Final Fantasy II Walkthrough
NOT by Mike D
Final Fantasy II is an obscure, often-maligned Famicom title
that doesn't have much of a following in the USA compared to
the other Japanese Final Fantasies. Currently the only
document circulating on the internet that pertains to it is
the story synopsis written by Zimeon Lundstrom, which does
not contain much game play information. Although much of the
game is similar to previous FF titles, there are some very
important differences.
A. Leveling up. There are no levels in FF2j! You build stats
with a more balanced, customizable system. In a nutshell, you
get what you use. Use magic to build magic power, use weapons
to build physical strength. Win a battle after taking severe
HP losses, and you'll gain more HP afterwards. Same goes for
MP. Weapons and spells have a "counter" associated with them
which you can view on the status and magic menu screens,
respectively. Usage makes the counter increase, and when it
rolls over at 100, you gain a new level of proficiency in that
weapon/spell. Knowing how the system works makes it very easy
to advance your party -- you can attack your own characters
to easily gain HP bonuses near the start of the game.
B. Show & tell. Whenever you talk to an important character
(or even a few important inanimate objects) a Show/Learn/Item
menu will appear. "Show" tells the person a password, "Learn"
allows you to acquire any keywords that person might be
teaching, and "Item" shows or gives one of your inventory
items to the person. Use these commands often, when you can,
to see what different characters might have to say.
C. Your parties, yourselves. For most of the game, your party
will consist of three static characters (whose names default
to Lionel, Maria, and Guy) and one temporary character (who
is often either much stronger or much weaker than the rest of
your party).
D. Item wrangling. You have a VERY small inventory space in
this game. Keep a close eye on it, and make sure you have an
empty space when you need to get a new key item. Also, the
"Item" command in battle only lets you use items you've
specifically equipped beforehand. Plan ahead.
E. How to cheat. Now that you know how magic and weapon
levels are gained, you may be thinking that it sounds pretty
tedious. Well, there's a way to cheat if youre into that
sort of thing. When youre in a battle, selecting an attack
or spell, and a target, the cancelling, increments the
appropriate skill counter EVEN if you don't use that weapon
or spell at all during the actual battle. Unethical, yes,
but who wouldn't want to toast Imps and Hornets with Fire 18
or 9th level axe blows only an hour or two into the game?
F. Enter the Chocobo. It all started here. Chocobos don't
figure as strongly into the game as they do in later Final
Fantasy games, but they make their debut appearance here. If
you head due south of Kashuon, you'll find the hidden
Chocobo Forest. Talk to the erratically-moving bird and it
will be waiting for you when you exit the clearing. You can
ride around on it without fear of enemy attack, but if you
dismount, the Chocobo flies back home.
And with that, on with the walkthrough...
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1. You'll begin the game in the midst of a battle with four
horsemen, which you will lose. Badly. Three of your party
members will awaken in the castle of Althea. Talk to the queen
to get your first password.
2. Chop up the weak monsters outside of town to earn gil and
build your stats. Weapon and magic strength is increased by
repeated usage, HP and MP go up when you run low on them during
battle. If you want to cheat a little and build HP fast, attack
your own party members.
3. When you're ready, head northwest to the castle Phin. Do NOT
talk to any of the knights in town, unless you want to be
brutally slain. Head for the pub, give the password to the
bartender, and talk to Scott, in the hidden room. He is dying,
but gives you a ring before kicking off.
4. Traipse back to Althea. Show the ring to the queen, and
learn a new password. Give it to Minh, the white mage in the
throne room, and he'll join your party.
5. Along with Minh, you'll get a canoe. Now would be a good
time to do some level-building. West of Phin you'll find Ogres
and Ogre Mages who relinquish lots of gil, and knights and
mages that drop spell books (Berserk has a GREAT resale value)
and items. Take it slow until you're powerful enough to handle
the larger enemy groups, then start raking in the cash and XP.
6. Take the canoe across the lake to the northeast of Althea
to reach Palm. Talk to the pirate at the town entrance to
arrange for a ferry to Poft. In the Poft Pub, you can find Cid
and his assistant. Cid won't be helpful at the moment, but his
assistant will give you airship rides to Salamand, Bafusk, the
Semite Waterfall, or Kashuon for a fee.
7. From Poft, walk northwest to Salamand. All the men here have
been taken to the Cave of Semite Waterfall to mine for Mithril.
Buy new equipment and spells if you can, and head south (you'll
need to go west first, and loop back) to the cave.
8. The cave is laid out fairly simply. At certain points you
will have a choice of doors to go through; one will lead to the
rest of the cave and one will lead to a dead-end with an enemy
waiting. Halfway through you'll find the hapless miners, talk
to Paul the ninja (who you may have met earlier, in Althea) to
send them home. A little further in you'll find Mithril, which
is guarded by a strong knight (use magic to penetrate his
armor) and the Warp spell, guarded by a turtle creature (Ice
spells to severe damage against this kind of enemy). Use the
Warp spell to exit the cave, otherwise you'll have to backtrack
all the way out.
9. With Salamand back to normal, return to Althea and give the
Mithril to the blacksmith in the weapon shop. Stock up on
Mithril weapons and armor, then go back to see the Queen again.
10. Return to Poft via the ferry. Head east to Bafusk and give
the password to the knight in the southwest part of town. Enter
the secret passage.
11. Once through the relatively simple cave, you'll see the
Great Battleship take off and head west. Re-enter the cave and
head east to warp out.
12. Talk to Cid, in the Poft Pub, the queen, the king, and Minh
(who leaves your party when you return to Althea) to get two
new keywords.
13. Return to Salamand and talk to Josef. He'll join your party
(but unfortunately doesn't have any of Minh's cool spells).
14. Return to the Semite waterfall cave. Near the strange blue
stone is a secret passage that leads to the Ice Sled.
15. With the Ice Sled, you can cross the snow field above
Salamand and enter the Ice Cave.
16. Make your way through the cave until you come to a chamber
full of brown moogle-like creatures. There's a secret passage
on the right wall. Past it you'll find the Goddess Bell, the
Adamanti turtle (which is easily defeated with Ice magic), and
a door that loops back to the exit. When you try to leave the
cave, however, one of the empire's more foppish lackeys will
waylay you. Kill him, and leave the cave. Josef will die saving
your party from a booby trap.
17. Walk or take the airship express to Kashuon, which is south
of Bafusk. Use the Goddess Bell to open the door, and talk to
Gordon. He'll join you. Ascend the castle to find the Eagle
Torch, which is guarded by a fire demon. All magic heals the
creature, so defeat it with your weapons. Return to the first
floor and use the torch on the flame burning in the castle
courtyard.
18. Return to Althea. You should see the Great Battleship fly
overhead in pursuit of Cid. It seems the queen has been
kidnapped and held in the Battleship, which is parked far, far
north of Phin.
19. This would be a good time to level up some. Trek far north
of Phin to find the Battleship, which is a large, sprawling
complex full of nasty creatures. Having more than one character
who can cast Heal will be useful. Give the knight who guards
the entrance the Pass you got in Bafusk, but don't talk to any
of the others. The staircase in the middle of the first floor
leads to a powerful sword (Sleep Sword?) guarded by a blue
knight. Walk through the wall to reach it. The north door leads
to the cell Cid and the queen are in, go ahead and free them,
then backtrack to the winding south path. There's four treasure
chests on the third floor, the third one has a shield that's
guarded by a VERY powerful giant (not worth the trouble to kill
him, far as I'm concerned), the rest have good weapons. Head to
the next floor and find a path around all the knights to get to
the door. Walk north to the engine, and set the bomb (which you
should have in your inventory). Bye bye, Battleship.
20. Head back to Althea and talk to Minh, the king, and Gordon
to learn two new keywords. Go to Palm and talk to the female
pirate, she'll join your party after you beat up her friends
(an easy task). She has a ship you can use, sail it south to
reach the city of Dist, east of Bafusk.
21. Talk to the two residents of Dist and their pet dragon,
then loot the castle for all it's worth.
22. Head north of Dist to the cave. Take the stairs due east,
then search the skeletal remains to get the Medallion. Leave
the cave and return to Dist. You can get some powerful armor
in the cave if you take time to search.
23. Back in Dist, show your prize to the dragon to get the
Dragon Egg.
24. Go back to the cave, and take the southeast stairs to
(eventually) reach the underground lake. Kill the Chimera that
guards it and use the Dragon Egg in the water.
25. Return to Althea and visit the queen in the bedroom. Just
when things start to get interesting, she turns into Medusa.
Smack that bitch up and Gordon will rejoin your party.
26. South of Kashuon, past a treacherous desert, you'll find
the battle arena where the real queen is held prisoner. Enter
and approach the emperor to encounter the first actual boss in
the game, Behemoth. He's not especially tough. After the
battle, you'll be dropped through a trapdoor to the dungeons
underneath. After Paul the ninja frees you, go up one floor
via the northeast room (there's an elixir to be found in this
area, don't miss it), then free the queen from her cell and
Gordon will leave with her. Exit the arena.
27. Return to Althea for a quick pit stop. Hey, where'd
everybody go?
28. They went to an encampment outside Phin, that's where. Go
there and talk to Gordon and the queen.
29. Take a short hike to the castle of Phin. You'll bump into
Layla, the pirate, pretty quickly, and she'll rejoin your
party. Head up to the throne room. You can ignore all the
treasure chests for now. Dethrone the King of Phin (he fights
like Behemoth, and shouldn't be anything to worry about) and
you'll have reclaimed Phin for the resistance! This means all
the monsters are gone, so go back and get all the treasures in
the castle after talking to Gordon and the queen. You should
learn four new keywords.
30. More good news! The city of Phin is no longer guarded by
those green knights. Check out the shops for some nice new
equipment. You'll need it, because your next stop is the
catacombs of Phin. Search the northeast corner of the Phin
throne room and use the last keyword you got from talking to
the queen. Walk through the wall and head down to the depths
of Phin. This is a VERY long dungeon, but luckily the enemies
aren't too bad. Some of them can sap your MP, though, so you
might want to keep an Ether or two packed. There's a few
valuable items to be found here, so keep an eye out for
treasure chests. At the bottom you'll find the White Mask,
yours for the taking. North of it is a warp that takes you
outside the castle.
31. It stands to reason that if you have a White Mask, there
must be a Black Mask somewhere, assuming you follow standard
RPG logic. In the middle of the sea south of Althea you'll
find a tiny island with a cave, your next destination.
32. The middle levels of the island cave are a bit mazelike,
but the weak enemies won't get in the way of your exploring.
If you find the hidden forest where the Shyguy-like denizens
of the cave live, look for one who sells items. Elsewhere in
the cave, be sure to pick up a copy or two of the Aero spell.
The Black Mask is guarded by a Triceratops. Kill it, take the
mask, the warp out as you did in Phin.
33. Now to Mysidia, which took me an embarrassingly long time
to find. It's nestled in by a mountain ridge near a lake, all
of which is southwest of Althea, or east of the battle arena,
depending on how you look at it. Before you get down to
business here, buy Holy and any other magics you need at the
huge magic shop, and check out the weapon store. Once you've
finished your shopping spree, go down the stairs in the south
end of town and use the White Mask on the statue.
34. East of Mysidia, inside a circular formation of mountains,
is the Cave of Mysidia. Use the Black Mask on the clone on the
first floor and it will leave so you can enter the rest of the
dungeon. It's laid out similarly to the catacombs of Phin, so
proceed with caution. Some powerful magics are scattered
through the dungeon, and you'll need to keep an eye out for
secret passages. Behind a door at a dead-end, you'll find the
Crystal Rod.
35. Now that you have the coveted rod, you can enter the Tower
of Mysidia, right? Well, sail to the crescent bay where the
Tower is located and your ship will capsize.
36. You'll wake up inside Leviathan, with Layla nowhere to be
seen. Fortunately, this beast's digestive system makes for a
shorter and more linear dungeon than what you've been trekking
through recently, and there's lots of good treasure to get.
Halfway through, you'll encounter a makeshift village made by
previous victims of Leviathan. Show the Crystal Rod to the
Dragoon blocking your passage, and he'll join you. After that
it's a short walk to reclaim your ship, but you'll have to
defeat the Green Worm to get it. This thing can hit for about
700 points of damage, but it's slow, and doesn't have much HP,
so if you hit hard and cure when needed it shouldn't be much
of a problem.
37. Now that you've escaped, you can sail through Leviathan's
channel anytime you like, so go back to Mysidia to stock up on
items or level up if you need to. When you're ready, enter the
tower. The floors aren't big, but they're convoluted, and
there's a lot of good weapons and armor to be found. On the
third floor you'll face the Flame Giant, who of course is very
weak against Ice magic and shouldn't pose much of a threat.
Conversely, on the fifth floor, you have to fight the Frost
Giant, and I'm sure you can figure out what his weakness is.
On the seventh floor, the considerably nastier Storm Giant is
your enemy. He hits a lot harder than his brothers, and his
weakness is to Aero magic (you DID get a few Aero spell books
in the Black Mask cave, didn't you?). Make sure you pick up
Flare on the next floor. On floor nine you can get some good
armor, but it's guarded by a VERY strong Frost Dragon. Pass on
the armor if you aren't up for the fight. Minh and Ultima
await you on the tenth floor.
38. After the Ultima orbs warp you out of the tower, you'll
find that the world has changed. The overworld enemies are a
lot stronger, and both Althea and Gate have been destroyed by
a strange tornado hovering outside Phin. Trouble's abrewin'.
39. Head up to the enigmatic mirror in the castle of Phin and
use the Medallion. Remember the dragon's egg? It hatches!
40. Walk up to the tornado outside Phin and the dragon will
fly you inside. The twisting path of the tornado is short,
but convuluted, and while there's lots of good weapons and
armor to be found, there's also nasty enemies like medusae
and cockatrices and even Juiblex. The Green Dragon near the
top guards a useful attack item. When you finally face the
(rather fey) Emperor of Baramekia, you'll have to hack
through two phalanxes of horsemen before you can finally
battle the Emperor and his guards (more horsemen and a
Golem). It shouldn't be a difficult fight.
41. The Baramekia-is-dead celebration at Phin is broken up
with the news that your long-lost friend Lionheart (remember
the fourth character in the opening battle?) has claimed the
throne of the Emperor. Your only recourse is to travel to
his fortress and beat some sense into him, but how can you
get there? Go to Paul's house in Phin (doesn't it suck that
Paul never joins your party? I wanted a ninja, dangit) and
you'll find Cid, who bequeaths his airship to you, then dies.
Woohoo, problem solved!
42. Go back to Poft and take the airship.
43. You can explore the world to your heart's content now,
but your destination is the Castle of Baramekia, which you've
already seen: it's the citadel overlooking the battle arena.
Position the shadow of your airship over the tower and land
it to enter. This is another long, sprawling complex, with
powerful equipment to reward your efforts, but the enemies
are even more unforgiving here. Grab what you can, and head
to the throne room where Lionheart is. He doesn't fight you,
luckily, but the slain Emperor returns from beyond the pale
to reclaim his throne. Richard sacrifices his life so you can
escape, with Lionheart, from the Emperor.
44. Back in Phin (don't worry, your airship is parked right
outside), a remorseful Lionheart joins your party. Finally,
you have a permanent fourth ally. Gird his loins with magic
and equipment, then head out of Phin.
45. Fly back to Dist and talk to Richard's widow. Give her
the keyword "Dragoon" and you'll get the very powerful
Excalibur sword.
46. There's only one thing left to do. Find the Emperor and
lay waste to the sorry undead bastard. You can't enter Castle
Baramekia via the airship anymore, but there's a back door.
On the penninsula far east of Mysidia, a strange portal has
opened up. Go inside to make your way to Baramekia.
47. The enemies inside the Jade Portal are bigger, tougher,
and meaner than anything you've faced so far. Stock up on as
many healing and recovery items as you can afford before you
make your approach. Note that you can use Warp magic to exit
the portal, so don't feel as though you need to tackle the
entire realm in one journey. There's a fair amount of items
to find, but there's lots of dead ends and traps as well, so
be careful. On the second floor, the Storm Dragon guards an
extremely powerful dagger. Use Aero magic against it.
48. Jade is divided into different zones. After you beat (or
avoid) the Storm Dragon, the door to the northeast leads you
to the Waterfall. Walk under the falls to get to the left
side. The treasure chest in the cul-de-sac contains the Rune
Axe, but it's guarded by Megabehemoth. Pound him with your
best attacks and you'll walk away with a great weapon.
49. In the northeast corner of the next zone, the Red Dragon
guards a powerful bow. Take him down with Ice magic if you
want. There's also a powerful spear in a small chamber in the
northwest corner of the room. The exit is to the southeast.
50. In the next zone, you'll find a small dead-end room that
warps you to the castle Pandemonium. Make your way through
the relatively brief expanse of castle til you reach a chamber
lined with doors.
51. The rightmost door leads you to some good armor, which is
guarded by Beelzebub. He's not terribly powerful, so if you're
in reasonably good health you should be able to take him out.
Keep an eye out for secret passages in this area.
52. The second door from the left leads to a helmet protected
by Tiamat. If you've made it this far, you should be able to
survive her mass elemental attacks and destroy her.
53. The leftmost door will take you to a gauntlet guarded by
the exceedingly weak Blue Mage. Put a sword through his head
and take the prize. Make your way to the upper-right corner of
this area and walk through the wall to the right of the single
pillar. In the unguarded chest is the ultimate weapon, the
Masamune. Take it.
54. The third door from the left leads to another helmet. The
Dark Angel that defends it is NOT going to die easy. Keep your
health up, since it can hit for 2000+ damage, and pray it uses
magic instead of physical attacks or death spells. Past the
treasure is the warp to the next part of the castle.
55. The next part is easy, just walk clockwise to reach the
warp.
56. This is another small area. Head northeast to the warp.
57. Getting close, now...walk past the statues and to the warp
in the southwest corner.
58. This is it. Walk north a short way to meet with Emperor
Baramekia for the last time. He can cast Meteo, hits for about
2500 damage, and has extremely strong defenses. Give everybody
Elixirs for healing, arm yourself to the teeth with your best
weapons and spells, and kill him. Good luck!
---
Thus concludes the FF2j Unofficial Walkthrough. Please feel
free to email me at bpacula@value.net with any questions or
suggestions you have.
Thanks to Lars Eighner, Michael Thibodeau, FAMICOM, Mike Yost,
Tomo1657, C. L. Moon, SoM2Freak, and Luke Drelick for their
assorted help and contributions.
(c)1997 Brian Pacula
-Web master
-Mike D.
