Thoughts on FF6

Thoughts on FF6, one of the greatest games of all time. If you haven't played it, you probably should.

(Spoilers ahead):

Final Fantasy VI has been built up by pretty much everyone I knew. My friend from school gave me his copy and said I needed to play it. I was hesitant because I had never really played a JRPG outside of SMRPG. I had loaded it up a few times, but never really got into it. When I started my 100 Game Challenge™, this game made the list. This was the 4th game picked for the challenge by Twitch friend Lizzie. I started playing this in February of 2015. It was a rainy day and I was ready to have a comfy stream all day, so I decided to start on it. 15 months later, I beat the game, and I'm not sure I've ever had a more satisfying conclusion to a video game in my life.

I started my playthrough with probably a few dozen watchers, most of whom had beaten the game already. I believe they were excited to watch me play a game for the first time that they have held dearly for years. I named characters after people that were there on that fateful day. Lizzie (Terra), Lack (Locke), Chaseworld (Edward), Narshe223 (Sabin), Error72 (Cyan), jkoper (Gau), MrCab55 (Setzer), KitKat (Relm), fcoughlin (Strago) were all recognized. It was fun sharing the experience that day with some of the characters that I got early. Just a few of those characters were named on the first day, and more trickled in as I progressed.

Some worthy mentions from the playthrough in no particular order:
1. The longest I was stuck was when I had to clear the camp from the bridge by the Esper homeworld. Everytime I'd enter I would get thrown out, not knowing what to do. I went to every town on the map, not finding anything. Finally, I realized I hadn't been to the town of Narshe, possibly confused by the fact that a character was named for a twitch user who was named for the town. I finally was on my way and unstuck.

2. I really liked the active battle system as opposed to SMRPG, it gave the battles a sense of urgency that I really enjoyed. This was the best especially in boss battles, where I felt like I would die if I didn't make a move quickly.

3. Not reading the instruction manual at the beginning was a big setback over the course of the playthrough. Basic elements of playing the game and understanding the nature of JRPGs in general went over my head.

4. I wasn't ever attached to the game until the Opera House. It was emotional, as I finally connected with the characters and who they have been built up to be all this time. The song itself is heavy, and the underlying meaning really got to me.

5. Kefka is the single greatest villain in video games. I genuinely disliked him when General Leo went down, and wanted to destroy him right then and there. The buildup from him misaligning the statues and capturing the Espers hit me deep down. He was insane, and didn't care about what he was doing. There was never any redemption for his character (thankfully, because I wanted to hate him). Completely throughout the World of Ruin, I knew he was just waiting for me to show up. I didn't know what I needed to do beforehand, but I wanted to be ready. As I've read from others' opinions, he IS the villain you love to hate, because the game wouldn't be as good without him just the way he is.

6. After travelling to the floating continent, I thought the game was nearing its end. When the cutscene of the world blowing up and ripping apart happened, I was in shock. I had no idea it was coming. There was basically a whole new game ahead of me and I was so excited. The song 'Metamorphasis' just left me in disbelief when Kefka was carrying out his plan. I never got mad at a character like I got mad at him in that moment. It makes you want to shout "You can't be serious!"

7. Finding little exploits in the game was great. Using X-Zone randomly took out enemies, and I didn't really know why or how. I somehow cached that knowledge into probably the iconic moment of the entire playthrough: sending Doom to his doom. In a desperation move, I cast Vanish on Doom, then cast X-Zone, and the fight was over. I was in disbelief. The chat reaction was priceless, and it was truly the best moment of the run.

8. I didn't mind wandering around most of the time. There was a point in World of Ruin where I got frustrated, because I couldn't find anything. I still don't know where 2 characters are or how to get them. I'll get them in another playthrough hopefully.

9. I'm a huge fan of VG music, and FF6 probably has the best score of any game (outside of SMRPG for me, purely for nostalgia and that it's probably still in the top 5 anyway). The themes really set the atmosphere well, I've listened to the themes in the car or at work ever since my recent surge of playing the game. Favorite song list:
	-Character theme: Locke
	-Most intense: Atma Weapon track
	-Emotional: Epitaph (When Celes is alone)
	-Makes you want to run through a wall: Decisive Battle
	Dancing Mad is a masterpiece.

10. Keeping notes is probably a good idea. Or making a map. So is paying attention to what NPC's say. I did find Gogo from what one dude told me, but somehow that seemed easy to me?

11. Gogo using Mimic was pretty sweet, and once I paired it with Blitz, it seemed like a really good combo (which it was). After I beat the game, I was told that you could just add any command to his options. Wow, instantly I had all these thoughts of what he could do. Definitely an overpowered character, looking forward to trying that again.

12. The final battle was outstanding, I felt physically tired from going at that one fight for 90 minutes (even though it was probably because it was 3 AM). I got lucky that Sabin didn't die in the final phase, allowing me to keep my high damage output. I didn't know what Life 3 actually did, now that seems overpowered as well. The visuals were amazing, I literally got chills as the screen rose from the tower to the final form with the golden backdrop. Just an awe-inspiring moment.

13. Ultros was hilarious.

14. I'm sorry I didn't suplex the train. Guaranteed this will happen next time.

15. Avoiding spoilers is impossible on blind playthroughs of popular games. I'll have more thoughts on that in a separate paste.

If you haven't played this game, I'm sorry you read all these spoilers. This has instantly shot into my top 5 all time favorite games, and I'll do more playthroughs, and might even learn the speedrun. Thanks for watching over the last year+, I had a blast!