Final Fantasy I-II US Prototype Gets A Proper Fix In New ROM Patch

I imagine that most of you might have just read this title and wondered what on earth I'm talking about. A Final Fantasy I-II US Prototype - what's going on there?

Let's go back to 1990, and not because it was the year of my birth. We're in North America, and the original Final Fantasy game that released for the Famicom back in 1987 is getting an NTSC release. The next game, Final Fantasy II, and the Famicom compilation Final Fantasy I-II were only ever released in Japan, however, meaning that North American gamers never got in on the action.

It wasn't always going to be the case though, as back in 2003, a version of FF II that had been partially translated into English was discovered and has since been put into a combined prototype NES release of both of the original Famicom games by Neo Demiforce.

Nothing is as easy as it seems, however. That original prototype release was a bit of a flop and was crippled by a huge bug that meant the game froze whenever you tried to speak to an NPC. It's not ideal, is it, considering that's one of the main features that keeps the narrative going.

What's more, both of the games shared the same RAM space, so if you saved in one game, it just saved over your progress in the other game. I guess there's an argument for just completing one game at once, but what's the point when the game crashes during speech?

A ROM hacker by the name of Grond has released a patch that sorts out both of those issues, allowing players to essentially play the NA version of the Famicom collection without any freezing and save files for both titles. The ROM header now also meets NES 2.0 specs. The multicart that never was (and then was... but broken) has now been restored, righting a wrong that many NTSC NES gamers have just had to deal with for years.

You can find out more and download the by heading over to the official project page!