Final Fantasy 2 vs. Final Fantasy 4j
What have we been missing out on? When I started this project, I immediately noticed several differences. First, all the text was in Japanese. But that was expected. Second, almost everyone had new commands.

(Left: Cecil uses "Dark Wave," edited out in Final Fantasy 2. Tellah has more commands.
Note: Cecil used this attack when fighting himself as a Paladin in the American version.)
Here's one example of an attack that was "dummied out" (as many Americans so fondly call it) from the version we recieved. Cecil uses his "Dark Wave" attack which hurts all enemies, but takes away from Cecil's life. Tellah's extra command was confusing; it translates to "Remember" and randomly casts a spell he doesn't know yet. My question was, why was this edited out? It could easily have been done: both were the same size, and nearly everything else was the same.

So why edit it out? A few scenes in Final Fantasy 4 were considered inappropriate (remember the Dancer in Baron? The Japanese got to see more... literally.). However, this didn't have much to do with the attacks and items which were edited out. One reason may be that the US release date was too early. But this didn't make sense to me; what did they need to do, other than translating it?
(Right: Namingway renames characters. For some reason, the English alphabet was included.)
So how close of a translation do we have? Well, other than missing a few (non - vital) items, and a few attacks, it's pretty close. In fact, (see picture on right) Namingway could name your character something in English. This was good, because I can't read Japanese. (What is that guy, anyway? A cat?) But I was impressed by what was instantly apparent as a discrepancy between the two games. Almost every character has a new command (Kain and Rydia didn't, but Rydia didn't have any room anyway). Despite how some of it was confusing, and often useless, I still wished all of it was translated to English.
(Left: Edward uses his "Medicine" command, which didn't make it into the US version.)
To the left is another command which didn't make the cut. Although not particularly effective, Edward's "Medicine" (which "spreads out" a potion) was efficient.
Squaresoft announced that they would remake Final Fantasy 4j and release it on the Playstation. The graphics and music will be essentialy the same. However, they still did not import it!
One of the major changes between the versions was the twins' fate. In both versions, they turn themselves to stone. Later, if you approach them, you can use an item on them. If you have the "Basilisk Eye," they will turn to life. Where is the Eye?

Only in the Japanese version.
(Left: One of the missing items slows down the Antlion. Right: Cecil uses another item unseen in the US version to speed himself up.)
Most of the items we missed out on cast spells on the enemies. One such item casts "Ice1" on the target.
But what about dummied-out spells? I found several spells whose use was not apparent. They didn't seem to do anything to the enemies. Rosa also had a command that, when I used it, came up with a message, then didn't do anything.
(Left: Yang has two new commands. Right: Yang prepares to do his "Charge" attack, which does double damage to one target.)
To the right, you'll notice Yang... his "Meditate". He also has another command, which casts a spell or something. That was also rather unclear.
So what's my point? Well, I wanted to find how much we've missed out on, and point it out to the public so Square doesn't make the same mistake twice. Hopefully, we've seen our last dummy import...

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