Last updated on January 3rd, 2026 at 03:11 pm
FINAL FANTASY II – Roleplaying Game Review
FINAL FANTASY II is a Roleplaying game from SQUARE ENIX Co., Ltd., first launched in 28th July 2021.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 93+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes FINAL FANTASY II Stand Out
A remodeled 2D take on the second game in the world-renowned FINAL FANTASY series! Enjoy the timeless story told through charming retro graphics. All the magic of the original, with improved ease of play.
Our epic tale begins with four young souls orphaned during the struggle between the Palamecian Empire and the rebel army. On their journey, the youths join forces with the white wizard Minwu, Prince Gordon of Kashuan, Leila the pirate, and many others. Behold the beautiful and sometimes tragic twists of fate that await you on your adventure.
FFII introduced a unique skill level system that strengthens different attributes of the characters depending on their fighting style instead of leveling up. Use the key terms you learn in conversation to unlock new information and progress in the story.
This innovative game series takes an ambitious turn in this second installment in the FINAL FANTASY series!
■ Beautifully revived with new graphics and sound!
・Universally updated 2D pixel graphics, including the iconic FINAL FANTASY character pixel designs created by Kazuko Shibuya, the original artist and current collaborator.
・Beautifully rearranged soundtrack in a faithful FINAL FANTASY style, overseen by original composer Nobuo Uematsu.
■Improved gameplay!
・Including modernized UI, auto-battle options, and more.
・Also supports game pad controls, making it possible to play using a dedicated gamepad UI when connecting a gamepad to your device.
・Switch the soundtrack between the rearranged version, created for the pixel remaster, or the original version, capturing the sound of the original game.
・Now possible to switch between different fonts, including the default font and a pixel-based font based on the atmosphere of the original game.
・Additional boost features to expand gameplay options, including switching off random encounters and adjusting experience gained multipliers between 0 and 4.
・Dive into the world of the game with supplemental extras like the bestiary, illustration gallery, and music player.
One-time purchase. The app will not require any additional payments to play through the game after the initial purchase and subsequent download.
This remaster is based on the original "FINAL FANTASY II" game released in 1988. Features and/or content may differ from previously rereleased versions of the game.
[OS Compatibility]
iOS 13.0 or higher
[Applicable Devices]
iPhone 6s, iPod touch (7th generation), iPad (5th generation), iPad Air 2, iPad mini 4 and higher
This Roleplaying game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, FINAL FANTASY II is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 27th May 2025
Recent improvements include:
＊Minor bugs have been fixed.
Download & Availability
FINAL FANTASY II is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get FINAL FANTASY II on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
First thing, we may have messed up a little bit, but not as much as you we would like to play this game with a Backbone. We hope one day soon cause we dont understand why its not already set up for this. Our apologies for the inconvenience, but it is inconvenient considering the first game we downloaded in hopes that our fat fingers would be in the way with true love for Final Fantasy.
Please add support for the Backbone app.
We are impressed by how much boost adds. They just updated it to match the console versions for getting quadruple Gil/experience (stat, spell or weapon level buffs in this game), turning off random encounters (helps with backtracking or going to Mysidia early for better weapons, or Holy if youre rich) and even have controller support and a dash button. We never imagined being unarmed would be viable (with berserk helping push past those defensive walls), though we recommend shields for mage types, double shielding (for better evasion) the turns you use magic in as you can now equip mid battle, as you cannot physically attack with a shield anyway. The fact you dont have to rely on unintuitive strategies like hitting yourself to get stronger (and using group magic to slowly buff it) or fixing such slow growth that Ultima was unplayable as you needed to be well rounded in all spells/weapons tremendously improves this game. You can even get overpowered by attacking and evading with 2 equipped shields when older versions didnt let you attack. The only minor issues we have are that: they nerfed teleport to not auto kill, they patched out dual wield killing 2 enemies (which prioritizes shields protecting you unless you get an early flame/ice bow or try unarmed) and there are no gameplay extras like soul of rebirth postgame (dead party members who transferred equipment if you had the foresight with blood sword for a difficult Ultima weapon battle) or the arcane labyrinth (using key words learned from the plot that made their own dungeons to make stat grinding more unique, though boost no longer needs this filler). Overall, these fixes (and improved music though you cant choose the original unlike console) help minimize the issues we had with past versions, and shutting off random encounters (as well as having maps available) helps stop the trap doors encounters and needing to overpay for Cids one way expensive airship (quadruple gold fixes this) from being nuisances.
This is by far the worst game in the ff 1 to 6 bundle. Its about as much fun as playing ff Mystic Quest. (& if youve never played ff Mystic Quest, good for you!) The characters mostly dont have any class restrictions, which means they can use just any weapon or spell, which means functionally, every character is more or less the same as every other. You need to level your weapon skills, a feature that would later reappear in Secret of Mana. (The plot of this story is also quite similar to Secret of Manas.) You need to build your magic skills as well. The landscape of this world can be more than a little aggravating, so use the transportation options available to you. The ending is a little too Flash Gordon and therefore tedious for our taste.
We want to start by saying Final Fantasy II is by far our favorite out of the whole series because we grew up playing it wayyy too much. With that being said theres many things they have done right, such as fantastic music, new animations for magic abilities (especially ultima which really needed it from the original lol) however there are a few things we dont remember being in the original. Those being status effects guaranteed to hit you unless you are very high level, the ATROCIOUS Rng battles (literally a fight every few steps), and the most important of them all – and the reason why we gave 2 stars – THERES NO SOUL OF REBIRTH MODE. If Im paying $10 for a 20 year old game remastered you should at least throw in the modes that were in the original. Its such a shame and feels scammy not to include it. Ps. We think post lv10 thunder animation on the original version is better than the remastered.
Would love to make iPhone a capable console for playing games like Final Fantasy.
The game is amazing. Full of nostalgic memories from our past. We purchase all Final Fantasy content. Within this game is a really annoying bug to overlook. All enemy attacks inflict their status affects 100% of the time.
We love this game, and it would be so much better with controller support.
Please add backbone controller support for the final fantasy remasters.
We love the early final fantasies and just purchased the bundle of the first six. We would love to see these games with controller support.
This is a very good game. Use a guide, watch YouTube videos to uderstand game mechanics as there are skill levels but not character levels. Youll need to grind but auto battle makes things easy, no controllers support doesnt matter either. Auto walk makes moving around easy as it finds the best path to where you are pressing. It does cancel it out when you get in a battle though. Again use a guide as this game tells you almost nothing, and find leveling guides as well. The guides made the game pretty easy for us, we did have to grind but we were unkillable. We didnt die once in our play through. And the final boss was too easy cause we were over powered. Dont listen to the naysayers about this game, they likely didnt use a guide and/or are just too impatient to grind, as well as maybe used to playing games that arent challenging. This game does not hold your hand. But as we keep repeating, use a guide and the game will be easy. Youll need to grind but auto battle makes things quick as it repeats your previous inputs, plus doubles the battle speed. We grinded in the very beginning, it took hours, but we were able to basically play through the game after that without ever grinding again. USE a walkthrough and leveling guide! IT WILL MAKE THE GAME MUCH MORE ENJOYABLE.
We are definitely a Final Fantasy 2 fan, and have played all versions of the game. Far and away PIXEL REMASTER is the best version. This is truer to the original NES with menu images, character sprites, and none of the GBA content. Pros: – Game re-balanced for a newer gen. Gaining stats is a breeze, even more so than the former mobile/Game Boy versions. – Tap to move option and dungeon maps are a game changer for tedious NES-designed dungeons. Less frustrating trial and error! – The uber-high encounter rate in dungeon trap rooms has been removed – Auto battle with a speed up built in that makes grinding nice and easy (the encounter rate is still high though) – GORGEOUS pixel graphics and remastered soundtrack. Its fantastic! Cons: – Encounter rate is still high, but auto battle makes this far more manageable – The GBA Soul of Rebirth bonus chapter is not included. Even though it is not original, it would be nice if included (or added in a later update) – Some reworked tracks we found less inspired than the already redone GBA versions, specifically the main/over world theme and The Rebel Army (we liked the acoustic guitar/medieval version from the GBA). But thats personal preference. If you ever wanted to play Final Fantasy II, you cant get better than this version.
We just wished it had the concentration mini game in it.
How can something be so universally hated and completely untouched. You have this massive text box for two lines of text that take up maybe a third of the box. Thats just lazy.
So Ive seen at least one other person being this up in reviews the status effect issue. Namely, that if any enemys physical attack CAN inflict a status effect, it WILL. Period. This has lead us to numerous game-overs from ambushes where our whole team was turned to stone or paralyzed before we could even move. Thats not challenging gameplay, thats ludicrously unbalanced. Right now Im stuck at a treasure chest battle in the late game against a group of enemies that can inflict death with their physical. Ive lost 8 times in a row and have no clue how Im going to get this chest. It seems impossible because of the status effect issue. We really wanna rate the game higher because otherwise its quite good, but this glaring flaw is beyond stupid and was a horrible design decision.
No controller support is incredibly disappointing. Any enemy that has an attack with a status effect will cause that effect 100% of the time. Makes sections of the game almost unplayable. Game has been out long enough this should have been patched by now.
Whats the point of amazing music if even the opening screen has not sound? Running on iPhone 11 ProMax Ver. 15.
Five stars once they add it. Its truly an amazing game, but no controller support brings it down.
Would love to play on the Apple TV.
Im a die-hard FF fan. Ive played every core game when it was released and have spent countless dollars on ports and sequels. We do like that this port has new graphics and music, but thats really all its got going for it. Also, no controller support is pretty odd for a game like this. So why does our subject say Nightmare to play? Because you get attacked every other step without a breath we had no problems getting 100% bestiary going straight from start to finish with a couple detours here and there. We dont think this was intended. Also, enemy status effects apply to you 100% of the time, and equipment that previously prevented status effects only work some of the time. The danged Coeurls at the end of the game 100% KO your characters without any reduction from things like Protect Rings. If you get ambushed (which also happens far more than it should) by a group of 6 Coeurls, youre looking at an automatic Game Over. And this happens a lot. Good thing they added Quick Save because you have to do it after every other fight just to make sure you dont get wiped out by RNG (same goes for monsters that paralyze ambush is a Game Over almost every time). With the increased battle encounter chances and messed up chances of effects, it almost seems like theres some global chance modifier that is applied to everything that is set too high. Anyway. Id wait for patches unless you like playing frustrated.
The only two things Id ask for are controller support and releasing these to consoles so everyone who hasnt gotten the chance to play these titles finally can! Great job on remastering these titles, especially FFII ! Was looking forward to playing through this version having played on the psp years ago. Please Square..bring it out on Consoles.
Ive never played FF2 before until now, mostly because Ive heard it was hard. This version is very fun and easy to play. The new music compositions are FANTASTIC, and so are the pixel effects. No, we didnt need to buy the game twice on iPad or on iPhone. Im guessing this is because many people owned the older version of the game. Either way, we wish there was controller support.
Really enjoyed this remaster! Only complaint is that that master of ii achievement seems to be bugged, we unlocked the rest but it wont unlock.
Wish there was controller support. However, all things considered, we think this is excellent. We like the soundtrack better than the PSP-port which was not bad in of itself. We are happier that the difficulty and in-game pricing is more like the original, making it challenging. The whole select-cancel trick does not work & there is no leveling down as far as we can tell. However, we will take it. Thanks Square-Enquix! Also, do not listen to the haters! IDK what some are talking about, saying that the iPhone & iPad apps are separate purchases because they are not as you can see from the screenshots. Plus, while there is no controller support (yet?), the touch control is not bad there is an option to click where you want to go with your finger or using of an assistive device (such as an iPad trackpad).
First off, like the title said. We purchased on our iPhone, and checked our small and large iPad pros. The game had already been downloaded to all of our linked devices and were fully playable. Save syncing worked across all devices as expected. We had absolutely no issues with this. Between all of our devices, the game height is static, so we get more game on the left and right of our relatively taller iPhone than we do with the iPads. The UI scaled as expected. The remastered music is great. Sound effects are punchy like the PSP versions. No option to change to original music, but that is ok. Perhaps this will be updated in the future. No controller support that we could see. Every room has a map. This seemed odd in single rooms, but is pretty great in dungeons, and towns. The movement and battle UI is FANTASTIC! You can move in 8 cardinal directions with the screen joystick. The joystick is responsive from anywhere on the screen (although the stick is glued to the corner, you can tap and swipe left from the center of the screen and your character will move left). When left alone for a second, the stick will reduce to 4 cardinal directions. There is also a tap movement system where a single tap on the screen will make your character run to that space. You can even tap and hold to confirm the space before releasing and seeing your character run to the confirmed location. The battle UI is cleaned up for sure. You can confirm battle actions by selecting a unit on screen or on the list at the bottom. The text is obviously not pixel perfect. + music + movement controls + 1 purchase to get the game on all devices – no controller support – no original music.
Great game, really fun. The graphics are not the same as the remastered PSP version. They appear to be closer to the GBA version with some improvements to the color. There are a number QoL features in this version that make it more enjoyable, IMHO. Im running this on our iPhone 11 Pro with the 14.7.1 iOS. The game occasionally crash if you spam the white mage spells too much in battle, which is frustrating. Also the snowcraft mini game doesnt seem to work. Ive shaken our phone for a good 5 minutes in the snow fields while in the snow craft and nothing happens, also frustrating. All in all, as good of a game as the original.
Final Fantasy II has never been a very great FF game, but this new remaster puts it in possibly the best shape it's ever been in. However, mobile is far from the best place for this game to be played, and it's practically crying out to be released on game consoles where it can have the best chance to be enjoyed by those who, despite its original quirks and flaws, will come to appreciate it.
Had this been the initial game in the franchise, it likely would have been the last. Thought Id give this another try but it failed to pull us in. We dont get that sense of excitement from leveling up with this one.
The encounter rate is not forgivable as the battles are boring. Some enemies require special element attacks to even damage and some can wipe the party in a single turn if they ambush you. We know this is based on a Famicom game but they could have added more. Some of the enemies looked better on the GBA version. The music is spectacular and is worth a listen. The leveling system is horrible but not as wretched as its 8 bit counter part. Weapons level insanely fast while magic takes forever. At end game we had about 7K health and forced ourselves to slag through the final dungeon. Thanks for giving us the air ship literally right before the last battle. We hate this game.
Needs controller support. We were really looking forward to playing this game, we downloaded the game thinking it had controller support. The previous final fantasy games on the app store all have had controller support. Once we ran the app and tried the game, the game was miserable to play on our IPad with using the directional pad. We guess Ill wait until they implement a controller support to play.
None of the pixel remasters support MFI controllers. Steam version does, why not mobile.
Ultimate SE money grab. Bought on iPhone and theyre requiring a second payment to use on iPad on same Apple account. Stay away.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.2.2
- Size: 397.53 MB
- iOS: 13.0 or later
- Languages: EN, FR, DE, IT, JA, KO, PT, RU, ZH, ES, TH, ZH
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: SQUARE ENIX Co., Ltd.
Last updated: 27th May 2025 | Genre: Roleplaying | Developer: SQUARE ENIX Co., Ltd.