at long last, after nearly 10 months, i have finished Final Fantasy VI. did any one of you out there ever have a game you heard endless praise of as a kid, but never actually saw anything of? FFVI was that game for me. i'd always heard it was one of the greatest games of all time, it looked beautiful, but i barely knew anything about the story or the characters. the most i knew about it was that you could suplex a train! but dear lord, now that i've played it, i understand the hype. Final Fantasy VI is one of the greatest JRPGs of all time, there's no doubt in my mind. or, i suppose Final Fantasy III, as it was called in the states. yet another confusing name situation with this one, i'm sure you know the drill by now if you've been reading these Final Fantasy reviews. FF2 and 3 for NES never came out in america, FF4 released as FF2, and FF6 released as FF3 in the states. anyways, i played the ps1 version of the game for my playthrough, similar to my time with FFV. it has these long transitions between battles and opening the menu, but it's a pretty good port for the most part. they didn't fuck up the translation either! no pirate Faris to be seen here. now with that out of the way, what was it about Final Fantasy VI that solidifies it as one of the all time greats?

well to begin, something i've noticed with this series thus far is that the even and odd numbered entries in the series have similaries that tie them together. FF1, 3 and 5 are moreso focused on gameplay over anything else, the story really takes a backseat. you have a solidified party that stays the same (well, at least in terms of name and level, we're not counting the job system in 3 and 5) throughout the whole game, and the primary focus is the combat. of course, this isn't to say they COMPLETELY lack story, but it's not the focus. on the other hand, 2, 4 and 6 are MUCH more focused on story, characters, and an eclectic cast of party members. in 2 the last slot in your party is always switching out, in 4 you don't get your final team until the final hour of the game, and 6 is constantly switching things up. and like i said, the story takes center stage in these titles. 2 is all about a rebellion against an evil tyrant who is destroying the world, 4 is about a dark knight's revelation that everything he's ever done is evil and that he wishes only to change, and 6 is all about magic, and the great power that comes with it.

though there were elements of machines and technology in earlier titles, such as the Flying Fortress in FF1, the Giant of Babil in FF4, and the Fireship in FF5, FF6 has a HUGE focus on machinery in its aesthetics. there are steam-powered mechs everywhere, whole towns constructed out of nothing but sheet metal and steel grates, and even guns and lasers. the flavor of fantasy still persists in the small towns you find yourself stopping at from time to time, but as a whole FFVI wants you to know that technology is very much real and IMPORTANT in the world it's showing you. this is a result of the outlawing and complete removal of magic from the world, which resulted in society inventing machines to do the work magic once did. i love this reversal of expectations, the way FFVI blends the rustic, fantasy aesthetic with the harsh, oppresive machinery of the future is fucking awesome. and let's not forget the other thing i mentioned earlier, the characters!

with earlier titles, you could easily pinpoint a "main character" for each game. 1 and 3 are a little more nebulous, since your characters are yours to make up, but 2 had Firion, 4 had Cecil, and 5 had Bartz. 6 has a set in stone cast, but you cycle between party members so often and so quickly that it's hard to pin one down as the "face" of the game. (the closest answer i have to this is Terra, since she's FF6's representation in Dissidia.) this is an aspect about VI i didn't really like at first, but over time the cycling party really grew on me. i love how every character has a unique battle command that is exclusive to them, and unlike 4, these commands are a lot more interesting than "heal the party for 10 hp" or "deal 30 damage to every enemy on screen." probably the coolest one to me is Blitz, the special command of Sabin, the "monk" character of FFVI. this command has you doing fighting game inputs, like quarter circles and button combos, to perform special attacks that cost no MP, the tradeoff being of course that you have to actually perform the command. it's so fucking sick, i love it. hell, even General Leo, a character you control for exactly one scripted battle that lasts maybe 2 minutes, has a unique command that only he can use. another one i'm quite fond of is Cyan's SwordTech, which has you waiting for a charge bar to fill up to different numbers, and each number performs a different ability. this is one of the more interesting ways the ATB system is utilized, which is something i've criticized about this series in the past. i still don't really like ATB, but FFVI might be the best implementation of it so far. also, you would think with a cast of 14 characters that they'd all be a little underbaked, but in my opinion this is the best party we've seen yet. i love all of these characters so much, two of my favorites are probably Edgar and Sabin. they're brothers who are both royalty in the kingdom of Figaro, but they have opposing philosophies about ruling. there's one flashback scene with them, if you know you know, that i absolutely love, it's such an excellent emotional moment.

however, despite all of the development each of the main cast gets and how intricate their stories are, my favorite party member in the game is easily Gogo, no questions asked. y'see, in Final Fantasy V, there was an optional "boss" you could "fight" named Gogo, who was a mimic. he would challenge you to a duel and copy every move you make, but in the end the way to defeat him is to do absolutely nothing. can't be defeated by someone who's copying you if there's nothing to copy, right? he had this crazy design too, a cat-like creature with all these colorful robes and this big, pointy clown hat. when you defeat him, he gives you the Mime job, which allows you to use commands from every other job in the game. pretty cool stuff! he was my favorite character in the game besides Gilgamesh, and i had a real soft spot for him. well, color me fucking puzzled when i find out that not only does Gogo return in FFVI, in a series known for not having any continuity, but as a PARTY MEMBER, and with a completely different design. this version of Gogo functions sort of like the Mime job from FFV, but they look more humanoid, having their whole body shrouded in mysterious robes. you also recruit them in a very strange way, they're an optional party member you can get in the latter half of the game by encountering a rare sandworm enemy in a secluded part of the map, then letting the worm eat all of your party members in battle. this takes you to a dungeon inside of the worm's stomach, and if you venture all the way to the deepest part of it, you'll find Gogo waiting for you. this shit is so fucking WEIRD man, but i absolutely love it.

and on the topic of characters, it would be criminal if i didn't mention the best one of all, Kefka. this guy is iconic for a reason, he's a complete maniac, he is COMICALLY evil, he will do the most heinous acts known to man and then laugh it off. and not like an evil, menacing laugh either, this guy is a total clown. he shrieks, he prances around, he wears literal clown facepaint, he'll smack his ass at you in Dissidia. he's a villain you can't help but love every time he's on screen, and his threat feels the most present out of all the villains so far. i mean, Garland is MIA throughout all of FF1, you barely ever see the Emperor in FF2, the Cloud of Darkness is so nebulous that she is a LITERAL CLOUD OF DARKNESS, i suppose Golbez is pretty prevalent in FF4, but he certainly doesn't have the sauce Kefka's got, and while Exdeath is super fucking evil and menacing, he's nowhere near as sadistic. Kefka is the type to chain you up, make you watch as he kills everyone you love, all while laughing like a madman. i think the best moment with Kefka has to be the final boss, if you have not played FFVI, do yourself a favor and do NOT look up a video of the final boss of this game. i want you to experience it completely blind, it's easily one of the best final battles in any JRPG for me, only falling beneath Mother 1 and Earthbound.

and speaking of hype moments, good GOD did i have some in my playthrough. i think i said in a previous FF review that i like my RPGs on the easier side, but FFVI might have convinced me of the value of having a game that will kick your ass. to be fair, this is probably because i was an idiot for the first 12 hours of my playthrough and wasn't using magic, since i didn't realize you were supposed to EQUIP THE ESPERS THAT YOU FIND, which are the THINGS THAT LET YOU CAST MAGIC. y'know, the MAIN MECHANIC OF THE GAME. sigh. i still can't fuckin' believe that i didn't figure that out until after the magitek factory. but there were some really hype boss fight victories, easily the coolest one was when i was fighting Inferno in the final dungeon. this boss had been kicking my ass all day, and i felt like i was at a hard wall. then, during one attempt, Edgar, who had the Wall Ring equipped, got turned to stone, and the only living party member i had left was Celes. then, Inferno hit the Edgar statue with Bolt 3, which reflected because he still had the Wall Ring equipped, and landed the killing blow on the boss. easily one of the coolest things that's ever happened to me in an rpg.

hey by the way, this game is fucking gorgeous. the SNES FF games had their fair share of mode 7 trickery with the airships and all that, but FFVI brings it to another level. i remember when i first rode a chocobo, i was genuinely stunned at the 3D effect they used for the chocobo riding. that shit must have been MINDBLOWING in 1994. the spritework is gorgeous too, FFIV is ugly in a charming way, FFV looks quite good, but FFVI is where they really took out all the stops. probably due in part to the fact that the character sprites are no longer confined to 16x16 squares anymore, they have so much more room to stretch their legs and be more expressive, it's great. the detail in the enemy sprites is amazing too, one that really caught me offguard was Chadarnook, but some other really cool ones are Humbaba, Ahriman, Typhon, and of course, my man Ultros. certainly not as funny as Gilgamesh in terms of a comic relief recurring boss, but i still like Ultros quite a bit. the music is also really excellent in this game, i still think FFIV has the best soundtrack out of the SNES FF games, but FFVI is a close second. Devil's Lab, Terra's Theme, the World of Ruin, Kefka's Tower, all of the battle themes, and of course, Dancing Mad. i still can't believe Dancing Mad is a real thing in this Super Nintendo game, a 17 minute journey of a final boss theme, it's so fucking awesome. one of the coolest realizations for me was that the title screen theme is ACTUALLY PART OF DANCING MAD, that shit was mindblowing. i got chills hearing this song for the first time in context, it's one of the most iconic final boss themes in any videogame for a reason. this, along with the stellar presentation, in depth story and deep gameplay, really shows to me that Square wanted to say farewell to the SNES era of Final Fantasy with a bang. they put their whole pussy into this game, and it's phenomenal.

i think this game has solidified itself as a classic for a good reason. Final Fantasy VI is one of the most finely crafted JRPGs ever made, and if you need somewhere to start with the series- no, RPGs in general, FFVI is a fantastic place to start. i cannot recommend this game enough.