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First off let me say that this hack is spectacular. It is, as another reviewer mentioned, more a Final Fantasy IV conversion than a Final Fantasy II remake. However, the assets and town/dungeon layouts from IV are generally superior to those from II; so this is not a bad thing!

Although remakes of the dungeons and towns from II using IV assets would be nice, I can see how that would be a lot of work.

I used the version with the re-done enemy sprites and I recommend it. If you are as familiar with classic Final Fantasy as I am it helps further your brain from the world of IV in favor of the world from II.

There is a new character named Lenora to fill that fifth character slot in battle, and she's pretty great. I feel as though she fits in nicely and her portrait is very good.

What would I change? Just a few minor things! I think I would tweak a few of the character sprites a bit more. For one example, Josef is far too clearly just bald(er) Yang for my tastes. Could add his over-coat.

Likewise, I REALLY miss Salamand being an ice city. I don't know how complicated it would be to fabricate but some re-colored desert tiles (and battle backdrop) to snow would have been that little bit of polish to push this hack over the top of greatness in my opinion.

There are ton of little things I'd like to mention but I don't want to spoil it all for somebody looking. Overall this is a 9/10 hack! I fully recommend it. It nearly replaces the actual FFII for me.

I've been a lifelong fan of Final Fantasy II (J), despite the terrible character progression and battle design. So for me, this totally breathes new life into an old favorite. Now every party member has an actual build, skills, strengths and weaknesses. The only con I can think of is the use of FF4's music. Wouldn't it have been amazing if this has the actual game's soundtrack ripped from the GBA version?

As for it using FF4s maps and so on, I play Final Fantasy IV's 3D PC version these days, so this really works for me and feels like its own game. As I said before, the only think keeping it from 10/10 greatness is the music. The field/battle sprites and monsters though, top notch.

You can't talk about Final Fantasy II for NES without talking about its frustrating system of leveling your characters up. Instead of the traditional experience points and leveling systems you get from other RPGs, your characters get stronger instead depending on how they battle. Using attack increases your strength, not using spells decreases your magic, etc. As the game progresses it becomes an exercise in futility to keep your characters balanced, to the point where you might regularly find yourself attacking your own characters just so their defense can go up.

Final Fantasy C2 takes a unique approach at resolving this problem: it presents the story of Final Fantasy II, but instead uses the engine of Final Fantasy IV to do so.

At first this sounds like a brilliant idea; you meet the characters of FF2 and watch its storyline unfold, but the battle mechanics and leveling up system is something much more manageable and familiar. But don't mistake this as a straight-up remake of FF2. It's much more a Final Fantasy IV remix than a Final Fantasy II port.

While the main characters and plot do hit the beats of FF2, the graphics, music, and maps are practically untouched from FF4. The game begins in the town of Altair, but if you've played FF4, you'll immediately recognize it's actually Mysidia, although the Crystal Temple is now the interior of Fabul Castle. The next town you visit is exactly identical to the Village of Mist in FF4, complete with Rydia's empty house and secret passage in the fireplace. Fynn is Baron Castle and town, and so on.

The original FFC2 hack barely changed any graphics at all, but a few years after its release another hacker remade the majority of enemy graphics to more closely resemble FF2. Tomato translated both versions and they are presented here as Version A (unaltered graphics) and Version B (new monster graphics). At first you might be inclined to go with Version B, but honestly because the rest of the game is so clearly just FF4 re-arranged to tell the story of FF2, having the original FF4 monster graphics feel right at home with everything else going on. But either way, it was nice of Tomato to translate both versions to give players a choice.

And speaking of Tomato, the only reason I ever learned of this rom hack is because of his efforts to translate it into English. Much of the translation is based on official FF2 and FF4 translations, but Tomato did a great job seamlessly bringing it all together. There are a few times when his voice clearly peeks through, such as translating the Piggy spell to "Porky," in a nod to Mother 2 and 3. Another point later in the game he has an NPC warn the player of a game-breaking bug by saying he learned of it from a talking tomato in a dream. It's a very clever workaround.

And as good as Tomato's translation work is, the game itself does have its share of quirks and bugs, some worse than others. With the game firmly rooted in the FF4 engine, there are instances when certain events happen (such as an airship bombing multiple towns) but the game can't show any of the destruction. The supposed decimated towns look completely untouched, just now some characters speak of the death and destruction that you can't actually see. Another time, you can trigger an event that includes dialogue from a character... who might not have yet joined your party if you didn't go a certain path.

Overall, it's an interesting and ambitious idea for a rom hack, even if at times it feels rough around the edges. The world of rom hacking in other countries like Japan is completely foreign to me (no pun intended), so I appreciate Tomato helping bring light to projects like this one.

Final Fantasy C2 is worth checking out, just don't go in expecting it to be "Final Fantasy II but with IV's leveling up system." At its core, it's still very much a Final Fantasy IV game.

UPDATE/CORRECTION: While I originally thought Tomato was giving us a sly wink about the "Porky" spell, he reached out to me after this review was published to say that this is actually how the magic spell was translated from the original Japanese.