Link to original post: [drupal=1352]Why I love Final Fantasy VI[/drupal]
It's a well known fact that I'm a big fan of the game Final Fantasy VI. It's something of a running joke that every time someone mentions the game on the forums, I immediately post in large font and caps, "DID SOMEONE MENTION FINAL FANTASY VI?!" I had an avatar for a while that was a picture of Terra (which apparently led several people to believe that I was a female
). However, there are dozens of RPGs out there; in fact, there are dozens of Final Fantasies alone. So why this one, which came out in 1994 when I was only nine years old? What's so special about this Final Fantasy?
To explain that, I suppose I should start at the beginning. No, the beginning was not 1994. Full disclosure time: I never actually played Final Fantasy VI on the SNES. Back then it was known as Final Fantasy III, to keep unsuspecting American gamers unaware of the fact that we'd missed out on three Final Fantasies. I didn't actually play Final Fantasy VI until 2001, when I was fifteen years old and a sophomore in high school.
I hadn't heard anything special about the game; I'd downloaded it along with several other ROMs on my computer when I finally got ZSNES. I wasn't even that much into RPGs. Yeah I'd played Earthbound and Super Mario RPG, but I skipped the Tales games, Breath of Fire, Shining Force, etc. But so many people had talked about how amazing Final Fantasy VII was (I never owned a Playstation, I was one of the N64 kids), so I figured I'd finally give the series a try. I loaded up ZSNES and selected FF3.fig. Yes, even the ROM was labeled Final Fantasy III.
I was instantly hooked. The very first time I played the game, I sat in front of my computer and played the game for ten hours straight. Mind you, at this point our computer didn't have a desk yet, so it was on the floor. It was also my first time playing an RPG as complex as FF VI, so I got lost quite easily. I sat on the floor, roaming around South Figaro for ten hours. And I loved every second of it.
My lack of understanding in terms of Final Fantasy games came back to haunt me though. I was under the false impression that one only needed to pass through the blue, glowing save points in order to save. I didn't know that you actually had to open the menu and select save. I played the game for that ten hour stretch, and turned the game off. When I went back the next day, my data was gone. I was so furious, with myself and the game, that I almost stopped playing forever. I took about a week to calm down, and the next weekend I went back at it. I got my time down substantially as well; I got back to the same point in only about three hours of play.
From there, my experience is a blur of incredible memories punctuated by some of the greatest moments in gaming. The opera scene was one of the most elaborate things I'd ever seen in an RPG up to that point, and it was a beautiful musical experience on top of that. My party was severely under-leveled when I came to Ultros at the end of the opera, and it took me several times to beat him. I didn't mind, as reliving the opera was something that I looked forward to. That scene is what began my obsession with videogame music. I immediately went online to find it, and I found the 23-minute orchestrated version from Orchestral Game Concert 4. I was on dial-up back then, and it took me over an hour to download the 25 mb file, and it was totally worth it. I listened to the whole thing over and over, and even transcribed part of the song into a solo for the clarinet, my instrument (I played that song at my grandmother's retirement party, and everyone loved it. Of course, I didn't tell them where the song came from!)
There were so many other great moments: Celes' suicide attempt, which is still one of my favorite moments from any game; Terra's realization of her heritage; the "end" of the world; Locke trying to revive Rachel; the death of Cyan's family and the scene with the Phantom Train; Gau finding his father, and a hundred other moments that, when taken by themselves are good, but come together to form an extraordinary narrative that hasn't been matched since, in my mind at least.
It took me 65 hours to beat the game, doing the bare minimum in most cases. There in lay the other great thing about the game. On future plays, I was able to discover so many things I didn't know about the first time through the game: the secret dreams of Shadow, the Paladin Shield, the secret characters and so many other easter eggs and surprises. The second time it took me 35 hours, and I did twice as much as I had in my first play through.
Eventually I tired of playing the game on my computer, and I bought the Anthology version for PlayStation. What a mistake that was. The loading times essentially ruined the experience. Imagine ten-second loading times for EVERY RANDOM BATTLE. But I loved the game so much that I beat the Anthology version not once, but twice. That is the depths of my mania. I've beaten the game at least ten times, my last play through coming during the first trimester of my wife's pregnancy. She slept so much that I beat the game in a week.
Final Fantasy VI was so amazing to me, that I decided to play every Final Fantasy game, and every Square RPG I could get my hands on. I played Chrono Trigger, and absolutely loved it. Then I went back to play the PSOne era RPGs I'd missed, starting with Final Fantasy VII. VII was a good game, but I didn't see why it garnered the hype it did. I tried others: Legend of Dragoon, Final Fantasy VIII, Chrono Cross, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, and others. Tactics was great as well, but I hated all the other games and didn't even bother finishing them. After that, I thought that I was just an old-school RPG guy, so I went back to play Final Fantasies IV and V. Once again, I didn't finish them. It's not that they can't compare to VI, because that's not a fair comparison to make. It's just that I'm not an RPG guy, and FF VI was that rare RPG that actually compelled me to finish it.
So now, if you see me screaming about Final Fantasy VI, you know why. It's my favorite RPG and my favorite game, hands down. It's spawned some of the best remixes in the world (see OverClocked ReMix), and continues to have a strong fanbase who will argue with the other Square fanboys about what the greatest RPG of all time is. If you haven't played it, what's stopping you? And if you have, play it again. It's that darn good.
It's a well known fact that I'm a big fan of the game Final Fantasy VI. It's something of a running joke that every time someone mentions the game on the forums, I immediately post in large font and caps, "DID SOMEONE MENTION FINAL FANTASY VI?!" I had an avatar for a while that was a picture of Terra (which apparently led several people to believe that I was a female
To explain that, I suppose I should start at the beginning. No, the beginning was not 1994. Full disclosure time: I never actually played Final Fantasy VI on the SNES. Back then it was known as Final Fantasy III, to keep unsuspecting American gamers unaware of the fact that we'd missed out on three Final Fantasies. I didn't actually play Final Fantasy VI until 2001, when I was fifteen years old and a sophomore in high school.
I hadn't heard anything special about the game; I'd downloaded it along with several other ROMs on my computer when I finally got ZSNES. I wasn't even that much into RPGs. Yeah I'd played Earthbound and Super Mario RPG, but I skipped the Tales games, Breath of Fire, Shining Force, etc. But so many people had talked about how amazing Final Fantasy VII was (I never owned a Playstation, I was one of the N64 kids), so I figured I'd finally give the series a try. I loaded up ZSNES and selected FF3.fig. Yes, even the ROM was labeled Final Fantasy III.
I was instantly hooked. The very first time I played the game, I sat in front of my computer and played the game for ten hours straight. Mind you, at this point our computer didn't have a desk yet, so it was on the floor. It was also my first time playing an RPG as complex as FF VI, so I got lost quite easily. I sat on the floor, roaming around South Figaro for ten hours. And I loved every second of it.
My lack of understanding in terms of Final Fantasy games came back to haunt me though. I was under the false impression that one only needed to pass through the blue, glowing save points in order to save. I didn't know that you actually had to open the menu and select save. I played the game for that ten hour stretch, and turned the game off. When I went back the next day, my data was gone. I was so furious, with myself and the game, that I almost stopped playing forever. I took about a week to calm down, and the next weekend I went back at it. I got my time down substantially as well; I got back to the same point in only about three hours of play.
From there, my experience is a blur of incredible memories punctuated by some of the greatest moments in gaming. The opera scene was one of the most elaborate things I'd ever seen in an RPG up to that point, and it was a beautiful musical experience on top of that. My party was severely under-leveled when I came to Ultros at the end of the opera, and it took me several times to beat him. I didn't mind, as reliving the opera was something that I looked forward to. That scene is what began my obsession with videogame music. I immediately went online to find it, and I found the 23-minute orchestrated version from Orchestral Game Concert 4. I was on dial-up back then, and it took me over an hour to download the 25 mb file, and it was totally worth it. I listened to the whole thing over and over, and even transcribed part of the song into a solo for the clarinet, my instrument (I played that song at my grandmother's retirement party, and everyone loved it. Of course, I didn't tell them where the song came from!)
There were so many other great moments: Celes' suicide attempt, which is still one of my favorite moments from any game; Terra's realization of her heritage; the "end" of the world; Locke trying to revive Rachel; the death of Cyan's family and the scene with the Phantom Train; Gau finding his father, and a hundred other moments that, when taken by themselves are good, but come together to form an extraordinary narrative that hasn't been matched since, in my mind at least.
It took me 65 hours to beat the game, doing the bare minimum in most cases. There in lay the other great thing about the game. On future plays, I was able to discover so many things I didn't know about the first time through the game: the secret dreams of Shadow, the Paladin Shield, the secret characters and so many other easter eggs and surprises. The second time it took me 35 hours, and I did twice as much as I had in my first play through.
Eventually I tired of playing the game on my computer, and I bought the Anthology version for PlayStation. What a mistake that was. The loading times essentially ruined the experience. Imagine ten-second loading times for EVERY RANDOM BATTLE. But I loved the game so much that I beat the Anthology version not once, but twice. That is the depths of my mania. I've beaten the game at least ten times, my last play through coming during the first trimester of my wife's pregnancy. She slept so much that I beat the game in a week.
Final Fantasy VI was so amazing to me, that I decided to play every Final Fantasy game, and every Square RPG I could get my hands on. I played Chrono Trigger, and absolutely loved it. Then I went back to play the PSOne era RPGs I'd missed, starting with Final Fantasy VII. VII was a good game, but I didn't see why it garnered the hype it did. I tried others: Legend of Dragoon, Final Fantasy VIII, Chrono Cross, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, and others. Tactics was great as well, but I hated all the other games and didn't even bother finishing them. After that, I thought that I was just an old-school RPG guy, so I went back to play Final Fantasies IV and V. Once again, I didn't finish them. It's not that they can't compare to VI, because that's not a fair comparison to make. It's just that I'm not an RPG guy, and FF VI was that rare RPG that actually compelled me to finish it.
So now, if you see me screaming about Final Fantasy VI, you know why. It's my favorite RPG and my favorite game, hands down. It's spawned some of the best remixes in the world (see OverClocked ReMix), and continues to have a strong fanbase who will argue with the other Square fanboys about what the greatest RPG of all time is. If you haven't played it, what's stopping you? And if you have, play it again. It's that darn good.
That explains the wobbling...
