Whoever is in charge of naming sequels over at Squaresoft needs punched in the dick with Simon Belmont's flail. Repeatedly, while on fire. The Kingdom Hearts games' confusing naming scemes are a prime example of this. The whole japanese vs usa final fantasy 1-6 bullshit is another one. We got FF1 and FF2 on the NES. Then we got FF3 on the SNES. FF4, 5, and 6 came out on PS1 and GBA, and 6 was just a port of FF3! I feel like we missed out on an entire FF game, since us Americans got the same goddamn game twice! Now I know some smartass on this forum is gonna quote me and link an article or video explaining the long, confusing naming bullshit, but I really couldn't care less. The bottom line is, Square loves fucking over American audiences.
It's really not that hard when it comes to Final Fantasy lol. I agree it should've never been a problem to begin with, but times were different back in the 80's and 90's. And it's not like these games are sequels to each other outside of the one sequel FF10 got and the FF13 trilogy.
*Final Fantasy I is Final Fantasy.
*Final Fantasy II is Final Fantasy II on NES. Both of these first games can be played on Final Fantasy Origins collection on PS1.
*Final Fantasy III is Final Fantasy III on NES. The only modern port that I can remember off the top of my head was one on the NDS that thankfully got localized!
*Final Fantasy IV is Final Fantasy II on the SNES. Every subsequent re-release refers to it as the former, something you'll notice as the the rest of the numbered entries pre-Final Fantasy 7 go on.
*Final Fantasy V is Final Fantasy V on the SNES, and never made it over to the US on the SNES proper. It did get an official port to the PS1 though along with another game.
*Final Fantasy VI is Final Fantasy III on the SNES. It also got a port to the PS1 that fixed the number up.
Thing is, nowadays, all of these games' OG versions have fan translations that gets rid of the Woolsleyisms of the originals, censorship, and retains the original titles. And after Final Fantasy VII, there was no more numbering nonsense. Sure, you have the spinoffs going forward, but those are all subtitled...and when we got the modern mess of games and anime having nonsensical titles:
*Kingdom Hearts I
*Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories
*Kingdom Hearts II
*Kingdom Hearts 420 days/69 cringe fanfictions
*Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance
*Kingdom Hearts on PSP
*Kingdom Hearts III
And I probably missed a few, but Kingdom Hearts wasn't the only series with this weird nonsense going on at the time. Let's look at Guilty Gear:
*Guilty Gear
*Guilty Gear X
*Guilty Gear X2
*Guilty Gear X2 #Reload
*Guilty Gear Slash
*Guilty Gear Judgement
*Guilty Gear Isuka
*Guilty Gear XX Accent Core
*Guilty Gear 2 Overture
*Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus
*Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R
*Guilty Gear XRD-SIGN-
*Guilty Gear XRD Revelator
*Guilty Gear XRD REV 2
*Guilty Gear StrIVe
Japan, I love your games and anime...but what are these titles!?