Final Fantasy II is a role-playing game that Square released on the Famicom in Japan on 17 December 1988. Hironobu Sakaguchi directed it, Akitoshi Kawazu designed it, Nobuo Uematsu composed the music, Yoshitaka Amano drew the art and Nasir Gebelli programmed it.
It is one of the few Final Fantasy games without experience levels: characters improve in the weapons and actions they use most. Its Word Memory system lets players learn keywords from characters and bring them up in conversations elsewhere. The game also introduced the Chocobo and the first character named Cid, a name used in every main-series game since.
An English NES version titled Dark Shadow Over Palakia was started in North America but cancelled, so the first official English release came only in 2003, in Final Fantasy Origins for the PlayStation. Later versions appeared on Game Boy Advance, PSP and phones, and the Pixel Remaster arrived on Steam, Android and iOS on 28 July 2021.12
Names and releases
| Region | Title on the box | Platform | Date | Publisher | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NA | Final Fantasy OriginsFirst official English release | PlayStation | Apr 8, 2003 | Square Enix | 2 |
| NA | Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls | Game Boy Advance | Nov 29, 2004 | Nintendo | 2 |
| JP | ファイナルファンタジーIIFainaru Fantajī TsūFamicom | NES | Dec 17, 1988 | Square | 1 |
| JP | ファイナルファンタジーIIFainaru Fantajī TsūWonderSwan Color remake | Other | May 3, 2001 | Square | 2 |
| JP | ファイナルファンタジーI・IIFinal Fantasy Origins in the West | PlayStation | Oct 31, 2002 | Square | 2 |
| EU | Final Fantasy Origins | PlayStation | Mar 14, 2003 | Infogrames | 2 |
| JP | ファイナルファンタジーI・II アドバンス | Game Boy Advance | Jul 29, 2004 | Square Enix | 1 |
| JP | ファイナルファンタジーII20th anniversary edition; North America 2007-07-24, Europe 2008-02-08 | PSP | Jun 7, 2007 | Square Enix | 2 |
| WW | Final Fantasy IIAndroid followed on 2012-12-21 | iOS | Feb 25, 2010 | Square Enix | 2 |
| WW | Final Fantasy IIPixel Remaster (Steam); also Android and iOS | Windows | Jul 28, 2021 | Square Enix | 3 |
| WW | Final Fantasy IIPixel Remaster; also PS4; Xbox Series X/S on 2024-09-26 | Switch | Apr 19, 2023 | Square Enix | 2 |
Also known as: Final Fantasy Origins NA2Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls NA2ファイナルファンタジーI・II アドバンス JP1Final Fantasy II: Dark Shadow Over Palakia NA2Fainaru Fantajī Tsū JP1
Box art by region
JP ファイナルファンタジーII
Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: libretro-thumbnails.
Version differences
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GraphicsWonderSwan Color
The WonderSwan Color remake rebuilt the graphics, music and controls, shows damage as numbers, adds a dash and a monster encyclopedia, and rebalances the game.1
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ContentPlayStation (Final Fantasy Origins)
The PlayStation version, based on the WonderSwan Color one, adds a CG opening, an art gallery, a monster database and quick saves on the world map.2
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ContentGame Boy Advance (Dawn of Souls)
The Game Boy Advance version adds the Soul of Re-Birth side story about Minwu, speeds up skill growth, removes item-count limits and allows saving in dungeons.1
Translations
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English Official
Square Enix2003PlayStation · PlayStation remakeReleased · complete
The first official English version appeared in the PlayStation compilation Final Fantasy Origins; an earlier NES localization was cancelled.2
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Spanish Official
Square Enix2021Windows · Pixel RemasterReleased · complete
The Pixel Remaster lists Spanish (Spain) among its text languages.3
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Russian Official
Square Enix2021Windows · Pixel RemasterReleased · complete
The Pixel Remaster lists Russian among its text languages.3
Where to play legally today
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Steam Purchase
Reception
Square reported 800,000 copies sold for the Famicom version, while Japanese Wikipedia gives about 760,000 in Japan. By March 2003 all versions had shipped 1.28 million copies worldwide, 1.08 million of them in Japan.2
Sources
Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13
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