Prerelease:Final Fantasy

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Final Fantasy.

To do:
check for other differences in other screenshots of the preview, as well as the top screenshot of the ad.

Someone who can read Japanese should also check out the text and delete this part of the todo if there's nothing interesting about it

Famicom Tsushin #034 (October 16, 1987)

A two-page preview. It mentions the advanced jobs マスターモンク (Master Monk) and 道士 (Doushi), which do not exist in the final. Master Monk seems to be an early name for Super Monk, the Japanese name for Black Belt/Master.

The world map shows many differences compared to the final in-game map. Note that several castles and caves are missing, which may hint at it being in an unfinished state.

Regarding the southern continent:

Melmond is located further inland and the island east of it is missing.
A lot of mountains layout differ all around the continent, most notably no mountains are shown around Matoya's cave, the path in between the mountains north of Marsh Cave is missing (presumably an opening was added as a shortcut in the final), also there are mountains north of Pravoka rather than forests.
Ice Cave and Mount Gulug are connected by a river.
The small river and mountain area east of Ryukahn Desert is missing.
Elfland is surrounded by walls and had pavement, similar to Coneria. There is also a small lake south of it.

Regarding the northern continents:

Grass and forest next to the location of the caravan are missing.
A patch of land is missing on the northwest corner of the map.
There are mountains north of Lefein.

Prerelease	Final

The layout of the overworld below Coneria differs slightly. Compared to the final version, the port uses a less detailed visual design. Also there is detailing for the pavement, rather than the plain design in the final.

Prerelease	Final

Similar differences around Pravoka.

A double-page ad from the same issue featuring an early screenshot and a mockup of a battle scene.

The top screenshot shows an overworld location which corresponds to nothing in the final, though the layout of the town with the walls surrounding it and the castle at the north indicate it could be an early version of Coneria, or possibly even Elfland as seen in the above earlier map. The tall buildings do not exist in the final game. The player character's sprite seems to be the Warrior, who has red hair and armor in the final game, in an all-blue palette instead.

The bottom screenshot is most likely a mockup.

The Dragon does not appear in the final. Note that it is larger than any enemy in the final.
The background color of the window during the battle is black in the final.
All four playable characters have their weapons out at the same time, which is not possible in the final.
- Additionally, the White Mage is shown wielding a saber, and the red-robed Black Wizard-like class at the bottom wielding an axe. In the final game, White Mages cannot wield swords, and the only classes that can wield axes are Warriors, Knights, and Ninja.
The palette of the battle background is different from the final.
The command もちもの (item) was つかう (use).
The playable characters are named in Katakana characters, which is not possible in the final.
The fourth party member's sprite does not fully correspond to any job class in the final game. They appear to use the Black Wizard design with a distinct palette that gives them a red robe and orange hair, but neither of the two palettes used by player classes in the final game include orange. It's also not possible to legitimately have both base and upgraded classes in the same party, as Bahamut's blessing upgrades all four party members regardless of their current status, though it's possible that the sprite was at this point being used as an alternative design for another class (perhaps Red Mage?).

Famicom Tsushin #035 (October 30, 1987)

Prerelease	Final

Early designs for the Ogre and Crazy Horse enemies.

Famicom Tsushin #036 (November 13, 1987)

A higher-resolution look at the early Ogre.

On the overworld screenshot, the port around Coneria now has its design and location from the final game.
On the screenshot around the armor and weapon shops, compared to the final version the female dancer NPC may be missing, or she simply walked out of the screen (though that is unlikely to happen in the final version).