The Opinion Not Taken

by Patrick Ralston 

Final Fantasy VI- the name itself brings up a tear to the... well... more crazed RPG lovers on the Internet. Now, I myself am a fan of new school (which I will not talk about, except with specific games), my first RPG being Super Mario RPG. It took the big name Mario to get me to play RPGs, but I've loved them ever since. I really never heard of Square before then, and Final Fantasy... well... if you told me about it I would have dismissed you as one of those "geeks" acting like they're "Lord Mantilus the 8th" or something.

I didn't even buy Final Fantasy VII when it came out, but the relative who did was thankful to trade me it for NHL '97, a trade I never regret. The story, for me at a younger age, was amazing, breathtaking, and I was hooked. Now, while I may be stretching from the Final Fantasy VI I began this editorial with, I will get to it. During the time between FF7 and FF8, I was without a SNES (yes, I did play Super Mario RPG though.... long story) prevented me from sampling the Final Fantasies for it, but after hearing about Final Fantasy Anthology, I was beginning to make me salivate.

The reason, after playing FF7, I tried to read all I could about it, and all I focused all was negative things such as "This story pales in comparison to Final Fantasy 6; The sound is nothing compared to Final Fantasy 6; The characters are nothing compared to Edgar, Locke, and... well, you get the idea." Final Fantasy Anthology was supposed to include "Final Fantasy 6: The Great" and "Final Fantasy 5: The Lost Legend." I bought it almost as soon as it came out.... bad idea. Final Fantasy 5, I really have no opinion against it· I just didn't like the Job system, even though it seemed cool. Final Fantasy 5 was just disappointing. Final Fantasy 6, however, to quote an idea from a great thespian of our time, Mr. Homer Simpson: "I'm telling ya, people reading, that game was the suckiest game of suck that ever sucked!"

The music, which is supposed to be great and awe-inspiring, made me laugh the first time it came out of my Playstation speakers. Now, I'm sure someone would try to say, "Well, the OST was much better." I answer with this, "How can you say the music for the GAME is better when you are comparing the Orchestra versions?" The graphics, well, that really didn't matter. One of my main problems with the game lied in this, one poll a long time ago on RPGamer asked, "What was the most majestic (or some other similar word) moment in a RPG?" Thousands answer "The Opera scene (FF6)." Now· I almost there in the game, and I was happy with it (but still liked FF7 more), I get to the opera scene expecting something that would move me like Aries' death did in FF7. I get there... and... well.... it was a bunch of stupid little sprites circling, some stupid play that really didn't connect to the story, and then more stupid music! That really put a damper on playing it and I put it down to play Xenogears.

Maybe six months later, (2 months for Xenogears, 4 months of twiddling my thumbs looking for something else than FF6 or FF5 to beat), I picked up FF6 again. This time, looking more for the gameplay (like I did with Super Mario RPG) than expecting a great story ( like FF7). I got through past the destruction and got my party back together, just one thing the final dungeon decided I have to use all the characters (including Gogo and the Umaro). Now, if my characters had been even, but, because I don't think painting is a great fighting skill and blue magic is the devil, Some of my characters were... VERY WEAK! I had my party of four, and a backup group of two, which were all very dangerous. Unfortunately, these six remaining characters decided it would be fun if they sucked. The Esper system, which I was slightly irritated with at first, began it evil dance of "Use the suck-heads or you can't win, but... it will take many a year to learn... Mwahahahaha!"

The tears that streaked down my face as I realized I held a $40 dollar piece of plastic in my hand began to land on my controller. Part of me wanted to play "Gogo Frisbee" with it, but I decided the suck that was burned onto the piece of plastic shouldn't cause the plastic to be broken. Gee, looking at the beginning of the editorial, it seems as if I LIKED FF6, well, in the beginning of FF6, I liked it too. Its just Square decided the World of Ruin should be a World of Suck. If you really want to see how I feel about FF6, replace all the forms of "suck" with many a line of cursing.