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View Full Version : The Show Must Go On! Six Things You Didn't Know about FFVI Thread 2.0



Wolf Kanno
06-26-2015, 05:08 AM
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So a few years ago I started a thread (http://home.eyesonff.com/showthread.php/136317-6-things-you-may-not-have-known-about-FFVI/page3) where FF fans could give out cool facts or secrets concerning the sixth installment of the series. I meant to kepp going on that thread but life and ranting about FFXIII took too much time away from it. So I decided to reboot the thread. I'm starting where I left off and hope to have more people contribute or at least have fun with this. Also, it's cool to critique and challenge certain facts, just keep it cordial.




1. VI is the first FF that allows the player to change who is in the party.

2. In the early drafts, Terra was suppose to be a guy around the age of 21.

3. While everyone knows VI has the largest cast, most don't ever mention it also has the largest number of Summons in the main series. 27 in the original version, and 31 in the GBA port.

4. One of VI's main writers was Kaori Tanaka or more commonly known as Soraya Saga, she wrote the characters of the Figaro Bros. as well as Relm and a few other members of the cast. She went on to write the plots of Xenogears and part of Xenosaga.

5. VI is actually the first game to introduce a final boss with an Angel motif, Kefka's god mode having a total of six wings. Also, Heartless Angel (Fallen One in the Woosely script) makes its first appearance in this title.

6. Terra has more Official Artwork than any other FF character in the series (20+)

7. It was the first FF to have moogles with pom poms. I believe this was due to the fact that Mog was a geomancer.

8. FFVI was the first FF to feature limit breaks. They just came a lot rarer than they did in FFVII!

9. VI is the first FF game to introduce Ultima Weapon, both the sword and the monster.

10. VI is the fist game to introduce a super summon more powerful than Bahamut (Crusader), a trend that will continue for the rest of the series.

11. VI is the first game to feature and upgrades summon Odin-Raiden

12. VI is the game that introduced the Gambler job to the series, and the first to use the Slot machine element.

13. Popular Monk staple, Meteor Strike debuted in VI (Suplex in Woosely script)

14. VI is the first game to have a canon themed attached to every playable cast member.

15. Kefka is the first villain to start the story as an underling and be the final boss (Kuja is the only other villain, and that's debatable).

16. VI cast members made a cameo in Secret of Evermore as background characters

17. Terra, Shadow, and Locke were the first 3D FF characters in the series.

18. VI is one of three FF games that has variables that affect the ending (V and IX are the other two)

19. VI is the game where Maduin (Madeen) debuted in the series.

20 Shadow and Setzer were both originally designed by Nomura Tetsuya

21. VI has the largest amount of English renames in the main cast that have remained canon in the series.

22. VI is the first and possibly the only game in the series to give the full name of each of the main cast in the game.

23. The Cid in FFVI is the first (and to my knowledge only) Cid that doesn't give the party access to an airship or some form of flying vehicle

24. VI is the last game to have an elderly character as a party member. By which I mean a traditional old man with white gray beard who whines about his hip. In fact VI will be the last entry to have a character physically over the age of 50 in the party (Vanille and Fang don't count :P )

25. Forsaken (Kefka's Ultimate Move) is technically the most powerful spell in the entire game with an attack power of 220. To put it in perspective, Ultima has an attack power of something like 160 and Crusader has an attack of something like 190; it only appears weak cause unlike the two spells mentioned, it cannot ignore defense or ignore split damage.

26. VI has more temporary characters than any other FF in the series (15)

27. VI is the first game to have Biggs and Wedge

28. Celes Chere was meant to be a minor character but due to Kitase taking a liking to her, her role was expanded in the game.

29. VI is the first first game to feature non-human party members.

30. VI is the first FF to feature females in a leading role in the series (Terra and Celes)

31. VI is the only game in the series to feature a set of exclusive armor for a character under Status Effect (Kappa)

32. VI is the first FF where you don't have to fight Odin or Bahamut to gain them as summons.

33. VI is the first FF to feature weapons with damage output that can be changed mid-battle by decreasing HP, restoring it, or running out of MP.

34. VI is the first game in the series to utilize interactive elements into abilities (Blitz and Slot).

35. VI has the second highest amount of enemies in the non-online FF games with a total of 372 different enemies (bosses included, course half of that total number is palette swap...). It has the third highest number overall but will probably drop to fourth once XIV takes off. For those wondering, XII has the highest of the non-MMO FFs with 451 different enemies, bosses, marks and rare game.

36. While most of the playable cast have their main themes playing while they are introduced in the story, Terra, Celes, and Sabin do not. Terra has the them Awakening playing during her formal introduction, Celes has Under Martial Law, and Sabin has Coin Song playing instead of their actual themes.

37. Speaking of which, VI is the only game in the series that introduces the cast through a narration.

38. VI has the most glitches in the entire series with only FFVII coming close to the amount of weird stuff that can happen to cause strange effects.

39. VI is the first game in the series to have two party members who share a parent/child relation. (Shadow and Relm)

40. VI is the second of three games to have twins in the story as main party members. The other two being FFIV and FFXII

41. Umaro was suppose to be recruited differently in the original plan for the game, he would be a rare random monster on the overworld map you had to defeat to get him to join you.

42. Gogo as well had a different scenario for obtaining. He would dress up as a party member not currently in your party in the WoR be found randomly in towns. You had to get the party member he was mimicking and try to find him before he left town and took another members persona.

43. Even Sakaguchi and Kitase admit that Gau really has no point in the story, but they wanted to make him anyway.

44. When asked about the fates of Banon, Arvis, and the Narshe Elder in the WoR, Sakaguchi has stated the player should use their own imagination.

45. VI is the only game that has a summon that can hurt it's caster.

46. Speaking of which, VI is the first game in the series to have black magic spells that target the whole party. Though V is the first game to actually have a spell that affects everyone...

47. It wasn't until Dissidia that we western fans finally got an age for Kefka..

48. VI is the only game in the console series, where the Flametongue and Icebrand weapons randomly cast their elemental spells when they attack. It is also the first game in the series to have the Thunderblade (not to be mistaken with the other Lightning based sword, Coral Sword)

49. VI has the longest Final Boss theme in the series (17:38) and the longest ending theme (21:34).

50. Final Fantasy staple, Cactuar made their debut in VI.

51. Though Tonberries debuted in FFV, VI debuted the stronger and meaner Master Tonberry, though it wouldn't be til VII that they acquired their two signature abilities: Knife and Everyone's Grudge.

52. Gau and Gogo cannot use the Merit Award in the GBA version of VI cause SE learned about "Wind God Gau".

53. If you get a characters magic stat to 140 or higher, the damage from magic will overflow and cause it to be reset to 0.

54. AP has two uses in the game, it's the currency point system used to learn spells and it's also used to determine how much time Terra can stay in her Trance mode. This is why even if you have learned every spell, if Terra is in your party, you still get a message that you got AP from the battle.

55. Nobuo Uematsu considers VI to be the last original Final Fantasy (http://www.g-wie-gorilla.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=136&Itemid=18), as many of the core members from the previous entries either quit Square, moved into administrative positions , and the team was replaced with younger members of the company or new people.

56. Nobuo also didn't like writing a theme for a cast so large cause he felt that some would not be as important to the story as other.

57. VI is the first game in the series to have secret characters to recruit (Umaro and Gogo).

58. VI is the only game in the series that has a cursed item that can have the curse removed.

59. There are a total of 3 Memento Rings in the game.

60. Although fixed by the GBA release, their is a bug that makes the Evade stat useless, instead the game takes the evade stat from from your M.Evade which is why the White Cape Relic is so freaking awesome.

61. If you watch the CG ending to VI from FF anthology (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27ZATWJRB2A), when you watch Shadow fight the ghosts on the train, their is a quick flash, if you slow it down, its an image of Relm from one of the Amano designs.

62. The first and currently only one to use Amano art in the profiles.

63. If you don't save Shadow and he dies on the Floating Continent, Relm gains Interceptor in combat and he's block and counter for her just like he does for Shadow.

64. VI is the only game in the series where you can actually kill a party member by not doing a specific thing at a certain time.

65. Cait Sith of VII fame, makes his first appearance in VI as an Esper, but the connection doesn't end there. Celes was originally meant to be a real spy for the empire in the early design for the game, a spy who ended up liking the people she was spent to spy on and became conflicted with her allegiance, this scenario is strikingly similar to Cait Sith's story in VII.

66. Locke was originally meant to be a partner and rival to the lead (Terra Bradford) before he became a she. He also originally had the Runic command as well. As they began to iron out the story and details, Locke became the Locke we all know and love. :ffvipatpat:

67. It was the only SNES FF to feature the same sprite resolutions in and out of battle

68. FFVI is the only FF where the player can alter the story to cause characters to die, and it happens at least twice and maybe 3 times (Shadow, Cid, and maybe Sabin though I never lose that part).

69. FFVI is the first FF to feature accessories as equipment slots.

70. FFVI is the first FF to have you acquire magic through AP accumulation.

71. FFVI is the only FF that let's you choose the order in which you complete the story (gathering your characters in the WoR and the scenarios in the WoB).

72. Even though FF has the largest cast, you can beat FFVI with as few as 3 members in your entire party. That's the fewest of any FF.

73. The first game in the series to deal with suicide.

74. The first game in the series to allow all characters to use summons and magic without the aid of a job class system.

75. This one I didn't even know initially. Apparently, Terra gets a stat boost if she is in your party for the final battle against Kefka.

76. Oddly, VI has character artwork for several people who play very minor roles in the game such as Owzer and the Kappa. Yet more important minor characters like Rachael, Maduin, Madonna, and Arvis don't have any known artwork (course I could be wrong about this as much of the character artwork has not been released in the West. Pointing out Terra's blue dress design used as her alt outfit in Dissidia Duodecim, have only recently come to light.)

77. Despite being a large plot element at one point in the game, the party never actually meets Maria.

78. Cid actually has a the longest last name of the Cid's in FF. His full name is Cid Del Norte Marquez and his name roughly translates as "Cid, son of Marquis from the north". He is also one of three Cid's who actually dies.

79. Molulu (Kuku in the Woosely script) is one of the moogles that helps Locke save Terra in the beginning of the game. She is in Mog's party, and the basis for the name of the Mog exclusive relic, Molulu's Charm (Moogle Charm in the Woosely script). The reason for this is because she is suppose to be Mog's girlfriend. :love:

80. VI is the first game that allows you to split up your party and still hav them all participate in dungeons and battles.

81. It also the first game that allows dead party members to be replaced by inactive ones during the final battle.

82. VI is the only game in the series to have Biggs and Wedge as CG renders in the Anthology versions opening.

83. An odd element of Strago is that several of his artwork has him using steam-powered jet bikes and piloting other machines yet in the game he never once uses a machine nor reveals any skill with machinery.

84. Terra's theme is used in five different tracks in VI (Omen, Awakening, Save Them!, Metamorphosis, and Ending Theme)

85. Despite Terra being Half-Esper and Celes being a magically infused Magitech Knight, Relm actually has the best Magic stat in the game, despite Terra having a story reason for being the best magic user.

86. Umaro is the tallest playable character in the series 6' 10".

87. You fight Kefka more times than any other villain in the series (5 times) though it should be noted that three of them are scripted and unwinnable. Seymour from FFX actually has the most real battles among the main villains in the series with a total of four.

88. Kefka's laugh is used in Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VII.

89. VI's story is designed around an opera theme, it uses narration, is split into acts, has several fourth wall breaking moments such as characters waving and acknowledging the player, and even has the ending presented as a giant curtain call. It also uses elements from Italian opera such as a harlequin character (Kefka) and several of the cast members utilize Italian surnames.

90: Final Fantasy VI was the first appearance of Alexander

91. Final Fantasy VI has the first summon that can be lost permanently, when you upgrade Odin into Raiden. Odin can also be lost in FFVIII when he's replaced by Gilgamesh.

92. VI is the first game in the series (before some of the remake retcons) that has the summons called by another name, Phantom Spirits/Espers.

93. There is still no legitimate non-Japanese version of VI that isn't censored in some way.

94. If his Amano artwork is anything to go by, Leo might actually be the first black character in the FF series.

Attachment 34194 (http://forums.eyesonff.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=34194) http://home.eyesonff.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=34195&d=1417061674

95. VI is the first game in the series that doesn't take place in a visually predominate Medieval fantasy setting. Instead choosing a Second Revolution style Steampunk setting.

96. VI is one of three FF titles where Odin is actually treated as a real character with a backstory in the plot. (IV and XI are the other two FFs.)

97. VI is the first FF to feature an optional boss that can only be encountered on your airship (Deathgaze).

98. VI is the first FF to feature Chocobos but not have a Chocobo forest, it is actually one of four main FF games to feature Chocobo Farms. (IV, VII, and XII being the other three)

99. VI is the only entry in the series that allows you to play as real moogles :mog:

100. Umaro is not only the tallest character, but the youngest as well. He's only 4 years old!

101. Some of FFVI's enemy designs are identical to their counterparts in FFV. The Ninja, Tonberry, Magic Pot and Mover enemies are all identical looking in both FFV and FFVI. And with the advent of FFVI Advance, you can add Gilgamesh and Leviathan to the list, since their sprites in FFVI are simply the FFV sprites.

102. While FFVI was the first game to feature the monster Atma/Ultima weapon, FFV's Twin Tania looks uncannily like Ultima Weapon (http://www.espritduo.com/images/Atma-Tania.jpg), and was most likely the original concept for its FFVI design.

103. FFVI was the first FF(and one of the only) to feature cameos of characters from previous FF's. FFVI's Gogo and Lonewolf are both characters from FFV. Gilgamesh as well, but he was a later addition to the Advance version after the "Gilgamesh craze" had started with his appearance in FFVIII.

104. Speaking of FFVIII, two of FFVI's new summons for the Advance version were taken from FFVIII, Jumbo Cactuar and Diabolos. Both are completely new sprites made just for FFVI Advance. Also, Diabolos's Dark Messenger is the only Gravity type attack in the game that works on all enemies, regardless of their defense against percentage-based attacks.

105. FFVI was the first FF not to have Axes as a useable weapon. Another notable absence are Bows, and FFVI was the first not to have them since FFI.

106. Doom, Goddess, and Poltergeist represent the elements of Ice, Lightning, and Fire respectively.

107. Doom actually has the most HP of any enemy in the game at 63,000, even more than Kefka, at 62,000. This does not include the new super bosses added to the Advance version, of course.

108. Speaking of the super bosses, Kaiser Dragon was actually in FFVI from the beginning as an unused monster just floating around in the game data, sometimes called Czar Dragon. However, this unused monster is NOT the exact version we fight in the Dragon's Den. The creators of the game went above and beyond and completely revamped the enemy in both appearance and abilities. Take a look at the original and the Advance version. (http://www.espritduo.com/images/czar.jpg)

109. While FFVI is the first appearance of Alexander as a summon, it is not the beginning of Alexander's story. The Amano artwork (http://images.wikia.com/finalfantasy/images/a/aa/Amano_Giant_of_Bab-Il.jpg) for the Giant of Babil from FFIV looks exactly like Alexander from FFVI, and is most likely the inspiration for the summon.

110. While Cid doesn't actually give you an airship in FFVI, there is a hidden scene involving him and Setzer on board the Blackjack that shows FFVI's Cid being very "Cid-like" in his appreciation for airships. If you walk back to the grounded Blackjack after the peace talks in Vector instead of going to Albrook you can see this scene.

111. Kefka is not as powerful as he wants you to believe during his attack on Thamasa. He may seem invincible during his battle against the red Ifrit-looking Esper, but that's only because he has a Paladin Shield equipped for that fight.

112. Speaking of odd equips, Banon has the incredibly powerful and rare Punisher rod equipped while he is in your group. But because he has no MP, he can't utilize it's "use MP to inflict critical hit" added ability, and combined with his pitiful strength, he still can't do very much damage with the weapon.

113. FFVI is the only FF to visibly keep track of how many steps you've taken in the game.

114. FFVI was the first appearance of the Brachiosaur enemy. It's also the only game to actually translate it that way. The enemy appears in FFVII as Vlakorados, FFIV Advance as Brachioreidos, and FFX as Thu'ban.

115. FFVI was the first FF to have a vocal track, sort of. And no, I don't mean the opera song. It actually had a real song with lyrics sung by real people that never made it into the final version of the game. The song is called Approaching Sentiment. (http://www.espritduo.com/music/approaching_sentiment.mp3)

116. Those books you find in Cyan's room at Mt. Zozo aren't just about machinery. They're actually dirty magazines, but they've always been translated as "book of secrets" in the SNES version, and "special samurai techniques" in the Advance version. Poor Cyan isn't quite as honorable as he would have you believe, eh?

117. If you want to kill the annoying KatanaSoul/Samurai Soul in one hit, just have Relm Sketch him. She'll have a chance to use his own Slayer's Edge against him and kill him instantly. Make sure you have a Cat's Hood equipped, since KatanaSoul gives more money than any other enemy in the game(30,000 Gil; 60,000 with the Cat's Hood).

118. Equipping RunningShoes on Celes and Sabin before the fight against the Tentacles turns another annoying battle into a cakewalk. A side effect of auto-Haste is that you are immune to Slow. A side effect of being immune to Slow is that the Tentacle's grab attacks won't work on a character that can't be first inflicted with Slow.

119. VI was the last FF to be mis-titled when it crossed the Pacific and even today, it is still referred by fans and Wii-Ware of all things as FFIII.

120. Thanks to three changes in the GBA port of VI, 3 of the major choices given to the player no longer matter.

a) Thanks to the Leviathan battle, its now possible to obtain all of Mog's Dances in the WoR meaning you can ditch him for the Gold Hairpin now.

b) Thanks to the addition of the Jumbo Cactuar Esper, who gives a +2 to speed, fans can now turn Odin into Raiden without fearing they are missing out on a Speed bonus. (for those wondering, Odin was the only esper that gives a Speed bonus before then, so some fans wouldn't change him to Raiden until after they maxed out their characters.)

c) Thanks to the save after the final battle feature, there is now a legitimate way to obtain a second (technically infinite) Ragnarok sword, meaning you can now opt for the Esper instead and spend less time teaching everyone Ultima and equipping almost everyone with dual Lightbringer swords.

121. VI is the only game that features a summon who doesn't attack, heal, defend, inflict status, or buff. Instead it transforms enemies into items and is the basis for the Morph Materia.

122. Ragnarok is also the only summon in the series to be based off a weapon, instead of a monster.

123. It is impossible to actually obtain all the Rages for Gau. Four of them are unobtainable despite the code saying otherwise and a fifth one has Rage status but no slot in the code. The GBA version put one of them back in (Death Warden) but Typhon (Chupon), Siegfried (Coliseum variant), Proto Armor, and Tonberries cannot be obtained.

124. Despite never being able to obtain Proto Armor and Tonberry as Rages, they still appear on the Veldt. WTF?

125. VI is one of four FF games that have Throw items that do magic damage, the Skeans. Only FFV, FFXI, and FFTactics have these items or a similar equivalent.

126. The Shock ability debuts in FFVI, it is also the only game where the ability cost no MP whatsoever.

127. Several skills/abilities have debuted in VI that have never been used again in the series in one form or another. They are: Tools, Runic, Sketch, Possess, and Rage.

128. Despite being a glitch created from the Relm/Sketch bug. Dissidia acknowledges the Drill as a helmet.

129. Rachel is the only non-enemy NPC in the game to get her own theme.

130. VI proves that babies come from sparkles.... okay more seriously, VI is the first game in the series that touched upon issues of sex such as teen pregnancy, and even went so far as to show a birth, and create a comical gnarm sequence of Terra's parents getting it on.

131: Final Fantasy VI has the first time where a specific party member must be kept alive, Banon. This concept is later used in Final Fantasy games like Final Fantasy Tactics (Several) and Final Fantasy VIII.

132: Final Fantasy VI has the first character that is fought as a boss prior to recruitment, Umaro. Armarat and Steiner from Final Fantasy IX Kimahri from Final Fantasy X are the only other examples of this.

133. FFVI was the first FF to have a final battle theme with a real name, "Dancing Mad". Up to that point every final battle theme had just been called "Final Battle", or "Last Battle", or in the case of FFIII, "This is the Last Battle", or even just "Battle 2", in the case of FFII. FFI didn't even HAVE a final battle theme!

134. FFVI was the only FF to have the "Kappa/Imp" status. The status has instead been "Frog" in all the other FF's it's appeared in.

135. FFVI was the last FF to not have an Ultimania. FFVIII was the real first Ultimania, and FFVII originally didn't have one, but it has since been given several due to all of its spin-offs and popularity.

136. The alternate translation of Kefka's name, spelled as "Cefca" was actually mentioned in the Advance version of FFVI. One of the Figaro Castle guards talks about how some people are spelling Kefka's name like "Cefca" and that it shouldn't matter what he's called.

137. All of Edgar's Tools can be stolen from various mechanical enemies in the final dungeon, including such rarities as the Chainsaw and Air Anchor.

138. Of all the many espers you obtain in the game, only a very few actually need to be fought beforehand, which is unusual for an FF. Those few are Ifrit, Shiva, Tritoch, Gilgamesh, Leviathan, and Cactuar(although you actually fight Jumbo Cactuar).

139. The theme for Jidoor and Owser's mansion in the World of Ruin is actually an updated version of an unused dungeon theme from FFII.

140. During the "battle" against Kefka in front of the Sealed Gate, if you wait and don't attack Kefka to end the battle, he will sooner or later use a very odd move simply called "TERRA". It has no animation, and the attack seems to freeze the game for a second, and then miss. What it is supposed to do and why it is there is a mystery...

141. You cannot actually acquire any of the floating treasure in Owser's Mnasion. The game says you get stuff, but you don't.

142. Hidon is the only boss in the game that can be fought and beaten as many times as you like, outside of a few notable Advace version additions, of course. This was intentionally done so that Strago would always be able to learn Grand Train, even if you killed Hidon.

143. Every character's desperation attack inflicts massive defense-ignoring damage to a single opponent, except two. Strago's and Relm's desperation attacks are unique in that they attempt to instantly kill and instantly petrify the enemy. This of course means that their desperation attacks are useless against bosses and enemies immune to instant death or petrification.

144. Speaking of desperation attacks, Sabin's Tiger Break is unique because it actually features a unique position for his sprite, the flying kick position.

145. Saintly Beam is the only attack in the game besides Alexander that is a multi-target Holy-elemental attack.

146. Mt. Koltz is exactly 13,476 meters tall. This makes it even taller than Mt. Everest.

147. Doma is the oldest nation in the FFVI world, and was actually founded 200 years before the War of the Magi ended.

148. The game does a poor job of explaining this about the Empire's battle against Doma. The war between them had actually been going on for about 3 years before the game started according to the timeline.

149. According to the old official guide, there are currently four great powers in VI's world. Narshe, The Empire, Figaro, and Jidoor. Places like Mobliz and Nikeah are considered lesser city states.

150. In the non-canon story by Soraya Saga (one of VI's scenario writers) about the Figaro Bros. She creates an allusion to FFIV with the kingdom's rite of passage involving slaying an Ant Lion.

151. Locke, Relm , and Umaro have more exclusive Relics than any other characters in your party(2) . In the GBA version, Umaro has the most with 3.

152. Terra and Cloud have several similarities to each other:

- Both are former members of their games evil organizations
- Both were used and experimented on by said evil organization
- Both of them suffer from a form of amnesia caused by said experiments.
- Both of them end up fighting villains who are super soldiers (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PsychoPrototype) who are the result of evil experiments gone horribly right (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoneHorriblyRight) to create super soldiers.
- Both of their villains have an unhealthy obsession with them.
- Both of them are removed from your party during a point in the story with a coma that is caused by events that reveal their true nature, and a major event has to go by to finally make them realize the truth about their pasts.
- Both of them lose someone who was like a mentor (Leo for Terra, Zack and Aerith for Cloud)
- Both of them are equally above average in terms of melee combat and using magic statistically
- Both of them are overly melancholic and spend a good chunk of their character development wangsting (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Wangst)on their emotional problems and troubled pasts.
- Both of them end up taking care of orphans.
- A large part of both of their stories in the early parts revolve around them reluctantly joining an anti-establishment organization that is eventually wiped out in the story.
- Both of them were the key to letting the bad guys get the games ultimate doomsday McGuffin, Terra opened the Sealed Gate and Cloud gave Sephiroth the Black Materia.(Not that this is actually unique in FF games but special points are given cause only these two could have done it thanks to unique genetic contributions.
- Both of them are sexually assaulted (Terra by Ultros, Cloud by Don Corneo)

153: VI is the only game in the series that has a paintbrush as a weapon.

154: Gau is still the only character in the series who can't use a weapon.

155: Kefka has the highest on screen, permanent body count in the series. Debatably, he has the highest body count in the series

156. VI is the first game to actually name their resistance group.

157. Setzer's theme is the second most used leitmotif in the game. Appearing in his own theme of course, Epitaph, and twice in the ending theme (once during his curtain call, the second during the actual credits)

158. VI is the last game to have a "tutorial school" by which I mean a building with people who give you hints on how to do things. This should not be confused with Cloud giving tutorials in VII or the tediously long lectures by Quistis in VIII.

159. VI is the first game not to feature the Dancer NPC who does a silly dance for you when prompted.

160. VI is the first game to bring in the Weapon as a boss enemy. Though Omega from V is counted by some fans, he actually doesn't use the term Weapon in his name and the first true Omega Weapon is in VIII.

161. VI is the only game that has the Creature Suit type armor.

162. In some of Sabin's character artwork, he actually sports a swanky beard.

163. FFVI is the first FF game without a constant party member. That is, in every FF game before it there is at least one character that is in your party from start to finish. This continues in FFVII-IX but reverts back in X-XII (Tidus, Vaan, and your FFXI PC are always with you as far as I remember), though it switches again in XIII.

164. VI is the last game in the series to not have a run button

165. speaking of... VI is the last numbered, non-MMO FF game to feature the skills Dash, Double-hand, and Dual Wield.

166. it is the last Final Fantasy that characters learn Magic through leveling up.

167. Relm is the only Pictomancer in the entire franchise.

168. Strago has the most spells learned of any blue mage character in the series when he joins your party. Though FFV has the most Blue Magic spells in the series. ;)

169. There are 3 ways to obtain the spell Ultima in VI. 1) Through the Ragnarok Esper. 2) Through the Paladin Shield. 3) Getting Terra to Level 99.

170. Aria Di Mezzo Carattere translates to Aria of the Half Character.

171. Terra's theme is the only theme in the series that plays double roles as a character theme and as the world map theme.

172. VI is the first game in the series whose Chocobo Theme is a radical departure from the regular Chocobo themes from previous games, in terms of music style. Being closer to nature with the Black Chocobo Theme over the regular yellow chocobo theme. This will actually stay as a trend for the later installments.

173. VI is the first FF game that utilized Mode 7 to create faux 3D for the airships, being the first FF to allow you to control elevation like a real flying vessel. It also used the technology more than any other Square game on the SNES.

174. FFVI is the first FF with trains

175. VI is the only game in the series to have an exclusive world map theme for a specific area (The Veldt)

176. VI is the first game to mostly drop spell items like Red Fangs, Grenades, and other items that cast minor spells.

177. It is the first FF to feature an item that casts a summon though. ;)

178. Umaro is the only character in VI who cannot use magic or summons.

179. There use to be a summon skill in VI but it was dummied out of the game.

180. In the Opening and Ending FMV's in the Anthology version of FFVI, Locke never shows his face despite showing up several times in the videos.

181. Despite the rampant war between fanboys about who is better, Kefka and Sephiroth actually have a few similarities.

a) Both gained their power through unethical experimentation, with th theme of combining humans with something unnatural.
b) Both end up betraying the organizations that created them, and both killed the leaders of said organization.
c) Both have someone swear vengeance against them for killing a loved one.
d) Both of them battle and kill former allies.
e) Both of them use a main character as their personal pawn.
f) Both use angelic imagery for their final forms and both have the same number of wings as their respective titles (Kefka 6, Sephy 7)
g) Both Use Heartless Angel and Chaos Wing in their final forms.
h) Both of them commit genocide
i) Both of them are remembered more for their final boss themes than their actual themes.
j) Both of them end up awakening ancient evil monsters that terrorize their worlds.
k) Despite both being present since the early parts of their games in one form or another, neither is considered the true threat of their games until halfway through.
l) Both of them murder the population of a city
m) Both of them are responsible for the genocide of another race (Cetra and Espers)

182. Even if you change his name Edgar will always use Gerad as his cover name.

183. VI is the first game to have the airship bombardment be a skill.

184. VI is the first FF to not have Chocobo as a summon but rather as a random attack in Setzer's slots.

185. Despite being powerful wielders of magic, neither Terra or Celes can actually equip any of the Mage type gear.

186. VI is the only game in the series that has a minor special scene for using tents. The tents being a different color depending on who is using it.

187. Only Celes, Edgar and Setzer have to be recruited in the WoR, everyone else is optional.

188. Even if you don't bring Celes to the Floating Continent, or recruit Terra in the WoR. Both of them will appear for story reasons during the confrontations with Kefka.

189. With the exception of Umaro and Gogo, every character in VI has lost a personal loved one in their backstory, wither it be a lover (Locke, Setzer, Cyan, Mog, Shadow) or a family member (Gau, Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Terra, Strago, Relm)

190. The only thing the Stamina stat affects in the game is the effectiveness of Poison and Regen status, as well as Instant death elements.

191. FF6 was the first game to include in-battle cutscenes that involved things like characters walking around and looking at each other. Previously, the story remained outside of battles with the exception of dialogue text in the message window during battle.

192. Until the remakes in IV, Kefka was the first FF villain to have both a first name and last name in the series. (No one knew if Golbez was actually Theodore's real name or not until the DS remake) He is also one of very few villains who actually has a full name with this type of structure.

193. Of all four of his encounters with the party, only Ultros' final encounter before the Floating Continent does not involve him dealing with one of the female cast members. (First encounter was hitting on Terra, tried to drop the weight on Celes, and his hilarious painting from Relm)

194. Mog and Gau have the shortest names for playable characters in the series.

195. Despite being his signature attack in the story, Kefka never uses the Light of Judgment on the party, instead using an attack called Forsaken. LoJ only first appearing as an actual attack in FF Dissidia.

196. Even though Ultros and Siegfried claim to know each other, they never actually appear together in the game.

197. VI is the first game in the series that allows a game over from screwing up a story event. You only get 3 chances to get the opera right. :ffvising:

198. VI is the first game where Holy, Meteor, and Excalibur are not given any real significance in any form in the game, none of them being presented as a legendary artifact.

199. The Dream Stooges, Ultros, and the Imp are some of the few enemies who were given different names in the U.S. script and have been maintained in all future English scripts. The dream stooges are actually all called dream in the Japanese script but each one is a different language. Ultros is actually suppose to be Orthros as in the Greek monster spelling (though they have nothing in common beyond the name), and the Imp is obviously a Japanese water demon called a Kappa and his special gear are all references to the famous cucumber eating demon.

200. One of the weird things about VI's marketing campaign in the U.S. back in the 90s was the fact that a lot of emphasis was given to Mog, who is a minor optional character in the actual game.

He is on the cover of the US boxart
http://home.eyesonff.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=34308&d=1417061692

featured in the magazine/comic books ads

http://home.eyesonff.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=34309&d=1417061093http://home.eyesonff.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=34310&d=1417061093&thumb=1 (http://home.eyesonff.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=34310&d=1304198216)

and the US commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d15qmRzn2Pc)

201. The Outsider enemy will kill himself with a move called Dispatch/Ruin if he hasn't been defeated by the sixth round of combat.

202. This one caught me off by surprise, apparently if you acquire the Ragnarok sword before you get Terra back in your party in the WoR and don't trade it in for the Lightbringer, she'll auto-equip it from your inventory when she fights Humbaba the second time.

203. The Ragnarok from VI, is statistically the best version of the sword in the series. It has 255 Atk. Power (about 55 points higher than Cecil's version in the all non-DS versions of IV) and raises several stats by a significant amount.

204. The Light Bringer makes its debut in the FF series in VI, which has become one of the new "ultimate weapons" in several FF ports and remakes and plays a significant relevance to XI's story.

205. VI is the first game in the series to have a battle arena.

207. Almost every grandfather clock in VI is hiding an elixir.

208. The Megalixir, X-potion, Rename Card, and Turbo Ether items all debuted in VI.

209. Sleeping Bags, Dried Meat, Magicite, and Green Cherry are items that debuted FFVI, and are mostly exclusive beyond remakes and ports.

210. VI is the only game that allows you to rename a character without utilizing Namingway in some form.

211. Despite playing a large role in FFVI's story, there is only one actual flashback to the War of Magi, in the Ancient Castle.

212. VI is the first game in the series to have a dungeon take place in a dream.

213. VI is the only game in the main series that has a city location as a typical dungeon. Zozo

214. Celes is the only character who never gains an additional command in her main menu during the course of the story. Most gain Magic once Espers are obtained, while Terra doesn't get Trance til after the Magitek Research Facility.

215. Only Locke, Setzer, and Relm have Relics that can change their commands.

216. Gau is the only character in the series that doesn't have the Fight command.

217. Siren debuted in VI as a summon for the first, she continues the trend of making boss monsters from early games into summons in later entries.

218. Ever wondered why there are 8 dragons? Each one correlates to one of the main elements in the game. Fire, Water, Ice, Earth, Lighting, Wind, Poison, and Holy.

219. VI is the first FF to have a four tier boss fight.

220. VI is one of four FFs (III, VI, XII, and XIII) to not feature the iconic monster Iron Giant as an enemy.

221. VI is also the first FF to drop the Goblin enemy, although some would argue the Gobbidygook enemy is VI's version of it.

222. The Re-Raise spell made its debut in VI.

223. FFVI is the last console FF that allows you to have weapons placed in either hand normally. Later installments either don't have normal equipment set-ups, don't specify which hand the weapon is used on, or everyone is right handed by default.

224. Kefka's "God of Magic" form is the first final boss form of a villain that was ever featured in a full CGI, in the Anthology edition.

225. If you look closely at the opening and ending FMVs of the Anthology game, Terra rides a different model of Magitek Armor than Biggs and Wedge.
http://home.eyesonff.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=34381&d=1417061701 http://home.eyesonff.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=34382&d=1417061701&thumb=1 (http://home.eyesonff.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=34382&d=1305869312)

226. VI is the only FF from the 16-bit era that doesn't have a sequel.

227. Despite wielding a staff in game, Banon's official artwork has him using a sword.
http://home.eyesonff.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=34383&d=1417061701


228. Did you know that Duncan and Vargas actually have a last name? It's Harcourt ;)

229. VI is the first FF where Behemoths are shown to be bi-pedal and can stand erect on their hind legs.

230. VI is the only FF where some enemies can be killed simply by depleting their MP.

231. The Ultima Weapon (the sword) of VI, is the only version of the weapon in the series to actually have a backstory in its game.

232. VI is the first FF where the Masemune is not an ultimate weapon or considered one of the best weapons in the game. Its also the first FF where its possible to acquire several of them, although most will obtain it from beating Cyan's dream world.

233. Sabin is the first monk in the FF series who doesn't have the unarmed trick from the NES titles. He is also the first Monk who actually needs weapons.

234. The Imp/Kappa armor set is similar to FFIII's Onion Knights in the sense they are both the weakest and strongest armor in the game, depending on whether you activate the trick to get the good stats.

235. VI is the first FF that lets equipment teach abilities to characters. An idea that will be the main basis of FFIX and the Tactics Advance series.

236. Despite being female, Relm cannot equip the Minerva armor, which is exclusive to Terra and Celes.

237. To correlate that she's a "General, not some Opera Floozy" Celes can only equip one type of robe equipment, the Silk Robe. Terra is also unable to equip the best robes, only having access to the Cotton and Silk robes herself.

238. Despite Terra and Celes being powerful magic casters, neither of them can equip rods without the Merit award.

239. VI is the first FF to featured a named resistance group, the Returners (Despite what some say, FFII's rebels never had a name) and would basically kick off a series of more silly and obscure names for resistance fighters in future installments

240. Banon's Pray is the only specialty command the party cannot obtain in some form later in the game. The Yojimbo Rage allows Gau to use Leo's Shock command.

241. Though its hardly the last FF to have the Mime ability. VI is the last numbered FF to have the Mime Class.

242. Bard and Chemist are the only two recurring major FF jobs that are not represented in some form in FFVI. It should be noted that until recently Dark Knight class was exclusive to IV and Mystic Knights have mostly been merged with Knight class depending on the title.

243. VI is the first FF to have a spell that cost over triple digit MP. Phoenix summon at 110mp.

244. Zidane Tribal of IX shares many similarities with Locke Cole:
- Both are very sympathetic and over protective of women.
- Both of them hide a darker more somber side of their personalities with a carefree attitude.
- Both are Thief characters who also have secondary occupation that in real history have been considered synonymous with Thievery. Locke is a treasure hunter which some cultures feel robs cultures of their heritage, Zidane is part of an acting troupe which in Medieval Europe use to be a cover for thieves who pick-pocketed crowds while they watched their comrades perform.
- Both of them have access to exclusive thief weapons like Boomerangs (Locke) and swallows (Zidane)
- Both are the Thief class but have the ability to equip the Ultima Weapon in their games.
- Both of them are in star crossed romances.

245. VI is the first FF game where summons can only be summoned once per battle.

246. There are only four weapons in the game that perform the Offering/Master's Scroll glitch: Dice, Fixed Dice, Ultima Weapon, and the Valiant Knife.

247. This one is amusing... despite being one of the buggiest games in the franchise, VI is the only SNES era FF that doesn't have an item duplication glitch. Though it does get the Sketch bug...

248. There is a glitch with the Cursed Shield, where if a character equips it mid-battle, the shield will inexplicably grant immunity to most of the status effects it usually auto places on a character. The only exception is the condemned status.

249. An amusing difference between the sprites and official artwork of VI has an issue with capes. Both Terra and Cyan have capes in the Amano artwork but lack them as sprites, whereas Celes and Relm don't have capes at all in their official artwork but have one in their sprites.

250. Sabin's ability to Suplex the Phantom Train may be a glitch, he's not suppose to be able to Meteor Strike large enemies, but it seems the programmer's forgot to give the boss Immunity to the move. Despite the speculation, its never been fixed, possibly cause its a fan favorite like The Emperor's death cry in FFII and the Spoony Bard line in FFIV.

251. FFVI may have the most instant death abilities in the series (and possibly gaming in general, except maybe Ghosts and Goblins ;) ) It has three regular magic spells (Death, Break, X-Zone), 2 Blue Mage spells (Roulette and Lv. 5 Death) 3 summons (Catoblepas, Odin, and Raiden), Two slot moves, one Bushido skill, several of Mog's dances have one instant death skill attached, or which both Relm and Gau can use variations of with their Sketch and Rage skills respectively.

FFNut
06-26-2015, 11:34 AM
I can't think of anything to add to this list, I was wondering if the charictor's making a appearance in Secrect of Evermore was going to mentioned which it was as they watch the hero fight in the coliseum. Beyond this list I can't think of anything.

One thing that always bugged me though is can you find Shadow's hidden treasure? I remember after seeing the dream looking high and low in the phantom forest for it. Never did find it though.

Bubba
06-26-2015, 11:57 AM
Very impressive list!

Lawr
06-26-2015, 10:28 PM
252: Terra's last name is Branford not Bradford!

Wolf Kanno
06-27-2015, 05:12 AM
Not counting that one, but this list is old and not everyone knows the proper spelling. :shifty:

252. Ever wonder why Kefka is the other male character who generally gets to wear a ribbon in games like Dissidia? It's because he always has one equipped on him in the actual game. The sprite version of him actually has full gear and he always has a ribbon as his relic of choice.

253. For the haters who think Kefka would be no match for the party in Thamasa if it weren't for his cutscene powers, you would be wrong. Kefka's stats during this sequence are basically 80 across the board making his stats higher than what is needed to even beat his final boss form. To put this in perspective, he has close to a 30-40 point lead over the entire cast. The Paladin Shield espiritduo mentioned doesn't make it easier to beat him either. On the flip side, his stats during the Doma siege and Sealed Gate sequences are actually some of the lowest in the game. Guess he really was hitting those Esper steroids...

254. Despite refusing magic infusion, General Leo Cristophe actually has the fourth highest magic power in the game. He's tied with Celes.

255. Leo and Banon share the same character slot. If you ever wondered why Leo always seems to start off in the back row, it's not because he's cautious. You probably just placed Banon in the back row to save his sorry ass and Leo retains that information when he becomes playable.

256. Leo, much like Kain Highwind before him, actually has magic casting animations despite the fact he never uses magic in the game and his character data prevents him from equipping Magicite or gaining AP.

257. So who has the best starting stats overall? Top three in each category in order from first to third.
HP Growth: Umaro, Sabin, and Cyan
MP Growth: Relm, Terra, Mog
Vigor: Umaro, Sabin, Gau
Speed: Locke, Shadow, Gau
Stamina: Umaro, Sabin, Gau
Magic Power: Relm, Terra, Umaro (I shit you not, Umaro has higher magic than Celes)
Battle Power: Gau, Umaro, Sabin
Defense: Umaro, Sabin, Mog (yes the tiny cute moogle has the third best defense in the game)
Evade: Shadow, Gau, Locke
M. Defense: Umaro, Mog, Gau
M. Block: Gau, Mog, Shadow

258. Who has the most powerful Desperation Move? Mog's Moogle Rush has 150 Base power.

259. So who has the weakest? Locke's Mirage Diver only has 139 base power.

260. Cyan's Desperation Move Tsubame Gaeshi is a reference to a fabled technique used by the real samurai Kojiro Sasaki. It translates roughly to Swallow Cut and mimics a bird's tail in flight. Said to be fast enough to cut birds out fo the sky though that may be just embellishment.

261. Gogo's Desperation Move, Punishing Meteor is a direct reference to FFV. In the boss battle with the Famed Mimic Gogo, if the player should actually attack him, Gogo counters with Meteor until the party is dead or he is beaten.

262. The first Ghost ally you recruit on the Phantom Train actually has fairly good stats. If he dies or the player uses Possess, the other Ghost recruits have vastly inferior stats.

263. Possess might be one of the most broken moves in the game. It's an instant kill attack that ignore instant kill protection, meaning it can kill any enemy in the game 100% of the time.

264. If you hack Possess onto a player character and use it, the character is removed from the battle party but returns to the airship. The devs think of everything indeed...

265. Did you know Lightbringer has the Long Range ability, meaning it does full damage even from the back row? Same with Umaro's Bone Club.

266. While we know Celes uses swords to utilize her Runic ability, did you know she can also use Samurai and Ninja swords, as well as Spears to use Runic?

267. On a similar note, in addition to his samurai swords, all regualr swords are Bushido compatible despite Cyan being unable to equip any of them without the Merit Award.

268. Did you know that early screen shots for FFVI listed Biggs and Wedges original names as Leo and Banon?

269. Biggs and Wedge's Imperial sprite sheet has all the same animations as the regualr characters and even guest characters. What's unique is that they actually use everyone in the game if you keep your eyes out in the game, including the magic casting animation very few guest characters get to use.

270. Meteor Dive (Suplex) is a an oddity... You should never use it against a group of enemies because the attack technically targets all enemies but only chooses one to attack. The attack can't ignore split damage so the damage algorithm changes and you do far less damage than if you were using it on a single opponent.

Wolf Kanno
07-18-2015, 10:00 AM
271. Who gets the most dialogue in the game? Locke Cole of course, except in the World of Ruin where Terra and Celes have the most.

272. Guess who else actually has stats? Maduin, Terra's papa actually has some pretty impressive stats and some Sprint Shoes permanently equipped on.

273. According to early screeshots of VI, Maduin was originally meant to be the Frozen Esper discovered in Narshe.
http://home.eyesonff.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=65329&stc=1

274. Darill was created by Tetsuya Nomura if his sketch pad has any say in the matter..
http://home.eyesonff.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=65330&stc=1

275. As it currently stands, FFVI has the most canonical changes between the Japanese and English release in the series. By which I mean name changes and certain fan naming has been accepted as canon.

276. The Nintendo Power guide for VI mentioned the three tiers fought before Kefka were rematches with the Warring Triad which is never made clear in the Japanese version, but years later, the FF 25th Anniversary Ultimania dubs the three tiers as the "Statue of the Gods".

277. Speaking of the final tier, the reason why none of the pieces disappear is because the sprites are actually part of the background and there is no alternate background pick depicting defeated parts.

278. According to the game code, getting beat by Kefka's forces during the seige on Narshe was meant to play a scene where Kefka would retrieve the Frozen Esper. It's unknown why it was removed.

279. The opening raid on Narshe has been alluded to twice in later installments. When XIV introduced Magitel Armor Mounts, the preview trailer recreated the opening segments with a Terra stand in and a remix of her theme. In Type-0, the mission requiring the party to cross a snowfield in Magitek Armor was meant as an allusion to VI.

280. According to the early Japanese Guide Books, the events of the World of Balance detail the Third Gestahlian Campaign with the first and second campaigns taking place 18 and 8 years prior respectively.

MJN SEIFER
07-19-2015, 01:55 AM
I'm enjoying reading this list, and love all the information that I didn't know, but permanent recordations to ask; where is 36? I take it 37 was supposed to link up to it, as it starts with "Speaking of which", but doesn't link up to anything itself...

Wolf Kanno
07-19-2015, 03:13 AM
I'm enjoying reading this list, and love all the information that I didn't know, but permanent recordations to ask; where is 36? I take it 37 was supposed to link up to it, as it starts with "Speaking of which", but doesn't link up to anything itself...

Fixed

MJN SEIFER
07-19-2015, 11:23 PM
Good. :)

Thing is though, I probably wouldn't have noticed if it wasn't for the fact that 37 referred to 36. I was all like; "Speaking of what?:confused:

Jowy
08-05-2015, 04:20 PM
This is a lot to read which I enjoyed. #154 he can equip an Imp Halberd tho'.

Speaking of the sketch bug, I rented this game back in the 90s and stumbled upon a save file with 255 Atma Weapons and a shitload of Merit Awards. I had a lot of fun.

maybee
08-08-2015, 04:08 AM
252: Terra's last name is Branford not Bradford!

I usually get Terra's surname confused like this. A good trick to remember is to think of cereal cornflakes, like bran-flakes. Just think of breakfast food. ;)

morecowbell
02-01-2016, 02:33 AM
40. VI is the second of three games to have twins in the story as main party members. The other two being FFIV and FFXII


nobody in XII are twins

Wolf Kanno
02-01-2016, 03:47 AM
40. VI is the second of three games to have twins in the story as main party members. The other two being FFIV and FFXII


nobody in XII are twins

66472

morecowbell
02-01-2016, 06:03 AM
totally blanked that since Gabranth isn't a party member.

Wolf Kanno
02-01-2016, 06:15 AM
totally blanked that since Gabranth isn't a party member.

True, he does join as a Guest Party member for the third round against Vayne, but he was never a full party member.

Galuf
02-02-2016, 12:08 PM
"Six things you didnt know about FFVI"

Thats alot of 6 things. ALOT

Wolf Kanno
11-18-2016, 09:49 PM
281. According to an interview with Kitase around VII's development, the development team wanted to have a scene (possibly the ending) where Relm would paint various pictures of the cast during pivotal moments in the game. What was interesting is that they wanted all the drawings to be in Amano's style. Unfortunately the hardware at the time made this impossible and the scene never left the planning stages.

282. You know the Ten Moogles that help Lock out in the Narshe mines? Well barring Mog, the other nine all share data with one of the main party members, which means if you switch their Row, when the correct character appears, they will follow suit much like the Banon/Leo example I mentioned before.

283. Speaking of which, there is an actual glitch in the game that lets you replace Celes with her Moogle counterpart, though said Moogle has horrible stats, locked equipment, and can't use Espers. The moogle's sprite is replaced by Celes' sprite when you reach the Opera but they are not actually switched out either.

284. That same Moogle also has a glitch where their equipment is removed and placed into you inventory automatically when you reach the Floating Continent, despite the character no longer being in your party.

285. Remember when I mentioned that FFVI had an unused lyrical track? Did I also mention that the track is sung by Nobuo Uematsu and the entire VI development team, or that the game's director Hiroyuki Ito wrote the lyrics? In fact I'll just let you listen to it...

B7W15nqMIiQ

286. VI was the first entry in the series to have the soundtrack (somewhat) released in the West as part of a mail order campaign. The OST was called Kefka's Domain: The Complete Soundtrack from Final Fantasy III.

287. Nobuo Uematsu once said that he almost quit making game music after finishing the OST for VI because he felt he had accomplished everything musically he wished to in the medium and didn't believe a future project would match the excitement he had with VI.


Final Fantasy VI was a sort of ending point for me. Not just the music, but the whole game. I thought, if I do this work for the rest of my life, how many more games will I be able to do? With the satisfaction and excitement I felt after finishing that project, I thought I had reached my primary goal, and could quit doing game music with no regrets.



288. Did you know that Interceptor's special moves Takedown and Wild Fang are actually magic-based? The reason they do so much damage is because they ignore defense. Gives new meaning to his fan-nickname of "Interceptor the Wonder Dog"

289. Ever wonder why the Phantom Train has an Impressario as well in the SNES version? Possibly because the Impressario we know is called Dancho in Japanese which roughly can mean "leader/commander of" and he may have originally been translated into English as Conductor (as in musical conductor) but decided that Impressario was more accurate. This may have screwed with the programming and accidentally renamed the Train Conductor to Impressario as well.

290. The Fake Mustache is actually meant to be a shout out to the Impressario as well, since the original name of the Relic was Dancho's Mustache.

Shaymin
08-13-2017, 09:42 AM
I declare this thread awesome. I only knew like 3-4% of this stuff and I love FF6

HarvestDude
09-29-2017, 10:35 AM
I don´t know if this was stated here before, but....

FF6 has several elements from the Star Wars movie series:

You fight against an evil empire.

Empire soldiers use helmets similar to Star Wars' stormtroopers.

The empire soldiers names Biggs and Wedge came from 2 rebel X-Wing pilots, friends of Luke Skywalker.

The Ultima/Atma Weapon is portrayed as a lightsaber.

The main villain uses an old "power", forgotten by ages, towards global domination... Magic on FF6, The Force on SW.

The main villain can use a huge planet-destroyer ray (Kefka´s Light of Judgment and Vader´s Death Star ray).

HarvestDude™

Wolf Kanno
05-20-2018, 03:59 AM
292. In a recent interview Kitase gave for Edge Magazine on the "making of FFVI" article, Kitase revealed that Alfred Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much" as well as other suspense films were used as inspiration to create the tension of the Opera sequence, in which the player is made aware of coming trouble but the actual cast of characters are oblivious to the danger they are falling into.

293. In the same interview as #292, Kitase mentions that he feels that VI was the turning point of FF where future installments began to focus more on characters and their struggles.

294. Kitase considers the train cart sequence where the party escapes the MagiTek lab to be one of the few disappointing moments for him as the tech just wasn't there to make the sequence as enthralling as the team had wanted.

295. Kitase mentioned that his role as director in the game was to balance out the various stories the other designers had created, but admits that he may have failed in this regard as he feels Celes and Kefka's roles actually grew more important to the story than originally planned.

296. The main reason why all the cast play slightly differently was to instill into the player a sense that they were unique individuals, to comply with the central theme of the games development being "a cast of main characters". This is also why the developers tried new mechanics in order to blend seamlessly the characters story and gameplay, citing Gau's story and his method of play working together as a cohesive whole.

297. Kitase says the Opera sequence is his favorite part of FFVI and the scene he's the most proud of putting together.

298. According to Kitase, Japanese fans initially struggled with the thematic changes VI introduced to the FF series compared to the earlier installments that dealt with recurring mythos like the four elemental crystals and the more high fantasy settings. Despite that, the opening sequence was very well received.

Wolf Kanno
12-20-2018, 09:50 PM
Been reading a neat article series about the differences between the various translations of FFVI. Learning some cool info and even a few things I probably should have known to begin with.

299: There is an amusing glitch in VI I've never caught. Banon has an unfinished character sheet for riding a Chocobo, so if you make him the leader and travel to the hidden chocobo stable south of Figaro Castle, you can witness this amusing glitch.

75849

300. For the most part, due to how beloved the original English translation was, SE has largely used that translation's names and spellings for the cast, with one exception: Orthros/Ultros whose name has gone back and forth from his original Greek name to his funny Woosely name in the various media he's appeared in. For reference, his name change was likely an accident caused by his name being originally a non-English foreign word which makes translating the katakana tricky for a translator if they are working on a tight deadline like Woosely was.

301: Here's a thought experiment for players and long time vets: Have you been pronouncing Cyan's name correctly? Due to shortening his name, I'm sure most non-Japanese speaking English speakers pronounce it like the color or "Sigh-Ann" but when you look at the original romanji/spelling Cayenne, his name is actually pronounced like the tasty pepper so "Ky-Ann".

302: The actual name of the Phantom Woods in Japanese is 迷いの森 (mayoi no mori) which has dozens of way it can be translated. Why I bring this up is because this is also what Zelda's Lost Woods, Super Mario World's Forest of Illusion area, and Pokemon's Lostlorn Forest. As you can tell, the name usually goes with ghostly woods that people get lost in.

303: Speaking of location names, the Veldt is a Woolseyism. It's actually called "Beast Plains" in Japanese but Woosley changed it to the Afrikan word for Grasslands instead.

304: I mentioned before that in the early pre-release screenshots for VI, Maduin was the Narshe Esper instead of Tritoch. Well it looks like a few other things were changed as well such as Narshe having a Chcocbo stable...
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305:...and the desert battle background was different as well.
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Which is a shame because I honestly feel the early one is better looking than what we got.

306. There is an odd translation joke in the GBA script concerning a drunk old man in Narshe who mentions seeing moogles and yeti. The quirk is two-fold. First, the character isn't actually drunk in the original Japanese. So the question is why is he now drunk in the translation? Well it turns out that in an early translation build for Woosely's SNES script, he made the character a drunk before NoA made him remove references to alcohol and drunkenness. Somehow, Slattery, the GBA translator learned about this funny touch and added it back into the new script.
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307: The actual translation for Sabin's name is debatable. I've heard it be translated at Matthew, Mathias, and Macias. An interesting coincidence I learned while researching it is that there are two lesser known operas called "Edgar" and "Macias". Whether this is intentional is unknown, but considering who (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soraya_Saga) wrote these characters (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenogears), it wouldn't be far fetched to believe this could be a subtle reference.

308: Most of the non-playable characters had some odd name changes. Most of the characters tend to have straight Japanese names like Jun being turned to Arvis or Shun into Owain, but the weirdest one I found is Shadow's former partner Baram, whose actual name is Billy. You read that right, the one NPC with an actual English name had his name changed. I can't telly you why either, especially since I wouldn't be surprised if the names were suppose to be references to famous outlaws Billy the Kid and Bonnie and Clyde.

Wolf Kanno
12-21-2018, 04:54 AM
309: One thing that often gets overlooked in these games is the wealth of mythology and references found in basic item descriptions. Phoenix Down's are easy to understand but what about weirder ones like Gold Needle? Well one I can finally answer thanks to the articles (https://legendsoflocalization.com/final-fantasy-vi/part-06/) I'm reading is the Green Cherry item from VI which cures the Imp/Kappa status effect and boosts Umaro's stats in battle. This item is actually a Japanese in-joke that is completely lost in translation. First off, the item is actually translated as "Kizakura" or "Yellow Cherry" in English, how it got turned into Green Cherry is anyone's guess, but the joke is that Kizakura is the name of a famous brand of sake in Japan, and during the 70s and 80s, they had a series of successful and memorable commercials where a Kappa is heavily featured and the little mythical figure sort of got stuck as being synonymous with the brand similar to frogs and Budweiser in the U.S. So it's an amusing in-joke and insight into the design teams interest. It also explains why Umaro gets such a boost from having one.

310: This one helped me clear up something I always found confusing in the game concerning the Esper World. The original translation implied it was a separate world, like a pocket dimension or something, and I always took that at face value since we're dealing with magical beings but then it never made sense how Madonna and the Empire got into the place if it technically existed in a different dimension, unless we were pulling some Gaelic ideas about the Fair Folk into this. In the actual Japanese version, it's explained that Espers do live in the human world and simply use their magic to hide the entrance, which makes the idea of non-magic using humans stumbling into the place not so far fetched if the entrance was something like an illusionary cave wall instead.

MJN SEIFER
12-21-2018, 02:56 PM
301: Here's a thought experiment for players and long time vets: Have you been pronouncing Cyan's name correctly? Due to shortening his name, I'm sure most non-Japanese speaking English speakers pronounce it like the color or "Sigh-Ann" but when you look at the original romanji/spelling Cayenne, his name is actually pronounced like the tasty pepper so "Ky-Ann".I was actually thinking about this recently, and even wondering if I should do a thread about it at some point. I knew that his Japanese name was Cayenne for years, but back then I thought it was pronounced "Kay-Ann" (both his name, and the pepper) and that Cyan was pronounced like the color, but when it recently dawned on me that the pepper is pronounced "Ky-Ann" it made me think, "Wait, did they mean for "Cyan" to be pronounced that way too?"

I love this thread, pleased to see it's still going.

Lord Golbez
12-22-2018, 12:38 AM
303: Speaking of location names, the Veldt is a Woolseyism. It's actually called "Beast Plains" in Japanese but Woosley changed it to the Afrikan word for Grasslands instead.

As much as some people like to come down on Woolsey, a lot of his choices were better than just a literal translation. "Beast Plains" sounds prosaic and uninteresting. Like, wow, aptly named, but not very imaginative is it? Woolsey's choice is much better. And his comic choices are often quite good as well. Not knowing the actual Japanese script, I certainly wouldn't claim he never makes missteps, but I do think he's unfairly criticized by people who are too obsessed with literal translation over a good localization.

By the way, it's too much of a pain to quote it but are you sure about VI being the first game in which a summon can hurt the caster? Ever try using Sylph on an undead foe? I don't remember for sure, but I think that would hurt Rydia.

Wolf Kanno
12-22-2018, 06:55 AM
As much as some people like to come down on Woolsey, a lot of his choices were better than just a literal translation. "Beast Plains" sounds prosaic and uninteresting. Like, wow, aptly named, but not very imaginative is it? Woolsey's choice is much better. And his comic choices are often quite good as well. Not knowing the actual Japanese script, I certainly wouldn't claim he never makes missteps, but I do think he's unfairly criticized by people who are too obsessed with literal translation over a good localization.

My next post will actually address a bit of this. For the most part, while Woolsey's script has it's problems which was largely technical and dealing with NoA, his script is actually more interesting than the actual Japanese one. There's some interesting world building that doesn't actually exist in the original and a large part of why Kefka is more beloved in the West is due to how much more personality he actually crammed into him. I think it says something that several lines changes Woolsey made into the script were kept in Slattery's better translation.

Slattery's mostly restores what Woolsey couldn't keep, but he honestly kept a lot of Woolsey's localization choices as well because Woolsey made VI a more interesting world than the original. You'll see what I mean with my next post, but if you read the article series I linked in one of my last posts, you can see that Slattery actually holds the original translation in pretty high regard and sometimes even playfully adds to it such as Locke's speech when he steals clothes in the South Figaro section. Woolsey had him rhymed when he stole from merchants but then actually translated the line when you steal from soldiers correctly from the Japanese script. Slattery kept Woolsey's rhyme scheme for the merchant clothes and made one for the soldier one just to keep the theme.


By the way, it's too much of a pain to quote it but are you sure about VI being the first game in which a summon can hurt the caster? Ever try using Sylph on an undead foe? I don't remember for sure, but I think that would hurt Rydia.

Actually it doesn't because Sylph doesn't use the same algorithm as the Drain/Vampire/Osmose/Psyche spells at least in the original. It's suppose to ignores Undead status. At least if the Gamefaqs algorithm faq I'm reading is to believed. Granted, I don't think the FAQ was updated after the GBA version so it's possible they changed this with the DS version going forward, I would have to do more research at that point, but I doubt they changed it since Summons usually have more player friendly mechanics than magic does. I think where the difference here is that if Sylph does do damage to you by casting it on undead, that's really more on the player, whereas Crusader/Jihad will damage you regardless of what you want.

Lord Golbez
12-22-2018, 07:44 AM
Ah! Okay. I'm not sure if I ever tried it (I don't use Sylph much anyway and usually get it very late game -i.e. past when you need the frying pan to get it), but I sort of just assumed it worked the same as drain.

But yeah, Crusader is kind of sucky. I never use it as a summon. At least with Merton, you can equip stuff that makes it both heal your party and hurt the enemy, which is pretty great. I'm not sure if you can even do that with Crusader. It's also a ridiculously high MP cost if memory serves for something that just might end up killing you.

Wolf Kanno
12-22-2018, 08:18 AM
Today, it's all about the opera!

Due to the heavy amount of subtext and word play that often goes into poems and musical lyrics, regardless of language, it's virtually impossible to properly translate them into another language. This can be especially difficult with song lyrics because even translating it directly will often lead to the words no longer matching the music. So unless you were born and raised in Japan all your life, you'll never actually know for certain what the Opera lyrics really are. Suffice to say there are subtle and not so subtle differences in the lyrics among every translation.

311: One line that has been changed in both of the official English translations that sort of removes a humorous if macabre joke is the first lyrical screw up you can make. While NoA policies give Woosley a pass on this, the Slattery one is a bit of a headscratcher. Basically the first screw up line says something along the lines of Oh Draco are you really dead/Oh Draco I hope you die. It sounds really blunt and like Maria doesn't care so it's kind of an amusing joke that got lost in translation.

312: Lost in all of the official translations, Draco apparently comes from Castle Garū from the West, it's unknown why this detail is lost in the official translations.

313: Ultros has a few changes that are so Japanese, it's not surprising they are lost in translation. First off, when Ultros speaks of cute girls, instead of ending with a pervy line as he usually does in the official translations, he instead makes the Japanese sound effect for blushing. This looks awkward in English, especially back in the day so it was dropped but you get to see it in his 3D appearances like XIII-2. Secondly, while Ultros does have a big ego, it's different how it's gotten across in the translations. In Japanese Ultros uses the "-sama" honorific for himself which is usually only given to people superior to you in social status like your boss, the head of your household, or a high ranking government official. Obviously this is too Japanese to translate so instead we get lines like "Octopus Royalty" in the opera scene despite the actual line being Ultros telling the audience to not boo at his bad performance because he's just an octopus and not an actor. This honorific thing also makes his verbal sparring with Relm lost in translation as well. She also uses the "-sama" honorific for herself so when they talk to each other, they're both kind of flaunting the fact they're the most important person in the room which is why Locke breaks the fourth wall when shaking his head at their nonsense.

314: Albrook is not the actual name of the city-state in the Japanese, it's romanized to Albroog, and according to the translator I'm reading, it's likely the name is suppose to be Alburg. It's unknown why the name was changed or why it's stuck.

315: I wasn't actually going to post this one originally because it seemed insignificant, but now that I've learned that this mistake was made twice in two different parts of the official scripts, I figure it could be an interesting faq. When Celes discusses the process for Magitek infusion, she simply mentions she was asleep during the process. This is slightly wrong, because she only talks about herself but in the original script, she actually uses the pronoun for "we" implying that multiple kids were going through the process at the same time and they were all put asleep before it. Why this becomes significant is because the same error is made when you speak to the towns person explaining Kefka's backstory. He is not the first Magitek Knight, he was one of many actually, implying there may be a whole bunch of magic wielding psychopaths from the first batch made. This is interesting to me because it shows that Magitek Infusion is an easy and mass producible process whereas the original translation implies its more laborious. This also begs the question of what happened to the other members of the first batch of Magitek Soldiers...

316: There is no such thing as a Magitek Knight in the Japanese script. In fact, when the term "magic" comes up in the script, the game uses two different words to distinguish them: 魔法 (mahō) and 魔導 (madō). The first word deals with natural phenomena while the second deals with "something learned" and this one is the term used when discussing Magitek infused characters which is usually the word 魔導士 (madōshi). To give you an idea of how much more interesting flavor text is used in the English scripts, madoshi is usually translated into English as wizard/sorcerer which kind of undercuts some of the Sci-Fi elements and also explains the inconsistency with Kefka's "job" in the translated scripts where he's referred to as both a Court Mage and Magitek Knight. So basically, in the Japanese script, the empire is making wizard/mages, while in the English, they're producing Magiteck Knights. I feel it's safe to say we got the cooler name scheme.

317: Likewise, the term "Relic" is not actually used when discussing the items in the original script, they're simply called Accessories. Woosley used the term Relic to give them some more significance. Slattery opted to keep this in and personally I like building up their importance cause it gives the game some interesting lore despite not really being there in the original. Again, these last few entries go to show how much more interesting the English script makes this game compared to the Japanese one and why localization can be just as important as accurate translations.

318: One area the Japanese script does have a little more personality than the English scripts is with some of the very minor nameless NPC's in the game. There are a few who speak with an Osaka dialect such as the Engineer at Castle Figaro, and the Merchant Ghost on the Phantom Train, but since that's hard to translate, the scripts opted to leave it out. I'm not too sore though because usually when English translations try to convey this, it means we wind up with characters speaking with thick southern accents or Brooklyn accents.

319: Similar to 316 and 317, the term Magicite is also an embellishment on the actual term, but unlike the previous entries, the term used in Japanese 魔石 (maseki), can actually be translated a number of different ways and most translators do add some flair to the term. The easiest translation given and one used in the Japanese source books is Magic Stone, which sounds really generic and boring. Technically Magicite isn't incorrect as it conveys the same meaning, so it's not wrong but we could have ended up with a very different term as well.

320: Ramuh, Shiva, and Ifrit are actually siblings in VI. This line was dropped in the first translation but was restored in the GBA one.

321: Lost in all translations is how much stronger Magicite power is compared to Cid's Esper extraction process. When he witnesses magicite for the first time, he has a line explaining magicite is hundreds of times stronger than his own process. Explains why the party's magic power is stronger than the generic soldiers I guess.

322: Celes' speaking style changes in the Japanese script. She speaks very formal and sternly at first, but once she puts on the opera dress she starts using feminine particles more often and they slowly pop up more and more as the game goes on. This is obviously difficult to convey in English. If she had a VA, chances are she would go from a military style soldier speak to a more casual and possibly overly feminine speech as time goes on.

323: There is another location with an odd name change that stayed in both English localization for some reason. Strago's home is located on Crescent Island in the English script, but the actual name of the place is Big Triangle Island, if you even look at the location on a map, it makes sense because the landmass is an awkward triangle shape. Don't know why this one wasn't fixed in the GBA script.

324: Here's another character name we may have all been pronouncing wrong. While her name in all Japanese media is romanized as Relm, when you look at her actual Japanese spelling リルム (rirumu) it's very likely her name should be Reelm. So if you've been saying it like realm, like I do, we're probably wrong. ^^;

325: Of all the party members, the one who probably went through the most significant changes due to the Woolsey script is Relm. In the old script, she's a smart mouth bratty half pint with a heart of gold. In the original, and somewhat in the Slattery script, she's restored closer to the Japanese version where she's kind of overly childish. Though she's pretty arrogant in all versions so one part is consistent. She speaks in the third person, bringing us back to the fact she uses the -sama honorific for herself. So anytime she uses a pronoun for herself, like "I want to go too" she's actually saying "Relm want to go too" this is an odd characteristic that is popular in Japanese media for young girl characters, but is often removed in English translations for one reason or another. I'm personally happy for it because it would have made her really grating to be around.

326: What's Kefka's catch phrase? Well if you were in the US and familiar with the Woolsey script, you would likely be arguing with a bunch of FFVI nerds on which one of his many memorable lines should be his catch phrase. I'm partial to his Hate speech on the Floating Continent. If you were a Japanese fan though, it's a line he uses while he's temporarily in prison and when he's doing the Thamasa Esper massacre where he uses the shock sprite emote and says something along the lines of "I don't believe this!". It's actually used in a lot of trailers, marketing and even some merchandise for the character in Japan. Makes me wonder if Japanese fans associate Kefka with another bumbling villain with similar catch phrase (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhXjcZdk5QQ).

327: Edgar's quirky exchange with Relm in Thamasa is actually a bit funnier in the Japanese. While I feel most Western fans got the gist of what was really transpiring here, the Japanese script just lays it out with Edgar's line being something along the lines of "Yeah, that would defintely be a crime... better just forget about it." The Japanese script plays up the fact Edgar will hit on anything without a Y chromosome regardless of age, but I think we all knew that... :lol:

Wolf Kanno
12-27-2018, 10:10 PM
328: Want to know another fan joke about FFVI? There is an enemy in the Esper Cave segment whom know one seems to get what this enemy is actually called. Fans of the original SNES script know it as Ing while it got renamed Outcast in the GBA one.

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It's actual name is ロゲノイア (rogenoia) which is katakana and likely a non-English word to begin with. Here's where the joke comes in. Some Japanese fans learned that if you write his name backwards, it becomes アイノゲロ (ainogero) which can be rougly translated as "Vomit of Love" which ended up becoming a fan nickname that stuck.

329: Going back to locations that have different names between versions. The Disc 1 Final Dungeon known to western fans as the "Floating Continent" goes by a different name in Japan. Within the game, it's called the 魔大陸 (matairiku) or Magic Continent roughly. While the romanization of the name in the Japanese guide books call it the Enchanted Continent.

330: So what does Kefka actually say during his infamous "Hate" Speech in Japanese? This is actually one of the few lines that has never been properly translated into English. In Japanese he says ちくしょう (chikushō) which has like thirty different meanings and is basically a word most English translators use for English swearing. Hence why a lot of fan translations tend to make this just Kefka shouting "bitch, fuck, and shit" over and over. Course this line can be translated as anything mild as "blast it" to the penultimate cuss word of fuck, so this line really varies based on the context of the scene and the person translating it. Now the one part that is lost in translation among the official scripts is that Kefka gets wore out/breaks down halfway through the rant and stops fully saying the word. So a decent translation could be him saying "Damn it!" and then halfway through he simply says damn. For me personally, this is one of the few translation changes in the GBA script where I wish Slattery had stuck with the old translation.

331: Two words that have weird translations in the SNES script are Atma/Ultima and Merton/Meltdown. What's interesting is that they are not entirely incorrect. The actual Japanese for these lines can really be translated as Altema and Melton. The Japanese uses a strange katakana for these words as the game doesn't use the traditional spelling for these words like in other media. While it's easy to see in hindsight what they were actually going for, it's not difficult to see how the translator just directly translated the words and left them. In fact, the SNES translation does seem to recognize that Atma/Ultima was a thing because the spell Ultima uses the same awkward katakana, so either Atma was a placeholder name that never got fixed because the translation got rushed or it's a conscious choice to differentiate it from the spell.

332: The World of Balance and the World of Ruined is an English phenomena. The Japanese version and fans have no real official or unofficial title to distinguish the first half of the game from the second. Oddly enough the phrases are never actually mentioned in-game and instead comes from various maps used in English guide books which just stuck with the fans and blew up once the internet became more prominent. It's likely why some fans found the PSX port's bestiary weird since it uses the term Cataclysm instead to differentiate the two parts of the game.

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333: There is a piece of NPC dialogue changed between the SNES version and the GBA version. In the first town where Celes reunites with Sabin in the WoR, the original game has an NPC who talks about a few of the new status effects you'll be dealing with in the second half of the game such as Zombie. In the GBA port, his dialogue is changed to foreshadowing Humbaba attacking Mobliz. No idea why this was changed.

334: The band of thieves Gerad/Edgar leads in the WoR have no name, the SNES translation calls them the "Crimson Robbers" and the GBA script keeps this.

335: Speaking of which, Edgar's cover name in Japanese is the awesomely exotic and totally the name of a badass leader of cut-throat criminals "Jeff". Yeah, glad that got changed.

336: Another thing lost in translation concerning Edgar's personality and way of speaking is that he often uses English words in his speech. This is how Celes sees through his disguise in Japanese. This is another Japanese thing with characters that often gets lost in translation. In anime and manga, authors tend to distinguish rich and smart characters by having them use fancy foreign words a lot, usually English. Mitsuru Kirijo from Persona 3 is a wonderful example as she uses a lot of English in her speech in Japanese and uses French in the English translation. In the English translations, Edgar simply speaks more formally instead, so the whole thing actually works well regardless.

337: Gogo's gender is never revealed in the game, but oddly enough, Gogo uses male pronouns in Japanese and there is a Japanese guide book that refers to Gogo as a "he".
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As an added bonus, Gogo has also made a cameo in a less known Square-Enix series called Hanjuku Hero.

maybee
12-28-2018, 12:31 AM
I looked up "ちくしょう" on RomajiDesu and got basically "beast ", "brute", "son of a bitch/damn it !"


You could translate that maybe as " Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it !"


imo, that makes a lot more sense than just saying "hate" over and over.

Wolf Kanno
12-28-2018, 02:37 AM
Hate wasn't a bad choice considering how often Kefka used it in the original script. Damn it seems like the best choice, especially with the breakdown part missing from the official scripts.

Wolf Kanno
04-30-2019, 07:24 PM
338: According to a recent Famitsu interview (https://www.siliconera.com/2019/04/29/final-fantasy-vi-staff-talk-about-the-rivalry-with-dragon-quest-that-helped-the-series-grow/), VI was originally going to have a fourth wall breaking sequence that would have referenced Dragon Quest. Normally in FF, characters on the world map simply merge into the main character for technical reasons, but Sakaguchi wanted to have a fun sequence where the team tried to do it and failed, only to then need to move around the map lined up much like how DQ does it. Kitase, the director shot it down as being a bit too ridiculous.

MJN SEIFER
04-30-2019, 09:39 PM
This reminds me of what I read about Final Fantasy VII in a sense, there was apparently an idea that didn't get used where Biggs, Wedge and Jessie see (I think/assume) Cloud, Barrett and Tifa "merge into" each other, and try to do it themselves, but fail.

Hope you don't mind me dropping an FFVII trivia in there.

Wolf Kanno
01-24-2020, 09:21 AM
339: VI is the only game where the tent item changes color when used by a main character. In fact, the top of the tent has a different ornamental decoration on top of it depending on the character. Celes, Edgar, Sabin, Banon and Ghost share a Green one with a crown on the top. Cyan, Setzer, and Shadow share a dark gray one with a spike on its top. Relm, Strago, and Gogo share one which is a brown with a red and orange sun symbol. Finally Mog and Umaro share one that is white with a reddish pink star on top.

340: Interestingly enough, Terra has the only unique one. Terra's is purple with her famous Ribbon attached to the top.

341: Locke appears to have a unique one, but its also attached to the Merchant and soldier Sprite sheets since he can don their disguise in the South Figaro scenario. His is sandy brown with a Crescent Moon ornament.

342. Despite one never being playable and the other only being playable for a few minutes with no save points nearby, both Kefka and Leo have a Tent design assigned to them. Kefka shares one with Relm's group, while Leo shares one with Edgar's group.

343. According to the 30th Anniversary Ultimania design documents in VI's section, Biggs and Wedge were meant to have a larger recurring role past the opening, serving as a pair of bumbling villains trying to thwart the party much like their incarnations from VIII. In fact the opera sequence mishap was to be there doing before Ultros was created to fill in that role. The party would have faced Biggs in the rafters and fought Wedge on the stage after falling out of the rafters with him.

344. Speaking of the opera sequence, the boss battle was to have a more interesting interactive feel to it. The audience was meant to react to the battle, so if you used a flashy spell they would ooh and awe, if a character successfully blocked an attack they would cheer, and if a character was killed they would gasp.

345. Interestingly enough, the design notes also detailed a different ending to the whole opera sequence. The biggest change is that Setzer was not involved at all and may have been encountered differently in the early drafts. In the original draft, the party would have defeated Wedge and Locke would have given a speech about how the empire was the true enemy and the Returners were the real heroes. He and Celes would have embraced and the curtain would have fallen. Then it would rise and the whole cast, including the party, would have taken a bow before a stage hand dragged Wedge's unconscious body from the stage.

346. Before FFVI, Square never had a dedicated sound design or sound programming team or member for their previous games. It was always done by staff members who had free time.

347. Terra was originally designed to have short hair but eventually changed as Kasuko Shibuya worked on the sprite.

348. If you're wondering why her hair, and some other cast members hair didn't match up to Amano's drawing, it's stated by Shibuya that she did it to make the cast more distinguishable from each other since Amano is overly fond of blondes in his character art. Interestingly enough, she made the sprites before Amano drew their official artwork.

349. Oddly enough, no one really knows anymore who came up with the magic vs. technology angle of VI's scenario. Sakaguchi said part of the reason they emphasized machines more in VI was really due to the skill level of the staff improving well enough to do so. As well as just having better hardware to work on since the FF series has always had a few sci-fi elements within it. Though in that same interview (http://www.onemillionpower.com/25-years-since-the-release-of-final-fantasy-vi-looking-back-at-the-passion/), he does allude to the idea that Tetsuya Takahashi may have been the one to steer the staff more towards it since he was more up his alley if all his future games weren't a clear sign.

350. Here's a big shocker for all of you. The World of Ruin wasn't in the original script. In fact the final battle against Kefka was to take place on the Floating Continent which is probably why it has a final dungeon feel to it. The reason it happened was due to the game's development going so smoothly that they found they had extra time and simply added it in.

351. The Celes Suicide scenario was originally meant to always be canon and Cid was meant to die. Kitase had them implement an alternate scenario to save him when he thought it would be a nice touch for players, but since he didn't want players to miss out on Celes' touching scene, he purposely left how to do so ambiguous so most players would fail on their first attempt.

352. There may be a personal reason why the Katarina pregnancy subplot was in the game. As it turns out, Sakaguchi was expecting his first child during this game's development. Apparently during the livestream Let's Play he did, he makes mention that he really card about the birth scene due to expecting his own child.

353. According to Tomoe Inazawa (Field Graphics), while the development team was during the crunch time towards the end of development and trying to debug the game, Sakaguchi ad-libbed a song about bugs to Terra's theme. Something like... “Another buuuggg… has been founnndddd…” while he worked.

Christmas
06-26-2020, 03:29 PM
God, this is good stuff! :bigsmile:

Wolf Kanno
07-04-2020, 05:52 AM
354. The Ghost sprite is based on an older asset from Romancing SaGa. A character named Red Mage originally used a version of the sprite with a red color scheme.
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/romancingsaga/images/e/ea/RS1_Red_Mage_Sprite.png/revision/latest?cb=20181212043538

Wolf Kanno
10-23-2020, 09:29 PM
355. Most people know that Gogo can fill his three empty skill slots with any skill from the playable cast. A few of you may have even noticed that the skills available are only the ones on available party members. Meaning if you didn't save Shadow, his Throw skill is lost forever. What a very rare group of modders would know is that Gogo can use almost any skill from any playable character as long as they are available to be put on your team. Meaning if you hack Banon, Ghost, or Leo into your team, he can have access to Health, Posses, and Shock as well.

Wolf Kanno
11-03-2023, 05:08 AM
356. FFVI is the only FF where dying doesn't make you lose all your progress. You lose any items of Gil acquired and dungeon progress but you actually retain any XP and levels you earned. Surprisingly, this appears to be something unique to FFVI as I can't seem to find another numbered FF that does this as well. Though I would point out that the Pixel Remaster has finally removed this feature.

357. Do you remember Aisha? Probably not, but that's the name of the woman in Maranda being chased by the imperial soldiers. For some reason, the English localization gave her a name, she's a nameless NPC in the Japanese version. Made weirder by the fact that certain more important NPCs never get proper names like the Narshe and Esper Elders.

358. The Dream Stooges or Dream Brothers in the Japanese version, were originally named Sueño, Sogno, and Rêve, which are all the word dream in different languages (Spanish, Italian and French, respectively) but what you may not know is that earlier development materials have them named after famous impressionist painters Juan Gris, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Paul Cézanne. Tying the games more into the visual themes of the game.

359. The scene of Katarin giving birth at the end of the game was put there by Sakaguchi because his daughter had been born during production.

360. Cyan being gifted the Masemune after defeating Wrexsoul has more meaning than just a simple plot induced upgrade. The Masemune in Japanese folklore is said to be a benevolent sword that only a warrior with inner peace could truly use. So gaining this weapon is another sign that Cyan has achieved inner peace.

361. Wrexsoul is actually called Alexsoul (アレクソウル, Arekusouru) in the Japanese version. Considering you earn the Alexander Esper after his defeat, it is possible that there was meant to be a connection between the two. The Japanese/Slattery script mention that Wresoul is a malevolent spirit composed of those who died in the War of the Magi.

MJN SEIFER
11-06-2023, 10:18 PM
Awesome, this thread is still going! I really love reading all this trivia, it's so inspiring.


358. The Dream Stooges or Dream Brothers in the Japanese version, were originally named Sueño, Sogno, and Rêve, which are all the word dream in different languages (Spanish, Italian and French, respectively) but what you may not know is that earlier development materials have them named after famous impressionist painters Juan Gris, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Paul Cézanne. Tying the games more into the visual themes of the game.
I knew about how they all meant "dream", but the idea of them all being named after artists is a cool idea too. Though, I will say, I love how the Woolsey version literally named them after The Three Stooges, if only because when I first got into Final Fantasy VI I looked at a text-based walkthrough, and saw "Larry, Curly and Moe" as bosses, I was so confused, and likely thought that the walkthrough was making things up (though in hindsight, I like that Ted did that - it was a nice shout out, and this is coming from somebody who has never seen The Three Stooges.)


360. Cyan being gifted the Masemune after defeating Wrexsoul has more meaning than just a simple plot induced upgrade. The Masemune in Japanese folklore is said to be a benevolent sword that only a warrior with inner peace could truly use. So gaining this weapon is another sign that Cyan has achieved inner peace. I love this, it is such a nice touch to the storyline, I genuinely felt it when I read about it. I had no idea about this before reading this, but I love that they (presumably) thought about this, it it is such a nice touch. :)