Final Fantasy II (SNES) Great Memories!

           This will be my first video game review.  Now don't worry, I'm not going AVGN on you or anything like that.  This is going to be more about a couple of memories I have while playing it, than the game itself.  I just wanted to take few moments to talk about one of the biggest surprises I ever had while playing video games.

            On the weekends I would often go to the video store and rent video games, like many people did.  Well, one evening  I found, to my dismay, there was nothing left that really held any interest for me.  As I scanned the shelves for the about the hundredth time I see a game called Final Fantasy II.  I thought "Okay I'll give it a shot."  I have never really played an RPG before, so this was going to be a first.

           I got it home and popped it into my Super Nintendo, not expecting too much.  The opening scene scrolled through giving me the story and I started playing as Cecil and Kain.   After I figured out the controls, which, was a new thing to me, I started to progress in the story.

           I went through the village mist, then to Prince Edward's kingdom, then Fabul, then Mysidia and finally to Mt Ordeals where I met the first elemental fiend.  By now I had played for hours and had no idea how much time had really passed.  The next day I was not able to play it as much, but I did make it a little bit further, before I had to take the game back. 

           From that day on I was hooked.  I managed to get my own copy, not really seeing the point, afterall I thought I was probably almost done with it.  Was I ever wrong.  It went on for much longer than I would have ever thought. 

          The game's excellent graphics, for the time, great game play and the immersive world, were accompanied by a great story-line.  Though it did get cheesy in places. 

           When I finally got to Zeromus at the end, I thought it was the baddest thing I had ever seen.  Of course, the thing kicked my butt.  I didn't give up though, I pressed on. I leveled up, which was by far the most tedious thing with the game, but I have found that most RPG's are like this.  When I finally beat the game I was so excited. 

          The only thing that was left was to unlock all the secrets, which I did, and run my characters up to level 99, which I also did. 

           This brings me to one of my favorite memories about the game.  One night, me and a friend of mine decided to go after the most elusive item in the game, the pink tail.  From what we understood, it was only dropped by one enemy in one room in the entire game.  Even then the odds were bad.  There was only a one in sixty chance to encounter the enemy, the Pink Puff, and then there was only a one in sixty chance of it actually dropping the pink tail.

           We literally stayed up all night, doped up on mountain dew, which my kidneys now hate me for, trying to get this thing.  We fought many pink puffs, but never got the pink tail.  So, finally we decided screw it, and gave up.  Actually, what really happened is the mountain dew ran out, and we feel asleep.

          Why were we going through all this for the pink tail you ask?  Well, you gave the pink tail to a little person inthe mine outside Silvara, and he gives you ore. You take the ore to the blacksmith in the underground section, the same place you get Excalibur, and he will make you a suit of armor .  That's it, the whole reason.

           Several years later when they released the game on game boy advance I bought it, and fought through it, just as I did before, and just as I did before I tried to get the pink tail.  Just as before I played for hours, looking at the stupid tiny screen.  Unlike before I actually got the thing!  I was amazed.  I managed to get a hold of the most elusive item in FFII.  Now I have supreme bragging rights!

           The game is very dated by today's standards, but for me it has high replay value and I would play it anytime, if you get a chance to play it, jump on it!