I'd also not recommend power leveling early in FFVI because of SPOILERS. It's one of the few FF's I recall that could actually hurt you in the long run if you grind too much early.
even just a moderate level of optimization leaves you bulldozing through the endgame, so I think it's not a big deal to just let Omicron do his thing 'till he starts earning AP. 'hurts you in the long run' just doesn't have a lot of sting with how busted the late game party can get.
Yarp. It's not like it's hard. Even by focusing on the travel/plot/puzzles and running from all but the forced fights, it's reasonably easy to reach the point where a minmaxer would normally start the powerleveling. Like, I usually get there at level 20 ~ with only a few speed bumps, and that gives you a wide, WIDE margin of error for the powerlevelling. In that sense is a somewhat forgiving game. (Nor isn't strictly necessary, either. My first play I didn't know how to powerlevel and I managed to finish it a reasonable difficulty)
Now, that Omi might want to bother with that and/or delay the powergaming or even want to do it, it's a completely different story. I say give him hints in Discord or Twitch if he ask, but let's not worry too much about it.
I'd also not recommend power leveling early in FFVI because of SPOILERS. It's one of the few FF's I recall that could actually hurt you in the long run if you grind too much early.
Yeah, it's another of the many mechanical similarities between FFVI and FFVIII - holding back on leveling up is the way to maximum power, but you don't really need maximum power to crack the game open. When they're looked at side-by-side, especially with FFV and FVII as points of comparison, it's pretty clear that FFVIII was intended to be the inheritor of FFVI the same way FFV was the inheritor of FFIII. Opinions vary on how successful it was at it. It'll be interesting to see if any other parallels come up that I've forgotten about as the let's play proceeds.
Well, nice to see Omi finished FFV. Now to see how he handles FFVI, aka the best game in the series until FFXIV came along, no I mean it it is the best FFVII is crap in comparison come at me bro if you think you're hard enough!
As I have fallen behind enough that there's little point in going back to the discussions of the end-game, I'll simply say that I adore the FFV end credit music and its rendition of the dragon flight BGM, and the only end game music I consider a rival is the end credits for FFVI.
VIII is criminally underrated. Really excellent cutscenes and while its soundtrack doesn't live in my head rent free like VI or IX it has several truly oustanding tracks.
VIII is criminally underrated. Really excellent cutscenes and while its soundtrack doesn't live in my head rent free like VI or IX it has several truly oustanding tracks.
VIII has some of the best ideas in the whole franchise, just paired in places with some of the worst execution. But when it's on point? I'd put the whole intro sequence up through Dollet up against most modern games, let alone its contemporaries.
VIII has some of the best ideas in the whole franchise, just paired in places with some of the worst execution. But when it's on point? I'd put the whole intro sequence up through Dollet up against most modern games, let alone its contemporaries.
FFVIII's intro is a total banger. Fantastic music (I am very much looking forward to when we get around to that part, it's one of my favorite tracks), awesome video, just...it's so good.
But let's not get into specifics. Because otherwise this page is going to turn into yet another spoilerfest.
Gah, why are all the SNES and PS1 FF games so gooooooooood.
Hey, seriously now, even the spin offs tend to be nice games. I remember having fun with Chocobo Tales in NDS, and it was just a mix of minigames and card games for kiddies.
Although I also legit remember someone very sincerely saying Mystic Quest as the best SNES game. Not having fonder memories of it than other SNES games (which, fair). But saying it was the best. Cue the flames.
FFVIII's intro is a total banger. Fantastic music (I am very much looking forward to when we get around to that part, it's one of my favorite tracks), awesome video, just...it's so good.
I wouldn't be surprised if Liberi Fatali carried half the sales on its own (the other two quarters would be FFVII inertia one, and the opening cinematic the other). Uematsu was in his "they haven't heard nothing yet!" mode back then.
Er, let's return from this tangent with, uh... let's remember Mega64's Sakaguchi's video, shall we?
Playing through Final Fantasy V was a fascinating experience, in no small part because it was the dark horse, the one I never heard anyone mention except in passing, the one I'd never see anyone mention as their favorite. Now, having played it, I have found several of my readers for whom it is their favorite, and I can easily understand why - its charm and humor and scope as a great light-hearted but epic adventure will have a place in my heart. But Final Fantasy VI is different. Final Fantasy VI is legendary. If VII kicked the door down bringing the genre into a new era, of the pre-3D games, VI has perhaps the most fame and acclaim, the game that is talked about as the apex of pre-3D era Final Fantasy. I do not know if it would be considered the best JRPG of that era - from memory, Chrono Trigger and Earthbound have their own legendary status - but within the FF series, it has its own special, exalted status. And one could see why - Square have refined their games with each iteration over a single platform, such that FF3 is miles beyond anything in FF1, and FFV in many technical ways a huge leap already from IV, and now we reach the third and final installment on the SNES, here in its Pixel Remaster form.
I say all this not to set up false expectations - I have no idea if they will be met - but so my readers who aren't familiar with Final Fantasy have some idea of what we're heading into here; the legend of this game looms enormous.
So let's dig in.
Remember how FFV premiered the concept of a pre-menu introduction, with its animation of the Final Fantasy V logo with the letters turning transparent and a view of Bartz riding his chocobo across the grassy plains, set to the game's upbeat, adventurous opening theme? It was a fantastic mood-setter.
FFVI does the same, except different in every way. Because the first thing we see are dark clouds, lit by purple lightning, and when the title appears -
Set against a backdrop of unnatural, purple-tinged storm, the letters of the titles are filled with nothing but fire. The logo of the game depicts a slender figure (a woman?), holding a cavalry saber, astride something that looks like a war machine, with wings and a bipedal posture not unlike a chocobo, if it were cross-bred with a tank.
All of it is underscored by organ music, an instrument almost unique in its ability to be at once majestic and sinister; with bonus spooky choirs. We haven't even hit 'play' and the game is already making an impression.
So let's hit New Game, and see how it follows up.
Pan over a snowy landscape, the lights of a city in the distance, nestled between mountains under harsh clouds, and then, the intro scroll.
Okay, we're playing with a whole new deck of cards here.
The games so far have frequently featured ages of lost glory, and often dabbled in the idea that magic used to be greater, for good or ill, but this is the first time we hear about magic having disappeared altogether. It's always lived right alongside technology in FF games past, to the point that it was not always quite clear to what extent an airship is technology and to which it is magic; this is the first time we see the dichotomy spelled out clearly, and technology directly equated with human advancement and flourishing. A world in which magic is new is a bold direction to take the game; and more than that, the way this opening scroll presents this as sinister, like perhaps we shouldn't want magic back because it destroyed the world once, might do so again, and is being used to serve someone's ruthless ambitions, is a dramatic shift in presentation. At the same time, the way the camera moves from a distant view of a peaceful looking town, to a closer view of that town's steampunk aesthetic, to a massive steel tower rising amidst an industrial landscape straight out of Chemical Plant Zone while the prologue goes on about conquest and ambition… I don't think technology is going to be presented as the unambiguous salvation of mankind here.
Back to the sleepy mountain town, we see a view of a rocky outcropping overlooking it, and then, enter our first characters.
IT'S THEM
IT'S THE BOYS!!!
Ahem, sorry.
'Biggs and Wedge' are another of these franchise staples that are progressively being added to the canon of the games. They are, huh, two characters named Biggs and Wedge who go everywhere together, that's basically it. I think they're also usually soldiers? The first time I met them was in FFVIII, where they're goofy soldiers of an antagonist faction who escape/survive fights to come back later, IIRC (it's been a while), in FFVII they're part of Avalanche, and in FFXIV they have a recurring supporting role as airship mechanics and engineers.
Here, it looks like they're soldiers with identical sprites… and they're riding mechs. That's new. Not the idea of mechs, we've had a bunch of them as bosses and random encounters in past games, but this is the first time someone is straight up going around in a piloted robot as part of the story.
Biggs and Wedge are here because an 'Esper,' whatever that is, is rumoured to have been found in this town, encased in ice; these Espers seem to date back to the War of the Magi and so are most likely themselves magical in nature. Biggs dismisses the idea as a 'wild goose chase,' but Wedge says that 'they' (meaning their superiors, most likely) wouldn't have let them use 'her' without good intel.
'Ah, yes,' Biggs replies, turning to look at the green-haired woman riding a mech of her own, who has been completely silent so far, 'our witch. I hear she fried fifty of our Magitek soldiers in three minutes… Makes your skin crawl, doesn't it?' 'Relax,' Wedge replies, 'With that thing on her head, she's a mindless puppet. The girl won't even breathe unless we tell her to.' Then he orders the group to move out, approaching the city from the East, in a town that clearly indicates he's treating the place as potentially hostile.
Boy. Boy hoo boy. There's so much to unpack in so short a dialogue.
'Magitek.' This now-ubiquitous fantasy term (although often rendered as 'magitech') started right here. As I've mentioned before, the games have always had a blurry definition of the line between what is magic and what is tech (leading to fun interpretations of nuclear-powered airships in my own playthrough when deciding to 'read' magic as 'secretly' tech), but this here, combined with the opening scroll, formalizes the idea that there is magic, there is technology, and there is something at the cross between the two - technology powered by magic? Technology which replicates magic? Both? Either way, it likely explains the giant suits of stompy powered armor these guys are riding.
The green-haired girl, who obviously stands apart and stands out from the two soldiers with identical sprites, is revealed as someone of importance - a 'witch', who was able to take down fifty Magitek soldiers on her own; a terrifying power, but one that is entirely under control thanks to some kind of mind control device. Even under such control, her presence makes others uncomfortable for her power and lethality.
These guys are evil. Right? Or at least they're part of an evil organization. It's not necessarily evident at first glance, though the militaristic suits and helmets are ominous in their own right, but with every word out of their mouth it becomes clear these are agents of a dangerous, callous power, one which uses one of the clearest 'obvious signs you're a bad guy' warfare method in the form of enormously lethal young women in mind control devices being ordered around by men. Just for this twist, of the first spoken line on-screen coming out of the mouth of bad guys delivering casual exposition and making plans for an attack on an unsuspecting location, we're doing new things with the medium.
And as the soldiers depart - well, remember how the epilogue of FFV included that montage of the characters riding onto new adventures, which used the background modes and new character sprites in ways that hadn't been used in the rest of the game, as if just to flex? Well, I'm willing to bet that served as a tech demo for what the devs knew how to do now, and they're putting those new techniques to the text in this next shot:
A view from behind of the mechs slowly trudging along across the snowy landscape, towards the town.
This is… fascinating. Because what they're doing here, right, is simulating 3D in an engine that wasn't yet capable of it, yeah?
It's so simple and so clever - the mechs are very complex sprites set against two separate, flat backgrounds. One is the snowy ground, and the other is the 'painted' town in the distance; the first background slides, with the rocks moving towards us and out of the screen while pulling down to reveal the 'distant' slide in the background progressively, so that two flat pictures create the illusion of depth, with the mechs' simple walk cycle set on a loop creating the illusion of 'moving forward.' It's such clever design, and would probably have blown my mind had I been playing this at time of release?
And I can tell the devs thought this was their big money shot to open the game with, because it's where the credits would originally have gone. Now, for whatever reason, the credits aren't there in the Pixel Remaster (I assume some weird interaction of rights and credits in remakes or whatever) so it's just those mechs trudging on against the snow for almost two full minutes, and it still works - though, as a place to put the name of the devs scrolling through like this is an actual theatrical movie, it works even better, and it's a shame the Pixel Remaster doesn't have that. All set to the haunting, melancholy tune of Omen.
Then that slow build up ends, and our soldiers enter the sleepy mining town of Narshe.
The two soldiers fold in with the girl like would any other party members in an FF game, and we assume control of a party of three:
Those sprites don't have the most personality to them but they're good at conveying 'soldiers of an evil empire' lmao.
Okay, it's kind of funny that our 'Magitek Elite' is all of level three, which is an issue that pops up whenever one of these games is like 'you're a certified badass people only take out on serious missions,' although Cecil at least was lv 10 to begin with. Also, ???? knows magic, although her only two spells are Fire and Cure (which, hey, not a bad load out at game start!). All this, however, is gonna be irrelevant for now, because, well.
The game isn't fucking around when it comes to that Magitek armor.
The locals are hiding in their homes, and the streets are full of townsguards and their pets. No attempt seems to have been made by the Empire to which we answer to negotiate access; this is a smash and grab, a raid by a team of highly-equipped operatives to seize the Esper and fuck off, killing anything in their way, and by God kill we will. Because you see, the Magitek armor has its own menu.
Each Beam attack is obviously themed after one of the basic spells of the series, but their power is outrageous for a lv 1 start, dealing over two hundred damage with every hit, easily annihilating any opponent in one hit, at zero resource cost. Of course, the beams are single-target, so there is still room to take damage - except what differentiate Nameless Green-Haired Girl from the other two soldiers, what perhaps marks her 'Magitek Elite' status, is that she has more options than this:
Banisher is fun, basically being a forcible teleport that beams an opponent off to somewhere else, Magitek Missile is a rocket that deals even higher damage than the Beams, Confuser is a status effect inducer, but, hm.
Bio Blast.
Bio is a staple of the games by now. It's an alternate to the elemental spells dealing a different kind of damage, either non-elemental or Poison damage, and deals hefty damage for its rank but inferior to the -ga spells. It's been portrayed as a kind of virus, or maybe a corruptive effect, some kind of organic bacterial attack, but either way it's magic, it's a spell, right?
Bio Blast is just a straight up chemical weapon.
This is a cloud of poison gas. There's no magic flesh-eating virus or Nurglite spell warping biology, ???? is just straight up gassing people. We are doing war crimes now.
And you know what the best/worst part is?
Because none of the Magitek actions have a cost, and because Bio Blast is our only multi-target attack, and because it deals higher damage than all the other attacks, there is no reason not to spam mustard gas in every encounter the moment the button comes up. The incentive to use the most awful weapon in our arsenal at every opportunity is just too strong, and there is no actual consequence for doing so since the game just treats it as any other attack.
The ludonarrative integration, it's beautiful.
Our Magitek team carves through the town, dispatching every encounter along the way. At one point we are ambushed in an alleyway by guards in a flanking maneuver, which the game uses to introduce its 'Surrounded' mechanic, which is an iteration on the 'Back Attack' where we are attacked from both the front and back, with characters facing various ways and having various vulnerabilities as a result (for instance, attacks which hit one full side of the screen only hit one side, so half the enemies are unaffected).
This is clever because it introduces a new mechanics in a diagetic way, and also because the fact that we just blow through them with trivial ease regardless really emphasizes how fucking outmatched these guys are. We are an engine of death. This is Cecil's intro, taken up to 11 by actually playing through a series of absolutely brutally one-sided encounters as we slaughter the local soldiers, their pet wolves, and their 'Megalodoth', which appear to be a kind of unholy mix of smilodon and mastodon.
Having crossed the town and defeated more defenders, we reach the mines.
Save points are back, now looking like little dots of light.
There are further random encounters in the mine, such as Wererats which absorb Bio damage. When we come across an iron grate blocking access to the inner mine, Biggs just rams it with his magitek suit, blowing the way clear and clearly demonstrating the sheer physical power of the armor even beyond its high-tech armament.
The last of the townsguards, who were lying in wait, choose this moment to unleash another of their pet monsters, and the first boss fight of this game:
Before we have time to commit a costly mistake, Biggs interrupts the action and steps forward to deliver a full cutscene dialogue; he recognizes the beast as a 'lightning whelk,' a monster which absorbs lightning and stores it in its shell. Ymir itself has two targetable components, the snail and the shell, so at first this is mostly a case of 'do not use multitarget attacks,' which is easy enough to do, until it does the now-usual 'first boss of the game' gimmick and assumes a counter stance by withdrawing into its shell. So we just heal up, wait for it to come out, and smack it again; the battle is soon over, and we can proceed to our objective.
Entering combat as a way of portraying the approach to the frozen entity. Cute.
Which is when things take a turn. The 'witch' approaches the frozen Esper, which immediately induces a reaction of some kind - the frozen entity starts glowing… And people start vanishing.
In a flicker of light, first Biggs, then Wedge disappear to parts unknown - perhaps teleported away, perhaps something worse - and some kind of resonance cascade starts to occur between the Esper and the girl, with violent results.
Lightning, fire, a flash of light, and the girl is knocked unconscious. Fade to black, and she is waking up in a strange bed, in a house that seems of Narshe architecture.
The girl manages to stagger out of bed, clearly confused, just as an older man enters the house; she groggily asks 'where am I?'
The girl falls to her knees, legs weak and vision wobbly, and the man explains that he removed from her the mind-control device which the soldiers were using on her. He's actually surprised that she's able to get up and walk around so soon after its removal. The girl expresses more confusion, and then realizes that she can't remember a thing.
Yep, we're doing the amnesiac protagonist again, this time with double the drama. The old man isn't surprised; it seems he's dealt with slave crowns before, for whatever reason, and temporary amnesia is an expected side-effect of removal. It's pretty fucked up, although, like, not magnitudes more fucked up than 'enslaving magic users with mind control devices' already is by default. At least the girl remembers one thing though - her name.
That is a pretty slick character panel intro, followed by a name screen, which offers us a chance to change her default name, which is at the same time revealed to us: Terra. The old man is even more impressed that she's able to remember her name so fast but, before he can give her any further information or help, the Narshe soldiers come knocking at his door.
Yeah, so, turns out, they're not so big on the forgetting and forgiving? Terra and her handles stomped through the town with their war crime machines and lethal efficiency, and now that they've heard someone rescued her, they're here to arrest her, and I don't think they are inclined to care much about her lack of agency in the matter.
The extent of Terra's amnesia is clarified when she expresses confusion even at the concepts of 'empire' and 'magitek armor'; she doesn't even remember the previous sequence in the cave, she has genuinely no idea what's happening. With the soldiers banging on the door, there is actually no time to explain (as opposed to 'no time to explain' which in most movies is bullshit), and the old man leads Terra to a back door (but not before I first snatch an Elixir hidden in his grandfather clock, thanks old geezer) and tells her to escape through the mines while he buys her some time.
Cue a frantic escape across catwalk for poor, confused, alone Terra, nearly cornered by guards but able to make it to the mines in time.
I'm just posting this screenshot of the entrance to the mine because I want to emphasize the unreal level of details in these environments compared to previous gtames. Like, this mine entrance has supporting beams, a little lantern, and is set at an isometric angle to give depth to the scene? This is bold new technology in dungeon entrance design.
And we are back in the mines. This time without magitek armor or support from allies. Not that it's too much trouble, as Terra is self-sufficient - her attacking power is sufficient to take many enemies down in one hit, and she has Cure to heal herself by more HP than she actually has.
Also, while we're here, I'd just like to pause briefly to note the music of this dungeon, which is a simple, kinda mysterious mood piece… Right up until the saxophones kick in and it briefly turns into jazz???
Unfortunately, Terra has no idea where she's going and the soldiers are at home in the mines, so they end up cornering her, whereupon she falls through the floor.
That kind of thing just happens, you know.
This fall, combined with the wooziness from the crown's removal, is enough to cause Terra to pass out… And experience a flashback from the very moment the slave crown was put on her.
Kefka.
This name is not unknown to me, although I'll try to set aside what I know of the character and experience him as freshly as possible.
He's definitely in the 'cackling villain' category of antagonists, and looks to have a rather flamboyant manner of dressing, reminiscent of Hein/Amon from FF3 a little. He's the one who personally put the slave crown on Terra for the purposes of controlling her - and, if this distorted flashback is anything to go by, proceeded to test her combat capabilities against Imperial soldiers. Did he throw his own men into the grinder just to collect combat data and test her effectiveness as a weapon? I think so, because the very next scene is Kefka, two as-yet unnamed characters, and the crowned Terra standing behind the Emperor himself as he launches into another of Final Fantasy's new traditions:
Imitation fascism.
It's not just the charismatic leader figure, the heavy industrial aesthetic, the lack of concern for human life and free will, and the militaristic uniform with modern helmets and armor; it's also that Emperor Gestahl promises his soldiers 'the dawn of a new age,' that the power of magic has been returned to them, and that 'We have been chosen!' before declaring the time has come to claim their 'rightful dominion' over the world, which his soldiers all answer with a salute of hands raised.
The Hitler particles are starting strong, is what I'm saying.
As Terra lays unconscious at the bottom of the monster-infested mine, we cut back to the Old Man's house, where a new character is making their entrance:
Oh, okay, so this 'splash screen, turns to black, a poetic description of the character's Deal' beat is going to be our introduction to all our playable characters, sick.
This is Locke, the treasure hunter, adventurer, who claims he is definitely not a thief and stars with the !Steal command, which is just fantastic use of gameplay/characterization.
Locke asks if the old man doesn't have something important for him to do instead of criticizing his choice of profession, to which he is told that indeed, he met 'the girl,' and now the city guard is after her. He then makes a very interesting comment: "The city has the strength to stand up to the Empire, but it won't use it. The people are just too stubbornly independent to join an underground resistance group like the Returners."
So, Narshe does defend itself when under direct attack - but it's not willing to treat that attack as a casus belli to actually declare war against the Empire, even though 'literally armed raid on a defended national resource leaving many victims in the local military' is pretty much literally the example case of a casus belli. That's kind of fascinating, because 'Narshe is too independent to officially join the Empire's opponents' can't be it; an unprovoked attack on their territory must be answered or its a sign of weakness. The only justification for ignoring it, I think, is fear. Narshe doesn't believe it can stand up to the Empire. It doesn't believe the Returners are strong enough to throw in with. It just thinks it can hunker down, thwart Imperial attacks when they occur, and… live it out? Three suits of Magitek armor were enough to pierce through their defenses unscathed, what hope do they have?
These guys are just hoping to fall through the cracks. They're doomed.
Well, in any case. His pleas that Terra was being mind controlled fell on deaf ears (she gassed, like, a lot of people), and so the old man asks Locke to exfiltrate her and take her to a place called 'Figaro' for the time being, and Locke hurries to the mines, where he arrives just before the townsguards do.
Which is when the now-familiar cry of 'Kupo!' echoes, and the Moogles show up, this time not content to wait until halfway through the game to reveal themselves. No, these aren't just fluffy mascots anymore, these are fluffy mascots of action.
And now the game pulls another tricks out of its hat: multi-party play.
Technically we already had this in V with the party splitting to tackle Fork Tower, but this is considerably different. The game gives us three parties, one composed of Locke and three Moogles, the other composed of four Moogles. Each enemy sprite on the dungeon screen advances slowly, a few tiles at a time, but if they reach Terra, we lose. So we actually have to move each party independently to cut off the various enemy groups, and we have to do this while managing HP - each party individually only has enough HP to survive a couple of the Megalodoth's Snowstorm move, meaning we have to actually swap between parties using L or X to spread out the hurt.
It's not difficult, and it's mechanically kind of rudimentary, but no wonder the company's next big idea (other than FFVII) would be a Tactics game with grid-based movement combat.
Look at their cute names.
And the moogles are actually decently effective companion who can hold their own in a fight! Some of them have higher HP than Locke, or better attack - one of them, named 'Mog' even has the !Dance command; he starts out not knowing any Dances but after winning one fight, unlocks Twilight Requiem, which causes a cave-in to deal heavy damage to an opponent. Could this presage a Moogle party member? That'd be novel, although Moogle were a playable race in Tactics Advance at least, so not shocking.
With the power of love and moogles on my side, we quickly defeat the horde of prehistoric beast and get to the Guard Leader, who proves not to be underestimated (he is able to KO Locke while I'm busy fishing for a successful Steal and get a Mithril Knife off him) but is eventually brought down under our combined assaults, freeing the way to the surface.
Locke thanks the Moogles and grabs Terra, heading out of the mind, using a switch to open a secret wall to the outside. As he's busy, Terra wakes up again.
She honestly seems surprised by it.
Terra explains she has amnesia, and Locke tells her he wouldn't abandon someone so vulnerable to their own devices and promises to stay by her side until she's regained her memory, provisionally establishing himself as a Good Dude.
The duo escapes through the secret path, and onto the snowy outside, at the edge of Narshe.
The beginners' school is the only building we can access - trying to enter the town predictably results in guards spotting us and giving alarm. But at least the school offers a regenerative bucket of water, a save point, and basic advice.
As usual with FF tutorials, what's interesting is as much what changed as what's stayed the same. It is clear this game isn't using a Job system, but FFIV's static character feels like it would be a step backwards, so I wonder what compromise it will strike?
It looks like an initial answer is provided at the beginners' school - the scholars introduce us to the concept of 'Relics'; these are items which, when equipped, grant new abilities - for instance, Sprint Shoes grant doubled walking speed, a Gauntlet lets us equip a weapon in two hands for increased damage, the Knight's Code allows the user to cover others in combat, and the Dragoon Boots allow us to use jump attacks.
…
Okay, it's literally job skills from FFV. They've dissociated them from actual jobs, and made them equippable items, with each character being able to equip up to two Relics. That's… interesting. No idea how well it'll work as a replacement for jobs, we'll find out.
Another mechanic that is newly introduced is that, when characters are 'critically wounded' (I assume in red HP), they may occasionally perform powerful, special attacks with a unique name.
Ooooh. You know, we're six games in at this point, and it's interesting that we've yet to see Limit Breaks? Like, they're such a staple of the series in my mind, the idea of characters being pushed to a climactic moment where they bust out a personal super move - that hasn't shown up yet; I know they'll be there by FFVII, and now I wonder if this isn't an early iteration of the concept.
Most of the rest of the beginner's school covers basics for people new to FF, so it's time to head out to the world map!
This is a chunky world. I doubt we'll be seeing merged planet shenanigans here, although this is still a relatively low amount of locations for an FF game all told, so I expect another midgame twist.
Incidentally…
Terra's magic is no joke; even a simple Fire spell, omni-cast, still deals enough damage to wipe out a whole encounter. At least so far it's not looking like a 'why does anyone care about magic in story when it has such poor mechanics in gameplay' situation.
Together, Locke and Terra head south, through a desert, and to Figaro, which appears to be a castle. And it looks like we're expected!
Split for image count. This first update is kind of a mammoth.
…actual in-game chocobo military cavalry? Hell yeah, love me that kind of detail. After all, why replace the horse with domesticated terror birds in your fantasy setting if you won't go the full length and have cavalry ride them into battle?
Figaro Castle is home to two basic item shops, including one which uses 'tools' like an Autocrossbow, which I assume are foreshadowing to an upcoming new party member. The soldiers also describe the castle as 'incredibly technologically' advanced, which is an odd thing to say about a stone castle, although…
Okay, see how the castle is full of crenelated 'towers' that can't accommodate a human presence but have visible fans? Yeah, those aren't towers, those are turbines. I'm betting Figaro Castle can fly.
Finally, we enter the throne room, and Locke steps forward to introduce us to the man sitting on the throne.
…okay, it's starting to look kind of suspicious how much attention Terra is getting from other people who seem to already know things about her. I guess 'captured Imperial magitek soldier' is noteworthy in itself, but…
The King approaches to examine Terra, who asks him who the fuck he is; he apologizes for his ungentlemanly behavior, and introduces himself as…
…please do not be this game's Edge.
Okay, really interesting that he's immediately presented as 'Imperial ally and champion of the technological revolution,' considering the Empire is, ostensibly, the bad guys so far. And a key part in the technological advancements of this age? Very interesting.
Locke asks if Terra is surprised he's tight with an actual King, which honestly? Good point, especially one ostensibly allied with the Empire. Edgar then tells Terra that she can rest here as much as she needs, and need not fear, because, as an 'Imperial soldier,' Figaro and the Empire are allies, so it's his prerogative to protect her. Which is extra suspicious, because the Empire definitely wouldn't want their mind controlled witch to be allowed to just roam free and healthy, and Locke is definitely not an Imperial ally himself, so what's going on?
Terra may talk slowly and with a lot of hesitation, but that doesn't mean she isn't sharp - she, too, has noticed that something doesn't add up, and is wondering why Edgar is helping her, immediately suspicious that this is because of her 'abilities.'
He is quick to deny these allegations with…
Heavy sigh.
IT'S THE WOMANIZING ROYAL HITTING ON EVERYTHING THAT MOVES.
Well. I will give the game one thing in this regard:
He gets instantly and totally shut down and Terra doesn't even realize she's doing it.
She literally left him on read. He brought his best move and she just blank-faced through it all. Just staring unblinking like 'Yes, and?" She did the flirting equivalent of no-selling a punch to the face, just flatly staring staring at Edgar's fist like "Huh." Like, I could pass it off as her still being out of sorts enough that she just doesn't register the flirting attempt as a flirting attempt, but the thing is, after he leaves, she does recognize it for what it is and just shrugs.
We stan an ace queen.
Anyway, I will gloss over most of the castle visit, which is interesting in its own right, but this is already going to be a double post as it is; the scholars of the castle talk about the War of the Magi and the long-lost art of magic, while, huuuh, the women talk about how much the King keeps hitting on every woman he sees, 'young, old, pretty or plain,' including their high priestess. This is a lot and I am not a fan. In the dungeons are a number of criminals awaiting jail, including-
NOT FALLING FOR THAT AGAIN.
Actually finding the High Priestess and talking to her reveals that Edgar has a twin brother, Sabin, who spurned the throne and left years ago to find adventure; this plays a cutscene in which Sabin is introduced on a black screen, foreshadowing that he, too, will become part of the party in the future. I like this, this is a cool device. And-
OKAY, NO. TOO FAR. WHAT THE FUCK, GAME?
I… think this is referencing a narrative trope in which a young character who has a puppy crush on an older character and that older character jokingly says that they'll marry when they're older which they don't actually mean and is just a way to avoid making the younger character feel bad? I think I've seen that joked about in anime at times?
But no. Not here in the context of Edgar's one character trait so far being 'absolute womanizer without a shred of self-consciousness.' No. Not okay.
Urgh.
Okay let's move on.
We also learn more about the state of the world; the Gestahlian Empire has conquered 'all three nations on the Southern continent,' and even though they are ostensibly Gestahl's allies, the Figaroans are all too aware that it's only a matter of time before he makes his way up there and they join his conquest.
Yeah. It looks like they're in a similar position to Narshe, only instead of making a show of independence, they overtly allied themselves with the Empire, perhaps hoping to more easily navigate the initial pressures it'll impose on them - but they're quite aware that the final conclusion to any such 'alliance' is subjugation.
Once our inspection of the castle and interview of its inhabitants is done, and it does look like a place we might actually find peace and shelter at, we return to King Edgar - unfortunately, our peace will be short-lived, as a messenger appears to warn that 'someone from the Empire' is here to see him. To which the King says: "Kefka, no doubt!"
I can't quite describe what follows with words. In order to understand, you will need to listen to the fucking Danny Elfman-ass tune that plays over the next character introduction:
This is truly one of the character introductions of all time. Just. This goofy-ass jester shows up recriminating about everything he's made to do, then has two soldiers clean his boots of sands for him, all while making exaggerated expressions and wearing one of the most absurd costumes in the series so far. What an entrance.
Kefka barges into the castle, bowling guards out of the way, and we assume control of Edgar alone as he goes to meet with him. Interrogating the soldiers before talking to Kefka himself shows just how little the Empire thinks of their alliance with Figaro ('An alliance? With this miserable little sandpit? Don't make me laugh!' Notably, this is not Kefka talking, but some soldier to the King of an allied nation). As for Kefka…
So that's what Kefka is. Not a jester (...obviously), but a court mage. Which could mean anything from 'funky prestidigitator who's hoodwinked everyone into giving him status beyond what his real power warrants' to 'one of the few people in the setting with actual magic who's treated as a high-value asset no matter his eccentricities because of such rare power.'
Kefka responds that his interest in the region is merely that 'a girl of no importance' escaped the Empire, and that they heard she'd found refuge here. In a canny game of I-know-you-know-I-know-but-do-you-know-that-I-know-you-know,' Edgar openly asks if this girl of no importance might have to do with the 'witch' that has, equally, been rumored about.
So that's why everyone's so cagey around Terra, then. She is a known quantity. They know the Empire has a powerful witch, and they just found her, only she doesn't know who and what she is, which puts them in a precarious situation as to how to deal with her.
Kefka dismisses the allegation, saying that the girl herself is irrelevant, she just stole something of minor value (then why did you travel a whole continent to fetch it, Court Mage?) Edgar, for once putting his playboy persona to good use, say that there are so many girls here, how could he keep track of them all?
Kefka insinuates that bad things will happen to Figaro if the girl is not surrendered, Edgar feigns ignorance, and the jester departs with an evil, ominous cackle. Edgar, smart enough to realize that this doesn't sound good, joins up with Locke and Terra; he asks Locke to take Terra to her room so she can rest while he makes preparations with his chancellor in the event of Bad Things happening.
…okay, the fact that Locke insists on this terminology when I have been using his Steal command for a good half hour now hasn't stopped being funny yet. Yeah boy, you steal treasures, only treasures that are kind of attached to people, hmm?
Locke then immediately spills the beans: Edgar is only pretending to support the Empire on the surface, while in truth he is collaborating with an underground resistance group called the Returners (what do they want to return to, I wonder). Lock has been serving as their go-between, so they go back some ways. And I suspect Kefka knows this, or at least strongly suspects it, considering his attitude in their conversation.
Terra protests that he's telling her this even though she's an Imperial soldier, which Locke is quick to dismiss, insisting that 'they were just using you,' which, granted, mind control, I'm inclined to agree until we find out that Terra was Emperor Gestahl's granddaughter before she lost her memories or some similar twist.
This is interesting, though. We've had an amnesiac protagonist in Galuf, and we've had mind control survivors in Kain, but this is the first time we have a character who's suffering from a kind of… cognitive impairment as a result of mind control? Terra didn't just wake up a blank slate but otherwise perfectly spry and quick-witted like Galuf; she finds it hard to work through the fog, to piece things together, to make sense of her situation and find a path forward. It's a potentially fruitful venue for character drama, although it does leave our female main character to be kind of… pulled around by others as she lacks direction or a complete understanding of her own circumstances. But what it does is really sell the horror of the slave crown, a device of brute psychic force which barrels through the brain, knocking over everything and not caring about the damage it caused. A brutal device, for a brutal empire.
"Try not to think too hard right now," Locke says, "You'll know what to do when the time comes."
Then he leaves the room, and when she's alone, Terra wonders: "How will I know which choice is right?"
Yeah, this game is already signing checks in terms of themes and character drama, and it better hope it delivers because god that is some dense opening.
All seems set for a night of rest and preparation, planning their next move before Kefka can act.
Which is probably exactly what Kefka had anticipated, and why he's coming back much earlier than expected and with a much more blunt approach to negotiating prisoner transfers:
…yeah. That's the thing with Empire.
Edgar tried to play the game the subtle way; evasive arguments, not committing to a hard denial or an agreement to cooperate, playing off his Bruce Wayne persona, relying on the Empire and Figaro's alliance and Kefka being in foreign territory and supposed to abide by its rules, trying to drag things out on diplomatic terrain and play cloak and dagger.
So Kefka just set his whole castle on fucking fire. Because that's what he can do, what he gets to do as an agent of Empire. Does he know for certain Terra is here? Maybe, maybe not, but he's confident enough and contemptuous enough of Figaro's worth as an ally that he's willing to risk burning them to the ground on a gamble that she is, and they'll deliver her rather than burn.
At this stage, it's hard to say if Kefka is actually an unhinged psychopath who acts way too rashly with the authority given to him, or a vicious but pragmatic agent of empire who understands the (lack of) limits of his power and authority. I mean, he's wearing Joker makeup, so 90% it's the first, but from this scene alone I'd be willing to believe this is more cold-blooded than insane.
Did he set the castle on fire using magic, or weapons? We don't know, at this stage, the fire seems to have taken everyone by surprise; but if nothing else Kefka is completely unafraid of standing in the middle of the flames, demanding that Edgar bring him the girl; Edgar tries to claim again that he doesn't know who he means, to which Kefka tells him to 'enjoy the barbecue.' Understanding that the court mage won't back down, Edgar decides to finally act.
Kefka mockingly asks if Edgar had a change of heart after all, and Edgar declares it seems he has no choice after all…
…before jumping off his balcony onto a pack of waiting chocobo.
Kefka, you idiot.
There are three chocobos.
Classic adventure movie move. You could see this in a western, a pirate movie, a Robin Hood adaptation… Of course then there would be horses instead of domesticated terror birds, which would make the scene objectively inferior. Final Fantasy stays winning.
Of course, as I watch this, something is nagging at me. Sure, Edgar isn't just saving his own skin, but also Terra and Locke, but what of Figaro? The castle is still burning, and Kefka definitely looks like the type who would just let it burn out of spite and that so no one in the future thinks they can outsmart him and still save any hostage he has.
Which is when I laugh out loud when I realize the trick the game pulled on me. I was almost there, but I got fooled.
This isn't a flying castle. It's a diving castle.
It escaped the flames by retracting, closing all openings, and straight up burying underground, leaving poor Kefka just stranded in the middle of the big empty like an idiot.
Flawless comedy slash dramatic reversal.
Unfortunately, those two imperial soldiers Kefka brought with him also survived, and they didn't come unarmed.
Two imperial soldiers in magitek armor. Which, thanks to the game's expertly used opening, I am well aware have incredible offensive capabilities. So I pull out all the stops, using Edgar's !Tools command to deploy a deadly autocrossbow attack against all enemies, and using Terra's Fire spell-
Hold up.
Oh my god.
Edgar freaks the hell out because he has never seen magic. Even the most basic spell is the stuff of legend to him. Locke tells him 'yeah, Terra's pretty cool' and Edgar insist that dude, this is fucking magic. And the funniest part is?
LOCKE HAD NO IDEA IT WAS MAGIC. HE JUST SAW THAT GIRL LIGHT STUFF ON FIRE WITH HER MIND AND HE JUST ROLLED WITH IT
'Yeah I guess she probably threw a molotov cocktail while I wasn't looking' LOCKE WHAT IS IN YOUR BRAIN
God.
This is a way more somber and dramatic game than FFV so far but it's not like it doesn't know how to pull absolute comedic swerves that hit you out of nowhere.
This then immediately turns serious again (but also still comedic, because this is all happening while the Magitek Armor suits are just hanging out in the background, chilling) as Locke and Edgar whisper to each other and Terra turns around, looking embarrassed or ashamed - which immediately causes the two men to apologize for 'making such a big deal out of it', and that they're not trying to put pressure or scrutiny on her. Which is nice! Terra clearly has confidence issues born out of not knowing shit about squat and everyone acting weird around her, so Locke and Edgar deliberately setting aside their obvious curiosity to affirm straightforward trust in her is of actual, genuine comfort to her.
Of course this turns into them getting a crush on her. It's always with these games.
And with this, the battle resumes and, between Auto-Crossbow, Fire, and healing items, the armors are thankfully quickly defeated, and the trio escape on their chocobos, leaving Kefka stranded behind to angrily scream at them.
That's it, that's the line.
Riding free across the desert, Locke is thrilled at their victory, whereas Terra is ambivalent, asking, 'Where those bad people?' She lacks the references to know who is who and what is what - she defended herself, and her new companions, against terrifying death machines out to kill them, but that were piloted by people. This… may be the first time an FF game has had a character express actual doubt at murdering unnamed mooks, at least ones who weren't literal innocents like the Mysidians of FFIV?
Edgar asks if Terra would like to meet the leader of the Returners, saying that magic is going to be key to winning the war against the Empire. Terra protests that she doesn't know any more than they do about how her power works or where they come from, they just work, coming naturally to her with no idea as to their origin. Which is where Edgar has a rather unfortunate choice of words:
Which immediately causes Terra to stop her chocobo dead in its tracks.
Heh. 'I guess your abilities rank a distant third,' hm, Edgar? I don't know to what extent the playboy act is an act, but it's definitely at least partly pretense, which might make him less skeevy, but not necessarily less shady. And here, the inherent implications in his words - that because Terra has these powers, she must not be human - is the worst thing he could say to someone who was literally dehumanized and turned into a puppet at most two days ago.
Social roll fumble, right there.
At least he has the good grace to immediately recognize his mistake, and apologize. Terra asks what she should do, and Edgar says the Empire will come for them, wanting her powers for their own, and then the world will be theirs. Then he asks if she wants to understand her powers, and tells her the rebellion's leader, Banon, might help her find out more about why she has them. Locke pleads - 'Please, Edgar is right.'
This is not a ringing call to adventure. It's not a group of new friends united by strong bonds, heading into a grand new horizon full of promise. It's two young men afraid for the fate of their nations and the world, having now with them what is simultaneously perhaps their only hope to win the war but also a person with feelings who is confused and afraid, and it's young woman who's least bad option to find out literally anything about who and what she is and why she has these powers is to follow two people who seem to care and want to help her, but who might also see in them, beyond her own self, a weapon that might be wielded, just as the Empire used her.
And with this, not vibrant call of adventure, but instead tentative and fragile hope, we open again on the World Map, this time riding a chocobo, and we can end this first update.
OH COME THE FUCK ON YOU CAN'T JUST INTRODUCE A WHOLE NEW STYLE OF CONTROLLED ANIMATION JUST AS I'M CLOSING THE PO-
First Opinions
This was, give or take, the opening hour of Final Fantasy VI.
Jesus it was a lot. This felt even more dense than FFV's opening; there my drive forward was mostly down to really really wanting to unlock the job system before my first break, there were plenty of potential narrative pauses. Here, there really didn't seem like there was any. I was, at every moment, pulled towards the next story beat, wanting to see what happened next. And I think that might have caused me to miss stuff - I think I might actually have been able to leave Figaro Castle before meeting with Edgar again and the cutscene that triggered it being set on fire? Maybe worth checking out.
But the narrative pull, the intrigue, the - the fucking music which has been good in all five Remasters so far but here is really and truly clicking for me, it's all absolutely masterful. The aesthetic, the set designs, the sprite work, the mock-3D, fuck. Everything (EXCEPT FOR EVERYTHING SURROUNDING EDGAR'S ATTITUDE TO WOMEN) about this is so, so good.
Yeah, no, I'm already hooked. Which is why it took me basically my entire Saturday writing this 9k words, 100 pictures mammoth.
I'll have to cut it down for the next updates. Hopefully things are less dense going forward (notably there was very little dungeoneering in this opening hour, it was almost pure undiluted story and narratively-relevant battles).
When people say FFVI has a good claim to being the absolute peak of the franchise? They're not exaggerating.
While it'd be a lie to say it maintains this pacing throughout the entire game, it sustains it for far longer than you'd think, and even its slower bits serve a purpose.
The original English translation went with this line, which is even better.
Really, the Woolsey translation is famous for being incredibly weird and quirky in a good way, and a lot of turn-of-phrases from it made it into the modern ones.
The opening to VI is such an absolute swerve it had me boggling when I first played it, and even now replaying it so I know what to say and feel during the LP it struck me by just how wild it was willing to get immediately. The Magitek Armor stuff was out there, but the setup of you learning how the Gestahlian Empire operates by taking part in a raid on a neutral town is really something. It's such an incredibly hostile way to start things out, but it definitely kicked my ass in gear knowing that from the moment we took control of Terra we weren't safe and had to rush to Figaro.
Another mechanic that is newly introduced is that, when characters are 'critically wounded' (I assume in red HP), they may occasionally perform powerful, special attacks with a unique name.
The game won't ever explain the exact mechanics, but from what I remember whenever a character is in red health they'll get a status called "Critical" which allows their normal "Attack" command to occasionally perform one of these powerful attacks instead. It's really rare though, something like 1/20 chance? And never within the first 30 seconds of a battle, to prevent cheese.
Fun fact that I hope I'm remembering right, in the original versions of the game, the salute was one-armed. I think you can still see the one-armed salute in situations like when the soldiers are cleaning off Kefka's boots, but it was changed for that flashback for obvious reasons.
I can't quite describe what follows with words. In order to understand, you will need to listen to the fucking Danny Elfman-ass tune that plays over the next character introduction:
And with this, not vibrant call of adventure, but instead tentative and fragile hope, we open again on the World Map, this time riding a chocobo, and we can end this first update.
This is a cloud of poison gas. There's no magic flesh-eating virus or Nurglite spell warping biology, ???? is just straight up gassing people. We are doing war crimes now.
And you know what the best/worst part is?
Because none of the Magitek actions have a cost, and because Bio Blast is our only multi-target attack, and because it deals higher damage than all the other attacks, there is no reason not to spam mustard gas in every encounter the moment the button comes up. The incentive to use the most awful weapon in our arsenal at every opportunity is just too strong, and there is no actual consequence for doing so since the game just treats it as any other attack.
It's not just the charismatic leader figure, the heavy industrial aesthetic, the lack of concern for human life and free will, and the militaristic uniform with modern helmets and armor; it's also that Emperor Gestahl promises his soldiers 'the dawn of a new age,' that the power of magic has been returned to them, and that 'We have been chosen!' before declaring the time has come to claim their 'rightful dominion' over the world, which his soldiers all answer with a salute of hands raised.
The Hitler particles are starting strong, is what I'm saying.
So, there are a few places where this version of the game specifically had extra censorship, and this is one of them. In the SNES version, the sprites only raise one of their hands, which given the limitations of sprite art, you know what that looks like.
Fun fact that I hope I'm remembering right, in the original versions of the game, the salute was one-armed. I think you can still see the one-armed salute in situations like when the soldiers are cleaning off Kefka's boots, but it was changed for that flashback for obvious reasons.
But the narrative pull, the intrigue, the - the fucking music which has been good in all five Remasters so far but here is really and truly clicking for me, it's all absolutely masterful. The aesthetic, the set designs, the sprite work, the mock-3D, fuck. Everything (EXCEPT FOR EVERYTHING SURROUNDING EDGAR'S ATTITUDE TO WOMEN) about this is so, so good.
Yeah, no, I'm already hooked. Which is why it took me basically my entire Saturday writing this 9k words, 100 pictures mammoth.
I definitely have more to say about Edgar when it's not such a spoiler, but you've already seen that there's more than meets the eye there.
And man, I was hoping you'd start talking about the music when you started this game, but it's a testement to the raw powerlevel on display here that it actually got you to do that.
Really, the Woolsey translation is famous for being incredibly weird and quirky in a good way, and a lot of turn-of-phrases from it made it into the modern ones.
I will certainly say this for FF6: it is clear that the team making it had learned the SNES inside and out; the game is lightyears ahead of its predecessors in the visual department.
The opening hour is very strong, setting up the mystery and adventure shenanigans to come.
'EDGAR, YOU PINHEAD! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO LIVE IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE?' is my favorite Kefka line. Watching the game's villain throw a tantrum over being forced to hike through the desert is absolutely hysterical.
The original English translation went with this line, which is even better.
Really, the Woolsey translation is famous for being incredibly weird and quirky in a good way, and a lot of turn-of-phrases from it made it into the modern ones.
I guess they changed it to be more fitting with the setting, but not so much as to ruin a great line.
Another translation note - the name Terra is an invention of Woolsey. In the Japanese its Tina, but he figured her narrative role needed an exotic, or at least non-mundane, name, which Tina might have been in Japanese but wasnt in English.
Edit: another note, while the characters start out low level, the game conveys their narrative strength at this point in other ways. Edgar's starting weapon is a Mythril Sword, which was mid game kit in most previous titles IIRC.
