Over the past few months, I have been going through my basement clearing out old boxes of things kept from my childhood home. I recently came across an envelope that just said “Nintendo” on it. Being an avid retro gamer, my curiosity got the best of me. When I opened the envelope, I found several responses from Nintendo of America to letters that I had obviously written them as a kid.
Out of the letters, my favourite one was from 19 July 1995 where a representative addressed my questions about the possibility of new Final Fantasy games (Final Fantasy IV is, to this day, the most special game to me). The part that makes this particular letter from Nintendo really cool, though, is that the representative, Jonathan, told me about some other games that Square Soft (nowadays, Square-Enix) had in store, including one of their most well-respected games:
- Chrono Trigger
- Secret of Evermore
- Secret of Mana II
The representative even stated that some of these projects “may actually surpass Final Fantasy III” (which was the name of Final Fantasy VI when released in the west).
This letter magically transported me back to better times; times when getting a response from Nintendo of America was undoubtedly the single best thing a kid like me could hope for. I didn’t have to worry about making the mortgage payment, completing those two competing massive projects at work before their respective deadlines, or counting calories to make sure I stayed fit. What I had was the sheer excitement and beguiling anticipation of new JRPGs heading my way.
1995 Nintendo of America letter about SquareSoft, Final Fantasy, and Chrono Trigger
If clicking the image for the full version doesn’t work for you, here’s a PDF copy of the letter (~1.5 MiB). 🙂
Cheers,
Nathan Zachary
