Electronic Gaming Monthly 63

Cite as: Electronic Gaming Monthly 63
Original: https://archive.org/details/Electronic_Gaming_Monthly_63
sha256: 43d12d90a4ee57aa96d83b8cede7edf6fdda77361114120a7554ccaae689576a
Archived: https://archive.org/download/Electronic_Gaming_Monthly_63/Electronic_Gaming_Monthly_63_djvu.txt
Accessed: 2026-10-22
Licence: © Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc.; scan hosted by the Internet Archive
Credit: EGM staff; interview with Yusuke Hirata, general manager of the publicity department, Square Co. Ltd., arranged by EGM's Japan editor "Nob". Scan in the Internet Archive item "Electronic_Gaming_Monthly_63".
Notes: The interview is the sidebar of the Final Fantasy III (Super NES) feature on printed p. 172 (scan leaf n177; the issue's printed page numbers run four behind the leaf numbers here). Hirata gives the original's launch as December 1987, Japanese sales of about 600,000 and NES sales of about 700,000, names Nobuo Uematsu as the composer of all FF music (the magazine prints the name "Uenatsu"), and calls Hironobu Sakaguchi the driving force behind the series. The page also carries the preview's own sales and release claims for later games; those are the magazine's, not Hirata's.

Cited on

Claims (12)

Final Fantasy came out for the Famicom in Japan on 18 December 1987.	`p. 172, interview with Yusuke Hirata`	Publisher
Nobuo Uematsu composed the music.	`p. 172, interview with Yusuke Hirata`	Magazine
Square's publicity manager Yusuke Hirata told Electronic Gaming Monthly in 1994 that the game sold about 600,000 copies in Japan and its NES version about 700,000.	`p. 172, interview with Yusuke Hirata`	Magazine
Final Fantasy II came out for the Famicom in Japan on 17 December 1988.	`p. 172, interview with Yusuke Hirata`	Publisher
Square's publicity manager Yusuke Hirata told Electronic Gaming Monthly in 1994 that the Famicom Final Fantasy II sold about 800,000 copies.	`p. 172, interview with Yusuke Hirata`	Magazine
Famitsu's report of Sakaguchi's 2015 talk says Final Fantasy II and III were released in Japan but not overseas, and that the game sold in North America as Final Fantasy II was Final Fantasy IV; in 1994 Square's Hirata said the Famicom FF2 and FF3 were never translated.	`p. 172, interview with Yusuke Hirata`	Web
Final Fantasy III came out for the Famicom in Japan on 27 April 1990.	`p. 172, interview with Yusuke Hirata`	Publisher
Square's publicity manager Yusuke Hirata told Electronic Gaming Monthly in 1994 that the Famicom Final Fantasy III sold about 1.4 million copies.	`p. 172, interview with Yusuke Hirata`	Magazine
Yusuke Hirata of Square told Electronic Gaming Monthly in 1994 that the Famicom Final Fantasy II and III were never translated. Famitsu's report of Sakaguchi's 2015 talk says the two were not released overseas, and that Sakaguchi thought the team had its hands full making the Japanese versions, with no room to localize them, and was still unsure a turn-based RPG would be accepted.	`p. 172, interview with Yusuke Hirata`	Magazine
Square Enix calls Final Fantasy IV the fourth game of the Final Fantasy series. Famitsu notes that it moved the series from the Famicom to the Super Famicom and calls it the first game Square released for the Super Famicom; Square's Yusuke Hirata called it "our first Super Famicom RPG" in 1994.	`p. 172, interview with Yusuke Hirata`	Publisher
Square's publicity manager Yusuke Hirata told Electronic Gaming Monthly in 1994 that Final Fantasy IV sold about 1.5 million copies, and its Super NES translation, Final Fantasy II, about 300,000. His sentence misdates the release to July 1990.	`p. 172, interview with Yusuke Hirata`	Magazine
Electronic Gaming Monthly, in a 1994 question to Square, said the Super NES Final Fantasy II was made considerably simpler to play than the original Super Famicom Final Fantasy IV.	`p. 172, interview with Yusuke Hirata, the interviewer's question on Final Fantasy VI`	Magazine