Growing up as a Squaresoft fanboy - Part 4

Part IV: The SNES era arrives with Final Fantasy IV​

In the previous chapter, we discussed the Game Boy era of Squaresoft and the lead up to Final Fantasy IV. If interested, read it here.

With an advertisement campaign like this, is it any wonder why it flopped in North America? WTF is an OGOPOGO? Show some appealing art, FFS!​

One of my fondest memories as a kid was visiting Blockbuster rental store with my father every Friday after school. He would usually pick out a movie for us to watch and I’d pick out a game. After having rented every Zelda , Mario and TMNT game available, I was feeling more adventurous on one of those Friday afternoons. I noticed a red box with a shining sword prominently displayed on the cover. Final Fantasy II, it proudly announced. I was familiar with the series from reading Nintendo Power and from playing the original Final Fantasy at a friend’s house but I didn’t consider myself a fan yet. I decided to try it and what I experienced changed my life forever. I had played video games that were fun adventures, I had played games that paid lip service to story but it was very implied and mostly left in the manual. But I hadn’t played a game that aspired to tell a story with that level of presentation before. From the opening sequence, the game sets out to hook the player with intrigue. I could write about what makes the intro great but a moving image is worth a thousand words.

From there I was invested in the story of Cecil and Kain. There were other moments in the story that sank their claws into me and didn’t let me go. The romance between Cecil and Rosa. The growth of Rydia from child to adult and overcoming her fear of fire. The tragic death of Anna. The revenge quest of Tellah. I couldn’t possibly beat this game in one rental so I tried it over various weeks, trying different strategies and finding new paths through dungeons. Sometimes I would find a save from another rental and load it to experience a different player’s path. I would notice some items and powers that I hadn’t been able to find and would find myself completely lost by the new region that the save was located in. Some other guy made it to the moon? Holy crap! I needed to finish the game. I would lose so many hours daydreaming about the adventure when I wasn’t playing it. After renting it so many times and not being able to beat it, I eventually asked my parents to get it for me for my birthday. And to be perfectly honest, the ending wasn’t as great as my young imagination had anticipated. But the character moments in the game still stick in my mind to this day.

A sampling of some of the more dramatic subplots in FFIV. These would create lasting images in my young mind.​

Development History​

FFIV Japanese box art next to FFII North American box art. North America was decidedly against anime art in game boxes at that time.​

Final Fantasy IV’s direction was a clear response to the critical feedback from Final Fantasy III. FFIII was well received in Japan but a few of the critics noticed a difference between the depth of the story in Final Fantasy III and the stories in the latest Dragon Quest games (the main competitor to Final Fantasy at the time). Hironobu Sakaguchi decided to focus more on the storytelling elements and wanted to provide the game with a more cinematic flair. Gone were the nameless orphans, the main characters of FFIII along with the job change system. Every character in Final Fantasy IV has a name and a fixed job. They have motivations, personalities, ambitions and romantic interests.

Concept art of Final Fantasy IV's heroes with the cartoony chibi style versions below. From left to right, Cecil, Rydia, Kain and Rosa.
Normal versions were created by Yoshitaka Amano and the chibi versions by Kazuko Shibuya.

Status screen displaying the gorgeous pixel art portraits based on Yoshitaka Amano's concept art.​

On a similar note, the villains in Final Fantasy IV were given more screen time than the past versions in other games. They also have complex motivations, backgrounds and relationships to some of the player characters. Some of the plot twists of certain villains may have been inspired by movies that were popular at that time.

Concept art of Final Fantasy IV's villains by Yoshitaka Amano. From left to right, Golbez, Calcobrenna, Rubicante, Valvalis.​

Another focus was completely exploiting the new capabilities of the Super Famicom. They used one of the special graphical modes of the console to good effect, to create a horizon perspective effect when flying the airship. This effect is noticeable in the various cutscenes involving the airship.

The intro cutscene with the Red Wings and the bombing of Damycan show the (at the time) impressive graphical capabilities of the SNES.
​

The music chip of the Super Famicom was also used to full effect and some of the tracks are absolutely beautiful and haunting. The SNES allowed more channels, higher fidelity sounds and effects than the NES so Nobuo Uematsu took his art to a new level in this era.

A sampling of the music of Final Fantasy IV. The love theme would become the unofficial theme song of the game.​

The combat system was also revamped from the traditional turn based from the first 3 Final Fantasy games. They wanted to add an element of time and dynamism to the combat, giving it a more real time feel. That prompted the creation of the Active Time Battle (ATB) system. Every character would be given a speed stat that would determine how fast their next turn popped up. Commands had to be inputted quickly or else enemies would take turns as soon as possible. There are several bosses who make use of this ATB system in clever ways, having countdowns or timers. They also programmed more advanced logic into the enemies. Some of the tougher enemies and bosses respond to the player’s actions, triggering powerful counter attacks under certain circumstances.

The Mist Dragon (left) counterattacks when in mist form, and the EvilWall must be defeated quickly before he crushes the party.​

Final Fantasy IV was released in Japan to critical acclaim and excellent sales figures. After experiencing that level of success in Japan, they were eager to bring the game to the North American audience. However, this is when Squaresoft would make some grievous errors in their North American release. First of all, they decided to do the localization in house with fluent non-native English speakers. That would lead to some interesting choices of language in certain moments. They also were concerned about the jump in complexity for American gamers from Final Fantasy I to Final Fantasy IV. They decided to tweak the difficult of bosses, reduce the number and types of items, make items cheaper and remove abilities from characters to address that perceived issue. They even removed abilities referenced in cutscenes such as Cecil's darkness ability. It creates a massive issue with one of the pivotal boss battles in the game (I could explain in more detail but it is a spoiler). They also censored all religious symbols and references (even prayer), references to alcohol and any sexual innuendo from the game to comply with Nintendo of America’s policies. Finally, they decided to rename Final Fantasy IV to Final Fantasy II to prevent confusion about the unreleased Final Fantasy games. That was another miscalculation, as they would later abandon the numbering discrepancy between east and west.

Some of the more awkward lines in FFII NA. The one to the left was a poor localization choice by a non-native translator
and the one to the right was due to censorship of religious references such as prayer.​

Fan Hacks and Remakes​

There are many fan translations, hacks and remakes of Final Fantasy IV out there to be played. I have fond memories of playing a fan translation of FFIV created by J2E that undoes the censorship and the Easy Type changes in the North American SNES version. One of the cooler aspects of this version is that it includes the developer room easter egg that was removed from the North American version. (Note that the newer Namingway Hack of FF2 US is considered a more accurate fan translation of FFIV as the J2E version is considered outdated these days.)

The player can talk to series Director Hironobu Sakaguchi in the Japanese version of Final Fantasy IV.​

There are other official remakes/ports of Final Fantasy IV that I’m less familiar with. First there is the Final Fantasy Chronicles bundle for the PS1 that also included Chrono Trigger. This version was based on the JP Final Fantasy IV with a few minor tweaks. It has a dash button to move faster through dungeons, 3D cutscenes and a revamped localization. Unfortunately, it is not recommended due to the CD-ROM loading times in between battles. There was also a GBA port that was partially based on a JP only Wonderswan remake of Final Fantasy IV. Both GBA and Wonderswan versions are based on JP Final Fantasy IV with all of the Japanese abilities and spell names restored. This version includes some nice additions, including story expansions, two end game dungeons and the option to swap the party members before the final section of the game. There was also a 3D remake for the Nintendo DS developed by Matrix Software, the creators of the 3D remake of FFIII. It includes voice acting, cutscenes, new minigames, stylus features and new gameplay elements. This version departs the most from the SNES version of Final Fantasy IV but may appeal to those who prefer 3D graphics. Finally, there’s the PSP collection that includes the DLC FFIV Sequel originally developed for the Nintendo Wii called “After Years”. The updated 2D sprites in this version are hideous to my SNES nostalgic eye so I can’t really recommend it in good faith.

The DS (left) and PSP(right) versions of FFVI include dramatically different art styles, as can be seen above.​

There’s also several rom hacks of Final Fantasy IV. I haven’t tried that many of them, but my personal favorite of the ones I’ve tried is Free Enterprise. It turns the Final Fantasy IV game into a Randomizer/Scavenger hunt type of game that really rewards the players with deep knowledge of the game. It’s a nice hack to experience once you’ve beaten FFIV multiple times. You can check out the project here. It is a testament to the depth of the game world created by Squaresoft's team that fans keep finding new twists to keep it relevant even for fans who have played it many times over.

A speed run competition of Final Fantasy IV Free Enterprise organized by their Discord community. ​

Immediate Aftermath​

The popularity of Final Fantasy IV cemented Squaresoft as a worthy competitor to the Dragon Quest franchise in Japan. However, in North America it would be a different story. Squaresoft was expecting decent numbers from the release of Final Fantasy II in North America. After all, Final Fantasy I had sold better in North America than in Japan. However they were extremely shocked to learn that the sales of Final Fantasy II had topped at 200k. These figures left the Japanese executives puzzled. Why did they take such a step back in sales from Final Fantasy I? Unfortunately, the Japanese executives would jump to unfounded conclusions about the American market, which would lead to the creation of Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest. But that is a story for the next episode. Stay tuned, friends.

 

[ATenderLad]

Always excited for another installment, and weirdly I have random notes again!

• The Ogopogo is an obscure Canadian lake monster, basically Canuck Loch Ness Monster! Terrible advert.
• The airship opening and the music throughout the beginning felt like a crazy leap in what I thought games could do.
• It's not the focus of the article, but that tangent about used/rental games having other peoples save files is interesting. I had a lot of pre-owned cartridges, and getting to live a slice of someones life, in a way, was always fascinating. I almost never had the heart to delete those, unless every slot was taken. Might be a fun subject for it's own thread.
• Since you kept things spoiler-free I'll do the same, but I certainly loved some of the similarities to a popular sci-fi franchise, Cecil's arc in particular.
• There's all sorts of cultural oddities that went into localization but it's the removal of gameplay complexity that always gets me. Maybe genres like SRPG's would have found a larger audience sooner?
• As a known dork, I've been asked which version of (insert FF game here) younger friends should start with. Which FF II would you pick?

 

[Azuris]

• It's not the focus of the article, but that tangent about used/rental games having other peoples save files is interesting. I had a lot of pre-owned cartridges, and getting to live a slice of someones life, in a way, was always fascinating. I almost never had the heart to delete those, unless every slot was taken. Might be a fun subject for it's own thread.

I know exactly what you mean, as those Games never came to Europe, i imported them from Japan.
The save Game from Final Fantasy VI was very very maxed out, at least it seems to me that it is.
The Preowner must have thrown all his Effort and Heart into playing it.

If someone would make a Series about that, I could donate those Save Games to show them off, i have a Retrode2 and dumped them on my PC

There was also no Reason to delete the Save Games from the Module... i can't read or speak japanese and i am using Flashcards or other Devices.


Edit:
Now i forgot, i really like Final Fantasy IV on the Nintendo DS.
But there is that one Boss that drove me crazy, it seems they made the Version on Steam easier.

 

[Strategist]

Always excited for another installment, and weirdly I have random notes again!

• The Ogopogo is an obscure Canadian lake monster, basically Canuck Loch Ness Monster! Terrible advert.
• The airship opening and the music throughout the beginning felt like a crazy leap in what I thought games could do.
• It's not the focus of the article, but that tangent about used/rental games having other peoples save files is interesting. I had a lot of pre-owned cartridges, and getting to live a slice of someones life, in a way, was always fascinating. I almost never had the heart to delete those, unless every slot was taken. Might be a fun subject for it's own thread.
• Since you kept things spoiler-free I'll do the same, but I certainly loved some of the similarities to a popular sci-fi franchise, Cecil's arc in particular.
• There's all sorts of cultural oddities that went into localization but it's the removal of gameplay complexity that always gets me. Maybe genres like SRPG's would have found a larger audience sooner?
• As a known dork, I've been asked which version of (insert FF game here) younger friends should start with. Which FF II would you pick?

1. Thanks for clarifying that. I guess since Squaresoft USA used to be located in Seattle, WA, they assumed everyone would know these weird north of North America terms? I grew up with a heavy dose of American pop-culture and had never heard of an Ogopogo. Doesn't sound very menacing, to be honest with you. The monster was supposed to be called Neo-Leviathan or something like that but they had to shorten the name due to space limitations.
2. It was an incredible intro, even divorced from the technological leap. It is simply a brilliant way to start a story heavy RPG game. A heavy dose of courtly intrigue, tragedy and cool characters.
3. I'm not sure there's much that can be written about it, but it is a funny topic for sure. It was always fascinating to see how other people would name their characters. Sometimes it was common names, sometimes popular pop culture characters, sometimes even lewd terms, lol.
4. Yes, the movie that was the American adaptation of Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress was very popular in Japan. You can tell by many of the subplots in this game. But there's also Star Trek references too. Mainly the airship named the Enterprise. And Disney references. The dwarves say "lali-ho" which is a reference to the Seven Dwarves from Snow White.
5. I believe games like JRPGs and Strategy games had an audience in America and was really shocked about how ignorant Japanese businessmen were about the American audience at this time. Granted, a lot of the audience for these games was in the PC space with Ultima, Wizardry, Civilization, Warcraft, Sim City, etc..., but even games like Sim City found an audience on consoles. Doing this series and looking at the marketing efforts from Squaresoft of America, I'm fully convinced it is a failure of marketing.
6. I personally would play a fan translated version of FFIV, because the removal of abilities and the developer room makes the US FF2 a strictly worse experience. Apparently, the Namingway Hack restores all of the FFIV content into the original FF2 US rom and it has the best fan translation of the Japanese script so I would recommend that. Otherwise, I would probably go with the GBA FFIV because they keep the experience as close as possible to the SNES FFIV while adding some cool features such as extra end game dungeons.