Final Fantasy: A Look Back 1988 - 1989

December 17, 1988

Final Fantasy II for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is released in Japan. In this game, they did away with the experience point system. Instead, they used a system, where stats increased through the usage of various attack types. A new addition to the turn-based system gave the player the ability to queue up attacks for all the party members at once. Commands could be reissued for previous characters before the final party member's command went through. There was also a keyword system where the player would learn keywords and tell them to other characters.

The story concerns the adventures of four youths from the kingdom of Fynn named Firion, Maria, Guy and Leon, who have all lost their parents in the Emperor's War. After being seriously wounded in battle Firion, Maria and Guy are left for dead, while Leon is captured by the enemy and brainwashed, becoming a Dark Knight. Princess Hilda of Fynn rescues the other three and takes them to the rebel base of Altair. The three wish to join the resistance group to fight against Emperor Palamecia, who seeks the world's destruction. The princess denies them because of their youth and lack of experience. They set off to prove themselves and eventually battle the Emperor. A number of other characters assist the party throughout the game, including Cid. FF II began the trend of recurring characters with Cid and the Chocobos. Cid is typically a good guy and mechanical genius, but he is the main villain in FF XII.

Other characters are referenced in later versions. In Final Fantasy VIII, you have Squall Leonhart and his gunblade, the Lion Heart. He's also referred to as Leon in Kingdom Hearts. Hilda is the wife of Cid Fabool IX in Final Fantasy IX. She also shares a close relationship with Cid in Final Fantasy XI.

December 1989

Final Fantasy is released for the MSX2 format. It was a standardized home computer architecture back in the 1980s. It was developed by Microsoft and a company called ASCII. This version had a larger color palette and more vibrant. The system had more sound channels, so much of the music and effects were improved for this version. Some item costs were changed. Game saves weren't possible without a blank diskette. Maps and monster placement were off. Black Belt's stregth would increase with exps levels in the Famicom version, allowing for barehanded fighting at some point. This was toned down in the MSX2 version, so barehanded fighting wasn't quite as effective.

You can read more about MSX at Wikipedia