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I heard that the reason why FFV was not released in America is because Squesoft thought it would be too hard for us?  Is this true?

first thigns first, the title of this thread reminds me of the anti-games workshopness on games workshop fansite forums. i thoguht this was an anti sqauresoft rant for a second, and others will do the same.

second, FF V is so easy IMO , no one would think that it was to hard for america. so its not true. Britain, perhaps, as videogames were always regarded as 'kids' stuff until PSX came along here (and possibly in the states too, but i wouldnt know), but not america.

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"Only the dead have seen the end of their quotes being misattributed to Plato."
-George Santayana

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here..."
-Abraham Lincoln, prior to the discovery of Irony.

I have an old issue of wonderful, wonderful Super Play which refers to FF5 as "Final Fantasy III" in an article about its US version being in the works.  Naturally, this was before FF6 became FF3us.  So I'm assuming it was planned, but I think by the time of this article, FF6 was already nearing Japanese release, or was already out, so I imagine things took longer than expected, and they opted to can it in favour of bringing over the much superior FF6.  I suppose you could speculate that this dealy came about because they were trying to tweak the gameplay as well as translate, thus creating an FF4-style "easy type" version for the USA.  But remember that it takes a lot more work in general to translate an old cartridge game, due to the old size limitations.

Note: this post is almost entirely speculative.  You shouldn't take it as fact, just my stab at what may have happened.

I read a site with an explanation (I can't remember where it was, though).
It said that Squaresoft was going down and was not able to keep up with their competitors. They decided to make a last-ditch effort by making Final Fantasy. FFI came out, it made record-breaking sales in Japan, so they made a translation for NA. The translation process took a rediculously long time, though, and by the time it came to NA, FFII and FFIII were already out, making average sales. They were going to translate those at the same time and bring them to NA, but FFIV soon followed, which made sales that made FFI's company-saving sales seem like nothing. So, they went with FFIV instead, releasing it as FFII. It did not do as well in NA as Japan, because most players were casual gamers (like Del S said - "kid stuff") and did not want to deal with long and complicated RPGs. Well, Squaresoft had FFV out already, which did better than FFIV, but wanted to keep it in reserve, so they could come out with a simple RPG to get people over here hooked on RPGs. This was FFMQ. So, after releasing FFMQ, they began to translate FFV. But, as they were doing so, FFVI came out and topped the sales charts in Japan. They decided to dump FFV, and go with the more profitable FFVI instead, releasing it as FFIII.

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"I had to write four novels before they let me write comic books."
-Brad Meltzer

Compared to the majority of FF games (even FF6) FF5 has a surprisingly dark and even bleak plot   The characters all have misfit lives that the game gives no solutions to other than to just continue living through them.  The over all premise is that this world that's split in two is made ready for its destruction by its reunification, and that we're put in this doomed situation by the ultimate incarnation of life and nature, a tree, obtaining the supposedly wonderous power of magic.  Although the gameplay isn't too hard it requires more thought and attention than many want to give to a game.  Although FF6 and FF7 are great games they allow you to have fun fighting monsters until your level is high enough and you have strong enough spells to simply kick butt.  In FF5 however, you can play just as long and then find that you combined the Jobs in the wrong way and still have a weak team.  Overall I'd say FF5 is a more Japanese kind of game and that Square is not evil but only found that they wouldn't make enough money on the not so American game until the blockbuster FF7 created enough of a market for the series.

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Get me off this Disciplinary Committee so I can play any FF except for FF8!!!

Your wisdom astounds me.  Really it dose.

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aint superstitious Black cat crossed my trail
I aint superstitious But a Black cat crossed my trail
But Lord has got me so far and I wont let her stop me now
The dogs begin to bark all over my neighborhood
And that aint all
The dogs begin to bark all over my neighborhood
UMmHMm
This is a mean old world to live in and I cant face it by myself

Quote (Ejoty @ 5 Aug 2003, 14:25)

Compared to the majority of FF games (even FF6) FF5 has a surprisingly dark and even bleak plot   The characters all have misfit lives that the game gives no solutions to other than to just continue living through them.  The over all premise is that this world that's split in two is made ready for its destruction by its reunification, and that we're put in this doomed situation by the ultimate incarnation of life and nature, a tree, obtaining the supposedly wonderous power of magic.  Although the gameplay isn't too hard it requires more thought and attention than many want to give to a game.  Although FF6 and FF7 are great games they allow you to have fun fighting monsters until your level is high enough and you have strong enough spells to simply kick butt.  In FF5 however, you can play just as long and then find that you combined the Jobs in the wrong way and still have a weak team.  Overall I'd say FF5 is a more Japanese kind of game and that Square is not evil but only found that they wouldn't make enough money on the not so American game until the blockbuster FF7 created enough of a market for the series.

I assume that is just your theory, right?

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