Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy VIOne of the most liked FF games with a notable villain that's probably more famous than the protagonists. This game doesn't have a poster main protagonist, but the girl name Terra (Tina in Japanese version) is the most important to the story plus the main theme is also her theme. There's a huge cast of playable characters which you follow even when split up. You can change out your party members throughout the game which is new to the series. The world is steampunk-ish and magic free since a past war has eliminated it, but the empire is reviving magic which causes a new war. The story is like FFII where you join the rebels to stop the evil empire. There's quite a bit of focus on the characters as their past are revealed throughout the game which is quite an improvement from the previous games. The Final Fantasy games take a different turn here as a new director takes over after the series creator.
The story starts off with a mind controlled Terra with her group doing their job to see this Esper, which are the summon creatures. The job goes horribly wrong, and Terra was saved. She regains her mind back and is helped by the rebels, Returners, to keep her away from the empire. She meets more of the rebels and tags along with them before choosing to join them. You meet more characters along the way who joins you. You see the main villain, Kefka, occasionally who is a sadistic clown ambassador of the empire and his laugh. You learn that the empire has some good people, but Kefka won't let them spoil his fun. The returners defend a neutral town from Kefka and his army from getting to the frozen Esper. Something weird happens to Terra when she meets an Esper and she ends up transformed and flies away. The group goes to find her. One of the strangest thing is that Edgar's castle can burrow and travel underground which is impossible in reality. They do find Terra but she's unresponsive. They meet an Esper who found her and tells them about their kind. He asks them to rescue the espers from the empire. The Espers "die" and turn into magicite which gives the ability to use magic to characters other than Terra and Celes who can learn magic naturally. The group needs an airship to get to the Empire so Celes impersonated Maria, an opera singer, to meet with the owner of the only airship in the world. You go through a entertaining opera scene, and able to get Setzer to help you. You then travel to the southern continent where the Empire rules. The towns there are not happy with the occupation of the Empire in their town. You learn about Cid who is the genius behind the Magitek experiments, and you are able to get into from the help of a returner sympathizer. They finally were able to find the captured Espers, but they all turn into magicite to follow their fellow Espers to join with you. Cid and Kefka comes in and Kefka orders for them to be destroyed and revealing Celes is a spy. Celes transports Kefka and herself away to save you. The facility begins to malfunction, and Cid helps you escape via mine cart. They were able to board their airship and visit Terra. A magicite in your party has turns out to be Terra's father, and restores Terra's memories. There's a flashback of Terra's parents, and how the humans entered the Esper world.
The Returners plan to attack the Empire, but they need the help of Espers. With Terra back in the group she agrees to help. They head to the sealed gate to goes to the Esper's world, but things wrong with Kefka following them, and the mad Espers flying into the human world. The Returners follow the Espers back to the Empire. The emperor has a change of heart and no longer wants to fight since the Espers are rampaging the empire. The emperor has also imprisoned Kefka for his war crimes. You are separated on your search for the Espers to come across a town on a island where you gain two more party members. You learn that they're magic users in hiding. You are able to find the Espers and get them to meet General Leo. However Kefka arrives and kills the Espers and General Leo confirming you're suspicions earlier. Kefka defeats the Espers coming to attack him, and him and the Emperor Gestahl arrive at the Esper Gate to raise the floating continent. The enemies, and the hero party get on the floating continent, and Kefka moves the Warring Triads resulting in the lands of the planet shifting. The party tries to flee, but the planet's movements have made them fall on different parts of the world.
You are stuck playing as Celes who is on a stranded island with Cid. Cid says a year has pass, and Kefka becomes the God of Magic. The world is dying as well. Cid then shows Celes a raft where she will go to find her friends to fight Kefka. Finding the others takes up quite a bit of time since there's a huge cast of characters. You can also get new characters as well as learn more about each character themselves since you'd have to do some quest in order to get them to come with you. After everyone is gathered, they head to Kefka's tower. Since Kefka is the God of Magic, the party aims to rid of magic in te world by destroying the statues. You find and find the 3 statues in the tower before you meet Kefka at the top. The final battle starts, and after beating him the world is rebuilding and everything is peaceful.
This game is quite story intensive so unlike the previous games its not always going to dungeons to get a key item, crystal, or whatever. Its good to see the series break away a little from the typical old school rpg game style with challenges. Some moments like the opera house where you have to remember the lyrics to be able to proceed with the game, and another where you have to talk to a certain number of people within 4 minutes to be awarded items. With the magicite it gives the battle system some depth. The playful humor from FF5 is also in this game, and there is some romance as well. Before it was only FF4 that had a love interest, but there wasn't much romance happening. Terra is the main character though she doesn't have a big presence. The story does give a nice balance of all the characters, and Terra just the special one for her unique powers. Kefka is also quite unique in that he is a legit psychopath that enjoys the suffering of others and destruction despite his rather lighthearted attitude. I enjoyed the final battle as well since it has an interesting design. The big cast comes into play since 12 will be fighting. The game also has a variety of monsters and abilities. The designs of the monster and bosses are really nice. The pixel art for the monsters, bosses, and backgrounds are also really nice.
Overall, I can see why people like this game. The big cast is a little daunting personally, but they are charming in their own way. I wasn't that into the story though that does not mean its bad or boring. I personally thought the game is ok, and I enjoyed certain parts of it. Definitely worth the time to try out. There is a mobile version of this game with new art.
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