For such a seemingly primitive game, Final Fantasy IV is pretty damn difficult to talk about. There are so many incarnations, I don't know who I'm going to offend if I let slip a "Final Fantasy II" instead of saying "Final Fantasy IV."
(My maternal grandmother has already written me out of the will. It's a goddamn shame; I really wanted that Donkey Kong doll.)
Back when the Internet had that new car smell and it still belonged to Trekkies instead of macro cats, there was a good deal of information to be found on the SNES version of Square-Enix's classic. Specifically, we discovered that "Final Fantasy II," henceforth referred to as Final Fantasy II US, was a dumbed-down Final Fantasy IV. Items were homogenised, character skills were missing (what, would a crowded command menu make us quiver in confused terror a second before our heads exploded?) and enemies were nerfed.
It was enough of a shock to learn that Square-Enix was holding out on Fantasies, but discovering that we had the version of the game that had been cut into small pieces for Japan's "special" players was especially insulting. It was a kick to our souls' asses.
So for years we scorned the fact that we'd been given Final Fantasy IV's "Easytpe". Or...had we?
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