How Final Fantasy VII Changed Square’s Approach to Western Markets

Richard Honeywood, a former Square employee and a key figure in video game localization, explained in a Time Extension interview how Final Fantasy VII shaped the company’s approach to Western markets. Initially hired as a programmer, Honeywood was asked to set up Square’s first localization department, despite having little prior experience. His bilingual skills and understanding of video games allowed him to work closely with development teams and improve translations.

Honeywood worked alongside Aiko Ito, who had previous experience on SNES titles including Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, and Secret of Mana. At the time, there were no formal roles for localization, and the department operated under the network division.

During Final Fantasy VII’s pre-release, Honeywood identified translation issues, such as the party management system “PHS,” which was a reference to Japanese mobile phones, and inconsistencies in names like the monster Ahriman. The European translations were handled by Sony, which led to additional quality control issues.

"At the time, a lot of the development teams at Square basically felt that the foreign versions were essentially petty cash; it's not real money. So they preferred to spend their time working on a Japanese version, which they felt was going to sell way more. We basically had to go like evangelists to each of them, saying, 'Can you please allow us to localise this game?'"

Despite early translation challenges, Final Fantasy VII released in the US and Europe a few months after Japan and became a major commercial success. This success changed Square’s strategy:

"What eventually made that easier is that Final Fantasy VII ended up selling like hot cakes in North America and Europe and made so much money."

Following FFVII’s success, Square actively requested localization for additional titles and expanded its US team, hiring translators Yoshinobu "Nobby" Matsuo and Brian Bell. Honeywood and Ito’s early work laid the foundation for structured localization at Square, creating roles such as translator, editor, project manager, and localization director that did not exist before.

Source:

timeextension.com

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About FINAL FANTASY VII

First released in 1997 on the PlayStation® computer entertainment system, FINAL FANTASY VII celebrated its 25th Anniversary in 2022. The game is universally regarded as a hallmark title of the RPG genre. The original title received high praise for its epic storyline, unique characters, and movie sequences that utilized the most cutting-edge technology of the time. Since then, the game revolving around iconic hero, Cloud Strife and his pursuit of the antagonist Sephiroth has sold over 15.3 million copies worldwide and continues to receive widespread acclaim from critics and fans around the world. The popular game has even expanded into spin-offs, films and merchandise.

Now, Square Enix’s FINAL FANTASY VII remake project created by a team of original and new developers, retells the story of the genre-redefining RPG across three distinct, and standalone games. The first game of the trilogy, FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE is now available on Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox PC, PS5® and PS4® consoles and PC. FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH, the second game in the trilogy, has been praised by both players and critics across the globe, earning more than 125 perfect scores from media and 40 Game of the Year awards, and is available now for PC and the PS5® console. It will launch on Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S and Xbox PC with Xbox Play Anywhere support on June 3, 2026.