killed in one round. The soldiers leave us for dead, but other uniformed personnel quickly swoop in. We next see Firiion in a room with a yellow tint and in the middle of a strange glyph. A woman in a rad helmet and a masked man in white do something. They then say that we have a strong spirit, and we'll be okay as long as we rest for now. They have a meeting to get to, so they leave the room. As soon as they do, Firion gets up and yells for his friends. But he's alone. He walks out of the room and sees Maria and Guy waiting. They're all happy, but where's Leon?

In the next room over is Hilda and Minwu not having a meeting. They tell us that our hometown of Fynn was attacked by the Empire and its demons. Monsters now roam the streets, and it's not a good place to be. We are, now, in the main base of the resistance, Altair. Most of them are remnants of Fynn or other nations wiped out by the Empire. Sadly, Hilda has no idea where Leon is, but it's possible he's been captured. Despite us wanting to join the Wild Rose Rebellion to save him, Hilda tells us we're too young and inexperienced. She suggests we rest up and hope. We're simple civilians...

But because of that, we don't have to listen to her! We're going north. Outside of the HQ is a man named Paul. He's a thief, though he only steals from the Empire. Behind the house is a man named Gordon. He's royalty, but he's also too afraid to take up arms in defense of his kingdom. So he's just gonna creep behind this window.? There's an armor shop if you want to buy new armor, but our goal is to head north. We're looking for Leon!

Welcome to the world map of Final Fantasy II. This is probably the best song in the OST, but it's all quite nice. Between Altair and Fynn is Galtea. There's nothing here, but it's a good checkpoint. En route, we learn about the thing that makes FFII a terrible game: the battle system. You see, there are no levels in FFII. Instead, all stats are adjusted by taking actions or having actions taken against you. It's kinda cool on paper, but it ends up being a confusing mess with annoying mechanics. Every time a character makes an attack, their strength EXP goes up, along with their EXP for that weapon. If they cast a spell, their int and MP have a chance of increasing. Should they take damage, their defense and HP may go up. Like I said, it makes sense on paper, but there's something convoluted about it. For example, you often need to beat up your own characters to increase your HP. And since every character has a weapon skill, equipping a new weapon with zero EXP may make you weaker if you have no skill in it. To make a good character, you have to do a lot of grinding or hyper focus a few stats and spells. And, for some reason, unarmed is the best weapon in the game. It ends up feeling painfully tedious, which is a terrible game mechanic. I've read it's the whole reason Square didn't localize the game until 2002. But I enjoy a job class system, which can work here, so what am I doing? I'm gonna hyper focus on a few job archetypes.
Firion, our noble spirited hero, is going to be a spellsword. He's gonna have a sword, shield, and attack magic.
Maria, our worry filled sister, is an archer and white mage. She can heal and shoot things from the back row, apply debuffs, and heal.
Guy, our giant friend who was raised by animals, is our monk and knight. He's gonna have some healing abilities, and I'm sure I'll figure out what else he can do later. Unarmed, though...
And our fourth character will do whatever it is they already do. Once we get the last one, I'll figure it out from there. Sadly, there are no job commands in the game, so steal, jump, guard, etc., aren't gonna be a thing. FFII is as basic as you can get, and I yearn for a remaster. But that's for the future...

Run through Gatrea and rest up if you need to. Go around the lake on its west side and circle back to the giant castle, Fynn. Our characters will enter the gate and see several black knights patrolling. They tell each other to avoid them as we sneak around the town. Random mobs occasionally attack us, but they're the ones we've fought on the world map, so don't worry. Don't talk to any of the knights, or they will murder you. They can see you, just don't press A near them. Our goal is the tavern on the outskirts of town on the otherside of the wall. A man in Gatrea told us about this place. To get there, find a not-so-secret passage on the otherside of a fence north of the weapons shop. Hug the trees, and you'll get there. Inside are more knights, but talk to the bartender behind the bar.

This reminds me; here's another tutorial about something FFII does that I actually think is cool. The keyword system allows us to ask other important people about various phrases we find in the world. Princess Hilda let us learn the keyword "Wild Rose" back in Altair. Ask the bartender about it here, and he'll tell us about a wounded soldier in his basement. He then leaves the bar to us, somehow, which I'm sure will go over great with the invaders. Follow the stairs down, and we'll meet Scott. Scott is Gordon's brother and Hilda's lover. Scott was nearly killed in the attack, but the bartender did all he could to buy time for this moment. Scott hands us his ring and asks us to tell Gordon to be brave. He also wants us to tell Hilda that he loves her but quickly rescinds that request. A dying man shouldn't burden his love with such words. As he hands us the ring, he collapses and fades away.

Return to Altair and speak to Gordon. He'll be shocked if we show him the ring, but nothing else happens here. Speaking to Hilda will change her mind about us joining the rebellion. She allows us in and gives us our first mission. We're heading to Salamand to search for Mythril, a new keyword. Her right hand man, Minwu, will join us for the journey. Minwu is a white mage, so healing will be covered. We get a canoe that we can use to cross rivers and lakes and head up north to the snowfields. Along the way, we come to the town of Paloom. We can take a boat north to Poft to save time, but I'm low on gill and want the EXP. Walking up is a breeze. In Poft, though, is a man named Cid. Cid has the only airship in the world, and we can use it to travel across the map for a small fee. It's 700 to return to Altair, so maybe don't make use of him yet. North of Poft is a mountain range. Follow it west to find Salamand. There we'll find our informant Josef. Asking him about the Mythril will cause him to get angry. Many of the townsfolk have been enslaved and are working in the mines of Semit Falls. If we want to find the Mythril, we need to free them. So we'll do that...

...tomorrow!

Day one plot dump is mostly gameplay mechanics, so that's new. We're just starting, and we're already getting to the good characters. Josef is one of my favorites from the game, and Minwu is one of the more important ones in terms of the entire franchise. I finally remembered who Scott was, so I won't overlook him in the character sheets. Expect me to start cheating again soon, but I'll try to play it legit. I want to learn more about the corpse party, so I want to rush to that. But not too fast, I guess.