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Introduction

Writing a review of Final Fantasy VI feels a little intimidating. This is a game that’s regularly listed among the greatest JRPGs of all time, if not one of the greatest video games of all time. NPR, Den of Geek, and Push Square have all ranked Final Fantasy VI as the very best entry in the series. It comes up anytime anyone asks what the best Final Fantasy game is, usually right alongside Final Fantasy VII and X.

My own experience with Final Fantasy VI is limited. I never played it on the SNES when I was a kid, I took a short run at it on an emulator on my phone nearly a decade ago, but I didn’t get very far on that attempt. This time, though, I’ve seen the credits roll, and I get it now. It’s good. Great, even. I have my complaints, sure, but overall it was a rich, memorable experience.

I’ll have more to say on how it compares to its SNES siblings in a separate post about the trilogy as a whole. For now, let’s talk about Final Fantasy VI, what it does well, where it stumbles, and why it still holds up all these years later.

The Story Begins…

Final Fantasy VI opens with 3 characters in Magitech suits of armour stomping across a barren, snow covered plain, a town nestled in the mountains slowly rising on the horizon. Those mechs stomp through the town of Narshe, and walk right up to an Esper, frozen in ice. Terra, feels pulled to it, and she and the Esper react to each other, giving off a blinding light.

Terra wakes up in a bed in a nearby home. An old man reveals that he pulled a mind control unit off of her head, returning her control to her body. Unfortunately, she can’t remember anything. Almost immediately, soldiers of the Empire bang on the door, and demand they turn Terra over to them. Terra flees out the back of the home into a nearby mine, where she is trapped and falls into a pit.

The old man sends Locke, a thief treasure hunter, after her, as Locke is a member of the Returners, a resistance group fighting against the growing Empire. Locke finds her, swears to protect her, and decides to head to Figaro to speak with the king. King Edgar, technically has an alliance with the Empire, but Locke reports that this is a ruse. Edgar is a high ranking member of the Returners, and is waiting for the right opportunity to turn on the Empire.

Enter Kefka, a general from the Empire, who shows up at Castile Figaro, and demands that Edgar turn over the girl. Edgar plays dumb, so Kefka does the most logical thing. Set the whole castle on fire. Edgar reveals that the castle can actually submerge under the sands, and it does to evade Kefka’s wrath.

Edgar, Locke, and Terra meet up with Edgars brother, Sabin, and then eventually with Bannon, leader of the Returners as well. As the group are deciding their next course of action, the Empire appears on their doorstep once again. The party escapes out the back, leaps onto a raft, and after a fast ride down the river, the party is split into three different groups.

The World of Balance

Unlike past Final Fantasy games, Final Fantasy VI is not set in a purely high fantasy setting. During the opening cutscene, it’s revealed that magic has actually waned over the last century, and the humans have developed technology to make their lives easier (technology like a whole-ass castle that can submerge under the sands). The characters still wield swords, and Terra uses the familiar Fire magic, but much of the world is clad in metal. There’s a bit of a grungy steampunk aesthetic to the world, that is a welcome change from the classical fantasy themes the past 5 games have treated us to.

Returning to the gameplay style of Final Fantasy IV, each character has a specific archetype they generally fit into, which also limits what characters can equip specific gear. Edgar can wield swords and spears, while Locke can handle swords and knives. There’s lots of overlap, but also some characters have weapons only they can use. Each character has their own skill as well, like Locke’s Steal ability, where he can swipe items from monsters, or Sabin’s Blitz commands, which require the player to enter a button combo a la street fighter to execute a command. These skills are specific to each character, no swapping skills here. It’s a bit of a jarring return to form, considering Final Fantasy V was all about letting you mix and match your abilities to create some really fun combinations. But in the end, I think this system allows the developers and designers to create a much more narratively cohesive character.

When in doubt, suplex a train.

Some of the character skills feel outright broken. Sabin, for example, got an attack called Rising Phoenix, that hit all the enemies on the field, often KOing most of them. Edgar similarly, has an auto-crossbow, that hits all enemies without any damage penalty. Neither of these skills have a cool-down or MP cost, which means I pretty much spammed them for most battles. It was rare that I chose the default attack option over their skills in any situation.

Rise of the Mad Clown Kefka

The story of Final Fantasy VI doesn’t necessarily have a main character. Terra, is an obvious player surrogate, considering she has amnesia, and gives other characters the perfect excuse to dump expository dialogue. The story does seem to revolve around her for a while, at the very least. While there could be arguments made for either Terra, Locke, or Edgar to be the main character, but really, Final Fantasy VI has an ensemble cast. 14 characters in total join your party. Shadow, the mysterious sell-sword comes and goes, while Cyan joins up with Sabin after Kefka poisons the water of Castle Domo, killing everyone inside, including empire prisoners, Domo soldiers, and Cyan’s king, along with his wife and child. Celes, and ex-general of the Empire, joins Locke when he finds her chained in a dungeon with her execution scheduled for the next day. he vows to protect her, and scuttles her to safety.

Most of the 14 characters have their own place in the story, and you will be rewarded with extra cutscenes if you have those characters in your party when you visit certain locations. Like witnessing Edgar and Sabin’s flashback to when Sabin renounced the crown, leaving his brother to take on the role of governing the kingdom after their father died, or Shadows dreams if he’s in the party when you rest at an inn. Most of the characters feel fully realized and complex. Others, however, are one note. Mog is a Moogle who just wants to help. Gau is a child, raised by monsters, who follows you around after you throw some meat his way.

The party eventually make their way back to Narshe, and Terra confronts the Esper again. She transforms into a pink creature and flies away. After finding her, they learn from Ramuh that Terra is half human and half Esper. The empire has been experimenting on Espers to draw their magical abilities out, and infuse their soldiers with these powers, hence why Celes is able to use Blizzard. Ramuh reveals that Espers can turn themselves into Magicite, and lend their powers to the party. By holding a magicite, the characters both learn how to use magic, and can call upon the summon once per battle.

The party embarks on a mission to storm the Empire, and free the trapped Espers within. Celes stands in at an opera to trick Setzer so the party can make use of his airship. The party manages to break into the Magitech research facility and finds more Espers, which sense Ramuh’s power within yours, so they turn to Magicite too. Cid, the researcher who has been heading the Esper project, sees the magicite and is awed by its power. Turns out, the empire didn’t know about Magicite until now. And now Kefka and the Emperor Gestahl are in on the secret too.

After a flashback revealing the history of Gestahl breaking into the Esper realm and dragging some denizens back to this world, The group decide to open the sealed gate to ask the remaining Espers to help them stop the Empire once and for all. When they do so, Kefka and Gestahl appear right behind them. The Espers rush out and lay waste to the surrounding areas. Their raw power apparently sapping Gestahl’s thirst for conquest.

Gestahl imprisons Kefka and asks the party to team up. He needs an envoy to meet with the Espers and convince them to live peacefully together. Obviously, the empire can’t do it, so you’ll need to be the ones to broker peace. Terra and the team meet up with the Espers, and agree to live in harmony. The moment hands are shaken, Kefka bursts in again, and kills the Espers, forcing them to turn into Magicite, claiming their power for himself. With dozens of Magicite in hand, Kefka revels in his God-like power, and literally raises a continent from the ground into the sky. The party chase after them, and confront Gestahl and Kefka on the Floating Continent. Kefka tries to akwaken the warring Triad, the trio of Gods who turned themselves to stone to end the War of the Magi centuries ago. Gestahl, knowing awakening the Triad would bring about the end of the world, tries to stop Kefka, who kills Gestahl and flings his body from the Floating Continent. The party barely manage to escape the Floating Continent via the airship with their lives, but Kefka’s meddling with the Warring Traid destabilizes the planet, causing huge rifts in the geography to form, and for the airship to be torn asunder. The party is scattered to the winds, and the screen fades to black. Kefka has won.

World of Ruin

A year passes. Celes wakes up in a cabin on a small island. Cid, has been taking care of her for a year. He says he doesn’t know if anyone else is alive. The others who were on the planet with them have flung themselves from the cliffs in dispair. Cid himself, is sick, and doesn’t have much time left. Celete tries to save him, but when she fails, she climbs the mountain herself, and gives into her dispair.

I assume it’s her magic-enhanced body that saves her, but she awakens on the beach, washed ashore. There, she sees a seagull with a bandana wrapped around one wing. The same kind of Bandana that Locke wore. Perhaps the others survived after all. Celes returns to the cabin, reads the letter Cid left her before he succumbed to his illness, and finds a raft in the basement. She pushes herself off to sea to find her companions.

The second half of the game is Celes bringing the gang back together. Terra is found in a village taking care of half a dozen children who call her “Mama”. Edgar is found as the leader of a gang of thieves, as he leads a pillaging expedition to Castle Figaro. Shadow is found face down in a cave with a Behometh bearing down on him. Cyan is a hermit on a mountain, exchaning flowery letters with a girl in the village below.

You don’t have to collect everyone before taking on Kefka again. Once you have an airship and at least 3 party members, you can land on Kefka’s tower at anytime to begin the final assault. Each of the characters side quests will reward you with excellent gear, more magicite, and even some new party members who weren’t available in the World of Balance half of the game. Doing these sidequests give more flavour to each character, and are worth seeking out.

Once you embark on the assault, you split into 3 groups. Each group winds their way through the tower, pushing buttons to make paths for the other groups. All 12 characters you brought along convene for the final confrentation. God-Kefka laughs at your futilitiy. “Life? Hopes? Dreams? Where do they come from? And where are they headed? these things… I am going to destroy!” His nihistic nature is directly opposed by Terra and Locke, who have found hope and love, even in a ruined world. It’s an intense and emotional confrontation.

Once slain, the characters escape the tower, and the credits roll. Everyone lives happily ever after.

My Thoughts and Experiences

My thoughts on Final Fantasy VI are a bit conflicted, but overall, I quite enjoyed the game. The ensamble cast idea is good in theory, I like the freedom of being able to choose my team and uncover the characters stories as I adventure with them in the world. But not all characters are created equal. Some, like Gau, Relm, Mog, and Gogo are just flat and one note. As far as I can tell, there’s no motovations to these characters, nor do they react emotionally to the context of the story. Thankfully, the others pick up the slack. From discovering Locke’s fallen love, and his obsessive pursuit of finding a relic that can bring her back from the dead, to Cyan’s journey of losing his family and kingdom, I grew attached to many of these characters.

The first half of the game is a triumph of storytelling. You travel the world, picking up companions, create alliances and get betrayed, and eventually bring the fight to Kefka. Once the World of Ruin half of the game starts, the party is scattered, and the whole second half of the game is just, finding the same characters again. On one hand, this fusturates me. I already assembled the team, why do I have to do it again? On the other hand, this section of the game is non-linear. You can pick up almost any of the characters in any order. In addition to being non-linear, it’s also mostly optional. Once you have Edgar and Setzer, you can start the assult on Kefka’s tower to end the game. As far as pacing goes, the story comes to a screeching halt. The overarching narrative points you to Kefka’s tower, but you’ll spend 10 hours chasing down each characters side stories and vignettes. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, I really enjoy character development, but it’s a drastic shift from the first half.

By the time you’ve collected all your companions, and chased down any side missions you feel like doing, such as gathering more powerful Espers, or finding some of the best equipment, you’ll have likely settled on a party that you particularly like. Another fusturating moment for me showed up when I started the assult of Kefka’s tower. You split all the characters you’ve acquired into 3 parties, but most will likely be in the low to mid 30’s, with your core team in the mid to high 40’s. All the benched characters also completly lack magic, unless you’ve been going out of your way to swap characters in and out so they have a chance acquire the powerful skills. To me, this means you either need to grind a bit with all the characters to boost their level and magic ability, or, break up your main party amongst the teams and hope they can carry the load.

On that note, I did not find Final Fantasy VI very difficult. Between Sabin and Edgar spamming their skills, they easily carried me through the first half of the game. In the World of Ruin, Cyan got dual weild and a Masters Scroll, enabling him to attack 4 times with 2 weapons, unleashing more than 9999 damage for every one of his turns. I didn’t seek out Gau’s rages, or Strago’s Lores, or Mog’s dances. They weren’t in my main party, so I didn’t bother chasing down those rabbits. Some of the bosses had really intresting quirks or tricks that made me need to adjust my strategy, but aside from Leviathan obliterating my party until I leveled up a bunch, nothing felt like it was unbeatable after a bit of creativity.

All of this said, I really enjoyed Final Fantasy VI. The world was intresting, the characters were emotional and memorable, the music was amazing. The character sprites were expressive and fun, the landscape art was beautiful. The Magicite system lets everyone use magic, so one character isn’t just shoved into the role of White Mage, and mixing the relics let me customize the archtypes of each character just enough to keep me engaged. That being said, because magic is tied to magicite, it was a pain to have to swap magicite between characters so often. Ensuring everyone had some basic healing skills was one thing, but when it got to making sure all the elemental bases were covered on all four characters, it got really tedious having to go into the menus between every couple battles.

This tedium was exacerbated by the final dungeon, which has you create 3 teams of 4 characters. With 12 characters, all needing to share the best relics and magicite, it was a downright slog swapping items between characters. While I really like the concept of having to build out different teams, because it happened so infrequently, at least 2 characters on each team were almost completly devoid of any magic, and their equipment and relics were the bare dregs that I happened to have in my inventory.

I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about Kefka specifically. Much in the vein of the Joker from the Batman series, Kefka is just pure evil. He starts the game demanding his subordinates clean the sand from his boots as they trudge through the desert, complaining about the mission the emperor has given him. As the story progresses, every time he shows up, chaos and death follow. He has an iconic laugh, indicating that he revels in the war. He poisons the water supply of a castle under seige, killing everyone inside. Opposing solders, solders from his side that were taken captive, civilians, everyone. Later on in the game, it’s revealed that Kefka underwent experimentation much like Celes to imbue him with magic, but it broke his mind. Beyond that, Kefka never offers a reason for his evil. I was shocked when Kefka just straight up kills other players, his complete disregard for life laid bare. It was particularly prevelent when the party faces Kefka and the Emperor on the floating continent, and Kefka murders his Emperor. Kicks his lifeless body, then flings it off the platform to plummet to the Earth below. Kefka is a wild Villain. Unredeemable, and easy to hate. He is the chaotic evil Villain that is so easy to hate, because they are the anthisis of the values we all hold in our normal day to day life. The chaos he represents makes him an antoginist that I’ll remember for a long time to come.

Honestly, I could go on and on about Final Fantasy VI. There’s a ton to unpack in this game, and plenty of words have already been written covering this entry. I can see why Final Fantasy VI is considered a masterpiece, from it’s rich and emotional story, to it’s wide cast of unique characters, flexible magic system, and striking visuals, it was a profoundly enjoyable experience. Honestly, after completing the game, I felt a little let down. I was sad it was over, despite all my complaints I outlined above. And as the days have passed since finishing it, my thoughts and memories of Final Fantasy VI have only grown fonder.

Final Fantasy VI remains an excellent experience, even 25 years after it’s release. If you’ve never played Final Fantasy VI before, I implore you to give it a try. I don’t think it’s the best entry point for someone new to Final Fantasy games, or JRPGs in general. I may have come to Final Fantasy VI late, but the experience has left a mark on my heart all the same.