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Yes, you read that right. "A way?" Not "the best way?" That's right! Because in my opinion, this is the ONLY way to experience the SNES version of Final Fantasy IV properly (that is, unless you read Japanese). It brings back the original difficulty, and it contains the aesthetics (graphics, music etc.) as was meant to be.

This is the brainchild, largely, of Takashi Tokita. I hope he got a bit more recognition after the release of the remake of Live A Live, my second favourite game of all time. Final Fantasy IV is a very important game, and I'm sure that, just like is the case with me, it introduced many people to RPGs to begin with. And in my opinion, all later versions, in some way or another, butchered what this game is supposed to be.

• The PlayStation version is a buggy, slow mess.
• The WonderSwan Color version is just a downscaled port.
• The GameBoy Advance version has new content. This content has nothing to do with the story Tokita wanted to show you. It's just a bunch of random dungeon floors tied together.
• The Nintendo DS version introduces a difficulty that breaks the pace of the game, which is supposed to tell a story, along with providing a smooth, balanced kind of challenge.
• The PSP version is pretty nice, except it has a lot of bugs pertaining to the core of the combat: The Active Time Battle system.
• The Pixel Remaster makes the game too easy. Characters level up twice as fast. Once again, the balanced difficulty is destroyed. Personally, I don't really like the aesthetics either. Look at how small Zeromus is!

So, obviously, all that remains is the original version. However, what we got in the west was not the original version. Many abilities were removed, the game was made way easier, and the localization was flawed. That's where Namingway Edition comes in. It gives people a way to play the best version of the game in all its original glory. The script is extensive yet compact, taking the best of all the scripts we know from other versions. Spells use their canonical names used in other entries of the series. It restores all abilities and the difficulty the developers wanted us to play on.

In short, this is the way to play Final Fantasy IV. Finishing this version brought tears to my eyes. The same cannot be said for any other version. Here, everything fits together perfectly, and it's thanks to Rodimus Primal we get to experience it.

As of today there are a bunch of ways to enjoy FF4, but for me in particular I wanted to experience the original since I didn't have access to the modern releases and I'm a stickler for the original SNES soundtrack. I wasn't eyeing on the other re-releases either due to other shenanigans as well (i.e. the GBA version has more slowdown and lower quality sound, the PS1 version has long load times, etc). Being that this translation-hack has a handful of quality-of-life features such as the B Dash, a ATB indicator (I wish that part would stay on since I have to keep pressing select every time I go into a battle), and item descriptions make this translation-hack very favorable to play for the original experience and then some. And speaking of original experiences, everything was adjusted to the original Japanese release's difficulty, so every battle was not as much of a pushover compared to the easy-type version, and I don't think I had more KO's with the OG Japanese FF4 difficulty compared to other JRPGs I played (though I can't help the fact that Edge keeps freaking dying more than Rydia even though she's more fragile in her defenses in comparison, but maybe that's just me), but it was difficult enough for someone like me to be comfortable about it since I tend to use other abilities, spells, and use items a lot more, other than just mindlessly spamming the Attack command, because that only happens from time-to-time. And hot damn Zeromus kicks ass with that Big Bang spam. I had to lower the battle speed just to cast Curaja (that's Cure 4) in the opportunity that I can because Rosa sure can't get the chance the cast it by the time I select it when I set the speed to 1 or 2. I like this. Definitely recommend playing this for the SNES FF4 experience with the updated names and script mirroring the GBA and modern releases.

(This review has been written in part by this translation-hack being played on original hardware.)

I personally don't like the psp translation of ff4 it is way to censored and if you seen tomato's blog about the different translations of ff4 it's more an edit of the ps1 version then a full on new translation then say ff5 advance got.

it takes bits from the ds script but is not as wordy and gets to the point which is a major issue with Tom Slattery's translations.

so overall this is the best version if you want to play the 2d version of 4 but don't want to play psp or gba.

By far the best English version of the SNES FF IV. It not only restores maps, monster stats and removed commands, but also adds features like B button to dash, SELECT to see ATB percentage, and X to skip turns, among others. The script is also better than both the PS1 and J2E translation ones.

Nowadays, there are many options out there to experience FF2US(FF4) such as remakes, romhacks, etc. However, if you wish to experience FF4 in its original form from Japan with a translation that is as close to the original, this is the hack for you!

The script, the item/spell names, plus all the other content from the J version such as secrets and other Easter eggs are all in here in the most faithful form translated to English.

So, for those of you that prefer the game in all its original SNES(SFC) glory over the remakes and such, don't hesitate to give this one a try! You won't regret it!

This is the only way to experience the original FF4 in English on the SNES. The creator of this hack did a great job restoring content that was censored or dummied out of our version. This is what we should have got back in the day, Great Job!

I really enjoyed this one. I've played through a few English translations over the years and this one tops them all. It doesn't throw up random real-world pop culture references like in J2e's offering (Particularly the line from Porom before the Baigan boss fight "Even William Shatner's a better actor than you!"....yup, even after not playing it for nearly 20 years, that line still sticks out) and is much more polished than the original 1991 US release.

If you're looking to do another play through on the SNES, this is the one to use.

I really like this Namingway Edition hack by Rodimus Primal, which essentially cleans up the script of "Final Fantasy II" for the SNES in the U.S. and makes it more like the original Final Fantasy IV game for Super Famicom released in Japan. It has restored almost all of the original content from the Japanese game, fixed a number of bugs, and cleaned up a lot of errors in the script, as well as a few minor enhancements to the game. Generally it uses the canonical names that more recent official translations of Final Fantasy IV to other platforms use, in order to try and be more like an official translation and less like a fan translation.

I basically agree with all of the design decisions made in this patch although I think maybe it might have been a bit easier if they started out using the J2E patch as a base and then restored a proper official-esque script to that one, since that would have prevented having to go through all the painstaking work of restoring content from the Japanese version of the game into the American version. The makers of this hack did things the hard way by starting with the American version of the game instead of starting with the J2E hack of the Japanese version, but it is quite good, in fact it is my favorite.

As far as the other options in English, the official "Final Fantasy II" localization Squaresoft did for the SNES in the U.S. is nowhere near as good as this, and this is an improvement on that. It is full of typos, it has the difficulty level lowered to make things easier, it has a ton of removed content and censorship, less battle commands, less items, less of everything, all in all, probably the worst version of the game.

The J2E fan translation by the group J2E Translations is definitely a great improvement over the official release, not because of the script, the script had some obvious flaws, the most annoying one to me being the reference to a Backstreet Boys song, but by being based on the original Japanese version and restoring all the content that had been removed and censored, that by itself made it better than the official release. It is definitely an impressive release for its time and helped pave the way for better releases in the future, but its script is far too flawed for it to be the best version of this game.

This clearly has a better script than either the official localization or the J2E fan translation so if those were the only options, this would be over and we would know that Namingway Edition is #1, right? Well, not so fast, there are other options...

Project II by vivify93 is quite an excellent hack and improvement over the original Final Fantasy II U.S. localization on SNES. However, Namingway Edition is based on Project II and makes even further improvements, mainly improving the names of everything, hence the name "Namingway", who is also obviously a recurring character in the game, as well as adding B-button dash, restoring some things to maps including the Developers' Room, restoring enemy difficulty, retranslating battle dialogue properly, and restoring the original title screen. The only advantage Project II has over Namingway Edition is, currently and at certain other times, the latest enhancements from Project II's latest version have not yet made it into Namingway Edition. But still, the numerous additional improvements Namingway Edition makes, to me outweigh the minor differences between the slightly older version of Project II that Namingway Edition is currently based on and the current version of Project II.

But remember what I said about the idea of using the J2E translation as a base and just fixing what is wrong with that? Yeah, some other people did that. First, there was Cosmetic Changes by Joelsmith380, definitely an improvement over what J2E did, a good first step. Then, Spooniest came along, first putting out Cosmetic Changes 2, which improved on Cosmetic Changes, and then putting out J2Evisceration, even further improving things from Cosmetic Changes 2. J2Evisceration by Spooniest is clearly the best of this particular bunch. So, what do I think of J2Evisceration by Spooniest? Actually, I don't know, I haven't played it. I don't know whether it is better or worse than Namingway Edition. Judging from what other people have said, it is pretty good, some people prefer J2Evisceration by Spooniest, others prefer Namingway Edition by Rodimus Primal, and it seems the people who prefer Namingway Edition to J2Evisceration slightly outnumber the people who prefer J2Evisceration to Namingway Edition. Anyway, J2Evisceration does not have certain improvements that Namingway Edition does like B-button dash, and also, only one version of J2Evisceration was released, just like only one version of Cosmetic Changes 2 was released, whereas Namingway Edition has had a number of updates and improvements. I have reported all the bugs I found in Namingway Edition (some of which are from its underlying Project II), and I went into great detail, and the developers of Project II and Namingway Edition have addressed them and Project II already came out with a version with fixes, and Namingway Edition probably will come out with a fixed version soon as it is also actively developed. J2Evisceration by Spooniest, though, is what it is, is at version 1.0 and staying there, and does not seem to be an actively developed project anymore. So any mistakes in J2Evisceration are probably here to stay while Namingway Edition is likely to have another update to fix most of its mistakes. Regardless, since I have not even played J2Evisceration, I have no idea whether at the present time it is better or worse than Namingway Edition. From what I have heard they are both very good.

And finally, there are the other official English translations of Final Fantasy II, which are described in detail at Legends of Localization. Basically, the SNES translation sucked as described earlier. The PlayStation translation redoes things from scratch and is better but still has a lot of mistakes. The GBA translation is an improvement on the PlayStation translation, fixing many mistakes and improving terminology, so definitely better than SNES or PlayStation, although it does still have plenty of mistakes in it. The PSP translation improves even further on the PlayStation translation, and also updates the terminology and naming to be even better, but it also adds a few mistakes too, so while it is the best of the translations listed so far, it is far from perfect.

The Nintendo DS translation completely retranslated from scratch, as well as making the game 3D, and this translation was really masterfully done, outdoing the PSP translation to be the best official translation. The mobile port for iOS and Android was originally a copied version of the Nintendo DS translation that had some mistakes added by accident, but Square Enix has fixed those mistakes in updates and now the mobile port has an identical translation to the Nintendo DS release, so it also has the best official translation too. The PC translation was based on an older version of the mobile port that still had mistakes added to it, and then it adds even more mistakes, so that one I would avoid. This information about the official releases is not from me playing those games, but basically my summary and interpretation of the article I linked to on Legends of Localization, an article that also recommended Namingway Edition to anyone who wants to play a fan translation.

So if you are looking for an official translation, I would go with the Nintendo DS, iOS, or Android version since that is the best official translation. However, I like playing the original SNES game with the original 2D graphics and all that, rather than the 3D version that the Nintendo DS, iOS, and Android have. And I would bet that both Namingway Edition by Rodimus Primal AND J2Evisceration by Spooniest are BOTH better than any of the PlayStation/GBA/PSP official translations in that series. Playing the game in 3D just seems wrong, that is not authentic to how this game was originally designed. So ultimately, my favorite way to play Final Fantasy IV is to play Namingway Edition. As far as why I played Namingway Edition rather than J2Evisceration, I saw the thing on Legends of Localization and it had more positive reviews here. I should probably play J2Evisceration by Spooniest too since I really do not know enough about it to know whether it is better or worse than Namingway Edition. And again just to clarify, I have played precisely 3 versions of this game: the official SNES English translation that was released as "Final Fantasy II", the classic J2E fan translation, and Namingway Edition, although I looked at all 3 of those versions in great detail. So, that being said, Namingway Edition is clearly the best out of all of the versions I have played. I might look into Spooniest's J2Evisceration later but I would have to actually play it before reviewing it, one thing I do know is, Namingway Edition is awesome and at least currently, it is my favorite translation of this game. I highly recommend it to everyone, whether you are a spoony bard, a practitioner of lunar magic, or a white wizard who doesn't even know how to cure your own desert fever since you're too low-level to know the spell Esuna yet.

Having just completed my first run of Namingway Edition after primarily playing the J2E version with the Spooniest addendums in recent years, I can say that I enjoyed going through it but I honestly have mixed feelings.

First I will speak about the translation. While I've read various claims of this being totally rewritten, it seems to lean quite heavily on the original SNES localization by my estimate. It's interesting that certain oddly translated words such as "parry" instead of "defend" were left intact. While there are lines that clearly jump out to me as edited or uncensored, overall this version benefits from the nostalgia factor for someone who grew up playing the original US release. From a more objective point of view, it regrettably does not convey the vibrancy and literary quality of the otherwise frustrating DS remake for example. I do strongly prefer the spell, enemy and item naming conventions used here compared to competing hacks like Project II. I also marginally prefer this script overall to the Spooniest J2E addendums, which did do an admirable job of cleaning up that terrible textual base. I'd conclude that this is the best translation currently available with the original graphics but I would still only give it a B for lacking the panache of better localizations out there.

As far as the gameplay, my favorite things are the bugfixes and improvements included. While FFIV doesn't have half of the bugs that I, V and VI did, some of them did noticeably impact gameplay and it's nice to see them corrected. It's also great to see a number of secondary character abilities and spells that were never particularly functional be improved to the point where there are new viable tactics. The included dash ability is much appreciated. (make sure you hold B prior to walking, not after or it will appear appear buggy like it did to me at first). The lack of compatible bugfixes and improvements is probably the largest downside of playing the J2E / Spooniest version in comparison to this one.

I, like a lot of people generally support modifying English language localizations to become as much like the native Japanese release as possible, and while Rodimus did well by that measure in restoring most of the enemy difficulty, correcting the original levels where spells are learned and restoring all the character abilities and items that were dummied out of the original US release, I find it deeply objectionable that he opted to leave one of the problematic aspects of the US release intact. I'm referring to the highlighted secret passages, which take away all mystery involved with exploring the nooks and crannies of towns & dungeons. Why he would choose to restore 90 percent of game elements to the original but leave this one in its easy-type state is baffling to me. One other strange element is that the damaging floors in the Sylvan cave and the passage of the Eidolons no longer make a sound when you step on them. This could be a bug.

Overall this is probably the best classicist way to play FFIV, even though Namingway Edition fails to measure up to what I would consider an ideal version of the game. What I have in mind would certainly fix the secret passage issue, along with some other things that agitate my admittedly exhausting perfectionism-such as correcting the way the in-battle sprites get the top row of pixels chopped off when they are doing victory dances. There are also some optional things I'd see included like the opportunity to switch in the incredibly epic Japanese easy type Zeromus sprite and the piggy sword, or slightly reduce some of the insane drop rates for the rare eidolon summons or end game equipment-some of which I've never obtained after going through this game at least 30 times. Let's not forget the opportunity to hack a mostly intact DS translation into the original SNES rom. (someone out there, pleeeeease) All that said, I ultimately do recommend and will be replaying this project, as frustrating as it is.

Thank you for this wonderful translation. Very challenging version with very rich dialogue. Attention is paid to even the smallest details in this edition, and my experience with the most current version (1.82) has been bug free. Definitely worth a play through, especially challenging for veteran gamers, too.

My first ever playthrough of FFIV was on the Game Boy Advance. As much as I loved the random floor dungeon and choosing your own endgame party, I had always felt like I was missing out on something both in sound and text.

I feel that Rodimus Primal and Vivify93's efforts have not only brought the definitive version of the original IV for SNES, but in general. The text feels like it always should have been; all characters have their own unique quality to them, but it keeps in truth with the original text. I especially liked Cid's dialog.

The restored names/content specifically for Namingway Edition is much welcome for those who have played more recent remakes and for those who are curious as to just what they missed playing FFII US (for the most part that is, Namingway is not a complete recreation of the JP version). The updated monsters/bosses feel much more fun compared to my previous plays as well. The only cost for this is some scrunched up names here and there, but I personally find the new names in almost every case an improvement.

This is by far the best translation of Final Fantasy IV for the SNES. The original American version by Square sadly wasn't good and so were some other fan translations as well. But this one is very good because not only does it have everything from the Japanese version when it comes to content compared to the American version that had some removed, but the translation is well done. Download this to play the perfect version of Final Fantasy IV.