Final Fantasy II is a console role-playing game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) in 1988 for the Family Computer (or Famicom, known as the Nintendo Entertainment System outside Japan) as a part of the Final Fantasy series.

The game’s story centers on three youths whose parents were killed during an army invasion. The invasion leader, an emperor, pursues world control using monsters and demons. The youths join a resistance to end the emperor’s war.

Final Fantasy II introduced many elements that would later become staples of the Final Fantasy franchise, including chocobos and the recurring character Cid.

Final Fantasy II begins with Firion, Maria, Guy and Leon being attacked by Palamecian soldiers and left for dead. Firion, Maria, and Guy are rescued by Princess Hilda of Fynn, who has established a rebel base in the nearby town of Altair after the Emperor captured her city. Hilda denies a request by Firion for the trio to join the rebel army on the grounds that they are too young and inexperienced. Shortly thereafter, the three set off for the besieged Fynn in search of Leon, where the four find an ailing Prince Scott of Kashuan, Princess Hilda’s fiancé. As Scott is dying, he informs them that Borghen, who was once a knight in the service of Fynn, betrayed the rebellion and became a General in the Imperial army. The party returns to Altair to inform Hilda of the occurred, and after an emotional reminiscence about Scott, she allows the group to join the rebel movement and charges them, along with White Mage Minwu, with journeying north to find Mythril, a metal which could create powerful weapons.

The party makes its way north to the mountain village of Salamand, which is under siege by the Empire, and its residents forced to mine Mythril for the Imperial army. There they meet Josef, who informs them that the men of the village are mining the Mythril in the cave at Semmit Falls. Josef, however, can do nothing, as his daughter, Nelly, is being held captive. The party enters the mine, saves the captives, including Nelly and the thief Paul, and returns to Altair with the mythril. Then the party goes to the small city of Bafsk to prevent the construction of a large airship known as the Dreadnought. However, as soon as they arrive the Dreadnought is completed and takes off. The group then goes after the powerful Sunfire which could blow up the Dreadnought – but Kas’ion Keep, where the Sunfire is kept, can only opened by a bell. After retrieving it, the party confronts Borghen and kills him – but after dying he releases a boulder at the party, which crushes Josef while he allows the rest of the party to escape. Once the party enter the Keep, they are joined by the Kas’ion prince Gordon. After successfully retrieving the Sunfire, they watch helplessly as an airship—with Hilda on board—is captured by the Dreadnought. When the Dreadnought is put down to stock up on supplies, the party sneaks into it, saves Hilda, and throws the Sunfire into the engine. Before escaping from the Dreadnought’s explosion, the party encounters a Dark Knight – whom Maria recognizes as Leon.

The King of Fynn, now close to death, summons Gordon, Minwu and Firion’s group to his deathbed and before dying, tasks them with his final orders: Gordon is given command of the rebel army, Minwu is charged with finding the Ultima Tome, and Firion’s group is given the task of seeking out the seemingly extinct dragoons of Deist. While seeking transport to Poft, the party finds Leila, who happens to have a ship that she is willing to use to help the party travel to Deist. Once on the open sea, however, Leila reveals that she is a pirate, and her true intentions are to plunder the unsuspecting party. The party defeats the crew, and Leila agrees to join the party and allow them to travel to Deist.

In Deist, the party finds only a mother with her son, learning that all but one of the Dragoons and all but one of the Wyverns are dead, partly as a result of Imperial poison. The party later places an egg of the last wyvern in a pool in the depths of Deist Cavern. Upon returning to Altair, the party kills a monster impersonating Hilda, and goes to an Arena where the real Princess is being held captive. After being imprisoned there by the Emperor’s troops, the party is released by Paul, and then saves the real Hilda. After returning to Altair, the party aids an attack to reclaim Fynn by infiltrating the city’s castle and killing the commander of the Imperial forces. Then they travel west searching for Minwu. On the way to Mysidia Tower, where the Ultima Tome is kept, the party is swallowed by a Leviathan en route to the tower, separating Leila from the rest of the party and stranding them in the great beast’s innards. The party then makes their way out of the beast’s monstrous insides, meeting and joining forces with Ricard, the last surviving dragoon. On the top of Mysidia Tower, Minwu explains that he was awaiting their arrival, then turns around to cast a powerful spell to shatter the seal on the room containing the Ultima Tome, but at the cost of his own life.

the party returns to Fynn and sees that many towns have been destroyed by a Cyclone summoned by the Emperor. The party calls upon the newly born last Wyvern to take them to a castle inside the Cyclone, where they confront and kill the Emperor. Back at Fynn, everyone celebrates the Empire’s defeat, but a mortally wounded Fynn soldier arrives and reveals that the Dark Knight — actually Leon, Maria’s long-lost brother — has taken the throne and plans to destroy the Rebels with the Imperial army. The party realizes that they will have to infiltrate the castle of Palamecia from the air after talking with Paul, and receiving permission from a dying Cid to use his airship.

The party enters the castle and confronts Leon, who willingly aided the Empire and now lusts for the power of the fallen Emperor. However, no sooner has he stepped away from his new throne to confront the party, the Emperor reappears in the throne room in a new demonic form, revealing he returned from Hell with the intention of destroying the entire world and its inhabitants. Ricard dies fighting the Emperor to let the party and Leon escape with the Wyvern. Palamecia Castle then crumbles and the palace of Hell, Pandaemonium, takes its place. Leon agrees to help his friends and sister to seal the Emperor away for good.

The party travels to the Jade Passage—an underground cavern that is a portal to the underwold, and from which all the monsters have sprang, including the Dark Emperor where it finds a portal to Pandaemonium. After fighting its way through the fortress, the party reaches the Dark Emperor at the top, and defeats him for a second time. Firion returns to the Castle of Fynn, where Hilda, Gordon, Nelly, Leila, and Paul all wait to congratulate the party on the victory. In the aftermath of the battle, life begins anew for all these characters; however, Leon is skeptical of his own future, since so much has gone on between the party members and him. Despite Maria’s protests, Firion lets Leon go, but reminds him that there is always a place for him there in Fynn, where he belongs.

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