Play Final Fantasy II (Proto) [Bug Fix by Parasyte v1.0] (Weapon-Magic Exploit Fix) Online

This is the weird one in the early Final Fantasy series—the black sheep where they ditched levels and XP entirely. Instead, your stats grow based on what you actually do in battle. Swing swords a lot? Your strength goes up. Get hit constantly? Congrats, your HP climbs. It’s janky and exploitable (though this version fixes the infamous weapon-magic glitch), but there’s something weirdly satisfying about grinding by punching your own party members to toughen them up.

The story’s darker than the first game, too—you’re rebels fighting an empire, and characters actually die (well, "die"—it’s still an NES RPG). The translation’s rough, the balance is all over the place, and that skill system either clicks for you or drives you nuts. But if you’ve ever wanted to see where Square started experimenting with FF’s formula, this prototype-ish mess is weirdly fascinating.