Final Fantasy VI was released as Final Fantasy III in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was a very different game from what came before. Other installments had a set cast of characters, many of which the player could build as they saw fit. VI, however, had a wide cast with a mix of set skills and an open learning system. In the years since its release, it has become known as a classic loved by millions worldwide. And for good reason, too.
The most notable thing Final Fantasy VI does is have a massive list of playable characters with no true main character. Including the secret characters, there are fourteen in total, and four of them can be viewed as the main character. Each had a unique playstyle and interesting character arc. With this comes good and bad. There are a handful of characters that anyone can get attached to. There are also a handful of characters that people can hate. I often spoke about how much I think Locke sucks, so let's finalize that here. I’ll just talk about in battle characteristics, for now. I never found his damage to be good and his unique skill, Steal, has such an awful success rate that it’s more detrimental to have him on your team. Setzer is a gambler through and through. His special, Slots, is something that I never really understood. You select his stuff, and a slot machine interface shows up. I used it as often as I could, and I only “won” once. A mini-airship appeared on screen to do nominal damage. Every other time, I was healed for a few dozen hit points. He’s unreliable, and hitting the jackpot is underwhelming compared to the damage other characters do. Some characters also aren’t very unique. Strago is the clear Blue Mage, but Gau and Relm also have specials that involve enemy skills. The last two involve borderline random, unreliable damage. Relm has a lot of utility if you equip her with a FakeMoustqche, allowing her to control the enemies, so she gets a pass. Gau's massive list of nothing, though, is disappointing. Mog would also fit into the random and unreliable category. You can’t control what Dance he does, and I found their damage, in the rare event they actually hit, to be pretty low. Many of his dances can inflict death on an enemy, but the ones you need that to work on are immune to the effect, meaning it's another wasted turn.
Several other good characters also have questionable skills. Cyan’s SwdTech meter charges so slowly you never get to the max charge unless you want to risk your other characters being killed. Celes' Runic has odd timing, sometimes letting spells through before you select another action. I never used Terra’s Morph skill. I think it’s supposed to double damage given and received. On the flip side, Edgar used his spear to attack less often than I used Slots. As far as I'm concerned, he's the first drill user in RPGs. Shadow uses Throw as a special, which is something I rarely do in games. It’s nice, and I have nothing negative to say about it if you're into that thing.
While we’re on the topic of battle, let’s talk about the leveling system. It's awful. You only gain stats when an Esper is equipped, and that stat is dependent on the Esper. It’s tedious, annoying, and wasteful. If you’re trying to learn a spell, you run the risk of losing out on stats. And there’s only so many stats of a particular type around. There are two good Vigor and Magic training Espers in the whole game, and two of them are found late into the plot. If you’re trying to level two physical attackers, one will fall behind. The same can be said for mages. And other stats are mostly useless. The HP/MP trainers are so small you’ll never notice the difference, and Stamina has no bearing on the game. Period. Some Espers don’t give you anything. In between the two worlds, some characters advance fifteen levels. They gain no stats during that time. This is my least favorite thing about FFVI by a wide margin. It's even worse than Locke.
My second least favorite thing is how indifferent half of the characters are to the overarching plot while having terrible personalities or no reason to be playable. First up is my least favorite character in any video game: Setzer. Firstly, he was going to rape Maria. He’s not a hero and doesn’t belong in the party for that alone. Secondly, he has no reason to be with the group. In the original Japanese script, he says the Empire is costing him money, but in the NA script, they’ve made him money. Even going by the JP version, why does he stay with the crew? How has Gesthal affected him? Have they outlawed gambling, his only character trait? He’s even given up on fighting in the WoR. Locke keeps the corpse of his dead girlfriend in his basement. There are a lot of red flags there, Celes. He does, though, give us a reason why he joined the Returners, but it’s one line and has no follow-up. This is odd because we know Rachel was killed by the Empire, so just make mention of her and not some random person who got locked up and died in jail. Also, Locke sucks. Gau has even less reason to join the party. He wasn’t affected at all by the Empire. Even the end of the world didn’t change him. The same can be said for Mog. "Ramuh told him to" is his only reason. Why did Ramuh tell him and not, say, General Leo? There’s a third of the cast that doesn’t belong. I believe that if those four characters were gone, then what the game does best would shine even brighter. Let us know more about the important characters, or make the less important ones (the Thamasa Crew) feel like they belong.
The characters that do matter are among the best in the genre. Celes is a, literal, tortured former general of the enemy who ends up being the driving force of change in the second half of the game. Her arc from being a lost soul, unsure of her place in the world because her friends don’t trust her, to being the last bit of hope in a dead world is deserving of a main character nod. Cid dying and her attempted suicide may be profound, but the finding of a family and wanting everyone still alive to be happy is the whole plot in the WoR. And couple her with the main villain, Kefka. They both were generals of the Empire who were human guinea pigs for human-magic hybrids. Celes could just as easily became what Kefka is, and I’ve always wondered what made the two different.
Terra is a young woman who’s never had a past. She’s been controlled by the Empire her entire life, never allowed to live. She was confused by love and emotions, unsure of herself and her lineage, before finding love as a motherly figure for a group of orphans in the WoR and ending her journey. It’s a simple and understandable twist.
Edgar and Locke are two sides of the same coin. Both fair and strong with similar goals, but each has different ways of reaching those goals.
Cyan saw his entire kingdom, king, and family die. The last he witnessed three times. He could have easily attempted suicide, like Celes, but didn’t. He remained resolute, even through despair, and wanted to keep others from feeling the same. I almost started crying typing that.
Locke has plot relevance, but, again, the corpse of his girlfriend is in his basement...
Kefka is an over-the-top villain with a number of funny and witty oneliners, as well as capable of mass destruction without blinking an eye. He's memorable and someone you want to kill. Not only that, but he's one of the few villains to actually achieve his dream of world destruction. Why isn't he in Smash?
Now, it’s not perfect. I like Relm and Strago, but what are their arcs and character growth? I’m fine with them lacking individuality, but they don’t change throughout the game. They have a reason to join the party, but there should be more there. I also like Mog, but I won’t restate what I've already said. The point I’m trying to make is the “bad” characters bring down the amazing ones. How much more could we learn about the first six characters if the boring ones were gone? I want to know more about Celes and Terra’s upbringing. There’s some dialogue where Celes says she’s known of Terra. Go into detail! The same can be said for the Figaro brothers. Why is Sabin a monk while Edgar is a nobleman? I'd like to have seen more Cyan and Celes' rivalry. It's worth more than just the introduction scene.
Another thing VI does amazingly is the music. Terra’s theme may be the best overworld theme ever. Celes, and the opera scene it shares a motif with, are as iconic as any Uematsu, Mitsuda, Sakuraba, or Kondo song ever composed. I’m a sucker for One Winged Angel, but Dancing Mad is just as deserving of praise. The calming songs are perfect and meditative, while the action tunes are catchy and get me in the mood to fight. There’s a reason FFVI has so many remixes on OverClocked Remix.
I just want to say a quick thing about a potential remake. I think VI was more deserving than VII. Clean some things up, remove the technical limitations the SNES brought about, and a lot of my problems would be gone. All they'd have to do, storywise, is let Locke bury Rachel. I’m not upset he’s not over her. It took me four years to get over my first broken heart, so I understand, but why did he steal the body from the grave? Why would Celes fall in love with that creep? Feel free to make him an Unquiet Grave type character. As for Setzer, have Daryl killed by the Empire and make him an opera fan there to see Maria. Ultros tries to kill Celes/Maria, and Setzer joins us to save her. Give the other characters some depth and make the leveling system better, and you have a game that’s as good as the most diehard VI fan thinks it is.
Lastly, I’ll talk about my Job Class Challenge. I feel like it failed. Due to the magic system being tied to Espers and stat games, a lot of characters learned magic I didn’t want them to. Sabin and Cyan shouldn’t have learned all the early Black Magic spells, but the best Vigor gain Esper was Bismark, who teaches them. A lot of green and debuff spells are also mixed strangely for this challenge. I tried not to use them, but early on, I had to. If I try again, I will end up using the Brave New World mod, even with its difficulty stuff, just to properly experience such a challenge. It was something that brought me closer to FFVII, so maybe it can do the same for VI.
Final Fantasy VI is regarded by many to be a masterpiece. It’s probably not, but it has a plethora of things going for it. It’s a shining light in a desolate world, dirtied by a few major problems.
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