There was a time when Japan’s video game industry was connected to the rest of the planet with very thin threads. The games that came to the West had to be localized, and that caused delays that could last years, adjustments in a subtle or radical way depending on the content and, in very specific cases, the exchange of a long-awaited sequel for another game. The American copies of Final Fantasy III were all of the above at the same time.
Let’s start from the simplest: in the West it was impossible to play (legally) the third installment of the JRPG saga until 2006. No less than 16 years had to pass since its original launch, on the Japanese Famicom, plus an additional year in the case of Europe. Things that happen. And now is where things get complicated: despite all of the above, “a Final Fantasy III” was officially published on October 20, 1994 on the SNES in the United States and Canada.
It goes without saying that what hit the shelves was not even an imported version that made use of the mythical Japanese adapter of the Beast Brain, but it was not the first remake that the game originally released on 8-bit Nintendo consoles received. 1990. It was, rather, the consequence of a series of intermittent releases for a saga and a genre of video games that worked wonderfully in Japan, but had not taken off in North America. And if it didn’t work there, it almost certainly wouldn’t reach the old continent.
When the Made in Japan role was something very, very niche
With that in mind, until the very popular alliance with PlayStation and the coup d’état of Final Fantasy VII (the first released by Sony) it could be said that Squaresoft was almost, almost a second party of Nintendo. In fact, from this strong alliance Super Mario RPG was born. Games were released on other platforms on a marginal basis, but the big priority was the Big N’s 8 and 16-bit systems, as well as its laptops.
Among other things, because during the classic stage of Final Fantasy They had no real competition on the desktop, and Mega Drive players (with exceptions) preferred more arcade sensations.
The other reality is that the Big N was extremely protectionist in the United States market. So much so that until the mid-90s it itself limited the number of games that other companies could launch on their consoles.
Faced with this situation we come across two realities:
- After the launch of the first Final Fantasy or the original Dragon Quest (which came to the United States as “Dragon Warrior”), the very distinctive Made In Japan role was an extremely niche genre.
- In addition, Nintendo manufactured the cartridges with which – directly and indirectly – established when the releases occurred.
These factors also applied to Nintendo’s own games, mind you, since the real Super Mario Bros. 2 arrived as part of a SNES compilation and many of its 8-Bit and 16-bit games have ended up debuting directly on Switch. However, in the end we are brought to the same point: both the Big N and the developers and publishers were very selective with what was released and when each game was released.
Consequently, the sagas numbered as Final Fantasy
Terra Branford and the three lost classics
In Europe we begin the saga of Final Fantasy directly for the seventh installment. It may sound absurd, but the previous six were not published. It wasn’t the first time something like this happened, mind you, but there was a legitimate concern behind taking the step: what’s the point of starting a saga so late and without having touched on the six previous installments?
Today we know that each delivery of Final Fantasy It is self-contained and belongs to its own world, but in these cases a gigantic commercial campaign was needed to anticipate this type of explanation to players and sellers… or do something simpler and completely omit it from the title of the game on the box and the manuals all the deliveries that were not released and, by extension, will not be able to be played before.
To give an example from Nintendo itself, the Earthbound of the Western SNES is actually the Mother 2: Giygas Strikes Back Japanese. And when the first installment of Mother was published, it was subsequently renamed to EarthBound Beginnings. And that, basically, is what Nintendo and Squaresoft did with Final Fantasy.
The games Final Fantasy II, III
Finally, in 1994 it will be launched Final Fantasy III on the SNES in the West with a small big nuance: that third installment was actually Final Fantasy 6 just released in Japan. One of the best games in the entire saga, by the way.
So when is Final Fantasy 6 the third installment and when is it not?
Seen from the perspective of the time that made a lot of sense, but currently it is a little big chaos: when Nintendo launched the SNES Classic Mini it launched Final Fantasy 6 just as it came to the West in 1994, with its respective censorship, licenses and, of course, a huge three in Roman letters next to the title that presided over both the home screen and the box covers and internal illustrations.
The most curious thing? Those fans disconnected from what was happening in Japan found that the next game in the saga was installment number 7. Although we are not going to deny it, Final fantasy VII He was the great ambassador of JRPGs throughout the West and millions of players who were amazed by Cloud and AVALANCHE had never played a game like that until then.
Final Fantasy IIIthe authentic third game, ended up reaching the West through legal channels. We had to wait for the Nintendo DS reissue in 2006 (2007 in Europe) and since then the third Japanese installment and “the American one” have coexisted as they coincide on virtual consoles, remakes and compilations. Currently, you can play both in collections and perfectly numbered.
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