[[Blogroll]] I am playing **FFVI**, for real this time, I think. I've tried many times - the terrible anthology version on the PS1, the GBA version on an emulator, and the Pixel Remaster - but for some reason it's best sticking with me as the Ted Woolsey version on my Anbernic SP. There's something to be said about medium, I think. **FFVI** looks and feels really good on a pocket-sized handheld, with the same screen ratio, and with shaders and the like applied. It's cute and quaint and reminds me of being a kid, which is how I wanna feel playing an SNES JRPG. **FFVI** is the only mainline **Final Fantasy** that I haven't finished at this point, seeing as I recently completed **FFV** on the same set-up. This is kind of ironic because **FFVI** is one of the most beloved **Final Fantasy** games, and also just one of the most beloved games, period. I pride myself on my interest in quality, but I think I never got back around to **FFVI** because I felt like I missed the boat in a sense, and worried that it wouldn't live up to that level of hype. I think it does, to be honest. In my retro gaming stint of the past few months, one thing has been abundantly clear: there's a reason we love Square as a company. Their level of polish is just unmatched, particularly during the SNES and PS1 days, [[It is Hard to go Back to the PS1 Era|as I've mentioned before]]. **Final Fantasy VI** feels like a culmination of that polish in the SNES era in particular. Everything about it feels so crisp and clean and smooth, it barely feels like I'm playing a game that's as old as I am. ![[Final Fantasy VI Thoughts-20241129123229901.png]] It feels like a culmination of everything Square had learned up to that point from a gameplay standpoint as well. **FFVI** is the end-state of the ATB system, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not particularly fond of it, so the way **VI** spices it up by making every character so distinct is a nice change of pace. Sabin has his fighting game inputs to do powerful moves, Celes has you timing counter-attacks with her lightning-rod-esque magic absorption. My favorite of them all is Cyan, though. I love the idea of just needing to sit there and wait for the bar to fill up to do a powerful attack. It immediately adds some risk vs reward to the ATB system, instead of just trying to pick abilities as quickly as possible. The Esper system is pretty neat too, a sort of spin on what **FFV** was doing with the Job system, but with a mercifully faster rate of growth. There's not much in the way of individual customizable growth - I kind of just swap Espers around whenever one gets maxed out - but it's a nice addition nonetheless. Plot-wise...it's interesting enough, a classic tale of the fight against an evil Empire. Every **Final Fantasy** in this era was some kind of **Star Wars**[^1], and so far **VI** is no exception. I have never gotten to the back-half of the game, which is where I believe things pop off, and I'm gonna write my thoughts when I'm finished with it. So I'm sure my opinion will change eventually. But it still has that SNES-level pacing, which I love. I want all Killer and no Filler. **FFVI**'s opening in particular is so enthralling to this day. That Mode7 run across the snow as [Uematsu does what Uematsu does best](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS9H4E1LdVI) is unmatched and captured my attention immediately. ![[Final Fantasy VI Thoughts-20241129123114694.png]] Excited to finish it! Also I'm naming all the characters after friends and family, it's cute and fun. [^1]: Biggs and Wedge, etc.