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Final Fantasy IV (SNES, PlayStation)/Version Differences

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This is a sub-page of Final Fantasy IV (SNES, PlayStation).

There are five different versions of the SNES game: Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy II each have 1.1 versions, each fixing a grand total of one bug. The Easy Type version of Final Fantasy IV, coming last, has the most changes to the underlying engine in addition to numerous changes to the game data. Then there's the PlayStation version, which uses the original game's data, but incorporates some of Easy Type's engine fixes.

Title Screen

Final Fantasy IV Easy Type
Final Fantasy IV-title.png FF4-EasyTypeTitle.png

The title logo of Final Fantasy IV has a nice glow effect where the logo starts dark at the edges and gets brighter closer to the crystal. This is done by alpha blending a color gradient logo over top of the standard logo graphics. In order to have space for the Easy Type subtitle graphics, the developers had to overwrite some of the gradient logo, so the glow effect was removed, revealing the true coloration of the logo.

This one certainly looks more "fantasy".

Final Fantasy II got an entirely new title logo based on the one being used on US box art for the series at the time. The copyright information was updated to read Square Soft and "LICENSED BY NINTENDO" was added.

FF4-PSXTitle.png

The PlayStation title is pretty much the same as the original, but with updated copyright info and a new Square logo. The blending on the glow effect is a little different, making the logo appear duller toward the edges. The western versions add a registered trademark symbol after "FINAL FANTASY", but this is not present in the Japanese version.

Bugs

Equipment Duplication

It is possible to duplicate weapons and shields using several methods during a battle. The first method can be used on any character with any equipment. In battle, have the character you want to duplicate equipment on access the item menu and select a blank slot. Scroll up to the character's equipped weapon or shield and swap it for the blank slot. Close the item menu and finish the battle using any method. After battle, access the equip menu and equip the weapon or shield you wish to duplicate, depending on which slot you swapped the blank item into. A quantity of 2 will appear to the right of the item name. Unequip the item, and both will be placed into the inventory.

The next method must be done on a character with equipment in both hands. It's similar to the above, but make sure you have two adjacent item slots open. Take the second slot and replace a piece of equipment with it. Now select the other piece of equipment and place it into the same empty slot as before - your first piece of equipment will have been automatically moved into the first open slot. Run from the battle, then enter the equipment menu, you should see a character (this will vary depending on version) and 5 next to the hand with the first piece of equipment you removed. Equip something in this slot, then unequip it and it will "disappear" - you actually have 256 of it at this point. If you equip this slot again, one will be in your hand and the item will reappear in the menu with a quantity of 255.

Another method requires the Avenger sword, and must be used on Cecil. Equip a bow and arrow on Cecil. Place his arrows in the appropriate hand for whichever type of equipment you wish to duplicate - right for weapons, left for shields. Place the bow in his other hand and get into a battle. In battle, access the item menu, select Cecil's equipped arrows, and move them down to a blank slot. Now select the Avenger, scroll up, and replace Cecil's bow with it. Finish the battle and access the equip menu. Remove the Avenger, then equip whichever item you wish to duplicate into the hand Cecil's arrows were in. You will gain as many of that item as you had arrows equipped.

All of these methods are fixed in Easy Type.

Forced Repeated Actions in Zeromus Battle

The Avenger puts the wielder into an automatic berserk state, where they would normally automatically attack every turn. Something goes screwy with this in the Zeromus battle, which causes Kain to repeat other characters' actions if they preceded him and Zeromus hasn't shaken (using an invisible Black Hole spell on the party in the process) before his turn. Kain can use items and "cast magic" this way, although in the case of magic the effect is simply cosmetic and no spell will be used. This was fixed in Easy Type and the PlayStation version. This glitch inspired the Mime class that would later appear in Final Fantasy V.

Hidden Encounter

Monster-in-a-healing-tile!

In some locations, such as the Tower of Bab-il, Sealed Cave, Lunar's Lair, and Lunar Subterrane, there are map tiles, often doorways, that will give treasure when interacted with. These treasures were not placed intentionally. The treasures, exits, and other triggers for each map are all stored in the same block of data. While there is no risk of a treasure being misinterpreted as another trigger because treasures are always placed on tiles that can't be walked on, the opposite is not true, and a preventative measure was put into place to stop it from happening: The properties for every map has a byte used for determining the total number of treasures in the previous locations. Treasures are always placed before the other triggers, so this value should prevent any additional triggers from working as treasures. In the aforementioned locations the value is set too high, and other triggers end up being misinterpreted as treasures.

The "treasure" in the Lunar's Lair warrants special mention: It's interpreted as a monster-in-a-box, and loads a formation with two RedGiants. Because the Lunar's Lair is not set to load the lunar dungeon attack sequences, these RedGiants do not behave correctly in battle, and will just cast Petrify on the party every turn. When defeated, no treasure is even rewarded. This particular trigger was corrected in Easy Type, but the others are still present.

Sliding Bug

In all of the SNES versions, it is sometimes possible to open the menu while walking between tiles on the world map. If a Tent or Cabin is then used from the menu, it triggers the "sliding bug." The map's collision will be shifted one tile away from the direction you were walking, while the graphics will be normal. This by itself is cosmetic, however saving and reloading the game will reset the collision to match the graphics. This means the bug can be used to bypass certain map triggers or other impassible areas. This was fixed in the PlayStation version - it is no longer possible to open the menu when moving.

Slow Palette Change

"It's not easy being green?" Nah, the timing's not that tricky.

A minor cosmetic bug has been introduced in the PlayStation version, related to switching characters on the field as a dialogue box opens. If timed correctly, the player's sprite will update but not their palette. This effect only lasts until the dialogue box is closed, at which point the correct palette is loaded.

Stop Literally Stops The Game

Stop causes various strange behaviors when cast on monsters affected by other timer-based status effects. The most severe of these, a crash when Stop is applied to a monster with sleep or paralysis status, is fixed in Final Fantasy II 1.1, Easy Type, and the PlayStation version.

Useless Bard

The removal of Edward's Medicine/Heal command in Final Fantasy II and Easy Type, documented below, introduced a bug where the blank slot in Edward's command list can be selected after he returns from hiding. Selecting the blank slot will completely freeze Edward, preventing any more commands from being entered for him.

Wrong Battle Scripts for Underworld Encounters

Broken Tortoise. (It's a pun, get it? Stone is called Break in the Japanese versions, and the Magma Tortoise here isn't using the correct attack script, so it's "broken" in two ways! ...I'll show myself out now.)

A significant bug exists in Final Fantasy IV 1.0 which occurs during battle initialization: the programming beginning at SNES address 0x00896B checks memory addresses $7E1701-$7E1702 to get the 16-bit value of the player's current location. If it's location $015A-$015C (Cave Bahamut) or $0167-$017E (the Lunar Subterrane and core), the game sets a flag to load a different table of enemy attack scripts. However, the current location isn't accurate on a world map because of a shared memory byte.

On world maps, $7E1702 will continue to store the second byte of the last location visited, but the other half in $7E1701 is now used to store which world map you are on (00 = overworld, 01 = underworld, 02 = moon) The problem starts when you leave location $005A-$005C or $0067-$007E. These location values include Toroia's basement treasure rooms (use the Exit spell to leave), the Misty Cave, the Watery Pass, the Antlion cave, and Mt. Hobs - West. If you take the airship to the underworld, the result is you now have a current location in the $015A-$015C or $0167-$017E range even though you're not inside a lunar dungeon.

When you get into a battle on the underworld map, the game uses the wrong table of scripts and as a result the enemy attack sequences for most formations is completely broken. In many cases, the enemies cast Stone on themselves over and over until successful, and will never attack your party.

This bug was corrected in Final Fantasy IV 1.1 by first checking if $7E1700 is 03, which signals the battle was started inside a dungeon and not a world map. No other changes were made between Final Fantasy IV 1.0 and 1.1 besides this bug fix.

Text

The game's English font was updated for Final Fantasy II, notably featuring thicker lowercase letters and symbols more in line with the uppercase ones. The PlayStation version features a combination of FFIV's uppercase letters and question/exclamation marks and FFII's lowercase letters, some of them receiving additional touch-ups. In addition, the PlayStation version implements a variable-width font, although the localization team never took advantage of the extra space, leading to some very odd formatting at times.

Some additional text was added to Final Fantasy II. Two early examples are the dialogue spoken during the Mysidia flashback, Kain's explanation of how to move around and talk to NPCs and Cid's explanation of the controls of the Airship after you rescue him in Baron. This extra text was retained for Easy Type.

Easy Type also updates the names of nearly every monster, item, and skill in the game. In many cases this was done to replace English words with Japanese words. The names in Final Fantasy II are based on the ones used in the original Final Fantasy IV, although many are altered because of length restrictions or for other arbitrary reasons.

For an in-depth analysis of changes to the game's script, check out Legends of Localization.

Final Fantasy IV / Easy Type Final Fantasy II
FF4-MysidianLegend.png FF4-MysidianLegendFF2.png

The text of the Mysidian Legend is yellow in Final Fantasy IV and Easy Type. This was changed to white for Final Fantasy II.

A version of this with kanji used would be the following:

龍の口より 生まれし者
天高く 舞い上がり
闇と光を 掲げ
眠りの地に 更なる約束を 齎さん。

月は 果てしなき 光に包まれ
母なる大地に 巨いなる恵みと
慈悲を 与えん。

The text makes use of Classical Japanese words and inflections, and thus sounds rather old. A translation follows:

One born from the mouth of a dragon
Shall soar high into the heavens.
And, carrying both the light and the dark,
Shall instrument a new era unto the land of slumber.

Enveloped in the everlasting, endless light of eternity,
The Moon shall bless the great Mother Earth with
Total compassion and understanding.

One can see that the overall meaning was carried through, though the feeling of grandness was not as great as it could have been. There are also some inaccuracies, which are explained below. Additionally, the Classical Japanese version clearly states that it is the moon itself that shall bless the Earth. In the US release, the referent is only referred to as "it", and the wording implies that it is the legendary hero, not the moon itself who is the agent.

Of particular note, the word 掲げ sounds rather grand and old-fashioned; many other translations use "hoisting" for this. However, "to hoist" implies effort, which is something that doesn't fit with how effortlessly the ship flies through space. "Carrying" is probably the best word in English that can be used for this, since it refers to the ship carrying Cecil (once a Dark Knight, now a Paladin of Light). "Ferrying" would be another option, but this explicitly implies that the legend is referring to the ship, not to Cecil.

The Japanese version also specifically says that it is the moon who bestows the blessing to Earth. The US translation makes it sound more like a person is doing this. Finally, the word 慈悲 means "compassion", but it implies that it's the kind of compassion that comes from the Buddha. Therefore, "mercy" is inaccurate since mercy implies violence or warfare.

(Translation: Bast)

Monsters

Some monsters, particularly those found in the Lunar Subterrain, had their battle scripts modified for Easy Type...which, in a bit of irony, usually make the monsters more dangerous than they were in the original game. Maybe Easy Type is the real "hard type" after all...

The rare PinkPuff monster, which drops the rarer Pink Tail, has been relocated into the rooms containing the White Robe, Heroine Dress, and Ribbons in Easy Type. It has also been made the second-to-rarest encounter in those areas instead of the rarest, as it was in its original room.

In possibly the biggest "fuck you" of the game, Zeromus has been given the ability to use the Count spell in Easy Type. It'll only use this when nearly dead, but if the player is unable to kill Zeromus before the timer runs out, it's a guaranteed Game Over since Count's instant death cannot be protected against. Again, Easy Type.

Items

Nearly all of the items that could invoke magic spells were made inaccessible in Final Fantasy II and Easy Type, the exceptions being the FireBomb and Lit-Bolt, which are shown in the opening demonstration battles. The Lit-Bolt item cannot be found in the game itself, however. Additionally, all of the items intended to cure a single status effect have also been made inaccessible, replaced by the Heal Potion, which has been made cheaper in stores. Many treasure chests, shop inventories, and monster drops have been modified to remove these dummied items. The following items were cut from Final Fantasy II but are still available in Easy Type:

FF4-EasyGrimoire.png
  • Book of Knowledge (Grimoire) - Summons a random summoned monster.
  • Golden Apple (AuApple) - Permanently raises a character's maximum HP by 100.
  • Silver Apple (AgApple) - Permanently raises a character's maximum HP by 50.

The Book of Knowledge is also available much earlier and more commonly than it is in the original game.

Equipment Changes

  • Lunar Staff - Does not cast Dispel when used as an item in Final Fantasy II or Easy Type.
  • Defense Sword, Murasame - Does not cast Protect when used as an item in Final Fantasy II.
  • Elven Bow - Does not cast Shell when used as an item in Final Fantasy II.
  • Dreamer Harp, Charm Harp - Are long-ranged weapons in Final Fantasy II.
  • Ogre Axe - Accuracy was increased from 69% to 85% in Final Fantasy II.
  • Crystal Helm - Received resistance to Undead in Final Fantasy II and Easy Type.
  • Black Robe - The +5 Intelligence/Wisdom stat bonus was altered to +5 Spirit/Will in Final Fantasy II and Easy Type. Since this armor is specifically only equippable by Black Magic users this change was most likely an oversight.

Easy Type-Exclusive

  • Coral Sword - Replaces the Ancient Sword. It retains the Ancient Sword's effectiveness against spirits, but has had its attack power boosted from 35 to 45, accuracy from 77% to 99%, is lightning-elemental, and can no longer inflict curse status on enemies. Unfortunately, this is still found at the end of the Old Water-way, where it could've been incredibly useful, had it been available sooner.
  • Piglet's Bamboo Sword - A non-metallic sword that can be found inside a pot in Baron Castle's basement. Replaces the Mythril/Silver Sword, which is no longer available for purchase in the village of Mythril/Silveria. Compared to the Mythril Sword, its attack power has been boosted by one point, from 50 to 51, and its accuracy from 80% to 99%. It no longer does extra damage against spirits, but it has the ability to turn enemies it strikes into pigs. Interestingly, this sword was featured in Final Fantasy IV Advance, with its stats buffed up for its appearance at the end of the game.
  • Blood Sword - The racial modifiers was removed and the attack has been increased from 45 to 77, and accuracy from 50% to 80%.
  • Avenger - The attack power has been increased from 80 to 100.
  • Blood Lance - The racial modifiers are removed and the attack drops from 88 to 64, but the accuracy was raised from 22% to 90%.
  • Dwarf Axe - Attack power boosted from 62 to 70, and accuracy from 69% to 90%. It also has an effectiveness against spellcasters.
  • Ogre Axe - Attack power boosted from 80 to 96, and accuracy from 69% to 90%. It also provides a +5 stat bonus to Strength.
  • Poison Axe - Attack power boosted from 95 to 105, and accuracy from 60% to 90%. It was also made throwable.
  • Rune Axe - Attack power boosted from 100 to 120, and accuracy from 60% to 90%. It was also made throwable.
  • Dreamer Harp - Accuracy was raised from 85% to 90%.
  • Ribbon - Now offers fire, ice, and lighting protection, along with the ability to absorb any elements the wearer is protected against.
  • Heroine Dress - Strength, agility, and vitality stat boosts lowered from +15 to +10; -15 wisdom and will stat penalties removed.
  • Ninja Outfit - The agility bonus has been increased from +3 to +5.
  • Artemis Bow - Has been given an effectiveness against dragons.

Additionally, all bows have had their accuracy increased by 10 points. The same goes for all the hammers, the Boomerang and the Full Moon. Also, both Shuriken have had their attack power increased by 20 points. Finally, the Ninja blades, "Asura/Middle", and "Kotetsu/Long" were made throwable.

Although it has no affect on the game itself, since the item isn't available anymore, the code for the Alert item has been removed. This item allowed you to force an encounter with the current area's rarest enemy formation.

Commands

Many of the less-useful commands were removed from Final Fantasy II and Easy Type.

Cecil (Dark Knight)

Darkness is probably the only command with real value that was lost.
  • Darkness - Cecil unleashes a wave of non-elemental, defense-ignoring energy against all opponents and takes damage equivalent to 1/8th of his maximum HP. This command cannot be selected while under a transformation status, or when unarmed.
This ability is still available for use in Easy Type, and it is still used by the Dark Knight boss fought on Mt. Ordeals in both versions.

Tellah

  • Recall - Tellah randomly casts Stone, Virus, Weak, Fatal, Fire1, Ice-1, Lit-1, or Toad on all enemies. The former four spells have a 5% chance of being cast, while the latter have a 15% chance, and there is a whopping 20% chance of it just failing outright. This command cannot be selected while Tellah is under Mute, Piggy, or Toad status, and will fail if Tellah does not actually have enough MP to cast the recalled spell.
Due to a bug, spells cast via this command are not considered magical attacks, for the purpose of counters, although they use the standard magical damage and status inflicting formulas. This command is lost after Tellah remembers his spells on the summit of Mt. Ordeals.

Edward

  • Medicine (Heal) - A nearly useless command which splits a (Cure1) Potion between five targets, regardless of how many characters are actually in the party, for 12-19 points of healing to each character. Yeah...
In addition to dealing pitiful healing, this command has a number of bugs related to removing the Potion from the inventory. It consumes a Potion on selection, but does so from every stack of Potions in the inventory if there are multiple. It is designed to fail if there are no Potions remaining in the inventory when Edward executes the command, but this check is made after the Potion has already been consumed. This means the command will always fail on the "last" Potion, even if there were multiple stacks with one Potion remaining in them when the command was selected.

Rosa

  • Pray - Rosa's prayers have a 50/50 chance of either casting Cure1 on the party for 0 MP or being unanswered, thus failing to do anything. This command will also fail if Rosa has Mute status.

Yang

  • Power - Yang halves his defense and magic defense, and powers up in order to deal double damage. The length of the "powering up" state is based on his agility; it's often more efficient to just attack twice. This command cannot be selected while under the Poison or transformation statuses.
  • Endurance (Bear) - Yang casts Armor on himself for 0 MP. This is treated just like a standard spell--it will fail if Yang has Mute status and can be reflected by Wall status. Additionally, the command itself cannot be used under transformation statuses.
(Power code documentation: Grimoire LD)

Palom & Porom

  • Twin - Twin magic takes a significantly shorter amount of time to cast in Final Fantasy II.
  • Bluff - Boosts Palom's intelligence by 16 when used, to a maximum of 99. Cannot be used while under the transformation statuses.
  • Fake Tears (Cry) - Porom pretends to cry, which has long been claimed to halve the time required to run away from enemies. In reality, this command halves an enemy stat that Edge's Sneak command tests against. This stat is also tested by all spells, so the command may have some undocumented effect on one of them... but at present it looks to be 100% useless in an unmodified game, given Porom and Edge are never in the party at the same time.
(Cry/Sneak code documentation: Grimoire LD)

FuSoYa

  • Spirit Heart (Regen) - Heals all party members for a measly 10 HP for a number of turns, which is based on FuSoYa's agility. The higher his agility, the less time for healing this command provides. After using this command, FuSoYa is completely disabled until the healing stops. It cannot be selected while under a transformation status.

Magic

The following spells were cut from Final Fantasy II and Easy Type:

  • Protect (Armor) - White magic. Increases defense by 5. This spell is still used by the Mind enemy, but the white magic icon has been removed from its name, masking the fact that it was originally a spell available to the player.
  • Shell - White magic. Increases magic defense by 3. This is also used by the Mind enemy, and its icon was also removed.
  • Dispel - White magic. Removes Berserk, Image, Barrier, and Wall status effects. It can also remove Stop status if the target has Count status. The spell itself can be reflected by Wall, making it rather inconvenient to make use of in the one situation where it would be useful.
  • Cockatrice - A rare bonus summon for Rydia, which could be obtained from Cocktric enemies and their palette swaps. Essentially a more efficient copy of the Stone spell. Turns a single enemy into stone with its Stone Beak attack.

The Asura summon was updated. In the original and Easy Type, she randomly casts spells similar to Cure3, Life1 or Armor on the entire party. Armor has been replaced with a stronger healing spell using Cure4's visuals in Final Fantasy II.

Menus

Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy II
"Ster" - really?! There's enough space for Stereo! If this were the DS version, the window color option would've been cut too.

The configuration menu of Final Fantasy II was greatly stripped down compared to Final Fantasy IV. Here's an overview of the missing options:

  • Battle Mode - Can set ATB to Active, which allows enemies to attack when you're in menus.
  • Controller - Has two different selections:
    • Normal/Custom - Allows the buttons assigned to the Confirm, Cancel, and Menu options to be changed. The R button, used for switching characters on the field, is the only one that cannot have its function changed.
    • Single/Multiple - Multiple allows you to assign each party member to a different controller in battle. Without this set, either controller can control any party member.
  • Cursor - The cursor can be set to remember its previous location in menus.

Easy Type only lost the ability to customize button assignments (likely because of button hints being placed in the game's dialogue) and set the cursor to remember its previous position.

The features enabled by the options weren't actually removed from either game, and they will function perfectly if a save from another version with the options enabled is imported.

Maps

Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy II / Easy Type
FF4-Baron.png FF4-BaronFF2.png
Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy II / Easy Type
FF4-Kaipo.png FF4-KaipoFF2.png
Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy II / Easy Type
FF4-Mysidia.png FF4-MysidiaFF2.png
Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy II / Easy Type
FF4-Toroia.png FF4-ToroiaFF2.png

The Town of Baron, Kaipo, Mysidia, and Town of Toroia maps have been altered in Final Fantasy II and Easy Type to include the training room building. In Kaipo's case, this was done by adding a door to an existing structure. Namingway was removed from his unique location in each of these maps, since he is always available in the training room.

Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy II / Easy Type
FF4-SerpentRoad.png FF4-SerpentRoadFF2.png

The original way of accessing the training room, from the Serpent Road building in Baron, has been removed.

FF4-TrainingRoomFF2.png FF4-TrainingRoomFF2-2.png

The training room itself got two new maps, rather than sharing one with the magic classes in Baron Castle. Given the huge increase in the number of students, it's not surprising that more game mechanics are explained.

Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy II / Easy Type
I know there's a secret around here somewhere... Couldn't be more obvious.

Nearly all of the secret passages found in dungeons have been made visible in Final Fantasy II and Easy Type. Those found in castles and towns are still invisible, as is the one leading to Cecil's Crystal Sword in Final Fantasy II. The latter was made visible in Easy Type.

Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy II / Easy Type
FF4-MagneticCave.png FF4-MagneticCaveFF2.png

The ground in Cave Magnes was given a different texture and palette in Final Fantasy II and Easy Type.

Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy II / Easy Type
FF4-Sealed Cave JP.png FF4-Sealed Cave US.png

The Sealed Cave received a similar treatment.

Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy II / Easy Type
A dead end? Oh.

The Towers of Zot and Bab-il, and the Giant of Bab-il all have foreground "overhang" tiles that the player can walk under in Final Fantasy IV. These tiles were removed, likely because they could confuse players into believing they were walls. Some areas were modified slightly when these were removed, so that proper border tiles could be placed, as seen in the screenshot.

FF4-TowerBridge.png These tiles were used on the floors, often as bridges, in Final Fantasy IV. They were swapped out for the standard floor tiles. They can still be seen all over the maps as a part of the walls.

Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy II / Easy Type
FF4-CafeHOWDY.png FF4-CafeHOWDYFF2.png

One of the most well-known changes in Final Fantasy II and Easy Type is the removal of the Developers' Office. The secret passage that lead to it in Cafe HOWDY! is sealed, and the hidden staircase is removed.

FF4-DevelopersOffice.png FF4-DevelopersOfficeMusicRoom.png FF4-DevelopersOfficeNapRoom.png

The maps themselves were removed entirely and replaced with the Training Room.

Final Fantasy IV / Final Fantasy II Easy Type
FF4-LunarCore.png FF4-LunarCoreEasy.png

A save point was added to the third floor of the Lunar Core in Easy Type. The square outcrop it was placed on was present, but worthless, in other versions of the game.

(Source: Ian-Albert.com for the original unaltered map)

Graphics

Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy II / Easy Type
Looks explosive. Nice S.

The standard save points in caves were changed from a campfire ring in Final Fantasy IV to a tile with an "S" marked on it. This may have been for clarity, but the game is pretty clear as it is just what these things are the first time you encounter one.

Star of David to S of Savid. The new save point graphic was based on the one used in the Sylvan Cave and Town of Monsters, which originally featured a Star of David.

Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy II / Easy Type
Yeah, I don't get it, either. I think it may be a save point.

The save points in the high tech dungeons, such as the Tower of Bab-il and the Tower of Zot, were also changed, with the original version being a simple black orb. Final Fantasy II and Easy Type change this to an elaborate flashing version of the same "S" tile seen above. In both versions, the black orb tile is also used for detail on top of the walls near doors.

Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy II / Easy Type
It's gonna blow! This looks familiar.

The orbs surrounding the above high-tech save points were also changed. Final Fantasy II and Easy Type use Final Fantasy IV's black orb save point graphic, while Final Fantasy IV uses a different orb with the same flashing palette that Final Fantasy II and Easy Type would later use for their corresponding save points. The inactive teleporter devices in the Tower of Bab-il were also changed accordingly. The save point inside the Giant of Bab-il uses this graphic in Final Fantasy IV instead of the other orb. It was changed to a standard, non-flashing "S" tile in Final Fantasy II and Easy Type.

Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy II / Easy Type
It's a wall, right? Oh, silly me.

The treasure boxes in the high-tech areas were completely redrawn (and even animated) in Final Fantasy II and Easy Type, most likely to make them stand out, as the original chests in these areas were very low-key and easily mistaken for background tiles.

Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy II / Easy Type
It slices, dices, and fails to make julienne fries. Squish.

The giant metal ball hanging from the ceiling above Rosa in the Tower of Zot was originally a large metal blade. This was evidently deemed too gruesome a fate for the censors, who decided that a woman being crushed was somehow more appropriate. She's rescued just in time either way, so what was the big deal?

Final Fantasy IV Final Fantasy II / Easy Type
A three pixel midriff was considered unacceptable, but Valvalis made it overseas unaltered? The "censored" sprites actually look better.
Corrupting the youth of Baron.

The dancer sprites were altered to wear a leotard instead of a bikini. The behavior of the dancer in Baron was also changed. In the original, she wore a dress, which she tossed aside during her dance routine to reveal the standard dancer sprite. This "striptease" must have been deemed too risqué for the younger audience, so Final Fantasy II and Easy Type altered the NPC data so that she would always use the standard dancer sprite. As a result, the tossed dress sprites go unused in those versions.

Final Fantasy IV / Final Fantasy II Easy Type
FF4-zeromus.gif FF4-zeromuseasy.gif

Zeromus got quite the makeover for Easy Type, going from some sort of cosmic horror to some sort of cosmic lobster wielding a sword and having an elf lady for a penis. This look was later reused for Zeromus EG, the new final boss in Final Fantasy IV Advance.

Tent, Potion, Light Armor, Armlet, Crystal, Key, Tail

Potion icon shown in the field.

More item icons were added to Final Fantasy II, which helped with clarity since there often wasn't enough room to list an item's type after its name. In the original, lighter body and arm gear used the same armor and glove icons as its heavier cousins. Item types other than weapons, armor, and summon spells did not have icons at all.

Additionally, icons are now shown as a part of the item name when collecting items from chests and when using them in a pop-up menu on the field. This introduces a minor cosmetic issue in some locations since the black color on item icons is actually the transparent palette index for the dialogue window. This was only noticeable with the black magic icon in battle in the Japanese version, but can now be seen on most item icons and the black magic icon in the field as well.

PlayStation Additions and Changes

Unlike later releases, the PlayStation version is a straight port of the SNES original and even loads most of the game data and graphics off of a stripped-down SNES ROM. It did have some minor additions made to it:

An FMV has been added to the game. The first portion of this, depicting the Red Wings departing Baron for the raid on Mysidia, is shown without music before the title screen. The full FMV with music is shown after finishing the game.

This save tutorial amuses me way more than it should.
After the title screen, a new menu is displayed which allows you to start a new game or load a saved game. There's also a save tutorial available here, in which a Chocobo teaches you the difference between Memo saves and normal Memory Card saves. Memo saves save to RAM, which is faster than accessing a Memory Card, but are lost when turning the console off or hard resetting. A soft reset can be done by pressing L1, L2, R1, R2, Start, and Select simultaneously.

Sadly, in spite of this impressive display, Cid was not given the Jump command in this version.
There are loading screens when accessing the Memory Card to load a save. They depict various characters from the game, using new sprites.

Holding down the cancel button allows you to dash everywhere except for the world maps.

Instead of those horrid abbreviations, maybe you guys should have, I don't know, used a thinner font since this is a static image?
The customize controls option now depicts PlayStation buttons, as you'd expect. It also has awful load times since it is a single image loaded off the disc when needed, unlike the rest of the game's menus. The face buttons in the Japanese version are white like the rest of the text, instead of being colored.

Scrolling down the item list in battle is painfully slow compared to the SNES originals. Strangely, scrolling up is faster than scrolling down.