Clearing FF2 with Growth and Gil Earnings Set to 0x: A Let's Play

At the start, the commentator introduces the game as an ambitious title with experiments like the proficiency system and the word memory system. The story begins with the four protagonists, citizens of the kingdom, being defeated by imperial pursuers. On the brink of death, the four are rescued by rebels hiding in a nearby town and ask to enlist, but are turned away for lack of experience. In this game, the story advances by memorizing keywords from conversations and asking people about them. Here the protagonists learn a password that lets them make contact with fellow rebels across the land.

After that, the protagonists take it upon themselves to infiltrate a castle town under imperial occupation and get information from a comrade in hiding there. Having made it back alive and proven their skills, they're finally allowed to join the rebellion. The commentator explains that, unlike the classic fantasy of the previous game, this one tells the story of a conflict between an empire and a rebel army. Princess Hilda believes the main cause of the gap in military strength is the difference in equipment, and she is seeking mythril, the material needed to make high-quality gear. The protagonists set out to obtain it together with the white mage Minwu.

When they arrive, the Empire has already gotten there first. The investigator has had his daughter taken hostage and has gone silent. This is where the first boss fight takes place, but according to the commentator it posed no particular trouble—an enemy you can beat just by hitting it more or less at random.

Meanwhile, the Empire has been building a weapon called the Dreadnought. By the time the protagonists go to scout it out, it's already complete, and the surrounding towns are burned to the ground one after another. Returning to the hideout, which escaped the flames, the party seeks the Sunfire, said to be capable of destroying the Dreadnought. They go to retrieve the Goddess's Bell needed to obtain it and fight the enemy standing in front of the bell. At this point Minwu stays behind at the hideout to tend to the wounded, and Josef, the investigator whose daughter had been taken hostage, comes along instead.

On the way back, the imperial officer Borghen lies in wait. The commentator explains that Borghen was originally a count of the kingdom who defected to the Empire, and speculates, "Maybe the reason the Empire's invasion was so fast in the opening is that this guy was feeding them information." Borghen has 240 HP, and while his healing is annoying, his attacks are weak, so you can win by just continuing to hit him.

Here the commentator offers their take on the game's difficulty. Because the equipment available early on is extremely strong, and the allies who join as the fourth party member are all powerful, they get the impression that this is on the easier side in the FF series. "The story's setting is such a brutal world, so let's at least enjoy the battles in a relaxed way" is the commentator's stance. The defeated Borghen springs one last boulder trap, and Josef holds back the rock at the cost of his life.

In search of the Sunfire, the party infiltrates Castle Kashuon. Carrying the flame requires a special torch inside the castle, and they fight the monster guarding it, Red Soul. It's a boss with a powerful party-wide attack, but the commentator explains that if you use Barrier to reduce it enough that no one dies, and keep healing while hitting it, there's no problem.

In this battle, Gordon, prince of the kingdom the Empire destroyed, joins the party. When the attack came, Gordon abandoned his country and fled, and had blamed himself as a coward ever since, but this time he joined up with the protagonists and lent them his strength. The commentator remarks of this battle that once you reach bosses around this point, the attacks of ordinary people (the protagonists, who haven't grown) don't even graze them, so a highly capable ally joining is extremely welcome.

They sneak aboard the Dreadnought and drop the Sunfire they obtained into its power furnace. The enemy officer Dark Knight panics, and Maria seems to notice something, but the party hurries to escape. Back at the hideout, the bedridden King of Fynn has grown weak, and with his dying words he entrusts command of the rebellion to Gordon. Minwu sets off on a journey to break the seal on the ultimate spell, Ultima (the commentator adds that it's a spell that becomes a familiar staple in later FF games). The protagonists are asked to search for the Dragoons, since the power of dragons is said to be essential to standing up against the Empire.

While looking for a ship to search for the Dragoons, the party meets a sailor who conveniently offers to take them out. But it turns out they've been tricked, and a fight breaks out on the spot. Here the commentator touches on how magic works in this game. You can use powerful spells just by reading a book, and those books can be bought at any town bookshop. As a result, the commentator says, it's a world that's kind even to ordinary people. Even protagonists who don't grow can fight as long as they read books, and this pirate battle ended with three people doing nothing but reading. The pirates, accepting their defeat gracefully, are recruited to help bring down the Empire.

At the Dragoons' castle, there are no surviving Dragoons left. The last dragon is also near death, and the party is entrusted with a dragon egg and tasked with sinking it in the spring of the northern cave.

At the cave's spring, they fight a group of enemies that use powerful party-wide attacks. The commentator first puts them to sleep with Sleep, then uses Berserk to raise the physical attack power of the pirate captain Leila. In later games Berserk is a status effect, but in this game it's a spell that simply raises physical attack power, and stacking it is effective, so the commentator explains they'll keep buffing her more and more. According to the commentator, with enough stacks even Leila at her starting stats can deal quite a lot of damage, and it seems more damage-efficient than attacking with magic. The Sleep wore off right away.

Here the commentator also reveals a rule for the challenge. In this game, party-wide instant-death spells work even on bosses, but that would make things too simple, so they won't use them this time and will defeat everything by dealing damage. After defeating the enemies, they sink the egg in the spring and send it off with "Grow up healthy."

They set sail, but don't find a single Dragoon and return having done nothing but sink the egg. Princess Hilda summons Firion to her room so the two can be alone, but the princess turns out to be a monster in disguise. The other party members, who had been keeping watch, rush in, and a battle with the Lamia Queen begins.

The Lamia Queen has 1,290 HP, and the commentator fights with Berserk just as in the previous battle. Her normal attacks carry an added sleep effect, which is troublesome, but it can be cured with a minor spell called Basuna, so one person was assigned to read the Basuna tome. A bad hit can do quite a lot of damage, but once the buffing is done she goes down in a few hits, and if you defend, her attacks don't hurt all that much.

The real princess has been made the prize of a fighting tournament. As the party heads to rescue her, Leila leaves and Gordon joins again. With the Emperor watching, a Behemoth appears as their opponent.

The commentator explains that up to now Leila had pulled them through, but this time's Gordon is "kind of hard to judge," so they switch strategies and attack by beating drums. Drums are items that become available in shops from around the midpoint of the game, and they deal more damage than your average tome. The Behemoth has 2,000 HP and only uses simple normal attacks, so as long as you keep reviving fallen allies, there's no way to lose. The commentator rates Gordon as less impressive than the other allies, but says that just being able to withstand the Behemoth's attacks makes him plenty capable. As they put it, "Surviving even one hit is worth two drum turns." When an ally falls, another ally revives them, and the rest keep drumming. In the end, they finished it off once its remaining HP was down to a single drum hit.

After the battle, a chance to get close to the Emperor arises, and the commentator says, "Since we're here, why don't we just kill him now," but the party simply gets detained. Then, after this and that, they manage to break out of prison and also rescue the captive Princess Hilda.

With morale boosted by the princess's rescue, the rebellion launches an offensive to take back Fynn. The protagonists are sent into the castle as an assault squad, tasked with striking the enemy commander in one swift blow. Leila has rejoined for this operation, so the commentator goes with the strategy of buffing her with Berserk.

Gottos has 2,000 HP. The enemy's only actions are buffing himself and normal attacks, so as long as you keep reviving, there's no way to lose. The commentator adds that the Berserk tome is dropped by enemies in this castle, and since you can reach the castle from early on, you can effectively farm it as much as you like. They explain that the Berserk tome is not only invaluable in battle but also sells for a high price, making it a precious source of funds in this 0x-gil playthrough. Gottos is defeated, and the rebellion finally retakes Fynn.

Riding their momentum, the party sets sail in search of the ultimate spell Ultima to defeat the Emperor. As they try to approach the target tower by ship, the sea opens a gaping maw and drags them under. When they come to, they're inside Leviathan. Leila has gone missing, and many others have been swallowed as well. Here the party meets Richard, a surviving Dragoon.

The boss blocking their escape is Roundworm, with 2,500 HP. Its only attack pattern is normal attacks. The commentator says that since Richard is "insanely strong," they'll throw all their support behind him this time, and shows off Richard's attacks after buffing him with five casts of Berserk. Here, too, the pattern is clear: the non-growing protagonists play support while a strong ally handles the damage.

Having escaped from Leviathan, the party once again seeks Ultima and takes on the Mysidian Tower. Three giants in total block their way in the tower, but the commentator notes that they're all roughly the same apart from their elements, so they'll show only one of the fights. The giant shown has 1,800 HP and is weak to ice, so everyone reads Blizzard tomes. By the commentator's calculation, each tome does about 170 damage, so it should go down after reading a little over ten of them. Its attacks are normal attacks and rock-type magic, and although one person went down partway through, it looked close to being defeated, so they pushed through.

On the top floor is Minwu, who had arrived first. The seal can only be broken by pouring in all of one's magical power, and Minwu had been waiting for the protagonists to arrive. Minwu, resolved to die, pours in his power and loses his life, and through his sacrifice the party obtains the Ultima tome.

When the party returns to Fynn and uses the Dragoon's pendant, a dragon hatches from the egg they sank in the northern cave and flies all the way to Fynn for them. Meanwhile, the world is under attack by the Empire, and a cyclone created by the Emperor is rampaging and destroying many towns. With Fynn also in danger, the protagonists ride the dragon into the cyclone to strike the Emperor at its center.

The Emperor appears with his entourage. As usual, the commentator first buffs Richard, saying it goes well if you can get Berserk on him before he attacks. The entourage is put to sleep one by one. HP is 870 for the guards, 1,620 for the golem-type enemies, and 3,000 for the Emperor, and according to the commentator, Richard can take out nearly all of them in one punch. Having ways to revive puts the party at a decisive advantage, and the commentator recommends the Raise tome, which can revive the whole party, as handy when multiple allies fall. Near the end, the Emperor, starting to panic, has 28 HP left, and they finish him off.

Though at the cost of many sacrifices, they defeat the Emperor, and it turns out that Leila, who had gone missing, was actually alive. Peace seems to have returned.

But in the middle of the celebration, a wounded soldier appears and reports that the Dark Knight has newly ascended to the throne as emperor, and that his true identity is Leon, Maria's missing older brother. The banquet is called off, and the protagonists head for the imperial castle.

When they meet Leon at the castle, it becomes clear that he wasn't being controlled—he chose this path of his own will. The commentator says his ideology of conquest and his lines reminded them of Gaius from FF14. Then the Emperor returns from hell, reappearing clad in tremendous power. The party scatters and flees, and thanks to Richard's desperate stand to hold him back, they manage to escape on the dragon, but here too there is a sacrifice.

In the scene where they return and report, the commentator sums up Leon's position. Leon, too, had sided with the Empire with his own ideas about how to end the war. While the Dark Knight comes with all sorts of baggage, as things stand Leon is the strongest man in the world, and there's no future unless they bring him on as an ally—that's how the commentator puts it.

In the final battle, the protagonists, now joined by Leon, advance on the Emperor's stronghold, Pandaemonium. The commentator's strategy is to buff Leon as much as possible: the three other party members read Haste tomes while Leon focuses on attacking. Everything else is left to auto-battle. Even when the Emperor's attacks are aimed at Leon, they miss, so it's no problem.

The Emperor has 15,000 HP. Having whittled him down carefully, the commentator judges that about two more hits should settle it. Noting that Slow is pointless because Maria doesn't attack, and that Blind won't work because she's protected by a Ribbon, they go on to defeat the Emperor.

In the ending, a narration plays: the Emperor, Pandaemonium, and the monsters have all vanished and peace has returned to the world; people will someday forget the scars of the war, but they will never forget that there were young people who saved the world.

At the end, the commentator looks back on having succeeded in defeating the Emperor "without growing at all," despite many sacrifices along the way. After reiterating that this is a game that dramatically changed the tone of the story from the classic fantasy of the previous game, they conclude that precisely because it was a journey where their stats never grew at all, it became a journey that really drove home how grateful they were for the allies who joined them.