Wonder why so many people don't realize this...

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

I don't remember if any translations actually referred to them as "dead", but one reason people get this wrong is because of the "Life" spell - I think it was called "Rise" or something in the original translations (not sure, but whatever it was was less misleading).

"Life": Raise
"Life 2": Araise (not "Arise")
"Life 3": Reraise

I think those people are just pendantic whiners who like making the same rehashed jokes over and over, which was never very clever to begin.

Hey, did you ever notice that they keep making sequels even though the title of the game is Final Fantasy?

Isn't that so funny?