Final Fantasy I Recap, Episode VII: The Grand Finale

[INTERLUDE]

Momo: Guys, before we tackle the game’s epic ending, I’d just like to remind our faithful readers of what we’ve been missing by not playing the original NES version:


~ (Source: Hardcoregaming original FF1 synopsis)
Rei: No comment.
Nina: “Erupts…from the FIEND’ s…?”
Momo: GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!
Spoo: *sweatbeads*

Note: You can watch a full video playthrough of original NES Final Fantasy on YouTube. However, you’ll be missing out on our scintillating commentary! So let’s proceed with the grand finale of our first “Let’s Play Final Fantasy” adventure…

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Square Enix Presents at E3: Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster Interview

WE INTERRUPT OUR REGULAR “LET’S PLAY FINAL FANTASY” for a special feature!

Square-Enix had a livestream interview at E3 today with producers Kitase and Toriyama.

Because Final Fantasy X/X-2 (yes both) are my favorite in the series, I’ve typed out a complete transcription below. FAN TRANSCRIPTION, totally unofficial, so there may be mistakes. Apologies for the commentary that I couldn’t resist adding.

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Final Fantasy V Recap, Ep. VI: How to Fail While Succeeding

Welp! Back in the “Let’s Play Final Fantasy” saddle after a real life “ack, the ‘rents are visiting!” hiatus.

(This chunk will be a bit short. You don’t mind, do you?)

As per Galuf’s last wishes, it’s time for us to launch his long-delayed assault on Castle ExDeath. I would pretend that this is the endgame, except that I’ve played FFV before, and cannot help but be aware that this is really the “Let’s go to Zanarkand / City of the Ancients / Lunatic Pandora / OOPS there’s more plot”  dungeon. Still, here we are.

FFV: Castle Exdeath

Krile, why are you standing in quicksand?
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Let’s Play Final Fantasy VI: Intro

I’m a little torn here, as I’ve fallen a month behind Moogle University’s 2013 Final Fantasy Marathon thanks to that dreaded problem, Real Life. Should I start Final Fantasy VII along with Sev and Rina? Or stick to Final Fantasy VI so I can recap in order? After much waffling, I’m going to stay the course and stick to FFVI.

Final Fantasy VI on Mac Emulator
It feels so decadent plugging a PS3 controller into a Mac’s USB port. Gosh, it works! 

FFVI is the last non-MMO of the Final Fantasy numbered sequence of games that I haven’t finished yet, because I got bogged down after the party scattered, and lost myself in Sidequests Before Saving the World. So I know most of the game, but there are still some discoveries I haven’t yet made. (Note to self: do not be a completist. I often lose my fun in trying to achieve every last sidequest.)

As so often, I have mixed feelings about the games that fandom loves most, and love the games that much of fandom despises. FFVI is one of those that hasn’t yet sunk into my bones like X, V, and to some extent XII, XIII and VIII.

  • Is it because I prefer sword-and-sorcery, mythic worlds to futuristic dystopias and industrial steampunk?
  • Is it because the cast was so big that I failed to bond with any of the major characters?
  • Is it that I was playing it while busy with family stuff and grad school, so that I couldn’t stay properly engaged?
  • Or is it simply that I fricking hate clowns, a problem that has also dampened my enthusiasm for IX (Thorn and Zorn)?

I don’t know. I remember loving parts of this game; I purchased Terra’s theme as one of Uematsu’s finest pieces, and I quite like some of the characters. But I feel like FFVI is my friends’ fandom playground, much like those fandoms such as Sherlock and Avengers in which I don’t participate, but many of my friends do. Hopefully, on this playthrough, I’ll be able to immerse myself more fully.

For purposes of screencapping, I’m going to be sacrificing  sound quality a bit and playing  FFVI on my Mac via PCSX-R. (See the video info on that link for how I did it).

In-game sound is fairly good, but the FMV sound goes crackle-pop. Nevertheless, I’m really quite delighted to be playing this game on my Mac. The very first FFs I ever played (VIII and VII) were on my Mac, thanks to an emulator that friends gave me eons ago, so I’ve come full circle.

All right. Back into the melancholy world of angst and mecha!

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Let’s Play Final Fantasy VI, Ep. I: Hope and Free Will

I’m laaaate starting my FFVI gameblog, although I started it at the beginning of the month.

Opening FMV analysis time!

When I first started playing Final Fantasy in the VII-VIII-X era, I was mildly bemused by a series whose releases seemed at first  to have almost nothing in common but their titles and big yellow birds. As I’ve worked my way backwards, I’ve enjoyed that “click” of recognition whenever I spot recurring elements: FFXII’s glossair ring airships, the trains of FFVII and VIII, the Evil Empire (“empire bad, kingdom good,” as we first learned all the way back in FFII), and the tragic/unearthly damsel. FFVI’s mechs, however, are almost a first for the series (I say almost, since Doctor Lugae, the Hojo lookalike in FFIV, drove one in his boss battle).

It’s interesting to see how the old FF character classes of white mage, black mage, fighter, thief, ranger, ninja, summoner, monk and berserker are submerged yet remain visible beneath the surface. (Coming to the franchise so late, I was  puzzled about fans calling Tifa a monk, or Cid a dragoon, or why Kimahri was blue. Now I understand!)

Like any good opening FMV of the mature FF years, this one raises all sorts of questions about who-what-where-why that will only become intelligible on a replay.

I pause to listen to a orchestral performance of Terra’s theme, since my emulator makes it sound less than the perfect bit of music it is. Then, onward.

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Final Fantasy VI Recap, Ep II: Are We There Yet?

Before I launch into the next leg of my Let’s Play Final Fantasy VI playthrough, I’d just like to note that FFVI’s washed-out chocobo design is redeemed by its music of pure techno awesome:

I defy you not to bob your head while listening to that with headphones. Or, to quote a couple commenters on the above video:

question: What is it about riding giant chickens that restricts random battles? ~ The Zeldaniac

Picture this, if you’re an enemy and you hear this song, are you going to interrupt it by attacking the guy riding the chicken, or are you just going to dance? ~ hoodedbro1001

Now back to our regularly-scheduled playthrough.

So, in our opening FFVI sonata, our heroes Edgar, Locke, Sabin and Terra had reached the rebel hideout of the Returners. We had just imbibed our first Backstory Dump courtesy of Banon, the rebel leader, when news arrived that the town of S. Figaro was under attack and that imperial forces were headed our way.

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Final Fantasy VI Recap, Ep. III: Screaming Across the Sky

Before I jump in with the next segment of the walkthrough, I need to back up and reiterate something that commenter inked_compass observed about the last scene, when our scattered party reunites in  Narshe: “More of the Returners talking about Terra rather than to her. Good job guys.”

It’s also true of Celes. Locke bursts in to report that Celes told him there’s an Imperial army marching on Narshe. Celes doesn’t say a word then or when Locke, Cyan and Edgar argue over whether she’s an Imperial spy:

FFVI: Celes Joined Returners

The ex-general’s silence raises an intriguing question: Has she joined the Returners? All she’s said in-game is that she is, or was, General Celes, now “nothing but a traitor.” Those could be the words of a loyal soldier smitten with shame or sorrow at having been cast out. And Locke strikes me as the sort to assume the best of people.

Whatever Celes is thinking, I hope to see her and Terra speak up for themselves and display more autonomy soon.

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Final Fantasy VI, Ep. IV: The Esper Strikes Back

And we’re off! We head to the southern continent (map) to infiltrate the Magitek Research Facility in Vector, capital of the must-be-evil-since-it-has-no-name Empire.

Setzer's airship, the Blackjack, zooms through the night

Our goal is to rescue the Espers who are being drained of their power as fuel for Magitek.

I love seeing how Final Fantasy rings changes on its ever-accruing mythology from game to game. The draining-Espers idea evolved from Cid’s innocent mistake in FFV, in which the machines he created to amplify and collect power from the Four Crystals of Light inadvertently damaged them. FFVI fuses the concept of crystals, which existed right from the start of Final Fantasy, with the separate FF concept of summons, originally a job class ability like geomancy. We’ll see beings turning to crystal again in FFXIII’s L’Cie, while ShinraCorp, Odine Enterprises and Draklor are all spiritual successors of FFVI’s Esper-juicing factory.  

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Final Fantasy VI Ep V: There Goes the Neighborhood

Last time on “Let’s Play Final Fantasy VI,” Emperor Gestahl, baby snatcher, ravager of towns, enslaver of Espers, told us that, “After all I have put them [the Espers] through, it is up to me to set things right. That is why… I need to borrow Terra’s power.” So he’s asked us to take him to the Espers to apologize.

Gestahl: We must make for Crescent Island aboard the freighter from Albrook.

This screencap is boring, apart from the unusual combination of lobster and sushi rolls and roast turkey, but I just want to stress that he said we.

Because…well, you’ll see shortly.

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Final Fantasy VI Recap, Ep. VI: Adventures in Cat Herding

Whew! I got  bogged down rounding up all my scattered party members — seriously, we just lived through the end of the world and everything, but did they have to be difficult and run off and join weird cults and get themselves lost on mountaintops, in the depths of monster-infested catacombs and so on? — so this playthrough is once again tardy.

Cid: You're finally awake! Celes: I..feel like I've been sleeping forever.

Hey, it wasn’t that  long since my last post.

So, last time in my Let’s Play Final Fantasy VI, the world went to Hades in a haversack. Miraculously, the crustal ruptures we saw in that exciting end-of-the-world cutscene did not result in Siberia-sized lava outpourings, a planetwide blanket of sulfuric acid fog/rain, or other Permian-Extinction-style armageddon. (Geology porn… bookmark for later!)

Instead, as this is Final Fantasy, Celes awakens in a blasted world that’s creepy and sad and fragmented. FFXIII-2 riffed on this trope again 17 years later, and the music from its Dying World fits nicely:

Yeap, it really is that bad.

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