- Dummied Out: The Pixel Remaster has battle sprites for Scott, despite Scott only being playable in the Souls of Rebirth campaign, which is not in the Pixel Remaster.
- Fountain of Expies:
- This game features the first Cid. Every mainline Final Fantasy game after this and most the spinoffs would feature a Cid - they even retconned him into the first game in the Updated Re-release. Cid is usually older than the party (though he may join it temporarily or as a main member) and usually associated with airships. If he doesn't own, operate, or command an airship, then he's probably still an engineering genius of some sort.
- Some of The Emperor's actions were later repeated by later Final Fantasy villains. For starters, his action of poisoning the water supply of the Dragoon fortress was later redone with Kefka, the latter of whom managed to take it to an even new low by poisoning a civilian kingdom (Doma), and most of Mateus' personality and traits (even his coming back from the dead) were repurposed with Seymour Guado. In addition his using a flying fortress capable of generating a cyclone and then being killed in it (and having the title Emperor) is later repeated with Vayne in Final Fantasy XII and his use of the Sky Fortress Bahamut in the final battle before being killed, although unlike Mateus, Vayne doesn't come back from the dead.
- No Export for You:
- This originally applied to the game until the PlayStation port. Official reasons for the original localization ("Dark Shadow Over Palakia") being canceled were given as Final Fantasy IV being released right around the corner, and NES development was drying up in the west.
- The Labyrinth of Nightmares novelization, which came out roughly a year after the original game and contains a slew of differences compared to the Truer to the Text Memory of Heroes novelization much later, has yet to see an official release in the west and likely never will at this point.
- Prop Recycling: Most remakes for this game since the 2001 release of the WonderSwan Color version used a distinct graphic of a meteor for the Emperor's Starfall X spell during the final battle. This is in fact the same graphic originally used for the plot-relevant Meteor spell from 1997's Final Fantasy VII as it appears on the world map during the midgame.
- Remade for the Export: It saw a release outside of Japan on the Final Fantasy Origins disc on the PlayStation in 2003.
- Troubled Production: Compared to Final Fantasy I, it had a much more tumultuous development cycle. Coder Nasir Gebelli's visa expired during development, leaving him stranded in Sacramento, California. It meant Square had to abruptly move development from Japan to the United States. The game's development was why the original version was seen as an Obvious Beta.
- What Could Have Been:
- Four races were scrapped: the Cryion, the Lubine, the Cynidiceans, and the Shargugh.
- The Cryion were to be a nomadic race that lived in cold regions, travel in groups called mnelds, and once every three years, travel to the edge of the ice to trade (mainly furs), marry, and fish, with the place they do so being a sacred place. They also followed their leaders to warm places on winter expeditions. While their sprites were edited into the final game’s beavers, their designs would ultimately be given to what would eventually become one of the series’ most iconic creatures, the Moogles, who would debut in the next game.
- The Lubine often traded with humans and hated werewolves. They had silver weaponry and lived in packs, led by elders. They also built wooden lodges, which were arranged around a bonfire to serve as a meeting place. Their sprites were somewhat modified and re-used in Final Fantasy Adventure.
- The Cynidiceans were a race of masked creatures that lived underground beneath a lost city in the desert. They had bone white hair, wore colorful bird or animal masks, and had infravision, though had forgotten that the outside world exists. Their sprites still exist in the final game, but are instead used by the Tropical Island villagers.
- The Shargugh have brown hair and beards and live in forests, moving from tree to tree. If one is killed in a forest, that forest becomes cursed and infertile for seven years. Their sprites were also re-used in Final Fantasy Adventure, for the character of Dr. Bowow.
- In the unreleased English NES prototype of the game, Gordon and Ricard were named Gilbert and Edward respectively. Leila was also referred to as "Reila," but this was likely just a translation glitch.
- The Ultimania shows design documents that hint at various different things:
- The original plotline revolved around a civil war between three brothers (with the third vying for the throne in secret) to determine the heir, a conflict which is taken advantage of by both a neighboring kingdom and a group of monsters who were previously chased out. Some of the elements such as Altair as a setting, many names, and a few character concepts such as Paul and Josef, were kept, while other elements eventually found their way into the Romancing SaGa games if they weren't discarded entirely.
- A later draft features is closer to the final game, but features more changes: The Wyvern scenario happens early on (i.e. before Salamand), Minwu was originally a pacifist and is implied to have an active aversion to using damage-dealing spells (making him more of a strict, dedicated White Mage), There is no mention of Maria and Guy being Leon and Firion's siblings and are instead said to be their friends, there were a number of scenes building on Firion's character such as Minwu warning him that "going down a path of carnage makes you like the Emperor! I see a bit of him in you!" or the rebellion accusing Firion of being a spy, Leon was to confront the party multiple times with it being revealed early on that he sided with the Empire and more. Notably, in this draft retains Aile from the previous one, making her a roaming fortuneteller and the Emperor's mother; While she was scrapped from the final game, she does appear in the Labyrinth of Nightmares novelization with the same role.
- Four music tracks were cut from the game: A shop
theme, an alternate dungeon theme, an airship theme and a song called "Battle Scene 3" which is speculated to be tied to the Emperor. None of the tracks remain in the final game's data, but they were released on the All Sounds of Final Fantasy I·II. The Dungeon theme would be reused in Final Fantasy VI as The Magic House, while "Battle Scene 3" would make a surprise appearance as the Emperor's theme in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius' Series Boss Battles.
- Four races were scrapped: the Cryion, the Lubine, the Cynidiceans, and the Shargugh.
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