Ok, the whole japanese to USA thing confuses the heck out of me, so far i know this, 1 is 1, 2 is 2 in japan and was released for usa in FF origins, and was originally 2 which was......thats where i start to get fuzzy, 2, 3, etc......i know 4 was released with FF chronicles, but what happened to 3?? besides the snes version, im so confused, can someone please help.

'kay, Final Fantasy 1 is always Final Fantasy 1, in Japan and America.

Final Fantasy 2 was never released in America.*

Final Fantasy 3 was also never released in America.*

Final Fantasy 4 was originally released for the SNES in America as Final Fantasy 2. The reason for the number change was, obviously, that 2 and 3 were not released here, so they just wanted it to not confuse people.

Final Fantasy 5 was not released in America.

Final Fantasy 6 WAS released in America, so they called it Final Fantasy 3.

THEN, Final Fantasy 4, 5, and 6 were all re-released in America on the PlayStation, and Square decided to use the Japanese numbers. SO, on PlayStation, FF4 is what was originally released as FF2, and FF6 is what was originally released as FF3. FF5 is just FF5.

And after 6 it's totally normal.

<font size=1>*To the best of my knowledge this is still true, but I don't keep up with video game news anymore so if one of you crazy "I know what's up with Final Fantasy in the new millenium" people knows something I don't, feel free to bring it up.</font>

It's not really a "Japanese" numbering any more, I like to call them "SNES" numbers.

Anyways, 1 and 2 was released here as Origins, 4 was in Chronicles, 5 and 6 was in Anthology. Final Fantasy 3 never came out in the US at all.

A few small things to point out :

The games that were released on Origins are remakes of the NES games, they hardly look like the originals, in fact, look about as good as the SNES era games, and have been made much easier (that is, if you took the "easy" setting).

The FFIV that got released as part of Chronicles is also not exactly the same game that got released in America on the SNES back in 1991. There is a "Easy Type" version of the game, one that removed a lot of items and some character abilities while also slightly altering the ennemy AI, making the game easier in a lot of ways. That "Easy Type" version was the one known as FFII on the SNES here.

With Chronicles, you get the original version, with all the bells and whistles, and even a redone translation. However, some loading times were added to the game, along with when you save on a memory card.

FFV and VI are pretty much direct port, but since V wasn't previously released here, Square Enix had to make an English translation beforehand. Both were added with a few extras like FMVs and some other little thing, but were also plagued with loading times. Also, FFV is known to have a bug with the PS2, you'll have incorrect display on the screen when saving on a memory card. But it doesn't freeze, and if you know what are the option, you can still save fine.

That's pretty much all of it.

edit by Plasma to fix the typo of calling NES the SNES in the first paragraph