Last but certainly not least, we get sent home on a very heroic rendition of the wyvern theme Spreading Grand Wings. Fantastic orchestration here - glorious brass (trumpet solo, background horn, and a tradeoff to trombone carrying the melody), with strings adding warmth. The B section is a lot more subdued, with harp, flute, and some particularly lovely woodwind (clarinet?) chords. We then have a quirky transition with some brass stabs and falls. Strange, but it works well enough to add energy so the return to the heroic FFV main theme with trumpet belting out the melody makes sense. There's a couple repeats where we trade off between brass main theme and a more subdued woodwind interlude before we get the big finish. Plenty of bombast, it's not very sophisticated but its fun and sounds good so who cares? Anyway, it's a better ending than anything Sibelius ever did
No cap though I'd actually love to argue with you about this in DMs or something, because that's a really spicy take I vehemently disagree with but also would love to get to talk about, lol
No, it's still duples. Just syncopated. It's a two-bar repeating rhythm. Downbeat of 1, offbeat of 2, downbeat of 3, legato note on the offbeat of 1 of the second measure, downbeats on 3 and 4.
I really should have hand conducted it on the first (or even subsequent) listen, lol. Yeah, it's a 4/4 bar with alternating eighth notes and quarter rests. I will entirely blame the A section, which actually does use some very nice triplet eighths and triplet quarter note paterns.
Anwyay, the A section is significantly more interesting than the B section, both in rhythm and also in melody (I'm not interested enough to spend the time to pick it apart, so I'll just say it's decidedly modern.)
Pretty sure it's clarinet and a bassoon playing there. The way I piece it together is the cadence at the end of that sequence - the WW in question does the classic bass candence form of V, V in a lower octave, I. The low V is way too low for an english horn and sounds like a textbook bassoon, ergo the rest of the stuff is just bassoon playing in their mid range.
Also, too, if you want to talk about english horn erasure I could definitely do a bit about all the times the remaster took the goofy doublereed english horn oboe Frankenstein sample and just...replaced it with trumpet. It happened in the final battle theme, and IIR the Big Bridge theme as well. I can understand why they did it, the sample cuts through in a midi but for a live take trumpet is going to have a lot more presence and pizzaz.
Like... If you'd had told me "esper" was this game's name for summoners... I would get it. And indeed for a while back before I had really heard about the game, I'd assumed that's what was going on. But no, they called their summoned monsters 'psychics' this time around.
One neat thing about playing this as a kid? FF3/6 was the first time I ever saw the word "esper" -- it'd be years before I encountered it as any other usage than FF6's, and it didn't even occur to me back then the word might even have other uses. Lil'frumple had zero confusion over the naming of the weird ice turkey or its treatment so far, because I was just as clueless as Terra and esper was a new word that meant weird ice turkey. It's one of those things were greater context makes the writing flow worse, heh.
I really should have hand conducted it on the first (or even subsequent) listen, lol. Yeah, it's a 4/4 bar with alternating eighth notes and quarter rests. I will entirely blame the A section, which actually does use some very nice triplet eighths and triplet quarter note paterns.
Anwyay, the A section is significantly more interesting than the B section, both in rhythm and also in melody (I'm not interested enough to spend the time to pick it apart, so I'll just say it's decidedly modern.)
Pretty sure it's clarinet and a bassoon playing there. The way I piece it together is the cadence at the end of that sequence - the WW in question does the classic bass candence form of V, V in a lower octave, I. The low V is way too low for an english horn and sounds like a textbook bassoon, ergo the rest of the stuff is just bassoon playing in their mid range.
Also, too, if you want to talk about english horn erasure I could definitely do a bit about all the times the remaster took the goofy doublereed english horn oboe Frankenstein sample and just...replaced it with trumpet. It happened in the final battle theme, and IIR the Big Bridge theme as well. I can understand why they did it, the sample cuts through in a midi but for a live take trumpet is going to have a lot more presence and pizzaz.
In hindsight, I should definitely have said "y'all" instead of "you". >.<
Even so it's fascinating being on the other side of this, because FFVI was the first place I encountered the term "esper", whereas in whatever other books I read it was always "psychic", "Psionic", or "telepath" or what have you. Hell, I even encountered WH40k's "Psyker" before I ever saw "esper" used to describe a human. I think the first time I saw it used that way might actually have been the raildex animes.
I wouldn't be able to explain the history or whatever, but Esper is just... really common as a choice in Japanese fiction while american usually favors yeah psychic or psionic, maybe telepath or even empath as its generic psychic person term.
like it's not wrong in any meaningful sense to use esper in english but it's not normalized in that way.
The strange thing isn't that esper was chosen, per se, it's that phantom beast was localized as esper. I mean, Ted Woolsey is an American. This isn't Japan being weird, this was an American picking the term for (primarily) American children.
I mean, I dunno, I was four when this game was originally released. Was esper a common term in America in the 90s?
---
Of course, all of that is sidestepping the real reason that esper was chosen.
Namely, it's five characters long and therefore fits in the menu boxes properly.
Woolsey's translation philosophy was pragmatism, first and foremost, and a lot of the changes boil down to written Japanese being a more information dense language than written English.
The strange thing isn't that esper was chosen, per se, it's that phantom beast was localized as esper. I mean, Ted Woolsey is an American. This isn't Japan being weird, this was an American picking the term for (primarily) American children.
I mean, I dunno, I was four when this game was originally released. Was esper a common term in America in the 90s?
---
Of course, all of that is sidestepping the real reason that esper was chosen.
Namely, it's five characters long and therefore fits in the menu boxes properly.
Woolsey's translation philosophy was pragmatism, first and foremost, and a lot of the changes boil down to written Japanese being a more information dense language than written English.
I usually post these at the start of each playthrough but forgot, so a reminder that if you like what I write and would like to give me a little aid as I battle the Google demons for this LP, you are always welcome to donate to my ko-fi or Patreon!
So!
The river minigame.
Calling it a 'minigame' is perhaps a bit of an exaggeration. The way it works is simple: the raft drifts on its own along the river, until it comes to a 'crossroads', where it asks you in which direction you want to go. On the way, there are random encounters. Crucially, you don't have any controls while the draft is drifting - you can't pause, can't use items, it's effectively just a fight gauntlet. Which wouldn't be too bad in theory, the enemies aren't particularly threatening, except…
We have Banon on the ship. Banon is a frail old man with a mere 120 HP. He is actually an extremely potent support character because his special command, !Pray, heals the entire party for 150 HP at no cost, every turn. In theory, this'd be easy. Except the narrative conceit of the raft journey is that our young heroes are protecting the aging, vulnerable leader of the resistance, and so if Banon is KO at any point, that is an instant game over.
Still, no big deal, right? Just gotta be on the ball healing the old guy. Well…
These monsters, the Lesser Lopros, have a Fireball attack which deals a little over 120 damage. Which means if it triggers, Banon dies. Doesn't matter if he was in the back row, if he was at full health, he's dead.
I suppose I could just try leveling him up as quickly as possible so he gets above the Danger Zone and Fireball no longer one-shots him. Or I could have him Defend every turn (but !Pray is really useful). It's a tough situation. Thankfully, the river is also generous with save points - there are two points along the journey where the raft stops, we come out, and we can save, heal up, and go back. So in the end I just brute force it. Reload when we're unlucky and Banon eats a fireball, memorize the right route through the river, and Bob's your uncle.
Down a waterfall…
…and into the arms of a waiting squid.
Ultros. I would recognize that ugly mug anywhere, you goofy fuck. So this is where the Hildibrand questline from FFXIV pulled you from. Which I guess means Typhon must be around somewhere. Fun fact: this guy teams up with Gilgamesh in FFXIV. It doesn't go well for either of them.
This Ultros is as much of a creep as the one I'm familiar with, and he has some annoying mechanics. For instance, using Terra's magic on him causes him to shout "Yeouch! Seafood is NOT on the menu!" and react by Blinding a random party member with Ink. Which, as far as counters go, is tolerable; Ink deals no damage and most of my characters ignore Accuracy with their special commands. Creepier is when he does this:
Yeah, tentacle jokes. Combined with brutal tentacle attacks against Terra. I think this guy has outlasted his welcome.
I wasn't joking about the Kamehameha.
Aura Cannon deals over 300-320 damage, while Fire deals 200+ damage; by comparison Edgar's Bioblaster deals a more respectable 160-180 damage, though still far more than any physical attack, regardless of Genji Gloves or Power Wrist or anything like that - commands rule this fight. Unfortunately, some of Sabin's Blitz moves (though it seems random, rather than every time) cause Ultros to declare that he hates "muscle heads," and to immediately target Sabin with a souped up that deals enough damage to knock him out instantly, due to me having foolishly assumed that Sabin should stay in the front row since he's a physical attacker, instead of embracing the Aura Cannon life and having the entire party in the back row.
Oh. I get it. Ultros is a sweaty nerd creep. You know, has a goofy face and a creepy laugh, talks in a creepy way while leering all over girls, gets really upset by jocks telling him off, is clearly into some kind doujins you shouldn't be read in public… Yeah, this guy is an unflattering caricature of someone.
Anyway, with Pray's sheer healing consistency, even Ultros's multiple counters aren't much of a problem. That is, until he decides that he doesn't like Banon either, declaring "Your ugly mug gives me the creeps!" and slapping the old man with a tentacle attack that, unfortunately, he cannot survive.
Unfortunately, that's where this run ends.
Well, I don't really know if there's any kind of special tactic to this. I could try using normal attacks instead of commands, but that would take actual ages and be extremely boring. No, I think the solution is just to double down, hope Ultros rolls badly on the damage roll when he attacks Banon, and then kill him.
115 is less than 120.
It was literally that simple. Ultros is defeated, and sinks into the river.
Unfortunately, we're not out of the woods yet, and the characters know it - they're smart enough not to take 'water-dwelling creature sinks under the wave, is definitely dead' at face value and remain on the lookout for the threat. But of course, the target of Ultros's sneak ambush is none other than Terra.
Creep.
Edgar quickly pulls Terra away and to the center of the raft, away from any prying tentacles. Sabin, however, has an understandably emotional but tactically poor reaction to this.
Edgar attempts to hold back Sabin, but before he has time to fully convey that doing a dash attack into a river, from a moving raft is a terrible idea, Sabin shoves him out of the way and…
…
Okay, cutscenes glitching out is something I associate with like, modern games with graphics and physics so complicated characters get stuck in table or forget their faces getting up in the morning, not the 2021 remaster of a thirty-year old game, with simple pixel art and very simple animation. But here it is.
The cutscene glitches, and Sabin apparently decides to listen to his brother and stay on the raft while everyone acts like he just fell into the water and is now lost. It's not a very long exchange, but it's long enough for all three characters to give a small comment on Sabin's foolish gesture while Sabin is just. Standing there.
Then his sprite vanishes while everyone acts like, I think, he jumped out of the water somewhere?
This is already a mildly comedic scene as it is meant to unfold, but Sabin's sprite glitching the fuck out elevates it to a realm of surreal absurdism. Top tier accidental work, game.
Anyway, as becomes clear once the sprites sort themselves out, Sabin is now stuck in the water and split from the raft as the currents separate. This leaves Terra and Edgar alone with old man Banon, Sabin stranded who knows where, Locke alone to infiltrate South Figaro, and…
Wait…
Could it be???
It's a character branching point!
The 'party' as it exists so far has been divided into three separate 'groups' (more like one group and two solos, but never mind), and we now control Mog the Moogle -
Who has their own character sheet and everything.
-and must pick one scenario to advance. The bright dot in the center is, as one might suspect, a save point, meaning we can actually save and reload at the decision point if one of these doesn't work out.
…
This is massive. I mean - it's not so fundamentally different from 'Bartz, Faris and Lenna are trapped, control Galuf alone while he infiltrates Castle Exdeath!' or 'Split the party in two groups to tackle each side of Fork Tower!' But the presentation, the way this isn't one single sequence but three separate scenarios which you can decide in order to play, this feels so much more ambitious in scope. Running multiple separate scenarios that switch between various members of the cast as they do their own thing on their own, having their own small scenario and character arcs? It seems so obvious in retrospect but like -
This basically detonates the concept of a true 'main' character and allows the game to truly have an ensemble cast that can take characters out, put them back in, while still having their own arcs that the player actually plays through. Obviously the implementation is going to be up in the air, we'll have to see how it's handled, but…
…
Oh god, this is from before equal XP for all characters regardless of whether they're on screen was industry standard.
This was before inventory management was divorced from 'current party' as a standard practice.
Like, right now? I equipped Locke with the Sprint Shoes a little while back, and there is no way for me to retrieve these items from him, they're 'lost' as long as he's off on his own scenario, just as any item that is currently equipped on a character who isn't part of his scenario is unavailable while I'm playing through Locke's scenario. And the game is definitely going to throw a 'now let's fade to the Party Of Characters You Didn't Pick For The Final Dungeon as they have their own trial to overcome, better hope you didn't forget to level them appropriately and gave them appropriate gear!'
Fuck. I can't believe we used to think this was okay.
No, no, I am getting carried ahead of myself. I have no idea if any of this actually happens. I am just going off memory of other games and genre savvy. Maybe this won't be an issue at all! We'll see.
In the meantime, let's check out Locke's scenario.
He gets his own black screen intro and everything, like a TV episode recap.
Looks like our boy has achieved his objectives, but now he must make it out of South Figaro with his life - in what is the first stealth sequence in Final Fantasy. This scene is borrowing heavily from FF2, when the protagonists scouted out an occupied Fynn full of imperial guards who would trigger a fight if talked to, but it's altogether more complex. Not all Imperials fight us if we approach them; most of them simply block the path forward:
In order to escape the town, we must pass through a series of checkpoints. And in order to pass these checkpoints, we need to use Locke's skills as a… ahem… 'treasure hunter' to acquire appropriate disguises in a series of encounters.
For instance, in one house of South Figaro, there's an old man who kept being served cider by a servant from the inn the last time I was there. It seemed like a sidequest, but there was no obvious way to fulfill it. Now, that man's child is acting as a sentry in the house's lower level, which contains a passage to the rest of the city - but he says that he's been told to allow passage to merchants. So we find one of the shops, talk to one of the merchants there, who recognizes us as "That infamous thief Locke!"
…okay, entering combat over this seems a little over the top, Locke, but I guess you do you.
Of note, the game doesn't tell us that we need to steal a disguise from this guy, you just gotta kinda figure it out. And even if your first instinct upon randomly entering battle with this guy is 'I'm playing Locke, I should probably Steal from him', that might take… A while… Like five turns. Or ten. Before the Steal actually succeeds. But when it does…
…we literally steal the clothes off this dude's back, and Locke follows it up with a rapid disguise. Our enemy, not named 'Birthday Suit,' screams loudly and runs away, ending the battle, immediately passing out once out of the battle screen. All we have to do next is to head to the cider guy's house again and the kid gives us passage, and we move onto the next part of the city.
Our trouble's not over yet, though; there are yet more soldiers blocking the path ahead, and not all of them are willing to let a merchant pass through. Listening to the dialogue from the townsfolk (who seem nervous and concerned, but not in despair), we learn that some soldiers who wear a green armor are low-ranking grunts with an inferiority complex who love to start fights with anyone who looks at them funny, but are pushovers in a fight. So we go looking for a green-uniformed soldier away from prying eyes, and…
The rhyming is getting to me, I must admit.
This is honestly a pretty funny sequence, and it uses Locke's established skillset narratively in a really interesting way - this entire bit can only happen because he's a thief with dedicated thief skill, Terra or Edgar would be incapable of doing this scenario the same way. Actually you know what it feels like? It kinda feels like we're playing one of Paul's off-screen sequences from FF2, where he'd show up out of nowhere with the keys to the cell or something.
And naturally, having different outfits causes different dialogue. For instance, with our grunt uniform, other soldiers might ask us why we aren't at our post, but they might also openly discuss the empire's plans with us, which…
…welp, they're moving on Narshe as we speak. Fat lot of good that vaunted independence did them - and they're probably going to get there in time to run into Terra's group. Not ideal.
Anyway, we approach a guard blocking the path, tell him we're here to relieve his shift, and he goes away to take a break, opening the path for us. (We can find the actual guard who was supposed to relieve him in the inn, where he realizes that he's late, and then decides to shrug and keep drinking. Flawless discipline in the Gestahlian army.)
A 'famous' lady general who rebelled against the empire and is now under arrest? That sounds like a player character to me.
For the next leg of the journey, we need to gain access to the house of the richest man in town - remember, the guy with the secret dungeon basement? Talking to soldiers on break reveals that his house has a secret passage leading to outside the town which is, I imagine, how the Empire seized that town so easily. However, we have no legitimate business inside, so we need a different approach, and it would appear there is another, separate secret passage leading to that house from inside the town - and it's from the old cider-drinking guy.
So we head to the inn's cellar, find a merchant there, and beat him up for his outfit and the cider, then head back to the old guy to give him the cider and ask about the secret passage. All in a day's work!
…hm.
I mean, I sure hope that password isn't that important, because I don't see any obvious means of finding what it is..?
Huh.
Thinking little of it, I pick at random - 'rosebud,' for the reference - and immediately the son declares 'Can't fool me! I know you're an Imperial spy!" and-
…what the fuck.
God. Okay, this briefly looks like because I picked the wrong password, I am going to have to repeat the entire sequence. Thankfully that is not the case. Rather, Locke needs to head back to the item shop, confront the guy who accuses him of being a thief again, steal his clothes again, and then we can directly go to the kid and try the password again. Which is good, because just resetting us to the start would have been some bullshit.
Anyway, the password turns out to be 'Courage,' the kid lets us through, and we navigate through underground tunnels until we emerge into the mansion of the rich guy, which the soldiers have turned into their headquarters.
You know, I can't help but feel like his belated remorse has less to do with his treason and more to do with the fact that he's now been dragooned by Imperial troops like it's 17th century France and he's a Huguenot. This is literally what the US Constitution's Third Amendment is there to prevent, people!
Since we've been there and scouted the basement before, it's a quick affair to get back down there - but what would you know; just as I predicted, the obvious prison room is being used to hold a prisoner!
I knew it.
This, according to the naming menu, is "Celes."
…
I feel like this is wrong. Like, I know it's a fantasy name and anything goes, but 'Celes' just doesn't sound right. It feels like it should be either Ceres (actual name of an earth goddess, therefore a direct mirror to Terra as another female magic user) or Celeste (again, actual name, plus Terra/Celeste, Earth/Sky, natural mirroring). But, well, that's partly something I'm projecting based on 'Tina' having been changed to 'Terra', and I'm not going to start changing character names now after going with the ones that are canon (at least to this translation), so… Celes it is, I guess.
The soldiers taunt her, "So the mighty Celes has fallen!" laughing out loud at her misfortune.
"Not as far as those who'd use their strength to oppress the weak…" she answers, which is, hm, interesting.
I mean, she's a general of the Empire and a Magitek Elite of her own, right? If she only betrayed the Empire now, then to what extent did she contribute to all their previous actions, all their conquests? Where did she draw the-
WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE
Female general?? Magic user in a population who can't use magic??? Betrayed her own country after she decided they'd gone too far??? "No one ever truly knew the woman beneath the general's guise???"
This is literally the protagonist of the Final Fantasy Quest I am writing right now, what the fuck
THIS IS ALL @Tempera'S FAULT
I'm so mad right now.
WELL, ANYWAY.
Ceres quickly reveals why she betrayed the Empire:
…
Yeah, you know, even absent further character development or revelation, that makes perfect sense to me. Like, I can absolutely see a general who was fine leading a conquest through conventional warfare balk at the thought of genocide. I wouldn't necessarily expect that of them, you don't reach the higher echelons of an active imperialist power without being okay with some war crimes and civilian casualties, but I could believe this would be the straw for someone who'd already started to have qualms about the background atrocities of an empire. It's not like high-ranking war defectors are unknown in history, after all.
Still, this does leave Celes with something of a checkered past, and one I'm eager to explore.
The soldiers, for their part, don't care; they just tell her that she might as well run her mouth while she can, her execution is scheduled for tomorrow. Damn. One of the guards tells the other to keep a close watch on her, and the other boasts that he can stand guard for days without sleep! Immediately after the second guard leaves, Celes collapses, likely from injuries sustained during her capture. Meanwhile, outside, Locke is doing his best ninja impression, sticking to the rafters while the guard leaves the basement, dropping low, and sneaking into the room upon the vigilant guard, who…
He's been alone for thirty seconds and he's already asleep. 'Can stand guard for days.' This is genuinely a great comedy beat.
Upon approaching Celes, Locke is given a prompt; 'Remove her bindings' or 'Just keep looking.' We can't actually progress the plot without freeing her, but we're at least given the opportunity to look around (if you didn't find the basement in your first time through South Figaro, this is where you could get all these tasty items) until it becomes evident that freeing General Celes is the only path forward.
Locke immediately introduces himself as a Returner, to Celes's bafflement. She is even more surprised when he tells her to come with him; it's clear that she doesn't expect the resistance to the Empire to think kindly of her. Then she refuses on account of her injuries, saying she is 'barely able to walk,' and that even if they got out, Locke couldn't protect her. She would rather wait for the executioner and die with pride.
It's not clear how much she actually believes that, how much is remorse at betraying the Empire or at her own actions before betraying the Empire or complicated feelings towards a Returner so casually extending her his trust; regardless Locke bulldozes right over all that drama with "Trust me, you'll be fine, I'll protect you!" After a moment's thought Celes tells him to check the guard, for he might have something on him that would help them out of there.
'Stealing is wrong.' This game is just really good at deadpan comedy when it wants to be. Anyway, we absolutely do steal the clock key, whereupon the guard wakes up and attacks us!
…not.
His desire for more soup expressed, the guard promptly plops back down asleep into his chair. I love this bit.
So, Celes.
Celes is fully combat capable with no injuries, and is also only as strong as Locke is - which I choose to read as this mighty general of the Empire being only as strong as an early game party member because of her injuries; she's at full health and MP and strength, but her full health and MP and strength represent her diminished status after her capture and imprisonment. I don't know if that's what the game intends, but I think it's a neat way to 'read around' the inherent limitations of character levels vs narrative role.
Also, she has magic. Which makes sense, as one of the Empire's chief Magitek operatives, though… Now I wonder to what extent that line 'forged by the Empire' is meant to be taken literally. Was she picked for her role in the New Model (Magitek) Army because she was born with magic, or was she made into a magic user by the Empire? After all, that's what we were told happened during the War of the Magi - the power of the espers was used to imbue individuals with magic. It's quite possible Celes here was made into a mage in the crucible of the Empire's esper experiment. Notably, her magic is slightly weaker than Terra, at 36 instead of 39* (this may not seem like much, but it's the difference between Terra's Fire one-shotting random encounters and Celes's Blizzard not doing that)
*Side note; like FFV, level-ups in FFVI appear to result only in an HP (and MP, if relevant) increase, and the characters start with stats in the 30s rather than single-digit stats in FFIV; however, unlike in FFV there does not appear to be a job system, so… are these stats baked in and will stay that way forever? Maybe meeting the esper will change that, I guess we'll find out.
As for combat, Celes has two commands - one is !Magic, as noted, but the other is !Runic. What !Runic does is, huh… not clear.
Like it plays out this little animation and then… nothing happens? What's frustrating is that the game doesn't have a 'highlight' button, like you can't go into the Status menu and then have the cursor go through each stand and command with a little window explaining to you what this does, which I am pretty sure I remember being a thing from the PS1-era games. Shame.
In any case, there is a short dungeon out of the basement, which is filled with dogs and imperial soldiers, as well as loot for Celes in the very likely event that you didn't pack full gear for a new team member before picking Locke's scenario. There's a small maze of 'hidden' tunnels, although being in one tunnel highlights every other on the map so it's not hard to find the hidden treasure such as Earrings, a Relic which boosts magic a little, but boosts it more if you have two, so we'll be on the look out for a second one.
As we reach the end of these tunnels, Celes pauses and finally asks Locke, bluntly: "Why are you helping me?" His answer is an evasive "You remind me a lot of… someone," and I think he means Terra here (they are both magic-using women who were soldiers of the empire and escaped it with great trauma), but he might actually be referring to the mysterious loved one he lost in his backstory. Either way, he insists it doesn't matter, "I'm helping you because I want to!" and we leave South Figaro.
Mt Kolts would lead us to the Returners' Hideout which Locke doesn't know in-character has been abandoned and likely raided by the imperials, but a soldier stands guard and blocks the way regardless, and we know the Empire has very short-term plans to conquer Narshe, so the natural next step is for Locke and Celes to head for the cave that leads to the snowy northern town.
Our return visit seems mostly normal, except every now and then, the cave shakes with a great rumbling sound, until finally the characters take notice - a little too late.
Hah. The Empire is using a tunneling magitek machine to break straight through the mountain and get to Narshe. I like that. That's creative. Also? Cool design. And, immediately showing the value of having an Imperial officer on board who wasn't brainwashed and made amnesiac, Celes immediately identifies both its nature, and its particular threat. Locke, who is literally just Some Guy (with admittedly impressive ninja skills), asks what the hell they're supposed to do, but Celes reassures him by finally revealing the nature of her Runic skill: it draws magic into her runic blade and absorbs it. Locke asks if she'll be okay, but she is fully confident, and for good reason:
To be completely honest with you, it's not super visually exciting, it's just Celes being hit by a spell instead of someone else and then healing a single digit amount of damage.
Runic acts like a combination Cover/Guard, basically. Celes has to choose to use the skill on her turn, and then if the Tunnel Armor uses one of its spells before her next turn, it hits her instead of whoever its target was, and it heals her a little instead of dealing damage.
I do get in trouble because I was assuming the Tunnel Armor would warn me before using its magic attacks, the way many bosses telegraph their next move, so I would know when to use Runic and when Celes is free to attack or use her own magic, but no; the boss just uses normal spells like Thunder, Fire, Blizzard or Poison on its turn without warning and they kill Locke in one hit if Runic isn't up. So the fight is basically just Celes using Runic every turn while Locke attacks, making the pair immune to magic but still susceptible to physical attacks, but since the AI doesn't adapt to player behavior such attacks are infrequent enough that it's easily solved with potions. It does mean Celes spends the whole fight doing nothing and Locke spamming Attack except when in need of healing, so it's not the most exciting of fights, but hey. It gets the tutorial for the Runic mechanic across.
And after many stabbings, the beast is defeated!
Our little group is rewarded with an Elixir for our trouble, and we are returned to the Scenario Void, where we get to pick our next group, either Sabin or the Terra Trio!
Probably Sabin. It just feels more natural to be doing both solo scenarios before the big group event in Narshe and meeting the esper.
I, uh, don't know how to admit this, but I noticed the girl with bunny ears before the literal fucking ninja. I locked eyes with them and went "Oh, neat, is this the game where Viera or Proto-Viera come into things?".
Taking the whole of the game into account, "spirit" might have carried the wrong connotations towards an English speaking audience (especially with children who'd probably think more ghosts than animism). Honestly, I think Woolsey just thought "Esper"sounded exotic enough that a pre-internet audience thought would sound neat.
To be completely honest with you, it's not super visually exciting, it's just Celes being hit by a spell instead of someone else and then healing a single digit amount of damage.
I also was a dumb kid who could not do the Blitz commands for the longest time…
As for Celes/Lucrezia parallels? Well.
Helgi can be the Figaro brothers- Sabin's beefy physical might with Edgar's machinery, Nadia could be linked to Terra what with the magic being a part of them as much as something they use, and that Mi'qute dude is the Locke of that tale, I think.
Jury's still out on the Prince but uh…
The me of right now looks to a certain scene…
To be continued when it will not be a spoiler, no guessing please!
These monsters, the Lesser Lopros, have a Fireball attack which deals a little over 120 damage. Which means if it triggers, Banon dies. Doesn't matter if he was in the back row, if he was at full health, he's dead.
I suppose I could just try leveling him up as quickly as possible so he gets above the Danger Zone and Fireball no longer one-shots him. Or I could have him Defend every turn (but !Pray is really useful). It's a tough situation. Thankfully, the river is also generous with save points - there are two points along the journey where the raft stops, we come out, and we can save, heal up, and go back. So in the end I just brute force it. Reload when we're unlucky and Banon eats a fireball, memorize the right route through the river, and Bob's your uncle.
If I'm remembering correctly from a walkthrough I was following along, I think Lopros are programmed to only use Fireball after a turn or two, so I guess the idea is to burst them down? But like I said, might have honestly just gotten lucky because I didn't have a single Banon KO on the river this playthrough. Do have distinct memories of it happening in past runs though, now that I think about it.
Aura Cannon deals over 300-320 damage, while Fire deals 200+ damage; by comparison Edgar's Bioblaster deals a more respectable 160-180 damage, though still far more than any physical attack, regardless of Genji Gloves or Power Wrist or anything like that - commands rule this fight.
Frankly? Commands tend to rule a lot of fights at this point in the game, especially because for some characters like Sabin and Edgar it's "here's a resource-free special attack that does more damage than your regular attack and also has more options like holy damage or multi targeting".
This feels huge. I mean - it's not so fundamentally different from 'Bartz, Faris and Lenna are trapped, control Galuf alone while he infiltrates Castle Exdeath!' or 'Split the party in two groups to tackle each side of Fork Tower!' But the presentation, the way this isn't one single sequence but three separate scenarios which you can decide in order to play, this feels so much more ambitious in scope. Running multiple separate scenarios that switch between various members of the cast as they do their own thing on their own, having their own small scenario and character arcs? It seems so obvious in retrospect but like -
This basically detonates the concept of a true 'main' character and allows the game to truly have an ensemble cast that can take characters out, put them back in, while still having their own arcs that the player actually plays through. Obviously the implementation is going to be up in the air, we'll have to see how it's handled, but…
…
Oh god, this is from before equal XP for all characters regardless of whether they're on screen was industry standard, though.
This was before inventory management was divorced from 'current party' as a standard practice.
Like, right now? I equipped Locke with the Sprint Shoes a little while back, and there is no way for me to retrieve these items from him, they're 'lost' as long as he's off on his own scenario, just as any item that is currently equipped on a character who isn't part of his scenario is unavailable while I'm playing through Locke's scenario. And the game is definitely going to throw a 'now let's fade to the Party Of Characters You Didn't Pick For The Final Dungeon as they have their own trial to overcome, better hope you didn't forget to level them appropriately and gave them appropriate gear!'
Fuck. I can't believe we used to think this was okay.
Ah, the two sides of early RPGs and party selection and scenarios. So yes, on one hand? This is a first for the Final Fantasy series where you've got multiple parties running around doing their own thing, and it's great, it's fun, it lets you make use of the fact that the cast is growing larger and larger without needing to pull some FF2/FF4 nonsense of "whoops time to find an excuse to kill someone off" every twenty minutes.
On the other hand, as you note... yes, FF6 is before the days of doing things like automatically unequipping party members who aren't around, or balancing EXP between off-members. To some extent the latter will be nice later, but the former... well, if you didn't unequip Locke or Celes of any important relics before that boss fight, you won't be seeing said relics for a while.
God. Okay, this briefly looks like because I picked the wrong password, I am going to have to repeat the entire sequence. Thankfully that is not the case. Rather, Locke needs to head back to the item shop, confront the guy who accuses him of being a thief again, steal his clothes again, and then we can directly go to the kid and try the password again. Which is good, because just resetting us to the start would have been some bullshit.
Can confirm I ran into exactly the same situation, with exactly the same reaction
Thankfully, the devs were merciful. Also, fun fact: if you pick a fight with the magitek armors around here and lose, you'll also be thrown back in this position instead of getting a Game Over.
Since we've been there and scouted the basement before, it's a quick affair to get back down there - but what would you know; just as I predicted, the obvious prison room is being used to hold a prisoner!
To be completely honest with you, it's not super visually exciting, it's just Celes being hit by a spell instead of someone else and then healing a single digit amount of damage.
So one thing that might make that Runic slightly more exciting for you? That isn't HP recovery, it's MP. Whenever Celes draws in a spell, she both negates its effects (protecting the party in most cases), and also gets the full cost of said spell in the form of MP restoration. Very useful for one of your only magic users to be able to replenish, though at this point in the game there aren't a lot of spellcasting enemies.
And hey, new character, new analysis!
Honestly, Celes is basically... Terra with slightly more physical and slightly less magical stats. Similar equipment sets, also has magic even if she learns slightly different spells naturally... the only big difference here for now is Runic, which is a situational but very powerful ability in the right situations. When activated, then until either Celes takes another action or anyone on the field casts a spell, Celes will automatically draw in and negate the next spell cast, as showcased with the Tunnel Armor. The disadvantage of this is of course if you have another spellcaster like Terra in the party, then you need to time your actions or you risk having Celes eat that spell instead.
Fun character overall though, Runic is single-purpose compared to some other character commands, but when that purpose is needed it absolutely shines.
The SNES version cut down on Ultros's pervier lines (for instance, replacing them with remarks about how he wants to eat Terra), and though I'm loath to support censorship in translations, it's really the worst part of what I otherwise find to be a pretty fun character, so I'd honestly say it's the preferable take.
Female general?? Magic user in a population who can't use magic??? Betrayed her own country after she decided they'd gone too far??? "No one ever truly knew the woman beneath the general's guise???"
This is literally the protagonist of the Final Fantasy Quest I am writing right now, what the fuck
About Ultros (or Orthros as the cool kids know him), from memory he wasn't replaced with an MLP character in Pony Fantasy VI, he's still himself in that mod. So from that, you could infer he's also a Brony on top of everything else Omicron figured about him
Also, I am doing smaller pictures this time around to make scrolling through an update faster. If it's noticeable to you (I think it shouldn't change anything on mobile browsing, for instance, and on computer will likely depend on computer screen/resolution), please tell me if you prefer it that way or if you preferred the larger pictures from before.
Female general?? Magic user in a population who can't use magic??? Betrayed her own country after she decided they'd gone too far??? "No one ever truly knew the woman beneath the general's guise???"
This is literally the protagonist of the Final Fantasy Quest I am writing right now, what the fuck
I hate to break it to you but Cloudless Are Our Souls also opens with a sequence where the magic-wielding protagonist rips through a bunch of enemies in a suit of magitech power armor. The FFVI was inside you all along.
To be completely honest with you, it's not super visually exciting, it's just Celes being hit by a spell instead of someone else and then healing a single digit amount of damage.
Ah, Celes Chere. One of my favorite Final Fantasy characters ever. And, as other commenters have mentioned, Runic restores Celes' MP each time she absorbs a spell, not her HP.
Also, I am doing smaller pictures this time around to make scrolling through an update faster. If it's noticeable to you (I think it shouldn't change anything on mobile browsing, for instance, and on computer will likely depend on computer screen/resolution), please tell me if you prefer it that way or if you preferred the larger pictures from before.
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