Editing Final Fantasy II (section)

===Unreleased English version===
Following the successful North American release of the original ''Final Fantasy'' by Nintendo in 1990, [[Square Soft]], Square's North American subsidiary, began work on an English language [[Internationalization and localization|localization]] of ''Final Fantasy II'', to be called ''Final Fantasy II: Dark Shadow Over Palakia''. Assigned to the project was Kaoru Moriyama, whose later work included script translations for ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'' and ''[[Secret of Mana]]'' (known as ''Seiken Densetsu 2'' in Japan). Although a [[beta version]] was produced, and the game was advertised in several Square Soft trade publications, the long development time, the age of the original Japanese game and the arrival of the [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System]], the NES's successor [[video game console|console]], led Square Soft to cancel work on the ''Final Fantasy II'' localization in favor of the recently released ''Final Fantasy IV'' (which, to avoid confusing North American players, was retitled ''Final Fantasy II'').<ref name="FFII"/><ref name="Cancelled">{{cite web|author=Collette, Chris |title=Spotlight: Final Fantasy II |url=http://www.lostlevels.org/200312/200312-ffan2.shtml |publisher=LostLevels.org |access-date=August 25, 2006 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060902172158/http://www.lostlevels.org/200312/200312-ffan2.shtml |archive-date=September 2, 2006}}</ref>

Although a prototype cartridge of the English NES ''Final Fantasy II'' was produced, the project was, by Moriyama's own admission, still far from complete: "We had so very limited memory capacity we could use for each game, and it was never really "translating" but chopping up the information and cramming them back in... [Additionally] our boss had no understanding in putting in extra work for the English version at that time".<ref name="Cancelled"/> In 2003, when the game was finally released to English-speaking audiences as part of ''[[Final Fantasy (video game)#Versions and re-releases|Final Fantasy Origins]]'', it was released with new graphics, music, and a brand new translation under the supervision of Akira Kashiwagi. A [[fan translation]] of the original game was also created prior to the release of ''Origins'', and makes use of an original translation as the existence of the prototype cartridge was not common knowledge at the time.<ref name="Cancelled"/>