Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Finished: Final Fantasy Tactics]
- Thread starter Omicron
- Start date
- Let's Play
- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- Singular They
It's interesting that Final Fantasy chose to use Biggs Darklighter and Wedge Antilles from Star Wars as their "inseparable duo" recurring names, given (at least in the Original Trilogy) Biggs and Wedge don't really have much to do with each other apart from both being Rebel pilots: Biggs was Luke's childhood friend and the go-to example of "Biggs got out of this middle of nowhere planet Tatooine and joined the Imperial Academy, why can't I" whining by Luke. Wedge was a random pilot who happened to be in the same Red Squadron as Luke, and then was lucky enough to be one of the few survivors of the Yavin Death Star battle, unlike Biggs.
The reference was apparently obtuse enough that when Woolsey translated FFVI, he completely missed it, and so the Magitek Soldiers who accompanied Terra to Narshe were named Vicks and Wedge.
I have no idea why the PC (and mobile) Pixel Remaster for FFVI didn't have the credits rolling during the intro march to Narshe, because on the console versions (certainly on Switch), the credits are there. Could be a rights issue that got resolved by the time the Pixel Remasters came to consoles, could be technical code issues, or could just be a lazy port. I'm guessing either of the first two, because of the additional QoL boost features of the console versions.
Also that scene is so iconic among FFVI fans that when the Magitek Armour mount was added in FFXIV, it originally played the default mount music, and then players immediately clamoured for some version of "Omen" (or its leitmotif) to be added. So now the Magitek Armour mount in FFXIV plays "Magiteknical Difficulties", a sped-up remix of that theme.
This battle is one that I can never get right, and I blame the ATB system. The problem is simply that Ymir can go into counter stance at any time, including when I've already queued up the next attack. So the attack that was supposed to hit the head now hits the only target left, ie the shell, and I get zapped by the counter.
And when I deliberately stop attacking to wait for Ymir to go into counter stance (and then come back out), Ymir just sits there and tosses out auto-attacks and Slow status. So I decide "well, I probably have a chance at a single attack", and I input the command, and Ymir goes into its shell before the attack goes out. And then I get zapped by the counter.
(As it turns out, Ymir goes into counter stance every ten seconds. I had to look it up on Google to know that.)
Anyway, FFXIV loves the "Ymir" model and gimmick so much it spams it all over the place, usually with some sort of big lightning attack that needs to be avoided or mitigated. The first instance was in Hullbreaker Isle Hard, named "Ymir", and then later content has regular field critters of that same model just roaming around or in FATEs, or as Hunt marks like the A-rank "Oni Yumemi" in the Ruby Sea.
Woolsey translated this particular boss as simply "Whelk". Which is a weird decision, since the Japanese (ユミール) does roughly transliterate to "Ymir".
An anecdote: when I was playing FFVI for the first time, I got to this scene, and felt bad about it, as the scene wanted me to.
So the next time I tried, I went through the entire Narshe Magitek sequence never using Fire Beam, or Terra's Fire spell, just to see if anything changed for this flashback scene. Of course, it did not, and I remember feeling a little disappointed by that.
But in hindsight, it could be another case of ludonarrative cohesion: if you're not using the Bio multitarget attack, then Fire Beam is the first entry on the Magitek Armour command list, which means players will almost certainly default to that, given the lack of difference between the beam types. So they're burning the Narshe guards and soldiers, just as Terra burned the Imperial Soldiers both in the flashback and before she got slave-crowned.
It's an interesting title, given the apparent rarity of magic. Edgar's immense surprise and alarm at seeing Terra's magic is a little overdone if he knows that at least one other person, ie Kefka, can also do magic.
So my assumption is Edgar knows Kefka is titled as "Court Mage", but thinks Kefka is more along the "prestidigitator" end of the power scale. Which might also explain why Edgar was actually surprised that Kefka would resort to setting Figaro ablaze in an effort to flush Terra out.
There's actually a Chocobo stable south of the desert, and if you decide to pay for a Chocobo ride there, it plays the Chocobo theme.
When I was playing FFVI as my first RPG ever, I had no idea what levelling even was, much less grinding, and so I had trouble with the desert monsters. So I managed to skirt around the entire desert, down south to the Chocobo stable, pay them to rent a Chocobo, then ride that Chocobo to Figaro Castle, and I thought this was the intended way of getting there.
When I was playing FFVI as my first RPG ever, I had no idea what levelling even was, much less grinding, and so I had trouble with the desert monsters. So I managed to skirt around the entire desert, down south to the Chocobo stable, pay them to rent a Chocobo, then ride that Chocobo to Figaro Castle, and I thought this was the intended way of getting there.
Completely unrelated, something amusing I thought about that might count as game mechanics spoilers:
In this thread and through the various Final Fantasy playthroughs, we've seen Omicron have a bit of trouble remembering about rows and whether each character is better in front or at the back.
FFVI might actually solve that problem, because the majority of the characters, and indeed all three of the characters so far, work just as well or better in the back row. Terra's magic ignores rows, Locke's Steal ignores rows, and Edgar's Tools ignores rows. So the default for party members might as well be set-and-forget to the back row.
FFVI might actually solve that problem, because the majority of the characters, and indeed all three of the characters so far, work just as well or better in the back row. Terra's magic ignores rows, Locke's Steal ignores rows, and Edgar's Tools ignores rows. So the default for party members might as well be set-and-forget to the back row.
(Personally I consider both spoilers safe, but I put them in spoilers just in case.)
cB557
voOOP
It's pretty funny to imagine a player getting this cutscene super late-game. Just like Locke and Edgar have not been paying attention.
Now that we've finally got to the best 2D-era FF, here are some beginner tips:
1) For reasons that will only become clear much later, you want to keep your levels relatively low. Avoid grinding and consider running away from battles if you don't have issues with winning the fights.
2) FFVI has this weird mechanic where leaving chests unopened until the second half of the game allows you to get a better treasure. For the most part, it's not a huge deal (Hi-Potion becomes X-Potion, which is nice, but won't make or break the game for you), but it is, for example, a way to get an extra Ribbon. The problem here is that it's basically impossible to know in advance which chests act like that (some contain the same treasure no matter the timing), and whether you'd even be able to revisit a given dungeon later. So, it's a mechanic that only works on replay or through the use of guides (or by relying on your audience's advice, of course).
3) During the moogle multi-party sequence, you can actually disarm Mog, giving you access to Mythril Lance. It's not a huge deal (Edgar is the only one who can use it, and there is zero reason for him to ever use a default attack), but still, loot.
4) On current characters: firstly, everyone should be in the back row. Only Locke actually suffers from it since he only has melee attacks, but his main utility lies in stealing, so it doesn't matter. As for the individual characters:
- Terra, of course, has magic. It starts relatively weak offensively (Auto-Crossbow outdamages multi-cast Fire easily), but she gains new spells as she levels, eventually becoming a true powerhouse. Even right now, she's far more powerful and versatile than Locke, at least. One thing I like about her is that she actually has enough MP to last her between resting points without worrying too much about conserving her use of spells. Don't be afraid to just spam Fire on random encounters, it's rare for her to run out at this point.
- Locke has Steal and little else, unfortunately for him. Stealing is much the same as it was in FFV: there is a couple of places where you can get some great loot way ahead of time (don't remember if you can get anything unique), but for the most part it's just a source of low-level healing items.
- Edgar, his personality aside, is a powerhouse at this point. You've already witnessed the might of Auto-Crossbow. Noisemaker pretty reliably inflicts Confuse on all enemies, which is going to be useful shortly, and Bio-Blaster allows you to do war crimes and inflict poison, which is moderately useful against more meaty enemies.
1) For reasons that will only become clear much later, you want to keep your levels relatively low. Avoid grinding and consider running away from battles if you don't have issues with winning the fights.
2) FFVI has this weird mechanic where leaving chests unopened until the second half of the game allows you to get a better treasure. For the most part, it's not a huge deal (Hi-Potion becomes X-Potion, which is nice, but won't make or break the game for you), but it is, for example, a way to get an extra Ribbon. The problem here is that it's basically impossible to know in advance which chests act like that (some contain the same treasure no matter the timing), and whether you'd even be able to revisit a given dungeon later. So, it's a mechanic that only works on replay or through the use of guides (or by relying on your audience's advice, of course).
3) During the moogle multi-party sequence, you can actually disarm Mog, giving you access to Mythril Lance. It's not a huge deal (Edgar is the only one who can use it, and there is zero reason for him to ever use a default attack), but still, loot.
4) On current characters: firstly, everyone should be in the back row. Only Locke actually suffers from it since he only has melee attacks, but his main utility lies in stealing, so it doesn't matter. As for the individual characters:
- Terra, of course, has magic. It starts relatively weak offensively (Auto-Crossbow outdamages multi-cast Fire easily), but she gains new spells as she levels, eventually becoming a true powerhouse. Even right now, she's far more powerful and versatile than Locke, at least. One thing I like about her is that she actually has enough MP to last her between resting points without worrying too much about conserving her use of spells. Don't be afraid to just spam Fire on random encounters, it's rare for her to run out at this point.
- Locke has Steal and little else, unfortunately for him. Stealing is much the same as it was in FFV: there is a couple of places where you can get some great loot way ahead of time (don't remember if you can get anything unique), but for the most part it's just a source of low-level healing items.
- Edgar, his personality aside, is a powerhouse at this point. You've already witnessed the might of Auto-Crossbow. Noisemaker pretty reliably inflicts Confuse on all enemies, which is going to be useful shortly, and Bio-Blaster allows you to do war crimes and inflict poison, which is moderately useful against more meaty enemies.
And to think, I was worrying about spoiler tagging much less detailed posts than that. 
That melody was there, but there's a lot to be said for instrument choice and stylistic embellishments. In the SNES version, I'd call that more of a clarinet than a saxophone sound, and didn't have all the scoops and grace notes. It goes pretty far in changing the energy for being mostly the literal same notes.
That melody was there, but there's a lot to be said for instrument choice and stylistic embellishments. In the SNES version, I'd call that more of a clarinet than a saxophone sound, and didn't have all the scoops and grace notes. It goes pretty far in changing the energy for being mostly the literal same notes.
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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.
So the thing about Ymir, hitting it's shell causes the the shell to use megavolt to punish you. It does about 30ish damage to your party. However the move costs 20 MP, and the shell only has 120, so it only has enough for 6 shots, which can't kill you if you use your healing properly. In theory, after that, you can wail on the shell until you kill it since killing it cause the Ymir to drop an ether instead of a Hi Potion if you want it. In theory; in practice, you probably don't want to do that; the Shell has 50000 hp and all your characters will be slowed over the battle. Not worth it.
By the way, Woolie did a let's play of this game not too long ago. And I will most certainly be quoting and posting clips of that thing of beauty.
One more thing; unfortunately, the ffvi advance version had a lot of cool stuff in it, more than just a single bonus dungeon that you can't get. I'll tell you what they are when it comes to it.
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cB557
voOOP
The mention of the saxaphones immediately reminded me of the "theme of sexy mines" bit or whatever it was. And it was funny seeing Omicron have the exact same reaction as Woolie to that one kid's line about Edgar.
On another note, it's interesting, if obvious, to note how FF games don't just linearly iterate on one another, but rather take turns. 1-3-5 games form a continuity of mechanics and plot separate from 2-4-6.
1-3-5 are concerned with big apocalyptic threats brought about by grandiose villains, whereas 2-4-6 are about fighting an evil empire with all too mundane ambitions (even if FFIV does this thing where everyone is mind controlled or replaced with monsters, everything was space racist's plan, and Cecil is literally the only character with enough agency to be responsible for war crimes).
Mechanically, you can clearly see the refinement of the job system from simplistic FFI (just pick a job, then upgrade it) to more sophisticated FFIII (change jobs at any time, gain levels in them separate from character level) to the perfection of FFV. With 2-4-6... Well, FFII was really an outlier mechanically with its doomed foray into the training system, but already you can see a similarity between FFIV and FFVI with every character having its own unique Thing they do, mitigated by the presence of relics granting "out-of-class" abilities.
It's neat that FF games are essentially two intertwined but actually essentially separate franchises doing their own thing even as they learn from one another.
On that note,
They obviously want to return to a proper turn-based battle system.
1-3-5 are concerned with big apocalyptic threats brought about by grandiose villains, whereas 2-4-6 are about fighting an evil empire with all too mundane ambitions (even if FFIV does this thing where everyone is mind controlled or replaced with monsters, everything was space racist's plan, and Cecil is literally the only character with enough agency to be responsible for war crimes).
Mechanically, you can clearly see the refinement of the job system from simplistic FFI (just pick a job, then upgrade it) to more sophisticated FFIII (change jobs at any time, gain levels in them separate from character level) to the perfection of FFV. With 2-4-6... Well, FFII was really an outlier mechanically with its doomed foray into the training system, but already you can see a similarity between FFIV and FFVI with every character having its own unique Thing they do, mitigated by the presence of relics granting "out-of-class" abilities.
It's neat that FF games are essentially two intertwined but actually essentially separate franchises doing their own thing even as they learn from one another.
On that note,
They obviously want to return to a proper turn-based battle system.
deadcrystal
Slaaneshi Cultist
- Location
- The Warp
Lost Odyssey did this best I think, in that your MC starts as level 10, and you utterly clown on everything in the start of the game. Given the MC is a thousand year old immortal mercenary this feels appropriate. (The mechanics for immortal PCs in the game are quite fun)
Connelly
As useless as a penguin with mittens
- Location
- Salamanca, Spain
Something more about the opening scene. If you look at it, the Magitek armor in it doesn't look the same as the sprites. The story goes that the dude who was put in charge of the scene had a different idea of how they should look, so instead of following the concept art, he made them look like some kind of chunky steampunk Big Boi. He thought Sakaguchi would tell him to redo with proper art, but he went "naw dog this is freaking cool, great job".
because fucking Amano. And something had to give.
Yeah, this. Amano seems to have a hard on for blondes and he's not really part of the staff. Meanwhile the devs had the trouble of all characters being fucking blondes
It could also be a case like with Metroid of a mistranslation with extra steps, where someone (I think Retro Studios?) told Nintendo what a bounty hunter was supposed to do, and they flipped their shit because that was NOT what they had in mind all these years about Samus's job.
DragonUnitOmega
Akechi/Fem!Akira gives me life
- Location
- Inaba
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Etc
YEEEEEESSSSSSS
AATTTT LAAAASSTT
IT'S HEEEEEEEEERE
YOU PLAYING FFVI
AAAAaaaandd...of course I don't have too much to say about it now that it is despite how much I was looking forward to this.
Though half of the reason is because of going to spoilers, but still...you'd think I'd have something to say, but NOPE. Don't really have much to say, story or gameplay wise, that others haven't already said.
Either that or my laziness is getting me. Idk.
I will definitely keep up to date with this entry though.
Hopefully I have more to say later...I'm a bit frustrated I wanna talk about this game but can't think of much to say. X/
AATTTT LAAAASSTT
IT'S HEEEEEEEEERE
YOU PLAYING FFVI
AAAAaaaandd...of course I don't have too much to say about it now that it is despite how much I was looking forward to this.
Though half of the reason is because of going to spoilers, but still...you'd think I'd have something to say, but NOPE. Don't really have much to say, story or gameplay wise, that others haven't already said.
Either that or my laziness is getting me. Idk.
I will definitely keep up to date with this entry though.
Hopefully I have more to say later...I'm a bit frustrated I wanna talk about this game but can't think of much to say. X/
Quick digression but make sure to check every single clock that you come across. If memory serves, they were all hiding elixirs in the original release.
... 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.
Very much so. Here's what that salute was looking like in the original:
And a few moments later, everyone is one-handing that also...
Final Fantasy VI (though I only knew it as Final Fantasy III for the longest time...) was my first FF game. And I and my sibs were all fighting over console time to play it on the SNES we had just gotten. To be fair, the only games we had were Super Mario World, Legend of Zelda Link to the Past, and Final Fantasy III, but we were still all hands in to get playtime.
Will try not to spoil things too badly, though I will make one piece of advice about Figaro - when you get back there, make sure you have Edgar with you when you get to the shops. If memory serves you'll get a discount on stuff (after a little arguing between the King and his subjects about how they can't charge him, he's the King, and he shoots back that they've got families to feed, so shut up and take his money).
It also shows that Edgar has a clearly defined moral code. Sure, that little girl may have been told that of course he'll marry her when she's older but it's much more in line with indulging a crush with a verbal statement that will never come to pass.
So much good stuff to come!
- Location
- Amman, Jordan
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Yeah, FFVI is one of if not the most memorable pre-3D FF game. The previous Final Fantasies were all ground-breakers in their own ways; FFI took the Dragon Quest formula, added the party mechanic and expanded the gameplay quite a bit, FFII tried something new with its mechanics (though it failed miserably), FFIII introduced the Jobs system, FFIV was the first SNES game (and with it came new graphics and system updates), FFV took FFIII's Job system and completely overhauled it.
FFVI, however, is the refinement. It takes everything from the previous FF games and hones it down to an art. It loses the versatility and power of FFV (though it replaces it with something MUCH more broken, you'll see), but it expands on a lot of things. Storytelling, scale, characters, and by god the graphics. FFIV played around with the SNES' modes and abilities to sell the new hardware's abilities, FFV did them a bit better. FFVI, however, takes everything the SNES platform has and pushes it to the limits. Overworld travel is no longer against a flat map like it was in FFI-V, it's against a tilted worldmap to give it a sense of size and reality. Towns are still flat sprites, but there's only so much you can do, really.
Then there's the characters and sprites. There are a LOT of playable characters in FFVI. In FFI, you had a total of 4 in your party. In II, you had a fixed cast of 3 plus a rotating cast for the 4th players slot, but only about 4-5 guest characters total. FFIII brought back the fixed four-person party, they just swapped their abilities and jobs. FFIV and FFV repeated the schticks of FFII and III respectively, though IV had you start with Cecil and Kain, and only Cecil is a permanent character (which makes sense since IV is basically his story) and characters kept coming and going per the plot. Similarly, V had Galuf die and be replaced by his granddaughter. FFVI, however, just dunks on them all by having an insane amount, some of whom are optional (meaning you can play a game start to end and end up never recruiting them) and does a lot of diverging stories and plotlines, with many of the characters having their own paths and motivations. It's not all evenly done, however; some characters are more equal than others, and you can end up with some characters getting all the spotlight and story while some are plain forgotten to the point you don't remember they're in your party anymore until you reach the party selection screens. And that's not getting into the occasional guest character like FFII (yes, FFVI has those too), like the Moogles we saw from the Narshe caves.
And speaking of characters (especially sprites), here's one thing I noticed nobody mentioned; the overworld sprites and battle sprites are one and the same here. In all the previous FF games, you had two sets of sprites; the overworld sprites, used for walking on the map and in towns, and the battle sprites, which are only used for fighting. FFI-IV had them very simple and limited; Overworld/town sprites can only walk in all directions, consisting of two sprites per direction to simulate walking, while Battle sprites had "walk forwards/backwards" and "swing weapon" with additional "victory" and/or "spell" sprites (which were usually the same). FFV tried something new by adding more Overworld/Town sprites for the cast to do silly stuff, giving the cast a more vibrant feel and the game a more comedic tone, but the battle sprites remained the same (mostly because there were so many goddamn job sprites per character it would have required too much memory to try any shenanigans with the battle sprites).
FFVI takes the more vibrant, lively overworld sprites of FFV and combines them with the larger, more detailed sprites of the series' Battle sprites. Maybe it's because between the frankly ridiculous number of player characters and the poses they give them, they figured they'd run out of memory space with all the sprites and just decided to keep the the Battle and Overworld sprites one and the same, just picking what works with the given scenario. It just gives the flow between battle and overworld a lot easier, as the characters don't just morph to bigger, more detailed versions of themselves all of a sudden. It feels as though they're just strolling along, doing their thing, then BAM! They're in a fight. It feels more natural.
It's a natural evolution of the game engine, really. Compare the first game of any console to the games that come out near the end of its lifespan; the developers have had time to refine their art, knowing what works and what doesn't, and how to blend it all together. They're accustomed to the tools now, and are just eager to give this thing one last go. It shows up with Chrono Trigger, too; CT feels a lot more animesque than FF, and even the overworld sprites have idle animations that feel like they're getting impatient and asking you to hurry it up already.
But all that power comes at a price. The gorgeous artwork, the detailed and versatile sprites, the vast storyline, all that requires massive amounts of cartridge space. And bless their hearts, Square devs tried their best to work everything together. But there are so, so many bugs in this game as a result, whether because something came at the cost of another, or because they had to rush some things and some issues were overlooked in the rush. Some things were already spoiled here, like Relm's Sketch ability and the complete uselessness of the EVADE stat, others can be googled at your convenience. Mind you, this is generally for the SNES version; the GBA and later versions ironed out most of the issues as they had more time and less pressure to fix and polish up an old game rather than release a brand new one to make money, though some bugs still remain because they're now regarded as an essential part of the experience.
I mean, it's not FFVI if you can't powerbomb a freaking train...
The setting of FFVI is also different, as you mentioned. It's got a clear Steampunk/industrialpunk feel to it, as opposed to the more traditional high fantasy of I through V with the occasional lost civilization tech and supertech. FFVII would take it to the next level with a cyberpunk/dieselpunk feel, but that's a story for another time. As a result, FFVI just felt unique among its siblings when it came out, or even compared to JRPGs in general at the time.
Final Fantasy VI goes back to its old Star Wars DNA, and the Heroic Rebel Alliance vs Evil Empire vibes are pretty strong here, as you might have noticed.
Yeah, forgot about that particular detail. The FF series can be really blunt with its imagery at times, even in the best games.0
Hey look, we even got our charming rogue! He's a lot nicer personality-wise than Han Solo, of course.
It took me for a loop. I'd stick to one group of "favorites" to try and hoover up all the EXP and power for them, only to end up blindsided when the enemy managed to flank me and reach their objective, making me lose the game. Of course, it was gracious enough to let me replay the mission all over rather than give me a flat "Game Over".
There's a reason for Locke's Dulcinea Effect, though that's going to be a massive spoiler, so you'll have to wait for it.
Yeah, VI loses the customizable variety of V, but makes up for it with more characters. Its central gimmick is also coming later, and trust me, it breaks the game rather brutally. The relics bit is also hit or miss; some relics are okay, others are just so broken that not taking them is necessary for a challenging run looking at you, Gembox + Economizer!.
Is it just me, or does this map look an awful lot like the FFV 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.
I'll say. It's also quite a bit to digest; you start with the basic backstory, plot, go on a Spec Ops raid with freaking steampunk mecha, meet a frozen monster that wipes out your team somehow even though nothing else could even scratch your paintjob, get introduced to a new gameplay mechanic and get pointed in the direction of the plot. Not to mention you fight actual mammoths on the way.
*snicker* Nah, it doesn't fly. It does something even more nuts...
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.[/quote]
Oh be fair, Edge had two defining traits; one being a womanizing jerk and the other being an anguished edgeboi (hey-o!) anguishing over his dead parents and ruined kingdom.
Though really, Edgar's much better than Edge, I swear...
[
No really, I promise he's more than just a shameless flirt...
*Raises finger in objection*
*pauses to reconsider*
*lowers finger*
*has an epiphany*
That actually explains quite a bit about her later on... Yeah, the devs clearly didn't intend for her to be ace, but she does come off that way. Yeah, I stan Terra, Ace role model.
Oh come on, Omi, how many treasures can he steal this time?
It just makes you think he's just this low-level, overblown goofy lackey with an oversized ego.
Yeah, the Gestahlian Empire has this monumental ego about it, a sort of righteous belief it'll conquer the world, basically its divine right to do so. The lebensraum vibes are coming off really thick here.
Yeah, I'm not sure what the name 'Returners' refers to either.
Yeah, for all his weird eccentricities and mannerisms, Kefka means business. He has little patience for politics or niceties, which means despite his clownish makeup and behavior, he's a clear and present menace.
FFVI doesn't skimp on the crazy-awesome bits. Flying castles are a dime-a-dozen; how many castles do you know can dig through miles of rock and stone?!
I'm just imagining Locke looking at Terra blasting shit with her bare hands and vaporising anything she looks at funny and going "man, what sort of experiments did they do on this poor girl?" and promising to help her when this is all done. By contrast, magic was defined by the opening scroll as the force that nearly ended the world. He just realized he was looking at literal apocalyptic power right there and didn't realize it. Of course, it takes the better educated and more intelligent Edgar to recognize it for what it is.
As was mentioned by someone else, FFVI doesn't always keep the pace up, and it does have its weaker moments, but it's memorable for a reason. The story actually feels epic rather than just looking epic, with larger-than-life characters, heroes, antiheroes and villains all trying to guide the world's destiny towards their goals.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.
Welcome to FFVI! They've got gimmicks for days!
Seriously, FF6 was just the FF devs showing off as a swan song for the SNES before they moved on to theUltra 64Nintendo 64Sony Playstation with Final Fantasy VII
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).
Damn.
Yeah, it was so weirdly out-of-place that it looped around to being memorable and meme-worthy.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.
True. The remaster may have made more sense, but the original just stuck with a generation of players and has become a large part of generational memory. Still, I'm not complaining.
It's been a while, but I think he's just putting on an act. Though when I was younger I genuinely thought he was a wannabe Casanova.
Yeah, the FFVI magic is just... wow. While FFV does have some truly great moments like Battle on the Bridge, FFVI has a lot of mood-defining orchestral music that strongly influences people to this day.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.
I think that's why FFV felt a bit lackluster in contrast. While the opening song was top notch, the following bits felt a bit weird; a guy fights off goblins to find a girl and an old man, and have to run to the Wind Temple on a hunch, whereas Cecil starts with a brooding start before getting exiled on behalf of some accusations that don't really add up, giving the feeling of a conspiracy at work.
FFVI just goes full ham on the beginning and doesn't let up for a good 30-40 minutes.
Yeah, we'll run into a clear tier system for the player characters, ranging from "clearly overpowered and can bulldoze through the opposition" to "needs work to use but can really wreck the game if done right" to "why is this assclown even here and how can I get rid of him?"
I think we need to set up a tier system for the party characters - once we're introduced to all of them, that is.
- Location
- Lake Wobegon
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
In a game where every character can get 255s across the board and their unique abilities don't matter because they can all learn the same magic, except the yeti?
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
To be fair to V, the intro is significantly more awesome in hindsight because - while you don't really know it at the time - it involves an old hero riding down a transdimensional meteor in a last ditch effort to save the world again.
I think you had that quote of mine in the wrong place. "They shouldn't have changed it" was about the imperial salute, not Kefka's line.
Gogo can't get 255 either. They can't equip magicite.
- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- Singular They
Mode 7 was really the big thing back then. We already saw it in use in FFIV and FFV, when the party takes an airship, but FFVI is the game where Square decided to just slather Mode 7 on everything. Overworld travel even without an airship is an example, as well as Chocobo riding, which I assume Omicron has discovered by now; one of the control schemes for it allows the overworld to rotate respective to the player view.
At the time this was a major feature of the SNES, and suitably impressive. I strongly suspect the Cannon Travel in Secret Of Mana was entirely an excuse for Mode 7 showing off.
- Location
- Amman, Jordan
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Ah, right. I lost context as I was working on that overly long post, so I kind of lost your intent. I'm guessing the re-release was made to ease up on the National Socialist comparisons.
Spoilers aside, you'll need to rely on their abilities for a lot of the early game, which colored many players' opinions of them. As a result, some, like Locke, will be useful for certain items and abilities, while others, like Terra and Edgar, will be head and shoulders above everyone else in terms of ease of abilities and the sheer damage they can do. And then there are those whose abilities are just too much effort to pull off, or require a goddamn guide to use effectively, and so end up being maligned and ignored for 90% of the game.
FFVI is a flex as a game; Square's trying to show off how good they've gotten on the SNES as a final goodbye before they move onto the next games platform. Problem is, they put so many goddamn mechanics into the game that not all are created equal, and some end up being used more than others because of how easy their abilities are to use, or how powerful they are for little effort.
Well, it certainly was impressive and made the world feel 3D, even though 3D graphics was almost a decade away (and even then, it wouldn't be good for another decade or so).
- Location
- Land of the Midday Sun
There's also Super Mario Kart, which might as well be called "Mode 7 the game".
This was the first Final Fantasy game I played. My playthrough died to a computer failure and I never came back to it, but when you first started this project, my second thought was "I cannot wait for you to get to FF6".
My _first_ thought was "Oh, shit, it's gonna be 2025 before he plays Sinking City, isn't it" but this is worth the tradeoff XD
My _first_ thought was "Oh, shit, it's gonna be 2025 before he plays Sinking City, isn't it" but this is worth the tradeoff XD
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Honestly in this case I approve of it. Tina falls squarely into the Tiffany Problem.
It's interesting to me how the design of the magitek armor changes, from the character sprites to the enemy sprites to the concept art. FFXIV uses the concept art idea pretty faithfully, and it's very different from an open-topped stompy mech with functional arms:
It lacks arms or hands, and has a much more forward-facing profile. I compared it to a chocobo mixed with a tank and I think that's kind of the idea, to give it an avian or dinosaur-like profile, a lean, bipedal predator, ready to hunt down its prey.
Obviously though, having actual hands is much more practical lmao
Honestly though, after whatever happened to Faris, I assume the sprite art design is at best distantly informed by Amano's art. I am still not over Prussian Galuf.With Terra, there is one mystery to her.
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.
Polka dot tights, though?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:
Blame Amano for that one, it's in his character design. You even quoted someone who posted it, but Amano's style is so damn wispy they're easy to miss.
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- Location
- Texas
I was just going to ask why the evil empire had their mind controlled puppet witch dressed in the latest fashions instead of a drab yet intimidating uniform, but now it makes sense. And makes it all the more creepy when you imagine Kefka using her as a life size dress up doll.