Monday, February 2, 2015

Final Fantasy VI (SNES, 1994)

Clare:  So, Final Fantasy VI. This is the first (and only) Final Fantasy for me where this was a replay instead of the first time through. I guess I'll start off by pointing out what struck me as somewhat different this time compared to the first time I played it. For one, it seemed considerably shorter and somewhat easier than I remembered it. I first played it...four years ago? Can that be right? Almost five? Anyway, it was the first JRPG I played all by my lonesome instead of with you, and it took a looooooong time for me to finish. Partly it was because I didn't play it as regularly as I could or maybe should have, but I also didn't have a great strategy for leveling up, so some of my characters were often underpowered and it turns out that you do need more than four characters at various points (maybe we can touch on that again later).

Anyway, this time the experience seemed much quicker and also much easier. The first time through, I couldn't beat the final boss and had to leave the final dungeon, do some optional side quests, and come back. This time, it only took us one try and it wasn't even that big of a deal. I'm not sure how much of that was familiarity with the game, and how much of that was just being better at JRPGs (and partnered with an even more experienced person). I also remember the magician's tower as being harder and also more rewarding to beat. This time it was a bit of a grind, and I wasn't as thrilled with the reward.

Length and difficulty aside, the game is as or more charming than I remembered it. I love the story, and I love most of the characters. There are a lot of sweet little touches, some that I remembered, some that I didn't, that make this a really pleasurable game to play. (I really love the way Mog freaks out every time you get in a battle, and the way Umaro gets all confused when you're back attacked. It's like a 2 second animation, but it just tickles me.) So what about you? You've played FFVI before, so how did it feel compared to your first time through?
Ben:  This is also my second time through the game.  In fact, I think this is the first time I've EVER replayed a JRPG - at least one that I'd already finished.  For that reason, I can't say I was looking forward to it.  But I was surprised how much we enjoyed ourselves with this one.  Am I alone in thinking that it seemed to go by really fast, for a 35-hour game?  The game is just that good.

FFVI is often considered to be one of the easiest games in its genre, so I definitely want to come back to your comment about the difficulty.  I think people have an impression that classic JRPGs mostly play themselves, and that outside of minor decisions like whether to use magic or attack, there isn't much skill to apply to a game like this.  But your comment makes me realize that, even in a game like this, basic "gaming skills" that some of us take for granted - familiarity with a controller, solid hand-eye coordination, is important.  I know this is something we've talked about before, but I'm wondering if that has something to do with your earlier experience.
Anyways, we certainly want to get back to these characters.  Although earlier Final Fantasy games had more than four playable characters, this is the first one that let you actively choose the members of your party.  There are obvious reasons why you can tell a better story this way - just remember how absurdly often characters would sacrifice themselves in FFIV, only to re-appear later on.  But the developers of FFVI really ran with this concept, to the point where bringing certain characters along unlocked hidden cutscenes and lots of extra dialogue.  What I especially love about FFVI is how important every moment of it feels - there are no truly superfluous towns, and there are many seemingly-unimportant NPCs (like Duane and Katherine, the wounded soldier and Lola) that play an important role during later in the story.  That's partly why it went by so quickly.  Although the ending drags a tiny bit - most of the sidequests are squeezed in at the end - there are very few parts of the game that feel boring.
Clare:  I think the way the party works is one of the best parts of this game, especially compared to the way previous Final Fantasies dealt with it. The characters are all very well defined, with complex backstories. You accumulate party members through the first 5 or 10 hours of the game. Each one has his or her own particular talent in battle and can equip different types of weapons and armor. Eventually, they can all learn magic as well. You get comfortable with certain party members, use the same ones all the time, level them up, and then all of a sudden, you need to create TWO parties instead of one, and you have to split up the dream team and bring in the B list and it makes it a bit more dynamic.

But the best part of the party dynamic comes halfway through the game. The basic plot of the first half (evil emperor tries to take over everything and also exploit magical beings to gain powers) reaches a climax, the real big bad is revealed (the goofy general Kefka betrays and overthrows the emperor), and the whole world is actually destroyed. That made a huge impression on me the first time through -- your party fails, pretty badly, to prevent a massive tragedy. And then your big party gets broken up, and only one of them wakes up a year later on a crappy island of death and pain, all alone except for one dying old man. You go from having all this power and all these friends to having nothing at all, and everything being bleak and awful. Even the enemies are these extremely pathetic suicidal squirrels who seem to be dying of radiation poisoning. 

And then you have to build up the party, one member at time. Some of them have lost hope and don't want to join you, some of them have to face their pasts. It's really exciting, and even if you don't really want to use some of these people in combat because they have an awkward mechanic, you still want to get them all back because they're your friends! I guess the biggest bummer this time around is that we still weren't able to get one of them, and that was really depressing, because I figured that was going to be my big change from last time. Maybe we should allow FAQs for replays?
Ben:  I missed Shadow too.  It's a bit heartbreaking - if only we knew to wait for him before we jumped to the airship.  After some thought, I've made peace with this - I know he was prepared to sacrifice himself, and in some ways I feel like his death makes his story arc a little more satisfying.  Especially considering what a selfish jerk he was when we first met him.  This confirms what I said a long time ago about replayability - although the idea of doing things differently can appeal to me, often I end up making decisions and doing things in the same way.  So it is with the black ninja.  As for FAQs, I'm growing increasingly uncomfortable with using this - every time I do, I feel like the game has failed me in some way.  (We did end up using it to find one of the dragons in the Ancient Castle, and I still regret it.)

I also feel like the world-change halfway through is what really defines FFVI.  Most Final Fantasies have multiple world maps - VI puts a cruel twist on this idea, since the second is a hellish version of the first.  Every character has to come to terms with this change - some very nearly don't.  JRPGs are known for having silly, overwrought stories, but there's something about FFVI that makes it feel...honest.  (Perhaps it's the clear parallels with the atomic bomb, but that is an argument I'll leave to cultural historians.)  When Terra rebutted Kefka's cynicism with the trite claim that life is worth living for the day-to-day interactions, she's not just mouthing the usual goofy JRPG nonsense.  The entire philosophy of the game's design backs up that statement.  This is a world that feels lived in, where all of its characters really seem to care about each other.  There's plenty of silliness - Locke's preserved dead girlfriend takes the cake - but there's a real heart there.  And it doesn't hurt that it's backed by some of the greatest music that Nobuo Uematsu ever composed.
Clare:  Ha ha ha!! The dead girlfriend! While the music is absolutely wonderful, I do wonder at the choice of using the goofiest theme whenever you visit her. Speaking of doing things the same way, are Terra, Celes and Sabin just better than all the other characters, or are they just more fun? Because they were my three badasses last time, and again this time. I mean, I do really love Celes, but it doesn't seem like there should be anything special about her mechanistically. Her special move (absorbing the enemy's next magic attack) isn't that useful. And other then that, she's just a regular warrior with the same magical abilities as anyone else. But she just seems so awesome! I guess all of the awesomeness I see in her comes from her cutscenes and/or character design.

Anyway, since I can't seem to talk about games without mentioning gender, I do think Celes and Terra have a kind of neat little relationship going on. Terra doesn't have any romantic connections in the game. Instead, the role of person who cares about her and talks to her and stuff goes to her girl buddy Celes. I think that's kinda neat that they have this friendship. It's not that developed, but it's kinda nice. Celes' "romance" with Locke is kinda lame, though. Especially the way he saves her in the ending cutscene, despite the fact that she's clearly better at everything than him.
Ben:  Gameplay-wise, the characters in this game are seriously unbalanced.  Perhaps we would like Cyan a lot more as a character if he wasn't so difficult to use.  You're right that Celes' ability is not that useful, but she can wield swords like Ragnarok and Atma Weapon, which end up being the best weapon in the game.  So there are naturally characters that you lean towards, which in the end starts to affect your opinion of them.  There's nothing in the dialogue that says 'Celes is very strong-willed, and makes for an interesting comparison with Terra' (in fact, besides her Magitek background, she's pretty demure in conversation), but that's the impression both of us got.

But naturally, the game counters our inclination to make a super-party by forcing us to use nearly everyone in the final dungeon.  We made pretty awful choices - putting two uncontrollable characters in the same party is never a good idea, by the way - but somehow managed to pull through.  And in the end, the fact that we surreptitiously beat Kefka with a tiny white moogle continually Jumping with a spear (the effectiveness of which we discovered not five minutes beforehand) is so much more satisfying than if we'd planned it out perfectly.
I want to end by saying that FFVI is, if not my favorite RPG, then certainly my favorite 16-bit game.  As much as I loved Chrono Trigger, that game lacks the maturity of this one, in my humble opinion.  Any final thoughts?
Clare:  FFVI certainly has a special place in my heart. Most people seem to think either this one or the next is the "best" of the Final Fantasies. I'm definitely excited to give that one a go, after an appropriate break to give the JRPG urge some time to recharge.