In the last entry, I explained my reason for doing a series covering my replay of FF6 and played through the first hour of the game. We continue with the party reaching South Figaro and continuing into some of the meat of the game...
Part 003: South Figaro
South Figaro is the first real town you visit, and boy is it a doozy. Between the various plot hooks, foreshadowings, and barrels to search, I spent a good half-hour searching through every nook and cranny of the town.
The most obvious one is a ninja walking through town just ahead of you. Following him leads to the local bar cafe, where you see him drinking at the counter with a pal.
You actually don't do anything with Shadow yet, this is just a nice bit of foreshadowing to his eventual joining. Instead, I explore the town, finding a lot of things that aren't explained yet and looting everything that isn't nailed down so I can buy new weapons and armor at the first equipment shops I've seen all game.
Eventually I run out of looted money and begin making my way up Mt. Kolts. Although the game never explicitly tells me to go that way, it's the only other path out of here. These fights are noticeably harder, enough that I have to backtrack to South Figaro and rest twice before I finally make it all the way through.
Just before we reach the exit, the shadow blocks it, revealing himself...
He promptly divekicks us for possibly being friends of Sabin and attacks, throwing us into a boss fight that's... actually easier than some of the random encounters here. Just before we finish him off, Sabin jumps into the scene and has an angry chat with Vargas while we watch.
Apparently Vargas and Sabin were both disciples of Duncan. Vargas believes Duncan chose Sabin as his successor instead of him, so he killed his own father. Sabin seems rather horrified by all this, especially since he knows Duncan was going to choose Vargas as his successor, but steels himself to take down his murderous fellow student. At this point, the fight turns into a 1v1 tutorial on how to use Sabin's special Blitzes, which require you to input Street Fighter-esque commands. I break out a few basic Pummels on Vargas and he quickly collapses.
A small conversation ensues after the fight as the Figaro brothers reunite. Sabin volunteers to join them, now that he's no longer training on account of his teacher being dead.
The Returner hideout is nearby. We reach it and several long dialogues ensue.
After a small discussion with Banon, Terra is free to wander the Returners' Hideout, talking with her teammates about why she should help the Returners. The game never tells you you need to talk to the Returner next to the exit once you've talked to everyone, so you can head out and tell Banon your decision, which I found rather frustrating after 5 minutes of wandering around, wondering what to do next.
I rebelliously chose No, fully expecting a "But Thou Must" scenario where I had to choose Yes to advance the plot. But surprise surprise, after saying No 3 times, the game actually accepted it, not only changing the next cutscene to account for it but giving me a different reward to boot! I still ended up helping the Returners, but that's a surprising amount of choice for a Final Fantasy game.
I immediately reset the game and chose Yes. I didn't want to be an asshole. Banon immediately holds a meeting to explain his theories on the source of the Empire's Magitek and what he wants to do.
As they're talking, a wounded scout arrives with word the Empire's captured South Figaro. Locke volunteers to sneak into South Figaro to undermine the Empire there while the others escape via raft. The raft ride is basically a series of battles with a few choices on which path to take, combined with an "escort mission" to make sure Banon doesn't die. (This is easier than it sounds, since Banon can heal half of the party's HP each turn.) The most memorable aspect of the trip is the introduction of a recurring comic-relief boss...
He quickly withdraws underwater after we do a bit of damage to him, but the crew realizes he's just hiding under the raft.
And the scene fades to black, only to reveal...
Yep. The game is giving you 3 different scenarios to play through, and letting you choose which order to tackle them in. Looking back, FF6 did quite a bit of experimenting with how to tell a story in a JRPG, starting with this three-way Choose-Your-Order split and continuing with a few other things later in the game I won't spoil yet. However, the scenarios aren't very balanced; Terra's branch hardly has anything to it, while Sabin's is the meatiest of the bunch. I decide to tackle them from shortest to longest, so I choose Terra's first.
Part 004: A Hop and a Skip to Narshe
After a short continuation of the river rafting, we pop out close to Narshe and enter the town. Trying to enter directly causes the guards to get... rather rough with us.
So we take the secret route Locke told us to remember (remember?). This basically involves retracing our tracks from the beginning of the game, with the added wrinkle of a simple follow-the-light puzzle.
A few minutes later, we reach the house Terra was nursed back to health at, a small dialogue about the Esper ensues, and... we're done.
Told you it was short.
Part 005: Thieving Treasure Hunter
Next up on the docket is Locke, who just has to extricate himself from an Imperial-occupied town...
This involves a lot of the dangling plot hooks we encountered our first time in town... and lot of stripping people naked.
A bit of snooping around reveals a hint there's an escape passage out of the Rich Man's house, but unfortunately the only route to that part of town is blocked by a kid with a rather strange requirement for passage...
Fortunately, there's a loudmouthed merchant in a nearby shop...
Leaving the merchant battered and apologetic on the floor (would be a tad disturbing if Locke outright murdered him for his clothes). The rest of the trek through South Figaro follows the same pattern: find an Imperial soldier or merchant, beat them up, take their clothes, open up a new path, repeat 2 more times. Eventually you dress up as a merchant (again) to deliver cider to the old man, who offers to open up a secret passage to the Rich Man's House for you... except he doesn't remember the password you need to tell his grandson to get him to open up the passage for you.
There are no hints what the actual password is. You have to guess it. If you get it wrong, the kid kicks your ass (somehow) and tosses you out, minus your clothes. You have to beat up another merchant to steal his clothes and get another shot at it.
Fuck this "puzzle".
I finally choose correctly on my third try (it's "Courage") and pass through the secret tunnel to the Rich Man's House. The Rich Man is too busy lamenting that he sold out his town ("I didn't even need the money!") to notice a suspicious Merchant sneaking behind his bookcase...
In his secret basement (which is also being used as an Imperial HQ), Locke stumbles upon an interesting sight...
Locke, being the do-gooding womanizer he is, immediately decides to free Celes, which isn't hard given that the guard on duty falls asleep within seconds of his superior leaving the room.
The clock key winds up the stopped clock I didn't know what to do with from earlier, opening up yet another secret passage we can use to escape the town. First, though, we explore the secret rooms a bit for equipment for Celes; she starts out with nothing equipped, and while she can still hold her own with her spells, things get rough later if she's still naked.
Once we leave town, it's just a short trek through the same cave we took to reach South Figaro in the first place, but as we try to leave...
This is a pretty easy boss fight, basically a tutorial for Celes's special ability: she can absorb enemies' spells with her blade. It also only works if you have a blade, which means if you didn't pick up a blade for her while escaping, you're pretty screwed.
After the boss fight, Locke's scenario ends, leaving us with the beefiest of the 3...
Part 006: Cross-Country
Sabin ends up crossing half a continent (and most of an ocean) to get to Narshe, easily making his scenario twice as long as the other 2 combined. This is also where Final Fantasy 6 begins growing into its own.
He washes ashore far away from his destination, next to a lone house with a familiar figure nearby...
Uplifting fellow, Shadow is. Regardless, he's now joined the party (albeit temporarily, in his own words). Taking him with you is completely optional, but a few of the upcoming areas are much harder without him. Shadow has 2 special abilities: he can Throw any shuriken you buy for him for high damage, and his dog Interceptor occasionally blocks (and counters) attacks against him.
The house itself doesn't belong to him. Instead, it's home to a crazy old coot who mistakes you for a repairman and occasionally talks about a kid who isn't there.
With Shadow in tow, we make our way east to the Imperial Camp near Doma...
Here, we're introduced to Doma's one-man army: Cyan.
He makes quite a first impression by slaughtering the enemy commander in 1-on-1 combat, causing the others to flee in terror. His special ability is SwordTechs; the longer he charges it up, the better the SwordTech.
We switch from Cyan back to Sabin, who begins infiltrating the Imperial Camp only to eavesdrop on General Leo.
Leo, unlike Kefka, acts like an honorable soldier who cares about the lives of his men. Which, of course, means he's immediately summoned away so Kefka can wreck havoc.
Wait, didn't Celes mention that Kefka plans to-
...Crap.
Sabin tries to stop him, but Kefka runs away, and while his men keep Sabin and Shadow occupied, he carries out his plan...
...Real talk a moment. I like to gripe that modern Final Fantasies often act "emo", with whiny teenagers complaining about things that either really don't affect them or pale in comparison to the huge problems they should be fretting about.
I don't make that complaint about Final Fantasy 6. Final Fantasy 6 is dark. Just 5 hours in, you get to watch the stoic swordsman utterly break down while his king, wife, and son die before his eyes. I couldn't fault him if he spent a minute collapsed in a heap on the floor, bawling his eyes out.
Instead, he utterly snaps and charges into the Imperial camp, single-handedly trying to murder every Imperial he sees in revenge for his family's country's deaths.
Even when Cyan is having a breakdown, he's badass.
What follows is a bit of slapstick involving the machine-inept Cyan accidently doing donuts in the thing before he careens out of control and tramples several Imperial soldiers in the process. Note this is just minutes after we saw his entire family die before his eyes.
This game is stupid. I love this game.
After we fight our way out of the camp, Cyan mentions the only route to Narshe is from a port past the forest to the south. The forest is given the lovely name of... Phantom Forest.
I spend a few minutes wandering in circles near the Recovery Springs in the forest, grinding out some experience while I practice some of Sabin's other Blitzes. For random encounters, these are pretty nasty: you commonly encounter Ghosts that can either Stop you from taking turns entirely, or occasionally break out a Faery Fire attack that takes out 2/3rds of your max HP. Once I master Sabin's other Blitzes, I continue on through the forest. A short while later, I see a rather... ominous shadow in the distance.
PHANTOM. TRAIN.
Other games have Ghost Ships. We have a Phantom Train.
This game is stupid. I love this game.
I thought about explaining myriad small things that happen during this pretty linear dungeon, but I think I'll let the screenshots speak for me.
Yes, it ends with you fighting the train. I promptly Suplexed it.
This game is stupid. I love this game.
Once we beat the train, it cried Uncle and let us get off at the next station. But while we caught our breath there...
The scene ends with no music, the train's whistle fading away, Cyan staring into the distance without saying a word. The game lingers on this for a half-minute before fading to black. After basking in the absurdity of the Phantom Train for a half-hour, it gut-punches you out of nowhere. I forgot how much this scene got to me.
When the game fades back in, you're in the Overworld, on the other side of the forest, like nothing happened.
Oh look, another future party member. Unfortunately, he runs off the moment Sabin wakes up, obviously terrified of people who would purposely leap off a waterfall. But as you're wandering through the Veldt, he keeps popping up after fights.
Unfortunately, until you actually get something to feed him, the only way to exit the battle is to Attack him so he leaves, which seemed rather rude. Despite killing numerous giant boards, I didn't find any food until I reached the next town at the end of the Veldt: Mobliz. This is another town with multiple plot hooks, including talk of a crazy old man that tossed his own kid out thinking it was a monster, two lovers making dovey-eyes at each other, an injured soldier trying to a keep a correspondence with his sweetheart back home, and talk of an underwater trench that seems to be the only way out of here.
First things first, though: I buy some Dried Meat and toss it at the kid next time I see him.
I didn't quite appreciate it my first time playing through FF6 20 years ago, but there's an awful lot of characterization in Gau's rather lengthy introduction. It paints Gau as a mischievous brat and provides some badly-needed humor while quickly establishing a relationship between the 3 characters: Cyan immediately takes a shine to Gau, treating him like an adopted son, while Sabin acts more like an older brother frustrated at Gau's antics. They get a lot of mileage out of it, which they need because the next major characterization for Gau isn't until halfway through the game. In hindsight, it's amazing how much character they can establish even if they don't spend nearly as much time on characterization.
Following Gau's entry into the party, we get a tutorial on how to train Gau to use different monster abilities. He can learn any monster's abilities by encountering them on the Veldt and Leaping among them, which immediately ends the battle and removes Gau from the party. A few fights later, Gau will rejoin you, plus the new Rages he learned from the monsters. It's the kind of system that takes a lot of grinding and experimentation to exploit, but from the few I tried there seems to be a few of them that could be pretty broken.
I promptly spend an hour grinding out new Rages for Gau while I help fund a correspondence between the injured soldier and his sweetheart back home.
On a sidenote, I remember enough of the game's plot from 20 years ago to recognize many of the foreshadowings that have been done in both South Figaro and Moblitz. Color me impressed they inserted several events and references that don't pay off until you're 2/3rds through the game. They're small details I would barely notice on a casual first playthrough, but they're also the type of slow burn you rarely see in RPGs (where most foreshadowing is paid off within an hour, tops).
Anyway, once I'm satisfied I've learned the Rage for every monster currently on the Veldt, I head towards the Serpent Trench to see Gau's shiny treasure, only for him to forget where he buried it.
What follows is a tileset hunt wherein I step upon nearly every tile of the cave, waiting for one of them to trigger Gau finding the treasure. It takes me 10 minutes on wandering around to stumble upon it.
Surprise surprise, it's the diving apparatus we need to travel safely through the Serpent Trench. Sick of the Veldt by now, we jump in.
The Serpent Trench is much like our rafting down the Lete River: a linear set of encounters interrupted by occasional choices of which direction to go, albeit with a lot more Mode 7.
We eventually wash up on Nimitz's docks. There's not much to do here other than shop, pick up a few tidbits of gossip, and catch a ferry to South Figaro to reach Narshe.
With that, Sabin's route is finally over, and the 3 scenarios merge back into one plot...
Part 007: A Three-Way Brawl
The plot opens on Banon talking with Narshe's Elder when the other groups barge in. (Don't ask how they all managed to arrive at the same time.)
With the news that Kefka plans to seize the Esper by force, the party falls back to defend. The opportunity is used to provide a bit more characterization for several of the newcomers...
And then you go straight into the preparations for the battle. It's another 3-party fight, except this time, instead of Locke + 11 moogles, you have 7 PCs against everything Kefka can throw at you, which means some groups will be rather short on people.
What follows is basically an extended, all-out brawl as all 3 of my groups get into numerous fights against increasingly difficult enemies. There's hardly any pause between the fights, and sometimes the fights break out one after the other, often making it impossible for me to heal my groups out-of-combat. This causes Terra & Edgar to fall after one fight too many...
...but luckily they just respawn back at the start with 1 HP each. I quickly restore them to full health and send them back to the front lines while my other 2 groups hold the line.
After about 10 minutes of nonstop fighting, the enemy troops quit coming, giving me a chance to send my 3-man group after Kefka himself. After disposing of his bodyguard (another hard fight; I went through a lot of Fenix Downs to revive my PCs here), Kefka himself was a cakewalk.
A solid trouncing later, he flees and the day is won. But when the group goes to check out the Esper...
Terra turns into... something... and flies off...
Comments
As I played through this part of the game (Sabin's route in particular), I'm struck by how much better their characterization is than I recall. While I remembered the big dramatic moments, the small bits of comedy and slapstick interspersed throughout were forgotten. But they do a lot to make these characters likeable. Even better, they often have the same characters involved in both the drama and the comedy. ZombiePie and I actually touched upon it in a conversation:
Me: "So how emo would you say FF8 is?"
ZombiePie: "That's the thing: FF8 really isn't emo. Squall and Rinoa are the only ones who really act like that... everyone else is comic relief."
He went on to mention that FF8's characters never really changed emotions, either; Squall never did anything funny, and Selphie never did anything somber. ("Well, maybe viewing the destruction of her Garden, but that felt weak.") Which makes it more impressive that FF6's writers were deftly switching between the two, often with the same characters.
And, if it wasn't evident from the Poisoning of Doma, FF6 was often dark in ways I felt later games in the series never really lived up to. Or previous games, for that matter. Sure, FF4 had entire towns burnt to the ground and party members sacrificing themselves to save you, but there was something missing in its approach I can't quite put my finger on. Perhaps the characters looked too squat to really get any emotions out of their sprites, or perhaps the dramatic points were too blunt or flat. And in later Final Fantasies, it feels like the flashy cutscenes and wordy characterization actually detracts from the impact. They're too concerned with being showy, or putting their voice actors to good use, to be concise enough not to dilute the scene. Both the Poisoning of Doma and Cyan watching his family depart on the Phantom Train are rather short scenes, about a minute long and a dozen lines of dialogue each, yet they have a gravitas that feels like a dagger to the gut.
Yet, despite the grief that Cyan goes through, he's rather stoic. Perhaps that's another reason I prefer FF6: it feels like, rather than a bunch of teenagers whining constantly about their lot in life, a group of adults trying to soldier on despite some pretty severe trauma in their lives. It's a subject I'll be visiting again shortly into the next entry, where there's several vignettes that flesh out Locke, Edgar, and Sabin's backstories.
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