The Last to the Party

Did Final Fantasy II's delayed release in America help or hurt its popularity here? Assuming they'd had a similar turnaround time to Final Fantasy I, which was released in Japan in 1987 and then in America in 1990, that would've put Final Fantasy II's release here in 1991.

The NES lineup of 1991 isn't particularly notable, but since the SNES was released that year, it seems most companies jumped ship almost immediately. It would have been competing with that. It seems that Square's decision to skip II and III and simply localize IV and rename it II was something that made sense in the short term, but what effect has this had on the series' fanbase over time?

On the one hand, I think the amount of hate the gameplay gets would be a little less vitirol since gamers put up with a lot of bulltrout back then whereas modern tolerance levels are not all that great... On the other hand, if it was released the same year as the SNES or later then it probably would not have done as well at all. DQIV was released Stateside after the SNES launch and it did pretty abysmal over here and is rumored to be why Enix skipped out on releasing DQV and VI.

I remember back in the day this game used to get enormous amounts of hatred. I even recall people refusing to call FFIV anything but FFII because of how much they disliked this game. The days of calling it FF2j seem long ago. As Kanno says, I think it would've been looked on more fondly if it had been released in its era. Still, the Origins and DS versions seem to have improved its popularity.

The reason why everyone hated it is because they thought magic was useless. Int/Soul penalty was assigned to each weapon and armor type. Int/Soul penalties weaken your magic. Maria, who most people use as a mage for lack of a fighting default weapon, has a bow. Bows have the highest Int/Soul penalty. Since most people chose to leave Maria with bows, she has terrible magic, and most people thing magic sucks. That, along with a few other things, are why everyone hated the game.