Numbers, Releases, and the United States


I'm staying chronological with my Final Fantasy Project which means that next up is Final Fantasy III.  Before I begin, it's important to note that not all Final Fantasy III's are created equal.  What do I mean by that?  Well, it's time for a mini history lesson.

When Final Fantasy III was brought to the United States it wasn't actually Final Fantasy III.  The original FFIII was released in Japan in 1990.  The game that was released with the title "Final Fantasy III" in the US in 1994 was actually Final Fantasy VI from Japan.  The next U.S. release after that was Final Fantasy VII in 1997.  From a U.S. perspective it looked like the series had jumped from III to VII but from that point forward all of the numbers matched on U.S. and Japanese releases.

Final Fantasy IV through VI were later released under their correct numbers in the United States on new platforms like Playstation and Game Boy Advance.  This covered all the releases in the series except for FFIII.

We need to jump ahead to 2006 to find the release of the real FFIII in the United States.  It was remade for the Nintendo DS with 3D graphics, but after 16 years Americans could finally play FFIII.  In 2011 a port of the DS version was released for iOS and that, my friends, is the version I will be playing.  Since I've played the first 2 games on my ipod touch I'll continue my iOS streak.  Between finishing the last game and starting this game I've made the jump to iphone, so that's where I'll be playing FFIII.

I know that was a roundabout way of letting you know the version I'll be playing, but I think the history behind the game is interesting.

Comments

  1. Why they decided to skip three games and then renumber the sixth one, only to change the numbering system back in the very next game, is beyond me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I always thought it was interesting.

    ReplyDelete

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