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What's the story behind Final Fantasy II's box art?

S

Sectorseven

Member
I mean, it's fine, just a little...plain?
ff2boxfront.jpg


The first game had a more elaborate box. Still rather minimal by NES standards, but it conveyed everything you needed to know.
FF1_USA_boxart.jpg


Even III stepped it up a notch, albeit a little more abstract.
16616_front.jpg


So who pitched the plain box idea?
 
N

NinjaCoachZ

Member
Wasn't FFI published by Nintendo, while Square published IV and VI themselves?

I guess they figured minimalism worked for Zelda. All you really need is an exciting title with an iconic image like a sword and then your kid self's imagination runs wild.
 
S

ShockingAlberto

Member
...were there different box arts? I seem to remember one of Cecil holding a sword on a mountain or my mind has completely made that up somehow.

Edit: Turns out I was thinking of Mystic Quest.

ldYNsL6.jpg
 
L

Lumpy Onion

Member
I think it looks quite striking. It catches my eye. I think the one for III looks goofy. That gaudy purple shadow thing bothers me.
 
O

Oreoleo

Member
They must have spent all their money on the SEVENTY SIX PAGE MANUAL.

Can you imagine getting something like that today?
 
7

7DollarHagane

Banned
The US office probably had no idea what to do and just did something simple so as not to turn off anyone by it looking too Japanese.

At the time there was a lot of phobia about things being too Japanese. Not until a few years later did anime and dragon ball kind of open up Japanese otaku culture to America.
 
N

Nairume

Banned
ShockingAlberto said:
...were there different box arts? I seem to remember one of Cecil holding a sword on a mountain or my mind has completely made that up somehow.

Edit: Turns out I was thinking of Mystic Quest.

ldYNsL6.jpg
Click to expand...
Which is weird, since that looks a lot more like Cecil than it does Benjamin.

Incidentally, FFIV's japanese box art also kinda confuses the cast.
Final_Fantasy_IV.jpg
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Oreoleo said:
They must have spent all their money on the SEVENTY SIX PAGE MANUAL.

Can you imagine getting something like that today?
Click to expand...

the manual has a decent walkthrough for the first 40% of the game

meanwhile, by ff9 you could buy the fucking guidebook and you still wouldn't have a decent walkthrough for the game
 
MrCunningham

MrCunningham

Member
I would say that the US Final Fantasy III box is a big step down from the FFII box. The moogle drawing looks terrible. The original NES box is kind of cool in its own way. I do like the font for the logo.
 
T

tirkaroKujo

Member
44WSZW3.jpg


I don't know, but it reminds me vaguely of
cuh3cae.gif


Oreoleo said:
They must have spent all their money on the SEVENTY SIX PAGE MANUAL.

Can you imagine getting something like that today?
Click to expand...

The manuals for most PC games that era were way longer. I remember Icewind Dale being nearly 200 pages.
 
D

Dark_castle

Junior Member
Hero_of_the_Day said:
Funny, my brother and I were just talking about this not two hours ago. He said how he'd like to have it boxed just to put on a shelf, and I said it was a super plain/boring cover. Honestly, looking at all three in the OP, I think all three of them are pretty boring.

Japan knew what was up:
Click to expand...
I looked at all of these and then I look at the FFXV boy band walking together like they're heading towards a concert.

What happened to Final Fantasy?
 
N

NinjaCoachZ

Member
Hero_of_the_Day said:
Funny, my brother and I were just talking about this not two hours ago. He said how he'd like to have it boxed just to put on a shelf, and I said it was a super plain/boring cover. Honestly, looking at all three in the OP, I think all three of them are pretty boring.

Japan knew what was up:
Click to expand...

I loved these covers so much but then once they got to VII Japan started just putting the game's logo on a white background. :/

It has kind of a striking effect but nothing beats the iconic nature of Amano's artwork.
 
P

papertoonz

Member
Oreoleo said:
They must have spent all their money on the SEVENTY SIX PAGE MANUAL.

Can you imagine getting something like that today?
Click to expand...

Japan didn't think very highly of us at that time, heck Mystic Quest was made for people not in japan and that game is super easy

also earthbound did something similar if i am right?
 
S

ShockingAlberto

Member
Dark_castle said:
I looked at all of these and then I look at the FFXV boy band walking together like they're heading towards a concert.

What happened to Final Fantasy?
Click to expand...

USGamer has a pretty good write-up about where FF changed direction.

Long story short, after the PS1 era, Square decided it should be a certain thing and focus on telling huge, graphical centerpiece stories at the expense of all else. That has informed its direction for the last 15 years.
 
MrCunningham

MrCunningham

Member
papertoonz said:
Japan didn't think very highly of us at that time, heck Mystic Quest was made for people not in japan and that game is super easy

also earthbound did something similar if i am right?
Click to expand...

Yup it did:

613zHLj.jpg


Chrono Trigger did the same thing to, if I remember correctly. Though they didn't include a players guide in the box, but I remember getting one separate with my copy of the game.
 
O

Oreoleo

Member
tirkaroKujo said:
The manuals for most PC games that era were way longer. I remember Icewind Dale being nearly 200 pages.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, no doubt. I remember the Warcraft 3 manual being the size of a short novel as well.

I think it's easier to still make the comparison to console games though. Now that PC games are almost entirely digital you don't really think about the loss of manuals so much (Or at least I don't). But every time you crack open a modern console game and see the manual is just one or two pieces of paper, often in black and white, the reminder of what manuals used to be is like a slap in the face.
 
A

aadiboy

Member
ShockingAlberto said:
USGamer has a pretty good write-up about where FF changed direction.

Long story short, after the PS1 era, Square decided it should be a certain thing and focus on telling huge, graphical centerpiece stories at the expense of all else. That has informed its direction for the last 15 years.
Click to expand...
Eh...I feel like if FF1-6 had detailed 3d graphics back when they came out, the main characters would look like super models as well.
 
K

KTO

Member
The gameboy games followed the same style so it wasn't unprecedented
Final_Fantasy_Legend_II_Coverart.png


Legend 3 and adventure were the same way, but I was having trouble linking the images.
 
K

KojiKnight

Member
those early FF boxes just remind me that we really need a full game done in his style... Full FF6 remake in 3d Amano style please!
 
U

UraMallas

Member
ShockingAlberto said:
USGamer has a pretty good write-up about where FF changed direction.

Long story short, after the PS1 era, Square decided it should be a certain thing and focus on telling huge, graphical centerpiece stories at the expense of all else. That has informed its direction for the last 15 years.
Click to expand...
That explains why I hated FFX and have yet to truly enjoy one since IX. FFX is a game I legitimately despise.
 
A

Azriell

Member
FF1_USA_boxart.jpg


I like US FF1 because it's so classically NES. It reminds me a lot of Faxandu's box art. Faxanadu is one of my favorite NES games but I don't have the patience to play it anymore unfortunately. Great music though.

200px-Faxanadu_NES_US_box.jpg


FF2 and FF3 US boxes are fine, as long as it's all uniform. I don't mind plain if the whole series is like that, although I'd prefer it if the whole series resembled FF1's box art.
 
N

NipplesAndToes23

Member
They were so brother boring, that's probably why my brother and I never played it growing up. Out of the dozens of boxes out there, it would be among the last to catch my eye.
 
Z

Zee-Row

Banned
Square must have really liked the U.S. FF1 logo because the standard logo that started with FF4 looks a lot like the same type of font.
 
MrCunningham

MrCunningham

Member
Zee-Row said:
The Final Fantasy 2 box we should have got

Final_Fantasy_II_unused_box_art.jpg
Click to expand...

I've never seen that before. But after doing a google search, this was promo material for a scrapped port of the real Famicom Final Fantasy II:

image90.png
Click to expand...

Maybe they felt that it was too late in the NES's lifecycle to release a game like this, so they opted for Final Fantasy IV for the SNES instead?
 
F

Falk

that puzzling face
Since we're apparently talking about FFIV and not FFII let's extend to promotional art

tjGzynnl.jpg


Kain

Dm64qOql.jpg


Rydia

lnxewVR.png


Palom/Porom

Never gets old!

Just imagine the amount of bitching about redesigns and censorship if those had come out today. What a different age we live in
 
C

CorvoSol

Member
Falk said:
Since we're apparently talking about FFIV and not FFII let's extend to promotional art

tjGzynnl.jpg


Kain

Dm64qOql.jpg


Rydia

lnxewVR.png


Palom/Porom

Never gets old!r
Just imagine the amount of bitching about redesigns and censorship if those had come out today. What a different age we live in
Click to expand...

The best thing about Terada's awful FFIV art is that somehow his Zelda art is God Tier. I dunno if that means that like, IV just has to have Amano's look (probably not, since both Yoshida and Nomura seem to have done it okay) or if Terada got VERY drunk, heard someone start to describe the characters, and churned it out.

Cuz how do you get

1yJPOAA.jpg
Click to expand...

From

2zm1Y5w.jpg
Click to expand...
 
F

Falk

that puzzling face
CorvoSol said:
The best thing about Terada's awful FFIV art is that somehow his Zelda art is God Tier. I dunno if that means that like, IV just has to have Amano's look (probably not, since both Yoshida and Nomura seem to have done it okay) or if Terada got VERY drunk, heard someone start to describe the characters, and churned it out.
Click to expand...

Eh, I think the simplest explanation was he was given the sprites (and only front-on) and short descriptions (e.g. this guy uses a spear, these two are powerful twin mages, this guy is a holy warrior, etc.) and told to do stuff.
 
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