History YMMV / FinalFantasyII

** The character progression system is what either makes or breaks the game for most people. For patient gamers who enjoy number-crunching, the fact that you have near-absolute freedom to build each and every party member however you want down to the individual points of each stat adds a lot of replayability and general creative freedom to approach the game however you like. For people who prefer a [[CharacterLevel standard level system]] or simply want to [[EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame plow through the story]], they'll probably [[{{Ragequit}} quit]] at around Kashuan Keep. The version ported to the ''25th Anniversary'' box set had to ramp down the difficulty because so few fans were willing to sit through it.
** Whether heavy equipment hindering magic and stat atrophy were good or bad mechanics. Supporters believed they allowed for solidified combat roles amongst characters rather than the inevitable party full of {{Magic Knight}}s that the ''Dawn of Souls'' based versions did, who only differ in whether they use White or Black magic. Detractors believe that such penalties slowed down the game and added unnecessary difficulty, feeling the removal of both mechanics made the ''Dawn of Souls'' based versions more enjoyable.

** The Emperor also fits this trope when you fight him in the Cyclone, where he's a pushover, [[spoiler:though he turns into a killing machine for his turn as the final boss. Makes one wonder if he didn't [[ILetYouWin throw the fight on purpose]] as part of his EvilPlan.]]

* EsotericHappyEnding: [[spoiler:The ending warmly states that the wounds of the war would heal "in time." Given that about half the world's population centers have been totally wiped out, it's probably going to be a real ''long'' time.]]

** The plot's rather infamous WholePlotReference to the original ''Film/StarWars'' Trilogy became a lot more accurate with [[spoiler:both Emperor Palpatine's resurrection in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' necessitating a final confrontation in his hellish throne room, just like Mateus in Pandaemonium]]

* OlderThanTheyThink: Many of the plot elements—the Evil Empire, Bishounen villain who's seeking godhood, essentially, party members being Killed Off for Real, and even the presence of any plot at all—which many people seem to think only started in the SNES and [=PS1=] era.

* CriticalDissonance: Reviews for the game are largely positive, while fan reception is mostly mixed-to-negative.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: Between the AnyoneCanDie story, the quirky game design and the [[NintendoHard unreasonably cruel difficulty]], the overall feel is of wandering through a dying world. {{NPC}}s continually insult your party and tell you that you're all useless teenagers (though they warm up quickly), and some, counting the numbers, have pointed out that over half of the world's population is killed over the course of the game. While the heroes save what's left of the world, Leon still believes that he and his four friends can't go back to the way they were before, although Firion holds out hope that Leon will return. The crushing despair of this game may have been why ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'' went very twee and fairy-tale-ish.

* ViewerGenderConfusion: Despite explicitly being called a man in his introduction, Minwu is often mistaken for a woman. It may have something to do with [[{{Bishounen}} his looks]], wearing a top that [[BareYourMidriff exposes his navel]] and a long white skirt, and being [[TheOneGuy the only male]] WhiteMage in the franchise.

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: The game is infamous for its bizarre design choices and grindiness, but the story is noted for being surprisingly complex by NES standards. While the main trio is fairly lackluster, the supporting cast provide solid plotlines and the Emperor is considered the best villain in the NES trilogy, with the game as a whole standing out from its predecessor being a ''Dungeons and Dragons'' clone and its successor opting for a more MonsterOfTheWeek focused plot and having a somewhat sympathetic BigBad overshadowed by a GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere taking his place as the FinalBoss.

* {{Fanon}}: Firion gets very few lines in the game overall, but usually speaks up during particularly plot-important moments and when dealing with the latest entrant into the [[GuestStarPartyMember fourth character slot]]. However, it's Maria who asks Gordon to join them in Kashuan, while Firion doesn't say a word. Some fans interpret his silence as disgust, if not outright hatred.

* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: The game is infamous for its bizarre design choices and grindiness, but the story is noted for being surprisingly complex by NES standards. While the main trio is fairly lackluster, the supporting cast provide solid plotlines and the Emperor is considered the best villain in the NES trilogy, with the game as a whole standing out from its predecessor being a ''Dungeons and Dragons'' clone and its successor opting for a more MonsterOfTheWeek focused plot and having a somewhat sympathetic BigBad overshadowed by a GiantSpaceFleaOfDoom taking his place as the FinalBoss.

** The plot's rather infamous WholePlotReference to the original ''Film/StarWars'' Trilogy became a lot more accurate with [[spoiler:both Emperor Mateus and Palpatine unexpectedly returning from the dead with little to no explanation, necessitating a final confrontation in their hellish throne room.]]

* HilariousInHindsight: When Firion and the others are tasked to destroy the Dreadnought, Gordon laments his weakness compared to the heroes and wonders what a pathetic coward like him can do. Guess who accompanies the party when they finally blow up the Dreadnought?

** In the original NES version, the Ultima spell is useless. This is a bug, but when it was discovered the lead programmer ''refused'' to fix it, saying that he liked the idea of subverting OlderIsBetter by having legendary ancient magic actually turn out to be terrible because it has been obsolete for centuries (if ''that's'' not [[MisaimedRealism overthinking things to a detrimental degree]], nothing is).

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The ''Pixel Remaster'' version contains a number of changes, from quality-of-life to overhauls. Of particular note is that it is now ''much'' easier to track stat experience gain from battle to battle, so you know if your methods are working. Another praiseworthy change was tweaking the stat growth to be a mix of how it works in the PSP and ''Origins'' versions, alongside party members in the back taking half-damage from attacks rather than never being hit, meaning less need to game the system to get basic stat increases.

* ThatOneBoss: BeefGate encourages the player to develop their party and not bite more than they can chew. Yet, one boss character named Lamia Queen stands out. She is the only boss that was fought inside the rebel's hideout that caught many players off guard in the past because they forgot to recover their HP and MP after finishing a long quest in Deist, and did not think that they would fight another strong foe so soon, especially not in their own turf. Other than her high magic capabilities and strong physical attack which can inflict Sleep status on her, she has tendency to cast Blink XVI on herself and Charm IX to confuse her target, with high success rate. If Lamia Queen gets the first strike and she casts Blink XVI on herself, unless the player have someone with high levelled Dispel to negate Lamia Queen's Blink or other magic that inflict negative status ailment, just consider the fight over and start from the last Load.

* ThatOneBoss:
** Lamia Queen, the only boss fight happening inside the rebel's hideout that catch many players off guard because they forget to save. Other than her high magic power and strong physical attack which put her target to sleep, she has tendency to cast Blink XVI on herself and Charm IX to confuse her target. If Lamia Queen gets the first strike and she casts Blink on herself, you may onsider the fight over and start from the last Load.

** Most enemies whose physical attacks [[LifeDrain absorb HP]], like Death Riders and Ghosts. Not only does it obviously heal them to attack you, but damage from enemies' physical absorption attacks is calculated the same way as the damage your own party members deal wielding a Blood Sword: [[PercentDamageAttack It deals as many sixteenths of the target's]] ''[[PercentDamageAttack max]]'' [[PercentDamageAttack HP as there were hits that landed]]. So, such an enemy scoring even four hits with their physical attack will slam the target for one quarter of their max HP in damage, and that hit count is on the low end for a lot of enemies with this ability. Factor in that you can encounter up to around four such enemies at once, often with other lackeys to worry about on the side, and the danger level starts to snowball ''fast''. Many such enemies ''are'' undead, however, which, while sadly immunizing them against doses of their own medicine, ''does'' mean spells like [[KillItWithFire Fire]], [[ReviveKillsZombie Cure, and Life]] are effective ways of cutting them down to size.

** Minwu. The developers took notice and turned him into a BreakoutCharacter in the remakes, making him the focus on a secondary storyline unlocked after the game that takes place in the afterlife. Tetsuya Nomura even wanted to include him in ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy2015''.

* ScrappyWeapon: Bows are considered the worst weapon type for various reasons. The first is they are the game's only two-handed weapon, meaning that you can't equip shields, a piece of equipment that is valuable to raising agility due to increasing your evasion in a game where a character increases agility by dodging attacks. Second is that they are catered for characters who stay in the back row, a row which is a bad idea to put characters in as not taking as much damage prevents them from gaining a higher amount of hit points, which means a low max HP and as such any attack that can hit the back row will shave off most if not all of a character's HP. And third if you're playing the original and ''Pixel Perfect'' versions, bows gives a massive penalty to magic compared to staves and knives, making them a poor fit for magic-focused characters who'd be the best fit to put in the back row to begin with!

** Leila is also popular with fans, being a badass pirate and one of the earliest ActionGirls in gaming. Also helps that she's the predecessor of another fellow fan favorite female [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyV Pirate Captain.]]

* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Firion has a share of fanworks that pairs him with [[OfficialCouple Maria]], Hilda, [[HoYay Minwu]], and [[FoeYay The Emperor]]. And that's just outside of the ships from ''Dissidia''.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The ''Pixel Remaster'' version contains a number of changes, from quality-of-life to overhauls. Of particular note is that it is now ''much'' easier to track stat experience gain from battle to battle, so you know if your methods are working.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The ''Pixel Perfect'' remaster has brought a strange variation of "They Changed It ''Back'', Now It Sucks!". The return of the divisive magic penalty system for weapons, shields and armor (not helped by the remaster [[GuideDangIt not informing players in-game of this]]) along with the removal of the Soul of Rebirth mode added in the ''Dawn of Souls'' remake and the Arcane Labyrinth BonusDungeon of the ''20th Anniversary'' remake has lead some to see the ''Pixel Perfect'' version as a downgrade. The fact that the iOS and Android releases based on the ''20th Anniversary'' version were removed from stores when the ''Pixel Perfect'' version released only increased the enmity.

* PolishedPort: The many remakes and ports of the game do add some content and reduce the annoyances. That said, they don't bring enough improvements to keep the game from being contested even among classic fans.

* SophomoreSlump: ''Final Fantasy I'' is a revolutionary, if flawed, game that helped popularize the RPG genre on home consoles. ''Final Fantasy II'' is considered by fans to be one of the worst games in the franchise due to a variety of issues with its gameplay. Later games from the classic era wouldn't make the same mistakes and are all generally well-received.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: Between the AnyoneCanDie story, the NES hardware limitations, the quirky game design and the [[NintendoHard unreasonably cruel difficulty]], the overall feel is of wandering through a dying world. {{NPC}}s continually insult your party and tell you that you're all useless teenagers (though they warm up quickly), and some, counting the numbers, have pointed out that over half of the world's population is killed over the course of the game. While the heroes save what's left of the world, Leon still believes that he and his four friends can't go back to the way they were before, although Firion holds out hope that Leon will return. The crushing despair of this game may have been why ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'' went very twee and fairy-tale-ish.

** Firion being seduced by the Lamia Queen disguised as Princess Hilda, it only happened once in the entire game, but it didn't stop the Japanese fanbase from calling him "doutei"/"virgin" and ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' making the inability to talk to women a part of his personality. (The fact that Firion actually gets very little dialogue compared to other characters undoubtedly helps this moment to stand out.)