After you recruit Sabin, there is a missable scene between Sabin and Duncan's wife. The only way to see it is to run all the way back through the mountains to South Figaro and talk to her. If you come back to South Figaro later in the story the conversation doesn't trigger. So most people will never see it. Here is the exchange (GBA version): Duncan's Wife: "Sabin, where are Vargas and Duncan...?" Sabin: "Vargas...turned on our master... Vargas, he..." Duncan's Wife: "Oh, Vargas... Why would you do such a thing? But my husband was able to pass his techniques along to you, Sabin... I'm sure he'd have no regrets." Sabin: "For the past ten years you've treated me like a son. I'll never forget all the things you've done for me!" Sabin's official age when you meet him is 27. This means he left Figaro Castle when he was around 17 or younger and then met Duncan and trained under him for 10 years. It also implies that Edgar didn't visit South Figaro much during that time since Sabin was in that area and they didn't meet each other again until now.
This was what FF6 did best. When you found secrets, it often rewarded you with treasure, like most games, but going out of your way would often just reveal secret conversations, background information, and lore. It was just as exciting to find a scene like this as it was to find cool loot.
That tidbit is also inferred upon if you take Edgar to the house north of South Figaro: he recognizes and reminisces on multiple items that happen to be Sabin's favorites: flowers, dishes, and one more iirc. After finding them and leaving, Edgar comments along the lines, "Sabin, were you here?" implying that he hasn't seen him in all that time frame.
When I think about the story of final fantasy 9 I have to agree with you that the cartridge final fantasies were more theatric in nature. How FF9 explicitly begins with a play is almost like the old team at square enix telling the audience how they tell stories.
I had the blitz problem as a kid. I had to put the game down and beat every other game I had first before making progress again in this one. I did come back to it from time to time only to be unsuccessful every time. I was convinced there was a hidden item or some NPC I had missed somewhere. I'd restart and do every possible thing I could. Stepped on every tile, pushed "A" against every wall, grinded into my mid 20s, found every treasure, stole from every enemy. I just could not find out for the life of me what I was missing. A year later when I finally figured it out, my reaction was basically like, "Oh, that was it? ... I guess I can play the rest of this game now." The anger I should have felt was canceled out by the fact that I could now play the other 95% of this game that I was convinced didn't even exist... Vargas was the final boss for me and I expected nothing more after him. Edit - God, this is so much worse the more I think about it. I even had friends try it, my dad, no one could figure out the blitz technique, granted when they would game with me I eventually just didn't play this game with them since it was "that game I was stuck on". I even remember looking for strategy guides for this game to get any kind of clue whatsoever. I bought the Nintendo Power guides. There were 3 separate months where they covered ff6 and they had plenty of interesting stuff before and after Vargas, but nothing on how to execute the blitz itself. Seeing Hironubu Sakaguchi fail on this, even if only one time, pleases me.
The idea of the presentation of this game as a stage play makes so much sense! In a similar vein, I've often thought of FFVIII as their take on FF as a schooldays manga
Fun fact that Yoshinori Kitase ad-libbed Kefka's personality from the desert scene and improvised the villain we all know and love today: "The Kefka in DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY is completely “out there” and awesome, but in the original game, we only had Amano-san’s design to work with, and the scenario didn’t give him much character. The very first scene that I worked on in the original game was when Kefka appears at Figaro Castle. I thought it would be boring to make the scene completely normal, and had an accompanying soldier dust his shoes off, depicting how there may be a screw or two missing from this character’s head. It was all adlib, and just something that I thought of off the top of my head, but somehow was a perfect fit. From then on Kefka was blessed with his current personality. If this scene never happened, the Kefka we see in DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY might have been a completely different person."
@@MugenHeadNinjaI mostly disagree in that most iterations of Dissidia Kefka focus on the jokester side of him and not the nihilist side. It's there, but not the focus.
@@AkaiAzul I agree, but I do think that with a product like Dissidia: Final Fantasy, which tries to bring in the heroes and villains from all 10 / 13 games, it's inevitable that there's some flanderization of the personalities involved. The comparisons between Kefka and the Joker might be overdone by now, but I imagine a perfect rendition of Kefka to hold the "jokester" and "nihilist" sides in tension. A little bit like Mark Hamill's or Ian Gallagher's portrayal of the Joker character.
This will probably get lost in the sea of comments but someone brought up this podcast in my FF14 FreeCompany and I noticed something. The model of the Amano magitek armor, it’s ridden and walks just like a war chocobo. An industrial mecha war chocobo walking in the ominous snow. A good amount of amanos art of terra and magitek armor together was produced. Her theme is associated with this scene. Sakaguchi said that he liked takahashis design better, so the in game armors were changed. That was probably the intention of the original design of the magitek armor, to look like a chocobo. The implication being: This civilization thought to upgrade the chocobo before upgrading a chariot into a car or a tank. The Empires priority was always replacing life with something they thought was better. Even as a design choice by Amano it would be obvious to make parallels to FFV’s into which starts with Bartz on a chocobo in a far more adventurous or mysterious tone than the foreboding of FFVI. The change in setting and tone is obvious but the mechs familiar design and moogles would significantly remind the audience this is STILL a final fantasy game.
11:10 Clarification: The FMVs you watched on RUclips were literally just the opening and ending FMVs. There are no other FMVS inserted into the game itself. If I recall, only Chrono Trigger's PS1 port had FMVs inserted into the story. FFVI's anthology opening - Begins with 20seconds of quick montage of various scenes involving party members, set to piano of terra's theme. They go by so quick that it'll mean nothing to newbies. Then the Squaresoft logo appears and the full scene of Terra getting into the magitek armor plays out. There's 2 title cards during this scene that reads "Command to the empire force in particular...Commence to launch the attack..." FFVI's anthology ending - Without spoiling, it's just a longer montage of iconic scenes remade in CG. Expanded versions of the quick shots shown in the 1st 20 seconds of the opening FMV. Now they're spoiler-ok for newbies since they've finished the game! The ending focuses most on 1 particular character, and their theme plays thru the video along with a couple thematic title cards. I grew up with this version (and endured the loading times lol) and as afaik neither of these FMVs replaced the actual 16-bit opening and ending of the story.
It is so interesting how you brought up how these pixel art style games are made to be like stage plays, because now when I’m playing through octopath traveler 2 (which is presented in a similar fashion) uses elements found in theater like spot lights for internal monologues or opening/closing scrawls similar to a narrator
How is the story in this one? I couldn't finish the first one because it was incredibly boring and predictable. (In my opinion) and the combat wasn't enough to keep me going.
@@ereviscale3966 I think it’s better than the original, the gameplay is similar but fleshed out a bit more. Overall it’s similar, but better. Additionally the story is more linked than in the first game, it even goes as far as making side plots for character duos. I liked the first game, but I do think this one is just better in almost every way.
Yeah that point was perfectly articulated and I agree. I think how they introduce the characters with their own music theme that plays the first time you meet them contributes to this. How time pauses for a second a puts a “spotlight” on the character and tells a little bit of backstory as well. Loved how they described Shadow as a man who’d slit his mothers throat for a nickel - made him seem like such a badass. Very stage-like indeed.
Some notes on Narshe: Narshe is powerful because it appears to have focused on training animals & cultivating relationships between humans and non-humans. A few pieces of evidence for this: They are the first location outside of the empire to attempt to establish a non-murderous relationship with Espers. The caves of Narshe contain some of the only non-violent non-humans in the game (e.g. Tritoch, Umaro, the Moogles). The soldiers of Narshe make use of dogs, wooly mammoths & Ymir in defending their city. They have a Beast Trainer as one of their commanding soldiers who is able to marshall an army of animals to capture Terra. Narshe was able to freely move about Tritoch presumably without them killing their citizens. Narshe does not extract resources from living things (poor mountain though) & then disgard them. On top of this is Narshe's material wealth, they likely export their precious metals to Figaro which then turns them into advanced techonologies.
Really hit it out of the park with comparing the SNES era Final Fantasies to theatre. 5 and 6 feel VERY campy (in a good way) and theatrical in my opinion.
The Empire didn't just send 3 Magitek soldiers to Narshe the first time; 2 Magitek soldiers escorted someone who could wipe out 50 Magitek soldiers in 3 minutes.
Man these episodes has really helped me understand the difference between the theatrical and cinematic styles of story telling. Edit: Even if the two story beat aren’t related, I see a lot of overlap between Terra’s refusal to fight and Fei’s refusal from Xenogears.
Protip for anyone having trouble with Sabin's Blitz: there is no time limit for entering the required inputs, and the game does not actually detect diagonals, it just accepts either of the two adjacent cardinal directions. So for example, for AuraBolt (Down, Down-Left, Left), instead of trying to roll your thumb across the d-pad to do it all in one smooth motion like a fireball in a fighting game, you can just tap "Down, Down, Left" as quickly or slowly as you like. This will make some of the later Blitzes like Air Blade and Bum Rush much easier to pull off consistently. This trick works in nearly every version of the game, including the Pixel Remasters. (MILD STORY SPOILERS FOLLOW) Also, LOL at thinking that you're going to get through all three scenarios, including the introductions of three major party members, AND the big Kefka battle, AND optional backstory cut scenes in Figaro Castle and Kohlingen, AND Jidoor / Zozo, AND the big exposition dump that comes at the end of Zozo, AND the opera sequence in the next episode. See you at the end of Sabin's scenario maybe. (-:
@@reloadpsi Yes, you can do a 360 or you can type it in. The only version this doesn't work for is the old iOS port (with the bad art) where you have to click the on screen arrow buttons.
@@Lamasis2 After the 3 scenarios, plus stuff in Narshe, plus a couple more towns, plus Zozo... there's probably 2 episodes worth of stuff before they get to the Opera House.
I had never thought of it until you guys talked about the operatic/theatrical nature of FF VI, but the name *Figaro* is probably a reference to "The Barber of Seville". I can hear the opera song repeating over and over in my head! Edit: Thinking about the character of Figaro a bit more, I'm def reminded of Edgar's character in ways... To quote from a character bio, "he is a clever liar; moral and yet unscrupulous; good humored, helpful and brave, though somewhat embittered and cynical. As he says in The Barber of Seville: 'I must force myself to laugh at everything lest I be obliged to weep.'"
Indeed! I hafta say, FF VI was already one of my favorites, but I'm already getting so much more out of it just from the first couple episodes of this series.
The rebuke against feeling alone by Locke to Terra is repeated similarly in FFIX in one of my favorite sequences with Zidane trying to distance himself from the party but they keep joining him one by one while the track "You Are Not Alone" plays.
Forgive me, I may be splitting hairs here, but I think there is a difference between saying Narshe ‘has the power to stand up the empire’ vs Narshe ‘is no match for the Empire.’ These things aren’t mutually exclusive. ‘Standing up to the Empire’ just means resisting them; in this context, resisting an invasion of occupation, which Narshe does eventually manage to do. Being ‘a match’ for the Empire, however, would mean that Narshe’s forces could match the Empire’s power, not just in their home town, but anywhere. It would mean that Narshe has the means to invade and occupy an Imperial holding, which they obviously don’t. As for the bit about “three magitech armors is all it takes,” I think it’s important to note that those armors only succeeded in gaining access to an esper, and that (as you note) they did so via surprise. Granted, that’s all they wanted to do, but the three armors did not succeed in seizing control of the town, in utterly destroying their entire military, or otherwise dominating Narshe in any sustainable way. So this does not disprove the notion that Narshe has the power to stand up to the Empire, nor does it contradict the idea that Narshe is no match for the Empire. Though I do of course recognize that these two translations have very different contextual/emotional meanings in the moment.
I always interpreted Locke's reaction on the "Terra can use MAGIC?!" dialogue as him having seen her USE the magic, but never bothering to think about it. At least in one translation, Locke says "yeah, this kid's loaded for bear!" He's seen her be a powerhouse, seen her casting magic, but only when Edgar says it out loud does Locke have the "wait, what?!" moment. And we all know Locke's more intellegent than that, but to be fair, he was thrust into this situation amd has been on the run with Terra even up until now. Any conversation he has with the other characters up till now has been out of battle, with what Terra has been doing in battle tucked away in the back of the mind.
yup the guys remember wrong. Edgar is the one being freaked out by Terra's magic. Locke just didn't realize what it was. After all in this world there are special abilities that don't make people bat an eye : Mog's dances, Gau's Rages, Setzer's Slots, etc. so Locke thought that what Terra does is something like that.
It would be really cool if you could get the Lorerunner as a guest in this series since FFVI is his favorite game. He's done a lot of cool analysis of this game, and it would be awesome to see you guys collaborate on it!
I like that Casen brought up that the bell you hear when Figaro Castle tells you that there's something wrong. I love how the Empire's musical theme works consistently as a traditional Leitmotif throughout the whole game.
Checked the channel just in time, wow! I just want to say, even though your episodes end up being a little behind what you predict/where you want us to put our "bookmarks", please don't rush this game. Your statements in the first episodes that older games are a lot more abstract are very apparent by the very fact that you guys can go on 10 minute tangents over 20 seconds of dialog when read out loud. You talked about how Woolsey had to condense the dialog and then it was still twice as much so he had to further do it; this series is like you guys are decompressing everything Woolsey did to get every line of dialog's full meaning and it's fascinating! Keep up the awesome work
I played FF6 in 2000 or so but can’t remember how far I got. I think I got stuck at some point. I’m playing along with this podcast series and looking forward to each episode.
One thing I like about this game is how some of the characters’ special skills tie into their character beyond simple gameplay and gimmicks; they tie into their role in the story too. For example, Edgar’s skill, Tools, depends fully and entirely on how much money he has, just as a king would be able to buy himself all the best toys. Sabin, on the other hand, has Blitz, which requires more time and effort to do successfully, emblematic of the hard training he’s done in his life.
I really love the insertion of the Pandora's Box myth here and I think the creators of Final Fantasy VI were very explicit about their thematic intention. I think that the central theme of Final Fantasy VI is "hope," especially in a situation where the only logical and rational response is to despair. The heroes of Final Fantasy VI are heroes because they never cease to stop "hoping" and serving as an example for the rest of the people in the world (and us) that it is theoretically possible to fight against an oppressive system or an unjust fate with hope. (Ironically enough, the moment the characters lose "hope" they stop being playable, but that's something to get into in the later half of the game) The way I read it, Terra is not yet ready to be a hero not just because she's confused and uncertain about where she comes from. She explicitly rejects the Call to Adventure three times, much like Peter's denial of Christ, the one who will save the world, and the world becomes just that little bit darker and dimmer each time she does so. And it will be the task of the rest of the game to show, in glorious 2D fashion, how characters can move from that place of despair and uncertainty to embrace "hope."
Last comment, sorry - I just really love this game and I have a lot to say about it! I like how you brought up Bannon's awkwardness. Through the scenes here and many of the scenes later involving him, I actually get a reading from him that he wants to take down the Empire at any cost - it doesn't matter who he hurts in the process. I think he's not actually that good of a person, and I really like that they added a character like him to the game.
I love the way you guys dive into the NPC dialogue, so much of the story and world building is contained within the NPCs. Talking to them all is one of my favorite parts of the game.
Man, I LOVE these podcasts! As a child of 84, I grew up playing so many SNES RPG's. Hearing you two talk about one of my favorite games is such a treat. You both bring fresh and unique perspectives. These concepts are what I experienced as a child, yet I had no words to describe them, only feelings. You both are able to accurately describe exactly what makes these games and story lines so magical. The heart and energy poured into these games with such limited resources is truly remarkable. Can't wait to see which game you guys do next!
51:04 Another clarification: The ESRB was launched only 1 month before FF6/FF3 released in the USA. I don't think they could get to every game already coming out at the time, especially when they just began. I did lots of digging and can't find any evidence of FF6 being rated by the ESRB at all. Not on the legit cartridge or box art anywhere. Side note: K-A (kids to adults) was the precursor to the E (everyone) rating during the SNES era. However, the PS1 re-releases of old FF titles (Origins, Chronicles, Anthology) were all rated T for some reason...even FF1+2! Later, the GBA version of FF6 was rated E10+, a relatively new rating at the time meant for games with tween-appropriate content. It's possible they would've given this rating to all the 2D FF PS1 ports had it existed during that era. But behold, the FF Pixel remasters show FF6 as rated 'T' once again. On Steam, FF5 carries a 'T' too. Yet on the Android/Play store, the 'T' rating is held by FF2, FF4, FF5, & and FF6! So the lesson overall is....if you're 10 years old and wanna play FF6 without angering mom, get the GBA version!
FF6 definitely didn't have a rating on the SNES. I think the PS1 port got a T for Teen rating. I'm surprised the GBA version got an E10 since it has some curses that are barely cut off (like Cyan dropping a B-Bomb when he meets Celes in Narshe.) Later translations cut those scenes out entirely. There's some politics behind these ratings, so I guess Square proposed a T rating and the ESRB rubber stamped it.
I always thought Seiken Densetsu 3 had the most satisfying inn sleeping scenes; every character had a unique sleeping sprite with pajamas and their shoes by the bed, etc.
Also, my comment on your last video regarding the track "Awakening?" It starts up as soon as Edgar says "Well, no HUMAN was born with the powers you seem to have." And then yes, Mike, the choreography is so excellent there. But anyway, here, "Awakening" ties back to Terra's Superobjective: to know herself and to feel love. This is reminding her that she doesn't fit in, and she doesn't know herself - "Awakening" helps cue that up.
I was going to comment this exact thing here. With the music track that plays when Terra sets herself back from the group on the Chocobo with the "Sad Terra" theme as I call it due to the heavy leitmotif with the notes from Terra's theme but playing in a minor key instead of the opening track Omen 3 which is an ominous version of her theme due to the nature of her wearing the slave crown & being under the control of the Empire and the overworld theme which is similar, but has a more driving bass line with the snare drums you touched on in Episode 1. The music in this game also allows for the abstraction as they're referring to it throughout the podcast.
I think you got close to the answer about Narshe in your discussion. Maybe Locke didn't necessarily mean that Narshe could stand up to the empire directly, but their mines give them considerable leverage and so could theoretically put pressure onto the empire and are choosing not to.
On the topic of the "overratedness" of Final Fantasy VI's story, I think Mike and Casen brought up really good points about the theatrical nature of its story and how, as Yoshinori Kitase took up a more influential position within the Final Fantasy series, the series slowly shifted to reflect his more "cinematic" ambitions. It also makes me wonder not just about expectations but also our tastes and preferences as modern-day gamers. Have we been conditioned into having certain ideas about what a "good" story could or should look like by the present media we consume? I remember feeling similarly to Mike the first time I played FFVI, that the story didn't hold up as well as compared to VII and the later entries in the series. But upon my latest playthrough of FFVI, I was really affected by its human content and narrative structure. Even if the individual lines might not be as "poetic" as other kinds of media that I love (literature, philosophy etc.,) the feeling conveyed about hope in a place of despair happens to be no less profound. And so much is said not just linguistically, but also non-linguistically, through character animation, music etc., I'm still amazed how the creators of FFVI were able to get us to care so much about these pixel sprites and their plight on "so little" (from the perspective of modern gaming).
100% agree. I think what happened is that back in the 90's and early 2000's a huge portion of gamers and developers had a very strong desire to see video games achieve the same recognition as Hollywood films did. We wanted games to have the same level of prestige and respect, since it's also a visual method of storytelling. This led to developers making their stories "more cinematic" and the improvement in graphics over the years propelled gaming into the mainstream. Because now they were just like "playing a movie". But in our rush to do that, we also kind of created a narrow definition of what "Good Storytelling" in videogames could be. Basically, that they had to do a majority of their storytelling in the same way films did. And that "more cinematic" = "Better". But by doing that we ended up disregarding or discounting the advantages that interactive storytelling has over films. Such as environmental storytelling, storytelling through gameplay/choice, emergent narrative, etc. It's only in the last 10 years or so that we have kind of started to go back and see how we ended up on this path and really analyze how great non-cinematic storytelling in games can be. But the "more cinematic = better" sentiment is still very common because now there's an entire generation of gamers who grew up on Naughty Dog style cinematic storytelling and think that's what is necessary for a videogame to have a great story. You see this sort of thing in the game awards shows as well. Occasionally a game like Journey wins game of the year, but 9/10 times it's going to be a Last of Us, God of War, style game. Cinematic style storytelling gets priority in people's eyes because it continues to give games that mainstream recognition.
@@dudemcguy1227 PS1/PS2 games seem to be rated by the strength of their opening FMV. Games industry wanted to be treated equally as movies, and they wanted to flex their new CD & DVD ROM space. Technology and sociology pushed games into "make fancy movies" and left less to the imagination.
@@Chadius Lest we swing the pendulum the other way, I don't think there's anything definitively wrong with making games more "cinematic" per se. But I think it's vital to allow different kinds of games the space to breathe within the ecosystem. To use Dude McGuy's terms, it's about broadening the definition of good "video game stories," rather than defining it on a narrow basis.
Glad you mentioned the genji glove. It makes locke so OP in the early game. Duel wield throwing weapons and stick him in the back or let him off hand the main gauche. Too bad steal is so busted. You can only steal one item and almost all rare steals are paired with junk common steals making it extremely grindy to go for rare steals
To be fair, the gauntlet and genji glove should have been comparable items except for a bug. Genji glove was supposed to reduce the damage of each weapon by 25% but because of a bug, it only does that when wielding one weapon (something you wouldn't do when using at item to specifically not do that)
The FMVs were not spliced together - it’s the opening and ending movies to the game. However - it is worth appreciating how much of a focus the ending FMV places on Celes. Perhaps my favorite part of the game was Locke and Celes’s relationship and her finding his bandana on the beach is such a key scene in the game. Showing that even in the WoR ,Locke’s heart cared so much for wounded things that he would mend a bird’s broken wing. To harken back to Pandora’s box, once in the WoR every character needs to find their own ray of hope and for Celes the bandana is perfect symbolism and representation of that hope. It is why during the escape from Kefka’s Tower Celes risks her life to save the bandana - because it means so much more than a mere piece of cloth. I am loving this thus far, thank you both for picking VI!
Personally have never liked that they attached the Genji Glove to Terra initially not agreeing to join the Returners. Once you learn about that it removes player agency from the decision. It's no longer a matter of what the player would think Terra would do in this situation, or what they would want her to do, and instead makes it a heavily skewed gameplay-based decision of "do you want absolutely nothing, or do you want a ridiculously powerful item?"
It's not "absolutely nothing" though : you do get the Gauntlet instead (allows you to use a weapon with both hands) and it's still a great accessory, especially at the start when you don't have many good weapons. Plus Gauntlet is the rarer of the two since you can get more Genji Gloves by stealing them from the Dragon enemy, so it really isn't a bad choice.
@@armorvil It's a trade-off between a mediocre item and getting an item used in end-game setups towards the beginning of the game. It absolutely is a bad choice and may as well be nothing.
@@JoelBurger Ironically, the Genji Glove is only so good so early because of a bug. It's supposed to make each attack do 0.75x damage (for a total of 1.5x, same as the Gauntlet), but in most versions both attacks do full damage. In versions that correct that bug like the Pixel Remaster, by the time you get gear that makes the Genji Glove better than the Gauntlet (weapons with added effects on hit, or the Offering / Master Scroll), you can get Genji Gloves from other sources anyway. So as intended, it was a real "six of one, half dozen of the other" choice mechanically.
I felt that way about another game, The Witcher 3, when you have to choose the successor to the Skellige throne. Between the two choices, the game actively penalizes you for choosing one by making you miss a place of power, so any choice or agency is gone once you know that you'll be missing a skill point if you choose "wrong." Would have been much more interesting if the rewards were the same, and both choices were good in different ways, differing only in philosophy on how to deal with the war
Thank you guys for another great analysis video. Part of me wants Casen to play the Japanese version and Mike to play the English version so that when you guys both come together, you may talk about some of the scenes differently. Your analysis and discussion about the Japanese and English version are so eye opening and fascinating to me.
I'm sure you & the guys know it too but I want to add for completedness that the chests in Narshe mines and in the Cave to South Figaro also upgrade (and twice in the case of the chests in the CTSF, those also upgrade in Locke's scenario). EDIT: Ha, he mentionned it in the podcast
You're right about the tone of the classic FF games being different from PSX era and later. Before their emo boys full of storm and strife there was a lot more whimsy, even in the midst of fighting off planet-ending evil. I could appreciate this even as a kid, and it went a long way to building up some of the charm and fun in these characters that you don't really see later in the series.
Like Aura Bolt/Hadouken, the pummel blitz input is the Ryo's Zanretsuken attack from the Art of Fighting/Ryuko no Ken fighting game franchise and the animations are likewise similar
Keep up the great work, it's been awesome so far ! I wanted to say : I think I've never heard you guys mention Earthbound and Mother 3 which quite surprise me because there is A LOT to talk about and analyse there and its really interesting to see what Ito come up with on a 16bit system in comparison to a game like ff6 or Chrono Trigger (I mean you were talking about how games of this era make you use your imagination to fill in the blanks, Mother is very very clever in that regard), I think theses might be perfect games for this podcast, especially Mother 3. But I guess I'm not the first one to mention it.
I am all in on this series. My very first experience for RPGs were DragonWarrior and the first Final Fantasy on the NES. To add to the context of how much of a step forward this game was for the time go through and watch someone play those games. The characters had no names. The genre at the time did not focus on narrating a story. To also understand what gaming at the time was like, your bible was Nintendo Power Mag.
17:00 maybe the reason Narshe wasn't invaded by Gestahl yet is similar to why Germany didn't invade Sweden back in WW2, since they were neutral and provided iron ore to them. Besides, if they did invade, Sweden could basically destroy their mines and Germany wouldn't get anything.
I've been having an absolute blast playing FF6, the music is insanely good and I can't describe it but I've been itching and wanting to play this game every chance I get.
Interesting about the imputs for Blitz is that is the same idea when you activate Zell's limit break in FF 8. All the attacks have imputs and those you learn by reading the magazines. Alas, Auron also has the same imput idea for his overdive.
This is an ambitious schedule dudes! There’s no way you can cover right up to the opera scene when you have to get through…. *spoilers* …the phantom train scenes, Locke and Celes, the coin flip, and the Rachel reveal. It’ll be a four hour podcast! Which I’m totally down for.
🤔🤷♂️ maybe Narshe, as a town literally carved into a cliff, is more defensible than, say, a castle in the middle of an open desert. But like... if Narshe marched out of the protection of their town than they would not be able to take on the Empire.
Open desert is not too bad of a defensive position. Sand is difficult terrain to navigate not only in footing but in terms of need of resources for each soldier (namely water, sun, and heat). For the setting of FF6, however, we do learn the Empire has overcome this problem through their magitek (two armors able to outrun chocobo).
The Vargas part was somehow impossible as a 7 year old. To be fair, me and my friend couldn´t speak/read english aswell, took 2 hours and finally his older sister to get us trough that part, good memories.
I first played ff6 a couple of years ago (class 91 here), and eventually I kept on pressing f1 on my PC to auto load the part where u have to perform the fist combo until I finally brought that off, 'cause I hadn't had any problem up to that moment during battles, and then almost grew up tired of dying because of the "command fail" hint on Sabin. I know that feeling bro xD
I rented the cartridge several several time not speaking a word of english and getting to Vargas each time. Lets just say my mom didnt understand what I found so fascinating about that game.
My grandfather and I played together, and his arthritis prevented him from completing that part. He had to wait until I was old enough to figure out how to do the button combinations for that sequence to move forward, but I’ll always cherish all the times we were running around South Figaro, fighting the rhinos in the woods for experience, talking about if we wanted to give the ascent to Vargas another shot. Still one of my most hype moments in gaming when we finally overcame that mountain. We were so comically over leveled by that point too 😂
This discussion highlights to me what some people seem to forget about the early Final Fantasy games. Fans can bring up the dark stuff in the stories, the profound stuff, the tragic stuff, but these games were also FUN. Lots of whimsy, lots of humour and tonnes of charm. Also the heading of those podcast compels me to give my two cents on a different topic; recent news regarding The Lord of the Rings I’m a dude who loves the movies, will make a case for The Hobbit trilogy (though not argue because life’s too short and it’s just a movie) and am not all that fussed about the source material despite respecting them since, well, there would be no movies for me to love. With that said; I have no interest in more movies. Especially a lame attempt by a soulless conglomerate to create a cinematic universe with tiny morsels of lore they’ve the rights to. There’s no story left to tell, and all they will do is dilute something very special into another boring source of white noise. I don’t find Rings of Power as horrible as some, but it’ll never be great. Please, everyone, learn to move on! Pointless rant over 😢
I just want to say at around 37:26 when the subject of bells came ringing up, there were bells ringing outside of where I was listening to the episode when I got to that part
Locke's reaction to Terra using magic still makes sense even if he's already seen it, because it's Edgar drawing attention to it being magic. It's implied that Locke didn't realise that it was magic and so when Edgar mentions it, Locke reacts the way he does.
Great episode!! 👊, on a side note… I wish u guys could do an analysis video on Final Fantasy Tactis Advance! It is considered the black sheep os sequels for sure, as nothing can beat the story of the OG FFT, but I absolutely love this story… it follows a story of a young boy that gets spirited away into another world (Ivalice) and only the power of friendship can take him and others back into the real world… but does everybody really want to go back? 😅 FFTA is the opposite of the OG as this game has a colourful pallet of colours while FFT has a muted and sad colour pallet. FFTA also introduced a lot of elements that we see in FFXII like Montblanc and the Viera so it has a pretty nice legacy and I believe it is a game that you FF fan, should not miss! ❤
the only thing I remember about FFTA was how annoyingly childish it was. I really hated that Square reduced FFT to that dumb game. The main character was an idiot, people could get randomly thrown in jail, and the bosses were allowed to cheat the games own rules.
Nice to know I wasn't the only one F-ing up the blitz input for that boss-fight. However.... I 100% got Suplex down pat once it became available for Sabin. We all know why.
Regarding Locke seeing Terra cast magic, I think they cover it. Doesn't Locke say, "Yeah, she's loaded for bear." or something like that to Edgar? I think Locke assumes she is using some kind of technology to attack (maybe similar to what Edgar or the people of Narshe use). Than Edgar's like, "nah, that's MAGIC!" At least that's what I remember.
On the topic of the game's ESRB rating, the original release on the SNES did not have one. I have my original copy of the game, and there is no rating on it. The ESRB was actually founded in September 1994 which was one month before the NA release of FF6, so it was very likely one of the last games to squeak by without a rating. Chrono Trigger's original release just less than 1 year later does have a K-A (6+) rating. When FF6 was ported to the PS1, I believe that's when it got a T rating. But that version retains the original scene of Celes' beating when you first meet her with Locke. Subsequent releases of the game have censored that scene, so the GBA version has an E10+ rating. Same with the Pixel Remaster.
you remember wrong, you only learn new Blitzes when getting Sabin's level to certain points (with the exception of the last one that you can also get from an event).
The theatric points of explaining the writing style of dialogue in the game is perfectly cleared out. I always associated these games from both the art style and execution of its story to be far more theatric than most games. As a child reading and looking at both the pixel artwork and the concept art, they look like the archetypical costumes of Comedia del Arte which I studied as a teenager. And Yoshitaka Amano is definitely inspired by those gorgeous and extravagant styles of clothing and attires, as well as grotesquely ornate and decorate monsters and demons. Final Fantasy games always felt like plays. Like, the Jobs fit neatly the narrative of them being like Archetypical roles of players, even.
The logic for the takeover is very simply explained by the same abstraction of those 3 magiteks just as we make abstractions about everything... but also Terra.
My first experience with FFVI was the Anthology version on PS1. As I recall, there was an opening FMV with a few various clips from later in the game (similar to the intro for FFVIII), along with that intro scene with Terra and Kefka. Then we don't see any more FMV sequences until the very end, where we get more assorted clips from the game, and a sort of hint at a conclusion for the characters. So, even though FMV's were created for important scenes throughout the game, they are never shown within the proper context. In my opinion, the PS1 Anthology game is better for people who have played the game already, as the FMV sequences had much more resonance with me after I'd finished the game and watched them again. That said, when I watched the intro the first time without context, it really just felt like a trailer, getting me excited for the game and what it had in store.
Glad someone else brought this up, since those FMVs can be confusing if you haven't played the PS1 version. It was my first experience as well, and as a huge fan of Amano, I thought it was really cool seeing his designs in 3D.
As somebody born in 2004 who got into Final Fantasy with 7, I think 4(with the 3D remake script) and 6 are still great stories. You shouldn’t place much value in terms like overrated and underrated as they are concerned more with other people’s perception of media instead of it’s actual quality.
@@nathank2289 Definitely, but I think Cecil is a better protagonist than Terra (even though I consider Celes the actual central character to 6 for reasons than aren't just more screentime.)
@@polyman6859 For me Locke is the real protagonist of 6 (though "nobody" is the intended answer.) Cecil's duel nature and character arc make him my third favorite behind Squall and Cloud.
Kefka is unhinged in Japanese in a way that he can't be in English - he often uses violent and profane language while using hyperfeminine and polite grammar. The effect of it is very weird. The PSX FMVs don't actually play during the game. They are optional videos you can see in a bonus menu from the title screen.
Calling FFVI "overrated" when FFVII is right there with its unending spinoffs and constant cash grabs from SE is just hilarious and honestly kind of pathetic. As someone who played every Final Fantasy game in the order they released in North America, I found that Final Fantasy Tactics was much more of a long lasting impact on me personally than any of the other PS1 FF games. You guys have already covered FFT in depth so you know how incredible that story was, especially for the time and genre.
And calling FF7 overrated is hilarious when we've had about two decades of people calling it overrated to seem cool and different. At this point there are far more people who think it's "overrated" than there are people who think it's the greatest game of all time. It's unfortunate that some people seemingly can't grow out of the mentality of children posting on GameFAQs who want random people on the internet to know they're special.
@@JoelBurger The only thing more pathetic than calling FF7 overrated, or saying that calling FF7 overrated is itself overrated, is when some third guy comes along and tries to seem like he's claiming some kind of moral high ground by throwing the first two under the bus and saying that you should just like what you like and not worry about how other people rate them. Seriously, nuts to that third guy, the pretentious ass.
playing this game for the first time. only played from 7 to 15 (never finished any of the 13s though) thanks to the now Pixel version I am finally getting to play this and playing along to the podcast! 7 was my first JRPG ever I have heard for years about 6 being the best even though i have 7 as my all time fav and greatest game of all time. 6 is great so far to this point! but I can't help but wonder if I played 6 growing up then played 7 if 6 would be in my brain better then 7. it might be because of what we played first etc our own brain shows the bias.
Something big to note, the only areas with the "improvable" items, are in the Narshe Mines, Cave to South Figaro, and South Figaro itself. I don't believe there are any others?
1:13:55 Its hilarious how confused people get with the blitz input, despite the game spelling it out meticulously 3 times before its your turn to try. Its that darn cursor above Sabin. People assume that means "Oh, select sabin and then do the input" but no, its do the input while the cursor is above him.
I’ve always been told that ff6 was overrated. But Squares treatment towards the game made me think otherwise. Why no psp or ds remakes? All of the other older FF games get multiple remakes except for 6. All us 6 fans get is loading screens, worse audio, or horrible looking mobile sprites. Yet 6 is so overrated, apparently.
After you recruit Sabin, there is a missable scene between Sabin and Duncan's wife. The only way to see it is to run all the way back through the mountains to South Figaro and talk to her. If you come back to South Figaro later in the story the conversation doesn't trigger. So most people will never see it. Here is the exchange (GBA version):
Duncan's Wife: "Sabin, where are Vargas and Duncan...?"
Sabin: "Vargas...turned on our master... Vargas, he..."
Duncan's Wife: "Oh, Vargas... Why would you do such a thing? But my husband was able to pass his techniques along to you, Sabin... I'm sure he'd have no regrets."
Sabin: "For the past ten years you've treated me like a son. I'll never forget all the things you've done for me!"
Sabin's official age when you meet him is 27. This means he left Figaro Castle when he was around 17 or younger and then met Duncan and trained under him for 10 years. It also implies that Edgar didn't visit South Figaro much during that time since Sabin was in that area and they didn't meet each other again until now.
I love how Duncan's Wife never lost faith in him.
This was what FF6 did best. When you found secrets, it often rewarded you with treasure, like most games, but going out of your way would often just reveal secret conversations, background information, and lore. It was just as exciting to find a scene like this as it was to find cool loot.
That tidbit is also inferred upon if you take Edgar to the house north of South Figaro: he recognizes and reminisces on multiple items that happen to be Sabin's favorites: flowers, dishes, and one more iirc. After finding them and leaving, Edgar comments along the lines, "Sabin, were you here?" implying that he hasn't seen him in all that time frame.
That is amazing! I've played through this game so many times, but I don't think I've found this scene...
That's crazy! I've played this game for years, from beginning to end at least a dozen times or more, and I never heard of that before.
I just love how the blind status in this game is 😎
Another great episode! Keep it up gents!
Love your reviews man. Keep it up!
@@WowlxX thank you, these guys are great too!
Casen should make a Michelen-style guide, to rate all the inns he has visited in RPGs.
Oh, I should!! Nimbus Cloud City with the Dream Pillow would be high up, that's for sure
When I think about the story of final fantasy 9 I have to agree with you that the cartridge final fantasies were more theatric in nature. How FF9 explicitly begins with a play is almost like the old team at square enix telling the audience how they tell stories.
I had the blitz problem as a kid. I had to put the game down and beat every other game I had first before making progress again in this one. I did come back to it from time to time only to be unsuccessful every time. I was convinced there was a hidden item or some NPC I had missed somewhere. I'd restart and do every possible thing I could. Stepped on every tile, pushed "A" against every wall, grinded into my mid 20s, found every treasure, stole from every enemy. I just could not find out for the life of me what I was missing.
A year later when I finally figured it out, my reaction was basically like, "Oh, that was it? ... I guess I can play the rest of this game now." The anger I should have felt was canceled out by the fact that I could now play the other 95% of this game that I was convinced didn't even exist... Vargas was the final boss for me and I expected nothing more after him.
Edit - God, this is so much worse the more I think about it. I even had friends try it, my dad, no one could figure out the blitz technique, granted when they would game with me I eventually just didn't play this game with them since it was "that game I was stuck on".
I even remember looking for strategy guides for this game to get any kind of clue whatsoever. I bought the Nintendo Power guides. There were 3 separate months where they covered ff6 and they had plenty of interesting stuff before and after Vargas, but nothing on how to execute the blitz itself.
Seeing Hironubu Sakaguchi fail on this, even if only one time, pleases me.
The idea of the presentation of this game as a stage play makes so much sense! In a similar vein, I've often thought of FFVIII as their take on FF as a schooldays manga
Fun fact that Yoshinori Kitase ad-libbed Kefka's personality from the desert scene and improvised the villain we all know and love today:
"The Kefka in DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY is completely “out there” and awesome, but in the original game, we only had Amano-san’s design to work with, and the scenario didn’t give him much character. The very first scene that I worked on in the original game was when Kefka appears at Figaro Castle. I thought it would be boring to make the scene completely normal, and had an accompanying soldier dust his shoes off, depicting how there may be a screw or two missing from this character’s head. It was all adlib, and just something that I thought of off the top of my head, but somehow was a perfect fit. From then on Kefka was blessed with his current personality. If this scene never happened, the Kefka we see in DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY might have been a completely different person."
damn Kitase is so good
Dissidia Kefka is peak ngl.
@@MugenHeadNinjaI mostly disagree in that most iterations of Dissidia Kefka focus on the jokester side of him and not the nihilist side. It's there, but not the focus.
@@AkaiAzul I agree, but I do think that with a product like Dissidia: Final Fantasy, which tries to bring in the heroes and villains from all 10 / 13 games, it's inevitable that there's some flanderization of the personalities involved.
The comparisons between Kefka and the Joker might be overdone by now, but I imagine a perfect rendition of Kefka to hold the "jokester" and "nihilist" sides in tension. A little bit like Mark Hamill's or Ian Gallagher's portrayal of the Joker character.
This will probably get lost in the sea of comments but someone brought up this podcast in my FF14 FreeCompany and I noticed something.
The model of the Amano magitek armor, it’s ridden and walks just like a war chocobo. An industrial mecha war chocobo walking in the ominous snow. A good amount of amanos art of terra and magitek armor together was produced. Her theme is associated with this scene. Sakaguchi said that he liked takahashis design better, so the in game armors were changed. That was probably the intention of the original design of the magitek armor, to look like a chocobo.
The implication being: This civilization thought to upgrade the chocobo before upgrading a chariot into a car or a tank. The Empires priority was always replacing life with something they thought was better.
Even as a design choice by Amano it would be obvious to make parallels to FFV’s into which starts with Bartz on a chocobo in a far more adventurous or mysterious tone than the foreboding of FFVI. The change in setting and tone is obvious but the mechs familiar design and moogles would significantly remind the audience this is STILL a final fantasy game.
I love this
11:10 Clarification: The FMVs you watched on RUclips were literally just the opening and ending FMVs. There are no other FMVS inserted into the game itself. If I recall, only Chrono Trigger's PS1 port had FMVs inserted into the story.
FFVI's anthology opening - Begins with 20seconds of quick montage of various scenes involving party members, set to piano of terra's theme. They go by so quick that it'll mean nothing to newbies. Then the Squaresoft logo appears and the full scene of Terra getting into the magitek armor plays out. There's 2 title cards during this scene that reads "Command to the empire force in particular...Commence to launch the attack..."
FFVI's anthology ending - Without spoiling, it's just a longer montage of iconic scenes remade in CG. Expanded versions of the quick shots shown in the 1st 20 seconds of the opening FMV. Now they're spoiler-ok for newbies since they've finished the game! The ending focuses most on 1 particular character, and their theme plays thru the video along with a couple thematic title cards.
I grew up with this version (and endured the loading times lol) and as afaik neither of these FMVs replaced the actual 16-bit opening and ending of the story.
Gotcha. Thanks!
Good God, the load times. Something i could tolerate 20 years ago but not anymore
These were the versions I played too. Youre right about the load times, esp for Chrino Trigger. They were ABYSMAL. Lol.
This is what I wanted to comment, thanks
It is so interesting how you brought up how these pixel art style games are made to be like stage plays, because now when I’m playing through octopath traveler 2 (which is presented in a similar fashion) uses elements found in theater like spot lights for internal monologues or opening/closing scrawls similar to a narrator
How is the story in this one? I couldn't finish the first one because it was incredibly boring and predictable. (In my opinion) and the combat wasn't enough to keep me going.
@@ereviscale3966 I think it’s better than the original, the gameplay is similar but fleshed out a bit more. Overall it’s similar, but better. Additionally the story is more linked than in the first game, it even goes as far as making side plots for character duos. I liked the first game, but I do think this one is just better in almost every way.
Too bad octopath doesn't try to do anything interesting with its unique graphic style
Yeah that point was perfectly articulated and I agree. I think how they introduce the characters with their own music theme that plays the first time you meet them contributes to this. How time pauses for a second a puts a “spotlight” on the character and tells a little bit of backstory as well. Loved how they described Shadow as a man who’d slit his mothers throat for a nickel - made him seem like such a badass. Very stage-like indeed.
I read Locke's surprise over magic as he had never seen it before and didn't know what she was doing was magic until Edgar points it out.
Same
Some notes on Narshe: Narshe is powerful because it appears to have focused on training animals & cultivating relationships between humans and non-humans. A few pieces of evidence for this: They are the first location outside of the empire to attempt to establish a non-murderous relationship with Espers. The caves of Narshe contain some of the only non-violent non-humans in the game (e.g. Tritoch, Umaro, the Moogles). The soldiers of Narshe make use of dogs, wooly mammoths & Ymir in defending their city. They have a Beast Trainer as one of their commanding soldiers who is able to marshall an army of animals to capture Terra. Narshe was able to freely move about Tritoch presumably without them killing their citizens. Narshe does not extract resources from living things (poor mountain though) & then disgard them. On top of this is Narshe's material wealth, they likely export their precious metals to Figaro which then turns them into advanced techonologies.
Really hit it out of the park with comparing the SNES era Final Fantasies to theatre. 5 and 6 feel VERY campy (in a good way) and theatrical in my opinion.
The Empire didn't just send 3 Magitek soldiers to Narshe the first time; 2 Magitek soldiers escorted someone who could wipe out 50 Magitek soldiers in 3 minutes.
Man these episodes has really helped me understand the difference between the theatrical and cinematic styles of story telling.
Edit: Even if the two story beat aren’t related, I see a lot of overlap between Terra’s refusal to fight and Fei’s refusal from Xenogears.
Protip for anyone having trouble with Sabin's Blitz: there is no time limit for entering the required inputs, and the game does not actually detect diagonals, it just accepts either of the two adjacent cardinal directions. So for example, for AuraBolt (Down, Down-Left, Left), instead of trying to roll your thumb across the d-pad to do it all in one smooth motion like a fireball in a fighting game, you can just tap "Down, Down, Left" as quickly or slowly as you like. This will make some of the later Blitzes like Air Blade and Bum Rush much easier to pull off consistently. This trick works in nearly every version of the game, including the Pixel Remasters.
(MILD STORY SPOILERS FOLLOW)
Also, LOL at thinking that you're going to get through all three scenarios, including the introductions of three major party members, AND the big Kefka battle, AND optional backstory cut scenes in Figaro Castle and Kohlingen, AND Jidoor / Zozo, AND the big exposition dump that comes at the end of Zozo, AND the opera sequence in the next episode. See you at the end of Sabin's scenario maybe. (-:
Doesn't the opera scene come after the three scenarious? But I doubt it that they will make it trough all 3.
So Phantom Rush is just L U U R R D D L L? Way more reliable, I'll have to remember that.
@@reloadpsi Yes, you can do a 360 or you can type it in. The only version this doesn't work for is the old iOS port (with the bad art) where you have to click the on screen arrow buttons.
@@Lamasis2 After the 3 scenarios, plus stuff in Narshe, plus a couple more towns, plus Zozo... there's probably 2 episodes worth of stuff before they get to the Opera House.
The game absolutely detects diagonal directions for the Blitz. I know firsthand because of a broken controller. lol
I had never thought of it until you guys talked about the operatic/theatrical nature of FF VI, but the name *Figaro* is probably a reference to "The Barber of Seville". I can hear the opera song repeating over and over in my head!
Edit: Thinking about the character of Figaro a bit more, I'm def reminded of Edgar's character in ways... To quote from a character bio, "he is a clever liar; moral and yet unscrupulous; good humored, helpful and brave, though somewhat embittered and cynical. As he says in The Barber of Seville: 'I must force myself to laugh at everything lest I be obliged to weep.'"
I feel as though that's what happens to him in WoR as Gerad. He took the easy life so as to mask and hide his sorrow.
Indeed! I hafta say, FF VI was already one of my favorites, but I'm already getting so much more out of it just from the first couple episodes of this series.
The rebuke against feeling alone by Locke to Terra is repeated similarly in FFIX in one of my favorite sequences with Zidane trying to distance himself from the party but they keep joining him one by one while the track "You Are Not Alone" plays.
Forgive me, I may be splitting hairs here, but I think there is a difference between saying Narshe ‘has the power to stand up the empire’ vs Narshe ‘is no match for the Empire.’ These things aren’t mutually exclusive. ‘Standing up to the Empire’ just means resisting them; in this context, resisting an invasion of occupation, which Narshe does eventually manage to do. Being ‘a match’ for the Empire, however, would mean that Narshe’s forces could match the Empire’s power, not just in their home town, but anywhere. It would mean that Narshe has the means to invade and occupy an Imperial holding, which they obviously don’t. As for the bit about “three magitech armors is all it takes,” I think it’s important to note that those armors only succeeded in gaining access to an esper, and that (as you note) they did so via surprise. Granted, that’s all they wanted to do, but the three armors did not succeed in seizing control of the town, in utterly destroying their entire military, or otherwise dominating Narshe in any sustainable way. So this does not disprove the notion that Narshe has the power to stand up to the Empire, nor does it contradict the idea that Narshe is no match for the Empire.
Though I do of course recognize that these two translations have very different contextual/emotional meanings in the moment.
I always interpreted Locke's reaction on the "Terra can use MAGIC?!" dialogue as him having seen her USE the magic, but never bothering to think about it.
At least in one translation, Locke says "yeah, this kid's loaded for bear!"
He's seen her be a powerhouse, seen her casting magic, but only when Edgar says it out loud does Locke have the "wait, what?!" moment.
And we all know Locke's more intellegent than that, but to be fair, he was thrust into this situation amd has been on the run with Terra even up until now.
Any conversation he has with the other characters up till now has been out of battle, with what Terra has been doing in battle tucked away in the back of the mind.
yup the guys remember wrong. Edgar is the one being freaked out by Terra's magic. Locke just didn't realize what it was. After all in this world there are special abilities that don't make people bat an eye : Mog's dances, Gau's Rages, Setzer's Slots, etc. so Locke thought that what Terra does is something like that.
@@armorvil
You raise a point I want to expand upon, but I have to wait until the finale.
It would be really cool if you could get the Lorerunner as a guest in this series since FFVI is his favorite game. He's done a lot of cool analysis of this game, and it would be awesome to see you guys collaborate on it!
It would be cool to have a different guest for each game.
I like that Casen brought up that the bell you hear when Figaro Castle tells you that there's something wrong. I love how the Empire's musical theme works consistently as a traditional Leitmotif throughout the whole game.
Checked the channel just in time, wow!
I just want to say, even though your episodes end up being a little behind what you predict/where you want us to put our "bookmarks", please don't rush this game. Your statements in the first episodes that older games are a lot more abstract are very apparent by the very fact that you guys can go on 10 minute tangents over 20 seconds of dialog when read out loud. You talked about how Woolsey had to condense the dialog and then it was still twice as much so he had to further do it; this series is like you guys are decompressing everything Woolsey did to get every line of dialog's full meaning and it's fascinating! Keep up the awesome work
I played FF6 in 2000 or so but can’t remember how far I got. I think I got stuck at some point. I’m playing along with this podcast series and looking forward to each episode.
One thing I like about this game is how some of the characters’ special skills tie into their character beyond simple gameplay and gimmicks; they tie into their role in the story too. For example, Edgar’s skill, Tools, depends fully and entirely on how much money he has, just as a king would be able to buy himself all the best toys. Sabin, on the other hand, has Blitz, which requires more time and effort to do successfully, emblematic of the hard training he’s done in his life.
man the stageplay framing for old RPG's is really really powerful. it makes you view them in a more refined light.
I really love the insertion of the Pandora's Box myth here and I think the creators of Final Fantasy VI were very explicit about their thematic intention. I think that the central theme of Final Fantasy VI is "hope," especially in a situation where the only logical and rational response is to despair. The heroes of Final Fantasy VI are heroes because they never cease to stop "hoping" and serving as an example for the rest of the people in the world (and us) that it is theoretically possible to fight against an oppressive system or an unjust fate with hope. (Ironically enough, the moment the characters lose "hope" they stop being playable, but that's something to get into in the later half of the game)
The way I read it, Terra is not yet ready to be a hero not just because she's confused and uncertain about where she comes from. She explicitly rejects the Call to Adventure three times, much like Peter's denial of Christ, the one who will save the world, and the world becomes just that little bit darker and dimmer each time she does so. And it will be the task of the rest of the game to show, in glorious 2D fashion, how characters can move from that place of despair and uncertainty to embrace "hope."
“I have to use my imagination to experience a thing!? Boooo”
- Said no OG gamer ever.
1:05:15 Now I'm imagining Casen playing FF XII worried about the chests that trigger the Zodiac Spear chest disappearing late in the Necropolis lol
Last comment, sorry - I just really love this game and I have a lot to say about it! I like how you brought up Bannon's awkwardness. Through the scenes here and many of the scenes later involving him, I actually get a reading from him that he wants to take down the Empire at any cost - it doesn't matter who he hurts in the process. I think he's not actually that good of a person, and I really like that they added a character like him to the game.
I love the way you guys dive into the NPC dialogue, so much of the story and world building is contained within the NPCs. Talking to them all is one of my favorite parts of the game.
Man, I LOVE these podcasts! As a child of 84, I grew up playing so many SNES RPG's. Hearing you two talk about one of my favorite games is such a treat. You both bring fresh and unique perspectives. These concepts are what I experienced as a child, yet I had no words to describe them, only feelings. You both are able to accurately describe exactly what makes these games and story lines so magical. The heart and energy poured into these games with such limited resources is truly remarkable. Can't wait to see which game you guys do next!
Vargas fight might have been the first game over for many of us. Brutal unless you grinded a little.
51:04 Another clarification: The ESRB was launched only 1 month before FF6/FF3 released in the USA. I don't think they could get to every game already coming out at the time, especially when they just began. I did lots of digging and can't find any evidence of FF6 being rated by the ESRB at all. Not on the legit cartridge or box art anywhere. Side note: K-A (kids to adults) was the precursor to the E (everyone) rating during the SNES era.
However, the PS1 re-releases of old FF titles (Origins, Chronicles, Anthology) were all rated T for some reason...even FF1+2! Later, the GBA version of FF6 was rated E10+, a relatively new rating at the time meant for games with tween-appropriate content. It's possible they would've given this rating to all the 2D FF PS1 ports had it existed during that era. But behold, the FF Pixel remasters show FF6 as rated 'T' once again. On Steam, FF5 carries a 'T' too. Yet on the Android/Play store, the 'T' rating is held by FF2, FF4, FF5, & and FF6!
So the lesson overall is....if you're 10 years old and wanna play FF6 without angering mom, get the GBA version!
FF6 definitely didn't have a rating on the SNES. I think the PS1 port got a T for Teen rating. I'm surprised the GBA version got an E10 since it has some curses that are barely cut off (like Cyan dropping a B-Bomb when he meets Celes in Narshe.) Later translations cut those scenes out entirely.
There's some politics behind these ratings, so I guess Square proposed a T rating and the ESRB rubber stamped it.
I always thought Seiken Densetsu 3 had the most satisfying inn sleeping scenes; every character had a unique sleeping sprite with pajamas and their shoes by the bed, etc.
Seiken Densetsu 3 is the best example of this kind of charm, I 100% agree.
U guys are doing such a great job with my Favorite Game of All Time. I love it keep up the great work
Also, my comment on your last video regarding the track "Awakening?" It starts up as soon as Edgar says "Well, no HUMAN was born with the powers you seem to have." And then yes, Mike, the choreography is so excellent there. But anyway, here, "Awakening" ties back to Terra's Superobjective: to know herself and to feel love. This is reminding her that she doesn't fit in, and she doesn't know herself - "Awakening" helps cue that up.
I was going to comment this exact thing here. With the music track that plays when Terra sets herself back from the group on the Chocobo with the "Sad Terra" theme as I call it due to the heavy leitmotif with the notes from Terra's theme but playing in a minor key instead of the opening track Omen 3 which is an ominous version of her theme due to the nature of her wearing the slave crown & being under the control of the Empire and the overworld theme which is similar, but has a more driving bass line with the snare drums you touched on in Episode 1. The music in this game also allows for the abstraction as they're referring to it throughout the podcast.
@@TheShwantz27 Yes! I really like all your thoughts here.
I think you got close to the answer about Narshe in your discussion. Maybe Locke didn't necessarily mean that Narshe could stand up to the empire directly, but their mines give them considerable leverage and so could theoretically put pressure onto the empire and are choosing not to.
Great job again guys! Looking forward to your Chrono Trigger analysis, too!
On the topic of the "overratedness" of Final Fantasy VI's story, I think Mike and Casen brought up really good points about the theatrical nature of its story and how, as Yoshinori Kitase took up a more influential position within the Final Fantasy series, the series slowly shifted to reflect his more "cinematic" ambitions.
It also makes me wonder not just about expectations but also our tastes and preferences as modern-day gamers. Have we been conditioned into having certain ideas about what a "good" story could or should look like by the present media we consume?
I remember feeling similarly to Mike the first time I played FFVI, that the story didn't hold up as well as compared to VII and the later entries in the series. But upon my latest playthrough of FFVI, I was really affected by its human content and narrative structure. Even if the individual lines might not be as "poetic" as other kinds of media that I love (literature, philosophy etc.,) the feeling conveyed about hope in a place of despair happens to be no less profound. And so much is said not just linguistically, but also non-linguistically, through character animation, music etc.,
I'm still amazed how the creators of FFVI were able to get us to care so much about these pixel sprites and their plight on "so little" (from the perspective of modern gaming).
100% agree. I think what happened is that back in the 90's and early 2000's a huge portion of gamers and developers had a very strong desire to see video games achieve the same recognition as Hollywood films did. We wanted games to have the same level of prestige and respect, since it's also a visual method of storytelling.
This led to developers making their stories "more cinematic" and the improvement in graphics over the years propelled gaming into the mainstream. Because now they were just like "playing a movie".
But in our rush to do that, we also kind of created a narrow definition of what "Good Storytelling" in videogames could be. Basically, that they had to do a majority of their storytelling in the same way films did. And that "more cinematic" = "Better".
But by doing that we ended up disregarding or discounting the advantages that interactive storytelling has over films. Such as environmental storytelling, storytelling through gameplay/choice, emergent narrative, etc.
It's only in the last 10 years or so that we have kind of started to go back and see how we ended up on this path and really analyze how great non-cinematic storytelling in games can be.
But the "more cinematic = better" sentiment is still very common because now there's an entire generation of gamers who grew up on Naughty Dog style cinematic storytelling and think that's what is necessary for a videogame to have a great story.
You see this sort of thing in the game awards shows as well. Occasionally a game like Journey wins game of the year, but 9/10 times it's going to be a Last of Us, God of War, style game. Cinematic style storytelling gets priority in people's eyes because it continues to give games that mainstream recognition.
@@dudemcguy1227 PS1/PS2 games seem to be rated by the strength of their opening FMV. Games industry wanted to be treated equally as movies, and they wanted to flex their new CD & DVD ROM space. Technology and sociology pushed games into "make fancy movies" and left less to the imagination.
@@Chadius Lest we swing the pendulum the other way, I don't think there's anything definitively wrong with making games more "cinematic" per se. But I think it's vital to allow different kinds of games the space to breathe within the ecosystem.
To use Dude McGuy's terms, it's about broadening the definition of good "video game stories," rather than defining it on a narrow basis.
I've noticed a lot of people that don't like FF6 also don't like rakes of vesperia I wonder if there's some commonality
Glad you mentioned the genji glove. It makes locke so OP in the early game. Duel wield throwing weapons and stick him in the back or let him off hand the main gauche. Too bad steal is so busted. You can only steal one item and almost all rare steals are paired with junk common steals making it extremely grindy to go for rare steals
To be fair, the gauntlet and genji glove should have been comparable items except for a bug. Genji glove was supposed to reduce the damage of each weapon by 25% but because of a bug, it only does that when wielding one weapon (something you wouldn't do when using at item to specifically not do that)
The FMVs were not spliced together - it’s the opening and ending movies to the game. However - it is worth appreciating how much of a focus the ending FMV places on Celes. Perhaps my favorite part of the game was Locke and Celes’s relationship and her finding his bandana on the beach is such a key scene in the game. Showing that even in the WoR ,Locke’s heart cared so much for wounded things that he would mend a bird’s broken wing. To harken back to Pandora’s box, once in the WoR every character needs to find their own ray of hope and for Celes the bandana is perfect symbolism and representation of that hope. It is why during the escape from Kefka’s Tower Celes risks her life to save the bandana - because it means so much more than a mere piece of cloth. I am loving this thus far, thank you both for picking VI!
Personally have never liked that they attached the Genji Glove to Terra initially not agreeing to join the Returners. Once you learn about that it removes player agency from the decision. It's no longer a matter of what the player would think Terra would do in this situation, or what they would want her to do, and instead makes it a heavily skewed gameplay-based decision of "do you want absolutely nothing, or do you want a ridiculously powerful item?"
It's not "absolutely nothing" though : you do get the Gauntlet instead (allows you to use a weapon with both hands) and it's still a great accessory, especially at the start when you don't have many good weapons. Plus Gauntlet is the rarer of the two since you can get more Genji Gloves by stealing them from the Dragon enemy, so it really isn't a bad choice.
@@armorvil It's a trade-off between a mediocre item and getting an item used in end-game setups towards the beginning of the game. It absolutely is a bad choice and may as well be nothing.
@@JoelBurger Ironically, the Genji Glove is only so good so early because of a bug. It's supposed to make each attack do 0.75x damage (for a total of 1.5x, same as the Gauntlet), but in most versions both attacks do full damage. In versions that correct that bug like the Pixel Remaster, by the time you get gear that makes the Genji Glove better than the Gauntlet (weapons with added effects on hit, or the Offering / Master Scroll), you can get Genji Gloves from other sources anyway.
So as intended, it was a real "six of one, half dozen of the other" choice mechanically.
I felt that way about another game, The Witcher 3, when you have to choose the successor to the Skellige throne. Between the two choices, the game actively penalizes you for choosing one by making you miss a place of power, so any choice or agency is gone once you know that you'll be missing a skill point if you choose "wrong." Would have been much more interesting if the rewards were the same, and both choices were good in different ways, differing only in philosophy on how to deal with the war
@@JoelBurger If you choose based on a gameplay reward over story, that is an extremely telling answer in and of itself.
Thank you guys for another great analysis video. Part of me wants Casen to play the Japanese version and Mike to play the English version so that when you guys both come together, you may talk about some of the scenes differently. Your analysis and discussion about the Japanese and English version are so eye opening and fascinating to me.
Re: the chests upgrading in WOR in South Figaro -- it was mentioned in the FF6 strategy guide. That's how I learned about it. :)
I'm sure you & the guys know it too but I want to add for completedness that the chests in Narshe mines and in the Cave to South Figaro also upgrade (and twice in the case of the chests in the CTSF, those also upgrade in Locke's scenario).
EDIT: Ha, he mentionned it in the podcast
Don't open the chests, Casen! lol
You're right about the tone of the classic FF games being different from PSX era and later. Before their emo boys full of storm and strife there was a lot more whimsy, even in the midst of fighting off planet-ending evil. I could appreciate this even as a kid, and it went a long way to building up some of the charm and fun in these characters that you don't really see later in the series.
Like Aura Bolt/Hadouken, the pummel blitz input is the Ryo's Zanretsuken attack from the Art of Fighting/Ryuko no Ken fighting game franchise and the animations are likewise similar
Gotta get through sabins scenario when I get home so I can watch this!
Keep up the great work, it's been awesome so far ! I wanted to say : I think I've never heard you guys mention Earthbound and Mother 3 which quite surprise me because there is A LOT to talk about and analyse there and its really interesting to see what Ito come up with on a 16bit system in comparison to a game like ff6 or Chrono Trigger (I mean you were talking about how games of this era make you use your imagination to fill in the blanks, Mother is very very clever in that regard), I think theses might be perfect games for this podcast, especially Mother 3. But I guess I'm not the first one to mention it.
Cheers guys, I feel a whole lot better about making a hash of the blitz attack first time. :)
I am all in on this series. My very first experience for RPGs were DragonWarrior and the first Final Fantasy on the NES. To add to the context of how much of a step forward this game was for the time go through and watch someone play those games. The characters had no names. The genre at the time did not focus on narrating a story. To also understand what gaming at the time was like, your bible was Nintendo Power Mag.
17:00 maybe the reason Narshe wasn't invaded by Gestahl yet is similar to why Germany didn't invade Sweden back in WW2, since they were neutral and provided iron ore to them. Besides, if they did invade, Sweden could basically destroy their mines and Germany wouldn't get anything.
52:00 there is a kefka emote in dissidia opera omnia where he actually says that, and its voiced, its so funny hahahaha
I've been having an absolute blast playing FF6, the music is insanely good and I can't describe it but I've been itching and wanting to play this game every chance I get.
Interesting about the imputs for Blitz is that is the same idea when you activate Zell's limit break in FF 8. All the attacks have imputs and those you learn by reading the magazines. Alas, Auron also has the same imput idea for his overdive.
This is an ambitious schedule dudes! There’s no way you can cover right up to the opera scene when you have to get through….
*spoilers*
…the phantom train scenes, Locke and Celes, the coin flip, and the Rachel reveal. It’ll be a four hour podcast! Which I’m totally down for.
I wonder how far they actually go? I'll be shocked if they make it through the reunion in Narshe.
🤔🤷♂️ maybe Narshe, as a town literally carved into a cliff, is more defensible than, say, a castle in the middle of an open desert. But like... if Narshe marched out of the protection of their town than they would not be able to take on the Empire.
Open desert is not too bad of a defensive position. Sand is difficult terrain to navigate not only in footing but in terms of need of resources for each soldier (namely water, sun, and heat). For the setting of FF6, however, we do learn the Empire has overcome this problem through their magitek (two armors able to outrun chocobo).
The Vargas part was somehow impossible as a 7 year old. To be fair, me and my friend couldn´t speak/read english aswell, took 2 hours and finally his older sister to get us trough that part, good memories.
I first played ff6 a couple of years ago (class 91 here), and eventually I kept on pressing f1 on my PC to auto load the part where u have to perform the fist combo until I finally brought that off, 'cause I hadn't had any problem up to that moment during battles, and then almost grew up tired of dying because of the "command fail" hint on Sabin. I know that feeling bro xD
I rented the cartridge several several time not speaking a word of english and getting to Vargas each time. Lets just say my mom didnt understand what I found so fascinating about that game.
My grandfather and I played together, and his arthritis prevented him from completing that part. He had to wait until I was old enough to figure out how to do the button combinations for that sequence to move forward, but I’ll always cherish all the times we were running around South Figaro, fighting the rhinos in the woods for experience, talking about if we wanted to give the ascent to Vargas another shot. Still one of my most hype moments in gaming when we finally overcame that mountain. We were so comically over leveled by that point too 😂
This discussion highlights to me what some people seem to forget about the early Final Fantasy games. Fans can bring up the dark stuff in the stories, the profound stuff, the tragic stuff, but these games were also FUN. Lots of whimsy, lots of humour and tonnes of charm.
Also the heading of those podcast compels me to give my two cents on a different topic; recent news regarding The Lord of the Rings
I’m a dude who loves the movies, will make a case for The Hobbit trilogy (though not argue because life’s too short and it’s just a movie) and am not all that fussed about the source material despite respecting them since, well, there would be no movies for me to love.
With that said; I have no interest in more movies. Especially a lame attempt by a soulless conglomerate to create a cinematic universe with tiny morsels of lore they’ve the rights to. There’s no story left to tell, and all they will do is dilute something very special into another boring source of white noise.
I don’t find Rings of Power as horrible as some, but it’ll never be great. Please, everyone, learn to move on!
Pointless rant over 😢
These are fantastic, i look forward to them every week and cant wait till you guys hit up FF12 too. FF6 is my favorite game of all time
1:32:30 I think the whole "saying no 3 times" is also from a religious parable
I don't know that parable.
I don't know that parable.
I don't know that parable.
Romance of the 3 kingdoms. Zhuge Liang
Love your videos. Thanks for taking the time to make these.
I just want to say at around 37:26 when the subject of bells came ringing up, there were bells ringing outside of where I was listening to the episode when I got to that part
I did not know that about the upgraded items in barrels and boxes. Wow. One of my favorite games and I never knew.
thanks for the fantastic podcast :)
Locke's reaction to Terra using magic still makes sense even if he's already seen it, because it's Edgar drawing attention to it being magic. It's implied that Locke didn't realise that it was magic and so when Edgar mentions it, Locke reacts the way he does.
Great episode!! 👊, on a side note… I wish u guys could do an analysis video on Final Fantasy Tactis Advance! It is considered the black sheep os sequels for sure, as nothing can beat the story of the OG FFT, but I absolutely love this story… it follows a story of a young boy that gets spirited away into another world (Ivalice) and only the power of friendship can take him and others back into the real world… but does everybody really want to go back? 😅 FFTA is the opposite of the OG as this game has a colourful pallet of colours while FFT has a muted and sad colour pallet. FFTA also introduced a lot of elements that we see in FFXII like Montblanc and the Viera so it has a pretty nice legacy and I believe it is a game that you FF fan, should not miss! ❤
the only thing I remember about FFTA was how annoyingly childish it was. I really hated that Square reduced FFT to that dumb game. The main character was an idiot, people could get randomly thrown in jail, and the bosses were allowed to cheat the games own rules.
@@nathank2289 haha I obviously don’t agree but fair enough
24:08 People saying 6 is too theatrical must hate FF9 then because that goes back to FF6 and is even more opera like.
“‘Wait,’ he says… do I look like a waiter?”
Nice to know I wasn't the only one F-ing up the blitz input for that boss-fight.
However....
I 100% got Suplex down pat once it became available for Sabin. We all know why.
I know this is an old comment, but the pixel remaster uses GBA translation AND looks amazing
Regarding Locke seeing Terra cast magic, I think they cover it. Doesn't Locke say, "Yeah, she's loaded for bear." or something like that to Edgar? I think Locke assumes she is using some kind of technology to attack (maybe similar to what Edgar or the people of Narshe use). Than Edgar's like, "nah, that's MAGIC!" At least that's what I remember.
Kefka’s laugh was also used in Chrono Trigger.
It's in ff7 too. On the haunted mansion
It took me over 90 minutes ( I lost counts on the numbers of deaths) to figure out just how to use the blitz combo.
On the topic of the game's ESRB rating, the original release on the SNES did not have one. I have my original copy of the game, and there is no rating on it. The ESRB was actually founded in September 1994 which was one month before the NA release of FF6, so it was very likely one of the last games to squeak by without a rating. Chrono Trigger's original release just less than 1 year later does have a K-A (6+) rating.
When FF6 was ported to the PS1, I believe that's when it got a T rating. But that version retains the original scene of Celes' beating when you first meet her with Locke. Subsequent releases of the game have censored that scene, so the GBA version has an E10+ rating. Same with the Pixel Remaster.
If I remember correctly, if you use flame dance instead of pummel, you actually end up learning an additional set of blitz's early on.
you remember wrong, you only learn new Blitzes when getting Sabin's level to certain points (with the exception of the last one that you can also get from an event).
The theatric points of explaining the writing style of dialogue in the game is perfectly cleared out. I always associated these games from both the art style and execution of its story to be far more theatric than most games. As a child reading and looking at both the pixel artwork and the concept art, they look like the archetypical costumes of Comedia del Arte which I studied as a teenager. And Yoshitaka Amano is definitely inspired by those gorgeous and extravagant styles of clothing and attires, as well as grotesquely ornate and decorate monsters and demons. Final Fantasy games always felt like plays. Like, the Jobs fit neatly the narrative of them being like Archetypical roles of players, even.
On the ERSB talk, I believe FF3 (6) was released before the Mortal Kombat controversy that gave rise to it.
The SNES version was; I believe the PS1 rerelease was the first one to receive an ESRB rating.
A little late to this series, but yeah JCS Psychology is great. You mention it at 1:10:00
The logic for the takeover is very simply explained by the same abstraction of those 3 magiteks just as we make abstractions about everything... but also Terra.
My first experience with FFVI was the Anthology version on PS1. As I recall, there was an opening FMV with a few various clips from later in the game (similar to the intro for FFVIII), along with that intro scene with Terra and Kefka. Then we don't see any more FMV sequences until the very end, where we get more assorted clips from the game, and a sort of hint at a conclusion for the characters. So, even though FMV's were created for important scenes throughout the game, they are never shown within the proper context. In my opinion, the PS1 Anthology game is better for people who have played the game already, as the FMV sequences had much more resonance with me after I'd finished the game and watched them again. That said, when I watched the intro the first time without context, it really just felt like a trailer, getting me excited for the game and what it had in store.
Glad someone else brought this up, since those FMVs can be confusing if you haven't played the PS1 version. It was my first experience as well, and as a huge fan of Amano, I thought it was really cool seeing his designs in 3D.
I didn't know Kefka was supposed to be a clown until I saw that FMV (this was before I was old enough to beat the game).
It is interesting that Sabin is introduced in a dispute of succession of Master. As we know, he became a monk because of succession crisis in Figaro.
As somebody born in 2004 who got into Final Fantasy with 7, I think 4(with the 3D remake script) and 6 are still great stories. You shouldn’t place much value in terms like overrated and underrated as they are concerned more with other people’s perception of media instead of it’s actual quality.
Same here. I'd say 4 is still one of the better games even if it's not as good as 6 and 7.
@@nathank2289 Definitely, but I think Cecil is a better protagonist than Terra (even though I consider Celes the actual central character to 6 for reasons than aren't just more screentime.)
@@polyman6859 For me Locke is the real protagonist of 6 (though "nobody" is the intended answer.) Cecil's duel nature and character arc make him my third favorite behind Squall and Cloud.
@@nathank2289 I haven't played 8 yet so I can't make a judgement on Squall. Zidane Tribal is without a doubt my favorite FF protag.
@@polyman6859 They are pretty much polar opposite. Squall is emo, self-doubting, and curt. While I remember Zidan being arrogant, cocky, and loud.
thank you for doing all these FF6 videos
I always get a game over on that blitz part lol
Kefka is unhinged in Japanese in a way that he can't be in English - he often uses violent and profane language while using hyperfeminine and polite grammar. The effect of it is very weird.
The PSX FMVs don't actually play during the game. They are optional videos you can see in a bonus menu from the title screen.
24:40 Yeah the intro furdhure has MGS vibes.
I recommend you do an analysis into Earthbound
Calling FFVI "overrated" when FFVII is right there with its unending spinoffs and constant cash grabs from SE is just hilarious and honestly kind of pathetic. As someone who played every Final Fantasy game in the order they released in North America, I found that Final Fantasy Tactics was much more of a long lasting impact on me personally than any of the other PS1 FF games. You guys have already covered FFT in depth so you know how incredible that story was, especially for the time and genre.
And calling FF7 overrated is hilarious when we've had about two decades of people calling it overrated to seem cool and different. At this point there are far more people who think it's "overrated" than there are people who think it's the greatest game of all time. It's unfortunate that some people seemingly can't grow out of the mentality of children posting on GameFAQs who want random people on the internet to know they're special.
@@JoelBurger The only thing more pathetic than calling FF7 overrated, or saying that calling FF7 overrated is itself overrated, is when some third guy comes along and tries to seem like he's claiming some kind of moral high ground by throwing the first two under the bus and saying that you should just like what you like and not worry about how other people rate them.
Seriously, nuts to that third guy, the pretentious ass.
@@JoelBurger It is overrated though...
Great game, nonetheless, but Square has definitely milked their cash cow to dust.
Context is everything. FF6 is a SUPER NINTENDO game.
playing this game for the first time. only played from 7 to 15 (never finished any of the 13s though) thanks to the now Pixel version I am finally getting to play this and playing along to the podcast! 7 was my first JRPG ever I have heard for years about 6 being the best even though i have 7 as my all time fav and greatest game of all time. 6 is great so far to this point! but I can't help but wonder if I played 6 growing up then played 7 if 6 would be in my brain better then 7. it might be because of what we played first etc our own brain shows the bias.
Something big to note, the only areas with the "improvable" items, are in the Narshe Mines, Cave to South Figaro, and South Figaro itself. I don't believe there are any others?
1:13:55 Its hilarious how confused people get with the blitz input, despite the game spelling it out meticulously 3 times before its your turn to try. Its that darn cursor above Sabin. People assume that means "Oh, select sabin and then do the input" but no, its do the input while the cursor is above him.
So validating... I screwed up the blitz on my first playthrough as well.
Great episode as always! I highly doubt you're getting all the way to the Opera scene in the next episode though. ;)
I struggled so hard as a kid to do that first blitz because the instructions confused me
Confused me as an adult my first playthrough as well.
I’ve always been told that ff6 was overrated. But Squares treatment towards the game made me think otherwise. Why no psp or ds remakes? All of the other older FF games get multiple remakes except for 6. All us 6 fans get is loading screens, worse audio, or horrible looking mobile sprites. Yet 6 is so overrated, apparently.