I bought Final Fantasy II for the PSP at a cheap price off eBay, being one of the only games in this series I love for much that I had previously never played and after doing my best to work until the game starts giving back, I realize that I might have found the only game in this series I may never finish. I have never seen a battle system so broken, and it results in numerous and tedious grinding just to level up minute elements of your characters. Did anyone else find this game's combat system unbearable to a point of no longer going further or are there ways to work around it and make it more enjoyable?

There are ways to game the system by attacking your own party members and so forth, but I really disliked that one as well. I finished it out of bullheadedness and curiousity, but will never go back to it.

The leveling system of Final Fantasy II is infamously bad. When the best way to boost your characters is to have them attack themselves, you know there might be a problem.

The worst Final Fantasy as far as I'm concerned. A few hours into the game after a lot of grinding I got on a Chocobo to explore the map, and ended up saving it in the middle of nowhere cause I had other shit to do. When I came back I realized that any random encounter in that area was enough to wipe my party and boot me back to the main menu so the entire file was a wash. Fuck that game.

Yeah you have just accurately described FFII. You either have to try and exploit the game in stupid ways to try and progress. Or just try to play it normally and either stumble until a point where it is impossible to continue or just dumb luck your way through.

FFVIII is the only other FF game with anywhere as nearly as broken of a system. But its broken in the other direction. With even the slightest understanding of the system and willingness to exploit it you will steam roll over that game.

Waaaaaaay broken. Really badly designed systems. Appreciate the attempt at innovation but there is very little redeeming about that game.

Add me to the pile of people who agree that Final Fantasy 2's leveling system is jacked. It sounds good in concept, but does not work out half as well as it should. A few hours into the game I decided to stop leveling up the 4th character that constantly rotates in and out of the party WHO IS ALWAYS SEVERELY UNDER LEVELED. Sorry for the caps. I just let that idiot die and left him dead for his duration in the party and eventually gave up leveling spells as well, it takes hundreds of casts to level the spells up!

I liked it myself, attacking yourself to get to 5000 HP in the first dungeon of the game sounds like a winner. It did have characters and a plot though! Of course there's no real way to make magic viable which is kind of sad but the Origins graphics were nice.

I tried playing FFII. Boosted up my characters to about 1000HP early in the game before I did much of anything. I really want to try and continue it someday, but that "leveling" system is hell; considering there aren't even traditional levels to begin with.

During my second attempt of Final Fantasy II I remember really liking that game a lot. Well only after a first attempt that I totally fucked myself over in the same scenario described by @hunter5024. The leveling system is interesting in concept, but in practice it's a load of crap.

I haven't played an FF game but I hear FF2 has random encounters. If that's true then I can see why it's one of the least popular games in the series!

@egg: Every mainline FF before 12 had random encounters.

you're joking... how did the series become popular if every game in it is unplayable?

@ryuku_ryosake: The difference in my eyes is Final Fantasy VIII is broken in a way that's fun. While Final Fantasy II is broken in a way that infuriating!

Agreed! You can combine magic and Junction yourself up to crazy levels, rock all the early bosses and grind up to high levels in no time. And then start branching off as the game goes on and get status effect immunity and abuse the limit break system in every fight. Man I love that game.

Supports my theory that the most fun JRPGs to play are usually the easiest or most exploitable.

I agree the battle system is broken as hell, but that feeling of downing a boss with two hits using the Blood sword. Holy hell it was great. Also had some of my favourite music in the series.

Easily the worst Final Fantasy game ever made. And it's not really surprise given the SaGa guy (Akitoshi Kawazu) directed it. Whatever you think of that guy, he definitely marches to the beat of his own drummer.

because that's how most/all Console RPGs were so it wasn't considered an impediment. Heck I think it was even a core staple of even the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game.

One reason Chrono Trigger was notable/popular was that it one of the earlier prominent RPGs, that did not have Random Encounters.