Final Fantasy Legend II - Game Boy

[GrandAmChandler]

Okay! I just rediscovered this game from my childhood, and man it is pretty fun! Some people hate this game because of the disposible weapon system, and the fact that it isn't a real Final Fantasy game. Oh yeah and the fact that it is FRIGGIN' HARD!!! But I like it, it has it's quirks but shows what the Game Boy system can really handle!

http://www.legendra.com/rpg/covers/gb/final_fantasy_legend_ii_(saga_2_hihou_densetsu.jpg

http://www.rpg-reich.de/gfx/ffl2/review/ffl2_image_2.jpg

http://www.rpg-reich.de/gfx/ffl2/review/ffl2_image_1.jpg

Does anyone remember the issue or issues of Nintendo Power that had all of the maps to most of this game in it?

Any advice on this game? Best party to use? etc?

Love it hate it? DISCUSS! (BLACKJAX I am looking at YOU!)

[Truffle]

I havent played the second one.
Im hopelessly lost in Final Fantasy Legend.... :(

[Blitzwing256]

its nice to see someone else who enjoys this game.
its easily my favorate gb game of all time.

in fact the last few weeks i've been playing it on my ngage at work.

I'm trying to complete a goal I had always wanted to do. max out my party in the first "world"
its not nearly as hard as it seems, just time consuming.

theres two parties i'd recomend

for a begginer a human male, female mutant robot and monster is a good round party, the monster will be your weakest link for the early part of the game but the early part is easy enough and he becomes well worth it later in the game.

you could always switch the monster for another mutant if need be.

the other party I recomend would be two humans and two mutants, you loose the great early power of the robot, but if you can tolerate leveling up it becomes a party to reckon with later on.

as for gameplay, I'd suggest specializing each of your charecters, ie have one only use sword/strength weapons one use agility weapons and the other 2 magic (for humans and mutants at least) the more you use a set item type the faster those stats go up, thus more damage.

the long sword is great for maxing out your strenght earlyon, and I'd recomend using the rapier for agility its damage is based on your agility score not your strength score.
for mutants make sure you never lose thier starting flame/ifreeze spell as this spell is very very hard to repalce early in the game (read impossible for most of the arly worlds) so leave it on the top of thier lists as it will never be lost (the 4th spell on your list is the one that gets deleted when they learn a new spell)

the game has such a deep system and is so invoative and differnt I can see why its hated, if you stick to my basic adivce though you should have a relatively easy time..

[c0ldb33r]

I should try this game again.

Last time I played it I was stuck in a dungeon with broken weapons and very few items. Basically at this point I turn it on, walk a few steps and get killed :( But I should start it again using blitzwings advice.

On another note, I always dug the music in this game :D

BTW, final fantasy adventure > all other GB FFs

[Blitzwing256]

its possible to "save" yourself in that cave btw, if you load the game and take a few steps then save again, every time the new game is loaded it resets the "Walk" counter and you can make your way out of the cave (might be better starting over though)

[MichaeltheGreat]

I loved the final fantasy legend series! These are the first games that really brought me into rpgs. One and two were great, but three just wasn't as good (I had it beat a couple days after Christmas so the length probably had a lot to do with it).

In FFL2 it is possible to get truely stuck! In apollos world the number of magi I had got glitched once, so I suggest you keep a save at the beginning of this level.

I don't remember any specific configurations that were great or anything. I just remember never liking monsters because they were too weak for me. Good luck!

[MrRoboto19XX]

Im a big fan of this game, Ive always enjoyed that overworld music. its by Ouematsu, correct? (yea, I know I misspelled his name)

The game is very hard though. Ive never been able to get past Odin. Oddly enough, what made me choose this over III back in 199whenever was the "Hint Book" they said was included on the box.

To this day, I have no idea how the game ended.

Oh, and am I the only one that used to name the lead character after himself, and the female after the girl I had a crush on at the time?

[Snapple]

I devoted a looooooot of time into this game when I was young. Didn't seem to be a very popular game, because I was the only person I know who owned it.

I played through many times, and the first few times, I got stuck on Venus. The last couple times I played the game, I got past Venus and got stuck on Odin.

I never really ever knew what I was doing entirely, which is probably why I never beat Odin. It seemed like I always used up my weapons and magic before I saved up enough money to replace them. That's why I always made sure to have at least one Robot, because their weapons replenished.

I haven't touched the game in probably 10 years though.

That is a hard game. Fun, but hard.

[Blitzwing256]

odin is honestly tougher then the final boss in most instances.

I've recomended to most people to go to the "final" cave before fighting odin (sorta a secret really long hard cave) and pick up the nuke bombs glass sword and asorted other powerfull items and armour, even with those you have a slim chance of beating odin, luck takes a big part into beating him sometimes, espeicaly since he can do over 1000 damage in a single "Strike" with his gungnir.

and to answer the eariler post, yes I always name the female charecters after my "current" crush, hence why its embarassing when my friends used to watch me play rpgs

"say jim who's XXXX"
"urrr um just a random name!"
"uh huh"
hilariity insues ;-)

[slip81]

I started to play this one once and I was getting into it untill I lost all three of my complete FF GB games. Man was I pissed. Someday though I'll get them all back and play through them.

[Jorpho]

Yep, I haven't touched my poor old Game Boy in a long time, but this was one of the last games I was playing. It is one of the few genuinely difficult console RPGs I have come across.

I read a review of Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song a while ago. It was a really long review, covering the strange history of the SaGa series and how frustrating it generally is. The author made this lovely simile about how in a SaGa game, it's like your some strung-out rock star who's about to play this one big gig, and if it goes well, it's your last chance to stay big before you lose everything... Or something like that. I wish I could find that review.

Anyway, my party was a male human, a robot, a female mutant, and a male mutant, and it was actually working out pretty well... except that early on, I accidently lost the male mutant's Blizzard spell. When I was trying to work through the Nasty Dungeon, I figured that it was going to be unlikely that I would make it through without starting over and making sure that I kept the large-effect spells of both mutants this time. One of these days...

[RegSNES]

I remember that game. Bought it back in '98 and played it like mad. I loved it a buddy of mine loved it. Then I lloaned it and FFLIII to a friend of mine. Never saw either of them again!! :angry:

At the time, playing FFL was a very unique experience for me. Choosing my party members before the actual quest begins, having to buy weapons more frequently than usual, and a monster type of party member that can get stronger or weaker depending on how you mange it. I still have the isntructions and maps that came with FFL!! LOL

[Blitzwing256]

very late in the game you'll start getting them again (blizzard/flame) its based on your mana and what monster you killed last in a fight (i'm sure if you google it you can find a chart),

saga is a very unforgiving series, the challenge and frustration are one of the things that always set it up above final fantasy for me.

maybe too unforgiving, but once you've beaten any of the games you get a great feeling of satisfaction.

i've only managed to finish saga 1 and 2 on gameboy, if only the snes ones were translated, (the ps2 one doens't count as its almost unplayable)

[Snapple]

i've only managed to finish saga 1 and 2 on gameboy, if only the snes ones were translated, (the ps2 one doens't count as its almost unplayable)

I know there was a full fan translation of Romancing SaGa 3 made quite a while ago. There might've been translations for the two before that one, but I'm not sure.

I love the SaGa games on PS1. I only recently picked up Unlimited SaGa for PS2 for like $5, and I have to say, I wish I still had the $5 instead. One of the worst RPGs I've ever played.

[Blitzwing256]

unlimited was very very hard to get into, I hated it at first (I paid about the same for it new it did not sell well)

after the first 4-5 hours you start to enjoy the dungeon setup.

i'll have to look for that fan translation for 3, do you know what group did it?

[Snapple]

It was a joint project between a few guys.

Here's the page for it.

http://www.infinimana.com/rs3/

If it matters, although the page hasn't been updated in 4 years, the message board for the project is still active with one of the translators still visiting regularly.

[exit]

I remember borrowing the game from a friend, getting really far in it, something about ninjas and then the save files got erased.

Needless to say I was quite angry about it.

[wisekrak]

So was I correct in thinking that the GB FF Legend games were the SaGa Series in Japan? FF Adventure was also the first Mana game that they recently re-made for GBA correct?

[Blitzwing256]

correctamundo.

the 3 gb ones were just saga 1 2 and 3.
and adventure was sieken denetsu (something like that) ie secret of mana

[Jorpho]

very late in the game you'll start getting them again (blizzard/flame) its based on your mana and what monster you killed last in a fight (i'm sure if you google it you can find a chart)

I read once that there's a particular boss partway through the game (a robot masquerading as a wind spirit, or something; I forget its name), and if you time your encounter with it such that you would normally be getting a standard spell after the battle, you'll get Flare instead.

By the way, apparently Final Fantasy Legend III was the first game localized by the guy who did FFVII and Shadow Hearts. (Arg, what was his name...)

[boatofcar]

FFL2 is one of my favorite games. It was the first RPG I ever played on the Game Boy, and was really the only Game Boy game that I played a lot of before I got the GBA SP (I jumped from Brick to the SP). I also gained one of my best friends through it- I saw him playing it before math class one day in 7th grade and we started chatting about it, and were friends all the way up through high school.

Funny though, it's been so long since I've played it, I can't remember anything about it other than fighting the cactus guys and getting stuck at Odin. I think I sold it at some point. Square should put out a FFL anthology for the GBA or DS, that would be pretty sweet.

[Jorpho]

Square should put out a FFL anthology for the GBA or DS, that would be pretty sweet.

Agreed. FFL2 had some darn good music, but it was severely hampered by (I presume) the fact that more advanced instrumentation hadn't been developed at the time. I mean, if you compare a game released near the end of the life of the B&W GB to games from the launch, there's a considerably greater range of sounds and effects being used in the music, no?

Anyway, presumably the rights to the games were sold to Sunsoft, since it was Sunsoft that re-released the FFL games near the end. (What is Sunsoft doing these days?)

[Soviet Conscript]

I the only one that used to name the lead character after himself, and the female after the girl I had a crush on at the time?

yhea, i always do this. i name the main character after myself and the other characters accordingly. for instance i'll name the generic "tough guy" character after a friend i have thats kinda big, ect. ect.... acually i've asked a few of my friends stuff like "if you were in a fantasy world what would u wanna be a wizard a fighter type?" and i go by that to. i have a friend thats really into samurai stuff so if there is a character like that i'll name it after him.

but anyways, i got FF2 around when it came out for the gb, i think i was in middle school at the time. i remember playing it from sun up to night time. eventually i got to Odin couldn't beat him and put the game down. i didn't rediscover it untill my first year in college still my grey plastic gameboy carrying case next to the GB. well i put it in and the save was still there after all those years. ended up beating the game a few days later

[Jorpho]

Isn't Odin supposed to get more and more difficult if you die repeatedly and let him revive you? In that case, doesn't going through the entire game without dying make him substantially easier? Or do you actually skip fighting him entirely if you do that?

(Now, I never actually made it to Odin, so please don't be too spoilerrific.)

So did you people actually bother with The Nasty Dungeon at all?

[Blitzwing256]

if you never die the whole game, odin simply starts a fight with you right away (if you've died, he'll go into a speach) and no he isn't any harder based on how many times you get your ass kicked.

(edit)
yes the nasty dungeon is very worth going through, lots of really necesary items to pick up to make the later fights much much easier.
plus you can fight warmech (optional boss battle)
the glass sword is the strongest sword in the game by far, except it only has 1 use, (protip: if you're using a robot equip it on him, although he loses all uses of it..it boosts his stats significantly) you can also pick up the arthursuit (or was it the parasuit?) that is a full set of armour and very strong.

[WiseSalesman]

I don't know if anyone mentioned this, since I only scanned the thread, but remember that you can "convert" your characters between human, monster, mutant, robot, etc later in the game, too. So, although monsters are weak early on, they're crazy powerful late in the game. You could tsart with a human, then make him a monster once he's leveled a bit.

If I remember correctly, there are two items for converting; "parts" and "meat". Eating a meat makes you one step closer to monster, while installing a part makes you one step closer to robot. So, a monster installing one part becomes a mutant, installing another becomes human, installing another becomes a robot or something like that.

[Jorpho]

No, Parts and Meat was FFLIII. FFLI and FFLII only had monster meat that would turn your monsters into different kinds of monsters. (And of course there's a whole rigorous "multiplication table" that will tell you what kind of monster you'll get when one kind of monster eats another monster's meat.)

[GrandAmChandler]

No, Parts and Meat was FFLIII. FFLI and FFLII only had monster meat that would turn your monsters into different kinds of monsters. (And of course there's a whole rigorous "multiplication table" that will tell you what kind of monster you'll get when one kind of monster eats another monster's meat.)

Agreed. Parts Did not come until FFL III. I totally agree with what Jorpho says.

[Truffle]

and to answer the eariler post, yes I always name the female charecters after my "current" crush, hence why its embarassing when my friends used to watch me play rpgs

"say jim who's XXXX"
"urrr um just a random name!"
"uh huh"
hilariity insues ;-)

LOL
That is Sooooo funny!
I used to do that when I was just getting into rpgs, but my cousin liked to go tell the person! (Thanks a lot!)
Then everyone thought I was a tremendous dork!

[Jorpho]

I read a review of Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song a while ago. It was a really long review, covering the strange history of the SaGa series and how frustrating it generally is. The author made this lovely simile about how in a SaGa game, it's like your some strung-out rock star who's about to play this one big gig, and if it goes well, it's your last chance to stay big before you lose everything... Or something like that. I wish I could find that review.

That review really stuck with me. And now that I've finally found it again I'm going to celebrate by bumping this thread. :)

http://www.largeprimenumbers.com/article.php?sid=saga

[smokehouse]

That was a tough game. I still have a complete copy and play it from time to time. Anyone else try to get the seven sword from the cactus looking Haniwa? I tried and failed (many, many times quite like the “pink” tail in FFII on the SNES).

All-in-all it was a great game though, especially for it’s time.

[Blitzwing256]

quite a pain in the ass to get, but it is the only weapon in the game that allows you to do more then 999 damage (it hits 7 times) but your stats have to be really high, as they should be if you can succesfully kill haniwa, one tip always kill him last, as your treasure or meat is only from the last thing you killed in battle.

[Jorpho]

Haniwa...? Is that something you encounter after the Nasty Dungeon?

[smokehouse]

Haniwa...? Is that something you encounter after the Nasty Dungeon?

This little bugger right here:
http://www.rpgclassics.com/shrines/gb/ffl2/enemies/haniwa.gif

Here’s in the last dungeon before the final boss.

[Spycee]

There's a REALLY easy way to find a Haniwa if you have the original GB :

The save file must be on the last floor of the last dungeon.

1- Turn on the GB and load the game. Advance 3 squares with your party. You'll fight a monster. Reset the GB (DO NOT turn if off, just do a reset).

2- Load the game. Advance 1 square with your party. You'll fight a monster. Reset the GB (DO NOT turn if off, just do a reset).

3- Load the game. Advance 3 squares with your party. You'll fight a monster. Reset the GB (DO NOT turn if off, just do a reset).

4- Load the game. Advance 47 squares with your party. You'll fight a Haniwa :)

If you didn't receive the sword, turn off the GB and go to step 1.

I figured it out by myself when I was searching this legendary weapon. When I got it, I was very excited, but I did no damage with it :angry: Don't know why though ...

[Blitzwing256]

each of the weapons is tied to a certain stat, if I recall the 7-sword was tied to the agility stat, so if you have crap agility then it does crap damage.

[kainemaxwell]

I played around with it a little earlier. Seems like a fast-paced rpg. Only concern really is the way the game allows you to build stats, not liking it too much. Feels a lot like (but not as bad) as Final Fantasy 2's system.