I’ve Never Played…Final Fantasy VI (III) Part One

Often times as children, we don’t have access to a whole lot of videogames. If you were like me, you pretty much had to settle for the gift of games on Christmas or your birthday, with the rare purchase in between thanks to saving up months of allowance or report card money. As such, there were certain, now critically acclaimed games, that I never got to play or had even heard of. One of those games was Final Fantasy VI (or III as it’s known in NA).

So let me get straight to the point. I don’t know if I’ll actually complete this game. But I do want to chronicle some of my thoughts on it as I go through regardless. One, because it will be a nice nostalgic thing to look back on and two, so I can remember the story if I do give it a break and pick it back up later. So without, further ado, let’s dig into what many people consider the best Final Fantasy game ever created and the best RPG of all time.

The game starts off with an ominous, illuminated, lightning-filled title screen, already signifying that this game isn’t playing around and it’s gonna go down. The game opens up with a little backstory on the world–how there was magic previously, but something happened during The War of the Magi that made all magic vanish. 1,000 years later society rebuilt with technology that is largely inspired by steampunk design.

One of the things I find interesting is how magic is still known about but is described as something terrible or wicked. When we traditionally think of magic, we usually think of it as something good or beautiful. Magic instead is described as a “dread destructive force”. Apparently, there is a group that wishes to revive the old magic and “enslave” the world under its control.

I find this set up to be very interesting, to say the least. It leads me to believe that many of the inhabitants of this world might actually fear magic due to whatever happened during the war 1,000 years ago and it could lead to some very enticing stories and character responses when confronted with magic (It’s a Final Fantasy game, so interaction with magic is to be expected)

The scene opens onto a large cliff with three characters in mech suits. They’re all soldiers of the empire but one, a girl, is being controlled by a crown on her head to do their bidding. Apparently, she is a rare magic user so having her on the empire’s side has lots of positives for them. When they all march to Narshe to find a mystical, seemingly frozen being called an Esper, that had been there since the war 1,000 years ago, it pretty much destroys everyone except for the mind-controlled girl who it appears to let go.

The girl wakes up from blacking out to see some dude who took off her mind device and asks her to run because the empire is coming to get her back. She runs into the mines where she is cornered by the empire but luckily a guy named Locke and some deus ex machina Moogles come to her rescue. At this point, I would love to see this as Remake if Square Enix ever decided to do that. Seeing a band of moogles with swords, boomerangs, and spears would be the most adorable thing on the planet in HD.

Once the girl comes to, we know her as Terra. Fun Fact: In the Japanese version, I recently read that her name is actually Tina. What I learned was that, in Japan, Tina’s name sounded exotic and they wanted that due to the character herself being a rare individual with magic. In the States, Tina isn’t an uncommon name so they chose Terra instead.

Well, Locke decides to lead Terra to Figaro, a castle in the middle of a desert for safety. Even though Figaro is an ally with the Empire, they are actually loyal to a group called The Returners, who are striving to stop the Empire from acquiring magic at all costs. The king of Figaro, King Edgar, is quite a character. The term womanizer comes to mind. Even going as far as to tell a young girl he would marry her when she gets older. Slight cringe. He also has a twin brother who went missing after their father died.

However, he is an ally nonetheless and after the empire decides to attack his castle on suspicion of him harboring Terra, they all make a dramatic escape on chocobos from Kafke, our sly, comic relief villain who takes orders directly from emperor Gestahl. We raced to South Figaro, and from there to Mt. Kabal where we find out that King Edgar’s twin brother has been studying martial arts under a master with another trainee named Vargas who fights us and him because he thought his master chose, Edgar’s brother, Sabin, to be his successor.

We kick Vargas’ butt, then we go to The Returner hideout hidden in a cave. When we get there, Banon tells us that they need to stop the empire and ask Terra to help. He believes that the connection between the esper and Terra might be key to keeping the empire at bay. So they decide to go back to Narshe, by river rafting, to see the esper.

It is here that the game seemingly splits into three different sections and where my playthrough ended. The empire is closing in on the group so you can play as Locke to try distract them. You can play as Sabin, because he got into a fight with an octopus on the way to Narshe and got separated (yes, that happened). Or you can play as Terra and the rest of the group and head to see the esper.

And that’s pretty much where I left off. I must admit that I like that I have different paths in order to see where the story is going. I thought the game might be more linear, but it’s nice to see that I can choose which characters I want to play with in no particular order.

Also the gameplay is pretty fun. It’s not super deep yet but I’m having a good time with it. There are these things called Relics which really help the gameplay in terms of traversal and combat buffs and debuffs. The graphics and artwork are honestly still a marvel to look at. If you like the artwork of Octopath Traveller or just 8-bit games in general, there’s lots to admire here. It may not look like much by today’s standards but it is amazing how much detail Square put into a game that is definitely limited by today’s standards in terms of graphical quality.

For example, In South Figaro, someone I casually talked to had told me that there was a very wealthy citizen living on the Northside of town. I went inside the house and a large open floor with a crackling fire greeted me, surrounded by two large statues. When I went upstairs a woman greeted me and asked where a draft was coming from. There were seemingly no other entrances inside the room, but upon looking behind a bookcase I found a stairwell that led to a secret basement where the millionaire had stashed 1,000’s of Gil in chests for the taking.

I was so excited that when I went back to tell/show my wife what I found, that I stumble onto a whole other secret basement floor that had relics I could use below that one. I literally thought I was walking into a wall but, nope, another floor! It was so exciting and it brought me back to those discovery moments playing these old retro games when I was a child.

There are also some nice dialogue touches, like how, as Terra, when you use magic in combat for the first time, Locke and Edgar freak the f**k out mid-combat! It’s like there’s a record scratch and all time stands still as they hilariously ponder how Terra is able to cast magic. They’ve never seen it before, so it’s amazing for them to see and fun to watch.

If there is one thing I can kind of complain about, it would be the dialogue exchange between Edgar and Sabin. Since they’re both twin brothers, and one went missing for a while I kind of thought there’d be a bit more of a dramatic reunion, but Sabin pretty much just joins the cause as if his separation hadn’t had happened. But I’m not going to judge it too harshly for not having dialogue like Game of Thrones. At least the first few seasons anyway.

Overall, I’m really excited to see where this goes and am hoping to see how the rest of this adventure of characters stack up compared to the rest of the Final Fantasy franchise. The game promise of a great gaming experience I missed out on, it seems, is just beginning to show it’s captivation, and I’m ecstatic to see where all this leads.