Some Thoughts on Final Fantasy VI

by Jake

I have been a Final Fantasy fan since the days of Mayota's cave and the epic confrontation with Chaos, and I own every Final Fantasy game that has been released for a home console (but not the Game Boy). Recently, I have made it my pet project to complete all eight Final Fantasies, and as I do, I have found myself always coming back to Final Fantasy VI. The more I look at it, the more it just seems to be the best Final Fantasy out there.

This is not to say that the other Final Fantasies are without merit. To me, there has been no character more human than Rinoa, there has been no music as moving as Aeris's theme set to a full orchestra, and FF6 is far from perfect by any stretch of the imagination. However, the game as a whole was simply constructed in a manner that vaults it ahead of the other seven titles in the Final Fantasy series, at least, in my opinion.

First off, as a music major, I would simply like to say that Nobuo Uematsu's work in Final Fantasy VI is nothing short of brilliant, and stands above his other work not only for musical accomplishment, but also because his compositions seem to have tapped into the human heart. "Coin Song" never ceases to amaze me, whether it is the actual in-game music, or the track from Piano Collections. After completing the game, the finale score made the endless hours of gameplay worth it, especially the surprisingly moving setting of Shadow's theme. The sudden heroic overture only increased Shadow's standing as a warrior of honor, especially when held in comparison to his rather enigmatic theme music from the rest of the game.

No game has ever gotten me more involved in the stories of the characters than Final Fantasy VI. Honestly, I never really cared about Butz, Faris, Lenna, and the rest of the Final Fantasy V characters, and with the exception of Aeris and Sephiroth, I wasn't particularly attached to those from VII. As I said earlier, Rinoa has proved to be the most human of the characters in the Final Fantasy series, and Squall is cool enough, I suppose, but watching Rinoa slowly run out of oxygen in outer space just didn't compare to Celes's attempted suicide. I'll never forget sitting in front of my screen and watching a single teardrop down the cliff just before Celes threw herself of out of despair and hopelessness. I knew that Celes would not die, just as I knew Rinoa would not float of endlessly into space, but there was something about Celes's situation that struck a chord within me. Granted, I've never attempted suicide or woken up from a coma only to find that a mad general has taken over the world and achieved god-like power, but then again, I've never been to outer space.

I think what makes Celes's situation different from Rinoa's is that I didn't have to watch it happen. In Final Fantasy VI, there is an amazing amount of back story that you don't have to watch. While the World of Balance certainly has a rather linear plot that kept me very engaged for the first fifteen hours of gameplay, the fact that Celes didn't have to commit suicide, the fact that you don't have to find out that Shadow is Relm's father, even the fact that Shadow doesn't even necessarily have to survive the first act makes the story all the more engaging. The fact that I chose to discover the motivation of Locke's obsessions made the discovery all the more special. No one forced me to make a side trip to Doma so Cyan could come to terms with his loss in the way that I was forced to watch Cloud gallivant around the Gold Saucer with Aeris/Tifa/Barret. In theory I could have bypassed almost every character in the World of Ruin and attempted to thwart Kefka (who in my opinion was certainly hunorous, but by no means the best villain of the series) after finding Setzer and the second airship.

The battle system also leant itself to this sort of discovery. No matter what I did or where I went, I could not bring myself to part with Terra, Celes, or Locke. But at the same time, I could have cared less about Strago, Relm, and Setzer. The Esper/Relic system put the characters on nearly equal footing, but at the same time, retained a sense of individuality that helped develop the characters. Do you want to cast Ultima? Well, any character can do that, but if you want to steal, you better have Locke. Gau can't pull off a Bum Rush, and Shadow can't use Runic, but both can be turned into fighting machines if you really wanted to. In the other FFs, you are either presented with too much customization, or too little. Yuffie, being the thief that she is, comes equipped with the Steal materia, but what's to prevent me from turning Cait Sith into the party kleptomaniac? All it takes is 30 seconds and a basic knowledge of the Materia sysetem. Granted Butz's statistics lend themselves to being the Knight/Dragoon that I turned him into, but his statistics weren't so out of whack that he couldn't have become an effective Time Mage with a little bit of practice. Terra, on the other hand, is infused with magic since she is half-human/half-esper, just as Gau's life on the Veldt is accented by his Rage attacks and Locke's history as a "treasure hunter" gives his Steal command justification.

Am I saying that Final Fantasy VI is better than the other seven? In my opinion, yes. But my opinion is not your opinion. For all I know, you hold a special place in your heart for Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest, although I have no idea why. But, if this editorial made you think or entertain some new ideas, then it has served it's purpose and I thank you for reading it. Let me know what you think.