Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary

Although I generally stick to the U.S. release dates for posts regarding game anniversaries, Square Enix is celebrating Final Fantasy's 30th anniversary worldwide this year so I'm going with it. The first Final Fantasy released in Japan on December 18, 1987 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. However, it did not reach the North American market until 1990 which is quite a long wait. Despite the game's significance today, I could only find one review of the game in my magazines.

That review is from Video Games & Computer Entertainment and it actually makes no mention of the game's developer Square, instead crediting publisher Nintendo. When I was younger I didn't have a lot of knowledge of game developers and perhaps that is because magazines primarily mentioned publishers more often than developers. It wasn't until the rise of the Internet and my work on a game database that I learned much more about who is making the games I play. I had to piece the review together from a couple pages and that cut off screenshot is from another game.

Video Games & Computer Entertainment - November 1990

I scanned a review of Final Fantasy III from Electronic Gaming Monthly as well just to have some more content here. Following the first game in the series, the Final Fantasy games are numbered differently in North America which can be a bit confusing. What we received as Final Fantasy III is actually Final Fantasy VI in Japan. This put the series into the same release time frame for both regions as it released in Japan and North America for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1994.

Electronic Gaming Monthly #63