What's the deal with FF6?

[kurupt87]

As I say all the time, 7<6<9.

I like this system, I shall copy it.
7 < 10-2 < 9 < 10
(X-2 I hear you cry?! I know, I know. I enjoy it because it lets me see more of Spira and has a nifty job/xp system with the best (imo) ATB system and, and...I dunno, but I like it. It's a crazy mix of stupid-jolly [which I call fluff] and interesting dark bits [which I call the story])

I have been spoiled by modern gaming systems and their graphics it seems, I don't consider myself a graphics whore, but I couldn't get far in 6 because it looked and felt so dated.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

Sephiroth was never a mama's boy until the retcons started in, and even then it was less "being a mama's boy" and more "I'm going to use her plan to wreck shit." But all the same, he's best in the original game and Crisis Core, while most everyone seems to write him (and the entire rest of the cast) off due to advent children.

I disagree with you on that part. He did his fair share of whining about Mother in the original game too.
Yes, he's best in the original game, but he was never "ZOMG BEST VILLIN EVAR" to me.

As for what you mentioned about the Tales series, Symphonia's the only one I've had long enough to play to completion. What I played of the first one, that game is fantastic, and I wanted to finish it, but I doubt I ever well.

Still, Sand. Boots. Poison. Apocalypse. Kefka wasn't a slouch in terms of being a rotten asshat.

In the original game he's controlling Jenova's corpse like a puppet though, and all he cares about is becoming a god. He's also got some genuinely dark and disturbing moments.

My position on Kefka is that while he is at least entertaining (moreso in Dissidia though, where the whole clown thing really comes out in full), he's just not as entertaining as Gilgamesh and ExDeath were, nor is he as interesting or intimidating as Sephiroth and Shinra Corp are. He's not a BAD villain, he's just not a great one.

But then, the Ivalice games will always have the best FF antagonists (barring A2 I suppose).

A2 was so broken it wasn't even funny. When my paladin was dual wielding the best swords in the game, got the first move, and could move all the way across the map, I gave up on the challenge.

The funny part is that A2 is by far the hardest and most balanced of the Tactics series. Shame the main story is boring as shit, but some of the side stories are pretty nice.
snip

When is it hard and balanced? I pointed out the worst example, but pretty much every late game job was horribly broken. When you can spam 1 shot AOE attacks, there is no difficulty.

I said "hardEST" and "MOST balanced." Compare A2 to Tactics and Tactics Advance.

I am. There's only 2 unbalanced classes I can think of in Tactics, and they take work to get to. Also, you can still lose against certain enemies no matter how good you are.

...Tactics can be broken with nothing more than a horde of Monks. And once you take "they take work to get to" into account then A2 isn't anymore broken, since all the HUGE exploits do still take work to get to.

No it doesn't. Like I said, Paladin over Ninja and the challenge disappears. To truly break the original Tactics, you need a team of Something over Calculators. Even 1 Calculator makes the game easy, 4 is just silly. But it takes a long time to get Calculator abilities.

It takes awhile to get anything like Paladin/Ninja too.

There's 1000 ways to break the original tactics, just due to how many different classes and abilities there are, which was scaled down a bit for the portable games. And let's not even get into Thunder God Cid.

The gameplay has gotten more refined with each new installment of the Tactics series, but the story has gotten more and more dull.

Ok, yeah, Cid was very OP, but I still maintain that A2 had more ways to break the game than the original. I actually used game breakers in the original and I could still die. I couldn't possibly lose A2 with the breaking in that game.

I've never once lost in the original, but I've been killed off in the very first mission on A2's hard mode.

There are gamebreakers in A2 (Item Lore+Mirror Items comes to mind), but not nearly as many as the original. In the original, you have to screw up building Ramza to die.

Actually now that I think of it, when was the last time you played the original?

A few months ago. And it's very easy for Ramza to die. Weigraf is a pain. So is Gaffgarion if you don't prepare for him. And Elmdore.

The key phrase there being "if you don't prepare." You can just as easily cripple them all if you build your characters correctly.

Well yeah, if you're using the strategy guide or you've played the game before, you can just build yourself for that battle. But your first time, you don't have that luxury. Any game is easier after the first time. And you can't really prepare much against Elmdore since his two helpers cast 100% Stop and Death. And he casts 100% vampirism.

 

[DoombladeGrimscythe]

atleast 6 didn't try to kill off a love interest ad the mid point of the story.

and you do have to admit it was fun seeing Edgar go to town on people with a chainsaw.

oh and the boss never initiates a several minute long cutscene for his big uber attack that he can do over and over again.

i still will save over and over that the overworld music for the world of balance (aka terra or tine depending on your translation) and the final boss battle music are insanely memorable. heck the final battle music was pretty epic.

 

[DoombladeGrimscythe]

Every character in it (except for the two optional ones) was well rounded and unique, unlike FFVII it had a great villain and story and is in my opinion the best, I would say if you can get the PS1 port or the GBA port of it to try for yourself if you have no SNES

Sephiroth is a good villain he is just a different kind of villain so don't say it like it is fact.

Seriously. I started playing FFs at 7, like a lot of people. Actually, my first reaction upon seeing the box at a local retailer was "blegh, looks a crappy ass brawler or fighter". Then a friend showed it to me, and proceeded to bash my head against the wall.

Now, I'm not one of those "OMG FF7 IS DA BEST RPG EVAH!!1!!!1!111!!", I certainly like the game, but nowhere near such levels of devotion, but almost every time I see on the net an argument about FF7 being or not the best RPG, there's always a group that comes out with FF6 as being much much better.

Is it REALLY that good? I've no SNES, and I don't think it was actually ever released here (Spain), so I'd probably have to resort to emulation. Is it worth truly worth it?

Also yes it is worth it to play it as it is a brilliant game. If you're like me though you will get bored of it about 1/2 way through in the World of Ruin. I still maintain that World of Ruin ruined that game and killed the nice flow it had.

i do agree a little that you can get kinda lost and bored, but the 2nd half is where the game really opens up and lets you explore to your hearts content. heck it will let you make multiple runs at the final dungeon before the boss. which is kinda nice.

that and the times that your party split up you actually got to play all of it, not just a cutscene, and during the dungeons that you split in two you could even seen your second party on the feild.

though i am not 100 percent sure that the magicite inffusion is what turned him insane, i think that just brought it up more. he did poison the entire water supply of a castle.

and i still argue with the characteriztion, sure the bonds were as strong as modern games, but given the era and technology involded pretty good, and there was more there if you looked deeper into your relics and explored the world a bit. especially Gau's story.

Mr. Thou. still makes me giggle.

 

[Datsle]

Seriously. I started playing FFs at 7, like a lot of people. Actually, my first reaction upon seeing the box at a local retailer was "blegh, looks a crappy ass brawler or fighter". Then a friend showed it to me, and proceeded to bash my head against the wall.

Now, I'm not one of those "OMG FF7 IS DA BEST RPG EVAH!!1!!!1!111!!", I certainly like the game, but nowhere near such levels of devotion, but almost every time I see on the net an argument about FF7 being or not the best RPG, there's always a group that comes out with FF6 as being much much better.

Is it REALLY that good? I've no SNES, and I don't think it was actually ever released here (Spain), so I'd probably have to resort to emulation. Is it worth truly worth it?

People on the escapist have only been raving about FF6 since yahtzee said it was the last FF he liked in the FF13 review.

People ont his site rave about FF6 for the same reason they rave about valve. Because of Yahtzee.

Oh cause FF6 was'nt big here on the escapist before yathzee's XIII "review".

 

[Wounded Melody]

I think people are confusing Kefka's magicite infusion with the part of the game where he

Spoiler

kills a bunch of Espers and absorbs them.

The infusion takes place before game, so he could have been quite sane. After all, he did rise in the ranks of the military, so unless they decided to promote an insane person...

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Every character in it (except for the two optional ones) was well rounded and unique, unlike FFVII it had a great villain and story and is in my opinion the best, I would say if you can get the PS1 port or the GBA port of it to try for yourself if you have no SNES

Sephiroth is a good villain he is just a different kind of villain so don't say it like it is fact.

Seriously. I started playing FFs at 7, like a lot of people. Actually, my first reaction upon seeing the box at a local retailer was "blegh, looks a crappy ass brawler or fighter". Then a friend showed it to me, and proceeded to bash my head against the wall.

Now, I'm not one of those "OMG FF7 IS DA BEST RPG EVAH!!1!!!1!111!!", I certainly like the game, but nowhere near such levels of devotion, but almost every time I see on the net an argument about FF7 being or not the best RPG, there's always a group that comes out with FF6 as being much much better.

Is it REALLY that good? I've no SNES, and I don't think it was actually ever released here (Spain), so I'd probably have to resort to emulation. Is it worth truly worth it?

Also yes it is worth it to play it as it is a brilliant game. If you're like me though you will get bored of it about 1/2 way through in the World of Ruin. I still maintain that World of Ruin ruined that game and killed the nice flow it had.

i do agree a little that you can get kinda lost and bored, but the 2nd half is where the game really opens up and lets you explore to your hearts content. heck it will let you make multiple runs at the final dungeon before the boss. which is kinda nice.

that and the times that your party split up you actually got to play all of it, not just a cutscene, and during the dungeons that you split in two you could even seen your second party on the feild.

though i am not 100 percent sure that the magicite inffusion is what turned him insane, i think that just brought it up more. he did poison the entire water supply of a castle.

and i still argue with the characteriztion, sure the bonds were as strong as modern games, but given the era and technology involded pretty good, and there was more there if you looked deeper into your relics and explored the world a bit. especially Gau's story.

Mr. Thou. still makes me giggle.

Yes while it is nice to explore you are given no direction of which to go at all or where anything is. That is the problem with it. Even in WRPGs which isthe styling of that part of the game you know your option and where to go to find what and you can do it in whatever order. That was the problem of that part you weren't aware of your options so yes while it is nice to explore and break the linearity at times were told to find a needle in a hay stack on top of Mount Doom past the lakes of eternal fire cross the river Styx and past the ice cream shop.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Seriously. I started playing FFs at 7, like a lot of people. Actually, my first reaction upon seeing the box at a local retailer was "blegh, looks a crappy ass brawler or fighter". Then a friend showed it to me, and proceeded to bash my head against the wall.

Now, I'm not one of those "OMG FF7 IS DA BEST RPG EVAH!!1!!!1!111!!", I certainly like the game, but nowhere near such levels of devotion, but almost every time I see on the net an argument about FF7 being or not the best RPG, there's always a group that comes out with FF6 as being much much better.

Is it REALLY that good? I've no SNES, and I don't think it was actually ever released here (Spain), so I'd probably have to resort to emulation. Is it worth truly worth it?

People on the escapist have only been raving about FF6 since yahtzee said it was the last FF he liked in the FF13 review.

People ont his site rave about FF6 for the same reason they rave about valve. Because of Yahtzee.

Actually some people have been shitting on here about FF6 being the best FF and FF& being the worst for ages before Yahtzee mentioned it.

 

[foodmaniac]

Well I played FFVI for the first time about 4 years ago (gimme a break, I was 1 year old when the original came out ==") and enjoyed it quite thoroughly. This was right after playing the GBA remakes of FFIV and FFV, and I have to say that FFVI was actually really good. I'd definitely rate it near the top of all the FF games.

On the subject of FFVII, I hated that game. I absolutely despised it. I'm not sure if it was the over-hype, or the game was just bad, but I surely hated it.

inb4 You're not playing it right.

 

[technoted]

Is it REALLY that good? I've no SNES, and I don't think it was actually ever released here (Spain), so I'd probably have to resort to emulation. Is it worth truly worth it?

Final fantasy 6 was the first RPG I ever played after my mum introduced me to it, so it will always have a spot in my heart as one of the greatest RPG's ever made though I would still put FF7 infront of it, not for the graphics but soley because of all it did for the Genre and the wider variety of plot twists available and things that could be done.

Largely I think it suffers the same problem as music, that problem is "It's mainstream and a lot of people like it therefore it is cool to not like it and say that it's predecessor is much better even though I never really played it!"

 

[Rick Dagless]

Story and character wise it is the best in the series, and Kefka is the best villain in the series. But the battle system isn't as good as FFVII

 

[OmicronFayt]

It's like comparing Shadow Hearts with Lucifer's Call.
[/spoiler]

Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifers Call (Nocturne in some regions) had a much better recruitment drive (Hi, random enemy, do you want to live? Join me ! )
Saying that Shadow Hearts took a lot of the 'mash attack' out of gringing low-level areas with the judgement ring (which was improved in Shadow Hearts: Covenant by the simple act of allowing you to customise it)

The magic is pretty much the same in both games. (in SH everyone but Yuri got them by Lvl up, and he got them by Lvling his Demons (Transformations) and in SMT:LC everyone but Protaganist got them by level up, and he got them by Lvling his Demons (parasites))

Sorry couldn't help it.

On topic, however, I prefered the Charicters from 10, the Open-World exploration/size of 6, the 'Enemies gain levels at the same rate as you' from 8 The story from 4, Magic system of 7 and Combat Flow of 10-2. Overall though, 6 is, in my opinion, marginilly better than the other games in the series.
Suprising no-one mentioned the RPG dungeon on the Playstation port of Ehrgeiz yet.

On the point of Villains, In 6 Kefka was mad, In 7 Sephiroth was Sadistic, In 4 they pull the same thing as they would later do in 8 Just the Edea/Ultamecia being replaced by Golbez/(cant remember the name) which was shocking in 4, but by the time 8 came round we were just dissapointed in Square for the blatant copy-paste. Necron (FF9) came out of nowhere too (literally) but I saw him more as a tool used by Kuja than as a villain. 10 and 10-2 aren't even worth mentioning, beyond the fact that in both cases 1000 years is way to long to hold a grudge. Ultimacia had the grandest plan (destroy the world AND destroy time so I can destroy the world again in the past and beat myself to it!) but Kefka losses points for taking so long. (Most FF villains have wanted to destroy the world, right the way from Garland in FF1, but Kefka had a whole year with no opposition and STILL failed. Ooooh, godlike power + want to destroy . . . why does he even wait for an excuse to blow people/towns up?)

Incidentilly, My first RPG was FF7. My favorite RPG is Star Ocean:TTEOT, then SMT:Lucifers Call, followed by Digital Devil Saga, then Tales of Symphonia, then Shadow Hearts: Covenant THEN FF6.
Another good one that hovers at about the same level as FF6 and Shadow Hearts: Covenant is Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter (BoF5).

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Every character in it (except for the two optional ones) was well rounded and unique, unlike FFVII it had a great villain and story and is in my opinion the best, I would say if you can get the PS1 port or the GBA port of it to try for yourself if you have no SNES

Sephiroth is a good villain he is just a different kind of villain so don't say it like it is fact.

Seriously. I started playing FFs at 7, like a lot of people. Actually, my first reaction upon seeing the box at a local retailer was "blegh, looks a crappy ass brawler or fighter". Then a friend showed it to me, and proceeded to bash my head against the wall.

Now, I'm not one of those "OMG FF7 IS DA BEST RPG EVAH!!1!!!1!111!!", I certainly like the game, but nowhere near such levels of devotion, but almost every time I see on the net an argument about FF7 being or not the best RPG, there's always a group that comes out with FF6 as being much much better.

Is it REALLY that good? I've no SNES, and I don't think it was actually ever released here (Spain), so I'd probably have to resort to emulation. Is it worth truly worth it?

Also yes it is worth it to play it as it is a brilliant game. If you're like me though you will get bored of it about 1/2 way through in the World of Ruin. I still maintain that World of Ruin ruined that game and killed the nice flow it had.

i do agree a little that you can get kinda lost and bored, but the 2nd half is where the game really opens up and lets you explore to your hearts content. heck it will let you make multiple runs at the final dungeon before the boss. which is kinda nice.

that and the times that your party split up you actually got to play all of it, not just a cutscene, and during the dungeons that you split in two you could even seen your second party on the feild.

though i am not 100 percent sure that the magicite inffusion is what turned him insane, i think that just brought it up more. he did poison the entire water supply of a castle.

and i still argue with the characteriztion, sure the bonds were as strong as modern games, but given the era and technology involded pretty good, and there was more there if you looked deeper into your relics and explored the world a bit. especially Gau's story.

Mr. Thou. still makes me giggle.

Yes while it is nice to explore you are given no direction of which to go at all or where anything is. That is the problem with it. Even in WRPGs which isthe styling of that part of the game you know your option and where to go to find what and you can do it in whatever order. That was the problem of that part you weren't aware of your options so yes while it is nice to explore and break the linearity at times were told to find a needle in a hay stack on top of Mount Doom past the lakes of eternal fire cross the river Styx and past the ice cream shop.

I disagree with this. Once you get the airship, the game basically breadcrumbs you into what you should be doing: exploring and seeing what's up. Since there are a lot of old locations still on the map, you can explore places you know are still there such as Doma, Narshe, and the remaining towns and from there you can do pretty much what you want. In fact, if you do that and use common sense (Gau being on the Veldt) talk to towns people (listening to the people of Maranda talk about that guy who says ''thou'' etc etc) and exploring each town, you essentially get most of the characters back just by doing that. It's meant to be non-linear, and it holds your hand for a brief moment to give you the idea of what you should be doing: exploring.

You may not like that, and believe it to be a problem but I and many others feel it's one of the most enjoyable parts of the World of Ruin. Also, it adds replay value in the sense that you will figure out something new to do each time you go through after that first part, rather then being lead through everything and never touching the game again.

Yes once you get the airship you can basically have to go to where you need to go to end it but until you end up running around like a headless chicken. Sure with a bit of common sense you can find some characters such as Gau and Mr. Thou. A lot of people also agree that this breaks the game and breaks the flow of it. So while for some it can be good for others it is horrible and can actually ruin it. Personally I think a Scenario event would of been better.

 

[Babitz]

I myself also like FFVI more than other FF. It had the best gameplay mechanics, the most unique characters (both by fighting style and characterization) and the best story. The main character, Terra, was quite annoying, though. I also prefer FFIV over FFVII.