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So it's no big secret that when games what were made in Da Land O Da Rising Sun get ported stateside, some changes tend to be in order. Such changes tend to include the game packaging cover art...typically not for the better.

But I'm not here to judge, I'm just here to ask if anyone else remembers seeing this as a kid:



...and wondered to themselves, "Okay, just what the hell am I supposed to be looking at here?" I mean, I get the moogle (though I don't get why his entire lower torso was lopped off), but everything beyond that and the actual text is just meaningless abstraction to me. I could never make heads or tails of it.

This post has been edited by Narratorway on 27th November 2012 09:26

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You have an excellent point. Nothing on that cover makes any sense. Which is especially sad, seeing as the original Japanese box art was absolutely incredible:


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Yeah, I was like that for a bit when I first got the game at 14. However, it seems to me that we're viewing the scene from above - Mog's looking up, and that's why we can't see his entire body, and there's a shadow of a giant creature looming over him.

Is it good box art, or even executed well? No, and no. But I don't think it's quite that big a conundrum as to what's going on.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

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Well, it makes sense with the infamous FFIII commercial they had.

Now, if you don't bother viewing this, or if you watched it and weren't paying attention... this is very very silly.

Now, I don't know if it's prejudice of some sort on Japan's part, because I've always heard people say that they made the game easier for American audiences, but Americans are apparently stupid.

I had never really thought about it before, but I do have a problem with this. Think about it in context: a special character (basically a mascot) promoting the game (since the box is essentially promotion, right?) with absolutely nothing that the game is about.

Why do people love FFVI? It's story and characters. The Japanese box art shows a small amount of the world you will experience from the game. The American cover is false advertising in a sense. Maybe they felt that audiences wouldn't get into it at the time, but they did in Japan. I just don't understand the difference.

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Praise Be To Helix!

Gotta admit, Amano's art isn't the most 'clear' to me. It's very wispy and poetic almost, so sometimes it's not the most dynamic for something like a cover for a game. When I look at game covers, I want them to convince me this game will be enjoyable, not make me ask questions.

I mean, in the second picture posted, it looks like a bored Terra's just chilling in her robot with what could be, what? A broken down city? A piece of Ikea furniture gone wrong? Alexander, is that you? I know in context it's her overlooking Vector, but Vector looked nothing like that in-game, nor did anything. There is absolutely no emotion whatsoever conveyed in this picture, so it fails to pull me into the story. The only motion/action conveyed is the little logo of Terra with her sword drawn (that never happened) in the background of the lettering. It makes me think, "Oh, hey, she rides robots and she fights things." Note! I love Amano's art completely! But there's a difference in making something artistic, and making a piece of art as accompaniment to sell a product-- and his cover art should have been more to sell something, not to look pretty!

At least in the first one, the gold, ancient looking lettering and the sword for the T are strong indicators of some sort of battle/action in the game. This judgmental white cat with a floating coin on his head doesn't mean much, and the perspective's so off I can't tell that the purple's supposed to be a shadow, haha.





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It was a game box. I was more concerned with what was inside. At the same time, I'm not a big fan or appreciator of art.

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Quote (BlitzSage @ 27th November 2012 14:43)

Why do people love FFVI? It's story and characters. The Japanese box art shows a small amount of the world you will experience from the game. The American cover is false advertising in a sense. Maybe they felt that audiences wouldn't get into it at the time, but they did in Japan. I just don't understand the difference.

I don't know, I feel like that can be forgiven due to the fact that the games simply hadn't become the phenomenon they later became; the intricate art of the Japanese version probably wouldn't have helped sales all that much and might have hurt them in the gaming world of nearly twenty years ago.

Back then, the people who were going to definitely buy the game (like me - I think this is the first game I ever pre-ordered) were going to buy it regardless of the box art; the simpler art didn't turn me away, but it might have brought in some new fans in the time before the Final Fantasy VII hype machine.

And, hey, at least the art had more to it than the original US release of Final Fantasy II, right? And that game actually WAS dumbed down for us!

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Quote (Rangers51 @ 27th November 2012 08:06)

Yeah, I was like that for a bit when I first got the game at 14. However, it seems to me that we're viewing the scene from above - Mog's looking up, and that's why we can't see his entire body, and there's a shadow of a giant creature looming over him.

Only when I finally read this did I realize the box art had to do with the really stupid ad campaign.

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While I am not a fan of Amano's Final Fantasy work (I am a large fan of his Vampire Hunter D work, however.) I think the Japanese cover brought out the poetic elements of the game. At the same time however, I agree with the notion that it would have drawn away from the attention of the American audience who were just coming into the series rather than the diehard fans who already knew thatthe game would be wonderful. I think that the addition of the Moogle may have been a further attempt to attract interest through it being a cute fluffy animal with a sword. This would bring younger children and perhaps a few female players into the game sealing the deal further beyond the introduction of the main characters of the game being a pair of women with big swords and bigger magic(ugh, gender stereotypes, nobody likes them.)

I also think that the simplicity of the cover in the American version is quite the attention grabber, especially for the early 90's. : )


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Now, I don't know if it's prejudice of some sort on Japan's part, because I've always heard people say that they made the game easier for American audiences, but Americans are apparently stupid.

Well, that's what happens when you remove more than half of the original footage in one of Japan's cinematic masterpieces and replace it with new footage of some American explaining what's going on for us BECUZ WE'Z TOO DUM TA GETZ IT ON OWER OWN!

But I'll leave a full rant on the butchering of 1954's Gojira to another time.

Also, they did the same thing for Final Fantasy IV (or II, whatever) here as well.

This post has been edited by dekupride on 28th November 2012 19:02

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Quote (St Khael @ 28th November 2012 12:39)

I also think that the simplicity of the cover in the American version is quite the attention grabber, especially for the early 90's. : )

Isn't Final Fantasy II (US)'s cover even simpler? As in, logo on solid red background?

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Quote (Glenn Magus Harvey @ 29th November 2012 23:04)

Quote (St Khael @ 28th November 2012 12:39)

I also think that the simplicity of the cover in the American version is quite the attention grabber, especially for the early 90's. : )

Isn't Final Fantasy II (US)'s cover even simpler? As in, logo on solid red background?

Correct. It's more simple than even Final Fantasy I's.

http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/...inalFantasy.jpg

http://empirestategamer.com/wp-content/upl...NES_Box_Art.jpg

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Quote (Rangers51 @ 30th November 2012 09:14)

Quote (Glenn Magus Harvey @ 29th November 2012 23:04)

Quote (St Khael @ 28th November 2012 12:39)

I also think that the simplicity of the cover in the American version is quite the attention grabber, especially for the early 90's. : )

Isn't Final Fantasy II (US)'s cover even simpler? As in, logo on solid red background?

Correct. It's more simple than even Final Fantasy I's.

http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/...inalFantasy.jpg

http://empirestategamer.com/wp-content/upl...NES_Box_Art.jpg

But it did have a SUPER COOL commercial!

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I think simple, uncluttered box-art can work sometimes.

http://www.covergalaxy.com/forum/attachmen...i-pal-front.jpg

This is the original UK box art of the PS1 version of FF6. Nice clean design I'd say.

This post has been edited by Archeosaur on 30th November 2012 14:16

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The story-heavy FF games are actually the sort that might actually work with simple covers that reveal nothing, like that. Because part of the fun is the story unfolding before you as you progress in the game.

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

And then, for all eternity, Mog had that voice.

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I can honestly say I never sat and thought about what that thing on the FFIII box art was! Now that I look at it, it's some sort of shadow, right? All I payed attention to was the title and Mog.

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Quote (Glenn Magus Harvey @ 1st December 2012 02:55)

The story-heavy FF games are actually the sort that might actually work with simple covers that reveal nothing, like that. Because part of the fun is the story unfolding before you as you progress in the game.

Maybe so, actually. Especially for VI, because it keeps a bit of mystery. Also, FFVI does have this playfulness at times. The simple box cover actually fits less for FFIV. I think it needed a better box cover than the simple red one it got. Basically, I think what we have here might be a worthy case for 2 covers. The Jap. cover tells you, "This is going to be an epic adventure." The Mog cover, on the other hand, lets people in to the other side of FFVI, which is the more quirky/silly side. Maybe I don't have a problem with it after all.

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Praise Be To Helix!

I had already previewed the game in EGM, so I knew what was in the game, I didn't really care for the box art. Certainly, it could have been done better, but for those of us who read EGM, it made no difference.

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As a kid I thought it looked cute. Like maybe some adventure game about that character. When I played the game however, it turned out to be the greatest adventure of my life at the time. Looking at it now, I don't really know what to think. There really isn't a whole lot to say about it. To me, Terra riding the magitek armor, staring off into the city is much more interesting. Like the cover art to a book, or an old tapestry.

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well after pointing out to me the idea that the purple could be something I saw it. I always originally thought it was in reference to figaro or something. Purple being royalty, and it looking like a cloth or robe or something. However, looking at it now, I see a shadowed outline of ifrit. I dont know why they would choose to have ifrit there other than the fight with him, then why not shiva as well.

Too long? I think i see it being Ifrit.


Oh and when i look at mog, it is almost as if you are looking down at him, so his legs would naturally be hard to see beyond his little belly. the purple also shows a shadow from mog, so perhaps i am wrong with saying it is ifrit, perhaps it is kefka's shadow.


This post has been edited by thewho10 on 23rd January 2013 22:14

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Quote (Archeosaur @ 30th November 2012 15:15)

I think simple, uncluttered box-art can work sometimes.

http://www.covergalaxy.com/forum/attachmen...i-pal-front.jpg

This is the original UK box art of the PS1 version of FF6. Nice clean design I'd say.

IIRC, this has always been the standard box art for PAL releases - the title in black on white, with the game logo in colour interspersed.

To be honest, it wasn't until reading this thread that I really realised the box art different in other regions. I love the Amano art, but I agree with others that it shouldn't really be cover art - it belongs in art books and liners. The PAL covers I always thought were very good - simple; elegant; vague but at the same time familiar; easily identifiable on a shelf.

As for the US box art....eugghhhh.

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