Final Fantasy II Muma no Meikyū (ファイナルファンタジーII 夢魔の迷宮, lit. Final Fantasy II Nightmare's Labyrinth) is a novelization of the plot of Final Fantasy II written by Kenji Terada, one of the game's original writers and published by Kadokawa Shoten. It reworks the plot of Final Fantasy II and includes additional information of certain characters, such as the Emperor of Palamecia's real name.
The novel has some changes to the game's storyline, some small ones and some rather major.
Ricard, Gordon and Josef are not in the novel at all, their storylines completely cut.
The novel starts a bit before the start of the game showing Firion, Leon, Maria and Guy's normal life. Firion and Maria end up together in the end, rather than the ambiguous ending of the game.
Guy's backstory is explained that he was raised by monsters, and thus is able to speak their language. Guy's ability is more important in the novel, where Ricard's omission means Guy acts as the translator between the Wyvern and the party.
Emperor Mateus's backstory and character is explained in the novel. It's stated that Palamecia is cursed with demonic influences that corrupt its emperors. The demon Satan, desiring to rule the world by human proxy, turns men into malicious masterminds by using everything at its disposal to pollute their thoughts with its malice. The demon originates all the way from the beginning of the world when it became trapped within the indestructible "Stone of Iludia" and swore revenge by any means. After ascending to the throne, Mateus exiles his mother Airu to the deserts of Palamecia and yet she still spends her life trying to find a way to save him. During the novel, Airu and Minwu team up to find a crystal, which can purify the land. It ends up being too late to save Mateus, but it helps to bring peace to the world. Mateus's father is stated to have been just as bad as him. He also sold his soul to Satan to gain more power.
The Ultima storyline is cropped and Minwu doesn't die.
There is no Pandaemonium; Mateus is killed when Firion and his friends go to rescue Hilda near the end of the story. The novel's last chapter is about destroying the Stone of Iludia (which keeps corrupting all of the Palamecia emperors) with the crystal created by Minwu and Airu.
The "Hell" version of Mateus is actually the demon taking the Mateus' likeness.
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Book Cover without text.
Inside Cover art.
Amano art of Firion from the novel.
Amano art of Maria from the novel.
Amano art of Maria from the novel.
Amano art of Firion and Maria from the novel.
Amano art of Leon from the novel.
Amano art of Deist (possibly) from the novel.
Amano art of the Emperor and Hilda from the novel. The scene involved the Emperor attempting to seduce Hilda shortly after her capture.
Amano art of a Wind Drake from the novel.
Amano art of Hilda and Minwu before the rebel army from the novel.
Amano art of a battle from the novel.
Amano art of Leviathan(possibly) from the novel.
Amano art of Firion, Maria, and Guy from the novel.
The World Map from the novel.
