Board 8 > I'm playing Final Fantasy VI for the first time.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I figured my post was vague enough that it basically just means "hey keep digging around, there's more stuff to find".
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mnkbear907 posted...

I figured my post was vague enough that it basically just means "hey keep digging around, there's more stuff to find".

Har.
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One of the remaining places I actually didn't even learn existed until years later after numerous playthroughs.
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mnkbear907 posted...

One of the remaining places I actually didn't even learn existed until years later after numerous playthroughs.

Yesssss. Good to know that there are things like that still in the game.
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gonna bunp this just in case. Been fun so far.
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Well, my friends, it is finally time to finish this.

After some last minute grinding on the overworld -- in the usual forest area near the Veldt, where I can strangely only seem to find Tyrannosaurs and not Brachosaurs now -- I decide it is at last time to make my way to Kefka's Tower. My airship lowers upon the presumed final dungeon, and I am given the responsibility of crafting three different parties.

This is the first time in a long time I've been tasked with making three groups, and it's an excellent design choice for a final dungeon. It forces you to have enough party members decently leveled so that each and every group can manage their way through lengthy portions of a rather enormous dungeon. While I did not check my stats upon entering this final area, as I type, I have just finished taking out the three statues and stand in front of the madman Kefka himself. These are my character levels and time right before our climactic duel.

Final Statz (post-dungeon, but pre-final boss!)

Celes - Lv. 60
Edgar - Lv. 54
Locke - Lv. 51
Gogo - Lv. 50

Relm - Lv. 57
Mog - Lv. 50
Cyan - Lv. 40
Gau - Lv. 40

Sabin - Lv. 59
Shadow - Lv. 47
Strago - Lv. 43
Umaro - Lv. 47

Time: 46:04

(Characters are listed here in the same three groups I have put them in.)

Before I see what lies at the end of this epic tale, let's discuss the dungeon I just navigated my way through. Kefka's Tower is quite the labryinth, complete with a plethora of treadmills, multiple paths that each group must help one another to open further sections in, and some familiar environments that appear to be lifted straight from the Empire's Castle. I suppose this tower was built directly upon that castle after the World of Ruin event.

The process of picking my three groups here was indeed tough. I'd been used to having a party of Celes, Relm, Sabin, and essentially one floater for a decent while prior to this, so the aforementioned three were quite a bit higher leveled than the rest of my crew. I figured...best to be safe, and basically split up my manpower evenly.

The dungeon took me at least a couple hours to navigate, especially with my constant Esper switching (I'm addicted! I couldn't bring myself to stop) and a few dead ends I inevitably encountered upon the path, where I was supposed to use another group to open the way forward first. I did die once here, due to some really sloppy, half-asleep gameplay and not using enough curing spells. I think it was that Goddess boss? I can't remember, but I believe it was right after a save point so I lucked out! (Though I would have been a lousy cheater and reverted to a save state, I'm sure.)

I battled two different legendary dragons here to boot, aww yeah. They were all pretty much a piece of cake at this point, and I reveled in joy at the message of "2 dragons remaining." Here's hoping I get a cool reward for beating them all. You know the deal -- no spoilers at all! -- but I'm hoping for an optional dungeon or something cool like that.

I struggled a bit with the three switches segment near the end, in the factory. It took me a while to figure out how to converge the paths, and then to figure out to go outside again with my group in the middle (which was Relm's group) and hit the switch upon a balcony to open up secondary doors for my other two teams to make it inside. Eventually, I figure out to do just that, and we all make our way through a palace fitting of a final area. At the end of each of three paths lies one of the statues that Kefka used to burn the world to the ground a year ago.
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"Welcome, friends! I knew you'd make it here so I've prepared some suitable entertainment for you. How long are you going to let the destruction continue?"

The statue battles are undoubtedly tough, but I'm not dying again! I play cure heavy and equip my, well, "summoners" (the party member in each group that has the most magic power and therefore the one I use cure spells the most with) with Gold Hairpins so as to halve their MP usage. This also allows me to pull out Bolt 3, Fire 3, and Ice 3 spells like a madman and put these statues to rest once and for all.

Each group makes their way to a different save point, where I at last use the most useful item in the game -- my tents! I recover every group to full status. Full HP, full MP, equipped with the relics and gear I am sure I want going in (just got some more goodies after beating the statues that needed equipping as well).

I step on the final of the three switches at the end of the path. A beam of light shines down upon each group, lifting us up. All 12 members of my party step outside to confront Kefka himself. He welcomes me.

It is time.
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Epic
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That final scene before the fight with Kefka....

....

That music....

....

So good...
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You didnt have any trouble with the dinos in the forest? Weird.
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dancing mad hyyyyyyyyyyype
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StartTheMachine posted...

I play cure heavy and equip my, well, "summoners" (the party member in each group that has the most magic power and therefore the one I use cure spells the most with) with Gold Hairpins so as to halve their MP usage.

the toils of not farming for more brachys

anyhow uh probably too late now but I'm not sure if you know how to even use Gogo yet

if you go to Gogo's Status menu you can equip abilities onto him - magic, blitz, steal, etc
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"Life... dreams... hope... Where do they come from? And where do they go? Such meaningless things...I'll destroy them all!"

My god that credits music. Was that a 20 minute composition!? It was masterful. Loved hearing bits and pieces of everyone's themes, but it needed more Terra's theme! At least I got a whiff of its greatness near the end.

So, I'm a little disappointed that final phase took me so little time. I swear Dancing Mad had only just barely kicked in and it was over in like two minutes. That's what I get for casting 9,999 damage spells on him twice every turn (thanks, Celes and Relm). Yeah...I'm actually listening to it as we type and I honestly think I beat him in a little over two minutes, because I'm pretty sure the fast part of the theme -- the fucking good part -- didn't even loop around a full time!

The fight was still epic overall though. What the fuck was that? It was like...a tower of dead people? His monument to non-existence... or something. I also wanted a little more Kefka in general and a longer final speech! But ah well, it was still great. They saved the epic, extra lengthy cutscene for that ridiculously long credits scene. That was, like, Twilight Princess levels of long credits! Definitely the lengthiest of any SNES game I know.

And archangel Kefka was fucking sick. That thing was an absolute beast. I only managed to lose 2 party members in the whole fight (that's awesome that you actually get to use all 12 and choose their order of appearance), so I definitely wish they made it harder. Especially since, yeah, you do get to use everyone. But it wasn't short. That tower of dead people thing had like four phases! I just wish Kefka himself had more than one, or had an insane amount of HP. When he did an attack that brought all my party members, except one, to 1 HP each, I got a bit scared. But nah, one Cure 3 spell and then I never really had to worry about much regeneration again.

What a game. I loved it. I do think the highest highs were earlier on for me. It's hard to say that I prefer the World of Balance, because I don't think I really do. I think a lot of what kept me so engaged at first was just the amount of variety the gameplay threw at me early on, my semi-low expectations going in, and my immediately resonating with the story and characters. But I also love the World of Ruin, because the game opens up so much more and your options do too. You have a greater number of Espers at this point, and this is where I truly started fiddling with the deep systems of customization and spell-learning more than ever before. So in a way, I perhaps preferred the gameplay of WoR, but the consistent greatness of the storytelling of the WoB made that better, plot-wise. The WoR is still stellar from a plot perspective, but it's, you know, less consistent, because you have to go out of your way to find the cool plot scenes.

The apocalyptic, World of Ruin moment was probably the highlight of the whole game for me. But let's have some fun. Off the top of my head, here's a list of some the most memorable scenes other than that:

- First revelations of Kefka's true madness - poisoning Doma. Probably my other favorite Kefka moment, alongside destroying the world
- Sabin and Edgar reflect upon the death of their parents. That one hit hard.
- Celes' backstory revealed in a playable Esper World
- Post-WoR, Cid, and exploring the ruined world
- Journey into Cyan's soul, reliving the Phantom Train, then witnessing the flashbacks of him mentoring his son and eventually letting go of his son and his wife
- That one boat scene that I honestly don't remember much of -- just that Shadow has one of my favorite quotes of the whole game!

Yeah, I'd have more too. Shoutout to the Phantom Train 1, the Opera House, of course, and anything with Ultros!
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Overall, this was definitely one of my more memorable gaming experiences in recent memory. Well...I can't honestly say it topped something like God of War or Mario Odyssey for me -- both of which are my favorite games of this generation and were strangely both recent. But apart from those, this game wowed me more than most any modern game has in a long, long time. So many great moments, so many heartfelt lines, and a soundtrack that has come to possess my mind. It is certainly a timeless video game, every bit worthy of its iconic, beloved, legendary status. And I'm undoubtedly positive it's shot its way straight to the upper echelons of my favorite RPGs list.

Thanks for sharing this journey with me.

GuessMyUserName posted...

if you go to Gogo's Status menu you can equip abilities onto him - magic, blitz, steal, etc

say whattttttt

Okay, that's awesome. And yeah, I had no idea! I mean, I figured out pretty much instantly that mimic did exactly as its name implied, but I had no idea he could get all those other abilities too! Shame, because I definitely checked his status screen a few times, just must have only looked at his EXP and stats and never messed around on it.

By the way... I think it's time to take on the Cultist's Tower!
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Logience posted...

You didnt have any trouble with the dinos in the forest? Weird.

Were you talking about the Brachosaurs here? Yeah, those guys whooped my ass the first time I played them! The Tyrannosaurs never gave me trouble though.
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Speaking of those dinos since you never did get to the Brachys I'll just tell you what the relic they dropped does in spoilers that I've been pestering about! every spell costs 1mp

StartTheMachine posted...

. I only managed to lose 2 party members in the whole fight (that's awesome that you actually get to use all 12 and choose their order of appearance)

StartTheMachine posted...

- Celes' backstory revealed in a playable Esper World

I like how you've spent all this time with that crew of 12 without finishing up the WoR that you seemingly forgot that the playable cast is 14 characters! Setzer is the other person you couldn't fit into your party. You're even substituting Celes into Terra's WoB role so that all that's really left of Terra is her theme song!

... not that I blame you a second!
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I gotta correct what I said about Dancing Mad earlier. The "fast part" that I super liked is only in phase 1. I didn't realize that this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbXVNKtmWnc" data-time="

was divided into its four different phases. But yeah, I certainly didn't hear the entirety of that last part, and it's goddamn epic.

And GMUN, jesus, that is one OP Relic. I swear, I spent forever trying to encounter more Brachys so I could steal it with Locke! I was literally only getting T-Rexes. Do the Brachys disappear after killing enough of them or something? Also yeah, I kind of forgot that I did leave Setzer behind.
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Certainly helpful for the Cultists' Tower!

Brachys don't disappear or anything, they're just... really rare. But you can't steal that relic from them either, only drop! Their steal item is also good though, the Ribbon (protects against p much all statuses)
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Ahhh, I got a ribbon! I think I found it in a chest though, and yeah, I definitely equipped it on someone in that final dungeon. Could use some more of those, for sure.

That is strange though. I was encountering Brachosaurs all the damn time in that same area earlier. I'd say a solid 1 out of 3 times I'd stumble on them instead of T-Rexes. And then last time, I literally played 15+ fights in that forest and never encountered a single one. Very, very bizarre.
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Imagine if you believed the second best rumour of FF6 history: that you could resurrect General Leo by killing 4000 brachys! (well, that was one variation of the rumour, the main one was just kill 4000 enemies from that dino forest and you'll get a potion to resurrect him from his grave in Thamasa)
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I forgot this in that final statz post:

GP: 643,185

Yeeeeep.
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Awww yeah, Cultists' Tower beated! That was also easy. The boss at the top was kind of challenging simply because he kept reflecting/blocking my shit, but at no point did he ever come close to wiping my party. Plenty of the other regular enemies there had reflect statuses on as well, and though I tried to find other ways of dealing with them, I quickly realized Esper Summons ftw. Are there any other viable options though?

But yeah, super easy. I eventually was running low on MP with Relm and Celes, but a few Osmose spells took care of that no problem. Didn't even have to bother using Tinctures.
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Aaaand hah. Thanks, FFWiki.

The first treasure room has a hidden switch in the wall to the right of the treasure chest. The switch reveals a second treasure room on the floor below, which contains Edgar's final Tool, the Air Anchor.

Just happened to be reading the page about the Cultists' Tower right after I beat it. This little final tool of Edgar's was absurdly hidden, to the point it's practically impossible to find without looking up. But neat! I just went back and got it.
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I think I usually equip everyone Im taking through that tower with whatever relic it is that puts Reflect on them automatically.
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So... you just abandoned Terra permanently?

Someone here is a big Charizard fan.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

So... you just abandoned Terra permanently?

Someone here is a big Charizard fan.

Whatcha mean? Is there a way to get her back in the party, prior to her reappearance at the end? If so, I was not able to figure that out!
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StartTheMachine posted...

ZeldaTPLink posted...

So... you just abandoned Terra permanently?

Someone here is a big Charizard fan.

Whatcha mean? Is there a way to get her back in the party, prior to her reappearance at the end? If so, I was not able to figure that out!

I mean you already went there once, but the game didn't let you pick her up because it only does after you recruit Setzer.

Also Terra appears in the ending even if you didn't recruit her? That's a cool piece of information lol.

StartTheMachine posted...

ZeldaTPLink posted...

So... you just abandoned Terra permanently?

Someone here is a big Charizard fan.

Whatcha mean? Is there a way to get her back in the party, prior to her reappearance at the end? If so, I was not able to figure that out!

I mean, actually going back and talking to her again might be a good start!
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I mean, she's not anywhere in Mobliz anymore. I've visited that town like 10 times since she left. They just talk about Katarin being pregnant and Terra was nowhere to be found. I'm guessing she's just somewhere else, then? But I haven't found any NPC to give me hints about this.
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Well, did you talk to Katarin?
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From what I remember, I couldn't find her either! Not in Mobliz, anyway. It's sounding like I missed something obvious, huh?
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heh, I actually removed "you didn't even get Terra again" from one of my posts last night as it seemed you didn't even know if you *could* get Terra back so I edited out the "spoiler"

Although I guess it should be obvious that you never defeated Phunbaba >_>
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StartTheMachine posted...

I had every intention of playing this game yesterday, aaaaand then I went into a YouTube rabbit hole watching To Catch a Predator videos >

Kefka, why dont you have a seat right over there.
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Ok so now

Who is the main character of Final Fantasy VI
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StartTheMachine posted...

Well...I can't honestly say it topped something like God of War or Mario Odyssey for me -- both of which are my favorite games of this generation and were strangely both recent.

I think it would be hard for a game that's 25 years old to be able to be able to topple current giants if you are experiencing it for the first time.

Story is always the most important thing to me in gaming, and at the time FF6 was one of the most endearing and greatest pieces of story I'd ever played. If I hadn't played it then and played it now, I can definitely see myself holding it to standards like Horizon: ZD, God of War, and other epic stories in gaming of the recent years.
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GuessMyUserName posted...

Although I guess it should be obvious that you never defeated Phunbaba >_>

Wait what

Phunbaba was the first dragon I fought. IIRC.

Jakyl25 posted...

Ok so now

Who is the main character of Final Fantasy VI

Obviously the game was designed to have almost everyone be the main character, but fuck that. I'm going to say Kefka.

BakusaiTenketsu posted...

StartTheMachine posted...

Well...I can't honestly say it topped something like God of War or Mario Odyssey for me -- both of which are my favorite games of this generation and were strangely both recent.

I think it would be hard for a game that's 25 years old to be able to be able to topple current giants if you are experiencing it for the first time.

Story is always the most important thing to me in gaming, and at the time FF6 was one of the most endearing and greatest pieces of story I'd ever played. If I hadn't played it then and played it now, I can definitely see myself holding it to standards like Horizon: ZD, God of War, and other epic stories in gaming of the recent years.

It is usually a weird and unfair comparison to make, but plenty of old games still hold up and transcend their technical limitations. This is one of those games that I'd now consider timeless, despite also being limited by its own ambitions being created on such an old console, Nevertheless, it was so endearing that my first experience with it wasn't too far away my first experiences with those games I mentioned.
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StartTheMachine posted...

Wait what

Phunbaba was the first dragon I fought. IIRC.

... He wasn't defeated, he was chased away! And again not a numbered dragon which I think was mentioned when you did the Mobliz update!

First encounter Terra is defeated by Phunbaba, then the Celes crew come in to chase him away.
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Phunbaba isn't one of the eight dragons... and now I noticed skipping him not only removes Terra, but one of the espers, albeit a fairly useless one (there is another in the Figaro Castle basement when it's stuck between deserts).
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I know of a few things Blur hasn't done yet that I figure I'd just wait until he says he thinks he's done or something
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I love this remixed playlist for FF6 btw. I'll put it on every once in a while. Disc 2 Track 15 is the Operatic portion which I've listened to a ridiculous amount of times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kA_XrKw2Ww&list=PLOmh4LXEo1OSY8SHN8t1lDi_ejaGTVgme
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BakusaiTenketsu posted...

I love this remixed playlist for FF6 btw. I'll put it on every once in a while. Disc 2 Track 15 is the Operatic portion which I've listened to a ridiculous amount of times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kA_XrKw2Ww&list=PLOmh4LXEo1OSY8SHN8t1lDi_ejaGTVgme

Yes. You have to listen to that one (The Impresario). It's so good
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Haha, somehow in reading through this topic I never realized until now that he never re-recruited Terra
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I thought I missed a post.
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cyko posted...

Well, I am going to leave something that's tough to find - based on my two questions. It's here, but only if you want it -


Who was in your party when you visited Gau's father?

Make sure you bring Gau and Sabin to see Gau's father.

Do you ever stay at any of the inns? Especially with one specific character?

Sleep at the inns with Shadow. Eventually you will discover why.

So about both of these things. I've been sleeping at the inns with Shadow and, yeah, this is very interesting so far. Gotta keep doing it and see where it leads. As for visiting Gau's father, yep, I guess I just happened to luck out having both Sabin and Gau in my party during one of my visits, but it just ended with Gau's dad not recognizing his son. Is that the end of his story? He keeps asking me to fix stuff though, but maybe I can't actually fix anything?
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Been playing for hours and hours tonight. Still haven't figured out how to get Terra back or where these last couple of dungeons are, but I have done a bunch other stuff. I went back to Darryl's Tomb, having already looked up what to do with those four tombstones with the weird letters. I kind of figured those were anagrams or something, and sure enough, I was on the right track. I read to spell "The World is Square" backwards, so I did that, but I made my way to the Exp. Egg on my own. Aaaand then I found out you could get a whole bunch of Exp. Eggs from the Colosseum!

So yeah, for the last hour plus, I've been at the Colosseum. I got four Exp. Eggs, but I also wanted to hang onto the relics you get before the egg in that Colosseum battle branch. It goes:

Elixir -> Rename Card -> Marvel Shoes -> Tintinabar -> Exp. Egg

And now I have four Exp. Eggs and one of each the Marvel Shoes, the Tintinabar, and a Rename Card because why not. Aww yeah, double experience for my whole party though! Wish I knew about this before I grinded like crazy in the dino forest. Are there any better grind spots in the game?

Also still need to finish up the Shadow storyline from the inns. I think, at least. I just haven't gotten any more cutscenes from the last five or so times I've slept at one.
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How come? I thought returning to Mobliz and talking to Terra and the people there were enough to bring Phunbaba back.

Anyway, two visits you could do: Opera House, and Figaro Castle (in the latter, ask the engineer to dive the castle, and when it stalls, go inspect the basement).
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if we're mentioning things to do, one hint is I'm not sure Blur went back somewhere for Locke picking
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Awww yeah, thanks to grinding more in the dino forest, this time with 4 Exp. boosters, Sabin has become my first level 70 character! (Sorry, Celes.) And I also learned that final Blitz - Bum Rush, baby. The funny thing is....Bum Rush is actually weaker than my regular fighting attack. Thanks to having a Genji Glove equipped and his insane Vigor (78) and Battle Power (455), I do 11k+ damage with his regular attack. So yeah, sorry Bum Rush but you appear to be useless to me! I'm also at about 51 hours of playtime now.

igordebraga posted...

How come? I thought returning to Mobliz and talking to Terra and the people there were enough to bring Phunbaba back.

Anyway, two visits you could do: Opera House, and Figaro Castle (in the latter, ask the engineer to dive the castle, and when it stalls, go inspect the basement).

I think I already did both these quests. The Opera House thing is just the dragon, right? I did that a while back. I think it was like the first thing I did after I beat the game. My bad if I never updated about it! And the Figaro Castle quest I did wayyyyy farther back than that and definitely included it in an update.
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did I just say Sabin's vigor was 78 because that shit is 80 now. I've just kept the Bismark Esper equipped to him for a long ass time now. and Edgar's magic power is 81 thanks to doing the same thing, though equipping the Tritoch Esper to him in this case
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