This game was originally released in Japan in 1992 for the Super Famicom, or the Japanese equivalent of the Super NES. As it is an installment in the most popular RPG series in the world, it was an immediate success in its home market. Despite that success, however, it was never brought to American shores or translated into English by Square. I'm not entirely sure as to whose idea it was to keep this game from us - it was either Nintendo or Square. Nintendo was very strict about what sorts of games could be released in America. They heavily censored Final Fantasy IV before it became the American Final Fantasy II, although their policies were not limited to RPGs. Can anyone remember the original Mortal Kombat on the Super NES?... Didn't think so. There's a reason for that.
But I digress. I have only played through about half of this game (thanks to the marvel of emulator technology, without which I'd be out in the cold), and haven't noticed any overly mature themes that would prompt the Big N to make like Big Brother and keep the game away from our eyes. The only thing close to such a thing is the scene in a library where the hero is looking for Playboy on the periodicals shelf (which brings back memories of the eliminated programmers' room and porno mag in FFIV/FFIIU.S.). Nothing major, though. Still, the most likely reason that this game was not brought to our shores is one simple fact. RPGs have never been that popular in this country. The American Final Fantasy II sold poorly compared to other launch titles of the Super NES such as Zelda: A Link to the Past and Super Mario World.
Since this game has received the least attention of any Final Fantasy title in this country, I have decided to make available to you a copy of the game, fully translated into perfect English. I am also offering the latest version of the ZSNES Super NES emulator, a program that will let you run the game on a computer that is equipped well enough. You may have doubts as to the safety, but I can vouch that it has worked quite well, and quite safely on my computer. I have encountered no problems with my system since I began using ZSNES. Be warned, though, the game is a 1.5 meg download, and will take a while. The emulator itself is considerably smaller. So thanks to my efforts and wasting space in my Tripod directory, you can judge this game for yourself, absolutely free! Who can complain?
