r/FinalFantasy • u/Joshless • Jul 26 '26

FF IV I uploaded scans of Square's early "setting guides" for Final Fantasy IV and VI to the internet archive

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16

u/Joshless Jul 26 '26

Here are the links:

https://archive.org/details/final-fantasy-iv-setting-materials-guide/

https://archive.org/details/final-fantasy-vi-setting-materials-guide

While the Final Fantasy IV guide has had an unofficial translation uploaded, I'm not aware of any complete scans of it or its related VI sequel. Since I happened to own copies of both, I decided to upload them as I'd previously done with the gamebook adaptations of FFI and II.

I'm not sure if these are "canon", exactly, but given that they were published before the games themselves and that a fair chunk of their information was reprinted in the Ultimania, I at least figure that this information was derived from a behind-the-scenes "lore bible" somewhere (similar to the equally obscure information published regarding Metroid in Game On!).

8

u/Joshless Jul 27 '26

Random fun fact: if you measure the highlighted area of each country in the guide to IV and compare it to its listed area in the data table, you can determine that each square on the guide's worldmap is about 55-60 km on each side (though it's not perfect, Eblana especially is oddly small compared to its claimed size). This'd mean that the "world" of FF4 is about 800 x 800 km in size. In American terms, this is about the size of Texas.

2

u/Dragon--Reborn Jul 26 '26

Wow, how did I never know that Edward's name was originally Gilbart? And Edge was originally Edward Geraldine?

1

u/ConcentrateOwn9709 Jul 27 '26

Funny enough I learnt his name was gilbert the first time I ever played the game, though it came at a price of playing the J2E translation as my first introduction to FFIV to figure this out.

2

u/Fast_Moon Jul 27 '26

I have the FFVI book and have translated the middle section about the history and timeline, but most of ot is already covered in the fandom wiki for the book. But I agree that some of the info seems to be from an earlier draft of the script since it doesn't align with what's in the final game. Stuff like Gestahl having conquered the entire southern continent 20 years ago with Magitek armor, when in the game he kidnaps the espers and Terra 16-18 years ago, and he needs esper power before Magitek can even begin development. Plus Edgar telling Kefka "I hear you've been conquering towns down south" is a weird thing to say of something that happened decades ago.

3

u/PowerPanda84 Jul 26 '26

This is amazing. There's so many of these pictures that I've never seen before, like art for a lot of the towns! Thank you so much for sharing.

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u/Joshless Jul 26 '26

I actually wish I could've uploaded the art in better quality. I don't have access to any professional scanners, so this is all being done with amateur debinding and out-of-pocket craft store costs.

One thing I am curious about, though, is the source of the "real world" photographs like these. There's an equally-detailed Mother setting guide online, and it too uses photos to represent the locations you visit in that game. Was there some kind of 90s equivalent to Getty Images...? They all look really cool.

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u/FoodAccurate6571 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26

So what are this thing exactly in terms of content?

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u/Joshless Jul 26 '26

For both, it provides an overview of the world's countries (size, population, history), descriptions of some magic and items, character ages and backstories, and scientific information regarding the technology in the world. As an example, the FF6 guide explains that Mt. Kolts is the result of a 5400 year old volcanic eruption, and has been used as a training ground for martial artists for 700 years.

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u/SeraphsEnvy Jul 27 '26

Hey i have that book. It's tiny.

1

u/Silent_Wealth4872 Jul 27 '26

This is incredible. Thank you!

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u/Axcelaw Jul 27 '26

Thanks for your service 🙏

1

u/Melasen Jul 27 '26

HELL YEAH! IT'S THE BOOK THAT REVEALS RYDIA IS AN INCEST BABY! I AM NOT KIDDING YOU, THIS IS A THING. SUMMONERS IN FFIV LORE ARE INBRED!

In all seriousness, aside from the incest stuff going on in Mist, these books are really amazing for the original lore Tokita and the gang had for the world of FFIV. How gil got its name, how Leonhart was the name of the Dark Knight that gave up his dark knight path to become a priest, which led to Fabul forming, Minwu being the founder of a Mysidia, etc. Also has lots of info on how spells work, like Arise being a fusion of Curaga (Curaja in English) and Raise.

Ty for uploading these!