Final Fantasy VI
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| Final Fantasy VI | |
| Missing image Ff6logo.jpg FFVI logo. | |
| Developer(s) | Square Co., Ltd. |
| Publisher(s) | Square Co., Ltd. (JP) Square Soft, Inc. (NA) SCEE (EU) |
| Release date(s) | April 2, 1994 (JP) November 2, 1994 (NA) March 1, 2002 (EU/AU) |
| Genre | Role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen (T) (PlayStation) |
| Platform(s) | SNES, PlayStation |
Final Fantasy VI (FF6) is a computer role-playing game developed and published by Square Co., Ltd. in 1994. Originally for the Nintendo Super Famicom (known as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, or SNES, internationally). Final Fantasy VI was rereleased for the PlayStation in 1999. This version is fundamentally identical to the original SNES version, save for the inclusion of three FMV sequences, and a handful of extras, including an art gallery and monster database. Incidentally Final Fantasy VI was also the last Final Fantasy game to be released on the Super Famicom before the series moved over to the Sony Playstation. In fact it was the last Final Fantasy to be released on a Nintendo console for a long time up until Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles which was released on the Nintendo Gamecube in 2004. The decision to move over to the Sony Playstation angered many long-time fans of both the Final Fantasy series and the Nintendo consoles in general who had been told that the seventh installment would appear on the Nintendo 64 but aside from a few demo movies showing off the graphics based on characters from the sixth installment (namely Celes, Locke and Shadow) this project was soon cancelled as the creators felt that the Nintendo 64 wasn't powerful enough to handle the graphics and vision they felt were needed for the game. The demo movies showing off the graphics for the planned seventh installment on the Nintendo 64 can still be found floating around the net.
Because Final Fantasy VI was only the third game in the Final Fantasy series to be released in North America (following Final Fantasy I and Final Fantasy IV), the English version of the SNES game was released in North America under the title Final Fantasy III. When the PlayStation rerelease was issued in North America (as part of the Final Fantasy Anthology collection), the original Japanese title and numbering scheme was restored. The game did not receive an official European or Australian release until the PlayStation version was issued in both places in 2002, but the original SNES cartridge was popular in European and Australian imported game stores during the mid-1990s.
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Release dates
Ff6_Japan_title.png
- April 2, 1994 — Super Famicom (Japan)
- November 2, 1994 — Super Nintendo Entertainment System (as Final Fantasy III) (North America)
- March 11, 1999 — Sony PlayStation (individually and as part of Final Fantasy Collection) (Japan)
- September 30, 1999 — Sony PlayStation (as part of Final Fantasy Anthology) (North America)
- March 1, 2002 — Sony PlayStation (Europe and Australia)
Plot
The game is set 1,000 years after the ancient War of the Magi, in which humans and magical beings known as Espers fought over the power of magic. The Empire that now rules much of the world has developed a strange force known as Magitek (a mixture of magic and scientific technology) and is on the verge of rediscovering the full potential of magic. A woman named Terra is sent to the town of Narshe with two soldiers from the empire to investigate a frozen esper that has been found there. After finding it, the soldiers are killed by the Esper, and Terra is released from the "slave crown" used to control her. After meeting with a thief named Locke, Terra makes her escape from the forces of the empire and joins The Returners, a rebel group that is trying to bring an end to the Empire. Together, they journey to stop the Empire from gaining the power of magic and stop a potential apocalypse that could result from it.
Game mechanics
As is traditional for RPGs, FF6 featured a four-character party fighting monsters and earning experience points. It abandoned the Job System of FF5 in favor of FF4's more-defined and less-flexible character class system, in which each character has a specific and unique ability (sometimes more than one).
New to the game were 'desperation attacks,' a precursor to FF7's Limit Breaks. When a character was at very low Hit Points, if asked to attack they would use a special, extremely powerful technique 1 time in 16. The game also featured a watered-down version of FF5's customization skills, and a precursor to FF7's Materia, in the form of Magicite, items that would teach characters specific magic spells if equipped (though only two characters start the game with magic, almost all can learn it). Each Magicite would also impart various statistic bonuses on level-up. Finally, the Magicite were the game's version of summon spells; any character who was equipped with a Magicite could, once per battle, summon its associated monster for various different effects, including: Damage to all enemies, and various status changes and other effects to either the current party or the enemy group.
Characters
The main playable characters in Final Fantasy VI are (in order of appearance) Terra Branford, Locke Cole, Mog, Edgar Roni Figaro, Sabin Rene Figaro, Shadow, Celes Chere, Cyan Garamonde, Gau, Setzer Gabbiani, Strago Magus, Relm Arrowny, Gogo, and Umaro. Other characters accompany the party on a temporary basis, but these 14 characters are the only ones the player is able to equip, teach magic to, or otherwise customize. Each individual has a unique special ability.
Playable characters
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- Terra Branford – A woman born with the power of magic and the first player-controlled character, Terra was enslaved by the Gestahl's Empire for her powers. Hunted by her former captors after she is released by a frozen esper in Narshe, she joins the Returners to escape the Empire and find out why she can use magic.
- Terra's special ability is Morph, which she can access after a certain plot event. She can transform into a creature of pure magic (and it changes her sprite) for a brief period, which gives her a boost in magical power.
- While riding Magitek Armor, her Magitek command gains several attacks absent from all other characters.
- Terra's class is Mage Warrior or Mage Knight.
- Locke Cole – A thief, though he much prefers the term "treasure hunter", Locke finds Terra in Narshe. He helps Terra escape the Empire and is responsible for introducing her to the Returners. He shares some, if not all, of the traits befitting a Byronic hero.
- Locke's special ability is Steal, which allows him to steal items from enemies. When he equips the Thief Glove relic, Steal becomes Capture, which allows him to do physical damage whilst stealing.
- Locke's class is Adventurer.
- Edgar Roni Figaro – King of the country of Figaro and a member of the Returners, Edgar is a relentless lothario, given to flirting with any woman he meets.
- Edgar's special ability is Tools, which allows him to attack his enemies with a variety of special weapons that he finds over the course of the game.
- Edgar's class is Machinist.
- Sabin René Figaro – A martial arts expert, Edgar's younger brother Sabin left in order to escape the pressure of potentially inheriting the kingship of Figaro. Though more serious than his sometimes flippant sibling, he is also less jaded. It is later revealed that the inheritance was settled by a coin toss. He joins the group after meeting up with them while traversing Mt. Koltz.
- Sabin's special ability is Blitz, which allows him to use a variety of martial arts abilities activated through complex controller combos.
- Sabin's class is Monk.
- Shadow – A mysterious ninja and mercenary who works temporarily with the group at a few points in the story, Shadow fights along with his dog, Interceptor. He can join the party permanently after a certain plot event.
- Shadow's special ability is Throw, which allows him to throw weapons from the party's inventory at his enemies.
- Outside the floating contenent, Shadow has the 'Interceptor' status. While in effect his dog Interceptor sometimes blocks enemy attacks and counterattacks. Note: Shadow can lose Interceptor status if an enemy swaps status effects with him.
- Shadow's class is Assassin.
- Celes Chère – A former general of the Empire, Celes was infused with Esper powers as a child to give her control of magic. Later in life she voiced misgivings over Imperial policies and was jailed for her insubordination. Rescued by Locke, she joins the Returners in their fight against the empire, despite her questionable loyalty.
- Celes's special ability is Runic, which allows her to absorb any magic spell cast on the battlefield by friend or foe, and restoring some of her magic power in the process.
- Plays Maria in the opera scenes, which contain the Aria di Mezzo Carattere.
- Celes' class is Rune Knight.
- Cyan Garamonde – A retainer of the kingdom of Doma, Cyan is an expert swordsman. The lone survivor of an Imperial attack on Doma, he joins the Returners to avenge his family and homeland. He harbors a serious distrust for Celes.
- Cyan's special ability is SwdTech (Sword Technique), which allows him to perform a variety of powerful techniques with his sword, but a special time gauge has to build up to use the stronger techniques.
- Cyan's class is Samurai.
- Gau – A feral child, Gau was abandoned as a baby and was raised by animals in the harsh wilderness known as the Veldt. He makes friends with Sabin and Cyan after they run into him on the Veldt and decides to journey with them.
- Gau's special abilities are Rage and Leap. While on the Veldt, he can learn the abilities of a monster by Leaping it, and afterwards use those abilities with Rage.
- Gau's class is Wild Boy.
- Setzer Gabbiani – A gambler with an interest in adventure, Setzer is asked to join the Returners so that they can use his airship for transportation. He accepts after losing a rigged coin toss to Celes (the coin, not coincidentally, was provided by Edgar). He is searching the world to find out more about his lost love, Daryl.
- Setzer's special ability is Slot. He is able to use a slot machine with special powers to give him random abilities for use in battle. By equipping the Coin Toss relic, Slot becomes GP Rain, which allows him to throw GP (the game's money) at all enemies on screen causing an amount of damage equal to the GP lost in the attack.
- Setzer's class is Gambler.
- Mog – A moogle with the rare ability to talk like a human, Mog joins the Returners after they save his life from a thief. He is considered by many fans of Squaresoft to be the company's unofficial mascot.
- Mog's special ability is Dance, which allows him to use one of eight dances learned in their respective terrain (for example, Desert Aria), to create attacks in battle. Once he starts, he continues to use random attacks from the selected dance until the battle ends or he falls.
- Mog's class is Moogle.
- Strago Magus – A descendant of the warriors who fought in the ancient War of the Magi, Strago has inherited a trace of their mystic powers. The Returners meet him while they are passing through the town of Thamasa, and he reluctantly joins them for the safety of the world.
- Strago's special ability is Lore (also known as Blue Magic), which allows him to learn certain magic abilities of enemies and use them as his own. As opposed to normal magic, Blue Magic is available only to Strago.
- Strago's class is Blue Mage.
- Relm Arrowny – 10-year-old granddaughter of Strago and expert artist, Relm joins the Returners despite Strago's unwillingness to allow her. Before American censors got to her, she swore like a sailor.
- Relm's special ability is Sketch, which allows her to draw a copy of her enemies that will come to life and attack them. If she equips the Fake Moustache relic, Sketch becomes Control, which allows her to control enemies and use their own attacks.
- Relm's class is Pictomancer.
- Gogo – Gogo is a mysterious person about whom not much is ever revealed, not even its gender (though in the Japanese version of the game, Gogo uses the pronoun "おれ", which suggests that Gogo is male). Gogo lives within a creature called Zone Eater on Triangle Island. Gogo is a "secret character" (a form of Easter egg); persuading him or her to join the party is optional. Because of Gogo's mysterious nature, fan rumors and hoaxes abound about his/her true identity, ranging from "Setzer's friend Daryl whose airship crashed on Triangle Island" to "Adlai Stevenson".
- Gogo's special ability is Mimic, which lets him/her use the abilities of his/her teammates after they use them. Gogo can also equip a selectable set of abilities from the other characters.
- In Final Fantasy V, the player needed to defeat an optional boss named Gogo in order to obtain the Mimic job class. This Gogo would counter the abilities used against him/her, and visually resembled the Gogo of Final Fantasy VI.
- Gogo's class is Mimic.
- Umaro – A yeti (or sasquatch in Woolsey's localisation) living in the caves of Narshe. Umaro is an optional character and will join the party only if the player brings Mog to talk him into it.
- Umaro is the only main character that cannot use magic and will fight without being controlled by the player. Umaro gains a unique breath attack if he equips the Blizzard Orb relic, and the Rage Ring will cause him to pick up an ally and hurl them at an enemy, to the target's great displeasure (the teammate comes out unscathed).
- Umaro's class is Sasquatch.
Major non-playable characters
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- Kefka Palazzo – Kefka is the first MagiTek Knight created by the Empire and the primary villain of the game. The process of gaining magic left him more than slightly insane. Despite his tendency to dress like a jester, he is not to be underestimated.
- Emperor Gestahl – (Called "Gastra" in Japan.) The ruler of the Empire with a desire to rule the world. Gestahl rules the southern continent from its capital at Vector. In the course of the game, Gestahl's Empire conquers both Doma and South Figaro, but will withdraw if the player has good manners during an Imperial banquet. Gestahl himself seeks first magicite and, later, the magical Statues in his thirst for power. He is betrayed and killed by his deranged right-hand man, Kefka Palazzo, who throws his body from the Floating Continent in the final moments of the World of Balance.
- General Leo Cristophe – Like Celes, Leo is a general of the Empire who opposes Kefka. After being sent by Gestahl to locate the Espers, he is murdered by Kefka. Strictly speaking, Leo is a playable character, as the player can control him in one short segment of the story.
- Leo's class is General.
- Ultros – A lonely octopus that follows the group around the world, Ultros fights them from time to time until he ultimately ends up being a receptionist at the Colosseum in the World of Ruin.
- Banon – Leader of the Returners, a rebel group against Gestahl's empire. Although, Banon is listed as a non-playable character, there is a short section of the game in the beginning where you have the ability to use and control him in your party.
- Banon's class is Priest.
Localisation and censorship
The North American SNES game is not a straight translation but contains some localisation changes.
The biggest change is the title, which was changed to Final Fantasy III. Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy III, and Final Fantasy V had not yet been released in America, so Squaresoft (the North American subsidiary of Square) decided to alter the numbering scheme in the North American releases to hide the fact that some games in the series did not appear in the US. Thus Final Fantasy Final Fantasy IV became Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy VI became Final Fantasy III. Starting with Final Fantasy VII the decision was made to realign the series with its Japanese numbering, leading to an apparent "jump" of 3 games. This continues to cause confusion, with some American fans referring to the games by the American-release numbering and some by the original, full series numbering.
Unlike the localisation of Final Fantasy IV there were no significant gameplay changes. Certain editorial changes, however, were instituted in the English script, in large part due to the content guidelines imposed by Nintendo of America.
- "Well, there's a level of playfulness and – dare I say – sexuality in Japanese games that just doesn't exist here [in the USA], basically because of Nintendo of America's rules and guidelines. And this includes little characters that take their clothes off, or show their bottoms or chests – that Nintendo won't allow over here."
- Ted Woolsey, FF6 translator, regarding censorship of the SNES North American version of FF4. RPG special (January, 1995). Super POWER, p. 18. Translation from Swedish courtesy of Neil West [1] (http://smc.smallcave.net/woolsey/superplay.php)
Some of the most notable changes include:
- The graphics on the bar signs were changed so that they read Cafe instead of Pub.
- Some minor instances of nudity were covered up.
- All profane language was removed. The most notable example is during a scene in which Kefka is attacked by Celes and tells her, "I hate you," repeating the word "hate" over a dozen times. In the Japanese release, Kefka actually repeats something akin to the word "fuck" over a dozen times. There are several other, slightly less severe, instances of profanity that are also removed.
- Smoke rings coming from a pipe were removed.
- Many spell and monster names were changed. To take just one example, the early "Leafy Rabbit" creature became simply a "Leafer" in the English release. Notably the spell name "Holy" was changed to "Pearl", likely for fear of offending American religious groups. This was in keeping with Nintendo of America guidelines: the same spell had been renamed "FADE" in Final Fantasy I and "White" in Final Fantasy IV.
- Many bugs identified in the original Japanese version were corrected, or worked around. For example, the Opera House rat glitch, the mosaic effect glitch, the 256th item equip glitch, and the Merit Award + Atma Weapon on Gau glitch. Interestingly, the mosaic effect glitch occurs in the PlayStation re-release in America, even though it did not in the original SNES release.
- One major bug, unfortunately, was added in the American release. If Relm's Sketch command fails, an uninitialised pointer in the game's programming could cause many damaging effects, such as the loss of all saved games. Later Final Fantasy III SNES cartridges corrected this, as did the PlayStation rerelease.
| Japanese | Romaji | Designers' Intention | US |
|---|---|---|---|
| ティナ | Tina | Tina | Terra |
| マッシュ | Masshu | Matthew (*) | Sabin |
| カイエン | Kaien | Cayenne | Cyan |
| ストラゴス | Sutoragosu | Stragos | Strago |
| ガストラ | Gasutora | Gastra | Gestahl |
| アルテマウェポン | Arutema Uepon | Ultima Weapon | Atma Weapon |
| ケット・シー | Ketto Shii | Cait Sith | Stray |
| ミドガルズオルム | Midogaruzuorumu | Midgardsormr (**) | Terrato |
(*) The original Japanese instruction manual erroneously lists this character's name in romaji as "Mash". However, according to the character's creator, Kaori Tanaka a.k.a. Clio Saga, his full name was intended to be "Matthew Rene Figaro." The entire mix up was simply due to the inherent likelihood of confusion and error when transliterating from English to Japanese and then back to English.
(**) The English Final Fantasy VII called this creature Midgar Zolom. See Midgard for its roots in Norse mythology.
Note that many of the changes to playable character names are simply reasonable approximations of the original names within the 6-character limits imposed by the game engine. However, some changes, such as Tina/Terra may have been intentionally instituted by the translator because of cultural differences. In Japanese Tina sounds exotic and intriguing because of its rare "Ti" sound, whereas in America it is an everyday name. Interestingly, three characters from this game appeared in Final Fantasy VII, but English players were not aware of this due to the name changes. They are Cait Sith, Midgar Zolom (a snake swimming on the world map of Final Fantasy VII), and Chupon, an ally of Ultros who appears as a summon in Final Fantasy VII under the name Typhoon.
Similarly, another such change involves the minor characters Biggs and Wedge, clearly named in reference to Biggs Darklighter and Wedge Antilles from Star Wars, were translated as Vicks and Wedge. Chrono Trigger repeated this mistake, having been also translated by Ted Woolsey. However, in Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII, as well as the PlayStation re-releases of Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, this was corrected.
The PlayStation rerelease (issued as part of Final Fantasy Anthology in North America) utilizes Ted Woolsey's original translation, with only a few minor edits (such as the aforementioned "Biggs" → "Vicks" correction, and changing the name of the item "Fenix Down" to "Phoenix Down"). This localization was also used when the game was released for the PlayStation in Europe in 2002.
Production credits
Original Super Famicom / SNES version
- Producer — Hironobu Sakaguchi
- Director — Yoshinori Kitase and Hiroyuki Itou
- Main Programmer — Ken Narita and Kiyoshi Yoshii
- Graphic Director — Tetsuya Takahashi, Kasuko Shibuya (as Kazuko Shibuya), Hideo Minaba and Tetsuya Nomura
- Music — Nobuo Uematsu
- Image Designer — Yoshitaka Amano
- Battle Planner — Yasuyuki Hasebe and Akiyoshi Oota
- Field Planner — Yoshihiko Maekawa, Keita Etoh, Satoru Tsuji and Hidetoshi Kezuka
- Event Planner — Tsukasa Fujita and Keisuke Matsuhara
- Effect Programmer — Hiroshi Harata and Satoshi Ogata
- Battle Programmer — Akihiro Yamaguchi
- Sound Programmer — Minoru Akao
- Effect Graphic Designer — Hirokatsu Sasaki
- Field Graphic Designer — Takaharu Matsuo, Yusuke Naora, Nobuyuki Ikeda, Tomoe Inazawa, Kaori Tanaka, Takamichi Shibuya, Shinichiro Hamasaka (as Shinichirou Hamasaka) and Akiyoshi Masuda
- Monster Graphic Designer — Hitoshi Sasaki
- Object Graphic Designer — Kazuhiro Ohkawa
- Sound Engineer — Eiji Nakamura
- Remake Planner — Weimin Li and Aiko Ito
- Translator — Ted Woolsey
PlayStation remake
- Director — Katsuyoshi Kawahara
- Producer — Yusuke Hirata
- Publicity — Masako Hozawa, Yuuki Kitayama and Testuya Tanaka
- Coordinators — Rei Komatsu, Terutaka Komorizono, Kiyomi Nakamura and Kiyomi Tanikawa
- Quality Managers — Hiromi Matsuda and Nishiki Sugi
- Executive Producer — Tomoyuki Takechi
- Localisation Director — Kazuyoshi Tashiro
- Programmer — Yoshinori Uenishi
- Assistants — Mai Morofushi and Tomoko Sekii
Packaging artwork
| Missing image Ff6jbox.gif Box art for the original Japanese Super Famicom release | Missing image Ff3usbox.gif Box art for the North American SNES release | Missing image Ff6eupsxbox.jpg Box art for the European PlayStation release |
| Final Fantasy VI Super Famicom, Japan | Final Fantasy III Super NES, North America | Final Fantasy VI PlayStation, Europe |
| Missing image Ff6jpsxbox.jpg Box art for the Japanese PlayStation rerelease | Missing image Ffcollectionpsxbox.jpg Box art for the Japanese Final Fantasy Collection compilation | Missing image Ffabox.jpg Box art for the North American Final Fantasy Anthology compilation |
| Final Fantasy VI PlayStation, Japan | Final Fantasy Collection PlayStation, Japan | Final Fantasy Anthology PlayStation, North America |
Soundtrack CDs
So far, three official soundtrack CDs have been released from Final Fantasy VI:
- Final Fantasy VI Piano Collections
- Final Fantasy VI Original Sound Version
- Final Fantasy VI Grand Finale
See also
- Places in Final Fantasy VI
- Final Fantasy
- Final Fantasy Anthology
- List of Final Fantasy characters
- List of Final Fantasy locations
- List of SNES games
- Video game music
- Aria di Mezzo Carattere
References
- RPG Special (January, 1995). Super POWER, p. 18.
- West, Neil. SUPER PLAY-Fantasy Quest: Interview with Ted Woolsey (http://smc.smallcave.net/woolsey/superplay.php) (aforementioned magazine interview translated from Swedish to English). Retrieved 1 February 2005.
External Links
- GameFAQs entry for Final Fantasy VI (http://gamefaqs.com/console/snes/data/8998.html)
- GameFAQs entry for Final Fantasy Anthology (http://gamefaqs.com/console/psx/data/24831.html)
- Caves of Narshe Final Fantasy VI Collection (http://www.cavesofnarshe.com/ff6/)
- Final Fantasy VI Shrine (http://www.ffshrine.org/ff6/ff6.php)
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