Board 8 > Andy plays Final Fantasy VI

(+) Yeah! (+)

I haven't been using Terra's morph (if that's what Trance is) or really anyone's special abilities at this point. Except... Strago, I guess.

First up is the Skull Dragon, and after a quick fail (Level 5 Death hits all of my party, oops!) and a brief levelling expedition and re-equipping with anti-zombie gear, Sabin and co take it down pretty solidly... but then it immediately returns and a text box helpfully tells us it won't die if it still has MP. Could've told us that at the start, game! This thing isn't difficult once we know what to do, but it just... takes... so damn long. There's probably a faster way than what I was doing, which was just casting Rasp over and over and over and over. But it eventually works.

Into the Holy Palace, team Celes faces off with the Holy Dragon. This thing's gimmick isn't so bad, it just gets outside help for healing but we can Reflect the Curagas back at us. The main problem is its superior moveset, including Heartless Angel and Saintly Beam (which it can cast several times in a row). We plow through by casting Reraise and hoping for the best, and Celes Dualcasting Ultima for 1MP each doesn't hurt. Got a bit lucky here with the move order.

Finally we find the source of all the Lightning Seals, the Gold Dragon. He absorbs all magic- including our own heals! It's Terra's turn, but even more than Umaro the MVP for this fight is Edgar. The key is his Jumps keep him offscreen for the vast majority of the fight, and therefore he can't get spammed with the annoying spells this thing has. Again we get a bit lucky I think, I forego regular strategy planning and just try to off it before it overwhelms us. We also have some elemental immunity. Whatever works.

With the 8 down we unlock a whole host of areas, and I'll spare you the details but it took me ages to figure things out here. You don't want to know how long it took me to realise you can call the turtle back to the middle from the other side. Whew. Anyway we find a Treasure Room which has a few more minibosses inside- Plague casts Doom on us all but we can still get around it with Reraise and the gang overpowers it easily enough, Naslug is the biggest problem thanks to lack of control over Umaro and its annoying insta-kill counter (Vanish helps somewhat), and the Flan Princesses are thankfully no trouble at all.

After a lot of back and forth, and me getting very very sick of random encounters, we get the three teams in the right spot and unlock Kaiser's Lair. I take Celes here to face our true boss, the Kaiser Dragon. Now this is a boss fight. After a miserable first attempt I load up on Ribbons (we have exactly 4 thanks to the Treasure Room) and try my best. This thing hits hard, and switches its pattern up constantly. I soon realise that playing it defensive at the start is helpful, as it counters any attack. Once everyone has Mighty Guard + Haste + Reraise I try fighting, but it still takes several tries. I can't quite figure out its pattern, but some of its counters are very deadly, particularly the insta-kill Hyperdrive.

I eventually come up with a strategy- to avoid attacking entirely while it cycles through a bunch of barrier changes, then start up once it settles down into a pattern. Ultima does the max 9999 here but we can only cast it once every few turns thanks to all its other attacks. With Ribbons, some elemental immunity and Float some of his attacks miss us entirely, which gives an opening. By the end it's not even worth using Curaga, his attacks either do 0 damage or one-shot no matter how much HP we have, Reraise is far more crucial (and Float). As he goes down he takes a cue from Magic Master and casts Ultima to finish us off, but this time around we have Reraise up and ready to go. We get Diabolos, and access to another dungeon, apparently the final one this time. For all that, Diabolos's attacks don't seem that great. Gravija won't touch any boss, I'm sure.

This dungeon took way longer than I had anticipated, but it was a nice challenge. I can only imagine how hard the last one will be! Next time, Shadow will get some rest.

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Unlike other gravity attacks, Gravija actually does work on bosses, and pretty much everything else. It's often a reliable 9999 on enemies, if they have a lot of HP.

Also, if you redo the dungeon you just did again, there's a different final boss at the end. Not sure if you need to do Soul Shrine first, but I don't think you do.

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We finally fill in the gaps in Shadow's story (Previously I had been flying to Thamasa's Inn to rest as it's the cheapest, so that's why I haven't gotten these dreams before!)- He was once a bandit named Clyde who couldn't bring himself to euthanise his friend, and is naturally super torn up about it. He moves to Thamasa, meets a lady and Interceptor, and then I can't trigger any more dreams so I guess that goes straight into him leaving his daughter behind and going off again. They really let you fill in the gaps here, it's nice how fragmented it is and obviously this is all torturing him still. Is there really no more closure to this? He just lets himself die at the end as penance/to be with Baram? Poor guy, that seems like kind of a harsh ending. Is his daughter supposed to be Relm? I don't recall any interaction between them (or Strago), but there's only like 5 people in Thamasa so it seems possible.

Anyway, I head to the Soul Shrine to see what's up. Turns out this is kinda like Cloister of the Dead, only worse. It's a very very long series of fights, and I don't have the patience to go through all of it right now. I leave after fighting a new (?) boss, Dark Behemoth, and idk how long this dungeon lasts or if I'm even at the right level or anything for it (mid 50s), and I don't want to waste hours on it for nothing. I grind up the team (Celes, Locke, Sabin, Gogo) a bit with the 'saurs, and I get a bunch of Impartisans so bet them in the Coliseum to see what happens. I end up progressing up from Impartisan to Cat Ear's Hood to Merit Award to Rename Card to Miracle Shoes, which cast Haste, Shell, Protect and Regen at once. Cool! I get 4 of them and an extra to see what that turns into. We wind up going full circle into fighting a Tyrannosaur again and get a Tintinnabulum, a 'walk to restore HP' Relic which really doesn't seem that useful at this stage of the game. Tintin gives us another Growth Egg though, which will be great if I decide to keep grinding.

At this point I'm not sure what to do, I don't feel like doing the Dragon's Den again right now and I don't know if the Soul Shrine will be worth it (or even possible for me at the moment). I'll leave it open to you guys: is it worth doing the Shrine and extra boss? Do you get anything good/fun/interesting out of it? I wouldn't feel bad about leaving things where they are now but if the rest is worth it I'll trust your collective judgment. Also is there anything else I've missed now? I've been gathering my thoughts on the overall narrative+characters and will try to put them together soon.


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Shadow's backstory is meant to be ambiguous, although it's still fairly easy to figure out by piecing things together. Noticed how the guard dog Interceptor was always friendly to Relm? And how Shadow is the only other character that can equip Relm's Memento Ring?

As far as the bonus dungeons go, they're only extra challenges for those willing to test themselves. They were added in the Advance version, and there's nothing to be gained from doing them but the self-respect of clearing them. Whether they're worth doing is basically up to you and how you feel about testing your abilities and seeing if you've mastered the game's battles.

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I did the exact same thing with the inn in Thamasa for the exact same reason. Seems odd that he can't trigger dreams there, even if he is connected with it.

Personally, I almost never do grindy post game things like Soul Shrine, these days. I did end up fighting the boss and completing Soul Shrine, since FF6 is one of my favorite games, but I completely understand if you want to skip this. Soul Shrine honestly was a bit stressful with some of the later encounters, and not really my favorite thing. Personally, I skipped out on a lot of the extra dungeons in FF4 on PSP as well as some of the bosses in FF5A's extra content. If you're ready to move on, I'd say move on.

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Don't forget the tidbit of that failure to save Shadow from the Floating Continent leads to Relm replacing his role in the Cave on the Veldt - and thus that funny english script bug that refers to Shadow as she/her!

bonus have a Shadow/Relm cutscene from Opera Omnia



(this is during a scene into pairs of Tidus/Jecht, Shadow/Relm, Galuf/Krile)

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FF6 is one of those games I loved a lot on all counts when I played it originally as a kid, but then as I grew older something kinda weird and interesting happened: I appreciate it a lot more, but I actually enjoy it less. I think it did a phenomenal job paving the way forward for JRPGs and its characters and plot are still really good, but for some reason I can never get myself to replay the game in full like I can FF4 or 5.

Grimlyn posted...

If you're interested in some more behind-the-scenes, here's a pretty good interview: http://shmuplations.com/ff6/

Oota: The last boss, I think. Dont kill him until you see his big magic attack! In reality its not something you want to happen, but its kind of a shame if you kill him before he gets a chance to use it.

Oh no, ha ha.

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bahahahah "oops"

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Also if you do leave Shadow behind on the Floating Continent, then Relm will inherit the Interceptor abilities that Shadow normally has.

(Due to an oversight you can technically transfer Interceptor to any other character, or even to a monster, but then if you kill that monster then Interceptor will never appear in battle ever again)

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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.

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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.

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andylt posted...

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

Yeah, this is kind of a negative aspect of doing the World of Ruin the way they did. You can pick anyone you want to go recruit characters, so it's kind of hard to have the narrative interactions they had in the first half. I think the World of Ruin is still fairly well done as far as open ended things go.

Going with the "mature" theme, I think this was reflected even in the battle system. I remember first playing this game on the SNES being somewhat in awe that I could use most attacks I wanted on either enemies or party members, and there were even legitimate reasons to, like using fire to cure being frozen, or killing your party members for Wrexsoul. Also, there being attacks that target both allies and enemies reflects this too, (namely, Crusader esper and Meltdown) like you're being given a lot of power and need to learn how to handle it yourself, and not use stuff carelessly. Needing to use 12/14 characters for the final dungeon is fairly bold too. All of these aspects are rarely things I see in other RPGs.

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On the theme of loss, even Kefka gets in on the action. Theres an npc in Vector (before the Magitech Research Facility) who gives you a small peek into Kefkas background. Kefka was the Empires first attempt to infuse magitech power directly into a human. Basically, he was the prototype for the process they used on Celes. But something went wrong, and Kefka went insane. So Kekfa himself lost his mind, arguably even his humanity, before the game.

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Also since you've beaten the game now's a good time to share some old FF6 Myths! For starters, basically on the level of Mew Under The Truck myth was the lie that you could revive General Leo - the most common version involving killing an absurd amount of Brachiosaurs which lets you fight a dragon boss that drops a resurrection potion you can take to Leo's grave in Thamasa.

Another one was based on the very real Kaiser Dragon you fought in the Dragon's Den. As you know that dungeon is a FF6A addition, BUT there was data in the SNES original for a "CzarDragon" superboss that was planned in the original, complete with in-battle script and similar looking sprite to the Kaiser!



So yeah of course this spawned rumours for how to achieve this fight, involving the possession of all espers (yes, including both Odin + Raiden) and then beating all the dragons.

One last fun one for the road: Gogo is Adlai Stevenson. I can't seem to find the original page about it but this seems to cover it...

https://www.oocities.org/webgraphics2004/quotes.htm

*note, in the SNES translation Growth Egg = EXP Egg, which is what the Egghead paragraph is about. When you want the refutation of the myth... take "/quotes.htm" off the url

andylt posted...

I get the impression the plot was shaped to accommodate character beats rather than the other way around.

Heh yeah I think you'll be interested in the interview!

andylt posted...

Cyan loses his family right as we meet him, and Gau and Relm have never known their parents

Interview also notes this as part of the relationship between Cyan/Sabin/Gau heh

Also mentions the whole spy angle of Celes was originally intended to be more legit (as you've noted some intrigue on throughout the playthrough) and somewhat darker (an unhinged Celes, the same way Magitek experiments broke Kefka as mentioned by redrocket! that being with the party is what "fixes" her, originally planned)

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Fiop posted...

Going with the "mature" theme, I think this was reflected even in the battle system. I remember first playing this game on the SNES being somewhat in awe that I could use most attacks I wanted on either enemies or party members, and there were even legitimate reasons to, like using fire to cure being frozen, or killing your party members for Wrexsoul. Also, there being attacks that target both allies and enemies reflects this too, (namely, Crusader esper and Meltdown) like you're being given a lot of power and need to learn how to handle it yourself, and not use stuff carelessly. Needing to use 12/14 characters for the final dungeon is fairly bold too. All of these aspects are rarely things I see in other RPGs.

I hadn't really thought about this but it's a good point, I liked back in IV how they used battles to show narrative (Cecil coming back down the undead mountain with a holy sword etc). The first time Terra uses Magic and the guys freak out was great, wish they'd done a bit more of that too (like when you're with Strago in the burning house). The fire/frozen thing is something I wish they'd brought back in a later game, it worked nicely. I really really loved having to use 12 characters in the last dungeon, I hate when you have to pick a couple of characters in those situations and only they get to be part of the final boss cutscenes etc.

redrocket posted...

On the theme of loss, even Kefka gets in on the action. Theres an npc in Vector (before the Magitech Research Facility) who gives you a small peek into Kefkas background. Kefka was the Empires first attempt to infuse magitech power directly into a human. Basically, he was the prototype for the process they used on Celes. But something went wrong, and Kefka went insane. So Kekfa himself lost his mind, arguably even his humanity, before the game.

This sounds important, sad I missed the NPC. Helps to layer Kefka a bit, and slots nicely in with the themes, and the early ideas for Celes apparently.

GuessMyUserName posted...
Thanks for all the cool myths! The Leo one reminds me of a similar thing for FF7 about swapping an end of disc 1 event to a different character if you played your cards right. I lol'd at this Gogo one: "When you first meet Gogo, he says "I have been idle for too long." Possibly reffering [sic] to the fact that Stevenson had been dead for 30 years when FF6 came out." Brilliant. How the hell did someone even think that whole thing up in the first place though.

It's nice that the GBA version added in one of the removed superbosses, I'm continually impressed at how dedicated the GBA ports team must've been to make them so faithful but clearly improved. Especially the translation! Wonder what that crew went on to do after these ports.

That interview was really interesting, thanks for linking it. Lol that the Serpent Trench was something they were super proud of back then, of all the graphical upgrades over V the one that was the most impressive to me was stepping into the Phantom Forest for the first time and seeing that different angle and beautiful background. Also oof at some of the work quotes sounding like pretty dodgy crunch.

he was improvising some lyrics to Terras theme: Another buuuggg has been founnndddd

Lol at this though.

I prefer some of the changes they made (killing Terra at the end would've been way too dark, and jeez at the whole sequence of Edgar looking for his brother's corpse), and I like the little tidbits of backstory they give that didn't make it into the game. The Cyan/Sabin/Gau dynamic they mention is great and I wish we'd had more of that in the game. I'm really curious how Terra/Locke/Celes would've turned out before they mixed and matched their characters around like they did, and if done right the dark unhinged Celes could've really worked I think. (I've said it before but her not ever really reflecting on the work she did for the Empire is really weird, especially as they did that so well with Cecil in IV) You can definitely see echoes of the original Celes betrayal plan like in that Magitek Factory scene. Gogo's original recruitment sounds cooler than what we got, too.

Tanaka: In the beginning of the planning, Edgar was the stereotypical sleazeball. But I thought was too cliched, so I removed that aspect of his personality.

Uh, I feel like she could've removed a tiny bit more!

All of this just makes me wonder how great a VI Remake could be if they implemented all the things they took out originally. Could go horribly wrong though, too.

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andylt posted...

All of this just makes me wonder how great a VI Remake could be

Not quite related, but you might be interested in this. Back when Final Fantasy VII looked like it would come out on N64, Square made a 3D demo using the FFVI characters. I remember seeing pictures of it in Nintendo Power and thinking how cool it looked:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPO7c_XmesU

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I remember getting that Nintendo Power issue and freaking out over the 3D versions of those characters. I was so excited to see what would happen next, lol.

Side point on the subject of Shadow ''s dreams -

There is actually a sixth dream sequence - If Shadow doesn't survive the Floating Continent, then Relm has a dream sequence in the World of Ruin that is actually a rather heartbreaking scene.

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The heck is Celes wearing in that vid lmao, an N64 FFVI sounds... wild, and probably wouldn't date well judging by how slow that CG was!

I looked up the Relm dream, that is indeed sad. Speaking of things I missed, I'm guessing Banon just died when Vector was mangled with the Floating Continent? I didn't see his body or a message from him anywhere. And was there anything I missed with Siegfried and his impostor? That felt unfinished. I've looked for the Setzer/Celes coin scene on Youtube too but can't find a version with Edgar and Sabin present, curious about Sabin's dialogue there.

Might grind up the crew today, still not sure if I'll bother with Dragon's Den again or the Soul Shrine. But now time for some playable character rankings!

14. Mog
Mog is in a weird spot, somewhere between joke character and real one. He's not as obviously jokey as Gogo and Umaro, but he has... literally nothing to add to any situation, no real quest or any personal dialogue or anything after he's recruited aside from being mean to Umaro. Even his ending cutscene is the weakest, he doesn't help anyone out. His dances were fun and useful at first but I pretty much stopped using them entirely by the end. Given that all the other Moogles disappeared (died?) they could've done something with him losing them? IDK, I don't dislike the guy but there's very little to him, especially in the World of Ruin. Also Moogles are my least fav of the staple FF species from a design standpoint.

13. Umaro
Yeah this is the joke tier! I don't dislike joke characters and Umaro as a premise is pretty cool, but again he has nothing to do. He's above Mog because I like his battle gimmicks, Berserker is one of the classes they improved over V and it does fit what little character he has. Him tossing the other teammates at the enemy is fun.

12. Gogo
Gogo places higher than the other non-characters as they actually have a bit of a personality quirk in the recruitment scene, and their ending scene is decent. I'm also becoming very fond of the Mime class in this series, it's not as good as in V where you can have the entire team bounce off each other but it's still cool. Sadly Gogo's stats aren't great as they can't equip Espers, but having access to any command (and any unlocked ability within that command) makes up for it. I used Gogo quite a bit at the end, but yeah can't place them any higher!

Well that was brief but the jokes are out of the way.

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andylt posted...

Speaking of things I missed, I'm guessing Banon just died when Vector was mangled with the Floating Continent? I didn't see his body or a message from him anywhere. And was there anything I missed with Siegfried and his impostor?

You didn't miss anything. I agree that the Siegfried/Ziegfried thing felt unfinished. You can fight Siegfried in the Colisseum if you bet a Megalixir. He's really hard though and it doesn't really advance his plot in any way. There's also a rage coded for Gau for Siegfried, based on this Colisseum appearance, but it can never be obtained since Colisseum formations don't get added to Veldt formations. it will always be a blank spot on the rage list without hacking. Maybe they wanted to do more with this.

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Got a few FF6 related FF14 videos now! FF6 has gotten a lot of representation in the game over the course of its lifespan, including some really fun and unique stuff.

There were 3 Heavensward 8 man bosses for the Warring Triad, and Sephirot (Fiend) and Sophia (Goddess) have two of my favorite BGM tracks for the fights (sadly they kinda dropped the ball with Zurvan (Demon)'s music and fight IMO)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdV_bzJgRxE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T1k-9UvdlU

It also, like FF5, got a raid tier in Stormblood, with some cool iconic fights in it. Of course Kefka was the final boss of the tier, but we also got Phantom Train (sadly for everyone, not including a suplex reference), the art goddess boss from Relm's bit in WoR I don't remember the name of, and the Guardian, which loads programs of some other bosses like Air Force.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeJr9_tZf8s (Just linking Phantom Train for the music since the first 3 bosses share it being a remix of the FF6 boss theme)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFRhYuB93qk (transition to God Kefka around 6 minutes)

Also, both Ultros and Typhon are characters in the Hildibrand questline, along with Gilgamesh.

So if you ever wanted to see Ultros and Gilgamesh together in one scene (who wouldn't?) FF14 is the game for that.

andylt posted...

The heck is Celes wearing in that vid lmao

Terra, actually!

In probably most games Terra is depicted as blonde too (matching Amano art), and green-haired-Terra is usually an alt costume. But ponytail = Terra

andylt posted...

I looked up the Relm dream, that is indeed sad. Speaking of things I missed, I'm guessing Banon just died when Vector was mangled with the Floating Continent? I didn't see his body or a message from him anywhere. And was there anything I missed with Siegfried and his impostor? That felt unfinished. I've looked for the Setzer/Celes coin scene on Youtube too but can't find a version with Edgar and Sabin present, curious about Sabin's dialogue there.

asked in an interview (also regarding Arvis), Sakaguchi just says "use your imagination!"

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FFVI has decent representation in Dissidia. The two reps are Terra and Kefka. Locke shows up briefly as a rep in Dissidia NT. Kefka probably got a better deal than Terra. Hearing him voiced (and having actually good art beyond the FF6 sprite) goes a long way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk92emn_Cgo

Terra gets blonde hair for her default look, but she has an alt that gets her classic sprite look.



Also, I don't think I went over this in FFV, but Gilgamesh is also playable in Dissidia. He's as incredible as you would think he is.

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I can never think of blonde Terra as Terra no matter how many times I see her

now let me see green hair with tights

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terra loses the tights in Opera Omnia too sadly



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Thanks for all the links tcaz! 14 really seems like the pinnacle of fanservice for the series, it's a shame I just have no interest in MMOs. The Goddess' theme is my fav of those, and I am more convinced than ever that VI's standard boss theme is the best in the series.

I wonder why it feels like Kefka gets so much more love than anyone else in VI, maybe because it's an ensemble cast I guess.

And Terra is blonde now? That doesn't look like her at all to me! Did they change it so people don't confuse her with Rydia? She looks much better green imo.

11. Setzer Gabbiani
I suspect this might be a bit controversial, but I just couldn't connect with Setzer really. He has all the plot beats there, losing Darill and going from a man without morals to a man dedicated to saving the world, but I guess it's the fact that other characters had already done those stories in a better way (Locke and Shadow respectively) that meant Setzer's journey didn't really reverberate with me. It doesn't help that he starts off kidnapping Celes/Maria with the intention of... presumably doing bad things. His best moment is the scene in the Kohlingen tavern where he agrees to pursue a new dream, but that was Celes's doing. Also decent that he agrees to help the crew even after seeing that Celes tricked him, but this was 2 minutes after he kidnapped her so I don't give him too much credit for that. I've never liked the risky Gambler classes either, and he's one of the later arrivals (a trend I'm noticing in the bottom half of this list!), so he probably didn't stand much of a chance with me.

10. Strago Magus
Strago is fine. He plays fine, a pretty standard blue mage type, and I kept waiting for his character to develop into something more interesting than it did. He is basically left with Relm after Clyde leaves town, and has no other family to speak of (clearly this wasn't the original plan as stated in that interview), but they don't really wring any emotional weight out of this. There's no confrontation or scene with Shadow, and he's largely played for laughs. The World of Ruin gave him potential with him losing Relm and joining the Cult of Kefka, but again they do nothing with this. He sees Relm's alive and just snaps out of it, and is back to normal. It's sweet watching him tell his tale of glory to Gungho, but that's more Relm's moment than his. Speaking of...

9. Relm Arrowny
As far as the 'playable child' thing the SNES games had going, Relm ranks above the IV twins but well below Krile. I get that she's apparently a top tier mage but I already had my mages set by the time she came along and didn't feel like teaching her everything, so she never really got much play for me. And I never got into Sketch. Probably not fair to her. Characterwise she's fine but again nothing special, maybe if they had leaned more into her absent relationship with Shadow I'd have liked it more. As things are, her and Strago's dynamic is pretty standard, a weaker version of Krile and Galuf's dynamic. Her best moments are tricking Strago into hunting that beast, and that weird as hell scene with Uncle Ulty.

There's a clear break between 8 and 9, everybody above this point is someone I actively like.

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andylt posted...

Speaking of things I missed, I'm guessing Banon just died when Vector was mangled with the Floating Continent? I didn't see his body or a message from him anywhere. And was there anything I missed with Siegfried and his impostor?

Oh yeah, I meant to bring this up when you finished the game but... yeah, those plotlines just kind of are never resolved. Needlessly to say this bugged people for years and years and was the source for an endless amount of conspiracy theories and rumors over the game.

Banon is just assumed to have died after the Empire's betrayal, but fans loved to to assume he was just hiding somewhere in the World of Ruin. A lot of people made theories that he was Gogo, at least the ones that didn't think Gogo was Adlai Stevenson...

Siegfried is even worse since the whole thing all feels like it's building to something but it never does. It doesn't help that the original English translation accidentally spelled his name three separate ways, which made the whole "someone was pretending to be him" thing even MORE confusing. Some people liked to think the imposter was actually Gilgamesh, since they had the same personality, although Gilgamesh actually being added to the GBA version makes it shakier. Another theory is that the imposter was Gogo (needless to say, the mystery behind Gogo's identity was the fuel for a LOT of conspiracy theories. Remember, FFV had not been released when the English version of VI came out, so very few people would accept that it was simply a reference to that game and were convinced there was something more to the character). When this game was being developed, the way you would originally recruit Gogo was by finding them throughout the World of Ruin disguised as your missing party members. The whole thing with Siegfried's imposter might have been a clue that was supposed to point you towards finding this out. The truth may never be known....

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andylt posted...
Thanks for all the links tcaz! 14 really seems like the pinnacle of fanservice for the series, it's a shame I just have no interest in MMOs.

Well if you ever do want to check it out (it ALSO has one of if not the best plots in the entire series) the free trial extends through the ENTIRE base game now. Don't have to spend a dime on it until you get to the expansions. Worth playing for the single player content alone IMO.

But hey if its not your thing its not your thing.

Speaking of alternate Gogo theories, there was also an idea that Gogo was Darill and that she crashed into Triangle Island (notable that it's really close-by to Kohlingen, just on the other side of the world map border)

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That was always my favorite Gogo conspiracy theory, that Gogo was Darill

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If it was Darill why would Gogo not address Setzer at all? Let's just combine theories and make Gogo Siegfried's Impostor! And yeah I'm not ruling out ever trying XIV, it's just a bigger investment than I'm willing to put in right now.

8. Gau
Gau your friend! Frieeend!
For a while I thought of Gau as another joke-like character, very unimportant with little character who just had an interesting gameplay gimmick. I liked his little friendship with Cyan and his desire to help us out, but it wasn't until World of Ruin that I properly realised I liked him. The scene with his father is among my favs in the game for many reasons (including it being one of the very few parts of World of Ruin where everybody chats with each other), but more than anything it added a layer to Gau that wasn't there before. This is what I would've liked with the jokier characters further down the list. His pure happiness at seeing his father alive could be read as childlike joy or a more mature optimism in the face of rejection, but either way it makes him much more interesting to me. Those interview notes about Cyan, Sabin and Gau being a surrogate family made me really want more of that in the game, what there is is great. I'm not a big Beastmaster guy but Gau had a pretty interesting variation on it with the Veldt, the main reason he's not higher is just that in most situations it seemed to make more sense to pick a more relevant character to put in the party.

7. Shadow/Clyde
Now here's an odd one. In an open game with over a dozen playable characters, Shadow's narrative progress stands out as very unique, for better and worse. On the bad side, it's easy to miss all his backstory (as I pretty much did!) and to let him die accidentally early on. But the mystery of him and the game leaning into the shadowy assassin tropes really made him work. He follows the typical route of his type: starting out seemingly uninvested and in it for himself, then growing attached to those around until he decides to fight for the things he now believes in. His backstory adds layers to this though, with him already having a complicated life that he seems to be running from by the time we meet him. He remains pretty independent throughout, oddly enough his natural quietness suits the World of Ruin better than most, and this makes his little moments of reaching out to others more meaningful. One of my fav Shadow moments is him trying to give advice to Terra on the ship. Also every interaction with Interceptor is terrific.

The main thing I'm having trouble with with Shadow is resolution. He never directly confesses to Relm or Strago, or indeed anyone, and at the end of the game he seemingly decides to let himself die. It's a needlessly dark ending to me, everybody learns to accept themselves and move forward to choose life (including Shadow himself 5 minutes earlier!) then that message is really undermined by his staying behind. It's framed as a moment of acceptance, Shadow stopping running from his past, but I think it's a weak choice. Death = Redemption is a trope I'm not really a fan of, I think it would've been much stronger for Shadow to actively decide to continue the path he's set out on with the party and forgive himself for what he considers his sins. Even ignoring his death he probably has the saddest arc in the game, not especially bonding with anyone in particular (wish they'd given him more stuff like that scene with Terra) or feeling secure enough to share his secrets. I like Clyde, but not where the game takes him in the end.

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when I played FF6 as a child (about 4 years-old I think), Gau was my favourite character I felt closest to. He also actually does have some real broken Rages, even ones he starts with (Stray Cat was mentioned somewhere I believe)

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I never said I believed Gogo was Darill, just that it was my favorite of the theories. Im in the Gogo is Gogo camp.

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Also those names for the Triad in ff14 seem like they didn't come out of nowhere. in the ultimania archives book, the sketch ofFiend/Majin has the notes "Sefilos" (so, Sephirot) and "Divine Comedy", the sketch of Goddess has "Sophia" "Fallen God" and "God of Silence/Intelligence", and Demon/Kishin has the notes "Zurvan" "Calvary God" "Ultimate God" and "Eternal Time".

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Probably Gau's most broken rage is Rafflesia. These are the flowers in the painting you can fight in Owzer's mansion. The skill they use is Entice, which is like a charm spell that makes it so that the enemy can't hurt you. Enemies lack any sort of protection against this status, so it'll work on anything, even bosses. That said, Rafflesias are rare to run into on the Veldt, so it's hard to get this rage (this is due to how Veldt mechanics work. Some enemies are way more common than others).

Magic urn is another good one. It's not broken, but you inherit a lot of the elemental protection and status protection from magic urns, and can use Curaga. It's a good tank rage at least.

Also notable is Yojimbo. If you get this rage, Gau can use Leo's shock move. Not broken but still cool that you can get this.

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Jakyl25 posted...

Terra and Celes are co-mains

Their names are even thematically opposite for this reason

Holy crap, I never noticed that.

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One of the things I like about the cast is that I can see players being drawn to pretty much any of them!

RaidenGarai posted...

I never said I believed Gogo was Darill, just that it was my favorite of the theories. Im in the Gogo is Gogo camp.

Yeah sorry I worded that poorly, didn't mean to imply you believed it!

Mr Crispy posted...

Demon/Kishin has the notes "Zurvan" "Calvary God" "Ultimate God" and "Eternal Time".

There's an enemy in Dragon's Den called Zurvan anyway, but then I guess they reused Sephiroth so why not lol.

6. Terra Branford
5th-7th are all super close to me, characters that have aspects I really like but also a glaring fault that troubles me. Terra was probably the most difficult character in this list to pin down. She starts off so passive (obviously intentional), has a few moments that are really nice early on (her deciding to join the Returners is a very good scene), and just as she starts to grow as a character... she pauses. By the back half of the World of Balance she's already taken a backseat, you would think that the revelation of her identity would spur her character forward but she kind of becomes just a narrative tool for a while. By the time the world fell apart I had resigned myself to seeing Terra as just a worse version of Rydia.

It is a really interesting choice to make the de facto protagonist such a passive character, and a choice I do really like in theory. But with the game already being such a massive ensemble I think they just needed to push a little harder with Terra, give her something more to go on other than a desire for love. Of course this becomes her arc in the World of Ruin, discovering a familial love (I still really like that they chose this instead of giving her a love interest) and first rejecting to join us; then actively deciding to fight. It's hard for Terra to stand out among this cast for one simple reason- she is pure and innocent. Everybody around her is a good person but with flaws and troubles, and she's just a woman who wants to feel love and acceptance.

Hands down my favourite Terra moment comes at the final confrontation with Kefka, you can really see how far she's grown here and she obviously has the personal investment. But reducing her to the background for most of the game robs her of more moments like this, and I can't help but feel she didn't reach her full potential as a character.

5. Edgar Roni Figaro
Another difficult one for me to place, Edgar kind of snuck up on me. We've seen both the good-hearted royal and the stereotypical womaniser archetypes a million times, so much so that for a while I didn't even look underneath to consider the complexities of his character. But under the surface there is an awful lot of good here.

Edgar is smart and has a very solid set of principles that he never wavers from- his loyalty to his homeland takes precedence over any feelings towards the Empire (first keeping up appearances and then declaring war), and his loyalty to his brother has him condemn himself to a life he doesn't want to lead- and do so in such a way that Sabin doesn't feel guilty over it. Despite his surface bravado he is very willing to put others first, one of my fav little moments of his is when he lets the thieves he was with escape freely with the treasure. As well-trodden as the well-meaning monarch trope is in this series, Edgar actually feels like he cares about commoners and understands them in a way nobody else outside of Tactics does.

He doesn't really get the credit for being as smart and kind-hearted as he is, and he never outright talks about his worries and past with the same candour that most of the cast eventually do. Edgar really feels like he's meant to be an A-plot character, but the game absolutely pushes him to the background and honestly I think it makes him more interesting this way. Also his Tools are great, and I really enjoy his relaxed dynamic with Sabin.

His one obvious flaw that I won't go on about is his unwanted advances on women, and... girls. It'd be one thing to treat this like a character flaw, but he never grows or is called out on for this and it's treated as a comedic thing right until the end. I know different times and all, but it does taint a deceptively interesting character.

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Terra got hampered a bit as the interview covers by the fact they didn't want to make her too prominent (because they wanted an ensemble cast), since her identity itself is already so significant to the plot early on that they just don't get her... doing much. She's just kinda going along with the crew.

Which is also kinda funny because ultimately Celes actually does get a whole lot of significance given to her role! With all their fears of making Terra too prominent they didn't exactly make an even ensemble after all.

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If I remember right Edgars personality traits were designed by a woman, which makes his interest in young girls even stranger

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Edgar & Sabin were handled by Soraya Saga, yeah

she's even made a doujin of them! https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Figaro_no_Kekkon:_Tales_from_Desert

here's another little interview with her about them

https://www.siliconera.com/reflections-with-soraya-saga-part-1/

The Figaro brothers, Edgar and Sabin, from Final Fantasy VI are memorable characters. Can you tell us how you designed them and the doujinshi you wrote?

Thank you. When the project started there was a list of playable class names, like "one thief, one gambler and two magitek knights". The staff used to bring along ideas to create stories, as my friends took a gambler, a ninja and a painter, I chose a monk and a machinist to design and write. Personally I really like desert landscapes, therefore they naturally became the kings on the sand.

I have a habit of coming up with ridiculously detailed ideas about characters backgrounds. Thankfully the company took open-minded attitude to the doujinshi subculture back then, so I put brothers tales of childhood that didnt fit in the game into a privately-printed booklet after the game came out. The most part I wrote in that booklet was just trivial things, though.

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^I can't imagine them letting something like that happen now, I'd prefer little stories of the characters' pasts than the like dozen CG prologue movies vomiting exposition at you like they do these days.

4. Locke Cole
Of the group, Locke feels the most like a default leading character. There's more than a little Bartz in his personality I think, but with the added layers of tragedy that make him stand out. He's weirdly very prominent but also not very connected to the central plot, just a decent endearing guy helping to save the world. Of course much of his driving force is his guilt over losing Rachel and obsession with both getting her back and not repeating what he considers his mistake, which manifests as him being very protective towards women.

I like how initially he is close with Terra, then it shifts to Celes and it eventually becomes clear he is just very attached to protecting women. His relationship with Celes is interesting, there's romance there of course but I find it much more interesting how the two are just drawn to each other to try and fill the holes in their life. It's a symbiotic relationship, Celes wanting to feel accepted and loved and Locke wanting someone to save. In theory it could end up very toxic but I think the two move through their traumas enough that they wind up with a natural intimacy that works pretty well. I appreciate that they don't ever go so hard on the romantic aspect of their relationship, it's obviously there but aside from a few jokes they don't overplay it, what's important is them caring about each other. They don't even kiss I think.

His obsession/dedication to Rachel remarkably pays off, and her reiterating her love to him basically just gives him permission to forgive himself and move on with his life. Objectively this is maybe a bit too neat of a resolution, but emotionally it works well. His top moment is probably the opera sequence, he fits into the hero role very well (his relationship with Ultros is even a little reminiscent of Bartz's with Gilgamesh) and there's enough nuance to him that he's never boring. Love that he's a terrible actor. I also love thieves in RPGs so he was always in my party. Shout-out to another moment too: him apparently bandaging that gull which inadvertently gives Celes drive to go on. That kind of moment of fate/coincidence really strengthens the narrative and makes the whole thing feel more destined, as well as reiterating what a good guy he is that he gave up a close personal possession just to help heal a gull.

3. Cyan Garamonde
Does anyone have a rougher time of it than poor Cyan? It's a stacked category in this game, but seeing the dead body of his wife and child and then having to watch them board the train to the afterlife... it's incredibly haunting. The overly formal honourable knight vibe he has is very quickly overshadowed by the tragedy at Doma, and him going berserk with rage and flailing at the Empire afterwards (moments after we're introduced to a more human side of the Empire in Leo) is so good, a great example of gameplay and narrative combining.

Introducing him to us at the point the game does is a very smart move, we pretty much skip right past all the tropey banter and jokes and get to the real emotional connection part so much faster. For a while he's basically just waiting to die, he wants vengeance but isn't consumed quite the way Tellah is, it feels more like he's just waiting for a chance to end his suffering in an honourable way. The scenario with Sabin, Shadow and him is one of the game's highlights looking back, and I appreciate that he was the only person in the party to get mad at Celes for the deaths she's responsible for.

Characterwise, Cyan fares better in the World of Ruin than most. He gets not one but two really sad story sequences here, first a very touching exchange of letters with Lola where he tries to provide some comfort to her while they both work through their own grief (showing both his honour and desire to help people while also his unspoken need for comfort and assurance himself). But the game doesn't end it as cleanly as that, he doesn't simply get over the deaths of his wife and child because we completed a sidequest. Seeing that he's still haunted by them in his dreams is especially sad because, like, obviously it's still on his mind. It will never not be! His wife's soul/his own subconscious convinces him to let go of his suffering (I like that it's not explicit if they're real or not), but also the fact his friends were there helping him rather than him cooped up on his own probably helped.

Despite his tragedies he's not a downer in the party, he generally keeps that covered and engages with the others pleasantly. Him seeing Gau as like a surrogate son makes a lot of sense, and I appreciate their relationship more knowing that. A good guy, a nice spin on the samurai tropes and an interesting character. Screw Bushido's long-ass load time though.

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Cyan is such a bizarre character to think about in hindsight for several reasons, particularly for me since I started playing with the SNES version. First of all, it's still jarring to think that his name is most likely supposed to be pronounced with a hard 'C' (his Japanese name is Cayenne, but that wouldn't fit the letter cap for names). It's also not made as obvious that he's supposed to be this "Eastern foreign land" type character. His archaic samurai-style speech was translated as olde English, which was a valiant attempt to try and localize it but doesn't quite fit the theme (and was only used sporadically in the SNES script anyway), his "Bushido" techniques were called "SwordTech" in the original English translation, and the fact that they're all written in Kanji is also something that just could not be translated well*, and while Doma's music sounds fairly Eastern, graphically it doesn't look that much different from any other castle in the game, which muddles the whole concept behind the style his character is supposed to represent. As a kid, I had never picked up on it.

(* Also, random trivia, but in the Japanese version you could rename Cyan's Bushido skills. But only in Kanji.)

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Gogo is clearly...

Maria, upset that Celes stole her Opera Gig. So she plotted an elaborate revenge scheme where she plans to steal the identity of each party member, even learning their unique skills. The plan goes out the window when the world is destroyed, and she realizes defeating Kefka might just be a tad more important. The PROOF is in the ending. Who does Gogo mimic when they're escaping, and have to press the button at the same time? That's right! Celes.

I liked Cyan being a mix of Olde English Warrior and Japanese Samurai, I thought it worked!

Maria=Gogo is the best theory so far, I'll take it. One day Gogo will disappear and then Celes starts acting a little strangely...

2. Sabin Rene Figaro
Sabin is one of the most clear-minded characters in the game, he's not one for complaining about his situation and he generally seems to have life figured out, relatively. Despite his appearance and fighting ability he's not exactly the hothead the others act like he is, the first time we see him he tries to reason with Duncan's son and only resorts to violence when necessary. Of course soon after that he jumps into the rapids to chase after Ultros, so he's fine with violence for the right cause and can get a bit lost in the heat of the moment.

He wears his heart on his sleeve, as seen with his reaction to Figaro Castle not mourning his dad, his reaction to Duncan being alive, and in possibly my favourite moment of his how he treats Gau's father for abandoning him. I see him as like the heart of the group, a reliable rock of stability. It's no coincidence that he's the first person to rejoin in the World of Ruin. He's not important to the plot or anything but I always liked his presence, his easy relationships with the rest of the cast and his dynamic with Edgar. Gameplaywise he was the biggest damage dealer in the game for me and his pseudo-fighting game Blitz skill is maybe the best of this game's new additions.

Sabin is just a gentle, moral, real good dude who always goes out of his way to help others. He's far from the most complicated character in the cast but I was drawn to him nonetheless, he's a bright light amongst all the tragedy and doom in the game and I think the journey would be worse without him around. Also he Meteor Strikes a train.

1. Celes Chere
I doubt this is much of a surprise to anyone following this topic, to me Celes is a top top character. I was familiar with her name but nothing else about her before playing, and when it comes to memorable moments she has an embarrassment of riches to choose from. Her backstory is instantly compelling, bad guy gone good is always a fun trope. She's a very internal character which I tend to like, independent and headstrong but really much more vulnerable and longing than she first appears, and her story is very solemn throughout.

I've said earlier I see Celes as kind of a dark mirror to Terra, and in a way this hurts Terra's characterisation because Celes is just clearly more interesting (to me) in every sense. She slowly grows in prominence throughout the story, with three major brilliant sequences of note:
1. The Opera is wonderful, illuminating her character and the themes she/the game will follow,
2. Celes stabbing Kefka on the Floating Continent is a big breakout scene that Terra wouldn't manage to emulate until the very end (even if Celes does arguably cause the World going into Ruin with her actions here lol), cementing her loyalty and desire to fight for Good,
3. My favourite scene in the whole game: her attempted suicide in the wake of Cid's death. A tragic echo of the opera scene, an incredibly affecting moment for the player, and a much needed release of emotion for someone who has bottled things up for so long. Combined with her renewed sense of purpose and vow to live on after seeing evidence of human survival, this is just... a perfect set of scenes, I don't know why they made it optional.

Throughout the game there's several little moments that help flesh her out- her reaction to Terra asking if she's even capable of love is very telling, her convincing Setzer (and maybe herself) to fight for a new dream, her concern for Terra's well-being going into Kefka's Tower, her silent scene outside the inn at Albrook with Locke, going back in the ending for the bandana that is obviously very important to her, there's so many tiny bits that the others don't get nearly enough of. I've talked about her and Locke's connection already, but it really is impressive how despite it being a major relationship it's still played so low-key. Very fitting for Celes' character. The only criticism I have is one I've mentioned before, how she never really confronts her actions as a General in the Empire, but I suppose it fits her character not to open up about this.

More than anything else, Celes finding the acceptance of others (and through that acceptance of herself) is the perfect encapsulation of the game's themes, and her decision to fight for life and for a future in the face of overwhelming despair helps frame the entire back half of the game, giving the whole thing a much stronger sense of emotional weight. She is truly a fantastic character, an all-time great in the series as far as I'm concerned, and when I look back on this game it will be hard not to think of Celes and her journey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iTXct134go


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suplex the train gif goes here

andylt posted...

I doubt this is much of a surprise to anyone following this topic, to me Celes is a top top character.

A+ ff6 playthrough topic

That Celes write-up tho is all music to my ears aww yeah, I said it before but Celes really does take a whole lot of prominent spotlight through big story events - people like to assign WoB to Terra and WoR to Celes, but truly Celes shines a whole lot even during the Balance - most notably with that climax on the Floating Continent that works so well with Celes's relationship to Kefka and the Empire. She's got the romance with the leading man Locke, she's the most notable character to the villain, plays the leadership role in bringing the party together, and even stars in perhaps the most iconic scene of the game with the Opera House.

On the other hand you have Terra the presumed face of the game who really just goes along with everyone, not knowing what is going on or what she even really wants, as her character is more of a tool that the Empire desires and Returners need up until the Thamassacre. As a driving force, Terra doesn't even have any drive or interest of her own pretty much until it's time to go take on Kefka!

It really is the case that Celes just takes on all these highlighted roles as they were so concerned with giving Terra too much prominence, yet overall really it's not like ensemble led to an equal field of characters by any means.

PS: fun fact you may not have realized, but I like that Celes was actually the 2nd playable character you see in the game! Right before Locke shows up at Arvis's place, Terra has a flash-back of the Empire showing her/Celes/Gestahl/Kefka/Leo at the Imperial Palace. It's not something you think about at the time but in hindsight I've always enjoyed that fact.

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Oh, I can't remember if I posted this, but I wanted to follow up the train suplex with this when you got to this point in the game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zExDUoaZPo

Sabin is a legend. He can suplex anything.

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Of note about Cyan and Doma itself - they ALSO feature as FFXIV callbacks in Stormblood. Doma itself is a rather large part of the Far East/Yanxia, and they discuss the Romanization of the name "Cyan" being "Sian" for a not-onscreen political figure.

Also it is home to Yotsuyu, probably one of the best visually designed people in Stormblood.

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Yeah I agree about Celes, despite what was said in that interview there is absolutely a clear tiering to the ensemble in terms of relevance. It might be to Celes' benefit that she's not the explicit lead though, this way she kinda sneaks up on you as the game goes on and she's not stuck with generic leading character blandness that sometimes happens. I remember the flashback in question but didn't notice her there at all, that is pretty cool. Although lol that means that Terra/Celes/Locke are the first three we see, and are clearly the most important 3 of the cast.

Grand Kirby posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zExDUoaZPo

Sabin is a legend. He can suplex anything.

Stuff like this really makes me want a full remake of this game lol, Sabin is clearly the best Monk in the series so far (sorry Tifa!).

Earthshaker posted...

Of note about Cyan and Doma itself - they ALSO feature as FFXIV callbacks in Stormblood. Doma itself is a rather large part of the Far East/Yanxia, and they discuss the Romanization of the name "Cyan" being "Sian" for a not-onscreen political figure.

Also it is home to Yotsuyu, probably one of the best visually designed people in Stormblood.

You've gotta stop making me want to play XIV lol, I'd never get another entry in the series done! Maybe if/when I get done with all of the others I'll give it a go, I love all the neat references you've mentioned.

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I've decided I probably won't bother with the other extra stuff, at least not right now. Maybe I'll come back to it sometime. That sadly means it's the end of the playthrough itself! As always, thanks all for following + helping + commenting, I've really enjoyed going through this series with you folks around.

I - II - III - IV - (TAY) - V - Final Fantasy VI - VII - (VIIR - DoC - CC) - VIII - IX - X - (X-2) - XII - (RW) - XIII - (XIII-2 - LR) - XV - Tactics - (TCB)

Next up: It'll probably be a while before I come back to this. There's a bunch of games I got over the holidays that I haven't touched at all yet, including Xenoblade, which I've never played before and I imagine will take a long long time to get through. But when I do get back to it, the next will be Final Fantasy IX. I will miss the SNES/GBA era and have enjoyed my time with it greatly! After IX the floor is wide open, I'll probably run another poll to get some kind of consensus. For now though, this'll be it.

There's been a lot of great links and tracks posted here, but one I have kept coming back to listen to more than the rest (thanks PunishedBen!), so I'll leave with this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln9Sq7IOP3o

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I can't help it. I love FFXIV, the music especially (though it is a VERY slow boil to start, even with the ARR storyline being condensed last year.)

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