LogFAQs > #950029871

Thanks for that interview link GMUN, I'll read it later. Oops indeed >_>

I haven't decided if I'll bother with the extra dungeon or not, I'll see how I feel tomorrow. I've jotted some thoughts about the writing below, just some stuff I tried to get across about why the game worked for me.

-

So looking back I don't think the plot alone is especially amazing in this game, but it's not really trying to be. I love the way the narrative is presented, with the shifting perspectives, multiple scenarios, really cool sci-fi setting etc, but the plot itself is more just a vessel for the characters, who are the real core of the narrative. All the great setpieces and memorable moments are character-driven more than anything (even the world ending imo), and I get the impression the plot was shaped to accommodate character beats rather than the other way around.

On the surface you could equate this game's party with IV's- a large group of slightly subversive archetypes that dip in and out of the game as necessary. But to me this game seems to be operating on a much deeper level, not that IV didn't subvert tropes but the characters here feel much more nuanced and connected to each other. I guess the main thing for me is how focussed the game's themes are. A lot of Final Fantasies have dealt with death and loss, even those of main characters, but VI's sadness goes beyond the usual cries of anguish and feelings of grief to something more... mundane. Most of the cast have a deep sense of loss embedded into their core that they just have to live with, and their arcs come from learning how to cope with it in healthier ways. Despite how silly the game can be it's a much more mature take on loss than I think most fantasy stories have.

Locke, Setzer and Shadow have each lost someone they deeply cared about a long time ago, but it still informs their actions and thoughts throughout the story. Cyan loses his family right as we meet him, and Gau and Relm have never known their parents. This theme of loss goes beyond death- Terra has lost her childhood and much of her life, only waking and realising this at the start of the game; Celes has lost her sense of self and purpose (offhand, I love that Celes is kind of a dark mirror of Terra. They both have similar desires to feel love/acceptance and have lost parts of their life to the Empire, but Terra is pure and innocent in that sense whereas for Celes there's a personal culpability there). Edgar too gave up the potential of a free life himself and has a more blatantly obvious parallel with his brother.

Each character is partially defined by what they have personally lost, and this unspoken understanding they share kind of binds them together as a meaningful group, more so than many other games imo. It's become more clear to me that ending the world was pretty much the only way to naturally progress the story. The resigned acceptance of doom and depression across the world, and the party eventually making the choice to find themselves and stand up against the inevitable (which gets spelled out in plain text around the final confrontation), I just think it's pretty powerful how they do this. By physically splitting everybody up and switching the expected formula up on the player, they draw you in to what they're trying to do, too. The only other game in the series that I feel truly does this- creates a sense of dread, doom, depression and resignation to defeat across the party and the world, and then grows a feeling of community and intimacy that naturally follows from this- is X, which is one of the reasons I love that game so much.

Kefka is the natural foil to this, again the game straight up spells it out in the final confrontation (which I was happy about as it meant the things I was thinking about were things the game wanted me to think!). I get that people love the guy but to me he's much like the plot: a useful tool that exists in the negative to more plainly show the virtues of the heroes. He serves his purpose well but I don't feel such an emotional connection to him, I don't think that's a failing on the game's part but I see others love his character so much and just feel like I'm missing something there. He's a way better version of what they tried to do with Sephiroth though, imo.

Overall I think the writing is very strong in this game, remarkably so for the era it came out in (the characters are much more sophisticated than Chrono Trigger's, imo). The obvious 'flaw' I keep coming to is just that there wasn't enough. I wanted more scenes, more lines, more interaction, just more of each character. But then any good narrative leaves you wanting more, so I guess that's not really a complaint. And working within the constraints of an early '90s game, that we got as much as we did is incredibly impressive. I liked IV, and I liked V a lot, but this is easily the strongest SNES game in terms of writing and music (and beats much of post-SNES FF on that front, too).

Next up I'll do some character rankings with more individual thoughts on each. Out of the party of 14, I'd say I solidly like at least 8 of them, as in actually like not just 'they're fine'. There's nobody I dislike, which is a pretty cool achievement.

---

Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!