[Editor's note: Aurvantoid takes a look at Final Fantasy III, also known as Final Fantasy VI, for his Monthly Musing piece. -- CTZ]
A lot of people have been posting their own origin stories of how they fell in love with gaming and transcended the glass ceiling from hobby to affair. While I have my own moments that I look back on I guess my own experience with the "Start of the affair" happened with a nifty little RPG title that was released on the SNES so many years ago.
I had been playing videogames ever since the release of the Nintendo Entertainment system back in 1987 and before that, I had been toying around with my fathers old Atari 2600 from the seventies. Even after receiving a Sega Genesis and a Super Nintendo in the early nineties, I still just considered them something that was useful for killing lots of time. Sure, I had spent many hours chugging through Gyromite on the NEW (betcha don't remember that one) and sped my way through Sonic the Hedgehog so many times that I had lost count. Super Mario World? Forget about it. I spanked that series and every incarnation of it that Nintendo tossed at me. Even so I didn't care about the games any more than just something to do when I didn't want to go outside.
I also absolutely loathed RPG's. More after the jump.
Then, one day, my dad took me to the local movie store and while he was checking out the latest videos, I was searching through the games section for something new to play. I had pretty much completed everything that my local video store had (and this was before Blockbuster arrived in my area) except for this new game that they had just put out. I was familiar with the title and I knew that it was a role-playing game, but it was either find a new time waster or go play out in a field outside that was littered with cow-pattie mines. Needless to say that the new game, known at the time as
Final Fantasy III, was my only savior from cow crap hell.
The box art was a bit funny considering on the front of it was a small white peculiar creature that I would soon to forever know as a "Moogle" and I had no idea what this game was about. Did I need to play the other
Final Fantasy games to be caught up? What the hell is that white furry creature that stands so arrogantly on his magic wand? How was it a
Final Fantasy if they're already on the third one? So many questions ...
So, I popped in the game and waited to begin my quest. I saw the Squaresoft logo and then a scene of rising clouds began with some very chilling music that seemed to signify some epic event. After a moment of waiting
I heard the song that would begin my love affair with RPG's from that day forward. "The Prelude", as it was simply called, literally captivated me and I was hooked immediately.
The combat system in
Final Fantasy VI was something that I was not familiar with at all. I was used to controlling every move of my character and slicing and dicing through the constant stream of foes that would appear on screen like a parade. So having to actually
think about my moves in some menu format was a bit unsettling to begin with. I can remember being furious with myself for not being able to master Sabin's martial arts skills, and tossing many a controller on hoping to pull off a Pummel or an Aurablast only to hit the wrong button too soon or hit something out of sequence. It was a learning experience to say the least.
One thing that I began to notice as those bothersome boxes full of text kept popping up to let me know that my cannon fodder had something to say was that I was actually starting to enjoy reading them. I had always been a heavy reader, but I had preferred more action than context in my games. So, for me to actually care about my characters and their scripted thoughts was new and as the minutes turned in to hours and those in to days of constant play, I was completely engrossed by the story. What began as some simple woman escaping her kidnappers and seeking help turned in to a full-scale adventure filled with magic, deception, warring countries, maniacal villains, and a cast full of characters who trekked the entire globe moving from one strange incident to the next. The writing, while considered today as a "bad" translation, was amazing for your average teen at the time and it was filled with a great series of plot twists and humorous encounters. Not to mention a few times when it was very emotional and sad. However, none of these scenes would have been any good if it wasn't for the music.
From the fast tunes that expressed the need for haste, the
industrial beats of the devils lab, or
the tunes that almost made me well up inside, I couldn't have enjoyed this game as much as I did if it wasn't for the wonderful music of Nobuo Uematsu. I don't really have to explain this part because if you've played the game, then you know. If you haven't, then I pity you just a bit.
Not to mention the game had one of the most villainous antagonists ever. The Mad Jester, Kefka, who would begin as a small nuisance and then become a full-blown overlord, was the perfect bad guy for this game. Crazy, sadistic, almost clownish, and as ruthless as they come. He tortured your characters from the very beginning until the very end when you finally put him down. Also, on the subject of actually fighting Kefka, it has to be the longest boss battle in
Final Fantasy history. I've pretty much played them all before and after that and I can't find any other one that came close.
As for the ending? Completely epic and I still love it to this day. I won't spoil it for the few of you who may have never come across this game, so I guess you'll have to go beat it to see it. I was completely in love with this game from beginning to end and even after I was finished with the game I continued to play it over and over again just to find every little thing that I may have missed. In fact, it is the only
Final Fantasy game I have ever timed out the clock by reaching the time of 99:99:99 and yet still found more and more things to do with the game.
So, in closing, I have to say that
Final Fantasy VI has been the game that was the beginning of my affair. Although the hobby started many years earlier, it was this game that finally opened me up to the RPG genre and it signaled a time when gaming became a lifestyle more than a simple timewaster.
Oh, and if any game from Square deserved a full next-gen remake, it's this one. Period.
And now, I leave you
Dancing Mad!
Contest:
12:10 PM on 06.17.2008
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This is without doubt definitely the FF that deserves a current-gen remake. With shiny graphics and 'real' sound (voice acting if its good), i think it would easily be the best FF. Imagine the Opera... Imagine the world getting ruined! Oh man im just gonna go play it now...
Sorry dude...
The one thing that stood out for me here was the generic battle music (generic in the sense that is was the theme for normal battles). To this day I can remember how it sounded.
If they remade this I'd buy it in a heartbeat. If they did so, I think they can update the music to include the Black Mages rearrangements of the battle theme and Decisive battle.
Add one more notch to my back log of RPGs to play (which includes Xenogears).
@Tull - Yeah. While Sephiroth has been appropriately fleshed out in the Crisis Core and Advent Children entries to the FFVII: Compilation I still have to say that Kefka was the best villain that Squaresoft ever made. He was just purely evil for the hell of it. no reason, no mind-altering revelation. Just....a pure villain if there ever was one.
FACE
I was only a fifth grader back then when it first came out. Before it was out I collected every single magazine coverages and cut/pasted them neatly into my file folder. Words cannot even describe how excited I was when I rushed back from the store with a FF6 copy in my hands. Heck I even began to learn Japanese in order to read the dialogue! (I lived in Taiwan where they only sell Japanese versions) FF6 was the best gaming experience in my memory, and it probably will always be. I was also extremely hyped before FF7 was coming out, but it was never the same again. FF6 spoilt me.
As for the music of FF6, I still have the orchestrated soundtrack CD playing from time to time since buying it 14 years ago. It is really that good.
I have to say, the only thing I truly hate... people who still call it Final Fantasy 3.
When I bought the game and played it with the actual physical SNES cartridge back when it was new it was called Final Fantasy III, just like the above picture shows. No amount of "Whoopsies!" will change that. This is also partly the same reason I say "Nike" instead of "Nikee". I don't really care how another country does something. I don't live there, I live here.
And, yes, this game does seem to be the pinnacle of the series so far. 5*
But the one that caught me the most emotionally was the intro to VI, playing the Tina song during the mode7 march to Narshe on VI(III USA). My jaw stayed open for hours.
And from that point on, the sheer operatic enormity of the game was absolutely mind bending. And of course, the bombshell: you -didn't- save the World. That was a "WTF??" moment seconded only by the Aerith death(though the aftermath on VI was much more profound).
Such a fun game. Who would ever turn Ragnarok into a swrord?!?
if this game isnt the one that started the affair for me, maybe secret of mana... but this definitely put me in overdrive for RPGs.
great write up
That way I could bet it in the Colosseum and then win the Illumina sword :
Also, how the heck did they pull off a game with NO main character!? I'm still puzzled about this to this day.