Final Fantasy Legend II

Battles from the Game Boy original (top) and the Nintendo DS remake (bottom).

Final Fantasy Legend II, known in Japan as SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu, is a role-playing video game set in a science fiction-based world where players take on the role of a four-person party with both humans and monsters able to be recruited.[4][6] Most of the gameplay is carried over from the first game.[4] The player navigates a character throughout the game world with a party of up to four characters, exploring areas and interacting with non-player characters (NPCs). Most of the game occurs in towns, castles, caves, and similar areas, all viewed from a top-down perspective.[6][7]

Initially limited to the First World to explore, the party is given access to other worlds as they progress through the game. Players can save their game anytime and anywhere when not in combat to the selected save slot for later playing. Players can journey between field screen locations via the world map, a downsized representation of the different locations. Players can freely navigate around the world map screen unless restricted by terrain, such as water or mountains.[6] During exploration, the party can talk with NPCs to gather hints about story progress, with notes being collected in a journal.[8]

Like the original title, travel across the world map screen and hostile areas such as dungeons is occasionally interrupted by random enemy encounters.[6][7] The game uses a turn-based battle system, attacking enemies with equipped magic and spells, and using items such as healing potions when needed. At the end of battles, character statistics (stats) are raised randomly, with humans mainly gaining health upgrades and monsters focusing on magic point upgrades. Downed units are restored to full health at the end of a battle. If all characters fall in battle, they can be revived by the character Odin for another chance in exchange for needing to fight him at a future point.[6][7][8] MAGI, magical stones found during the story, can be equipped to characters to boost their stats or grand new abilities.[9]

The Nintendo DS remake changed the perspective to an angled 3D perspective on the world.[10][11] Unlike the Game Boy version, battles in the DS version no longer occur randomly, and were adjusted to be more like later games in the SaGa series where enemies appear on the field screen along with the player and are encountered when touched.[12] Also unlike the original, where a character's stat increases through gaining levels was largely randomized, characters have stat increases defined by growth tables for each playable character.[12] Other new additions are combination attacks, the ability to chain battles together, additional rewards based on preset conditions, and the new "Thread of Fate" mechanic which is manipulated through gameplay actions to trigger additional storyline events.[10] A new multiplayer arena allows up to four players to battle the game's bosses to win various rare items.[13]

The narrative revolves around the protagonist searching for their missing father, an adventurer who gave the protagonist one of the seventy-seven MAGI stones that formed a statue of the goddess Isis. Teaming up with three other adventurers, they explore their own and other worlds connected through a tower called the Pillar of Sky. New gods have gained power using pieces of the MAGI and seek out more fragments to increase their power. The protagonist's father is revealed to have belonged to a group called the Guardians, who fear bringing together all the MAGI will bring about catastrophe. When all but one of the MAGI are collected, the new god Apollo extorts the gathered MAGI from the party by threatening allies encountered across the worlds, attempting to use them to gain ultimate power. As one MAGI is missing, the process goes wrong and all the worlds connected to the Pillar of Sky are struck by earthquakes. Descending the Pillar of Sky, the party restores Isis and with her help defeats the mechanical Arsenals acting as the Pillar of Sky's security system so Isis can restore the worlds. The game ends with the protagonist, their father, and their mother going on a new adventure together.

Production began following the release and success of The Final Fantasy Legend (Makai Toushi SaGa) in 1989, also for the Game Boy. Kawazu had not anticipated a sequel, so when production began the focus was on refining and polishing the already-established mechanics rather than starting over from scratch.[4] The staff included planner Hiromichi Tanaka, who Kawazu attributed with pushing forward production and polishing the final game.[14] So Tanaka and other staff members could join the project, Kawazu had to wait until development wrapped on Final Fantasy III. Production was further delayed as developer and publisher Square moved to new headquarters in Akasaka, Tokyo. After these delays, development moved faster than the first game, as all systems beside the world setting were identical.[15]

Including Kawazu and Tanaka, the game's staff was ten people strong.[15] Kawazu acted as director, writer, and a co-designer with Tanaka and Toshiyuki Inoue.[16] The "Teacher" character who acts as an instructor and supporting character for the cast was directly based on Minwu, a player character from Final Fantasy II.[17] Odin's role of reviving the player in exchange for a battle was implemented by Kawazu as a surprise for players.[4] The Japanese cover art and character designs were created by Katsutoshi Fujioka, who filled that role on the original SaGa.[18] Fujioka also handled level design layout.[19] In a later interview, Kawazu felt the game was truly "complete" compared to the first game.[15]

The game was released under its SaGa 2 title by Square in Japan on December 14, 1990.[25] The game's box was notably large, which Kawazu attributed to both wanting it to stand out and including a larger manual.[19][17] Two guidebooks were published by NTT Publishing in December 1990 and February 1991.[26][27] During its first print run, the game contained a bug where a button press in a particular situation caused a crash.[17] In North America, the game was released by Square in November 1991.[28] The translation was handled by Kaoru Moriyama, who worked on multiple Square projects during the early 1990s.[16][29] Sunsoft later licensed the game for a reprint in April 1998 alongside the other three Square titles for the Game Boy.[30] Square rebranded the game under the Final Fantasy moniker in English territories, capitalizing on the recognized brand to grow its regional presence.[3]

In 2020, the Game Boy original was re-released alongside the other Game Boy SaGa titles for the Nintendo Switch to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the SaGa series. The collection was published worldwide by Square Enix on December 19 under the title Collection of SaGa: Final Fantasy Legend.[lower-alpha 4][31][2] It was a digital exclusive release, and included English and Japanese text options worldwide.[32] Production began at Square Enix so players could enjoy the original SaGa trilogy on modern hardware. While Kawazu had earlier plans to bring the originals onto newer hardware, the series' 30th anniversary provided a good opportunity to fulfil his wish.[33] The port included color and resolution options, higher speed options during gameplay, control options that emulated the Game Boy console, a commemorative track created by Ito, and new artwork by Fujioka.[31] The minor adjustments were done to reflect modern gaming tastes, but otherwise the games were unaltered.[33] While the titles were rebranded as part of the SaGa series, their original Final Fantasy branding was retained as a subtitle to avoid undue confusion for original players.[2] This edition was the first time the Game Boy titles released in Europe.[32] This version was released for Android and iOS on September 22, 2021, and later for Microsoft Windows through Steam on October 21.[34]

As of 2002, the game had sold 850,000 copies, making it the second best-selling title of the Game Boy SaGa releases.[44] During its first two weeks on sale, the DS remake entered the top ten best-selling games, and sold 124,000 units.[45][46] The remake sold 146,000 copies by October 2009.[47] By the end of the year, the remake had sold nearly 156,000 units, becoming the 84th best-selling game of 2009 in Japan.[48]

Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu found it to be easier and more enjoyable that its predecessor, but noted a lack of enjoyment carried over from the previous game due to lacking traditional experience points.[38] Reviewing the 1998 re-release, Dexter Sy of IGN found that the game had aged when compared to more modern role-playing titles and that "gamers jaded with today's FMVs and polygon graphics may find it hard to get drawn into a game with simple sprite characters", citing it as the best of the series' Game Boy titles despite it being an old release.[7] RPGFan's Patrick Gann, writing in a 2000 review, lauded the title as the best of the Legend games, improving on the first game's systems and offering players greater variety in gameplay and exploration.[9]

In March 2006, the title was voted the 94th best game of all time by the readers of Famitsu magazine as part of its "All Time Top 100" poll.[49] GameDaily named it alongside the related Game Boy Final Fantasy titles as definitive games for the system, describing it as providing "hours of role-playing excitement, whether you were waiting in a dentist's office or on the way to Grandma's house."[50] The sentiment was shared by gaming magazines Electronic Gaming Monthly and Pocket Games, the latter of which ranked the titles together 8th out of the Top 50 games for the Game Boy.[43][51] During Nintendo Power's annual awards, Final Fantasy Legend II was nominated for "Most Challenging Game Boy Game" of 1991.[42]

Reviewing the DS remake, Famitsu noted the redone graphics and gameplay elements made the game seem fresh, with one reviewer positively noting how easy it was to play.[39] RPGamer's Michael Baker praised the remake's faithfulness to the original game, lauded the changes made to its progression systems and graphics, and negatively noted its exclusivity to Japan.[40] In their own review of the Collection of SaGa compilation, Jordan Rudek of Nintendo World Report praised the second game as better than the original game in terms of its mechanics.[52] Nintendo Life's Mitch Vogel felt that all three titles in Collection of SaGa were very simplistic by modern standards, with none of them having aged well compared to other titles of their time.[53] RPGamer's Elmon Dean Todd, in a standalone review of the game's Switch port, referred to it as one of the Game Boy's best RPGs, but that despite its quality the game had aged notably over time, making it a hard game for modern players to engage with.[41]

Following the release of Final Fantasy Legend II, Nintendo asked Square to produce a new SaGa game for their in-development Super Famicom. The resultant game, Romancing SaGa, was released in 1992 under Kawazu, with Ito returning as sole composer.[4][20][54] Due to continued demand for a new entry on the Game Boy, Square's newly-established Osaka studio produced Final Fantasy Legend III in parallel, releasing it in Japan the following year and in North America in 1993.[28][54] Final Fantasy Legend III was the only SaGa game produced without Kawazu's involvement.[15]

• Official Game Boy version info page (in Japanese)
• Official Nintendo DS version website (in Japanese)
• Official Nintendo DS version development blog (in Japanese)