Final Fantasy Challenge: Final Fantasy VI Part III. “You sound like lines from a self-help book.”

It’s honestly impressive how well this game holds up over 30 years. All of the games I’ve played in the past month (Jesus) have had some kind of caveat of “it was a little different at the time.” They still hadn’t quite gotten the formula down until IV, so II and III still had issues with narrative and structure. V, of course, hadn’t quite figured out how to give the characters full arcs and stories, and as such, Bartz, Lenna, Galuf and Faris feel a bit flat compared to other Final Fantasy characters. However, VI, everything comes together. It’s hard to grasp just how ambitious this game was, from narrative to graphics to music, everything here is trying at doing something bigger, doing more, telling a greater story. Everything here is done to tell a grander, more epic and more personal story than has ever appeared before in a Final Fantasy. Even then, very few really manage to match the story after this. From the characters to the villains to the systems, this game has eared its place in the pantheon of great games, and games that helped define the genre as a whole. Even now, thirty-one years later, people are still using this game as a template, and not just for retro throwbacks.

So, it does hurt my heart to start with some of the downsides, but the game isn’t perfect. This is a game with a lot of characters and a lot of systems, and the real solution to the game is to get everyone a maxed out Magic stat, Ultima, and blast the ever loving shit out of everything that moves. I genuinely spent the last act of the game just blowing the shit out of everyone with Ultima, and loading up on 99 Ethers so I could keep doing it until the dungeon was over. Even when they fixed Cyan’s Bushido skill so you didn’t have to “charge” it, I still found him better as a pinch healer than someone who was cutting fools apart with a katana, and that’s disappointing. It really would take Square a long time to get that balance, and I think that’s part of why X is so well regarded even if it’s story is a bit wonky. Like, I’m not sure I used very much of Straggo’s blue magic, even though I had a bunch of spells. It was way easier to have him just blast people with Firaga, Flare and Ultima. I also never used a summon. At least I knew how to do it this time, I just didn’t.

There are also a lot of characters. I don’t expect anything from the secret characters, Mog, Umaro and Gogo, but I do expect something from Gau. His little story was nice and emotional, but it was also one scene and I never got him above level 13. Training him up on the Veldt has potential, I know he can be game breaking. However, you know what made the game really easy? Ultima. Also, I would like a little bit more with Straggo and Relm. They’re introduced pretty late, and while they have some good scenes in the Word of Balance, they don’t have a lot in the World of Ruin. They do have a quest that adds to their characters, and it’s a fun one. Very unique, actually, with the random teleportation and the coral, but it was also all we got. Hell, Straggo’s recruitment was just talking to him with Relm in the party at Cultists’ Tower. That’s it. At least Relm got a full boss battle and a dungeon.

That said, those are nitpicks. Everything about this game is phenomenal, from the somber intro to the heroic finale, with Terra flying to save her friends as the last of her power dies out. Setzer saving her from the fall is also great. As great as the narrative is, and it is, the one thing I want to talk about first is how great the graphics are. First, Kazuko Shibuya did a great job with the sprite work as always. This was her last Final Fantasy game for a long time, and it was one where she really tried to marry as much of Yoshitaka Amano’s surreal character and monster designs to her own art as possible. She also wove in so much of the modern (well, ultra 90s) aesthetics of Tetsuya Nomura as well. However, it’s not just her character art, but the entire team’s ability to build environments, the use of Mode 7 and all sorts of other graphical tricks to develop a world that makes the adventure feel epic. Everything about this game serves the narrative, and that includes the graphics. Each kingdom is distinct, even with the reused assets, and each character is filled with personality. Different combat stances, different casting stances and even different weakened stances do so much to give character to the characters even while they’re fighting. Edgar’s cape swept out in front of him as he smirks during his cast which is different from Terra’s prayer or Celes’s offensive stance. It’s all great. Then you have the twisted remains of Vector turned into Kefka’s tower. Hell, you even find the Ultima Buster in the prison Ghestal put Kefka in.

Then you have the unbelievable soundtrack. This isn’t Nobuo Uematsu’s greatest soundtrack (that still goes to VII), but it’s so good. Each song is perfectly tailored to the scene, with Terra’s theme used as leitmotif for certain thematic elements in different songs is a great touch. Celes’s theme tying in with the Opera songs, which of course is a moment that parallels her own story is just pitch perfect. The songs swing from somber to heroic. I mentioned last time about how the music in the World of Ruin transitions from Dark World to Searching for Friends, and that’s a great example of the music matching the themes of the story. Every bit of sound design is built to tell a story, to evoke emotions and to make the player see things that the game might not have the technical aspect to see. We can’t see the characters faces, they can only make rudimentary movements, and yet, the music manages to evoke what they are trying to feel. It’s the difference Uematsu makes. Most of the time, the music is there to make you feel what the media wants you to feel, but the music here, and in several other Final Fantasy games, is designed to make you feel what the characters are feeling. It’s a subtle distinction, but it’s important.

Of course, the narrative here is king. With a game that has 14 different playable characters, it’s amazing how few get lost in the shuffle. Even Shadow gets a few emotional moments, and more if you see all of his dreams (which I never get). The game is built all around telling this story about rising up from the darkness, about building life and community from hope. Even the final dungeon is built to serve the very themes of the game. This a game about building community, about how friendship and love is what gives us life and how cooperation is more important than domination, and the final dungeon has the party split into three groups and each group has to help the others. There’s no super soldier handling everything here. The team is at their strongest when everyone is blasting the shit out of the bad guys with Ultima. Except Sabing and Gogo. He can Phantom Rush and they can Mimic the Phantom Rush.

The finale is a twenty minute epic where each character gets a moment to close off their story. It’s far more than what any other game gets, except maybe XII and XIV. Seeing Locke save Celes in the way he couldn’t save Rachel was great, or Shadow not allowing himself to live in a World of Hope, and letting Interceptor go. I just wish he was on the airship with Relm. Relm and Straggo showing their love for each other and Terra being willing to sacrifice everything for the people who gave her a life and taught her about love, only for them to swoop in to make sure she got a chance to live. In the end, she takes off her hairband and allows the wind to take her hair, as she returns to Mobliz to help raise the orphans.

I know this was a bit of a ramble, but I’m still a bit amped up after finishing the game. It’s so good, even if Kekfa was a bit easy. It is cool that I used a Megalixir right after he hit me with Heartless Angel. That was cool.