The Final Fantasy. Shortly after releasing this, Square failed and was never heard from again.
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Hidden Game#
While on the ship, you can press A and B 55 times to unlock a sliding puzzle game. Completing it awards the player's party with 100G.
Leftover Text#
The end of the main script of the American version contains some leftovers from earlier versions of the script, starting at 0x2B496:
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While these are identifiable as messages that also appear in the final script, some are a bit different. For example, "Leffeinish" was spelled "Lefeinish" in the final script. Here Kary says she will not give you the force of fire, but in the final script she says, "I, KARY will now show you the force of Fire, and you shall burn in its flames!!". This might lead one to think that "will not give" as opposed to "will show" was a mistranslation and the translator later fixed it, but, in fact, the original wording matched the Japanese phrasing.
For most of this text, the newline character is 01 (as in the Japanese version) instead of 05 (as in the rest of the American script).
Unused Graphics#
This rather regal-looking fellow, shown here using the Fighter's overworld palette, can be found sandwiched between the witch and soldier NPC sprites in the overworld sprite bank. He has a full set of sprites for facing and walking in all four directions, but he's never used anywhere in the game. The most logical role for him would be as the Prince of the Elves, but he doesn't have pointed ears…
This pub sign exists in the town graphics of both versions, but isn't referenced anywhere in the tileset, and no other signs in the final town tileset use 16x8. The sequel did feature pubs, but used a full 16x16 tile sign.
This little dude is found alongside the graphics for the orbs in the main menu. It's shown here using the message window palette.
Also found alongside the orbs are this shield(?) and star icon.
Anti-Piracy#
The routine at 0x3CFCB, run during transitions to maps other than the world map, takes the checksum of the "PROGRAMMED BY NASIR" text from the intro (0x37B1A-0x37B34). If it's been altered, the game pulls the top three values off the stack and executes an RTS, setting the program counter to some arbitrary value and effectively crashing the game. A similar protection and method of deliberately crashing is used in Dr. Mario.
Invisible Woman of Coneria#
Going to this spot in Coneria Castle will reveal a message, which changes after the player obtains the Lute. This NPC mistakenly has the "in room" flag set, but was not placed in a room, meaning that her sprite (a typical female townsperson sprite) never shows up. This error also appears in the Japanese release. Interestingly enough, this glitch was fixed for the MSX2 version that predates the North American NES release. Rather than fixing her room flag, she was completely removed from later remakes.
Unused Behavior#
Castle of Ordeal Item Check#
The sage at the Castle of Ordeal tells you the crown is needed to proceed. However, if the player is not cheating (e.g. via Game Genie), they will already have the crown, since you must acquire the crown as part of the chain of events that leads to getting the TNT that unlocks most of the map. If you do cheat and enter the castle without the crown, the sage's message will be the same, but the player will not be able to sit on the throne and activate the warp to proceed further into the castle. Instead, the throne acts like any other obstacle.
Sarda Flag Check#
Normally, when the player visits Sarda for the first time, Sarda will give them the rod. However, he won't do this if the player hasn't defeated the vampire in the Earth Cave; instead, he will only say, "WARRIORS. Revive the Power of the ORBS!", which is the same thing he says after he's given you the rod. But it isn't normally possible to reach Sarda without defeating the vampire since you need to get past the vampire to get the ruby, which is needed to pass through Titan's Tunnel and reach Sarda's Cave.
Version Differences#
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The US version changed a few minor issues with the original game. Most (if not all) of these changes are also in the late Famicom compilation Final Fantasy I-II and subsequent remakes.
Start Menu#
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Copyright information was added to the opening menu in the North American version. Also, in the North American version, you are able to jump straight to this menu by pressing the Start button on the short prologue screen that precedes it. This is not possible in the Japanese version.
Title Screen#
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The graphics on the title screen was adjusted so that the Nintendo copyright information could be added. The sloppy adjustment resulted in palette artifacts from the title logo (pink and blue pixels) in the grass and tree. In addition, the copyright symbol was altered and the title logo received a trademark. For some inexplicable reason, all text boxes were reduced in height, leaving a thick black border at the top.
Map Changes#
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The columns on the final floor of the final dungeon forms a hexagram, which became a triangle in the North American version. Additionally, random encounters were removed from this floor to give the player some breathing room for the final boss, as an enemy encounter could literally occur during the character's speech.
Graphic Changes#
Tilesets#
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While the Japanese version had churches, the US version had clinics due to Nintendo's policies on religious imagery. This change was made on the CHR level, and so the cross graphics are not present at all in the US version. The new heart sign was likely intended to use the same palette index as the other signs, but the palette assignment for its map tile was never changed. The change backfires in Lefein, where the magic shop has crossless steeples in the Japanese version but hearts in the US version even though no clinic is there.
Interestingly, the cross does not appear on the roof of churches/clinics in most remakes, though the steeple does.
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This change extended inside the church/clinic as well.
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Gurgu Volcano (Japan) |
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Cardia Islands (Japan) |
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Floating Castle (Japan) |
Floating Castle (US) |
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These three tilesets all had either crosses or Stars of David replaced with different imagery.
Enemies#
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Medusa's sprite was slightly altered to give her a top. This change extends to the Green (Earth) Medusas.
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The EYE, known as the Beholder in the Japanese version, was completely redrawn to avoid copyright issues with TSR, the then-owners of Dungeons and Dragons (and, by extension, the beholder). This change extends to the Death Beholder/Phantom. All remakes of the game, including the Japanese versions, use the Eye's design.
Classes#
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The Fighter and White Mage's weak frames were touched up slightly.
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The Ninja's victory/casting animation was changed so that his legs don't move.
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Supermonk, as he was known in Japan, tamed his hair and grew a mullet in time for his US debut as The Master.
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The Red Wizard's cape was touched up a bit, particularly his walking frame where the bottom of it originally disappeared entirely.
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The White Wizard's head was moved a pixel to the right and the left hand was moved up a pixel.
Weapons#
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Several of the sword graphics were touched up slightly.
Menu Items#
Most items were given icons as a part of their name to better distinguish what they are. This was done because there usually wasn't enough space to include the full item name in English. Interestingly, unlike future Final Fantasy titles, the icons are drawn at the end of the item name rather than before it.
Text Colors#
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The title of the weapon and armor menus are a beige shade in the Japanese version, and the currently selected option is highlighted in red. While this is technically still the case in the US version, the palettes have been set to white, making them indistinguishable from the standard text palette. This was likely done because the translators were unwilling or unable to resize the windows to account for the attribute table changes required to accommodate the longer English text strings.
Battle Formations#
Some battle formations were altered for America to fix a small, relatively obscure glitch in which enemies will occasionally display corrupted colors, though this can still happen to Sea Trolls.
Warmech's Rarity#
In the Japanese version, Warmech (Death Machine) is in the rarest encounter slot, and Fighter (Dark Fighter) is in the second rarest encounter slot. In the North American version, they were switched.
Missing Fanfare#
When you activate the time gate in the Temple of Chaos, the "got key item" fanfare is heard in the Japanese version. For some reason the regular "item found" noise is heard in the North American version instead.
Virtual Console Changes#
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The Virtual Console release of the game tones down the bright flashing colors for certain spell animations, and for when initiating and exiting a battle, due to such graphics potentially causing epileptic seizures.
References#
- GDR ファミリーコンピュータ ソフト一覧 1987年 - FAMILY COMPUTER Software List 1987↩︎
- Nintendo Intro Pak 1991, p. 5↩︎
- O Estado de S. Paulo - Acervo Estadão↩︎
- Re: Final Fantasy - Nintendo↩︎
- RF Generation: Final Fantasy (Nintendo NES)↩︎
- GDR ファミリーコンピュータ ソフト一覧 1993～1994年 - FAMILY COMPUTER Software List 1993-1994↩︎
- FINAL FANTASY® | NES | Games | Nintendo UK↩︎
- Final Fantasy - Game - Nintendo World Report↩︎