, also known as Final Fantasy III in North America when it was first released, is a console role-playing game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix). It was released in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as a part of the Final Fantasy series. It was ported by TOSE with minor differences to Sony's PlayStation in 1999 and Nintendo's Game Boy Advance in 2006.
Set in a fantasy world with a technology level equivalent to that
of the
Second Industrial
Revolution, the game's story focuses on a group of rebels as
they seek to overthrow an imperial dictatorship. The game features
fourteen permanent
playable
characters, the most of any game in the main series.
Final
Fantasy VI was the first game in the series to be directed by
someone other than producer and series creator
Hironobu Sakaguchi; the role was filled
instead by
Yoshinori Kitase and
Hiroyuki Itō.
Yoshitaka Amano, a long-time contributor to
the
Final Fantasy series, returned as the image and
character designer, while regular composer
Nobuo Uematsu wrote the game's score, which
has been released on several
soundtrack
albums.
Released to critical acclaim, the game is regarded as a landmark of
the series and of the role-playing genre. Its Super Nintendo and
PlayStation versions have sold over 3.48 million copies worldwide
to date as a stand-alone game, as well as over 750,000 copies as
part of the Japanese
Final
Fantasy Collection and the North American
Final Fantasy Anthology.
Final Fantasy VI has won numerous awards since its
release.
Gameplay
Like previous
Final Fantasy installments,
Final
Fantasy VI consists of four basic modes of
gameplay: an
overworld
map, town and
dungeon field maps, a
battle screen, and a menu screen. The overworld map is a
scaled-down version of the game's
fictional world, which the player uses to
direct characters to various locations. As with most games in the
series, the three primary means of travel across the overworld are
by foot,
chocobo, and
airship. With a
few plot-driven exceptions, enemies are
randomly encountered on field maps and on
the overworld when traveling by foot.The menu screen is where the
player makes such decisions as which characters will be in the
traveling party, which equipment they wield, the magic they learn,
and the configuration of the gameplay. It is also used to track
experience points and levels.
The game's plot develops as the player progresses through towns and
dungeons. Town citizens will offer helpful information and some
residents own item or equipment shops. Later in the game, visiting
certain towns will activate
side-quests. Dungeons appear as a
variety of areas, including caves, sewers, forests, and buildings.
These dungeons often have treasure chests containing rare items
that are not available in most stores. Some dungeons feature
puzzles and mazes, which require the player to divide the
characters into multiple parties.
Combat
A battle in
Final Fantasy
VI
Combat in
Final Fantasy VI is
menu-based, in which the player selects an
action from a list of such options as Fight, Magic, and Item. A
maximum of four characters may be used in battles, which uses the
series' traditional
Active Time
Battle system, or ATB, which was designed by Hiroyuki Itō and
first featured in
Final Fantasy
IV. Under this system, each character has an action bar
that replenishes itself at a rate dependent on their speed
statistic. When a character's
action bar is filled, the player may assign an action. In addition
to standard battle techniques, each character possesses a unique
special ability. For example, Locke possesses the ability to steal
items from enemies, while Celes'
Runic ability allows her
to absorb most magical attacks cast until her next turn.
Another element is
a
powerful attack substitution that occasionally appears when a
character's health is low. Similar features appear in later
Final Fantasy titles under a variety of different names,
including Limit Breaks, Desperation Moves, Trances, and Overdrives.
Characters are rewarded for victorious battles with
experience points and money, called
gil (
GP in the original North American localization).
When characters attain a certain amount of experience points, they
gain a level, which increases their statistics. An additional
player may play during battle scenarios, with control of individual
characters assigned from the configuration menu.
Customization
Characters in
Final Fantasy VI can be equipped with a wide
variety of weapons, armor and accessories (known as "Relics") to
increase their statistics and obtain special abilities. Most of
this equipment can be used by several different characters, and
each character may equip up to two Relics. Relics have a variety of
uses and effects, some of which alter basic battle commands, allow
characters to use multiple weapons, provide permanent status
changes during battle or use protective
magical spells in response to being near
death.
Although only two characters start the game with the ability to use
magic, almost every character can learn to do so. Characters may
equip magicite, which enables the
summoning of
espers, this game's incarnation of summoned monsters
(including several recurring summons such as Ifrit, Shiva, Bahamut
and Odin, along with many new summons exclusive to
Final
Fantasy VI), as well as that of specific magic spells. If a
character has a piece of magicite equipped, he or she will gain
"Magic Acquisition Points" after most battles. As a character gains
magic AP, he or she gradually learns spells from the magicite
equipped and will gain additional statistic bonuses when leveling
up, depending on the magicite.
Plot
Setting
Final Fantasy VI takes place on a large, unnamed world.
During the course of the game, its geography and landscape change
due to various developments in the game's plot. During the first
half of the game, the world is divided into two major continents
and referred to as the World of Balance. The northern continent is
punctuated by a series of mountain ranges and contains many of the
locations accessible to the player. Halfway through the game, the
world's geographical layout is altered, resulting in its two large
continents splitting into several islands of various size situated
around a larger continent at their center. This altered layout of
the game's locations is referred to as the World of Ruin.
In contrast to the
medieval settings
featured in previous
Final Fantasy titles,
Final
Fantasy VI is set in a
steampunk
environment. The structure of society parallels that of the latter
half of the 19th century, with
opera and the
fine arts serving as recurring motifs
throughout the game, and a level of technology comparable to that
of the
Second Industrial
Revolution.
Railroads are in
place and a
coal mining operation is run
in the northern town of Narshe. Additionally, several examples of
modern engineering and weaponry (such as a
chainsaw,
power drill,
and automatic
crossbow) have been developed
in the Kingdom of Figaro. However, communication systems have not
reached significant levels of development, with letters sent by way
of
carrier pigeon serving as the most
common means of long-distance communication.
One thousand years before the events of the game, three goddesses
who served as the source of all magic in the world were at war with
one another in a conflict known as the War of the Magi. This
quarrel released magical energy into the world, transforming any
human touched by it into an esper, who were used as soldiers by the
goddesses. Eventually repenting of the war, the goddesses returned
free will to the espers and turned themselves to stone. Their only
request was that the espers ensure their power remain sealed so
that it could not be misused again. After the war ended, the espers
departed to a hidden land, taking the statues of the gods with them
and sealing the entrance to their world, leaving behind the
remaining humans. Cut off from magic, the humans build a society
based on technology. At the opening of the game, the most powerful
technology is in the hands of the Empire, a cruel and expanding
dictatorship led by
Emperor
Gestahl and his court magician
Kefka. Approximately eighteen years before the
events of the game begin, the barrier between the esper's land and
the rest of the world weakened. Soon after, Gestahl takes advantage
of this and attacks the espers' land, capturing several of
them.
Using the espers as a power source, Gestahl initiated a research
program to combine magic with machinery and infuse humans with
magical powers, the result being a technology known as Magitek.
Kefka was infused with magic, becoming one of the prototypes in a
line of soldiers called Magitek Knights. The process was still
experimental in the prototype phase and as a result, Kefka's sanity
was impaired. At the opening of the game, the Empire is on the
verge of rediscovering the full potential of magic by reopening the
gateway to the world of the espers. However, the Empire's rule is
opposed by the Returners, a group of rebels seeking to overthrow
the Empire and free its territories.
Characters
Final Fantasy VI features fourteen permanent
playable characters, the most of any game
in the main series, as well as several secondary characters who are
only briefly controlled by the player. The starting character,
Terra Branford, is a reserved
half-human, half-esper girl who spent most of her life as a slave
to the Empire, thanks to a mind-controlling device, and is
unfamiliar with love. Other primary characters include
Locke Cole, a treasure hunter and rebel
sympathizer with a powerful impulse to protect women;
Celes Chere, a former general of the Empire, who
joined the Returners after being jailed for questioning imperial
practices;
Edgar Roni Figaro, a
consummate womanizer and the king of Figaro, who claims allegiance
to the Empire while secretly supplying aid to the Returners;
Sabin Rene Figaro, Edgar's
brother, who fled the royal court in order to pursue his own path
and hone his
martial arts skills;
Cyan Garamonde, a loyal knight to the
kingdom of Doma who lost his family and friends as a result of
Kefka poisoning the kingdom's water supply;
Setzer Gabbiani, a habitual gambler
and thrill seeker;
Shadow,
a
ninja mercenary, who offers his services to
both the Empire and the Returners at various stages throughout the
game;
Relm Arrowny, a young but tough
artistic girl with magical powers;
Strago
Magus, Relm's elderly grandfather and a
Blue Mage;
Gau, a
feral
child surviving since infancy in the harsh wilderness known as
the Veldt;
Mog, a
Moogle from the mines of Narshe;
Umaro, a savage but loyal
sasquatch also from Narshe, talked into joining the
Returners through Mog's persuasion; and
Gogo, a mysterious, fully shrouded
master of the art of mimicry.
Most of the main characters in the game hold a significant grudge
against the Empire and, in particular, Kefka, who serves as one of
the game's main
antagonists along with
Emperor Gestahl. The supporting
character
Ultros serves as a recurring
villain and
comic relief throughout the
game. A handful of
Final Fantasy VI characters have
reappeared in later games, such as
Secret of Evermore and
Kingdom Hearts II. Additionally,
Final Fantasy SGI, a short
technology demo produced for the
Silicon Graphics Onyx workstation, featured
polygon-based
3D renderings of Locke, Terra, and
Shadow.
Story
Final Fantasy VI begins with Terra Branford participating
in an Imperial raid on Narshe in search of a recently unearthed
frozen esper (later identified as Tritoch; Valigarmanda in the GBA
retranslation) found in the city's mines. However, the esper kills
her controllers and the Imperial control over her is broken, but
she is unable to remember anything about her past. Locke Cole, a
thief, promises to protect her until she can regain her memories
and helps her escape to the hideout of the Returners, a group of
militants opposing the Empire. Along the way, they pass through the
Kingdom of Figaro and meet Edgar Roni Figaro, the king, and his
estranged brother, Sabin Rene Figaro, who join them.
Banon, the leader of
the Returners, asks for Terra's help in their struggle against the
Empire, and she agrees. Just as the resistance is preparing to
return to Narshe to investigate the frozen esper, the Empire
attacks South Figaro. Locke heads to the besieged town to slow the
Empire's advance, while the rest of the group makes their way via
rafting down the nearby Lethe River.
However, Sabin is separated from the group after a battle with
Ultros,
self-proclaimed "octopus royalty" and a recurring antagonist,
forcing the various members of the Returners to find their own ways
to Narshe in three different scenarios controlled by the player. In
Locke's scenario, he must escape the imperial occupied town of
South Figaro without detection. Sabin has been swept to a distant
continent and must find a way back while Terra, Edgar, and Bannon
will continue to float down the Lethe River back to Narshe.
Eventually, the original party reunites in Narshe. Locke brings
with him Celes Chere, one of the Empire's own generals, whom he
saved from execution for defying the Empire's ruthless practices.
Sabin brings with him Cyan Garamonde, whose family was killed
during the Empire's siege of Doma Castle when Kefka ordered the
water supply poisoned, and Gau, a feral child he befriended on the
Veldt. In Narshe, the Returners prepare to defend the frozen esper
from the Empire. After the player successfully thwarts the Imperial
invasion, Terra approaches the frozen esper, prompting her to
transform into an esper-like form herself. She flies away, confused
and horrified by her own transformation.
The Returners set out to search for Terra and eventually trace her
to the city of Zozo, though they are still shocked by her apparent
existence as an esper. There, they also meet the esper Ramuh, who
tells them that if they free various other espers from the Magitek
Research Facility in the Empire's capital, Vector, they may find
one who can help Terra. Vector is on the southern continent, to
which the Empire does not allow maritime access, so the Returners
go to the Opera House and recruit Setzer Gabbiani, who is believed
to be the owner of the
Blackjack,
the only
airship in the world. They then
travel to Vector and attempt to rescue several espers, including
Maduin,
who is revealed to be Terra's father. However, the espers choose
instead to give their lives to transform into magicite—the
crystallized remains of their essences that form when they die and
allow others to use their powers—which they bestow upon the
Returners. Before the group can then escape, Kefka arrives and
causes the Returners, including Locke, to momentarily doubt Celes's
loyalty, much to her anguish. However, she provides proof to them
of her support by covering for the group while the rest escape. The
rest of the group then returns to Zozo, where Terra reacts to the
magicite of her father, prompting her to gain knowledge of her past
and accept herself as the half-human, half-esper child of Maduin
and a human woman.
After reuniting with Terra, the Returners decide that it is time to
launch an all-out attack on the Empire, and Banon asks Terra to
attempt contacting the espers' land in order to gain their support.
Terra succeeds in making contact, and when the espers learn that
the others captured by the Empire previously have now perished,
they become infuriated and enter the human world, where they
destroy much of Vector. When the Returners arrive in the capital,
they find Emperor Gestahl claiming to no longer have the will to
fight, inviting the Returners to a banquet to negotiate peace.
Gestahl asks Terra to deliver a truce to the espers on his behalf,
to which she agrees. Accompanied by Locke, Shadow (a ninja hired by
the Empire) and Generals Celes and
Leo, the player must then guide Terra to the
remote village Thamasa in search of the espers, where they meet
Strago Magus and his granddaughter,
Relm Arrowny, who also accompany
them.
Soon, they find the espers and Terra convinces them to accept a
truce with Gestahl. However, during the negotiations, Kefka attacks
the espers, killing each of those still alive and capturing the
magicite that remains from their essence. Additionally, he kills
General Leo, who is appalled by Kefka's dishonorable tactics and
attempts to defend the espers. The Returners reunite, now aware
that the peace was a ploy for Gestahl to obtain magicite and the
stone statue remains of the Warring Triad within the espers'
now-unsealed land. Kefka and Gestahl travel through the open gate
to the esper world, find the Warring Triad, and prompt the island
on which the esper world is located to detach and fly in the sky as
an ominous Floating Continent. The Returners attempt to stop them
from causing further damage, but despite their efforts, they are
unable to prevent Kefka and Gestahl from gaining the power of the
statues. Now empowered, Kefka promptly kills Gestahl and moves the
statues out of their proper alignment, upsetting the balance of
magical power and causing the destruction of most of the surface
world. In the disaster, the Returners are separated from one
another as Setzer's airship is torn apart.
One year later, Celes awakens from a coma on a deserted island and
learns that the world has been devastated by Kefka. Much of its
human population has died and its plant and animal life are slowly
being killed by sickness to punctuate humanity's despair. Celes
sets out from the Solitary Island to try and reunite with as many
of her friends as she can find. One by one, in a series of mostly
optional
side-quests, the
gamer has the opportunity to reunite the group, all still alive, as
well as new allies Umaro and Gogo. Together, the reunited Returners
launch a new offensive against Kefka, using the
Falcon—an
airship that belonged to a deceased friend of Setzer's—to reach
Kefka's Tower and infiltrate it. Inside, the Returners battle their
way through Kefka's defenses and destroy the three statues, the
source of Kefka's newfound power. When destroying the statues, once
the source of all magic, does not cause any noticeable reaction,
the party realizes that Kefka has successfully drained the Warring
Triad of power and has become the source of all magical
power.
Making a final stand against Kefka, the characters successfully
destroy him, but since the gods' power had come to reside in him
all magicite begins to shatter and Kefka's magically-maintained
tower begins to crumble. Terra leads the characters out as she
begins to weaken due to her half-esper heritage. However, before
her father's magicite shatters, his spirit informs her that by
holding to the human side of herself, she may survive the passing
of magic. In the end, the party escapes Kefka's Tower aboard the
Falcon. Terra survives, and the group observes the world's
communities rejuvenating themselves.
Development
Graphics
Yoshitaka Amano, a long-time
contributor to the
Final Fantasy series, returned as the
image and character designer. Amano provided concept sketches to
the programmers, who converted them into the
sprite featured in the game due
to technical limitations of the time. Liberties were taken during
the conversion, such as changing Terra Branford's hair from blonde
to green, and changing Celes Chere's outfit entirely. Amano also
designed the title logo. The graphics were directed by
Tetsuya Takahashi (graphic chief), Hideo
Minaba (background graphics), Kazuko Shibuya (object graphic), and
Tetsuya Nomura (designer for some
characters). In the
full motion
videos produced for the game's PlayStation re-release, the
character designs featured are based on Amano's designs.
While character sprites in the earlier installments were less
detailed on the map than they were in battle,
Final Fantasy
VI's sprites had an equally high resolution regardless of the
screen. This enabled the use of animations depicting a variety of
movements and facial expressions. Though it was not the first game
to utilize the Super Nintendo's
Mode 7
graphics,
Final Fantasy VI made more extensive use of them
than its predecessors. For instance, unlike both
Final Fantasy IV and
Final Fantasy V, the world map is
rendered in Mode 7, which lends a somewhat
three-dimensional perspective to an
otherwise
two-dimensional
game.
Localization
The original North American
localization and release of
Final
Fantasy VI by
Square for the Super
Nintendo featured several changes from the original Japanese
version. The most obvious of these is the change of the game's
title from
Final Fantasy VI to
Final Fantasy III;
because only two games of the series had been localized in North
America at the time,
Final Fantasy VI was distributed as
Final Fantasy III to maintain naming continuity. Unlike
Final Fantasy IV (which was first released in North
America as
Final Fantasy II), there are no major changes
to gameplay, though several changes of contents and editorial
adjustments exist in the English script. In a January 1995
interview with
Super Play
magazine, translator
Ted Woolsey
explained that "there's a certain level of playfulness and ...
sexuality in Japanese games that just doesn't exist here [in the
USA], basically because of
Nintendo
of America's rules and guidelines". Consequently, objectionable
graphics (e.g. nudity) were censored and building signs in towns
were changed, as well as religious allusions (e.g. the spell
Holy was
renamed
Pearl).
Also, some direct allusions to death, killing actions, and violent
expressions, as well as offensive words have been replaced by
softer expressions. For example, after Edgar, Locke and Terra flee
on chocobos from Figaro Castle, Kefka orders two Magitek Armored
soldiers to chase them by shouting "Go! KILL THEM!", in the
Japanese version. It was translated as "Go! Get them!" Also, when
Imperial Troopers burn Figaro Castle, and Edgar claims Terra is not
hidden inside the castle, Kefka replies "then you can burn to
death" in the Japanese version, which was replaced in the English
version by "Then welcome to my barbecue!". Similarly, as Magitek
soldiers watch Edgar and his guests escape on Chocobos, one swears
in Japanese, "Son of a bitch!", which was translated by Ted Woolsey
as "Son of a submariner!". The localization also featured changes
to several names, such as "Tina" being changed to "Terra". Finally,
dialogue text files had to be shortened due to the limited data
storage space available on the game cartridge's
read-only memory. As a result, additional
changes were rendered to dialogue in order to compress it into the
available space. This translation was done in only 30 days by
Woolsey alone.
The PlayStation re-release featured only minor changes to the
English localization. The title of the game was reverted back to
Final Fantasy VI from
Final Fantasy III, to unify
the numbering scheme of the series in North America and Japan with
the earlier release of
Final
Fantasy VII. A few item and character names were adjusted,
as in the expansion of "Fenix Down" to "Phoenix Down". Unlike the
PlayStation re-release of
Final Fantasy IV included in the
later
Final Fantasy
Chronicles compilation, the script was left essentially
unchanged. The Game Boy Advance re-release featured a new
translation by a different translator, Tom Slattery. This
translation preserved most of the character names, location names,
and terminology from the Woolsey translation, but changed item and
spell names to match the conventions used in more recent titles in
the series. The revised script preserved certain quirky lines from
the original while changing or editing others, and it cleared up
certain points of confusion in the original translation.
Music
The soundtrack for
Final Fantasy VI was composed by
long-time series contributor
Nobuo
Uematsu. The score consists of themes for each major character
and location, as well as music for standard battles, fights with
boss enemies and for special
cutscenes. The extensive use of
leitmotif
is one of the defining points of the audio tracks. The "
Aria di Mezzo Carattere" is one of
the latter tracks, played during a cutscene involving an
opera performance. This track features an
unintelligible synthesized "voice" that harmonizes with the melody,
as technical limitations for the
SPC700
sound format chip prevented the use of
an actual
vocal track (although some
developers eventually figured out how to overcome the limitation a
few years later). The orchestral album
Final Fantasy VI Grand
Finale features an arranged version of the
aria, using Italian
lyrics
performed by Svetla Krasteva with an orchestral accompaniment. This
version is also found in the ending
full motion video of the game's
Sony PlayStation re-release, with the same lyrics but
a different musical
arrangement. In
addition, the
album Orchestral Game Concert 4
includes an extended version of the opera arranged and conducted by
Kōsuke Onozaki and performed by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra,
featuring Wakako Aokimi, Tetsuya Ōno, and Hiroshi Kuroda on vocals.
It was
also performed at the "More Friends" concert at the Gibson
Amphitheatre
in 2005 using a new English translation of the
lyrics, an album of which is now available. "
Dancing Mad", accompanying the game's final
battle with
Kefka, is 17 minutes long and
contains an
organ cadenza, with variations on Kefka's theme. The
"Ending Theme" combines every playable character theme into one
composition lasting over 21 minutes.
The original score was released on three
Compact Discs in Japan as
Final Fantasy VI:
Original Sound Version. A version of this album was later
released in North America as
Final Fantasy III: Kefka's
Domain; this version of the album is the same as its Japanese
counterpart, except for different packaging and small differences
in the translation of some track names between the album and newer
releases. Additionally,
Final Fantasy VI: Grand
Finale features eleven tracks from the game, arranged by
Shiro Sagisu and Tsuneyoshi Saito and
performed by the Ensemble Archi Della Scala and Orchestra Sinfonica
di Milano (Milan Symphony Orchestra).
Piano Collections: Final
Fantasy VI, a second arranged album, features thirteen
tracks from the game, performed for
piano by
Reiko Nomura. More recently, "
Dancing
Mad", the final boss theme from
Final Fantasy VI, has
been performed at
Play!
A Video Game Symphony in
Stockholm
, Sweden on June 2, 2007, by the group Machinae Supremacy.
Re-releases
PlayStation
Final Fantasy VI was
ported to the
Sony
PlayStation by
TOSE and re-released by
Square in Japan and North America during 1999. In
Japan, it was available both individually and as part of
Final Fantasy
Collection, while it was only available as part of
Final Fantasy
Anthology in North America, and individually in Europe.
Fifty-thousand limited edition copies of the Japanese version were
also released in Japan and included a
Final Fantasy-themed
alarm clock.
Final Fantasy VI s PlayStation re-release is very similar
to the original Japanese release as seen on the
Super Famicom. With the
exception of the addition of two full motion video opening and
ending sequences and new effects used for the start and end of
battles, the graphics, music and sound are left unchanged from the
original version, though some have noted that the sound quality
isn't as good as in the original. The only notable changes to
gameplay (in addition to loading times not present in the cartridge
versions) involve the correction of a few
software bugs from the original and the
addition of a new "memo save" feature, allowing players to quickly
save their progress to the PlayStation's
RAM. The re-release included other
special features, such as a
bestiary and an
artwork gallery.
Game Boy Advance
Final Fantasy VI was ported a second time by
TOSE and re-released as
Final Fantasy VI
Advance by
Square Enix in Japan on
November 30, 2006, by
Nintendo in North
America on February 5, 2007 and in Europe on June 29, 2007 for the
Nintendo Game
Boy Advance. It includes additional gameplay features and
enhanced visuals, as well as a re-translated script that follows
Japanese naming conventions for the spells and monsters, but it
does not feature the full motion videos from the PlayStation
release of the game. Four new espers appear in this re-release:
Leviathan,
Gilgamesh,
Cactuar, and
Diabolos. Two new areas include the Dragons' Den dungeon, which
includes the Kaiser Dragon, a monster coded but not included in the
original, and a "Soul Shrine", a place where the player can fight
monsters continuously. Three new spells also appear, and several
bugs from the original are fixed. In addition, similarly to the
other handheld
Final Fantasy re-releases, a bestiary and a
music player are included. Interestingly, even in the Japanese
version, the music player is in English and uses the American
names, e.g.
Strago over
Stragus. The package
features new artwork by series veteran and original character and
image designer
Yoshitaka
Amano.
Reception
Final Fantasy VI received positive reviews from critics
and was commercially successful. As of March 31, 2003, the game had
shipped 3.48 million copies worldwide, with 2.62 million of those
copies being shipped in Japan and 860,000 abroad.
Final Fantasy
Collection sold over 400,000 copies in 1999, making it the
31st-best-selling release of that year in Japan. It received 54 out
of 60 points from
Weekly Famitsu,
scored by a panel of six reviewers.
Final Fantasy
Anthology has sold approximately 364,000 copies in North
America.
The game garnered rave reviews upon it's original release.
GamePro rated it as 5 out of 5,
stating that "Characters, plotlines, and multiple-choice scenarios
all combine to form one fantastic game!"
Electronic Gaming Monthly
granted a 9 out of 10 and named it game of the month, commenting
that "RPGs with this much depth and realism come once in a blue
moon". It won several awards from
Electronic Gaming
Monthly in their 1994 video game awards, including Best Music
for a Cartridge-Based Game, Best Role-Playing Game, and Best
Japanese Role-Playing Game. Additionally, they later ranked the
game ninth in their 1997 list of the 100 greatest console games of
all time. For their part,
Nintendo
Power declared the game "the RPG hit of the decade",
noting its improved sound and graphics over its predecessors, and
the game's broadened thematic scope. Moreover, they suggested that
"with so much story and variation of play ... fans may become lost
in the world for months at a time". In 1997, they ranked it as the
8th greatest Nintendo game, saying it "had everything you could
want—heroes, world-shattering events, magic, mindless evil—plus
Interceptor the wonder dog!" In April 2008,
ScrewAttack named
Final Fantasy VI the
3rd best SNES game, beaten only by
The Legend of Zelda: A
Link to the Past and
Super
Metroid.
The game was still earning rave reviews after the release of its
PlayStation version, with
GamePro and
Electronic
Gaming Monthly rating it 4 out of 5 and 9.5 out of 10,
respectively.
Nintendo Power repeated again ranked it as
one of the best Nintendo games in 2006, placing it as 13th on their
"Top 200 games on a Nintendo Platform", suggesting that it might be
the "best"
Final Fantasy ever. In 2005, multimedia news
website
IGN ranked
Final Fantasy VI
56th on their list of the 100 greatest games, as the second highest
ranked
Final Fantasy title on the list after
Final Fantasy IV. IGN described the
graphics of the PlayStation re-release as "beautiful and stunning",
reflecting that, at the time of its release, "
Final Fantasy
III... represented everything an RPG should be",
inspiring statistic growth systems that would later influence
titles like
Wild Arms and
Suikoden. Moreover, they praised
its gameplay and storyline, claiming that these aspects took "all
... preceding RPG concepts and either came up with something
completely new or refined them enough to make them its own",
creating an atmosphere in which "[players] won't find it difficult
to get past the simplistic graphics or seemingly out-dated gameplay
conventions and become involved ...". In an updated version of the
"Top 100" list in 2007, IGN ranked
Final Fantasy VI 9th on
the list, above all other
Final Fantasy games in the
series. They continued to cite the game's character development,
and especially noted Kefka as "one of the most memorable bad guys
in RPG history".
Readers of the Japanese
magazine
Famitsu voted it as the 25th best
game of all time in early 2006.
RPGamer gave
a perfect rating to both the original game and its PlayStation
re-release, citing its gameplay as "self-explanatory enough that
most any player could pick up the game and customize their
characters' equipment", while praising its music as "a 16-bit
masterpiece". Alternatively, they describe the game's sound effects
as limited and the game itself as lacking in replay value due to
having "one ending, one [fundamental] path through the plot, and
... [mandatory] sidequests". Additionally, they regarded the game's
English translation as "unremarkable", being "better than some but
worse than others", and offered similar comments for its gameplay
difficulty. However, they referred to the game's storyline as its
"... most unique aspect", citing its large cast of characters,
"nearly all of whom receive a great deal of development", and the
"surprisingly large number of real world issues, the vast majority
of which have not been addressed by any RPG before or since,
ranging from teen pregnancy to suicide". Overall, RPGamer regarded
the game as an "epic masterpiece" and "truly one of the greatest
games ever created".
The game's latest release, for the Game Boy Advance, also garnered
praise. In 2007, the Game Boy Advance re-release was named 8th best
Game Boy Advance game of all time in
IGN's
feature reflecting on the Game Boy Advance's long lifespan. In
2009,
Final Fantasy VI was inducted into the IGN Videogame
Hall of Fame, becoming the second Final Fantasy game to do so. The
only other Final Fantasy to do so was the original
Final Fantasy.
Final Fantasy VI took
the #1 spot on G4 TV's Top Must Own RPG's list in 2008.
Legacy
Final Fantasy VI: The Interactive CG Game (also known as
the
Final Fantasy SGI demo, or
Final Fantasy x
(not related to the actual 10th game in the
Final Fantasy
series,
Final Fantasy X)
was a short
demonstration produced by
Square using characters and settings from
Final Fantasy VI. Produced using new
Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) Onyx
workstations acquired by Square, the demo was
Square's first foray into
3D
graphics, and many assumed that it was a precursor to a new
Final Fantasy title for the
Nintendo 64 video game console, which also used SGI
hardware. Square, however, had not yet committed to Nintendo's
console at the time of the demo's production, and much of the
technology demonstrated in the demo was later put to use in the
rendering of
full motion video
sequences for
Final Fantasy
VII and subsequent games for the
PlayStation. The demo itself featured
Terra Branford,
Locke
Cole, and
Shadow in a
series of battles. The game was controlled largely through
mouse gestures: for example, moving the cursor
in the shape of a star would
summon a dragon to
attack.
References
- Locke: On the surface, Edgar pretends to
support the Empire. The truth is, he's collaborating with the
Returners, an organization opposed to the Empire. I am his contact
with that group... The old man you met in Narshe is one of us.
- Terra: You... saved me? /
Locke: Save your thanks for the Moogles! /
Terra: Uhh... I can't remember anything... past or
present... / Locke: You have amnesia!?
- Banon: Have you made a decision? Will you
become our last ray of hope? ... / Terra: I'll do
it!
- Locke: ...Where's Terra? /
Celes: She changed into a...something, and...took
off. She looked like... She looked like...an Esper...
- (Unidentified character) Terra looks like
she's in pain. / Ramuh: Her very existence strikes
fear into her own heart. / (Unidentified
character) How can we help her? / Ramuh:
When she accepts this aspect of herself, I think she'll be all
right. / (Unidentified character) We have to help
her! / Ramuh: Then free those of my kind
imprisoned in Gestahl's Magitek Research Facility. One of them can
surely help her.
- Ramuh: Gestahl's method is incorrect. You
can't drain a live Esper of all its power. It is only when we are
reduced to Magicite that our abilities can be transferred in
total... / Unspecified character: Pardon!? /
Ramuh: When we transform into Magicite, our power
can be relocated. / Unspecified character:
Magicite...!? / Ramuh: That's what's left of us
when we... pass away.
- (An Esper) Our friends are all gone... We
haven't much time left... We have no choice but to entrust you with
our essences... / Esper: You want to help me...
But... I haven't long to live. Just as Ifrit did before me, I'll
give to you my power...
- Kefka: So that's it! Magicite... ... /
Kefka: General Celes!! The game's over. Bring me
those Magicite shards! / Locke: Celes! You...
deceived me!? / Celes: Of course not! Have a
little faith! / Kefka: G'hee, hee, hee! She has
tricked you all! Celes, that's so... YOU! / Celes:
Locke... Please believe me... / Locke: I... ...
... / Kefka: NOW!! / Kefka:
Exterminate all of them! / Celes: Locke... Let me
protect you for once... Maybe now... Now you'll believe me... /
Kefka: Celes! W... What are you doing? Stop
it!!!
- Terra: Father...? I remember it all... I was
raised in the Esper's world. ... / Terra: I'm the
product of an Esper and a human... That's where I got my powers...
Now I understand... I finally feel I can begin to control this
power of mine...
- Arvis: I see... Your plan would combine
Narshe's money with Figaro's machinery to storm the Empire... not
enough manpower, though... / Banon: We have to
open the sealed gate... Terra!? / Terra: To the
Esper World...? / Arvis: We'll never beat the
Empire without them. / Banon: When the gate has
been opened, the Espers can attack from the east. We'll storm in at
the same time, from the north. No way around it. We MUST get the
Espers to understand. We have to establish a bond of trust between
humans and Espers. Only one person can do this... Terra... /
Terra: Half human, half Esper... My existence is
proof that such a bond CAN exist... I'll do it. I'm the only one
who can!
- Gestahl: I've lost my will to fight... ... /
Gestahl: I've ordered this war to be over! Now I
must ask for a favour... After they devastated my Empire, the
Espers headed northward, towards Crescent Island. They must be
found...! We must tell them we're no longer their enemy. After all
that I have put them through, it is up to me to set things right.
That is why... I need to borrow Terra's power. Only Terra can
bridge the gap between Esper and human. We must make for Crescent
Island aboard the freighter from Albrook. Will you accompany
me?
- Kefka: G'ha, ha, ha! Emperor's orders! I'm to
bring the Magicite remains of these Espers to his excellency!
Behold! A Magicite mother lode!!
- Setzer: We've been had!! The Emperor is a
liar! ... / Edgar: I got to know the gal who
brought us tea. After a while, she just blurted out the whole
crooked plan.
- Cid: Celes... at last...! You're finally
awake... / Celes: I... feel like I've been
sleeping forever... / Cid: For one year,
actually... ... / Cid: We're on a tiny, deserted
island. After the world crumbled, I awoke to find us here together
with... a few strangers. / Cid: Since that day,
the world's continued its slide into ruin. Animals and plants are
dying... The few others who washed up here with us passed away of
boredom and despair.
- Celes: Terra! What's wrong? The Magicite...
Magic is disappearing from this world... / Edgar:
The Espers... They no longer exist... / Celes: You
mean Terra, too? / Terra: Come with me. I can lead
you out with my last ounce of strength.
External links
Top topics
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Misc
Search
