I'll never forget the first time my friend Amir and I played FF6 and we saw Kefka win and destroy the world, we were silent, we didn't know how to react. And then the scene with Celes collecting fish happened and without knowledge we failed. 2 Kids who were 9 and 10 years old witnessed Celes commit Self Deletion by throwing herself off a cliff and we didn't know how to process all of this. So as you can imagine when Celes gets off the raft and into the destroyed world we were both terrified of playing the rest of the game when we heard the world theme of that chilling theme as we made our way to the first town. FF6 hold a special place in my heart always.
I was around the same age when I first played FF6 and had the same experience. I learned more about the human condition from this game than any other piece of media available to me at the time, or from friends or family. It changed the way I thought about the world and that's why it is a true masterpiece.
No lie, it's a piece of literature that meaningfully influenced my life. Celes, as a character, played a role in why I'm still alive today. Maybe that's silly, but I found strength to go on in her story. A beautiful work.
Funny enough, I played through ff6 numerous times over the years. I didn't actually know there was a way to save Cid until my last play through. I thought his death and her attempted suicide was the only real option. I just rushed through the sequence.
@@decusq I first played this game when I was five and I genuinely thought that it did cheer the people right up, not that it killed them. Eventually my mind corrected itself and I realized what was going on. I couldn't grasp how a level 50 character would die from natural causes. Also, Kefka winning is really overshadowed. This is the same guy who got away with poisoning Doma, enslaving the Espers and raising the continent. Dude had many wins but destroying the world hit different
A couple other small secrets: When Banon joins you as a guest, go back in the room where you started as Terra and had to talk to everyone in the Returner base. There's some dialogue there, for a room you normally have no reason to re-enter. Every possible party member on the phantom train has different dialogue for eating food at the dining car.
I wish there was more lore about that little makeshift shrine to the three god statues in a cave. Who built that and why? Aside from that ONE spot, the world of FF6 is pretty much devoid of any religion or ritual and mostly ignorant of its history.
@@nanoglitch6693 I believe they said the Espers crafted that shrine during the War of the Magi, hence why they knew about it when they fled the Sealed Gate.
@@rdrouynrivagreed. People want a remake, I want a prequel set during the War of the Magi. Like, who is the badass who was able to defeat Odin and petrify him?
Being a kid when this game came out means that I got to see the "Cid Dies" and "Shadow Dies" storylines (where Interceptor becomes attached to Realm) play out while being unaware of the alternatives. Those stories were a significant part of why it's my favorite mainline FF game.
yes, i noticed a subtle point: look at Relm's inventory, and you will see she starts with a unique accessory. the description says "departed mom's love protects against fatal attacks." BUT, it also says it can only be equipped by Relm...and SHADOW! that's one of several hints that Shadow is Relm's father!
@@ericb3157if you sleep (in a specific town?) with shadow in your team, you get to learn his real name, his implied love interest, that boosts he left due to his old profession
Playing this as a kid and trying to tell people about a crazy attack you saw from one of your party members… all the “yeah right suuuuure” because none of us knew desperation attacks existed…
I have the opposite I didn't know they could die because I waited I was just like well I might as well wait and see what happens and I got the right fish I guess can I play the game like four times
For a SNES game, Final Fantasy VI has a crazy amount of secrets. I've finished the game about 20 times (I know, it is one of the few SNES games I had growing up) and I kept finding new stuff every playthrough. Some of the hardest to find scenes for me were Kefka's origin story hidden in Vector and Cid and Setzer's special scene inside the broken down airship after the peace Banquet.
I tried referencing a RUclips video that shows the location, but it was filtered. He's almost certainly talking about the Barrier Ring. It's behind Telstar.
@@dycedargselderbrother5353 Wiki page: "The tent above the Magitek Armor being refueled has two chests, the right chest contains a Mythril Glove and the left chest is a monster-in-a-box, Satellite, and it drops a Green Beret. Outside this tent, if the player walks right, up, and behind the tent, the party will jump down to enter an otherwise inaccessible tent with a chest containing a Barrier Ring. These treasures can be acquired as soon as the first scripted battle against Kefka ends, but before talking to him when he flees beyond the guard at the end of the path." Holy crap, I never knew this!
I always thought Final Fantasy 6 was the one that should've gotten all the spinoffs instead of 7. FF7 is great, but the world of FF6 feels so much more lived-in.
As a huge fan of FF7, and a big fan of FF6, I think they should have picked one of my least favorites to milk in the PS2 era. I didn't like 9 or 10 for different reasons, and they sorta milked 10, but they should have more, so 7 could stay pristine. Alas, they're crapping all over it.
Completely agree, FF7 is great but the world of FF6 is perfect for spinoffs. I wouldn’t want to see as many as FF7 got, but we could’ve at least gotten one like FF4 did!
@@paulhawn2381 I agree don't think there is much of a point unless they did something simular to FF4 with the "after years" I think it was called. It would obviously be forced since if they wanted to add more to FF6 story they would have before now.
Final Fantasy 6 is extremely dear to me. I first played it in a very dark and uncertain moment of my life and it has accompanied me up to this very day. I'm so glad to see so many people still regard it with the respect and love it deserves, 30 years later.
You too hey? Very similar story here. I disappeared into this world and pretended like I was one of the heroes in the story. I enjoyed it so much more than what was going on in real life at that time...
Interesting thing about the ghosts is that, unlike all the other guest characters who occupy the dedicated "guest" slot, the ghosts actually occupy Strago and Relm's slots in the SNES version. This is due to the fact that the ghosts join the party during a part of the game where Banon is already occupying the Guest slot and still needs use of it later, but Strago and Relm's slots are still not in use by their permanent members at that time. This means that, should you play the game out of order (via the Airship Glitch) and recruit Strago and Relm before running Sabin's scenario, the ghosts permanently replace Strago and Relm and can be taken to the final battle. The Pixel Remaster save file isn't limited to 2560 bytes like the SNES one was, so the ghosts and other guests all have their own independent save data in that version rather than sharing slots. However, it's still possible to sequence-break Pixel Remaster, too (at least on the PC version), allowing for the kidnapping of the ghost again. The ghost still behaves like a permanent party member, only now when you use Possess outside of the Phantom Train, the ghost simply dies and is removed from battle, but is still in the party afterwards and can be revived to kill again without having to re-add it to your party.
I still have my SNES cartridge, with the 3 slots each being 600+ hours game saves each lol. Every 5 years you have to take the chip out and plug it into the SNES, power up the game like normal, and once you load your save, you disconnect the battery, swap it out, attach new battery, save your game, and , that's the secret to saving your old save files.
My favorite little fun thing to do: while going down the river on a raft with Bannon in the party you get to a point where it just loops around and you go back to the same point. If you turn battle cursor to “memory” and have Bannon use his free heal ability, you can grab and auto controller for the A button and you will loop around infinitely fighting and healing (the ability cost 0 mana so you would never run out or did). One time I left the controller and snes on for a few days and turned the Tv off and just let it run. My characters were level 88 a few days later. It was like playing the game on new game +.
It was also interesting to see what level people were when they came back in the party. Some were still low level and some were effectively gods. Never quite figured out the mechanic on that.
Then you sacrifice all the stat bonuses you can get later from espers. For real godlike power you need to get through the first half of the game with the lowest levels possible.
the lola sidequest is still one of the more poignants sidequests we've had in the series, it just creeps up on you, fantastic gutpunch, love the characters in 6
I’m replaying it on switch for the first time in probably 20 years. I had played it so much before that that I assumed I’d always remember it but I keep encountering stuff I haven’t thought about in decades
I spent an entire year playing through the pixel remaster a couple times, looking up all sorts of walkthroughs and secrets i missed in the days before the Internet. Its certainly one of the best cartridges available on the switch.
- enemies had no resistance to being turned invisible. - once invisible you were 100% vulnerable to mass magic spells. - so....turn enemies invisible with one character, use a mass insta-kill skill like x-zone. Phoenix Down also insta-kills undead enemies which they got rid of after 6 (as far as I remember). Doom Train could be killed in one move.
Gi Nattak in FF7, Gerogero in FF8, Soulcage* in FF9, Evrae Altana** in FF10 are bosses that can be defeated with a Phoenix Down (*Soulcage gets reduced to 0 to 9hp resulting in a 1 in 10 chance of instant kill, but the job is basically done. **Evrae Altana takes two), not counting any of the random encounters
The last one is more of a programing than a punishment. On the train. Using prosess will remove the ghost from your party, and that is programmed in the move itself, so you will lose a char when/if you use it anywhere, and the game just check who is not on your party and put them in the airship when you return to the ship as a fall safe.
@@SuperKamiGuru20 I still think all new players should let Cid die once because it makes Celes a much stronger character. She goes from second guessing herself all the time to being full of hope, inspired that her friends must be out there and she will find them. Nowadays I can't let Cid die due to a guilty conscience
Mystic Quest is honestly one of my favorite SNES rpgs. The music itself is BANGERS, especially the boss theme music! I still occasionally play through it, and have a cart of it somewhere.
I loved Mystic Quest when I was a kid. We had the the OG Final Fantasy on nes and Mystic Quest on snes when I was a kid. I didn't even know about the other snes Final Fantasy games until later when I emulated them. I thought Mystic Quest was the sequel to the original Final Fantasy. Even my mom liked it and named one of our dogs after one of the characters in the game.
Honestly, FFMQ is underrated as hell. Sure it's linear and the difficulty at times can border on unfair, but yeah the soundtrack just slaps, and for an "entry level jrpg" it does it's job well.
@ I would always rent 6 or Mystic quest(or both) on the weekends when I was kid. If one or the other wasn't available I would try out a different SNES game.
@ 100% facts. That was the whole point of Mystic quest. They wanted an entry level FF title. People give it such a bad rep because they expect it to be on par with all the other FF titles.
4:18 - I always wondered why Cid kept saying "I'm not going to be around much longer" even when I kept feeding him good fish and he ended up making it.
For that last one with the ghost ability, this likely isn't a "contingency plan" worked in by the devs. That's how they handle the possess ability on the phantom train too. It removes the ghost from the party and the ghost can then be re-recruited on the phantom train, so it's the same behavior as when you give the ability to another character.
Keep up the good work. I’ve been listening to your podcast and watching your vids for years now. I know times are tough but you’ll make it through. Happy 2025!
Going by the sprites and the fact one of the pieces of equipment is a tortoise shield, I'm guessing the imp status was probably called kappa status in japan
This was my first FF title I grew up playing as a kid, FF3 for the Snes. I LOVED the story, the characters, Kefka, and the world itself(especially when you get to the WoR my little kid brain thought that shift was amazing!) I think some of my favorite "secrets" are all the little character specific cutscenes that players can miss, like having Edgar and Sabin together to get a little more backstory of what happened to them both after their father passed away, or seeing Shadows dreams showing more of his backstory. This game captivated me and made me love FF as a franchise. So I was SHOCKED to have learned that 3 was actually 6. This was before internet was a commonplace so information wasn't as easily available especially being a 6-7 year old kid.
I got Shadow's memories when I was in college. The screen went black and it made that horrendous sound and I panicked. Thought I'd ruined the cartridge or something! 😂
Funny how having so many secrets also spawned so many rumors, like "Revive Leo" and "x battles on dino forest to fight Czar Dragon". Mind you, some of the rumors predated "normal" internet access.
I remember reading the Gogo is Adlai Stevenson rumor on Gamefaqs in the early 2000's. I was like 12, so I had no idea who Stevenson was and I didn't know the quotes connecting him to Gogo were fake. I was just like damn, those quotes are spot on lol
something i noticed about the part with Cid and the fish: it's possible to collect several fish each round trip, BUT, as far as i can tell, only the SLOWEST one actually counts! i once had Umaru in the active party when doing the "cyan's dream" quest. if i remember, during that part of the dream where you get to use those Magitech vehicles, he kept using Ice Beam! also, if you have Terra in the party, she will be able to use "missile" and those other fancy tricks! i once got an extra line of dialogue that was QUITE shocking: there's a part of the story where you are trying to sneak into the Empire. you MUST have Celes and Locke, but you can choose the other two freely. i once picked Edgar and Sabin. at the end of the "opera house", when Celes tricks Setzer with a two-headed coin, Sabin said: "THAT coin?! big brother, don't tell me..." implying that that SAME coin was the one he used to determine which of them became king! oh, i also read, in an old game magazine, that it's possible to inflict "Imp" on the boss of the Clock Town.
There is also a glitch involving bringing Sabin to the Opera House. When Setzer compliments Celes, she's supposed to turn away and blush. If Sabin is present, she doesn't blush. This is probably because they share the same palette, so if she were to blush, Sabin would too, but may look angry instead or weird for him to also blush.
@@AkaiAzul I thought the glitch was that Sabin did actually blush at the same time. I remember a Let's Player (HCBailley) commenting on that... At least, I thought so.
If you've been playing FF games for the longest time you probably know all this. The best thing about these secrets is that its still being shared till this day.
I always remember, since I learned it when I was a little kid in the 90s, to save the chest with the thunder rod for the tunnel borer to make that boss an instant win. That and invis/doom on the original cartridge lol.
Another fun fact about the Possess ability, as you can see in the video, if you defeat any boss with this ability, including Kefka, they will fade out like any regular enemy instead of their normal death animation. In the video we can see Kefka dying normally instead of his usual disintegration animation
As you mentioned possess that can only be used through alternate means, like game genie.. could have mentioned something else in that light too. all moogles are placeholders for all characters. If you can somehow get back into narshe after leaving (First time) you can get into the narshe ice fields and find Kefka. If you beat this battle, all the moogles are in your party as place holders for all characters. Trouble is, as we all know most stats don't go up with level up, requiring espers. and the moogles have the worsts base stats and gear in the game honestly. So this trick isn't worth doing, save for finding strange dialog if you use the airship and obtain shadow out of sequence, and have him when you aren't supposed to. Shadows says, in the airship. "Why am I here? The money I guess" So there is dialog in the game you cannot know exists unless you do such a thing.
I knew the majority of the information that appears in this video (still a cool watch, obviously), but I definitely had no idea as to the origin of that word until today.
12:10 - this mechanic was first introduced in chrono trigger using the time travel mechanic. If the chest is not disturbed, the contents owner would eventually take the item out and put a better one in at a future time, so you could open it in the future, travel to the past, then open it again for both items.
I would like to see a video on the chronological order of Gilgamesh's travels through the FF multiverse, I did some research on Gilgamesh and found that his entire FF origin began in FF Type-0. Gilgamesh was the king of Lorica just like the Sumerian King he's referencing, Lorica was destroyed by the Ultima bomb from Militesi's attack led by Cid, but being the strongest and immortal L'Cie, Gilgamesh became the only survivor of his entire kingdom. Gilgamesh wakes up losing all his memories and purpose as his crystal was destroyed and following Type-0 lore, the crystal also erases memories of those who are dead, with his entire kingdom dead, he literally has 0 memories left. Gilgamesh began wandering around aimlessly and the first time you meet him, you fight him on a bridge, technically the first ever battle on a bridge in the FF timeline, because of his memory loss he begins to talk and act weirder every time you meet him. In post game he attains the the power to open Etro's Gate, allowing him to travel to other worlds through rifts. Before he leaves this world forever you can fight him inside a rift as a NG++ superboss where he picks one of your party members and challenges them, if you lose he steals their ultimate weapon. He also reveals his eight arm form for the first time. After you defeat him, he leaves this world and begins his multiverse travels, so yea Gilgamesh, L'Cie king of Lorica, first battled on a bridge, had eight arms, stole your weapon and gained the power to open rifts in FF Type-0. And I think the very first world he arrived in is actually Stranger of Paradise DLC, where Lufenians summoned him from the Rift to deal with Jack. I would like to see more lore confirmation on Gilgamesh.
Sounds like a weird retcon at best, his origin was in five and he got stuck in the rift at the end of the game. He didn’t have rift hopping powers before that and become exdeaths servant just for fun.
@@Hawntbawt You can call it retcon, but I call it a great lore, it pays respects to the Sumerian king that he's named after. Instead of taking a king's name and making him a servant and a clown, they showed why this joke character is named after a king and had a tragic and noble origin. On top of that he lost his best friend Enkidu back during the Ultima bomb just like how Gilgamesh lost Enkidu right at the start of his epic poem, which leads to him getting a pet dog in FF12 who he named Enkidu because some of his memories resurfaced.
Its been a while since Ive thought about ff6. This really hit me in the feels. 6 was my first, and favourite FF of the series. The piano arrangements in the background of this vid made me tear up.
I never knew about getting Gigamesh's magicite. Then again, I never bothered with the Colosseum battles. Another secret is a Star Wars reference: if Locke is wearing a soldier's uniform when he first meets Celes, they pretty much reenact the dialogue when Luke first meets Princess Leyla (also instead of hiding when the soldiers come out from Celes cell, he just stands still and salutes as they pass by). Celes' "jump of faith" (as the original localization tried to frame it) was really impactful; but the following scene where she regains hope at the sight of Locke's bandana is one of the most moving moments in the game, and sets the tone for the rest of the World of Ruin.
Great video, very fun. The part on Gilgamesh in particular was interesting, since I never played the remake. I think you might be making assumptions about Possession when you talk about the developers coming up a "contingency plan" and a "punishment" if the players use the Possession command with a normal party member. I think it's much more likely that the Possession command simply removes the party member from the active party, and that the party member "returning to the Blackjack" is simply a consequence of Possession not changing whether or not that character had been "unlocked." The game doesn't actively keep track of where a character "is," just if (a) they are part of the current party and (b) if they should be available through the Blackjack's party selection screen. When Possession removes a Ghost or a permanent character from the party, it doesn't "move" them to the train or to the Blackjack or whatever: it simply de-sets (a) without bothering to touch (b), exactly as you would program it if you were only concerned with Ghosts using the command. As a fun fact: The Moogles who fight alongside you in the Narshe cave system actually occupy the same memory as the party members you'll recruit later, one specific Moogle for each party member (except Umaro). Each Moogle is overwritten during the scene where you recruit the party member who replaces them. If you use glitches/hacks to skip a recruitment scene, then encounter a scene that forces that party member into your party, you'll get the original Moogle instead. For example, you can use a glitch to bypass Locke meeting Celes in South Figaro. If you do so, when you arrive at the battle of the frozen Esper, you'll have Moghan instead of Celes, as Celes's data never overwrote Moghan's.
I always liked the idea that Cyan ends up in the Zozo mountains. His heart is in the right place in writing Lola, but, he IS technically lying, like all the Zozo residents....but, one could say that because it was meant for good and not bad, him being in the mountains vs the actual city showed he was really above the idea of decently lying for personal gain.
The Possess ability being an instant kill that can't normally be tested is really interesting. It's like the Fool's Ore from Zelda Oracle of Seasons, it's an insta-kill for most enemies and bosses.
in the Playstation 1 version of the game, after reading a guide that said you have to check to see what kind of fish you got in the key inventory and ONLY give him "yummy fish", that often when i caught a fast-moving fish and then checked it, I would see "just a fish" or even "rotten fish".
The randomization of fish can be brutal to Cid...and speed runners, as it is slightly swifter to save him than to see the beautifully-poignant cutscene!
I remember showing a friend the second basement in the South Figaro dungeon after showing them the original Celes sequence or the Leo statue, Gau's Father, Cid Surviving. The locked doors
They already confirmed that Greg is the exact same character in every iteration that he appears as in the FF series, so him having references to all his previous encounters not only makes sense, but even solidifies the fact that he is the same.
@@NisseDood With a single phoenix down, only three, and the Ghost Train being the first time it seems, without it being a glitch. 6, 7 and 8. 9 needs an hit after the phoenix down. Nothing on 10. Interesting.
I knew all of these except the possess command being used outside of the train scene, and the treasures left unopened. The latter is much more fascinating to me with the insight exercised. If the treasure is left untouched, some might assume it's a safe place to leave their more valued treasures. With the sudden impact of the apocalypse, the owners were no longer around to swap out treasures.
The last time I played FF6 (years ago, and I had beaten the game several times before) was to see how crazy I could get a character with Espers. It turned into 'Can I beat Kefka's Tower with just three people'? Yes, you can, and it's pretty awesome. Invincible Mog, 8x attack Edgar, and Speed-Gau was my chosen party (but went in with 1 man groups) and simply tore the place down.
Pretty much all of these were common knowledge at the time I thought? Here's one though: The vanish spell would reduce the amount of physical damage you took and make you harder or impossible to target, while giving you a vulnerability to spells. Notably, it would make it so any status effect would have a 100% chance of taking effect. This spell could also be cast on enemies, making it so any status effect, including instant death, would always hit. This even worked on bosses.
The fact that I actually knew most of these (I never finished FF6A, so the Gilgamesh stuff was new to me (I love that guy)) reminds me of just how obsessed I was with this game as a kid. Hello, fellow traveler!
I always loved something about this game that others don't do as well. Sure, this is a story about Terra and Celes and everyone else, but really, Kefka is the protagonist. Its his story, he's the driving force through the whole game, and everyone dances to his mad dance.
FF6 was the *newest* entry in the series I had access to in high school, vía GBA emulator on my phone. The hours... or days... I spent playing through as hard as I could, just to keep getting whooped by Kefka in the end, full party acquired and everything. And then, one day, a friend introduced me to Mr. Game Shark, and I regretted nothing. In turn, it made going back over the added end game dungeon somewhat fun, where I let loose with some brave team choices (one team was solely magic users, excluding terra and celes, to see how far I could push the magic system)
A technique I loved to use and that is very useful on a lot of ennemy (and boss) in FF6 is to use vanish on the ennemy, and then to use death on him. Death have a very small chance of killing an ennemy, and almost 0% on a boss. But if you use vanish first, death have a 100% chance to kill. So if the ennemy is not immune to vanish, you can insta killed him with no effort :)
Similar to Possess, Gau can learn a Rage from the flower enemy found only in World of Ruin Jidoor's mansion, which also breaks the game in that kind of way.
I played ff6 for the first time when i was 14. I think the year was 1998 and i browsed the early internet when i found a rom for the game. If i remember correctly i ran it on the zsnes emulator and i was blown away by the story, the characters and the music. It changed my life completely and i'm so happy that i had this amazing experience. It's still my favorite ff game and i don't think that will ever change. The overworld music still gives me goosebumps whenever i hear it!
So happy I actually knew about Shadow being able to survive into the World of Ruin. If I had lost ninja-father and become unable to finish his milk-run (or pretend he'd ever do that), I would have been inconsolable at that tender age.
That Gilgamesh bit is incredible and I'd never have appreciated just how much detail has gone into his story over the years were it not for that segment. Thank you!
The Desperation Attacks were amazing. When I first had one pop off, I was shocked and had no idea what just happened. Took me forever to realize it was related to low HP. FF7 Limit Breaks can thank FF6 for pioneering it.
Might be a hot take, but I genuinely think that if FF6 got a remake of any kind, the "mini-game" with Cid in the World of Ruin should be taken out and he should die shortly after Celes wakes up. The scene where she decides to attempt suicide after learning her friends might be gone and that she might have nothing left to live for, then finding Locke's banana tied to that bird's foot is so profound and adds so much to the rest of the game. I missed it my first time finishing 6 and was kinda disappointed that I did.
It ain't that it adds much to the rest of the game; it just fits more with the recurring theme in the World of Ruin, where every character seems to get their chance to overcome despair or tie loose ends from their traumatic past.
@@arturoaguilar6002 Nah, Celes is a bit different. On your first playthrough you see the cataclysm, you lose, everyone is swept away and potentially dead (and shadow actually can die, for anyone saying "They wouldnt kill them off") and it has a very strong amount of symbolism behind it that is just perfectly placed, paced and executed. The amount of information given to the character is just enough to create an emotional scenario the player has no choice but to get involved in. The fact that Celes wakes up to a dying world, dying Cid and dying hope is very important to setting the stage for the player the rest of the way. It hits very hard that "wow, even this woman who endured torture and resigned herself to her execution with dignity at the hands of the imperials is broken by this." They use the motif of birds(Seagulls) in the island scenes as a common literary stand in for hope/dreams. When you climb to the top when she goes to jump, you see a dead bird there too. Everywhere around her, everything is ruined. Not even the freedom to take off in the sky to anywhere you want can save you. You're the only survivor in the bleakest place in recorded history, and now she is all alone. And she jumps as you watch the tears stream from her eyes and float upwards as she descends. Like most attempts it was a cry for help, and somehow it was answered. She washes up on shore to see that the birds do indeed stand in for hope and dreams. Her cry was answered by a live bird who had learned to live again in the world of ruin, a little bird who got there with a little help from a friend. Suddenly the dead birds dont matter, once she has the blinders of depression taken off she can see the greater ecosystem of life and hope still alive as a new bird carries the dreams of her seeing her friends and one special guy and rises into the skies. Cid dying is both the catalyst for accepting the past as a tragedy and looking to the future to build a world where this wont happen again. I mean if it didnt mean much to you that's cool, but to a lot of us it was one of the most pivotal moments in games.
Also, if you were to save Cid, he pretty just says “there’s people out there and here’s a boat so you can find them!” Celes’s “perking up” also says that, but in a way that emphasizes living life even in a broken world.
Another secret: Need to win 255 battles with a cursed shield equipped to acquire the Paladin shield (gives the character 255 of DEF, turning him almost invincible). There are 2 cursed shields, one you get in a frozen village, and the other you can steal from a dinosaur with a 0.1% chance.
Also, it IS possible to beat Mr Chupon in the arena. You have to get a little lucky, even Locke with Genji Glove, Offering, Atma Weapon, and thief knife doing 9999x8 in a turn won’t kill him. But sometimes you get lucky and he doesn’t use sneeze and just attacks, giving you a chance to kill him in the second turn.
I actually knew all of these for the most part, since I obsessed over this game as a kid- AND HAD THE PLAYER'S GUIDE! BUT I didn't know the last one because of course, the guide didn't include glitches.
I usually dislike "secrets" that involve a cheat, because this wasn't a glitch - you need a gameshark or something similar to alter the code. But I do like the fact that the developers actually anticipated that in this case - that is a nice secret indeed.
@@stylis666I actually don't think it was an intentional failsafe / balance, but more a happy coincidence. It would probably be easier to code that a character be "banished" to the airship than removed from game. Temporary characters simply use character slots that the devs already knew were eventually going to be overridden with permanent ones. In Ghost 1 and Ghost 2's case, they would override Strago's and Relm's slots before they are recruited. The glitch works by doing events out of order such that they return to the Phantom Train and recruit a ghost after acquiring either or both of the above.
@ Thanks for your comment on the thread I started. ^u^ I was going to say what @AkaiAzul said. Well, not quite SAY that, but to speculate something just like it. I don't think the devs anticipated it, either, and that it was just a happy coincidence. :) Oh and thanks for correcting me that it wasn't a glitch, getting the Ghosts. I did find a BIG glitch myself as a kid involving Realm that really screwed up my save file- but in the best possible way! :D
Final fantasy 6 had some deep story points it also had some really wonky story points. Like jumping in the water with a helmet and somehow traveling to other continents or falling down a waterfall. I think the love for the game came from projection of players as much of the lore/story is abstract. Deus Ex Machina type events with no foreshadowing were used over and over again throughout the plot. The occasional surprise is fine, but it overly relied upon "Oh you didn't expect that, did you!"
Strange combo I like to have fun with: Equip Strago with the Dragoon Boots and any elemental rod. He'll deal damage from the jump attack and often follow up with the elemental effect, just like attacking with the rod.
Aww after you got the cyan optional scene I thought you’d cover the optional scene with Gau if you piece together who his father is and bring Sabin to confront him. No items or tangible rewards, just a really touching scene. Also “possess” removing you from the party was how it worked even on the ghost characters, I’m not sure if it was specifically foresight on the devs part.
You also didn't cover the Bannon Power-Level Trick doable on (at least) the SNES; because of some obscure menu options, a player can set the cursor to, on Bannon's turn, always select his heal-all ability. Bannon's heal-all ability is unique in this regard in that _it costs him no MP._ You can then set everyone else to fight indefinitely. Lastly after _that,_ when making the river escape, you'll find a section where selecting the top option always loops you right to where you select the top option. At this point, set an autofire control to spam the selection button, and keep going around the loop. The party will get into fights, gaining XP. Bannon's Heal will keep everyone alive, and the other characters will Fight. You then go to bed, and tomorrow come back to find three (permanent) characters at like level 60 when most of the party is not yet level 20.
When trying to save Cid it is basically always worth it to catch the medium speed fish. The penalty if it's the bad one is only -4 but +16 if it's the good one. You have to catch 4 bad ones to equal one good one and if you just talk to Cid without catching a fish to reset the spawn hoping for a fast fish you still waste Cid's health by passage of time. So catching the medium one will more often than not progress you towards saving Cid. The only one of these I did not know was the improving chests from the early game.
Played through FF6:PR recently, and totally forgot how the fish mechanic worked for Cid. So I just grabbed all the fish and fed Cid and eventually saved him even though it was basically a crapshoot at that point.
I never thought of FF being a tick-tock series, but you're spot on - the odd-numbered games are usually where they get creative with battle and game mechanics, and the even-numbered ones are much more linear and story-based. There are some exceptions (the Junction system in FF8, for example), but it generally holds true.
Ehh.... 2 removes jobs for a divisive character customization. 4 is definitely bland. I'll skip 6 since that's the comparator. 8 you've yielded on. 10 is pretty straightforward as well. 12 really mixes it up with active-ish battles (damage puddles, script driven party members) and 14 is vastly different frome everything before being an MMO. So, I'm not fully following you on that.
It’s just incredible that a snes game from 30 years ago has so much packed into it that we’re still discussing all of the secrets today. How did they come up with all this stuff in such a short development period?
I remember the early internet had rumors not just about saving Cid, which was legit, but how doing so and later returning after doing______ he would join your party. Since there were 2 empty slots on the party member select screen. Cid and Leo were the two big ones people thought could be saved and recruited.
Neat vid totaly did not know about the beserk ring on umaro, but, im skeptical on the posses being intentional, with the sketch bug, phys evasion being worthless/blind accuracy, vannish doom etc
“As an even number entry, FF6 placed more emphasis on story” Could you please make a video to expand on this? This is such a wild revelation to just drop in the intro to a video. I would love more details on this!
There are fans who think that for the first six games, it was practically tradition that the odd-numbered titles would be more focused on gameplay while the even-numbered ones would be more oriented toward narrative. That's not actually true (II has a more complex progression system than the two it's sandwiched between, V has an overall better narrative than IV, and VI offers a good deal of freedom in character- and party-building), but the idea is pretty ingrained in parts of the fandom.
I’ve never thought about it before, but it actually does check out, at least for the 8/16-bit games. 1: The base foundation for Final Fantasy as a role-playing game 2: Introduces a more nuanced storyline with a party of pre-written characters rather than blank slate player-created heroes 3: Introduces the job system allowing for a new level of player choice when it comes to gameplay and strategy 4: Focuses on the story and world building and acts as a study of the main character and his redemption arc 5: Reintroduces the job system and both refines and expands upon it in ways that 3 couldn’t at the time 6: Centres around a large, diverse cast and explores their character arcs, relationships, and impact on the world they live in
I just started replaying FF6 and got recommended this video, I really enjoyed it and despite knowing most of these facts, the Gilgamesh one is completely new to me, Good Job
I did all of these as a kid after first finding there were hidden secrets, with minimal gamefaqs. The exploration, sense of adventure, and wonder I first experienced playing FF6 will never be paralleled. Edit: Except for the ghost possess outside of the train, that's a new one lol.
Suplexing a train is a core childhood memory 😂
as it SHOULD be lol
This is the way.
It was a rite of passage for us all.
I'll never forget the first time my friend Amir and I played FF6 and we saw Kefka win and destroy the world, we were silent, we didn't know how to react. And then the scene with Celes collecting fish happened and without knowledge we failed. 2 Kids who were 9 and 10 years old witnessed Celes commit Self Deletion by throwing herself off a cliff and we didn't know how to process all of this. So as you can imagine when Celes gets off the raft and into the destroyed world we were both terrified of playing the rest of the game when we heard the world theme of that chilling theme as we made our way to the first town. FF6 hold a special place in my heart always.
I was around the same age when I first played FF6 and had the same experience. I learned more about the human condition from this game than any other piece of media available to me at the time, or from friends or family. It changed the way I thought about the world and that's why it is a true masterpiece.
It was a very brave game that asked a lot from the players to process. Something that could never be made these days.
No lie, it's a piece of literature that meaningfully influenced my life.
Celes, as a character, played a role in why I'm still alive today. Maybe that's silly, but I found strength to go on in her story.
A beautiful work.
Funny enough, I played through ff6 numerous times over the years. I didn't actually know there was a way to save Cid until my last play through. I thought his death and her attempted suicide was the only real option. I just rushed through the sequence.
@@decusq I first played this game when I was five and I genuinely thought that it did cheer the people right up, not that it killed them. Eventually my mind corrected itself and I realized what was going on. I couldn't grasp how a level 50 character would die from natural causes.
Also, Kefka winning is really overshadowed. This is the same guy who got away with poisoning Doma, enslaving the Espers and raising the continent. Dude had many wins but destroying the world hit different
A couple other small secrets:
When Banon joins you as a guest, go back in the room where you started as Terra and had to talk to everyone in the Returner base. There's some dialogue there, for a room you normally have no reason to re-enter.
Every possible party member on the phantom train has different dialogue for eating food at the dining car.
Ghost eating animation is best eating animation!
Can't wage war on an empty stomach.
I like how Cyan is hesitant to eat the ghost food. But he gobble snap snarf just like everyone else.
@@kalythai And now it's time for me to once again listen to the Gobble Snarf Snap remix. Thank you!
I believe Sabin has some interesting dialogue in the returner base.
I wish there was more lore surrounding the 8 legendary dragons
Agreed. With Czar and the Crusader magicite being related to the Warring Triad, there's an untold story there.
I wish there was more lore about that little makeshift shrine to the three god statues in a cave. Who built that and why? Aside from that ONE spot, the world of FF6 is pretty much devoid of any religion or ritual and mostly ignorant of its history.
@@nanoglitch6693 I believe they said the Espers crafted that shrine during the War of the Magi, hence why they knew about it when they fled the Sealed Gate.
The war of the magi in general deserved more lore behind it but it was a great idea for a backdrop for a story.
@@rdrouynrivagreed. People want a remake, I want a prequel set during the War of the Magi. Like, who is the badass who was able to defeat Odin and petrify him?
Being a kid when this game came out means that I got to see the "Cid Dies" and "Shadow Dies" storylines (where Interceptor becomes attached to Realm) play out while being unaware of the alternatives. Those stories were a significant part of why it's my favorite mainline FF game.
yes, i noticed a subtle point:
look at Relm's inventory, and you will see she starts with a unique accessory.
the description says "departed mom's love protects against fatal attacks."
BUT, it also says it can only be equipped by Relm...and SHADOW!
that's one of several hints that Shadow is Relm's father!
@@ericb3157 If you watch all of Shadow's scenes there is also hints in those
@@ericb3157if you sleep (in a specific town?) with shadow in your team, you get to learn his real name, his implied love interest, that boosts he left due to his old profession
Playing this as a kid and trying to tell people about a crazy attack you saw from one of your party members… all the “yeah right suuuuure” because none of us knew desperation attacks existed…
I have the opposite I didn't know they could die because I waited I was just like well I might as well wait and see what happens and I got the right fish I guess can I play the game like four times
For a SNES game, Final Fantasy VI has a crazy amount of secrets. I've finished the game about 20 times (I know, it is one of the few SNES games I had growing up) and I kept finding new stuff every playthrough. Some of the hardest to find scenes for me were Kefka's origin story hidden in Vector and Cid and Setzer's special scene inside the broken down airship after the peace Banquet.
I've replayed the game countless times, and a few years ago learned there's a hidden chest in the imperial camp by jumping off a ledge. Blew my mind.
@@DrakeyCThe desert camp before the Empire storms Doma Castle? Where there is this chest and what's inside?
I tried referencing a RUclips video that shows the location, but it was filtered. He's almost certainly talking about the Barrier Ring. It's behind Telstar.
@@dycedargselderbrother5353
Wiki page:
"The tent above the Magitek Armor being refueled has two chests, the right chest contains a Mythril Glove and the left chest is a monster-in-a-box, Satellite, and it drops a Green Beret. Outside this tent, if the player walks right, up, and behind the tent, the party will jump down to enter an otherwise inaccessible tent with a chest containing a Barrier Ring. These treasures can be acquired as soon as the first scripted battle against Kefka ends, but before talking to him when he flees beyond the guard at the end of the path."
Holy crap, I never knew this!
@@dycedargselderbrother5353 I definitely missed that my first playthrough of that section
I always thought Final Fantasy 6 was the one that should've gotten all the spinoffs instead of 7. FF7 is great, but the world of FF6 feels so much more lived-in.
Alas, it was pre-3D.
As a huge fan of FF7, and a big fan of FF6, I think they should have picked one of my least favorites to milk in the PS2 era. I didn't like 9 or 10 for different reasons, and they sorta milked 10, but they should have more, so 7 could stay pristine. Alas, they're crapping all over it.
Completely agree, FF7 is great but the world of FF6 is perfect for spinoffs. I wouldn’t want to see as many as FF7 got, but we could’ve at least gotten one like FF4 did!
6 unlike the others was perfect and it needed no more love letters (sorry)
@@paulhawn2381 I agree don't think there is much of a point unless they did something simular to FF4 with the "after years" I think it was called. It would obviously be forced since if they wanted to add more to FF6 story they would have before now.
Final Fantasy 6 is extremely dear to me. I first played it in a very dark and uncertain moment of my life and it has accompanied me up to this very day. I'm so glad to see so many people still regard it with the respect and love it deserves, 30 years later.
You too hey? Very similar story here. I disappeared into this world and pretended like I was one of the heroes in the story. I enjoyed it so much more than what was going on in real life at that time...
@ Same here. I think there are a lot of late 30somethings who played FF6 in their formative years and have those feelings toward FF6.
Interesting thing about the ghosts is that, unlike all the other guest characters who occupy the dedicated "guest" slot, the ghosts actually occupy Strago and Relm's slots in the SNES version. This is due to the fact that the ghosts join the party during a part of the game where Banon is already occupying the Guest slot and still needs use of it later, but Strago and Relm's slots are still not in use by their permanent members at that time. This means that, should you play the game out of order (via the Airship Glitch) and recruit Strago and Relm before running Sabin's scenario, the ghosts permanently replace Strago and Relm and can be taken to the final battle.
The Pixel Remaster save file isn't limited to 2560 bytes like the SNES one was, so the ghosts and other guests all have their own independent save data in that version rather than sharing slots. However, it's still possible to sequence-break Pixel Remaster, too (at least on the PC version), allowing for the kidnapping of the ghost again. The ghost still behaves like a permanent party member, only now when you use Possess outside of the Phantom Train, the ghost simply dies and is removed from battle, but is still in the party afterwards and can be revived to kill again without having to re-add it to your party.
I still have my SNES cartridge, with the 3 slots each being 600+ hours game saves each lol. Every 5 years you have to take the chip out and plug it into the SNES, power up the game like normal, and once you load your save, you disconnect the battery, swap it out, attach new battery, save your game, and , that's the secret to saving your old save files.
I thought FFIII famously reset save files after they exceeded 99 hours. Maybe I am getting confused.
My favorite little fun thing to do: while going down the river on a raft with Bannon in the party you get to a point where it just loops around and you go back to the same point. If you turn battle cursor to “memory” and have Bannon use his free heal ability, you can grab and auto controller for the A button and you will loop around infinitely fighting and healing (the ability cost 0 mana so you would never run out or did). One time I left the controller and snes on for a few days and turned the Tv off and just let it run. My characters were level 88 a few days later. It was like playing the game on new game +.
It was also interesting to see what level people were when they came back in the party. Some were still low level and some were effectively gods. Never quite figured out the mechanic on that.
@ New characters join at the average party level while existing characters stay at their levels.
Then you sacrifice all the stat bonuses you can get later from espers. For real godlike power you need to get through the first half of the game with the lowest levels possible.
@@areyounecessaryYou still needed a turbo and a rubber band. Holding down the button only performed one action.
@@michaelschwentner3458I was gonna say the same, but ff6 is easy enough as-is. no need to min-max
the lola sidequest is still one of the more poignants sidequests we've had in the series, it just creeps up on you, fantastic gutpunch, love the characters in 6
This game has such a hold on me all these years later. Such a gem.
Thank you for your work here. I look forward to this so much whenever you and your team create another video. Thank you
I’m replaying it on switch for the first time in probably 20 years. I had played it so much before that that I assumed I’d always remember it but I keep encountering stuff I haven’t thought about in decades
I spent an entire year playing through the pixel remaster a couple times, looking up all sorts of walkthroughs and secrets i missed in the days before the Internet. Its certainly one of the best cartridges available on the switch.
- enemies had no resistance to being turned invisible.
- once invisible you were 100% vulnerable to mass magic spells.
- so....turn enemies invisible with one character, use a mass insta-kill skill like x-zone.
Phoenix Down also insta-kills undead enemies which they got rid of after 6 (as far as I remember). Doom Train could be killed in one move.
They didn't get rid of that after 6, I remember there was a undead boss in FF10 that you could kill with a Phoenix Down.
They have a chest with a Phoenix down right before the fight with the train as well. Rewards you for thinking in game logic.
Gi Nattak in FF7, Gerogero in FF8, Soulcage* in FF9, Evrae Altana** in FF10 are bosses that can be defeated with a Phoenix Down (*Soulcage gets reduced to 0 to 9hp resulting in a 1 in 10 chance of instant kill, but the job is basically done. **Evrae Altana takes two), not counting any of the random encounters
But if you Phoenix Down the train, then you cannot Suplex it.
3:27 "little green tortoises" is a hilarious description for kappas
Came here for this
The last one is more of a programing than a punishment.
On the train. Using prosess will remove the ghost from your party, and that is programmed in the move itself, so you will lose a char when/if you use it anywhere, and the game just check who is not on your party and put them in the airship when you return to the ship as a fall safe.
I've played this game so many times yet I never knew you could save Cid. He's always died for me.
Me too!!! I thought it just played out! *Fires up SNES*
lololol
I only found out through GameFaqs
Same here. Perhaps it's stupid but I'm really happy to know this. It's great.
@@SuperKamiGuru20 I still think all new players should let Cid die once because it makes Celes a much stronger character. She goes from second guessing herself all the time to being full of hope, inspired that her friends must be out there and she will find them. Nowadays I can't let Cid die due to a guilty conscience
Mystic Quest is honestly one of my favorite SNES rpgs. The music itself is BANGERS, especially the boss theme music! I still occasionally play through it, and have a cart of it somewhere.
It had fantastic music for sure and the enemy animations when you can see them being depleted of life is great.
I loved Mystic Quest when I was a kid. We had the the OG Final Fantasy on nes and Mystic Quest on snes when I was a kid. I didn't even know about the other snes Final Fantasy games until later when I emulated them. I thought Mystic Quest was the sequel to the original Final Fantasy. Even my mom liked it and named one of our dogs after one of the characters in the game.
Honestly, FFMQ is underrated as hell. Sure it's linear and the difficulty at times can border on unfair, but yeah the soundtrack just slaps, and for an "entry level jrpg" it does it's job well.
@ I would always rent 6 or Mystic quest(or both) on the weekends when I was kid. If one or the other wasn't available I would try out a different SNES game.
@ 100% facts. That was the whole point of Mystic quest. They wanted an entry level FF title. People give it such a bad rep because they expect it to be on par with all the other FF titles.
4:18 - I always wondered why Cid kept saying "I'm not going to be around much longer" even when I kept feeding him good fish and he ended up making it.
For that last one with the ghost ability, this likely isn't a "contingency plan" worked in by the devs. That's how they handle the possess ability on the phantom train too. It removes the ghost from the party and the ghost can then be re-recruited on the phantom train, so it's the same behavior as when you give the ability to another character.
Keep up the good work. I’ve been listening to your podcast and watching your vids for years now. I know times are tough but you’ll make it through. Happy 2025!
Going by the sprites and the fact one of the pieces of equipment is a tortoise shield, I'm guessing the imp status was probably called kappa status in japan
This was my first FF title I grew up playing as a kid, FF3 for the Snes. I LOVED the story, the characters, Kefka, and the world itself(especially when you get to the WoR my little kid brain thought that shift was amazing!)
I think some of my favorite "secrets" are all the little character specific cutscenes that players can miss, like having Edgar and Sabin together to get a little more backstory of what happened to them both after their father passed away, or seeing Shadows dreams showing more of his backstory.
This game captivated me and made me love FF as a franchise. So I was SHOCKED to have learned that 3 was actually 6. This was before internet was a commonplace so information wasn't as easily available especially being a 6-7 year old kid.
I got Shadow's memories when I was in college. The screen went black and it made that horrendous sound and I panicked. Thought I'd ruined the cartridge or something! 😂
Funny how having so many secrets also spawned so many rumors, like "Revive Leo" and "x battles on dino forest to fight Czar Dragon". Mind you, some of the rumors predated "normal" internet access.
They certainly were wild. Revive and recruit Leo. Recruit Kefka. Recruit Nega-Leo and Nega-Kefka. etc etc etc.
I remember reading the Gogo is Adlai Stevenson rumor on Gamefaqs in the early 2000's. I was like 12, so I had no idea who Stevenson was and I didn't know the quotes connecting him to Gogo were fake. I was just like damn, those quotes are spot on lol
something i noticed about the part with Cid and the fish:
it's possible to collect several fish each round trip, BUT, as far as i can tell, only the SLOWEST one actually counts!
i once had Umaru in the active party when doing the "cyan's dream" quest.
if i remember, during that part of the dream where you get to use those Magitech vehicles, he kept using Ice Beam!
also, if you have Terra in the party, she will be able to use "missile" and those other fancy tricks!
i once got an extra line of dialogue that was QUITE shocking:
there's a part of the story where you are trying to sneak into the Empire.
you MUST have Celes and Locke, but you can choose the other two freely.
i once picked Edgar and Sabin.
at the end of the "opera house", when Celes tricks Setzer with a two-headed coin, Sabin said:
"THAT coin?! big brother, don't tell me..."
implying that that SAME coin was the one he used to determine which of them became king!
oh, i also read, in an old game magazine, that it's possible to inflict "Imp" on the boss of the Clock Town.
There is also a glitch involving bringing Sabin to the Opera House. When Setzer compliments Celes, she's supposed to turn away and blush. If Sabin is present, she doesn't blush. This is probably because they share the same palette, so if she were to blush, Sabin would too, but may look angry instead or weird for him to also blush.
Clock town? You mean ZoZo, the town of liars? 😂
@@AkaiAzul I thought the glitch was that Sabin did actually blush at the same time. I remember a Let's Player (HCBailley) commenting on that... At least, I thought so.
@@HighPriestFuneral Just watched the video, his video has Edgar and Gau. There, they blush, same reason, but if Sabin is there, no one blushes.
@@AkaiAzul Ah! That must have been it. Thanks for the clarification.
Thank you for this video. That Possess ability was definitely a new one on me!
I keep learning more things about games i never knew. Time to go replay it for the hundredth time
I'm a simple person, I see FF6 in a video title, I click and hit thumb up button.
I do the exact same thing.
Same here!
"Little"
@@VortexF rip auto correct
What
1:08 Can those links be found in the description below? I fully admit I'm a stupid man, but I just don't see them.
Incredible timing. Just bought Pixel Remaster of FF6 this morning!
@@bradyanderson1229 i started replaying it last night.
Have fun! The Opera scene literally made me shed some tears. It's so beautiful.
I just played it. The mean developers fixed all of the sneaky exploits like the Vanish and Death/X-Zone combo.
If you've been playing FF games for the longest time you probably know all this. The best thing about these secrets is that its still being shared till this day.
I always remember, since I learned it when I was a little kid in the 90s, to save the chest with the thunder rod for the tunnel borer to make that boss an instant win. That and invis/doom on the original cartridge lol.
Another fun fact about the Possess ability, as you can see in the video, if you defeat any boss with this ability, including Kefka, they will fade out like any regular enemy instead of their normal death animation.
In the video we can see Kefka dying normally instead of his usual disintegration animation
I absolutely love Ff6. God Bless your channel. I already knew about all of these secrets years ago.
As you mentioned possess that can only be used through alternate means, like game genie.. could have mentioned something else in that light too.
all moogles are placeholders for all characters. If you can somehow get back into narshe after leaving (First time) you can get into the narshe ice fields and find Kefka. If you beat this battle, all the moogles are in your party as place holders for all characters.
Trouble is, as we all know most stats don't go up with level up, requiring espers. and the moogles have the worsts base stats and gear in the game honestly.
So this trick isn't worth doing, save for finding strange dialog if you use the airship and obtain shadow out of sequence, and have him when you aren't supposed to.
Shadows says, in the airship. "Why am I here? The money I guess" So there is dialog in the game you cannot know exists unless you do such a thing.
6:15 ...Aaaand that entire quest becomes hilarious when you google what a "tintinnabulum" is.
I knew the majority of the information that appears in this video (still a cool watch, obviously), but I definitely had no idea as to the origin of that word until today.
I don't get the joke...
@@AkaiAzul Google the word and then you'll get it.
All these years later and I never knew you could save Cid
12:10 - this mechanic was first introduced in chrono trigger using the time travel mechanic.
If the chest is not disturbed, the contents owner would eventually take the item out and put a better one in at a future time, so you could open it in the future, travel to the past, then open it again for both items.
I thought you just got more of the same item, not different items.
@@Wintershot nope, they evolved into better versions of that item instead, but im pretty sure this only happens to those special locked chests
Excellent as usual yall! One of my fav FF titles and still learning!
I would like to see a video on the chronological order of Gilgamesh's travels through the FF multiverse, I did some research on Gilgamesh and found that his entire FF origin began in FF Type-0.
Gilgamesh was the king of Lorica just like the Sumerian King he's referencing, Lorica was destroyed by the Ultima bomb from Militesi's attack led by Cid, but being the strongest and immortal L'Cie, Gilgamesh became the only survivor of his entire kingdom.
Gilgamesh wakes up losing all his memories and purpose as his crystal was destroyed and following Type-0 lore, the crystal also erases memories of those who are dead, with his entire kingdom dead, he literally has 0 memories left.
Gilgamesh began wandering around aimlessly and the first time you meet him, you fight him on a bridge, technically the first ever battle on a bridge in the FF timeline, because of his memory loss he begins to talk and act weirder every time you meet him.
In post game he attains the the power to open Etro's Gate, allowing him to travel to other worlds through rifts. Before he leaves this world forever you can fight him inside a rift as a NG++ superboss where he picks one of your party members and challenges them, if you lose he steals their ultimate weapon. He also reveals his eight arm form for the first time.
After you defeat him, he leaves this world and begins his multiverse travels, so yea Gilgamesh, L'Cie king of Lorica, first battled on a bridge, had eight arms, stole your weapon and gained the power to open rifts in FF Type-0.
And I think the very first world he arrived in is actually Stranger of Paradise DLC, where Lufenians summoned him from the Rift to deal with Jack.
I would like to see more lore confirmation on Gilgamesh.
Sounds like a weird retcon at best, his origin was in five and he got stuck in the rift at the end of the game. He didn’t have rift hopping powers before that and become exdeaths servant just for fun.
@@Hawntbawt You can call it retcon, but I call it a great lore, it pays respects to the Sumerian king that he's named after.
Instead of taking a king's name and making him a servant and a clown, they showed why this joke character is named after a king and had a tragic and noble origin.
On top of that he lost his best friend Enkidu back during the Ultima bomb just like how Gilgamesh lost Enkidu right at the start of his epic poem, which leads to him getting a pet dog in FF12 who he named Enkidu because some of his memories resurfaced.
follow
Its been a while since Ive thought about ff6. This really hit me in the feels. 6 was my first, and favourite FF of the series. The piano arrangements in the background of this vid made me tear up.
I never knew about getting Gigamesh's magicite. Then again, I never bothered with the Colosseum battles. Another secret is a Star Wars reference: if Locke is wearing a soldier's uniform when he first meets Celes, they pretty much reenact the dialogue when Luke first meets Princess Leyla (also instead of hiding when the soldiers come out from Celes cell, he just stands still and salutes as they pass by).
Celes' "jump of faith" (as the original localization tried to frame it) was really impactful; but the following scene where she regains hope at the sight of Locke's bandana is one of the most moving moments in the game, and sets the tone for the rest of the World of Ruin.
Great video, very fun. The part on Gilgamesh in particular was interesting, since I never played the remake.
I think you might be making assumptions about Possession when you talk about the developers coming up a "contingency plan" and a "punishment" if the players use the Possession command with a normal party member. I think it's much more likely that the Possession command simply removes the party member from the active party, and that the party member "returning to the Blackjack" is simply a consequence of Possession not changing whether or not that character had been "unlocked."
The game doesn't actively keep track of where a character "is," just if (a) they are part of the current party and (b) if they should be available through the Blackjack's party selection screen. When Possession removes a Ghost or a permanent character from the party, it doesn't "move" them to the train or to the Blackjack or whatever: it simply de-sets (a) without bothering to touch (b), exactly as you would program it if you were only concerned with Ghosts using the command.
As a fun fact: The Moogles who fight alongside you in the Narshe cave system actually occupy the same memory as the party members you'll recruit later, one specific Moogle for each party member (except Umaro). Each Moogle is overwritten during the scene where you recruit the party member who replaces them.
If you use glitches/hacks to skip a recruitment scene, then encounter a scene that forces that party member into your party, you'll get the original Moogle instead. For example, you can use a glitch to bypass Locke meeting Celes in South Figaro. If you do so, when you arrive at the battle of the frozen Esper, you'll have Moghan instead of Celes, as Celes's data never overwrote Moghan's.
I always liked the idea that Cyan ends up in the Zozo mountains. His heart is in the right place in writing Lola, but, he IS technically lying, like all the Zozo residents....but, one could say that because it was meant for good and not bad, him being in the mountains vs the actual city showed he was really above the idea of decently lying for personal gain.
By Yevon! That's a clever interpretation! #bravo
The Possess ability being an instant kill that can't normally be tested is really interesting. It's like the Fool's Ore from Zelda Oracle of Seasons, it's an insta-kill for most enemies and bosses.
in the Playstation 1 version of the game, after reading a guide that said you have to check to see what kind of fish you got in the key inventory and ONLY give him "yummy fish", that often when i caught a fast-moving fish and then checked it, I would see "just a fish" or even "rotten fish".
The randomization of fish can be brutal to Cid...and speed runners, as it is slightly swifter to save him than to see the beautifully-poignant cutscene!
I remember showing a friend the second basement in the South Figaro dungeon after showing them the original Celes sequence or the Leo statue, Gau's Father, Cid Surviving. The locked doors
They already confirmed that Greg is the exact same character in every iteration that he appears as in the FF series, so him having references to all his previous encounters not only makes sense, but even solidifies the fact that he is the same.
I think the only exception to this rule is Type-0, and *maybe* 15?
The Ghost Train is probably the easiest Boss in all of FF. Everyone likes to suplex it, but a single Phoenix Down kills it.
It has to share that spot because the series got multiple bosses that can just be killed with a phoenix down.
@@NisseDood With a single phoenix down, only three, and the Ghost Train being the first time it seems, without it being a glitch.
6, 7 and 8.
9 needs an hit after the phoenix down. Nothing on 10. Interesting.
@@BillyKamp FF5 also got the skeleton Trex.
Same for the 2nd version of the behemoth boss in the veldt cave
I knew all of these except the possess command being used outside of the train scene, and the treasures left unopened. The latter is much more fascinating to me with the insight exercised. If the treasure is left untouched, some might assume it's a safe place to leave their more valued treasures. With the sudden impact of the apocalypse, the owners were no longer around to swap out treasures.
The last time I played FF6 (years ago, and I had beaten the game several times before) was to see how crazy I could get a character with Espers. It turned into 'Can I beat Kefka's Tower with just three people'? Yes, you can, and it's pretty awesome. Invincible Mog, 8x attack Edgar, and Speed-Gau was my chosen party (but went in with 1 man groups) and simply tore the place down.
Pretty much all of these were common knowledge at the time I thought?
Here's one though: The vanish spell would reduce the amount of physical damage you took and make you harder or impossible to target, while giving you a vulnerability to spells. Notably, it would make it so any status effect would have a 100% chance of taking effect. This spell could also be cast on enemies, making it so any status effect, including instant death, would always hit. This even worked on bosses.
Very cool, I didn't know about the imps or using possess outside of the phantom train.
The fact that I actually knew most of these (I never finished FF6A, so the Gilgamesh stuff was new to me (I love that guy)) reminds me of just how obsessed I was with this game as a kid. Hello, fellow traveler!
oh wow, never knew about the chests in the beginning areas improving the longer you didn't open them.
Me as an 8 year old and failing to save Cid sitting on my living room floor crying as Celes throws herself off a cliff.
I always loved something about this game that others don't do as well. Sure, this is a story about Terra and Celes and everyone else, but really, Kefka is the protagonist. Its his story, he's the driving force through the whole game, and everyone dances to his mad dance.
Very cool! I knew most of these, but the chests upgrades were always a rumor to me that I neglected to confirm. Nice!!
FF6 was the *newest* entry in the series I had access to in high school, vía GBA emulator on my phone.
The hours... or days... I spent playing through as hard as I could, just to keep getting whooped by Kefka in the end, full party acquired and everything. And then, one day, a friend introduced me to Mr. Game Shark, and I regretted nothing. In turn, it made going back over the added end game dungeon somewhat fun, where I let loose with some brave team choices (one team was solely magic users, excluding terra and celes, to see how far I could push the magic system)
A technique I loved to use and that is very useful on a lot of ennemy (and boss) in FF6 is to use vanish on the ennemy, and then to use death on him. Death have a very small chance of killing an ennemy, and almost 0% on a boss. But if you use vanish first, death have a 100% chance to kill. So if the ennemy is not immune to vanish, you can insta killed him with no effort :)
Similar to Possess, Gau can learn a Rage from the flower enemy found only in World of Ruin Jidoor's mansion, which also breaks the game in that kind of way.
I appreciate that this is a video about FF6. I feel the need to reference it more in my light novel
I played ff6 for the first time when i was 14. I think the year was 1998 and i browsed the early internet when i found a rom for the game. If i remember correctly i ran it on the zsnes emulator and i was blown away by the story, the characters and the music. It changed my life completely and i'm so happy that i had this amazing experience. It's still my favorite ff game and i don't think that will ever change. The overworld music still gives me goosebumps whenever i hear it!
I was hoping for a mention of Psycho Cyan during the Imp section, but it was a pretty thorough explanation of everything else about that state.
So happy I actually knew about Shadow being able to survive into the World of Ruin. If I had lost ninja-father and become unable to finish his milk-run (or pretend he'd ever do that), I would have been inconsolable at that tender age.
Wow I had no idea about leaving the chests from early on for better gear later, blew my mind lol
That Gilgamesh bit is incredible and I'd never have appreciated just how much detail has gone into his story over the years were it not for that segment. Thank you!
The Desperation Attacks were amazing. When I first had one pop off, I was shocked and had no idea what just happened. Took me forever to realize it was related to low HP. FF7 Limit Breaks can thank FF6 for pioneering it.
Might be a hot take, but I genuinely think that if FF6 got a remake of any kind, the "mini-game" with Cid in the World of Ruin should be taken out and he should die shortly after Celes wakes up.
The scene where she decides to attempt suicide after learning her friends might be gone and that she might have nothing left to live for, then finding Locke's banana tied to that bird's foot is so profound and adds so much to the rest of the game. I missed it my first time finishing 6 and was kinda disappointed that I did.
Agreed. Celes giving in to despair and then finding a reason to hope is so much more powerful than the alternative.
When I was a kid I had no idea the fish did anything to actually save Cid, so I only ever got to see him die.
It ain't that it adds much to the rest of the game; it just fits more with the recurring theme in the World of Ruin, where every character seems to get their chance to overcome despair or tie loose ends from their traumatic past.
@@arturoaguilar6002 Nah, Celes is a bit different. On your first playthrough you see the cataclysm, you lose, everyone is swept away and potentially dead (and shadow actually can die, for anyone saying "They wouldnt kill them off") and it has a very strong amount of symbolism behind it that is just perfectly placed, paced and executed. The amount of information given to the character is just enough to create an emotional scenario the player has no choice but to get involved in.
The fact that Celes wakes up to a dying world, dying Cid and dying hope is very important to setting the stage for the player the rest of the way. It hits very hard that "wow, even this woman who endured torture and resigned herself to her execution with dignity at the hands of the imperials is broken by this." They use the motif of birds(Seagulls) in the island scenes as a common literary stand in for hope/dreams. When you climb to the top when she goes to jump, you see a dead bird there too. Everywhere around her, everything is ruined. Not even the freedom to take off in the sky to anywhere you want can save you. You're the only survivor in the bleakest place in recorded history, and now she is all alone. And she jumps as you watch the tears stream from her eyes and float upwards as she descends.
Like most attempts it was a cry for help, and somehow it was answered. She washes up on shore to see that the birds do indeed stand in for hope and dreams. Her cry was answered by a live bird who had learned to live again in the world of ruin, a little bird who got there with a little help from a friend. Suddenly the dead birds dont matter, once she has the blinders of depression taken off she can see the greater ecosystem of life and hope still alive as a new bird carries the dreams of her seeing her friends and one special guy and rises into the skies.
Cid dying is both the catalyst for accepting the past as a tragedy and looking to the future to build a world where this wont happen again.
I mean if it didnt mean much to you that's cool, but to a lot of us it was one of the most pivotal moments in games.
Also, if you were to save Cid, he pretty just says “there’s people out there and here’s a boat so you can find them!” Celes’s “perking up” also says that, but in a way that emphasizes living life even in a broken world.
I remember as a kid playing this and learning Shadow could be saved before the world of ruin made me restart the game to save him.
The Correct Response.
@@Pyre Indeed, the Clyde nightmares are some of the best hidden scenes in FFVI.
Wow I didn't knew. Please upload more about final fantasy 6 plz ❤
Another secret: Need to win 255 battles with a cursed shield equipped to acquire the Paladin shield (gives the character 255 of DEF, turning him almost invincible). There are 2 cursed shields, one you get in a frozen village, and the other you can steal from a dinosaur with a 0.1% chance.
Also, it IS possible to beat Mr Chupon in the arena. You have to get a little lucky, even Locke with Genji Glove, Offering, Atma Weapon, and thief knife doing 9999x8 in a turn won’t kill him. But sometimes you get lucky and he doesn’t use sneeze and just attacks, giving you a chance to kill him in the second turn.
I actually knew all of these for the most part, since I obsessed over this game as a kid- AND HAD THE PLAYER'S GUIDE! BUT I didn't know the last one because of course, the guide didn't include glitches.
I usually dislike "secrets" that involve a cheat, because this wasn't a glitch - you need a gameshark or something similar to alter the code. But I do like the fact that the developers actually anticipated that in this case - that is a nice secret indeed.
@@stylis666I actually don't think it was an intentional failsafe / balance, but more a happy coincidence. It would probably be easier to code that a character be "banished" to the airship than removed from game. Temporary characters simply use character slots that the devs already knew were eventually going to be overridden with permanent ones. In Ghost 1 and Ghost 2's case, they would override Strago's and Relm's slots before they are recruited. The glitch works by doing events out of order such that they return to the Phantom Train and recruit a ghost after acquiring either or both of the above.
@@AkaiAzul Oh! That is very interresting. Didn't think about that. Seems far more logical than what I thought. Thanks!
@ Thanks for your comment on the thread I started. ^u^ I was going to say what @AkaiAzul said. Well, not quite SAY that, but to speculate something just like it. I don't think the devs anticipated it, either, and that it was just a happy coincidence. :)
Oh and thanks for correcting me that it wasn't a glitch, getting the Ghosts. I did find a BIG glitch myself as a kid involving Realm that really screwed up my save file- but in the best possible way! :D
Final fantasy 6 had some deep story points it also had some really wonky story points. Like jumping in the water with a helmet and somehow traveling to other continents or falling down a waterfall.
I think the love for the game came from projection of players as much of the lore/story is abstract. Deus Ex Machina type events with no foreshadowing were used over and over again throughout the plot. The occasional surprise is fine, but it overly relied upon "Oh you didn't expect that, did you!"
FF6 has the best soundtrack of the entire franchise. I'm 44yo and the music of this game still haunts my soul.
Strange combo I like to have fun with: Equip Strago with the Dragoon Boots and any elemental rod. He'll deal damage from the jump attack and often follow up with the elemental effect, just like attacking with the rod.
Aww after you got the cyan optional scene I thought you’d cover the optional scene with Gau if you piece together who his father is and bring Sabin to confront him. No items or tangible rewards, just a really touching scene.
Also “possess” removing you from the party was how it worked even on the ghost characters, I’m not sure if it was specifically foresight on the devs part.
You also didn't cover the Bannon Power-Level Trick doable on (at least) the SNES; because of some obscure menu options, a player can set the cursor to, on Bannon's turn, always select his heal-all ability. Bannon's heal-all ability is unique in this regard in that _it costs him no MP._
You can then set everyone else to fight indefinitely. Lastly after _that,_ when making the river escape, you'll find a section where selecting the top option always loops you right to where you select the top option. At this point, set an autofire control to spam the selection button, and keep going around the loop. The party will get into fights, gaining XP. Bannon's Heal will keep everyone alive, and the other characters will Fight. You then go to bed, and tomorrow come back to find three (permanent) characters at like level 60 when most of the party is not yet level 20.
Nice! This was very useful! thanks ❤
Didn't know that the berzerker ring cured status effects. Neat.
When trying to save Cid it is basically always worth it to catch the medium speed fish. The penalty if it's the bad one is only -4 but +16 if it's the good one. You have to catch 4 bad ones to equal one good one and if you just talk to Cid without catching a fish to reset the spawn hoping for a fast fish you still waste Cid's health by passage of time. So catching the medium one will more often than not progress you towards saving Cid.
The only one of these I did not know was the improving chests from the early game.
I did not know you could save Cid.
Per Squaresoft (lol) Cid is supposed to die canonically. It also seems that way per the code of the fish, meaning it is easier to get medium and slow.
Played through FF6:PR recently, and totally forgot how the fish mechanic worked for Cid. So I just grabbed all the fish and fed Cid and eventually saved him even though it was basically a crapshoot at that point.
I never thought of FF being a tick-tock series, but you're spot on - the odd-numbered games are usually where they get creative with battle and game mechanics, and the even-numbered ones are much more linear and story-based. There are some exceptions (the Junction system in FF8, for example), but it generally holds true.
Ehh.... 2 removes jobs for a divisive character customization. 4 is definitely bland. I'll skip 6 since that's the comparator. 8 you've yielded on. 10 is pretty straightforward as well. 12 really mixes it up with active-ish battles (damage puddles, script driven party members) and 14 is vastly different frome everything before being an MMO. So, I'm not fully following you on that.
I knew about the Figaro cave chest getting better if you don't get it, but I had no idea there were more from Narshe.
It’s just incredible that a snes game from 30 years ago has so much packed into it that we’re still discussing all of the secrets today. How did they come up with all this stuff in such a short development period?
I remember the early internet had rumors not just about saving Cid, which was legit, but how doing so and later returning after doing______ he would join your party. Since there were 2 empty slots on the party member select screen. Cid and Leo were the two big ones people thought could be saved and recruited.
Casting Vanish + X-Zone is another instakill move
the Imp thing is fascinating!
Thanks for the TPR soundtrack, this dude is so underrated
The amount of secrets in FF6 created so much depth to the world. I really made you feel like anything was possible.
Neat vid totaly did not know about the beserk ring on umaro, but, im skeptical on the posses being intentional, with the sketch bug, phys evasion being worthless/blind accuracy, vannish doom etc
“As an even number entry, FF6 placed more emphasis on story” Could you please make a video to expand on this? This is such a wild revelation to just drop in the intro to a video. I would love more details on this!
I'm surprised how many people haven't noticed this trend, at least for 1-6.
There are fans who think that for the first six games, it was practically tradition that the odd-numbered titles would be more focused on gameplay while the even-numbered ones would be more oriented toward narrative. That's not actually true (II has a more complex progression system than the two it's sandwiched between, V has an overall better narrative than IV, and VI offers a good deal of freedom in character- and party-building), but the idea is pretty ingrained in parts of the fandom.
I’ve never thought about it before, but it actually does check out, at least for the 8/16-bit games.
1: The base foundation for Final Fantasy as a role-playing game
2: Introduces a more nuanced storyline with a party of pre-written characters rather than blank slate player-created heroes
3: Introduces the job system allowing for a new level of player choice when it comes to gameplay and strategy
4: Focuses on the story and world building and acts as a study of the main character and his redemption arc
5: Reintroduces the job system and both refines and expands upon it in ways that 3 couldn’t at the time
6: Centres around a large, diverse cast and explores their character arcs, relationships, and impact on the world they live in
Just some misguided fan theory. Don't worry about it.
For the first 6 games it was class customization for odd numbered games while even numbered ones had fixed character classes.
I just started replaying FF6 and got recommended this video, I really enjoyed it and despite knowing most of these facts, the Gilgamesh one is completely new to me, Good Job
I did all of these as a kid after first finding there were hidden secrets, with minimal gamefaqs. The exploration, sense of adventure, and wonder I first experienced playing FF6 will never be paralleled.
Edit: Except for the ghost possess outside of the train, that's a new one lol.
I still remember as a kid how happy I was with myself when I tossed a Phoenix Down at the Doom Train and instantly defeated it.