BEWARE, SPOILERS ABOVE (you've probably already read it anyway)
Note: The following is about Final Fantasy II for the Famicom. That is, the Japanese Final Fantasy II, which was never officially released elsewhere.
The blackest
black sheep of the
Final Fantasy series.
Final Fantasy VI (J) is basically a better rehash of this game. It strays in many ways from all the Final Fantasy standards, but since it was only the second of its kind it was not persecuted for that reason. It is either the hardest of the series or the easiest, as the
Daggerfall-esque experience system is very easy to abuse. The game is
linear like its sequels, but in a different way. In the rest of the series there is only one possible way to go; everywhere else is
out of bounds. In
Final Fantasy II, you can go pretty much anywhere, but if you stray from the
invisible path you'll be
utterly destroyed by enemies way more powerful than your party.
Notables:
some_guy: whatever, there is no such "gentleman's agreement". The name of the American SNES game is
Final Fantasy II. Therefore, I will call it "Final Fantasy II". The name of the Japanese Famicom game is
Final Fantasy II. Therefore, I will call it "Final Fantasy II" as well. Anyway, I believe my preamble was sufficient.