(U.S Final Fantasy Anthology)

Format: PS, Jap: 1999, U.S: 1999, Size: 3 CD's

• Final Fantasy Collection was a Japanese compilation on the Playstation which bundled together IV, V and VI, all of which had previoulsy been released separately.
  The conversions look, play and sound exactly the same as the SNES originals, albeit with added loading times. The only improvement is the addition of new CG introduction and ending sequences.
• The US version was released on October 31st 1999 renamed to Final Fantasy Anthology. However Final Fantasy IV was not included. The 'official' explanation for this omission is detailed below.
• The US release was bundled with an audio CD containing music tracks from V and VI. Square invited visitors to their website to vote for which tracks should be included on the CD.
• Translation Information:
  Final Fantasy VI retained all the character names from the original US translation, and furthermore, appeared in the Anthology with the original Japanese 'VI' logo, not the US Final Fantasy III logo.
  Final Fantasy V, which was never before officially translated, bears some significant changes in relation to the hacked fan rom that most players will be accustomed to; Butz becomes Bartz and Lenna becomes Reina.

'Official' US Anthology cover
(click to enlarge)

Lack of Final Fantasy IV explained:
After receiving numerous complaints from FF fans relating to the omission of Final Fantasy IV in the Anthology, Square released the following text as an explanation:

'Final Fantasy Anthology, to be released in the U.S. later this year, will include Final Fantasy V (previously unreleased in the U.S.) and Final Fantasy VI (released as III in the U.S.). Although we strive to offer as many SQUARESOFT titles to our U.S. customers, we can only localize a limited quantity of selected games that are released in Japan and we believe that releasing as many newer titles in the U.S. will appeal to our fans.

Due to the above circumstances, we decided to release a compilation of Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI as Final Fantasy Anthology for two major reasons: The texts of Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI were already translated into English. We once planned to release PC versions of these titles in English, although that plan was canceled after the development teams of these titles were assigned to other projects. Also, we have been receiving numerous requests from our loyal fans to release Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI for the PlayStation game console.

After the completion of these two titles, we determined that it would be most appropriate to assign our localization teams to translate more recent titles rather than Final Fantasy IV. We apologize to our US fans that are eagerly waiting for the PlayStation version of Final Fantasy IV as seen in the Final Fantasy Collection in Japan. We hope we can win their forgiveness by attaching the soundtrack music CD of Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI (exclusive to our U.S. fans) to the package of Final Fantasy Anthology.' Source: GIA

I think that just about sums it up although I'm sure it's going to make most of us feel a little cheated to say the least. Seeing as an English FFIV already exists (albeit in it's easytype form), then surely it wouldn't be that much of an effort for Square to give us a conversion...
Of course, one of the factors that may have influenced the decision is the fact that the conversion of Final Fantasy IV is reported as being quite shoddy, with crap mode 7 and sound.
So are Square being lazy bastards by not bothering to polish up FF4, or is the current workload becoming too much of a burden for the overworked employees (there are currently 12 titles in development!) ? An answer would be too much to hope for...

FFC Japanese CD's
(click to enlarge)