This arrangement is part of a project on OCRemix that covered the entire soundtrack in absolute bangers. You can find it here if you're interested. I highly recommend it, the entire project is so good.
Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Finished: Final Fantasy Tactics]
- Thread starter Omicron
- Start date
- Let's Play
This arrangement is part of a project on OCRemix that covered the entire soundtrack in absolute bangers. You can find it here if you're interested. I highly recommend it, the entire project is so good.
Connelly
As useless as a penguin with mittens
- Location
- Salamanca, Spain
... Yeah I got nothun'
I think we've already established the Jidoor folks don't grok in the same level as the rest of humanity.
Once for each of his tentacles. Duh.
And for the budding relationship between him and Celes. FINAL FANTASY IS NOW ONION LEVEL.
The unintended patheticism of being an idiot octopi punk.
How does he now he'll take five minutes to push it
How did he get a four ton weight there even
how is this bitch this aegtwahheshjus
sorry I'm weak to cartoons
Probably one of the top5 remixes for FF6 AND in OCR, ever.
I got absolutely nothing to add myself, but I can leave this opera singer talking about the scene:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iK1QiHf1KI
Zap Rowsdower
Ex-cultist vagrant
- Location
- Bright lights, big city
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Fun fact - Setzer is the other character, after Shadow, designed by Nomura. Its why he shows up redesigned in Kingdom Hearts 2's prologue; IIRC, Nomura's said he doesnt like bringing Final Fantasy characters he didnt make into Kingdom Hearts, presumably because redesigning somebody else's guy feels rude.
Also, the switch from chiptune beeps to actual singing is much appreciated; this may have been NEAR the end of the SNES/SFC, but they didnt figure out how to make the system literally sing until Tales of Phantasia the next year. The effort to make chiptunes sound like voices in FFVI classic always made me giggle more than anything elsr.
Also, the switch from chiptune beeps to actual singing is much appreciated; this may have been NEAR the end of the SNES/SFC, but they didnt figure out how to make the system literally sing until Tales of Phantasia the next year. The effort to make chiptunes sound like voices in FFVI classic always made me giggle more than anything elsr.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
RE: Setzer waifu abduction.
So, the thing to keep in mind here is that even though Setzer isn't part of the opera itself his introduction is still a part of the games opera sequence which means we're still operating (heh) in that melodramatic playground.
For those not aware, historically Opera has been a hilariously salacious and scandal-ridden mess both as part of their plots but also IRL. To pick just one example, consider La Maupin.
Other historical examples include just, like, basically any of the prominent castrati of their time who were the 16th~17th century equivalent to rockstar sex symbols.
So, out of context, waifu abduction bad. In the context of Setzer serving as the final late addition to a dramatic opera...perhaps there is backstory we're never privy to. Given the fact that the game makes zero distinction between the never seen Maria the performer and Maria the role (as played by Celes), I'm actually rather inclined to interpret this particular character bit in that light.
In other words, this is an invitiation for us to imagine all sorts of delicious steamy backgrounds for Setzer and Maria. Perhaps they are secret lovers, and Setzer is rescuing her from onerous contractual obligations imposed by the sneaky impressario. Ooh, or perhaps a love triangle between the three? Whatever the true story is, I'm sure theres at least one forbidden nighttime tryst and a body buried somewhere.
So, the thing to keep in mind here is that even though Setzer isn't part of the opera itself his introduction is still a part of the games opera sequence which means we're still operating (heh) in that melodramatic playground.
For those not aware, historically Opera has been a hilariously salacious and scandal-ridden mess both as part of their plots but also IRL. To pick just one example, consider La Maupin.
Other historical examples include just, like, basically any of the prominent castrati of their time who were the 16th~17th century equivalent to rockstar sex symbols.
So, out of context, waifu abduction bad. In the context of Setzer serving as the final late addition to a dramatic opera...perhaps there is backstory we're never privy to. Given the fact that the game makes zero distinction between the never seen Maria the performer and Maria the role (as played by Celes), I'm actually rather inclined to interpret this particular character bit in that light.
In other words, this is an invitiation for us to imagine all sorts of delicious steamy backgrounds for Setzer and Maria. Perhaps they are secret lovers, and Setzer is rescuing her from onerous contractual obligations imposed by the sneaky impressario. Ooh, or perhaps a love triangle between the three? Whatever the true story is, I'm sure theres at least one forbidden nighttime tryst and a body buried somewhere.
Last edited:
- Location
- Amman, Jordan
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Okay, yeah, the bit with Setzer's debut didn't age that well, clearly. When I was younger, it felt like something out of a romance novel; dashing rogue kidnaps pretty starlet and they engage in wacky hijinx and fall in love along the way. In hindsight... not quite as romantic as it once seemed. Yikes.
That aside, though, the opera scene is the scene of FFVI, and boy howdy did it ever get an upgrade in the remaster. It used to be flat buildings and standard layout, but the Remaster has something out of a Sega Saturn RPG, something so well designed it makes the rest of the game look weaker by comparison. And the original was just music mimicking the sound of singers, the Remaster blows it out of the water by just having actual vocals, and good ones at that!
The character reactions vary in the Opera House, with each getting unique responses to the opera being played, but only Edgar and Sabin get a reaction to the coin flip reveal.
As for the "losing the scenario", you get three tries, and that includes the boss fight with ultros. Mess up the lines? Lose a try. Lose any of the fights? Lose a try. Lose all three tries and it's an instant game over, load up your last save.
That aside, though, the opera scene is the scene of FFVI, and boy howdy did it ever get an upgrade in the remaster. It used to be flat buildings and standard layout, but the Remaster has something out of a Sega Saturn RPG, something so well designed it makes the rest of the game look weaker by comparison. And the original was just music mimicking the sound of singers, the Remaster blows it out of the water by just having actual vocals, and good ones at that!
The character reactions vary in the Opera House, with each getting unique responses to the opera being played, but only Edgar and Sabin get a reaction to the coin flip reveal.
As for the "losing the scenario", you get three tries, and that includes the boss fight with ultros. Mess up the lines? Lose a try. Lose any of the fights? Lose a try. Lose all three tries and it's an instant game over, load up your last save.
- Location
- Texas
Which guide is that? I probably should bookmark it for future use.
I mean, I'm 90% certain someone, somewhere, has described pro wrestling as "Opera of the People."
- Location
- Not your place of residence
I've been wondering something since the playthrough of VI started, pretty much...have people been talking about opera and operatic themes so much as a way to obliquely reference this scene in the Opera house?
Sure, the words ALSO fit, but it's also the Opera House scene. I'm actually somewhat shocked it wasn't one of the bits that Omicron picked up through cultural osmosis.
I think this is my second favorite scene in the entire game? Maybe third? It's just a tremendous bit of comedy while simultaneously playing the Opera completely straight. Really, it's all splitting hairs when it comes to the top of FFVI, as I think all of the best moments are in contention for best in the entire series, and the Opera House is certainly no exception.
Sure, the words ALSO fit, but it's also the Opera House scene. I'm actually somewhat shocked it wasn't one of the bits that Omicron picked up through cultural osmosis.
I think this is my second favorite scene in the entire game? Maybe third? It's just a tremendous bit of comedy while simultaneously playing the Opera completely straight. Really, it's all splitting hairs when it comes to the top of FFVI, as I think all of the best moments are in contention for best in the entire series, and the Opera House is certainly no exception.
Connelly
As useless as a penguin with mittens
- Location
- Salamanca, Spain
I was pretty serious about saying FFVI as a whole is theatre, the same way FFV was a Saturday morning cartoon. it just happens to also have an honest to Verdi opera sequence in the middle, because it is that committed to the theme.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm seeing a lot of 'best scene in FF,' 'best sequence in the franchise' and so on and so forth, but unfortunately for you all the Honey Bee Inn from FF7Remake exists.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
At last, the 2nd Installment of the Music of Final Fantasy, Opera Edition.
I'll add this to the end of the first post so that everything's in one place (in case anyone that reads this thread later is wondering why it looks like I'm repeating myself.
Second Intermezzo
And that's it for the vocal performances so Sabin can stop wondering why everyone's singing, with fanfares in the trumpets and horn heralding a scene transition to the player resuming control so our heroes can stop Ultros from dropping a cartoonish 4ton anvil Celes. Here we have a very slightly modified rendition of the initial Duel section, the difference being the dynamic level which was probably done in post at the mixing stage - when the brass entrance happens the mix is a bit louder, with the tuba being slightly more prominent to my ears. A minor tweak, but it does a remarkable job of keeping things fresh and adding excitement. This higher volume level continues with the strings, and I can definitely pick out the string bass digging into their notes, and the bassoon as well for the woodwind sections, so that suggests that they tweaked the EQ or voice channels a bit. Nice touch.
At this point the original take gets interrupted by the cadence to transition to the vocal segment, so here's what I think happened at the recording session: They record this whole section first since it's a significantly longer take, and then just used Pro Tools to snip things down to what they needed for the start of the Duel scene, fading in the start of a second, different take which has the cadence and the vocal segments.
So for this second intermezzo (that's not what it's called in the piano books or track listings, same as the first intermezzo I listed above, but that's the function the music is serving at this point) Uematsu uses a simple technique to develop this duel theme - all he does is take that initial two bar passage here, repeat it to build tension, and then modulates it by having the bass drop down a fifth from B to E. Simple, effective. All the while the entire orchestra is doing forte pianos with a crescendo every two bars to create a dynamic tension-release pattern that is constantly building the intensity of the music.
We are then treated to woodwinds taking over with a moving eightnote line that serves as a transition to a really tense and beautiful moment in the strings, with a rising half note quarter quarter passage. Wait, three notes rising before the sequence repeats…it's the three note motif again! Again, inverted and with a shift in the rhythm but it's there, I swear.
The next segment is a really wonderful viola countermelody. Violas rarely get a chance to shine, and this is an effective use of their alto string sound. Also featured: woodwinds, again with the ascending three note sequence. Goddamn I'm finding that thing everywhere now that I'm primed to look for it. A 4th horn belting it out (might be a touch of bass trombone there as well) is our turnaround for the repeat of the intermezzo.
So, as I did research listening to this track, it turns out that while the end of the turnaround might be the end of the cue as we experience it in the game, that's not the end of the track. That's right, there's more and let me just start off by saying I am a HUGE fan of what's going on here. This turnaround theme modulates and gets developed, building tension as we race to the end. A flurry of reintroduced motifs from the rest of the cue, particularly the eighth note run sequence, is what drives us to the final, conclusive, cadence. LOL, nice stinger with the low strings. What a way to go out.
Seriously, give it a listen - it's wild. I understand why we don't get to experience that ingame, it would probably be too difficult/timeconsuming to introduce a context-sensitive element into the game particularly where the player still has control and could thus theoretically stall out the end of the cue. Still though, I was not expecting that, wouldn't even know it existed if I wasn't doing a deep dive into the score like this. What a delightful little surprise.
The Grand Finale?
The final music number for our opera, and we're going out with a bang. Or rather, a blast, as this is a very brass heavy track. Yes, that's right, the last piece is a brass feature as is only right and proper.
Low strings and timpani lead the charge into the melody with upper strings on offbeats, the upper strings (probably viola) sound to me like they're just a hair on the back end of the beat here which is a bit awkward but in a way…it kind of works? It makes it feel like the whole ensemble is tripping over itself as our heroes rush onstage to do battle which is a neat music/story parallel. Also, shout out for the cymbal crashes on beats 2 & 4. They do a lot to keep the whole piece grounded.
Voicing for the first statement of the melody is in the 1st trumpet and trombone, with horns answering in response. My favorite part in all this is that when the melody repeats, the rest of the section joins in by filling out the harmony. It's a real delight to listen to. In addition we also have the bass trombone/4th horn just absolutely cranking on pedals in the background. It's a bit difficult to pick it out (I think the mixer went a little bit too far in keeping them from dominating, as I can just barely hear them), but they're there. It's much more noticeable when the trombone jumps up an octave at the very end of this part. This pedal~octave up bit also serves as a musical cue that were moving on to the next section.
I love the playfulness of the tradeoffs between the trombones & trumpets, horns, and strings here. The strings then take over the turnaround, which is a nice foreshadowing of the fact that they take over the melody as well for our 2nd time through. Now that the strings are in charge, the bass trombone belting out those pedals is significantly more audible. While on the one hand I kind of miss the brass having the melody, having the strings take over here is actually pretty smart writing. Two reasons: 1) changing the texture keeps things interesting, 2) playing brass can be very taxing, giving the players a chance to rest their chops is really important.
The B section serves primarily as a very extended turnaround. The horn section finally gets their moment in the spotlight instead of as an interjection to the melody, this is a great example of using the sound of a french horn section for textual contrast. My interest here is drawn particularly to this extended call and response between the horns and the rest of the orchestra sections with these elegant and soaring ascending thirds. The slower rhythm of these traded thirds also serves as a way to relax and contrast with the very spirited A section. This music cue loops without end, sadly there's no definite ending - Ultros does tend to overstay his welcome, after all.
I'll add this to the end of the first post so that everything's in one place (in case anyone that reads this thread later is wondering why it looks like I'm repeating myself.
Second Intermezzo
And that's it for the vocal performances so Sabin can stop wondering why everyone's singing, with fanfares in the trumpets and horn heralding a scene transition to the player resuming control so our heroes can stop Ultros from dropping a cartoonish 4ton anvil Celes. Here we have a very slightly modified rendition of the initial Duel section, the difference being the dynamic level which was probably done in post at the mixing stage - when the brass entrance happens the mix is a bit louder, with the tuba being slightly more prominent to my ears. A minor tweak, but it does a remarkable job of keeping things fresh and adding excitement. This higher volume level continues with the strings, and I can definitely pick out the string bass digging into their notes, and the bassoon as well for the woodwind sections, so that suggests that they tweaked the EQ or voice channels a bit. Nice touch.
At this point the original take gets interrupted by the cadence to transition to the vocal segment, so here's what I think happened at the recording session: They record this whole section first since it's a significantly longer take, and then just used Pro Tools to snip things down to what they needed for the start of the Duel scene, fading in the start of a second, different take which has the cadence and the vocal segments.
So for this second intermezzo (that's not what it's called in the piano books or track listings, same as the first intermezzo I listed above, but that's the function the music is serving at this point) Uematsu uses a simple technique to develop this duel theme - all he does is take that initial two bar passage here, repeat it to build tension, and then modulates it by having the bass drop down a fifth from B to E. Simple, effective. All the while the entire orchestra is doing forte pianos with a crescendo every two bars to create a dynamic tension-release pattern that is constantly building the intensity of the music.
We are then treated to woodwinds taking over with a moving eightnote line that serves as a transition to a really tense and beautiful moment in the strings, with a rising half note quarter quarter passage. Wait, three notes rising before the sequence repeats…it's the three note motif again! Again, inverted and with a shift in the rhythm but it's there, I swear.
The next segment is a really wonderful viola countermelody. Violas rarely get a chance to shine, and this is an effective use of their alto string sound. Also featured: woodwinds, again with the ascending three note sequence. Goddamn I'm finding that thing everywhere now that I'm primed to look for it. A 4th horn belting it out (might be a touch of bass trombone there as well) is our turnaround for the repeat of the intermezzo.
So, as I did research listening to this track, it turns out that while the end of the turnaround might be the end of the cue as we experience it in the game, that's not the end of the track. That's right, there's more and let me just start off by saying I am a HUGE fan of what's going on here. This turnaround theme modulates and gets developed, building tension as we race to the end. A flurry of reintroduced motifs from the rest of the cue, particularly the eighth note run sequence, is what drives us to the final, conclusive, cadence. LOL, nice stinger with the low strings. What a way to go out.
Seriously, give it a listen - it's wild. I understand why we don't get to experience that ingame, it would probably be too difficult/timeconsuming to introduce a context-sensitive element into the game particularly where the player still has control and could thus theoretically stall out the end of the cue. Still though, I was not expecting that, wouldn't even know it existed if I wasn't doing a deep dive into the score like this. What a delightful little surprise.
The Grand Finale?
The final music number for our opera, and we're going out with a bang. Or rather, a blast, as this is a very brass heavy track. Yes, that's right, the last piece is a brass feature as is only right and proper.
Low strings and timpani lead the charge into the melody with upper strings on offbeats, the upper strings (probably viola) sound to me like they're just a hair on the back end of the beat here which is a bit awkward but in a way…it kind of works? It makes it feel like the whole ensemble is tripping over itself as our heroes rush onstage to do battle which is a neat music/story parallel. Also, shout out for the cymbal crashes on beats 2 & 4. They do a lot to keep the whole piece grounded.
Voicing for the first statement of the melody is in the 1st trumpet and trombone, with horns answering in response. My favorite part in all this is that when the melody repeats, the rest of the section joins in by filling out the harmony. It's a real delight to listen to. In addition we also have the bass trombone/4th horn just absolutely cranking on pedals in the background. It's a bit difficult to pick it out (I think the mixer went a little bit too far in keeping them from dominating, as I can just barely hear them), but they're there. It's much more noticeable when the trombone jumps up an octave at the very end of this part. This pedal~octave up bit also serves as a musical cue that were moving on to the next section.
I love the playfulness of the tradeoffs between the trombones & trumpets, horns, and strings here. The strings then take over the turnaround, which is a nice foreshadowing of the fact that they take over the melody as well for our 2nd time through. Now that the strings are in charge, the bass trombone belting out those pedals is significantly more audible. While on the one hand I kind of miss the brass having the melody, having the strings take over here is actually pretty smart writing. Two reasons: 1) changing the texture keeps things interesting, 2) playing brass can be very taxing, giving the players a chance to rest their chops is really important.
The B section serves primarily as a very extended turnaround. The horn section finally gets their moment in the spotlight instead of as an interjection to the melody, this is a great example of using the sound of a french horn section for textual contrast. My interest here is drawn particularly to this extended call and response between the horns and the rest of the orchestra sections with these elegant and soaring ascending thirds. The slower rhythm of these traded thirds also serves as a way to relax and contrast with the very spirited A section. This music cue loops without end, sadly there's no definite ending - Ultros does tend to overstay his welcome, after all.
So for actual details on the Chainsaw: It's basically like the Drill as a defense-ignoring single target attack, trading off more base damage with a 25% chance to try for an instant kill attack instead of straight damage where Edgar throws on a hockey Mask and goes Friday the 13th on his target.
I mean I say "tradeoff" but considering it won't be until lategame that enemies start to regularly have resistance to instant kills (outside of bosses) the chainsaw is pretty much a straight upgrade from the drill, which I suppose makes sense for the first Tool you can't just buy from a shop.
Ahahaha yeaaaaaaah. This was one of those things I just didn't think about or consider until replaying through this segment of the game, then Setzer shows up and I go "oh wait that's like... problematic and aged badly, isn't it?" Which isn't helped by how he actually treats Celes later when he does the kidnapping, immediately locking her in a room going "heheheh I'll be back for you later".
Like Edgar, I think Setzer gets some character beats eventually that help get past these initial impressions... but boy at the same time, there's a world of difference between "flirty 27 year old king who still respects boundries" and "kidnapping criminal gambler 27 year old man" (Setzer is also 27 to Celes' 18 WHOOPS might be worse than Edgar hitting on Barely Legal Terra).
I just wanna say I love this hands on hips pose for Celes. I've said it before but the jump from the chibi overworld sprites of the last five games to fully realized combat-sized sprites for everyone adds a ton of character to the game.Now, Celes doesn't initially take this idea very well…
That it do be, that it do be. I'm not going to comment much on the Opera itself, because I'm hardly qualified compared to a few other posters (especially FunkyEntropy), other than:
Yeah, the Pixel Remaster goes out of its way to spruce things up a bit compared to the SNES original. And it's a well done change, though I'm not sure why Celes and the flowers was suddenly a quicktime event towards the end of her portion?
For some small comparison if you want it, here's at least one chunk of the opera completely untouched, just... don't go to Youtube and scroll down to comments at all, spoilers abound if you do that:
View: https://youtu.be/WwHrQdC02FY
Honestly I assumed he just kept picking up the same letter and desperately throwing it out again and again, but either is hilarious.
BOY, THIS IS A HEAVY WEIGHT, IT'LL TAKE ME EXACTLY FIVE MINUTES TO PUSH IT
God I love when a game just doesn't give a shit and does stuff like that, it's always hilarious
Look, he's fallen on hard times after the whole Grand Order thing, okay? Has to make ends meet somehow.
Someone else already mentioned, but yeah I assume she's trying to keep cover as Maria by not blasting out waves of magical ice left and right.
And just think, if you didn't have quicksaves, you wouldn't have a choice here because there's no save points in the entire opera house!
Thank god for quicksaves in the Remasters. I'm sure someone could argue it ruins the integrity of the games or something and makes them piss easy, but the older I get the more I don't really care when it comes to replaying old games that lack a lot of Quality of Life or just have straight up bullshit that ends you and goes "haha waste an hour going back" in a game that's not specifically designed around that mechanic like a roguelike.
Yup, is in fact entirely missable and I didn't get it on my current playthrough. Granted I've seen it before and it's one line of dialog, not an entire backstory cutscene like Figaro Castle was, so didn't bother going "OMI OMI BRING THE BROTHERS" when it could also just be handled by mentioning it around this part of the update if you didn't.
You know... I can totally see it, Setzer is absolutely that kind of guy.
Yes it most certainly was, and yes he most certainly does
Character analysis on Setzer can wait for now, since he hasn't really officially joined the party as of yet.
This is the specific page I've been using, which is just a checklist, but also has links to a main guide as well which has stuff like "which Gau rages are good" if you skim through the walkthrough.
Missable Item Walkthrough - Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster Walkthrough & Guide - GameFAQs
For Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster on the PC, Guide and Walkthrough by bover_87.
gamefaqs.gamespot.com
- Pronouns
- He
Oh Japan you and your ridiculous ages for characters. I really would have thought that Setzer would be in his late thirties to early forties and that Celes would be, if she was extremely gifted, in her late twenties.
Kuja
I'M A SQUIIIID
- Location
- AZ
- Pronouns
- He/Him
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGxCMyLm6js&ab_channel=ProZD
Celes is 25 and the official age list can bite me.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
I think I covered this rather extensively in my (nearly 5k words, Jesus) effortpost but I figure I ought to directly answer this question.
You're not wrong to like the french version better. English version was pretty damn amateur hour IMO, noticably inferior to the other language offerings. In particular you can really hear the difference between the French version Aria where the performer is using chest voice to get more resonance and project their voice in contrast with the English version where we get the amatuer/high school musical tinny sounding voice (I'm...95% percent sure I'm explaining this properly. This is what makes it sound deeper and richer despite the fact that they're both singing the same pitches. I've had a little bit of singing training (not a lot) and did a bit of research to try and make sure I was using the right terminology. But in the end I'm a tuba player, not a vocalist). As I said in the effortpost I like the reasons why they did it that way and how it works organically in the game, but I also completely understand the criticism that's been leveled at that performance.
Could be the writers playing around with the fact that some of the more extensive theater stages have trap doors in the floor so that actors and props can be moved on stage without having to move in from the sides? I'm not aware of Ultros moving around actually doing anything mechanically, but it's a nice little touch that devs are really making full use of the fight's location.
In other news, I absolutely love your escalating and increasingly convoluted nicknames for Setzer. Between this and your musings about Zozo as a setting and Setzer's background, 10/10 best update so far.
I will note here that this guy is specifically analysing one of the Distant Worlds performances or one of the other live productions, which is a significantly fleshed out version of the opera we experience in game.
When he and I touch on the same points we seem to be in agreement, so I'm kind of glad to know I'm not completely talking out my ass
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- He/Him
So while I agree that Celes absolutely pings as early 20s at least, there's totally textual evidence that she's pretty young just in what we have so far:
MiskWisk
Hoot
- Location
- Somewhere devoid of wit
- Pronouns
- He
You know, I knew Setzer was slightly skeevy thanks to his Kingdom Hearts appearance when one of his only lines is trying to get Roxas to take a dive but I honestly wasn't expecting that.
I thought it was going to be some bluff or something but nope, turns out it's kidnapper time. Shadow has been a better character and he apparently can straight up ditch you.
I thought it was going to be some bluff or something but nope, turns out it's kidnapper time. Shadow has been a better character and he apparently can straight up ditch you.
I can buy Celes being 18. Quite apart from her having to be born after the discovery of the Esper realm, she's extremely competent except for the areas that she wouldn't have been trained in. So, she can fight and command because she was trained from birth to be a general, and she can immediately see through Locke's bullshit because the Emperor didn't want his weapon to be a gullible fool, but she falls apart into a panic when she's confronted with something outside of her area of expertise.
- Location
- SV's Only Complete Persona Quest
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Though in their case without the sex obviously.
Given you mention Julie d'Aubigny though, it is however worth noting that how much of her life is true is hard to determine due to most of the original sources on her being not at all favourable, though enough does seem to be true that the stories surrounding her don't come from nowhere (this being the video I have in mind)
That said, the opera=licentiousness thing in history, yeah, not questioning that
Last edited:
Aww yeah, this is the good more-in-depth-than-the-actual-devs analysis shit.
I'd have to dig out my music history textbook to really lay out the specifics, but from what I remember that implication ties back to the symphony being the 'high class' musical expression, where opera was for the masses. Symphony was seen as the more 'pure' musical expression since the opera having lyrics basically meant 'oh, you don't need to be as smart to really get it, man', and from the composer/performer side it was seen as superior to be able to convey meaning and move your audience emotionally without relying on words as a 'crutch'.
I think I read somewhere that the ethos for the Pixel Remaster project was to recreate 'the games the way you remember them', and nostalgia doesn't have to care about petty things like hardware limitations.
One thing I heard brought up quite a bit in a twitch LP of this I followed for a while is that part of the reason the original sprites looked the way they did was a limit on the number of colors that could be used at once. Now in the pixel remaster, you can see it turns out to be quite a huge difference between, say, Kefka's SNES sprite and his Pixel Remaster sprite.
From the character sprites to the special effects to the soundtrack, Final Fantasy VI is more itself than it's ever been, free of the old restrictions but embracing the vibes. It's probably only fitting then that this whole sequence which sort of strains at the seems of its genre should actually break the constraints of 2-d in this remaster.
Obviously Funky's effortpost will go into more in-depth here, but specifically addressing the language variation in Celes' performance specifically across languages, the Japanese and English versions execute much more closely on the 'pretty good singer who doesn't do opera' vision for her. As just pieces on their own, yeah the French, German, Italian, and Korean versions all use a more operatic style that fits the rest of the music better, but which begs the question on whether they didn't collaborate as closely with the japanese devs, or maybe there was a goof in translation where Uematsu saying 'we want more of a musical singer' is maybe misconstrued as referring to their musicality, which is roughly, in layman's terms, "being appropriately expressive in performance" which would lead you to casting a more operatic style if the extra story context somehow wasn't being foregrounded.
Or hell the other language dubs may have just decided to flex the maximum musical effort on this, direction be damned. Chances like this don't come along every day after all.
I love a good nickname running gag. I'm surprised "Mr. Taxes Are Theft" wasn't used at some point.
Left unmentioned in the looney tune-ness of this whole thing is that before they fall to the stage they take a moment to look from themselves to the audience Wile E. Coyote-style before falling.
When I did my PR playthrough, I was making an effort to use Gau more than I typically do, and this section is one of the places where it came in big for me. One of the easily-accessible rages has Fira, which absolutely blew Ultros the fuck out, here.
As for why, probably the main reason is just for leaning in to the bit on this whole thing being just a performance. If you lose, Ultros is a good sport about understanding his place in the narrative and agrees to try the whole thing again tomorrow.
Of practical gameplay concern, you'd mentioned being out of Green Cherries, so if you somehow found yourself without enough horsepower to win the boss fight here, this would be a chance to grind, buy some items, or even switch out party members if you felt like going all the way back to Narshe.
Yeah, throwing down a rope was always my impression of what happened here.
I think (off the top of my head admittedly), that if Edgar is here she still does the pantomime of getting the coin from him, but if he's not there, she mentions needing to thank Edgar for the coin. In those versions, its not explicitly called out, but the player is given enough to put two-and-two together. Also, I'm not sure if it's said here, or back in the Coin of Fate scene back at Figaro, but at some point I think it's said that Edgar got the coin from his dad.
I tried looking up some clips on Youtube, but everything that came up had the Sabin/Edgar version of the scene and I can't really blame folks for that, but it is inconvenient for me in this situation.
There's always a moment of slight trepidation when someone new is experiencing a thing you love, wondering whether it will land for them like it did for you. Glad it did in this case!
I checked out some other clips of theirs after they were linked earlier in the thread and those two have an incredibly infectious energy about them. I really dug his voice for Banon.
97 minutes. I was curious how long it would take someone to link this.
I actually never knew it was a bunch of industry pros who put that together, but the song is such a great mashup that it really shouldn't surprise me.
Okay first of all, how dare you. Second, you're absolutely right, but I'll have to save a more in-depth response for a non-mother's-day time.
Last edited:
As mentioned, Gau with proper rages knowledge is frankly ridiculous. He gets -ra tier spells right out the gate + Cat Scratch which can carry the physical side through most of the game, then sure, you get magicite and that has Thundara... while Gau can detour back to the Veldt for Gigavolt and Aqua Breath. Only keeps going from there.
Can confirm the second one at least, because I headed here with Sabin and Gau. I figure a lot of people end up taking Sabin and Edgar together though, since they're pretty much your most reliable other two party members at this point compared to Cyan (slow as hell and his Bushido was even worse in older versions) and Gau (Rage mechanics).
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
Had a thought, too funny not to share.
Artists depiction of @Omicron meeting Setzer:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIIvpPGYjLs
Artists depiction of @Omicron meeting Setzer:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIIvpPGYjLs
- Location
- Amman, Jordan
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
To be fair, Phantasy Star's Numans are basically genetically engineered constructs that basically are either born adults from a cloning tank or have really fast aging when they're created (not born, mind you).
Though I agree Celes is in no way 18. I can maybe believe her being a general at 25, since she may have been entered into the military young and then had to work her way up the ranks, probably helped by her competence and her magical abilities (Emperor Gestahl seems to have a very social Darwinist view, surrounding himself with very strong people in both the personal and influence sense).
- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- Singular They
There's an interesting potential version that makes it a little better, but it's also questionably canon.
In one of the earlier FFVI ports (I think for the Playstation?), there were added FMV cutscenes for the ending, which looked back on notable events during the story. The Figaro coin toss was one of the scenes, and the coin was indeed double-headed.
Except one side had Edgar's face, and the other side had Sabin's face.
So the coin is technically double-headed, but the heads are different, and so it could be considered "fair" in the specific case of Edgar and Sabin, while still working for Celes.
Of course, this never comes up in any dialogue or description in-game, and as far as I can tell the "coin has the images of both Figaro brothers" thing has never come up outside of that FMV, so it remains questionably canon. Still, I like it enough that I made it my headcanon, because it fits so well; presumably Sabin would also have known about the coin, if the previous King of Figaro had given it to his sons, so his accepting the coin toss meant it was perceived to be fair, which wouldn't have happened if he knew it was double-headed in the usual way.