Final Fantasy

The final fantasy. Shortly after releasing this, Square failed and was never heard from again.

Hidden Game
While on the ship, press A + B 55 times to unlock a sliding puzzle game. Completing it awards 100G.

Leftover Text
The end of the main script of the American version contains some leftovers from earlier versions of the script.

?… il?… e something… Evil?… disturbed my sleep? I,KARY will not give you the force of FIRE. I shall burn you up with my flames. The FIEND'S ball is taking in all the water. Fo,fo,fo… How foolish of you to challenge me,KRAKEN the FIEND of Water!! There's lightning from the FIEND'S ball… So, you have come this far… I,TIAMAT,the FIEND of Wind shall end your little adventure. What? You can speak Leffeinish? The stone plate is on the floor… You sense something evil

While these are identifiable as messages that also appear in the final script, some are a bit different. For example, "Leffeinish" was spelled "Lefeinish" in the final script. Here Kary says she will not give you the force of fire, but in the final script she says, "I, KARY will now show you the force of Fire, and you shall burn in its flames!!". This might lead one to think that "will not give" as opposed to "will show" was a mistranslation and the translator later fixed it, but, in fact, the original wording matched the Japanese phrasing.

For most of this text, the newline character is 01 (as in the Japanese version) instead of 05 (as in the rest of the American script).

Unused Graphics
This pub sign exists in the town graphics of both versions, but isn't referenced anywhere in the tileset, and no other signs in the final town tileset use 16x8. The sequel did feature pubs, but used a full 16x16 tile sign.

This little dude is found alongside the graphics for the orbs in the main menu. It's shown here using the message window palette.

Also found alongside the orbs are this shield(?) and star icon.

Anti-Piracy
There is a checksum on the "PROGRAMMED BY NASIR" text, and the game will crash if this text is altered.

Invisible Woman of Coneria
Going to this spot in Coneria Castle will reveal a message, which changes after the player obtains the Lute. This NPC mistakenly has the "in room" flag set, but was not placed in a room, meaning that her sprite (a typical female townsperson sprite) never shows up. This error also appears in the Japanese release. Rather than fixing her room flag, she was completely removed from later remakes.

Version Differences
The US version changed a few minor issues with the original game. Most (if not all) of these changes are also in the late Famicom compilation Final Fantasy I-II and subsequent remakes.

Map Changes
The columns on the final floor of the final dungeon originally formed a pentagram, which became a triangle in the US release. Additionally, random encounters were removed from this floor to give the player some breathing room for the final boss, as an enemy encounter could literally occur during the character's speech.

Tilesets
While the Japanese version had churches, the US version had clinics due to Nintendo's policies on religious imagery. This change was made on the CHR level, and so the cross graphics are not present at all in the US version. The new heart sign was likely intended to use the same palette index as the other signs, but the palette assignment for its map tile was never changed.

Interestingly, the cross does not appear on the roof of the building in most remakes, though the steeple did.

This change extended inside the church/clinic as well.

These three tilesets all had either crosses or Stars of David replaced with different imagery.

Enemies
Medusa's sprite was slightly altered to give her a top. This change extends to the Green (Earth) Medusas.

The EYE, known as the Beholder in the Japanese version, was completely redrawn to avoid copyright issues with TSR, the then-owners of Dungeons and Dragons (and, by extension, the beholder). This change extends to the Death Beholder/Phantom.

Classes
The Fighter and White Mage's weak frames were touched up slightly.

The Ninja's victory/casting animation was changed so that his legs don't move.

Supermonk, as he was known in Japan, tamed his hair and grew a mullet in time for his US debut as The Master.

The Red Wizard's cape was touched up a bit, particularly his walking frame where the bottom of it originally disappeared entirely.

The White Wizard's head was moved a pixel to the right and her left hand was moved up a pixel.

Weapons
Several of the sword graphics were touched up slightly.

Menu Items


Most items were given icons as a part of their name to better distinguish what they are. This was done because there usually wasn't enough space to include the full item name in English. Interestingly, unlike future Final Fantasy titles, the icons are drawn at the end of the item name rather than before it.

Text Colors
The title of the weapon and armor menus are a beige shade in the Japanese version, and the currently selected option is highlighted in red. While this is technically still the case in the US version, the palettes have been set to white, making them indistinguishable from the standard text palette. This was likely done because the translators were unwilling or unable to resize the windows to account for the attribute table changes required to accommodate the longer English text strings.

Battle Formations
Some battle formations were altered for America to fix a small, relatively obscure glitch in which enemies will occasionally display corrupted colors, though this can still happen to Sea Trolls.