Today's installment has been co-written with the Gamefaqs & RPGamer review sections. It's also far too long. I'm sorry.
There are two types of games. Only two types. The greatest game of all time and the rest of the games in the world. Those are the two types of games. And Final Fantasy III just happens to be the greatest game of all time.
- FFreak21
Yeah, that's a slight exaggeration right there. It's the same attitude that inspired the (now defunct) Spoony Inc.'s Final Fantasy VI Project, in which they went to the extent of playing through the entire game and pointing out its shortcomings one by one - not because they disliked the game, but they disliked the fanatical, almost religious fanbase that had built up around it. Gosh, I sure hope I never do anything like that!
That's TREASURE HUNTER >_<
The continued popularity of FF6, I think, comes down to this: FF6 is always as hard / easy / fast / slow / tactical / simple / open / linear / serious / whimsical as the player feels like it should be. The early games will always be hard, require the player to take time out to level up, and have unforgiving dungeons. The later games will always be easy, have some alternate stat-building system, and feature tiny dungeons where the only challenge comes from the boss. FF6, sitting smack-bang in between the two, manages to have the best of both worlds by making the compulsory sections easy, and putting all the complicated, difficult parts on the periphery for the player to explore at their leisure. This makes it difficult to find problems with, since if there's a certain aspect you aren't happy with, you can just ignore it and get on with the game. Try saying that about the Junction, Materia or Sphere Grid systems.
The World of Ruin is the most perfect example of this: There are thirteen missing characters to find, eight dragons to kill, a coliseum, a forest full of dinosaurs that can kill the whole party in one turn, massive optional dungeons containing unique items, Lore / Rage skills to acquire on the Veldt, shields to uncurse, espers to find... and you don't technically have to do any of it. The people who just want to finish the game will immediately head to Kefka's tower. People playing for the storyline will grab all the characters, make sure they all get closure on their mini-dramas, then head to Kefka's tower. Other people will hang around a bit longer, learning spells, killing off the eight dragons, and cleaning out the optional dungeons. Some people will never go to the tower at all, instead undertaking personal quests for the sake of it, like finding every single piece of "Imp" equipment, uncursing the Paladin shield, or seeing what rare items it's possible to get at the coliseum. All these people will be satisfied. Ergo, it is The Best Game Ever.
Or the most fun, anyway. For people who happen to like RPGs a lot. And only play consoles.
Final Fantasy VI’s storyline just can’t be beat. Final Fantasy VI has a very deep storyline with many twists and surprises along the way. The story keeps getting interesting every step of the way and never ceases to surprise or amaze me. It also incorporates evils from reality into it (but I’m not going to ruin anything here)
- Dranis
His full name is Cid Del Norte Marguez. So now you know.
The key difference between the storylines of the SNES era and the PS1 era is the difference between the stories you wrote when you were eight, and the stories you wrote when you were sixteen. One is charmingly naive, ridiculous, and makes you laugh; the other makes you cringe and ask yourself (1) Why did I ever think this was good? and (2) WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT!?!
Let's all have a look at FF6's storyline for a second: There's an evil empire who presently have control over the only person in the world who could communicate with the creatures they want to enslave, even though they've already enslaved them. She's so important, in fact, that they send her right into enemy territory along with two low-ranking 'bodyguards' who care so much about her safety that they hide behind her because "There's no sense taking any risks". She's being controlled by a magic crown that makes anyone who wears it totally obedient to The Empire, but they never think to use it again on anyone else, even after two of their three generals turn traitor. A group of rebels rescue her, and then immediately send her running alone through a hostile city in broad daylight, then into some caves full of ghosts and hunchbacked guys who throw wrenches. The cave floor than collapses for no apparent reason, and she has a flashback in which she remembers that The Empire is planning on resurrecting the ancient power of magic, even though they already have a research facility that's pumping out magic-powered robots, and can infuse regular people with magic power - and, even without magic, they have enough power to dominate the entire world anyway.
She gets rescued by a thief and bunch of goblin / cat / bat things (who just happen to be there). They run off to meet the king, who's castle is closer to the town he doesn't control than the town he does. The Empire are so concerned with recapturing magic-girl that they burn down the castle she's hiding in. Our Heroes climb a mountain and get attacked by a monk for absolutely no reason, but are saved by the king's long-lost brother (who just happened to be there). Meeting with the resistance, we learn that the girl and her magic powers are the key to victory against The Empire, because she's the only person alive who can talk to espers... at the moment, anyway, because later on we meet a bunch of them and they're quite chatty regardless of one's parentage. Then, in order to stop them being killed and turned into magicite, they give you their power by killing themselves and turning into magicite.
There's a legendary general with magic powers who can still be imprisoned in someone's basement by a soldier who can't stay awake. They don't trust her, then they do, then they don't, then they do, then she suddenly manifests the power to destroy an entire room full of soldiers, but never again. There are some ghosts on a haunted train, which also happens to be the only train in the entire world, and can only be stopped by killing the engine, even though it's already dead, even though trains aren't alive to start with. The rescued general just happens to be the exact double of a famous opera singer, so she's used as bait to lure The Wandering Gambler, who owns not only the world's only airship, but the world's only casino. An island takes off into the sky for no reason, and it has three statues on it, and the world will end if they're ever moved. The bad guy moves them because he's bad, and that's what bad guys do! Despite everyone being involved in a mid-air explosion over the sea, they all manage to survive.
Later, you physically destroy the statues, and nothing happens. Killing the bad guy, however, instantly fixes everything. You'll also be repeatedly harassed by a talking purple octopus with teeth, who shows up without any explanation, and then becomes a receptionist.
A very deep story!
I don't mean anything negative by the above, you understand. Yeah, it's a load of rubbish, but it's a load of entertaining rubbish that constantly finds new things for the player to do, as opposed to a tedious load of rubbish that finds new ways for the writers to pretend to be clever. They thought up a bunch of cool stuff for the player to do, then worked backwards, instead of shoe-horning dungeons into a teenage love-story.
AVOID THE ENEMIES!
FF6 very rarely repeats itself. Of course it's a console RPG, and therefore you're going to wander around in dungeons taking turns to hit monsters, but look at how many variations it creates: You start off as a nigh-on invincible group of three soldiers, riding awesomely-powerful robots. When that's finished, you're immediately forced into the opposite position (ooo-err) of being alone and vulnerable, with only a knife to protect you. Having completed that section, you're now in control of three parties at once, playing a pseudo-Real Time Strategy game, where the objective is to protect, rather than attack. Mt. Koltz is a 'traditional' dungeon, but the next one involves white-water rafting, in which the player has no control over the pacing, cannot heal the characters outside of battle, and must keep a certain party member alive or suffer instant defeat. A later section takes place in a town, with very little combat, where the aim is to infiltrate a house through gathering information and using disguises. There's a forest which loops back on itself if you take the wrong route, leading to a train which the characters must work out how to derail by talking to the conductor. A re-tread through the caves from the start could have been dull, but it's broken up by a (ridiculous) 'security system' puzzle, followed by another multi-party battle. The game is now 1/3 over, and has managed to include more variety in its design than the previous five games put together. Most crucially, none of these ideas are gimmicks; they are simply variations on the core gameplay established from the very beginning, and as such feel totally natural and don't require the player to suddenly keep track of how many frogs they're carrying. Instead of relying on contrived minigames to break up the monotony, FF6 simply avoids being monotonous in the first place.
The villain in the game is the most underwhelming aspect of the game. Sure, he's insane, but that doesn't seem to be enough in a game that tries to be this epic. This game needed an epic villain, one who would do more than laugh at your characters, and Kefka does not fit that bill.
- Falsiloquos
Lots of people seem to have a problem with Kefka, because he "isn't evil enough". This seems to be entirely due to the way he looks, rather than acts: He's dressed like a clown, therefore he can't possibly be as evil as a guy in a black cape. I'm not quite sad enough to keep count, but I'm fairly sure Kefka commits more atrocities than any other villain in the series: He poisons the population of Doma, orphans the children of Mobliz, humiliates and murders the only genuinely good person in The Empire, unleashes a race of uncontrollable monsters into the world, kills so many Espers that it borders on genocide, burns down towns to prove a point, and (of course) actually makes the world end. None of it is remotely honorable, either - his targets are usually defenseless civillians, and when they do pose a threat, he stabs them in the back or poisons them rather than engage them on equal terms. When he laughs, it isn't because he's gloating, it's because he's a sadist. It's notable that Kefka is the only villain in the series we ever really get to know - he isn't a distant, omnipotent figure like Sephiroth, ExDeath or Sin; just a dangerously crazy little man who dresses and acts in embarrassing ways. While plenty of disaffected teenagers wanted, at one time or another, to be Sephiroth and fly about the world through magical plot holes and kill their physics teacher with a samurai sword, you can't feel that way about Kefka. When people say that Kefka isn't a good villain, what they really mean is that they don't admire him, because he's ugly, stupid, petty and small. Good. I don't want to admire the villain - he's the bad guy. He's evil and he kills people for no reason. Sadistic, unbalanced mass-murderers shouldn't be made into sexy, tragic figures with superpowers. Take a look at the serial killers and warmongers in the real world - they're all little people. They aren't Sephiroth.
Ted Woolsey has done a decent job with the translation of Final Fantasy 6. It does, however, come off as inappropriately funny at times, and even a little slapdash. It appears Mr. Woolsey took to a fair number of liberties with the original Japanese, inserting American slang phrases and replacing curses with such ridiculous substitutions as "Son of a submariner".
- Michael Beckett
THIS DIALOGUE IS BAD! HE SHOULD SAY "LAMENT" MORE!
Fuck you, Mike. People have the same problem with Ted Woolsey's translation as they do with Kefka: It doesn't make a big deal out of being serious, therefore it must have absolutely no merit. FF6's dialogue, more than any other game in the series, succeeds in making the characters not talk like a bunch of ciphers standing around explaining the plot to each other. "My life is a chip in your pile", "You licentious howler!", "Run, run, or you'll be well done!" and "I'm a receptionist! G'fa ha ha!" aren't going to win Ted a Purlitzer by any stretch, but they're not dull either. The other games are allegedly more dignified, but how much of their dialogue is memorable? "I don't care about the planet, I just want my money"? At least FF6 knew it was ridiculous.
I've played the fan-translated ROM, which managed to suck all the fun out of the dialogue by trying to sound 'cool'. Prime example:
Edgar: This wouldn't have anything to do with the 'bitch' everyone's been talking about?
Honestly, people.
It's as I have said in other reviews: "An RPG is like a book. Random battles interrupt the book. Imagine sitting down reading a great novel and then being interrupted with banging of pots and pans!" Thats just what is like in FFIII, and the horrible battle music is the pots and pans! And I don't know if it got to you FFIII lover's or not, but the 4 direction walking GOT ON MY NERVES!
- CLR
Brian Blessed?
I don't have anything to add to this, I just thought it was funny.
Conclude!
It's Final Fantasy's Greatest Hits. There's nothing in here we haven't seen before in one form or another, but it's all been polished and tweaked to the point where they don't feel recycled anymore. Sabin might be a monk, but the fact he has his own unique Street Figher-esque moves puts him light-years beyond "like a fighter, but with no weapons and more HP". By creating The Veldt, a confined area where every single monster in the game can potentially show up, the player is given free reign to steal, tame, morph, and learn blue magic without backtracking. The massive cast of specialised characters allows the creation of a diverse party without having to manage a class system. When the game is done with the world map, it blows it up and makes a new one. This is made by people who looked at the previous games, grabbed the best bits and made them even better. Not that resting on your laurels is necessarily a good thing (hello, FF9!), but this time they'd earned it.
PS. Why do people insist that Gogo is really Daryl when Daryl's tomb contains a casket with "HERE LIES DARYL" engraved on it?
ANTHONY R WOMBLE REMEMBERS...
I recall an event which occurred at an unnamed forum I used to frequent before it sold out, whilst I was magnanimously educating the masses with regard to the miriad of contemptuous changes made to Final Fantasy VI's dialogue by one T. Woolsey. A mainstream gamer made the farcical argument that T. Woolsey was the only RPG dialogue translator who made the 'knight' characters talk in Old English, which he incorrectly claimed added to their personalities. "Maybe you should play these games again after being educated!", I chuckled derisively, "Cyan does not speak Old English at all, you ignorant jackanapes! Rather, T. Woolsey has merely placed 'thee' and 'thou' in common English dialogue, and done so in a grammatically incorrect fashion. If the dialogue had been written in true Old English, only sufficiently intellectual gamers such as myself could have understood it. I only wish it had have been, if only to keep slack-jawed cretins such as yourself away from a genre you lack the mental faculties to truly appreciate!". I repeatedly asked the forum moderator to ban him for being so inconsiderately rude, but a bug in the system somehow caused me to become banned instead, in between the 23rd and 27th requests. It's their loss.
That's TREASURE HUNTER >_<
His full name is Cid Del Norte Marguez. So now you know.
THIS DIALOGUE IS BAD! HE SHOULD SAY "LAMENT" MORE!
Brian Blessed?
I recall an event which occurred at an unnamed forum I used to frequent before it sold out, whilst I was magnanimously educating the masses with regard to the miriad of contemptuous changes made to Final Fantasy VI's dialogue by one T. Woolsey. A mainstream gamer made the farcical argument that T. Woolsey was the only RPG dialogue translator who made the 'knight' characters talk in Old English, which he incorrectly claimed added to their personalities. "Maybe you should play these games again after being educated!", I chuckled derisively, "Cyan does not speak Old English at all, you ignorant jackanapes! Rather, T. Woolsey has merely placed 'thee' and 'thou' in common English dialogue, and done so in a grammatically incorrect fashion. If the dialogue had been written in true Old English, only sufficiently intellectual gamers such as myself could have understood it. I only wish it had have been, if only to keep slack-jawed cretins such as yourself away from a genre you lack the mental faculties to truly appreciate!". I repeatedly asked the forum moderator to ban him for being so inconsiderately rude, but a bug in the system somehow caused me to become banned instead, in between the 23rd and 27th requests. It's their loss.
