Sentences written about this title, gathered by type from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles (as of 2026-8-30).
Kenji Terada returned as scenario writer, and he recalled there being resistance within Square to making the game a numbered sequel due to not continuing the original's world and story.
Sakaguchi recalled creating the initial premise after watching The Empire Strikes Back (1980), carrying over the concept of a rebel faction facing an evil empire.
The 1989 "All Soft Catalog" issue of Famicom Tsūshin included Final Fantasy II in its list of the best games of all time, giving it the Best Scenario award.
The Dawn of Souls release was named the IGN Game Boy "Game of the Month" for March 2004, and the package was rated 76th in Nintendo Powers Top 200 Games list.
GameSpy praised the addition of the ability to save the game at any time, calling the feature crucial for a game on a handheld game console, and in contrast to GameSpot, praised the graphics, saying that while they were primitive, they were "well-suited" to the Game Boy Advance.
GameSpot described the "more intriguing" story and "key words" system as "notable" in "the evolution of the series and genre" but called the level up system "chaotic" and noted that unlike previous versions, this was shipped without a version of Final Fantasy I.
IGN described the "dialogue and story" as "much more interesting than" its predecessor and the "proficiency system not unlike what's found in The Elder Scrolls" as a "semi-innovation" for its time, but also complained about the gameplay.
Conversely, Chris Shive of Hardcore Gamer described it as "one of the weaker titles in the franchise" and felt it "[suffered] from a bit of middle child syndrome", but praised the story as being "vastly expanded on from the first game".
She described the game as "divisive" and "the eccentric cousin" of the Final Fantasy series, and bemoaned the dungeons as "extremely poor" and "nightmarish affairs", but praised the story as being "strong for the era".
Robert Ramsay of Push Square gave the fame a score of six out of ten, describing it as the "best version of a divisive Final Fantasy".
Nintendo World Report writer Donald Theriault gave the game a score of 6.5 out of 10, and praised the release for including quality-of-life features that "make the game something I could finish without cursing the whole way".
Sales of the Famicom version came to about 760,000 copies in Japan.
In addition, in the "ROM Cartridge Best 5 by Category" list of the "Game Report Card" in the magazine Family Computer Magazine, the Famicom version placed 5th for music, 5th for absorption, 3rd for originality, 4th for value for money, and 5th overall.
It was released under the title Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls, combined with the previous game Final Fantasy into 1 cartridge.
In the "Game Report Card" reader poll run by the magazine Family Computer Magazine,it scored 26.49 out of 30, as shown below.
In the "Cross Review" feature of the magazine Famitsu,the game scored a total of 30 out of 40, earning a place in the Silver Hall of Fame.
In the "Cross Review" feature of the magazine Famitsu, the game scored a total of 27 out of 40.
According to Square, the original Famicom release sold 800,000 copies.
As of March 2003, the game, including all re-releases at the time, had shipped 1.28 million copies worldwide, with 1.08 million of those copies being shipped in Japan and 200,000 abroad.
As of September 2007 the PlayStation Portable version had shipped 90,000 copies in Japan and 70,000 in North America.
Face graphics were added to the message screens during the scenario, a first for a Final Fantasy port, and the dialogue itself was changed from the Famicom version.
The team wanted to create a game that was different from the first Final Fantasy, including creating a narrative that drew inspiration from The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and redesigning the combat system.
Programmer Nasir Gebelli returned from the first game.
Although the two soundtracks were composed separately, the soundtrack to II has only been released as a combined album with the soundtrack to Final Fantasy I.
They were first released as All Sounds of Final Fantasy I•II in 1989, which was then republished in 1994.
The first international release of its original version came as part of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series, initially releasing on Windows and mobile platforms on July 28, 2021.
Final Fantasy II was ported to the WonderSwan Color as part of a deal with Bandai to bring the first three Final Fantasy titles to the console; Square was one of the major supporters for the WonderSwan platform during its tenure.
Conversely, Chris Shive of Hardcore Gamer described it as "one of the weaker titles in the franchise" and felt it "[suffered] from a bit of middle child syndrome", but praised the story as being "vastly expanded on from the first game".
A second novelization written by Takashi Umemura, which novelised the events of the first three Final Fantasy games, was published in Japan by Square Enix in 2019 and by Yen Press worldwide in 2020.
Famitsu magazine scored the WonderSwan version of the game a 30 out of 40, and GameSpot noted the Dawn of Souls mostly outdated graphics but praised its length and bonus content.
GameSpy praised the addition of the ability to save the game at any time, calling the feature crucial for a game on a handheld game console, and in contrast to GameSpot, praised the graphics, saying that while they were primitive, they were "well-suited" to the Game Boy Advance.
Both sources praised the graphics, however.
Conversely, Chris Shive of Hardcore Gamer described it as "one of the weaker titles in the franchise" and felt it "[suffered] from a bit of middle child syndrome", but praised the story as being "vastly expanded on from the first game".
She described the game as "divisive" and "the eccentric cousin" of the Final Fantasy series, and bemoaned the dungeons as "extremely poor" and "nightmarish affairs", but praised the story as being "strong for the era".
Nintendo World Report writer Donald Theriault gave the game a score of 6.5 out of 10, and praised the release for including quality-of-life features that "make the game something I could finish without cursing the whole way".
He praised the game's story, but felt the Game Boy Advance version was superior due to the exclusion of the Dawn of Souls story from the Pixel Remaster.
From the WonderSwan Color (WSC) port onward the graphics were extensively redrawn, and the title logo was changed to one in the typeface used from Final Fantasy IV onward, with the Emperor of Palamecia depicted on it.
Face graphics were added to the message screens during the scenario, a first for a Final Fantasy port, and the dialogue itself was changed from the Famicom version.
Following the successful North American release of the original Final Fantasy by Nintendo in 1990, Square's North American subsidiary began work on an English localization, to be called Final Fantasy II: Dark Shadow Over Palakia.
From the WonderSwan Color (WSC) port onward the graphics were extensively redrawn, and the title logo was changed to one in the typeface used from Final Fantasy IV onward, with the Emperor of Palamecia depicted on it.
Face graphics were added to the message screens during the scenario, a first for a Final Fantasy port, and the dialogue itself was changed from the Famicom version.
Kenji Terada returned as scenario writer, and he recalled there being resistance within Square to making the game a numbered sequel due to not continuing the original's world and story.
Sakaguchi recalled creating the initial premise after watching The Empire Strikes Back (1980), carrying over the concept of a rebel faction facing an evil empire.
Because the game uses a system in which "a character's HP rises the more damage it takes", a trick of "deliberately attacking yourself or your allies to raise HP" was printed in magazines of the time and became established, but overuse of this technique carries the risk of greatly increasing the difficulty in the latter half of the game instead.
The 1989 "All Soft Catalog" issue of Famicom Tsūshin included Final Fantasy II in its list of the best games of all time, giving it the Best Scenario award.
The passages quoted on this page are taken verbatim from the Japanese and English Wikipedia articles.Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) — reusable under those terms. They are the work of the people who wrote them.