Yeah, Terra has magic which is just absolutely the Last Word in this period of time, while Edgar has fantastic armaments And a reckless number of gadgets that doesn't lose out by much. Meanwhile, Locke is just... A regular dude with fast hands and the ability to think on his feet. Not bad traits but it does mean he's a step behind the other members of the party so far.
Everyone's level is low but the game is not balanced. Some people are just straight up Stronger than others, and the narrative mostly backs that up. Terra mostly defines the top of the mountain in narrative and mechanics alike, and there aren't really serious contenders to that throne for quite some time. Magic is rightfully treated as a game changer.
Speaking of what miiight be a Woolseyism?
I dunno since you do screenshots, but as I remember it on the SNES, when Locke does his stuttering 'M-M-M-M-MAGIC!?!' Line?
On the SNES, it was the M, then it did more Ms but scrolling down through the text box to recreate a stuttering effect.
And since you mentioned it- the music of Narshe, mines and all, is more or less as I recall, albeit perhaps expanded due to not having the SNES limitations, at least as far as I'm aware…But I'm sure others will speak up if I'm off in this regard.
Speaking of what miiight be a Woolseyism?
I dunno since you do screenshots, but as I remember it on the SNES, when Locke does his stuttering 'M-M-M-M-MAGIC!?!' Line?
On the SNES, it was the M, then it did more Ms but scrolling down through the text box to recreate a stuttering effect.
And since you mentioned it- the music of Narshe, mines and all, is more or less as I recall, albeit perhaps expanded due to not having the SNES limitations, at least as far as I'm aware…But I'm sure others will speak up if I'm off in this regard.
Well yeah, the Sax playing in Narshe was definitely not in the original version. That said, the music thus far barring some very minor changes has been pretty faithful to the original game. At least as far as I've played so far.
I talked before about how FF Summons and Bosses can bear little if any resemblance to their mythical namesakes, but a snail starter boss sharing the name of the Norse giant whose corpse was used to create the world was something I'd completely forgotten about. Er, well Ymir was an ice giant at the beginning of the world, and FF6 Ymir is a giant snail in an icy location at the beginning of the game... I guess?
Speaking of the Narshe Mines, I figure that sudden shift to Jazz in the OST could've been to establish a Noir-esque mood though we'll be coming across much more noir-ish locations later on.
Eh whatever, it's jazz. If you're trying to explain it, you'll never understand~
I talked before about how FF Summons and Bosses can bear little if any resemblance to their mythical namesakes, but a snail starter boss sharing the name of the Norse giant whose corpse was used to create the world was something I'd completely forgotten about. Er, well Ymir was an ice giant at the beginning of the world, and FF6 Ymir is a giant snail in an icy location at the beginning of the game... I guess?
Speaking of the Narshe Mines, I figure that sudden shift to Jazz in the OST could've been to establish a Noir-esque mood though we'll be coming across much more noir-ish locations later on.
Eh whatever, it's jazz, if you're trying to explain it, you'll never understand~
Its pretty simple - if I'm interpreting it right, its there to convey melancholy and loneliness, since Terra is feeling lost and confused at that point and has nobody to help her.
And since you mentioned it- the music of Narshe, mines and all, is more or less as I recall, albeit perhaps expanded due to not having the SNES limitations, at least as far as I'm aware…But I'm sure others will speak up if I'm off in this regard.
Well yeah, the Sax playing in Narshe was definitely not in the original version. That said, the music thus far barring some very minor changes has been pretty faithful to the original game. At least as far as I've played so far.
Pretty sure this isn't a spoiler, but pretty consistently in the Pixel Remaster version of the VI soundtrack, they are typically quite close to the original version, but often have second or third loop embellishments, with the occasional added section. The overworld theme in particular has some nice countermelodies that come in the second time through.
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.
This was so, so far ahead of its contemporaries that it's not even fair. Also, make a note of this presentation, you might want to go back to it a couple times in the future.
In the original in SNES, the upper background was in absolute darkness until the town came into view. Still, even with that clearer image in the PR, two decades later, and this scene still sends shivers down people's back. BRRRRRRRRRRR.
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.
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.
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???
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.
Narshe has a couple things going for them: they got resources, material wealth, and the capacity and skill to use it in practical ways.
Unfortunately, they're also a very, very remote place. They're practically situated in the asscrack of the world, when you compare the positions of towns in the world, plus the venues of travel between them. They're also, as stated, very independent, which gives them an isolationism vibe in that they don't want to deal with the rest of the world, or in this context, ally with other groups against a common enemy. Which, as already demonstrated by the previous war crimes, is... yeah, they're not in a good spot and they don't want to admit it.
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.
Quite functional, actually. There are of course some characters more appropiate for one relic or another, but you can both ignore the "job" relics or distribute them in completely bizarre ways. In both cases the game won't penalize you. Pretty flexible, if subdued.
Terra's magic is no joke [...] 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.
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.
Hmm, yes. Some people have read that dialogue as Edgar being willing to hit on children, but considering later content and poor Wolsey doing what he could with a stick and a rock, I'd say it would make more sense as the kid expecting and maybe hoping he'd give her the same attention he did to the adults. And Edgar letting her down gently because, well, KID.
Which still isn't great, but is miles better than the alternative.
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.
Everything coming up before was great. But this entire scene?
The bad choice of words? The way they animate Terra stopping and the others slowly round up back to her? The palpable, utter feeling of dehumanization? The boys trying to fix it up? Understating the fact this is not a story about plucky happy go lucky kids and everyone is scared?
Magitek armor was, I think, the first introduction I ever had as a child to mecha as a concept, and I was hooked from day 1 on the chonky giant robot aesthetic. It has been decades, and that has not wavered one iota. Chonkbot bestbot.
...
anyway, FF6, woo! Here we go! There's other contenders for "Best SNES RPG" out there, but most of the really impressive ones (Seiken Densetsu 3, Tales of Phantasia, Live a Live, etc.) never got an official english translation (at minimum until well after the SNES era ended), so for us folks stateside/english speaking, it and Chrono Trigger were pretty much the creme de la creme, the magnum opus of the console's final years. Game is an absolute unit of an experience, and the intro sequence in particular is just damn. These were folks in the last years of a console's lifetime and the experience and design refinement that entails shows.
Particular shoutout to the enemy design, though. I may never forget those initial bunnies, and in general the designs throughout have a lot going on.
also i can't remember if they go ahead and give you the chocobo theme immediately or on the next time you ride them but chocobo theme
It's the next time. Incidentally, I think I should mention that Chocobos also let you avoid random encounters on the world map.
I don't think I'll have many tips like this but in case this is too much I'll spoiler them now and in future.
I can't tell you just how excited I am to read your experience with this game. It's the one I have the most nostalgia for, and I sincerely hope that you end up loving it just as much as I do when you finish.
See, with most other characters, differences from the concept art are usually a matter of detail, or sprite limits - Galuf's mustache looking like a beard, for instance.
With Terra, on the other hand, her sprite very clearly has green hair. Her concept art, on the other hand...
Has very clearly natural-looking blonde hair.
This has caused problems for later versions - do they go faithful to the concept art they're drawing on for her more detailed outfit and hairstyle, or do they go faithful to the sprite that everybody remembers? In the end, Dissidia went with the concept art and made its default Terra blonde, with the green hair as an alt-costume.
Needless to say this also causes dilemmas for cosplayers in terms of which wig they want to go with.
I have never, in decades of searching, heard a satisfying answer as to why they made that change at the seeming last minute from blonde to green. I mean, it's not like they lacked the palette for blonde hair, Edgar's right there.
I have never, in decades of searching, heard a satisfying answer as to why they made that change at the seeming last minute from blonde to green. I mean, it's not like they lacked the palette for blonde hair, Edgar's right there.
Well, I know I'm the outlier here in not really caring for Amano's art, but thankfully there's loads of fan art, and Omicron has seen Terra's 'surprised' sprite, meaning this one is fair game already:
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.
Mythril is typically midgame, yeah, most memorably in FF2 where you literally go on a narrative quest to get mythril armaments for the resistance as your first big job to make up for the edge the imperial soldiers have from their mythril armanents.
In that regard, we find ourselves in a clearly more advanced world, where the evil empire is not using something so crude as mythril when they throw around magitek armor and similar and our underdog heroes just kinda have mythril gear instead of having to find a source to earn it.
You're probably confused by the early Western dubbing. Instead of localizing FF2 and FF3 (or FF5, for the matter) during the SNES era, Nintendo of America localized FF4 and FF6, and so American readers wouldn't ask why the skipped numbers, renamed them FF2 and FF3 respectively.
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???
Technically it started being jazz when the bass first popped in, but nobody cares what the bass is doing in jazz
Also, you're stealing my schtick!
Music of Final Fantasy will resume SOON(tm). Had a big concert yesterday so with that out of the way I can finish up with FFV and then bust out the score for a deep dive into a masterpiece.
While I'm thinking about it, because you touched on it regarding the opening moments when you first turn on the cartridge start up the game: FFVI's instrumentation.
FFVI has a really varied sound palette, using quite a lot of instruments to really great effect. It has three choices that really stand out to me - its use of organ, synths, and winds. These are the foundation upon which FFVI's score is built.
Just putting that out there now, because I will be talking about this a lot.
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.
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:
Kefka's theme is IMO the ultimate example of how dramatically music can impact storytelling in movies and games. It absolutely fits his character to a tee and he wouldn't be anywhere near as memorable or good a character if he had a generic theme instead.
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.
Also, behold the first context-sensitive cutscene! IIR this cutscene only happens if you use magic in this specific fight (or maybe until you reach the next town), which means this cutscene is actually missable.
OKAY, NO. TOO FAR. WHAT THE FUCK, GAME?
...
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.
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?
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.
Yeah, there's a fan interpretation of Edgar (which I personally subscribe to), which makes his behavior more tolerable. You're basically on the right track for it, but I won't say more because I don't want to bias you too much.
Also, behold the first context-sensitive cutscene! IIR this cutscene only happens if you use magic in this specific fight (or maybe until you reach the next town), which means this cutscene is actually missable.
I don't know if it's changed in the Pixel Remaster or any other ports, but at least in the SNES version the cutscene actually happens the first time you use magic with Locke and Edgar in the party, in any battle.
So there were a few playthroughs where I forgot to use magic (any magic, Cure works as well as Fire) until a fair amount of time later and then Locke and Edgar freak out over Terra magically incinerating a Leaf Bunny.
I know it happens even after the next town, but I've not seen it happen after the next dungeon area, so your point that it's a missable cutscene still holds.
On mobile so I'll do the proper reply when I get home, but a quick note (while I'm waiting for the bus):
I don't know if it's changed in the Pixel Remaster or any other ports, but at least in the SNES version the cutscene actually happens the first time you use magic with Locke and Edgar in the party, in any battle.
So there were a few playthroughs where I forgot to use magic (any magic, Cure works as well as Fire) until a fair amount of time later and then Locke and Edgar freak out over Terra magically incinerating a Leaf Bunny.
I know it happens even after the next town, but I've not seen it happen after the next dungeon area, so your point that it's a missable cutscene still holds.
Yeah, it's unlikely that a player will miss it but the fact that it's missable at all is a very really interesting design decision. Theoretically a player could just be mashing A to auto attack everything to death and they would completely miss this.
Well yeah, the Sax playing in Narshe was definitely not in the original version. That said, the music thus far barring some very minor changes has been pretty faithful to the original game. At least as far as I've played so far.
