Facebook – Top 100 FAVORITE Video Games: 2

Final two games… Who could ever say if this has been the work I’ve put in? The hours I’ve wasted writing over 100 notes dedicated to these games and their impact on me? Who could say if it was worth it for you guys, the readers, the fans, to have stomached reading me talk about games, many of them that you likely didn’t even care about? At the end of the day, I guess it doesn’t really matter since, you know, its almost over (tomorrow oh my god!). Today’s game is a huge deal to be here, but I’ll let the entry speak for itself…

2: Final Fantasy VI (SNES/PS1)
Developer: Squaresoft
Year: 1994

In 2003 I gave FFVI the #58 slot on my top 100 list. I claimed that it was great but stunk in comparison to FFIX, FFVIII, and – of course – FFVII. I talked about not knowing the main character’s name, that I’d renamed her Faris from FFV. I basically said the game was good, the opera scene was Boss Hogg, and that it was pretty standard stuff. Now, to make this clear to you all: I’d only played a good chunk of the rerelease in Final Fantasy Anthology, which had slow loads, boring cinemas, and I also sucked so hard at playing Final Fantasy games that it never really struck me as all that great. Flash forward to 2008, me in my dorm room with GBA emulator on my PC, plowing through the game, unlocking every secret, getting every power, and having a ball. Since that moment in time, watching the epic ending to this game, watching TERRA (not Faris… stupid 2003-Skyler…) flying, finally free… since that moment I’ve come to one realization: Final Fantasy VI is – without a doubt – the greatest entry in the fantastic Final Fantasy franchise. And to those of you whom I’ve dissed for years, holding VII up as the top dog… I apologize with this very note.

The core gameplay is very simple RPG stuff… level raising and item/gil accumulation. You ride those big yellow Chocobos, you grind against monsters in dungeons, caves, and the like, and you learn new powers for your party. The fact that this shit is tight as hell for an SNES game would elevate it to the top 50 of the games, because despite the fact that its overly rudimentary (especially when you consider it against games today), its so well put together that the simplicity of it all is lost. No, the thing that makes this game so damn great isn’t because of the core mechanics, but rather because of the epicness of the plot, the perfectly developed characters and their interactions, and the feel of the world; alive, in need, and in danger.

also, gilgamesh shows up!

From the outset you’re thrust into the world with a cool-as-hell backstory. Its all the exposition you need to get rolling and from there its a journey to meet and get to know the HUGE-AS-FUCK cast of characters. Seriously, how many people can you have on your party, total? Its easily the record for this game and, while many games attempt to have a vast number of cast members, they usually end up fucking it up by having many of them be nothing more than novelty characters with no real development at all (Chrono Cross anyone?). While FFVI has a few of these characters (Mog, Wampa, etc.), tthey are in the minimum. What you have, consisting of 90% of the cast, is a group of fully fleshed-out people. Each one has tons of backstory to discover, a personal crisis to resolve, and interactions with each other to unravel. To say this cast is perfect is an understatement.

But here’s the real stink; at about the 4/5 mark, the game makes a dramatic change. See, Kefka – the game’s nasty bad guy – actually accomplishes his goal of “ending the world” so to speak. He fucks everyone up, kills mother loads of people, wrecks the world (literally), and drives Celes (the best character in the game) to near-suicide (actually, she can commit suicide if you play the game the right – or wrong – way). From there you have an option to gather up your troops, finish up loose ends in their lives, and take the fight to the clown, resulting in the best goddamned epic boss battle in the game (and, quite possibly, the series) – complete with epic showdown theme, Dancing Mad. It showcases what’s really great about this game, actually… the dire threat in the world. It takes center stage, not one character’s plight, not some gameplay mechanics, not the graphics (for how to screw this up, see: FFXIII). While games like IV, VII, and even IX have many of these elements, they never balanced them as perfectly as FFVI did. And, to that end, it stands as the greatest mix of elements the series has ever known.

All in all, Final Fantasy VI has done the impossible; it removed Final Fantasy VII from my top spot in terms of the franchise, and RPGs as a whole. I know that, could I talk to the Skyler from seven years ago, he’d scoff at me today for ranking this where I did, but that little idiot didn’t know the first thing about great games. This older, wiser idiot “does” (that is to say, I’ve simply matured). I’m hoping that the knowledge that FFVII was #1 and this game was #58 sparks some kind of conversation in the comments, or at least showcases how different my opinions have become in recent years. But the one thing I know it shows for a fact is how damn great this game is, after all these years.

Classic Moment:
Pictured below is my favorite NPC in the game, Ultros… the tentacled jerk shows up periodically, is not affiliated with the main antagonists in any way, and is great comic relief. But, most important: he’s a damn tough fight every time you do battle with him. Because of this, he’s a treat to meet in a variety of ways. And then, after the world is busted up, he runs that tournament place in the wastelands (where you can fight Gilgamesh… pictured above). See, that’s the thing about this game. A throw-away character like Ultros is so developed as a side-character that its a treat to continue to see him, to know what he’s up to, and to be able to see him in another game (Disiddia, for example) is such a damn blast from the past… and he’s barely in the game’s epic 70+ hour length.

ULTROSSSSSSSS

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Added April 14, 2017
I don’t think this would top FFVII anymore. I just don’t. It’s a shame, but there is simply no way. I love VI, but man… Man…
PS: Ultros showed up as a cameo in the FFXV prequel/side-story CG Movie, thing. It was awkward and hilarious.