Final Fantasy VI - The FIRST Profound Story Told in a Video Game?
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- Опубліковано 25 лют 2023
- Is it safe to say that Final Fantasy VI had the first "deep" story in gaming? When I have looked at lists of the greatest video game stories, I have never seen one mention a game before FF6. When I have done my own research, I found games with good stories and cool worlds, but none of them seemed to coalesce into perfection like it did with this game. With this video, I explore what FF6 did differently with it story-telling... focusing on things that were innovative at the time as well as things that, in some respects, remain innovative to this day.
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#finalfantasy #squareenix #squareenix - Ігри
Had a lot of respectful alternatives suggested in the comments. If anybody wants to elaborate on why they feel games like Earthbound, Ultima or Phantasy Star are greater, please do!
Play Phantasy Star series and you'll know. Also Ultima 4
I think the issue is, not the fact that something is more or less profound ("greater"), but what actually was first. In my comment I mentioned SMT 1 and 2. Are they more profound/greater than FF6? No (at least, no for me), nonetheless, the strong usage of religious topics, the questions this game asks about the role of humanity, the whole Law/Neutral/Chaos system (Law being humans should give up their own will to the higher being, Chaos being a suriving of the fittest and Neutral being pro humanity balanced between) makes me believe, that SMT1 was the first true attempt at making profound story in a video game.
Although this game defintely didn't come first, Max, consider looking into Moon RPG Remix Adventure (or just 'Moon'), the world's FIRST Anti-RPG. This game inspired Undertale.
Released in 1997, you play as a "Supporting Character" whose job is to ultimately revive all the creatures slaughted by the "Hero" when he was questing to save the world for his own EXP. This game questioned the utility of RPG mechanics, such as slaughtering random enemies for EXP, looting houses, and the psychological effects of doing such tasks on the people left behind.
Remember how Superman inadvertently destroyed Metropolis fighting Zod in Man of Steel? Remember how terrified they all were of Superman?
Next shin megami tensei 1 deep story
Other people have already mentioned it, but yeah, I wanted to weigh in here too: You can't talk about the history of storytelling (and profundity) in games without looking at Ultima 4. Maybe it didn't "go there" as hard as FF6, but it was pretty much unequivocally the first one to attempt to go there.
I always thought of Terra as the main character of Act 1 of FF6 and Celes being the main character of Act 2 after a certain event happens. I love this game, and how you can view the story through ALL of them equally.
Kinda is, like, they're the main focus, but think about the other games... On 7 the main focus is Aerith, but we perceive the story by Cloud's point of view. The same happens on 10, Yuna's the driving character of the plot, but we're aways seeing it from Tidus perspective.
But what Final Fantasy 6 does so great is the fact that every character have the spotlight almost equally, so you can't really point on who is the real main character, the one that we, the "spectators", have as our representative in the story.
Celes is almost this after the World's End, but even there is undeniable importance on every characters action before, during and after the event.
Celes is the main character for about 10 minutes of act 2 before her plot line wraps up. I guess that's more than most characters get in part 2, but I think people really overstate this whole 'Celes becomes the main character' shtick.
This feeling is fostered by the section right before part 2 is also being very Celes-centric I suppose. I think the bigger factor is just how unimportant Terra is in act 2 before the very end of the game. People want there to be a protagonist at all times and the reality of the matter is that part 2 doesn't really have one. The moment Terra's recruitment quest becomes available, Celes can be thrown into the reserve party for the rest of the game and that applies to every single character at that point.
@@deedoubs yeah that's how I see it too.
Celes had plenty of story beats in part 1 too. You could say Celes, Terra, and Locke were the most prominent character in the game but we could easily say that Edgar, Sabin, Shadow, Cyan all have decent chunks of Scenarios.
I also love Gau's arc his scenario always get overlooked.
@@ashknowsnothing7726 the main character is obviously shadow
Terra is the clear protagonist of the first half. But I’d argue that for her arc about love to be complete in a game that is primarily about fighting, she could not be the focal point of the second half.
If you think about it, Celes isn’t really present for much of the first half of the game. She goes to the Magitek Research Facility, but doesn’t rejoin until after Thamasa. The second half of the game thrusts her into a world where she must live with the consequences of her fear and inaction.
Kefka lives on in my memory as a true, memorable villain. That mfr was crazy. Period. No existential god is dead or humans are a plague blah, he wanted power, he got power, end of story.
Sometimes simplicity is the best option.
Kefka wasn't meant to be insane, that was a localisation choice.
In JP, Kefka is just a rude, horrible person. ENG couldn't have him be as crass in the localisation, so they made him more insane and clown-like to match his appearance.
Later incarnations of Kefka adopt this insanity as his canon personality, not his original JP version.
Also, he WINS...for a time. Rare to see a villain ascend to the levels of success that Kefka does.
FF2 emperor came back from hell but sure, it’s a popularity contest. Final fantasy memory of heroes is a nice way to read the first 3 games and bypass flaws, though ff6 had a ton of bugs and auto wins too lol. Dragon quest 4 even had a ton of characters before this game made it cool.
@@MrVariant ...👍
Yep. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
I think even nowadays, this game has one of the best plots ever made for a videogame.
Agree! Decades later, VI is still stuck with me, though I played FF 1 to 10. My second favorite is 9.
Yeah, but Locke keeping his dead girlfriend in suspended animation in some guy's basement because he can't get over her is super creepy.
@@izzyrov5814Don’t sleep on X-2
This game was an incredible thing to experience as a young teen in the '90s. It was a sign of the growth of the medium; that games weren't limited to bleeps and bloops and high scores and could tell emotionally resonant, impactful stories, despite the lack of graphical fidelity we take for granted today.
I would say limitation breeds creativity.
@@jamalisujang2712 You are totally right. Nowadays it feels like we touch the bottom of the barrel in imagination and creativity. At least in bideo games.
I might be saying something controversial but..
FF VI deserves all the praise FF VII gets.
You aren't saying anything controversial, you are just speaking the truth.
thats just truth.
I didn't enjoy FF7 nearly as much as FF6.
One of my biggest complaints about FF7 was not being able to target multiple characters using magic without using a slot for the All materia.
Really causes trouble when you can't heal your entire nearly dead party because you decided to link an All materia to attack magic instead, but i suppose that also means you were forced to explore other ways of playing, like having a dedicated healer that hopefully wouldn't die.
7 was just a marketing success and was the first for many. I can't even put it in my top 5 within the series, unless in the music category.
Well, it kind of does nowadays. I can even remember back in the latter half of the early 2000’s, when I was entering my early teens and really getting into Final Fantasy, that the Internet culture of that time had a huge contingency of older gamers who would endlessly praise FF6, and relentlessly bash the crap out of FF7, and I partially feel some of that might have been due to the ridiculous amount of overexposure that FF7 got in the early 2000’s. It seems like nowadays, however, that most people seem to generally agree that FF6 is the better game, thought that doesn’t make FF7 a bad game by any means.
I was a teen of the 90s playing this in the day ... simply spectacular. The twist of ACTUALY failing to "save the world" and being forced to play through the aftermath of it wasn't just indescribable, it was more like _inconceivable._ Stranded on a lone island where _even the random encounters are dying,_ then Cid dies, then Celes...
And then there's the music accompanying that moment. Celes's Theme is forever associatd with _this_ moment over any other for me, and it's followed by the gut punch that is "Forever Rachel" (aka. Sad Locke's Theme). I don't remember at what point (or which playthrough) I took Locke to Kohlingen early on, but I was not prepared for the revelation that he failed his girl friend (and how he blamed himself for it) either.
I was about 16 when i brought this game back in 1994, and i was caught off-guard when Kefka won. If you wasnt spoiled and made it to the Floating Continent and saw those events it was a game changer. Everyone holds Areith's death as a game changer but no, it was the end of the world.
I was around 11. The story was gripping and interestingly scary, especially with the Esper music. After the Narshe battle in the snow, I had the volume up pretty high when Terra started reacting from the Esper... nearly had a heart attack when she screamed.
Fun fact, I heard the dark world was only added because they had extra time after their initial release date. Meaning that kefka winning and destroying the world was not in the original plan. That moment on the floating continent is what allowed ff7 and ff onwards to really get deeper and darker. It emboldened them to try even stranger things in the future. And in ps era, boy did square push games to a new height.
FFVI absolutely changed my life. Before that, I enjoyed games, but they were more of a fun diversion or activity. FFVI showed me the first glimpse of narrative art in games and made me fall in love forever with the medium.
Calm down
@@omensoffate coal
I feel exactly the same way
Bravo, that is exactly how I describe this game as well! The opening scene with the marching magitek made me pause, think, and as the scene and the music was playing out, I was realizing for the first time in my life that video games could be made into a work of art.
Bruh, totes got them feels too hehe
It had a profound impact on me. The MUSIC was so amazing too. Coupled with everything you mentioned, I was deeply moved many times. From trading at Rachel and Lock’s scene to sitting up and getting excited hearing the boss music against Whelk.
6 is and has always been my favorite game of all time. One of the main reasons is that the bad guy wins. By the time the heroes finally regroup and kill Kefka, he's been a tyrant that's accomplished all his goals, destroyed the planet, and is feared by all. He's bored of it, and the party finally killing him after over a full year of him ruling the remains of the planet is almost an afterthought. People focus on the 'crazy clown' part, but once you realize how the story actually goes, he's unlike any other villain in any game, movie, or book that I'm aware of. 6 was seen as the FF without a 'main' character, but nobody realizes, Kefka is the main character of FF6. You just don't get to play as him.
Liiiiies, Terra is the prog! I will never admit you're right!
Right. Usually like a Isekai anime will use a similar plot as the SETTING for a completely new narrative in an alternate world, timeline, or place in time-- not as the primary series-long conflict.
@@falconeshieldTerra was just part of Locke’s harem. Locke is the main ;)
Kefka is overrated. Real world Tyrants ruled for longer than a year. He is not complex in any way and the world getting destroyed was only iconic because it was the first time it was done.
Really break down what kefka did to destroy the world. Did he manipulate his way to the top? No.
Did he rule with an iron fist? No.
Is he a compelling character at all? No.
Here’s what he did. He pushed a statue and it happened to work out for him.
Overrated.
Especially when you consider Squaresoft itself produced a far more intimidating, complex, and compelling villain who actually wins in the end.
Kefka doesn’t even “win” he’s dead at the end of the game and peace is restored how is that winning?
I played FF6 through 12 and 14 in the past like two years and 6 is by far still my favorite. My biggest gripe with the game is that I didnt play it sooner. And Kefka cemented himself as one of my favorite video game villains.
Favorite game ever, IV was also decisive though, my first RPG. I'll always remember the twin's sacrifice, Cecil becoming a paladin, Kain's betrayal, Rydia's deus ex machina as a grown teen. So many memorable tales.
IV definitely deserves a lot of credit for it's role in the series.
Which betrayal 🤣
Hell, give FF2 it's star wars influenced flowers
Also, why not, Shin Megami Tensei 1, the series where the whole world gets plunged to darkness and all that, I never played the game, but that came out before FF6 back in 1992, lol.
Just cuz a game is considered a masterpiece, doesn't mean it was the first game to do anything.
We can go earlier, and there were definitely mainstream-like titles that could fit the bill, like a Shadowruns-type of game or even a Metal Gear
FFIV will always be my favorite and most played since it's my first one. Love 6 and 7, but haven't replayed them as much as IV. Original snes, the 3d remake, and the psp versions are all great.
FFIV was one of my favs, always wanted to name my daughter Rydia
FFVI and Chrono Trigger are my favorite RPGs, but FFVI was first and the nearest and dearest to me. It was definitely the first profound and impactful story I had experienced in a video game at the time. It still holds up today.
Best two RPGS on the SNES and I agree they totally hold up today
Its a tie lol
This game is definitely a cornerstone of videogame history.
Having played it at 15 when it came out, I can attest, there is no game prior to it that made me FEEL for the characters. And this is coming from someone who, by that time, has played almost all the big NES and SNES games of the time since my childhood. FF6 came at the perfect timing, after Zelda A Link to the Past and Secret of Mana, the 2 games that trained teenager me to delve deep into a game, and it definitely opened my eyes to the fact that games can be life-changing inspiring work of art instead of just pure fun afternoons or nights.
FFVI always gets the immense respect it deserves within the JRPG community but no one else realizes how important it is for basically all modern story telling. This is the reason dark stories are so incredible in modern games. FFVI paved the way for everything we have today. Kefka is the greatest villain of all time because he played his cards close to his chest and he won. He just won. He accomplished his goals and made everything feel pointless and unachievable. Peace unattainable. It is the most impactful moment in gaming for my 39 years of life so far. Kefka is perfection.
This game was one of the most important things that ever happened to me. The lessons embedded in its story set the stage for my later adoption of existentialism and anarchism. It seeded the understanding in my young mind that _hope_ is what transforms all things, no matter how deep the darkness. The world could become nothing but wastes reigned over by a dark god and yet still it would be right to struggle to overturn the way of things. I have analyzed the plot and the characters and the world numerous times over the years and found new nuances each time I have returned. Also, the soundtrack is a transcendant masterpiece. Uematsu has said it was his magnum opus and I agree with him. It is probably one of the most cohesive, wide-spanning, and heart-wrenching scores ever created.
I have never succeeded in conveying the depth and beauty of the game to people in my life. Few understand its foundational importance to my current worldview. Yet without it, I would not be who I am.
So what happened to the "GHOSTS" of the train near the forests of Doma?WWWWWOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I cannot be existential because of circumstances and the "ghosts" from the train of Doma😁.
Just like my dissappointment on "Farplane"FFX.😁
Anark is here nice.
Played this game because Mog the Moogle dances. Stayed for the story. And then played more so I can have more of Mog's dancing.
Ah. Mog, lord of blood.
@@evanpetelle5669 and also King of the Boogie
FF6 started the Limit Break type move. It was called Desperation.
Loss isn't the only theme. It's about having hope in any situation because of love
One other aspect of Final fantasy VI that I believe is important is how much it drew you in emotionally to its world. A prime example of this world be the 'Opera scene' in which celes sings an opera song. OMG that scene was and to this day the only thing (movie, music, or game) that actually made me cry and just feel better.
Final Fantasy VI was the first game I played that truly gave me escapism, because it immersed me into an entirely other world seamlessly. From my memory, games before that were all beep boop beep and then FFVI blasted me in the face and popped my ears with a story I'd only experienced before in novels. I was 12 when I played it a year after release, and it's my favourite video game of all time for showing me the wonder of RPGs and story-driven games with what feels like real stakes, real loss, and real triumph.
I still remember the details of how this game affected me when I played it as a 15-year-old back in 1994, and it's never lost its potency. It is my favorite game of all time!
One of my favorite little details about how this game merges story-telling and gameplay involves the revelation of Edgar and Sabin's backstory and the role of "the coin". If you include both characters in your party when setting out from Narshe before the Cataclysm, you will get their backstory about the succession and how Sabin got his freedom. At this point, you will assume it was the luck of the coin-flip that Sabin got his freedom and Edgar ruled, since you learn that the coin used was double-sided later during the opera scene when you recruit Setzer. However, if you don't include them both in your party at this point, you won't see this scene until after the Cataclysm, and at this point, you will have already learned Edgar has a two-sided coin, so their backstory is presented in a whole new context. F'in brilliant -- and this was in 1994!!!!
Very happy to see this game being covered. It’s always been my g.o.a.t. and that’ll probably never change. Makes me cry tears of mixed emotions every time.
Don't cry its gonna be ok :)
FFVI is still my favourite game of all time. The story, the music, the characters, the set pieces. All of it was super impactful to my 10 year old brain
My first time playing this game was up in a treehouse in the dead of winter in the middle of the woods when I was 14. Me and my friends played the hell out of that and ff7. Nostalgia is hitting me hard dude, thanks for taking time out to play this great game.
Hands down my favorite entry in the entire Final Fantasy franchise. It was unlike anything else I had played back when it came out on the SNES and it laid the foundation for modern story telling through Video Games as a medium. Just because the villain won and the world ended doesn't mean the adventure is over; find your friends, gear up, level up - Kefka awaits. Stay yellow.
One thing I would like to add. During the scene that leads up to Celes's "failed attempt", you actually *can* save Cid. I always liked that particular choice because it gave you, the player, agency to effect how Celes reacts to the end of the world and in so doing, can reflect your own state as a player. If you feel like she would be able to overcome that loss, rise up and save the only one still left to her: She can. If you, like her, are too overwhelmed by the end of the world to play that really stupid and honestly annoying minigame then Cid dies and Celes reflects that hopelessness. So many games would *not* have given the player a way to change that outcome.
>this< is one of the must under-recognized points about the depth of this game. There is literally a choice in the game where your game play determines the hopelessness of a character. So poignant and powerful that it causes your protagonist to throw themselves into the heap of despair. Wha...what? I was 9 years old when I did this. I had to process this. The story STILL moved forward, but in retrospect no other game has had the gall, the nerv, the adamantite balls to put any of their players in this position since. Seriously, in the terms of narrative game play the depth of emotional commitment that this "minigame" entailed was light years beyond even some of the greatest current narratives, which shy away from such deep, internal turmoil.
Games in our modern area don't even tough this territory, they do not even come near treading upon the space of self-harm as an actual potential of personal failure. But the way that VI handled this and reconciled this is still so much more than anything I continue to experience in narrative gameplay in the current era.
To mak ean impact, to make a difference in the landscape of story telling is to take risks, to take leaps, and to trust that your audience will understand why you did it, and what it means to the story. And while the initial impact of this plot point may seem small, its place in the entire narrative is too often underestimated.
VI is the best game in the Final Fantasy series because it broke ground on SO MANY points, from antagonist characterizations, to the place of the ensemble, to a revolutionary soundtrack and a cinematic finale that is unrivaled to this day.
I am a French Canadian, I bought that game in my teens, knowing nothing of the English language. I went throught that game, with a English to French dictionnary. This game, in a hard period of my life, was a welcomed adventure that did made me aware that, if I don't learn English, I would miss on so much. The deep story lore of that game is still one of my favorite to this day.
Soundtrack for FFVI was epic, really gives me all the feels to this day
19:24 also, if i remember correctly, ff6 was the first game to introduce limit breaks, which i always thought were incredibly badass, like the characters through sheer stubborness or desperation manages to push themselves just a little more forward!
Nice video as always, Max! 👍 Your content is top quality!
If you count Sabin, yes.
@@BB-pn2qv All the main characters in FFVI have Desperation Attacks (a.k.a. Hidden Blitz) that can execute when the character is near-death. They're precursors to the formalized Limit Breaks of FFVII onward.
@@JediMB a 1/16 chance of using a special attack when the fight mechanic is used at low health, so rare they were essentially an urban legend back in the day
I remember, in one playthrough having trouble with the Tunnel Armor boss and then Locke pulls out his desperation attack and finishes off the boss just like that. Literally the only time I saw this mechanic happen, but _it was worth it._
@@JediMB whaaaat?? I didn’t know this!
You did a fantastic job of not only summarizing the primary and secondary contentions of the game, but explaining why it matters. FF6 is hands apart my favorite installment and whenever I find people who appreciate it as much as I do I feel not only vindicated in my love for the game, that some little weirdo nerd in the 90's playing this on his dad's SNES wasn't just a sucker being sold a fantasy, but that the game I cherish had such an impact on how stories in games are both approached and juxtaposed with others. Beautifully done video Max
Great job on the video. FF6 had a huge impact on me, but so did 4. My brothers and I took turns playing it and we each had our favorite characters. I can't express what we felt when the world got destroyed, it's something you have to experience. The game basically makes you start over in a new world with the sense of wanting to put your party back together. It's like they wanted to give the player a sense of loss and see how they react. Makes the characters and their stories relatable. It is interesting to see how they all dealt with the end of the world differently. Most of them accepted that they couldn't do anything but go on with their lives.
If they ever remake it I hope to don't try to change it. Just redo it with modern graphics, but keep the gameplay and stories intact.
Final fantasy VI (or III as I originally played it on the SNES) did greatly influence how I saw the world around me (I was born in 1978 so I had to be like 16 when it came out in 1994).
As an adolescent who had run away from home several times from the age of 14, who as a runaway minor had no relationships with anyone and no connection to anything. I saw part of my life and way of thinking reflected in Kefka. His 'what does love, life, hope, and faith matter when all of that will inevitably end or be destroyed in the end?' philosophy just connected with me and the life I was living and had lived for my short 14 years thus far.
Kefka made me fall in love with the villain and identify with and root for the 'bad guy ' of the media to win. My love of Scar, Jafar, Ursula, kuja, Thanos, darksied, green goblin, reverse flash, etc etc etc (insert villain here) is all thanks to Kefka.
"Even though the objective answer is IX" MY MAN
Edit: I gotta say one of the things that knocks FFIV off as being the biggest jump in storytelling is the existence of FFII. The jump from FFI to FFII in storytelling is *insane*. What FFIV did to shake things up was the emphasis on characters, making them feel very individual, and giving Cecil an honest to god story arc.
Strongly disagree. The protagonists in II have names and stuff, but... they barely have any personality. FF I has good side characters, a solid story and in general I honestly think they're better than II's. II just made new characters and killed or tossed them aside right away. Not that I dislike it, though. The mechanics are interesting and really laid the basics for future ideas.
Acronyms: FF: Final Fantasy, S/NES: Super/ Nintendo Entertainment System, S/FC: Super/ Family Computer/FamiCom (NES in Japan), GBA: GameBoy Advance, PSP: PlayStation Portable
I think I'm going to address both you and emerald with this, ff2 (FC) had a lot of side characters that perished with limited backstories, ff1 (NES) also was fairly limited As far as characters was concerned ff1 (NES) and ff2 (FC) are concerned, in that regard many of those characters may have been later retconned and expanded, take for example FF1: Strangers of Paradise (SoP), giving the four fiends and Garland an extremely expanded backstory, not to mention Astos/Ultima Weapon, Bikki, etc. FF2 PSP and GBA both had post-game editions that expanded upon the nature of magic in ff2, from what I've seen (limited - I don't own the PSP version), and the emperor's conquest of heaven/hell, although I'm curious if the Japanese used other names for those areas.
I appreciate that ff2 had a more involved villain throughout, ff1 (NES) in it's current story-state, with SoP's details would have a more complete story/characters, however, this video is examining from a historical perspective. FF2 (FC)'s emperor constantly is constantly part of the story (whether through lackeys or directly) Duke(Sic?) Borgan is glory hungry, Gordon does have a growth story (albeit limited in story narrative) many of the character in the party's 4th slot do have very limited lines, but, there are a few like Ricard do have some lines here and there if you look for them. I find these details more than ff1 (NES), where many seemed to be little more than a fetch quest fodder. In FF1 (NES) the most detailed are the collective Lefein, the aquatic Mermaids, and the Circle of Sages.
From what I see there was expansion for story telling, between both games but, both left a lot to be done through imagination or interpretation, fan-theorizing in other words at least when both were initially released. From ff1-ff3(NES/FC) there was improvement, in story telling, but, to me it seemed more gradual at least compared to ff4-ff6(SNES/SFC), and ff7 onwards.
I think Half-Life was the biggest jump in storytelling for 3D FPS games but for sure IV was a bigger leap for games in general.
@@not_emerald That's why I was talking about the story for II, not the characters, while the characters in IV were a massive leap forward, particularly Cecil (having you start off as practically the villain was a stroke of brilliance). II's story was shockingly good for the time- I played the game on the GBA for the first time after having grown up on the series and when cities got bombed and then later wiped out I was stunned, I did not expect it from a game that came out before I was born. Plus the twist of the emperor being defeated only to take over hell was fantastic, really great over the top villainy.
@@stephaniec6307 I don't think FF I had a story that was bad, really, but regardless. FF II had a slightly better story told in a much poorer way. Things often seem random and often go nowhere (again, the characters that appear and die out of nowhere), you just finish a mission and go to another, in a way that is way too loose.
FFVI was the very first game I played, and still remains my favorite to this day. And just as you said in the video, particular elements and characters have saved my life. Don't get me wrong, I also adore VII, but there's been this Certain Something that VI had that I just couldn't exactly name.
Like, sure, you lose halfway through the game. That's been cited a million times. The Aria scene is super cool, the cast is gigantic but they all get a decent amount of backstory, etc. But I think you finally put it into words, here, why it's impacted my own and so many others' lives.
So, thank you. There's so much obvious love and dedication put into this, and I can't thank you enough for doing so for a game that deserves more love- and for us who still adore it to this day.
Videos like this really make me appreciate gaming more. I was born in 94 and most of the games you mentioned were made when I was a toddler and still in Nigeria. Stories like this are really impactful and makes me want to play it.
FF VI, in terms of storytelling, is the best of the series for me. Such a variety of playable characters, and all with an interesting backstory behind them. As a person who fought with depression, I connected the most with Celes and Terra, and that was something new for me, to connect with a videogame character. And, now, after watching this video, I think it’s time for me to defeat Kefka again. I know that the moment I hear the Terra’s theme, one of the most beautiful, yet sad, piece of music I’ve ever heard, I will be, again, lost in this game.
One line: "Do you think a minor thing like the end of the world would do me in?"
From memory, may not be exact but that one line had a huge impact on me and my life. I've literally been paralyzed twice and both times pulled myself out of it and learned to walk again even when I was told I wouldn't.
I've been following this channel for more than two years now. I had always hoped that Max would cover FFVI - one of my fav FF parts next to IX. Today is a beautiful day!
I think in the end, Kefka allowed himself to be killed. Imagine if he really blasted all the heroes with his judgement ray. This plot was never properly discussed, I feel.
I have always considered Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together to be the "Grandfather" of Story Rich Games. Released in 1995, and focusing on dark medieval politics, it tells a much more complex narrative than anything in the SNES era. Telling the story of a 3 way race war and, through it's branching narrative, asking the player "What would you do to save your people from genocide? What lengths would you go to to protect everything you know and love?" While offering some extremely severe options, as well as the severe consequences of those choices. Tactics Ogre's narrative strength is such that it still holds up to today's story rich games, despite being 28 years old.
EDIT: Typos
What did you think of FF tactics?
@@Handle35667 I love FF Tactics. Comparing it to Tactics Ogre from story perspective; I would rate it above Neutral, about even with Chaos, but below Law.
@@Handle35667Christ they need to release tactics on ps5
The opera scene from this game is my favorite scene in any game ever. Also Celes is my favorite video game character of all time.
Having played through FFVI multiple times, I decided one day to share the game with my best friend using the co-op mode. (For those who don't know, you could set two of the four combat party members to be controlled by a second player.) I got to watch him experience all the story beats and character moments I knew and loved, and I was interested in how we differed on favorite characters (mine are Cyan and Terra, his Locke and Celes).
When Celes' act of despair (excellent turn of phrase, by the way) happened, he physically lunged at the television as if to catch her. I can't think of any better evidence of a player connecting with a character.
That kind of visceral reaction always reminds me of "The Dragon's Wrath" by Brent Roth.
There is a part in there, where a battle becomes desperate, and one of the primary characters, moves to defend another against overwhelming odds. I could see, from a million miles away, what was going to happen but still, I was such a strange combination of elated and gutted when it did.
Heroic sacrifice is my ABSOLUTE favorite trope in fiction, and TBH, given the choice, how I'd like to go out one day. So seeing it so well executed was beautiful, but at the same time I'd been essentially praying that it wouldn't.
I wailed.
I may have shad a few tears in my life over fictional characters, but nothing like that. And it set up a revenge arc which was the most delicious schadenfreude ever. Watching as protag wrought his bloody, fiery vengeance on those responsible... Sends shivers up my spine just thinking about it, even now, like 7 years later.
Great analysis. FFVI remains my favorite game story by a landslide. One other thing worth mentioning is that the struggle of the main characters is the REASON that Kefka is such a compelling and perfect villain. His nihilism and insanity perfectly foils they loss and trauma of the heroes.
Okay, Excuse me bro...
I've never heard of you, seen anything you have posted on any social media or watched anything you have made...
This video is exceptional. FF6 holds a very, VERY dear spot in my heart and for somebody to capture a part of what I felt when playing this game and translate it into a media I can watch is super alien and amazing. What a great video. Thank you for doing this life changing game justice.
It's neat seeing how many people FF6 has left a significant impact on. Full disclosure, game was my first true game love as a kid. Was such an amazing story, hard to ever take top spot in my heart as far as experiences go.
@@mukkah I still have yet to find a game that can fill that hole.
Aaahhh hehe
Still lots of games worth experiencing though they might not peak as high in your heart =)
Flip side your perspective adds more to the thought of FF6 just bein' such a damn, damn, damn, damn, DAMN good game XD
For sure, bruh =)
~a random canadian viewer@@ENVE5
BRO I FLIPPED MY PERSPECTIVE TO HARD... I'M PLAYING FORTNITE.
xD
@@mukkah
FF6, or FF3 when I was growing up, was the first RPG and one of the first games I can remember playing. So you could say it had a profound impact on the way I view games.
Same for me. My friend had it and used to let me play during battles with the second controller. After that, I got into Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Breath of Fire, Earthbound, etc.
There's a conversation in the World of Ruin that triggers a flashback to the World of Balance - the tranquil town music kicks in + it shows kids playing; everything is still green. It's beautiful and poignant. Truly a gem of a game. :)
Amazing content. I would also argue that this game is the very first that can be considered a work of art. Not only its narrative, themes, and characters, but what Nobuo Uematsu achieved with its score is nothing but breathtaking (and that's a HUGE understatement from my side). Thanks for the great video.
"...and have you found your 'joy', in this nearly death world of ours? -Yes."
FF6 was the first game period that I ever felt the compulsion to complete without ever putting it down or taking a break from. I literally got the game on a friday and played it the entire weekend and completed it sunday night. very few things have been able to engross me completely, even books. its in the top three of my favorite games of all time. its probably the only RPG that I could complete and then immediately restart to experience the story again.
I just recently purchased Silent Hill 2 . I’ve just completed Brookhaven Hospital.It just occurred to me that your intro animation is James in the Mirror .
I love it even more now .
Mother 1 and 2
Mother 1 is about legacy and the mistakes of your ancestors effecting your life, it’s about stepping up to the plate to wrestle with a mess that you didn’t make, but that only you can solve. It’s also about how love can bridge gaps that make us alien to one another and prevent hurt.
Mother 2 is very much more about experience, it’s about growing up in a world that constantly changes and is full of people who will hurt you given the chance. It’s about navigating that environment and making friends anyway. It’s about going out into the world with those friends and building memories together. Some of those experiences will be good and fun and exciting, but some will be horrible beyond anything you’d yet experienced (as you are a child), but with your friends you can survive it and live afterwards. It also has many many fourth-wall breaks that give the player AS The Player an important role in this story.
Don't care about 2, but 1 is my favourite video game story of all time. Yeah, for me the best story is from the 80s, because like Dark Souls the fact we only get glimpses into what happened 50 years ago due to technical limitations and have to understand the story from dialogue with NPCs with barely any cutscenes until the last hour really enhances it.
Beatles
Phenomenal vid! I love FF6 and it's great to see it still be relevant today
I always thought of Terra as the main character. Sure as you rightly said all of the characters have a story to be told and an arc of loss and redemption by the end of the game, but I feel that all of the stories and characters either involved Terra in some direct way or were Terra adjacent in some way.
Terra is the main character. She's half Esper. She's directly linked to the power that destroyed the world.None of the other characters can say that.
Its Celes, clearly. She's the one you pick up as after the collapse while everyone else's stories happen off screen. She's the one that gets the gang back together. She's the one who mirrors Kefka being created by the same process. She's the one who keeps fighting when Terra quits. The Opera scene. She's the one with the love story.
The protagonist is whoever the player wants that's the intention of it
I wouldn't be able to leave Terra behind for most of the game if she was objectively the main character also I'm pretty sure the devs said that the world of ruin opens with celes because they were afraid of giving Terra's story "too much focus"
This game was THE game of my youth and I will always love it. It’s actually what I remember showing my parents at the time when they complained about how much time I spent gaming saying it wasn’t a game as much as an interactive movie, then showed them the scene with Cyan on the phantom train to prove my point
Also just an addition about who you bring with, with Rachel if you have Celes in addition to Locke, get even more than with just Locke
By the way since you mentioned Ultima and the question of 'when did games start really trying to tell stories'- while I never actually played it myself, my understanding is that Ultima IV was ridiculously innovative in its story telling for the time, especially seeing as it predates even Dragon Quest I. But again, never played it, only read about it.
Ultima IV is more significant for its novel approach in advancing world building (a persistent one at that) and immersion. The whole game is a macguffin hunt centering on cultivating the 8 virtues. Ultima V - VII get progressively more story focused.
@@alexh2790 Gotcha! Like I said, never played it and only know the broad strokes so nice to get an opinion from someone familiar with the series!
I recently played Ultima 4 and got addicted, I’ve beaten it multiple times on multiple consoles!
This is one of your best videos for me Max, just because Final Fantasy VI is on of my favourite games of all time. My most profound moment im videogame history was Kefka's win and the End of the World. The game constructs a meta message that both the characters, and the player, have to learn to leave on and find a new meaning in life even in the worst adversity. It so sad and compelling at the same time, you can't deny how it was life changing for a 12 year old to face this kind of philosophy.
Thanks, dude.
@@maxderrat life-changing because normally, when we're young, death and gloom are concepts too far fetched. And even adversity is something you don't get if you're risen by caring, middle class parents.
But at the same time the game breaks you by making Kefka win, it lifts your spirit with all the end game sequence, showing the characters trying to live on and make the best out of it.
Years latter ot helped me a lot at understanding the concept behind Camus existencialism: life is meaningless, but because of that you can give a meaning to it. That's what they do through the whole game, first out each character loss, then after even the whole world is destroyed.
I would definitely give this crown to Final Fantasy 2/4 (American/Japanese). Yes, the story may not have been as expansive as FF3/6, but it was rich, immersive, and yes I would argue profound. The dark knight who attacks other nations, murders the civilian population of a small town, who then goes on to be a guardian for the only survivor of that town, purifies their own soul, and brings his brother back around to the light...all to defeat hate itself.
A game that sprawls across the overworld, underworld, and even the freaking moon...FF2/4 did an amazing job on all points.
This low key continues to be the best video game content on UA-cam. Keep it up max!
I've avoided these types of videos cuz I've never finished this masterpiece. It's my favorite game, played deep into it decades ago. It's like I'm saving this for future use
I've never played a game since that has made me laugh, cry and sit in quiet, open mouthed terror. And all this from 16 bit characters! Masterful writing
FF6 wasn't my first RPG, but it was the first one that really hit me for many of the reasons you touched on. It's one of the few games that I'll replay to this day, and I really enjoy how it continues to have fan support and is something I don't regret recommending to anyone.
For me it’s about how well this game articulates itself as such a classic work, from the art to the music to the characters. Gameplay always felt easy, the world isn’t very big to explore, and the story writing is pretty simple, but it’s definitely a beautiful/classic work of art.
At the time, it was the biggest world to explore. Not only that, you had light and dark world.
@@celuiquipeut6527 Not so sure about that, I don’t even think it’s bigger than FFIV. FFIV’s towns are clearly bigger, with more places to go and npcs to speak to. FFIV also has the underground map as well as the Lunar one. So I actually doubt that.
The main character of FFVI is Love Itself. It's the Hope that still keeps swinging even when the world literally went to shit. it's the different forms of Love intecating with and reacting to what the Story throws at them, from Celes and Locke rediscovering romance, to Locke's grief, Cyan's grief and Terra learning to love herself again and rekindling her fighting spirit. Their Love, for themselves, each other and the people they are protecting, is the real Lead.
On the FF series I see FFIII as the game that cements foundations and FFVI as the cathedral made from honing their craft on two console generations. FFVII was the magnum opus to show off to the world.
6 is one of my fave games ever and I always recommend it to younger/newer final fantasy fans but they usually end up playing 7 cause of the graphics 😭 Also, I would say Terra is the main since you start with her and the story revolves around magic and her abilities. But it's also great that the game gives you the flexibility to get to know all the characters in more detail.
Wing Commander 1992 in the PC space was noteworthy for the game dynamically adjusting the narrative to your performance, making the characters reasonably real, and otherwise setting a relatively high bar for story handling. Ultima Underworld also came out in 1992, and while there were limitations of things like how much could fit on a disk versus in the manual there was stuff that predated those as well.
Actually, that's a good shout. Loved Wing Commander on my 286 PC ....upgraded to a 386 and there was no frame rate limiter lol. Fun times.
1990 even
Very ahead of its time
Final Fantasy VI is so great that when I hear the theme I am transported back to my youth! Oh how I miss those days.
Final Fantasy 6 is the game that truly got me into gaming. Before that I played some games but FF6 is the one that drew me in and had me staying up way passed my bed time knowing I had school the next day.
My favorite FF... I remember playing this game in japanese before the US FFIII came out... the Dark Continent... Emperor Gestahl's ambition... Kefka's CHAOS as The Joker. Pure Apathy. Plus the music... ugh... Celes on the island with Cid... whether she nursed him back to health with healthy fish, or her despair if he died... finding Locke's headband and the MUSIC when Setzer revealed his hidden airship WOW. Getting goosebumps just from remembering all this... don't get me started on Terra... the Figaro brothers... even Relm & Stragus... Gau
I first played this when I was 12. Heard good things about and never play any other final fantasy game. Didn’t really know what to expect. This was the first game I played were I was so into the story and characters. The set pieces, music and Kefka blew my mind. Best game I ever played is final fantasy 6
Played as a kid on my uncle's SNES for a bit shortly after it came out. He let me borrow it a while later and I think I killed most of a summer with it. Kefka was unforgettable. The twist where you effectively lose halfway threw the game blew my mind. Also, always get the Yeti. I've forgotten games I've played before, but never FFVI.
The Yeti with its weapon and the ring in the coliseum! And Mog, i always bring them together, so Mog can handle him. Lol
This game holds kind of a second hand nostalgia for me, it's one of my older brothers favorite games, and it existed in the background of my childhood, I wish I had taken a closer look at it, thank you for sharing your experience
Both you and Resonant Arc doing FF6 analyses at the same time? Sounds great :D
Great breakdown! It's nice seeing these classics still getting the attention and analysis they deserve
I remember re-playing the android version of FFVI during the lockdown period in 2020. Still addictive as ever.
You got me fired up to experience VI again, so thanks a lot for this video!
FFVI remains, to this day, my most favorite game of all time. There have been other great games, some even more well-made and engaging, but the pure nostalgia of playing FFVI cannot be topped, for me, or at least I have yet to find a game that has.
The story telling is deep, emotional, memorable... Very hard to do for a game from the 90s
I want to encourage anyone reading this who experienced the game when they were young to go listen to Coin Song again. Watch it all come flooding back.
I'm currently replaying FFVI for I think the fourth time, in no small part because of this video. Celes in particular has always been one of my favorite characters of any video game, and Kefka my all-time favorite villain.
Loved your take on this game. Makes me wanna go replay it.
Thanks, brother!
All of what you described and more is exactly why I think that 6 needs to get a proper remake. Not only upgrade the graphics (i mean just imagine the opera scene alone), but being able to update parts of the narrative that haven't aged as well. This type of game with deep personal connections between player and characters, and between the characters themselves is something I think we really need more of. Especially keeping the 'no single main character' detail. We need more games where the player isn't made to see themselves/who they control as the only one with true agency.
History teach us remakes are better left as memories.
@@celuiquipeut6527 Sonic Origins comes to mind, and that's coming from someone who actually enjoyed it enough to overlook the bugs and the bad UI.
I just played FF6 for the first time and just beat it tonight. I was one of the guys hoping for an FF9 remake, but honestly, I think 6 deserves it most now. 9 is still good the way it is. 6 could benefit so much from a modern experience. Great game.
6 was the first FF game i finished with my mom. It still holds as one of my absolute favorite FF games and i wish they'd do a 3D remake of it like they have with FF7, just because it's a gritty, real story, and more people should play it.
This is such a western-centric point of view, Max. There were plenty of RPGs that had depth to them before Final Fantasy VI. I would argue that any version of Dragon Quest V is simply put, a better game.
I agree with that. But the west DID see Final Fantasy VI BEFORE Dragon Quest V. Gotta keep that in mind.
I'm not denying they had depth. Of course there were games that had narrative depth before FF6: Ultima, Phantasy Star, Earthbound, Secret of Mana and Dragon Quest! My opinion is that FF6 was the first time there was a perfect marriage between a vast number of profound narrative elements and the quality of the gameplay. It was the culmination of all those great works and what they did in one game.
@@maxderrat If that's the case, then I still argue otherwise. FF6's gameplay is embarrassingly mediocre from the POV of many JRPG players, including FF6 fans. Compared to the much more hardcore games that came before it, FF6 is a woefully easy game that has little value in the way of customization and is easily broken. Getting Sabin to consistently do 9999 damage in -every- battle during the second half of the game is so utterly easy. I would absolutely argue that FF6 is a totally broken game. I would also argue that FF6 does very little in the way of marrying gameplay and story. FF6 is not a culmination of anything. I would argue in a lot of ways it's an ABANDONMENT of what the quality of gameplay was prior and began Final Fantasy's path towards not doing a good job of creating enemy setups that properly challenged your ability to customize.
You briefly mention the Ultima games in this video, but I think that they deserve some credit for sophisticated narratives as well -- although the plots themselves tend to be simpler and are limited by technology, there are the seeds of sophisticated ethical systems and narratives in that series from Ultima IV (1985) onwards. By the time of Ultima VII (1992) and Serpent Isle (1993), they were routinely dealing with racism, drug use, slavery, religion, and other "advanced" topics. I think they suffer now for being relatively difficult to play compared to early console games... and probably the mistreatment of the series after EA bought the studio.
Undeniably. There are games that came out before FF6 that planted the seeds as you said, and Ultima can not be missed as one of them. Same with Phantasy Star. My point is that I don't think very many games culminated those "advanced" topics with as much perfection before FF6, it seems. I could be wrong though.
whoever your editor is they deserve even more money, not for the great job done over all but because of the Legend of Dragoon clip. it's the greatest rpg of the ps1 era and i'll die on that hill.
FFVI is the first deep story in gaming. You have this correct.
Fantastic job explaining why it's so important. Many developers credit it for inspiring them to get into the industry.
We owe everything to 7
I feel like any time IV did something before VI it's just being kinda hand-waved away in this video. Specific example:
"IV may have had characters with backstories, but VI REALLY had characters with backstories." - Me facetiously misquoting to make a point about the video
Like, I dunno man, I feel like Edward and Tellah are really fleshed out characters. You can just say you like VI better than IV, but if you're talking about the first video game with a grand narrative, and you want to go with a Final Fantasy game, the answer is IV. The answer is obviously IV. You can like VI better, but the IV is clearly the first one to do this.
Well, I mean... I didn't say that. The director said that. :P
@@maxderrat Which is fair, and again, I admit to being a bit hyperbolic in my representation of your views to make my point. But I still stand by my core point, which is that the majority of points made about VI in this video can be similarly made about IV. The only points unique to VI are specific themes, a general lack of main character and the non-linear second half of the game, and while those are great strengths of VI, they're more of a unique flavor to VI rather than standards that the genre would follow going forward, so the influence is negligible in those regards. On the opposite side of the coin, the narrative arc of Cecil is a far bigger influence on storytelling in gaming than anything VI offered. One can argue that VI did things better than IV, but one can also argue that VII did things better than VI.
Basically, I like your video and just disagree with the core thesis. :P
All good, dawg! No disrespect to FF4, btw. It's a great game.
Cyans family being on the back of the ghost train you fight still gives me chills
06:05 that’s Kefka walking with the text box talking about ruling the world. Believe it or not but that was subtle 30 years ago.
I would argue that FF4 was the first game to tell a profound story.
The redemption of Cecil from a Dark Knight to a Paladin, the betrayal of Kain, the death of Tellah, and the redemption of Golbez.
I do think that FF6 has a much better villain in Kefka than FF4 has in Golbez because Golbez gets redeemed at the end and becomes good. This redemption arc prevents Golbez from being a truly epic villian.
Kefka, on the other hand, is evil from beginning to end. Not only does he poison women and children, but he ultimately SUCCEEDS in destroying the world and becoming a God.
And when you finally face off against Kefka at the end, he appears as a God/Angel, which is ironic because Kefka is the epitome of pure evil.
FF7 copied that idea with Sephiroth appearing as a God/Angel in his final form, but in my opinion Kefka did it better.
Anyway, while I do think the story of FF6 is profound, it wasn't the first.
FF4 was the first.
Hi! There is an interesting song JINJER - Pisces. It would be interesting to hear an opinion about the lyrics of the song(why it interestin...hint is in the name of song). I recommend that you first get watch original clip
JINJER - Pisces (Live Session) | Napalm Records
And after, the video with the lyrics. For example Jinjer - Pisces - HQ - Lyrics(LyricGod)
Pisces?...hm🤔
Hm🤔 indeed )
Thank you for creating this video. It's the most meaningful and compelling video I have found examining Final Fantasy 6.
You helped me consciously realize why I loved this game so much as a child. I must have been 10 when I started playing it. I would have never thought about the game at that age in the ways you described, but I knew I was feeling every bit of it. And those feelings stuck with me all through 20+ years, and counting.
I always thought "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy was the pivotal fantasy influence on me, and even if I can make the argument for it, it appears that FF6 had laid so much groundwork in me regarding the transformative power of the fantasy genre as well as the idealistic belief that we can build bridges between the most perilous divides, the same way the characters so deeply desired to build bridges between themselves and their places in this world after so much loss.
Thank you again and more power to your passion, Max Derrat.
I can only speak to my personal experience, but playing FFVI (III as I am in the States and we're silly like that), was a definitive experience for me. It showed me how much story could be told through games and how truth could really be sought for in *interactive* fiction. The original Final Fantasy was the first game I saved up for and bought on my own as a kid, so I was already attached to the story. Getting the SNES and III/VI was an entirely new level to things.
It wouldn't be until upgrading the family computer to the point I could play Fallout or playing FFVIII on the Playstation that I'd find someone else's story that would move me to the same extent but because of VI I was already invested in roleplaying in TTRPGs and writing my own stories.
Didn't watch it yet, but I must mention it - Shin Megami Tensei 1 and 2 were released before FF6, which means FF6 is not first profound story in gaming.
Shiet Megoomi Tansai
On the lack of a main character, it goes a step further, the story was split into teams who each took 3-5 characters to weave plots between them [usually 2-4 party members and an important NPC]
-the Returners: Locke, Edgar, Banon, and Terra. This group is the nucleus around which the narrative revolves, the Quest to figure out Terra's identity, origin and purpose in life. This story trait is borrowed and expanded upon from Cecil Harvey and repeated with Aerith Gainsborogh, Yuna and to lesser extents Rinoa Heartilly and Princess Garnet: The Half-breed chosen one
-The Brothers Figaro: Edgar, Sabin, Duncan. An easily miss-able side story,The Figaro tale helps unite a couple other tales together.
-The kung-fu western bro-mance: Sabin, Cyan, Shadow, Gau. A monk, A Samurai and a ninja walk into a crazy old man's house and act as surrogate fathers to his feral son. Along the way you uncover their tragic backstories.
-Deadbeat Ninja and his dog: Shadow, Strago, Relm, Interceptor: one such tragic backstory is of Clyde "Shadow" Arrowny who abandons his rambunctious daughter with his father in-law as he tries to make ends meet as a professional scumbag.
-The Love triangle and a half: Locke, Terra, Celes, Setzer: While trying to make up for failing Rachael [whose story of an excited trip through the mountains, tragic accident and blame shifted on the boyfriend by her parents was re-used for Tifa Lockheart] Locke promises to protect pretty much any woman who says more than 2 lines of dialogue to him... including the prototype for Cloud Strife, Squall Leonheart, and Lightning, the genetically enhanced, magic infused Super-Soldier and ex-imperial goon, Celes Chere. And Setzer thinks Celes is the Opera singer he is stalking, so he abducts her.
-The late arrivals/mascots: Mog, Umaro, GoGo. A moogle, an easter-egg from FF5, and a random sasquatch from outta nowhere.
Also FF6 and FF7 have kinda the same relationship A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time do, as in the later is a technological up-grade and story expansion to the former.
In the 7 Zelda games you need to beat 3 dungeons to get medallions to get the master sword, to go into an alternate world ruled by Gannon. In this dark world you need to rescue 7 trapped sages to break the seal on Gannon's tower.
In the FFs,
-Kefka and Sephiroth are both failed [or too successful] prototypes of the Empire's super-soldier program, driven mad either by the experiments [Kefka] or by the truth of their origin [Sephiroth] who attain godlike power and an angelic form to destroy the world.
-Celes and Cloud [okay, technically Zack, but Cloud stole his identity] are both 2nd gen super-soldiers who, disgusted with their employer's sociopathy, quit and reluctantly join a terrorist group to rid the world of their former boss.
-Terra and Aerith [like Cecil before them] are both demi-god chosen ones raised or created by the Empire to steal unlimited cosmic power.
-Mako and Magitek are the same thing on different scales
-The Highwind is just a 3-D model of the falcon.
-Avalanche and the Returners could be cells of a larger terrorist org like the Resistance from FF2 and FF12.
I literally replayed this game a week ago for that nostalgia hit. What a Classic!