Final Fantasy VI: First playthrough!

[doeboyfresh14]

an even better thing to know about sabin's blitzes, you don't have to use the directional. for example. fire dance can be left, left, down, down right. you don't have to the diagonal, you can replace it with the previous directional.

Correct if i'm wrong or better explain it if needed.

[Spooniest]

I don't believe I am able to address the correctness/incorrectness of the statement...it isn't clearly written enough.

But suffice it to say, you'll get the hang of it, or you'll equip Sabin with the Genji Glove/Gigas Glove combo and trick him out with the latest claws, and Attack. There. Easy damage, lots of HP.

Edit: By the way, you should probably buy a pair of Poison Claws sooner rather than later...

[APolaris]

If you plan to level all the way to 99 for some reason, then *do not* level up a lot near the beginning. This is because later in the game, there are ways to raise your stats (fairly significantly over time) that do not increase naturally with levels. You can gain +2 to Vigor, Stamina, or Magic or +1 to speed with each level you gain. Levels naturally provide no increase in any of these, meaning the levels have less of a long term effect. I wouldn't restart, as it's not that significant a difference at your point.

Sabin's blitzes mostly use magic power, not vigor, as his main damage source. Keep this in mind. In fact, I believe the only two to use vigor are two that are never really worth using, Pummel and Suplex. Aurabolt is almost always better and the rest of the attacking blitzes either hit multiple targets or are much stronger (i.e. the final one).

Also, for one of the game's best emotional moments, take Sabin and Edgar together to Figaro Castle at some point.

I just tested the blitz theory and it's true. Down + Down + Left produces Aurabolt.

Don't equip Genji Glove on a character without equipping a 2nd weapon, thinking it will increase defense. A bug causes that to decrease your damage output.

Also, during Sabin's scenario, you will get a few new characters. One has abilities called Leap and Rage. Leap lets you get new Rages. Get Stray Cat and Templar at minimum before leaving (there are more that are fun to mess around with though).

Oh, just thought I'd add a few more bugs: evasion does nothing. Magic evade works in its place. Darkness status also does nothing, thus also resulting in Goggles Do Nothing. The game in general has a number of bugs, none of which really decrease its enjoyment, and most are way too obscure to encounter even in the ~20+ times I've played through FF6 (Psycho Cyan, Wind God Gau, etc.).

[Wolf Kanno]

Oh, just thought I'd add a few more bugs: evasion does nothing. Magic evade works in its place. Darkness status also does nothing, thus also resulting in Goggles Do Nothing. The game in general has a number of bugs, none of which really decrease its enjoyment, and most are way too obscure to encounter even in the ~20+ times I've played through FF6 (Psycho Cyan, Wind God Gau, etc.).

Actually most of those have been fixed in the GBA version. Evasion works like its suppose to, Darkness still only screws your Blue Mage but doesn't actually affect your Hit%, Vanish/Doom trick has been removed as well. Wind God Gau/Gogo has been removed, and Psycho Cyan is still possible but requires more outrageous circumstances to activate the bug.

[Bubba]

Update time!

Progress

Location: Just arrived at Zozo
Gil: 70705

Edgar
LV: 18
HP: 559

Sabin
LV: 20
HP: 780

Celes
LV: 20
HP: 765
MP: 257

Locke
LV: 19
HP: 619

Thanks everyone for your help and advice. This game is class and I'm shocked as to how I've managed to avoid it for seventeen years...

I've tried to avoid leveling up too much as per your suggestions guys. Can someone tell me if I've missed something in that Jidoor place? There wasn't much to do there so I just by-passed it and came here to Zozo (I haven't forgotten about Edgar's Chainsaw cheers 'I don't need a name').

Also, I'm not sure about that 'Gau' kid. (I assume this is the guy that you were talking about 'APolaris'?) I haven't really used him yet to get any rages. Is it worth using him straight away to try and get them?

Oh and I'm sorted with Blitzes now... I can nail Rising Phoenix every time by using left, down, down, down, right. Thanks again 'doeboyfresh14'

[Wolf Kanno]

Jidoor, is going to be important later after you acquire the airship. That auction house you saw in the town will eventually open up to you and you can get some good items in there, as well as a few good laughs. Also, if you have Shadow in your party, sleep at the inn, sometimes you get to see something special.

Gau is very powerful character but he's also very time consuming to build and requires knowledge on the games enemies (and then some) to properly utilize him. There used to be a bug in the game that made him damn near unstoppable but its been removed. He's fun to play around with but as I said, he's very time consuming to build up cause he has over 200 Rages, and maybe a fifth of that is actually worth your time. His rages give him access to some really powerful enemy skills, some Blue Magic that you probably wouldn't see normally, some high level magic and all before you would probably normally see or acquire them. He also takes on any buffs or characteristics of the monsters, so regular imperial soldiers give him an auto-protect buff, flying enemies give him auto-float, and the undead enemies give him the zombie status.

[Spooniest]

Jidoor, is going to be important later after you acquire the airship. That auction house you saw in the town will eventually open up to you and you can get some good items in there, as well as a few good laughs. Also, if you have Shadow in your party, sleep at the inn, sometimes you get to see something special.

Minor point of order: The Shadow-related thing can be done anytime you sleep anywhere with Shadow in your party. The game's random number generator decides if you will see it. A cheap inn or a free place to sleep (i.e. Sabin's Cabin) are the easiest places.

You've got quite a bit of money! It's not very advisable, but it does make the game ten times less annoying to STAY STOCKED ON PHOENIX DOWNS NO MATTER WHAT. If you run out of Phoenix Downs, you are in trouble.

I always thought that Gau's "skill-building" side-quest, which takes up the bulk of a completionist-style playthrough, could be likened to the Pokemon craze of the time. Final Fantasy is rather saying "Oh yeah? We can do that too, and our 'catch 'em all' guy is way cooler."

Sabin and Cabin do not rhyme. ;D

[APolaris]

FF6, as far as I know, existed way, way before Pokemon did. Pokemon began in 1996 and wasn't released in the US until 1998. FF6 was released in 1994. Hell, I still remember when the many predecessors of Pokemon, such as Tomagotchi, Virtual Pets, Digimon, and Nanopets were popular and FF6 was released before any of that even happened.

[Spooniest]

FF6, as far as I know, existed way, way before Pokemon did. Pokemon began in 1996 and wasn't released in the US until 1998. FF6 was released in 1994. Hell, I still remember when the many predecessors of Pokemon, such as Tomagotchi, Virtual Pets, Digimon, and Nanopets were popular and FF6 was released before any of that even happened.

Bit of a prophetic weirdness there, then, it seems. Who knew?

[Wolf Kanno]

Pokemon is said to be based off DQ's use of monster companions in DQV which was released in 1992, but the concept of Monster companions and building a party of them actually started with Megami Tensei on the Famicom in the late 80s. So really its just a giant conga line of people borrowing and re-using the idea.

The more you know and knowing is half the battle...G.I. JOE!!!

[Spooniest]

Hm. Guess that's what I get for never having played Pokemon.

Dude's next update ought to be after the Aria Di Mezzo Caraterre. Wonder what he'll think?

[Jiro]

I'm impressed by how he's motoring. It makes me want to bust it out for another play! I've got other things to do first though -_-

[Bubba]

Wow. Just wow. That bit with the opera was amazing. I've honestly not seen something that fresh in years... and this game is 17 years old! Did anybody else write down the whole of Celes' script by hand or was that just me?

I've kind of got the urge to play through that part again but like an absolute tool I saved over my current file when I got to this Albrook place. I suppose it gives me an excuse to replay the game again!

OK, so now everyone can use magic, is it worth leveling up a bit now? I had a bit of trouble in Zozo and had to use a few Phoenix Downs due to some of the enemies there. I might level up a little bit and maybe use a few other characters.

I know I'm supposed to head for Vector but having a bit of a scout around this new continent at the minute. I took the long trip to this Maranda town and spent a truck-load of gil on new gear. Is it worth looking into the rest of the locations before I carry on? I don't want to miss any decent items!

Progress

Location: Maranda
Gil: 22755

Edgar
LV: 21
HP: 752
MP: 295

Sabin
LV: 22
HP: 933
MP: 275

Celes
LV: 22
HP: 918
MP: 287

Locke
LV: 21
HP: 757
MP: 264

[Jiro]

I know Zozo kicked my ass as well, despite being reasonably strong. I think the enemies there are just meant to scare you. It is definitely worth getting some spells learned across your main party though, particularly the healing ones. It'll save you money on healing items and come in handy!

I wrote down the script too

[Spooniest]

I did it from memory, myself.

The three stats you can now boost are Hit Points, Stamina and Magic Power. Don't worry about boosting your Hit Points, as when you get to Level 99, you'll be close to 9999 HP with everyone anyway. Stamina defends against instant death attacks and determines how many HP you recover per turn with the Regen status. Magic Power is the raw damage stat for your magic, and it also determines how many HP you will recover when casting healing magic.

If you're going to boost anything now, I'd boost Magic Power, but don't go crazy, for as you can see, there are still many Espers to get.