difference in versions

[Silver Fox]

First off could someone please clear up to me what "e" and "j" and "u" mean when refererring to versions of Final Fantasy.

For Nes/Famiconm, what is the difference in US and JAPAN versions of FF1? Is the latter available translated?

Is FF4 Easy Type available as a ROM in english langage? Is the Japanese FF4 available in English?

I take it there are only one version of FF2 and FF3? I have 2 ROMS of FF3 and the prologues are both different, I assume they have just been translated differently by different people?

Thanks if anyone can attempt to answer those questions.

[TheAbominatrix]

e - European, j- Japanese, u - United States.

Translation differences, and I believe difficult differences. You can get FFI for the Playstation (and soon the GBA) as part of FF Origins

FFIV easytype was never released in America and I've never found a rom of it, but it's the same game. Just disturbingly easy. FFIV is available as FFII for the SNES and part of FF Chronologies for Playstauon.

Probably just translation differences.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Final Fantasy IV Easytype was released in America as Final Fantasy II in 1991. The only real differences I can think of between the American and Japanese versions of Easytype are thus.
The Japanese version has a Zeromus sprite not found in any other version of FFIV; the American version uses the usual one.
The guillotine-like blade posed to fall on Rosa was changed to an iron ball in the American version.
One frame of animation was removed from Cecil and Rosa's reunion to make them appear to hug instead of kiss int he American version.
The Baron dancer who throws off her dress to reveal dancer clothes was changed to simply already be wearing dancer clothes in the American version.
Dialogue was added to the opening scene of the invasion of Mysidia in the American version.
I believe the Developer's Room was left in the Japanese Easytype, in which case it was left out just for the American version.
The original version of FFIV was released in America intact as part of Final Fantasy Chronicles (not Chronologies) in 2001.

[TheAbominatrix]

That's not Easytype. Easytype and II were released around the same time in their respective countries, which means II was not the translation of Easytype. Easytype is even easier than II, which is sad.

http://www.geocities.com/arcanelore2001/articles/ff4wrong/

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

I hadn't seen that page in a long time, so I wasn't about to try to recount the facts stated on it. Still, though, I consider both games to be FFIV Easytype. The Japanese version is just an Easiertype.

[TheAbominatrix]

Good point.

[DJZen]

For Nes/Famiconm, what is the difference in US and JAPAN versions of FF1? Is the latter available translated?

There's quite a few differences, but not a lot that really matters much. The major differences are:

The "church" was changed into "clinic" for the US release, this was because of Nintendo's policy on religious material in games (which they hypocritically broke by releasing Zelda II with many instances of crucifixes). The sprites were also changed so that instead of a cross, the clinic would have a heart, and the man inside had his Bishop's hat removed.

Several enemies had different sprites. Some were changed because of the legality of directly ripping off D&D, and a few (actually it might have just been Kary, butI'm not sure) were nude in the original Japanese version, but this was censored in the American release for obvious reasons.

A lot of enemies had different names. Most noteably, Kary was originally called Marilith. There were really too many to list outright. Some had names that nintendo didn't like (Bloody Bone was changed to Red Bone), others were translated oddly, and others seem to have been changed arbitrarily.

Just about every item, weapon and piece of armor in the game was given a different name. One big one was that mithril equipment was changed to silver, probably because it's obviously borrowed from Tolkien and Nintendo didn't feel like taking that risk.

Spells had very different names. Some like Firaga were corrected later in the series, but in this early instance, Firaga is called FIR3. Others were censored (Death became RUB, Holy became FADE) and others were fairly arbitrary (Dia became Harm).


A lot of this stuff was changed back to the original for the PS1 release (Final Fantasy Origins), but other things weren't. For example, the enemy graphics that were changed have not been changed back for the most part.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

As I recall, the only enemy sprites that were changed were those of the Beholder (a.k.a. Evil Eye, and its palette-swap Death Beholder, or Phantom) and Medusa (plus her palette-swap Earth Medusa, or Green Medusa). The former was changed due to the D&D infringement issue, which is insane because so many other monsters ripped D&D off just as badly, and the latter had her chest covered up.