6 things you may not have known about FFVI

[Vyk]

RE: Leo being the first black character - We don't really know what Black Mage looks like under that hat of his

A robot, duh! Didn't you play FFIX? :P

[espritduo]

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, as well as the artwork of Clyde have only recently come to light.)

Geez, it's not Clyde! Damn Wikipedia. Both the Blue Terra and the "Clyde" Amano images have been around for years. Both can be found in The Sky, a wonderful set of books that has every single last piece of art Amano did for the FF series up until X, without exception. I'm the one who scanned and uploaded both images on another another forum originally, where they were then uploaded onto the FFWiki and other forums by other members, and now it seems my blue Terra scan is the de facto scan for that image across the internet. Funny how the internet works.

As for "Clyde", I have no idea why someone decided to claim that the image I uploaded was him, and I've since deleted the image from Shadow's page on the FFWiki. It isn't Clyde. It's most likely an alternate Locke, which is how I originally uploaded it, but since it is only titled as "FFVI Image" in the book itself, there's no way to be 100% sure. One thing is for sure, there's absolutely no reason to believe it is Clyde of all people, who's sprite in the game bears no resemblance to the image.

Anyways, point is, both those images have been open to the public for years along with the rest of Amano's cache of FF art, but it wasn't until I uploaded them(one in response to Dissidia, the other just by request) that they became widely known. There's literally hundreds of Amano FF pieces that most people have never seen simply because there's never been a reason to scan and upload them. Dissidia has definitely made some more popular, but they've always been there, waiting for a reason to be noticed.

EDIT: Ah, okay. I have checked that with google because I didn't know what you have meant with the fanfiction thing. It seems so that some people were writing garbage about Kefka and Celes or whatever. But that's about it.

That fanfiction(oh how I wish I could erase that fanfic from existence!) is also the source of him being from Thamasa, and pretty much anything else that deals with his "backstory". All official information that exists on Kefka says exactly what is known in the game. The only extra stuff that exists is the little things, like the height/weight/age/likes/dislikes stuff. It says nowhere that he was an orphan, or that he had autism or that he was the son of some goddess named Maria, or any other rubbish like that. Damn wikipedia.

Also, Cait Sith was an enemy in FFIII (NES). That was it's original appearance in the series, not FFVI. Although FFVI's Cait Sith was definitely the inspiration for FFVII's, since they look identical.

Okay, enough of that. How about I do something useful and post some more little known nuggets?

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

101. FFVI has more summons than any other game in the series, by a long shot. It has 31 summons, while the next highest is FFVIII with 16 normal summons and 6 oddballs that aren't summoned the normal way.

102. 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.

103. While FFVI was the first game to feature the monster Atma/Ultima weapon, FFV's Twin Tania looks uncannily like Ultima Weapon, and was most likely the original concept for its FFVI design.

104. 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.

105. 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.

106. 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.

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

108. 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.

109. 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.

110. FFVI was the first FF to feature an "angelic" final boss. Before Kefka, we had nothing but big crazy monsters for final bosses(Chaos, Hell's Emperor, Cloud of Darkness, Zeromus, Neo Exdeath).

111. FFVI was also the first FF to feature the signature "Heartless Angel" move used to reduce the entire party's HP to 1. In FFVI it was originally translated as the whimsical "Fallen One".

112. While FFVI is the first appearance of Alexander as a summon, it is not the beginning of Alexander's story. The Amano artwork for the Giant of Babil from FFIV looks exactly like Alexander from FFVI, and is most likely the inspiration for the summon.

113. 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.

114. 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.

115. 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.

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

117. 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.

118. 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.

119. 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?

120. 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).

121. 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.

[Hollycat]

You're wrong Cait sith originally appeared in final fantasy 2 as an enemy in pandemonium.

EDIT: wait, you may need to ignore this, I am now thinking he may have appeared in the reverse pandemonium in soul of rebirth, and I beleive that was added for DOS, in which case ignore the post

[Wolf Kanno]

Thanks for clearing up the Clyde picture espiritduo. Though I know you are right about it not being him, I would like to point out that not all of Amano's artwork has been properly translated into sprite format. The cast of V don't really look anything like their Amano designs, so I can see why some would make a mistake.

Anyway, I have to also point out that your 101, 110, and 111 have all been stated already, but thank you for your other contributions. Also, you should be happy to know that Sky will become available in the U.S. at least in May, so you won't have to keep correcting people about mislabeling the pictures on this side of the Pacific.

[espritduo]

I felt like those ones were already said, but I couldn't seem to find them, ah well.

And I've already got two copies of the new edition of The Sky pre-ordered. I'm hoping to keep one alongside my original print and gut the other for total scanning purposes. No more helter-skelter scanning this time. It's become obvious to me over the years that there is a definite demand for the images in that book, and I'm going to try and scan and upload every single image in the book. (Unless Square kills me first.)

[blackmage_nuke]

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

But that makes Mog a pedofile

[Hollycat]

How do you know that Leo is black, he doesnt look like it to me.

[Vyk]

He said according to Amano's artwork. Not the character sprite. But he kinda looks like an Easter Island idol in Amano's art xD

[Wolf Kanno]

I felt like those ones were already said, but I couldn't seem to find them, ah well.

And I've already got two copies of the new edition of The Sky pre-ordered. I'm hoping to keep one alongside my original print and gut the other for total scanning purposes. No more helter-skelter scanning this time. It's become obvious to me over the years that there is a definite demand for the images in that book, and I'm going to try and scan and upload every single image in the book. (Unless Square kills me first.)

That would make a lot of old school FF fans happy. I've pre-ordered it from work myself (yay, for discounts) and I've been planning on scanning the Settai Shiryou Hen so that people can clear up that whole "Kefka backstory" rumor that's been going around. Not to mention some real translations would be nice. I may need to get buddy buddy with people over at Lifestream.net since my Japanese is still only a beginner level and I don't think anyone here would be interested in translating all the info.

To HP: As Vyk said, its only according to the Amano art, his sprite is definetly Caucasian, but the Amano work looks (sadly a bit racially stereotypical) black. Though the Easter Island comparison isn't far fetched either.

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.

[Jiro]

It'll be a worthy death espritduo.

EDIT: Didn't notice there was an extra page. Damn you 50perpage view

Also 127: Vincent's Limits are almost Rages. Almost.

[qwertysaur]

128: 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.

129: 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.

[blackmage_nuke]

129: 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.

Also Yuffie from FFVII

[Del Murder]

For 125: FFXI has many elemental throwing items, but throw sucks in that game.

[Roogle]

It might be a good idea to have any translations or scanlations of extraneous materials relating to Final Fantasy VI on the actual Eyes on Final Fantasy website. It would probably be linked around many times. Please let us know if you plan to obtain a translation and we can decide what to do with it.

[Wolf Kanno]

I plan on uploading the scans on this site first, I was just going to chat with some better translators on other sites unless someone volunteers to help me with all the kanji.

I've been meaning to pick up the FFIV and V books as well since they appear to still be available at the site I got the VI books from.