Quote Originally Posted by Flying Arrow View Post
If you're saying that interpretation like this is more or less just playtime for huge nerds, I wouldn't disagree though.
I find it necessary at this juncture to point out that we're all posting in a forum that is entirely centered around Final Fantasy, so, um...yeah? This whole forum is playtime for huge nerds, which we all are. So I agree with said point as well.

The big kicker for me is that around the time this game was released, the very idea of "thematic content" in the story of a video game was beginning to gain ground. Super Mario World notwithstanding, games like A Link to the Past, Mega Man X and even a relatively low-budget game like Lufia and The Fortress of Doom were starting to have some kind of statement of thematic content, an over-arching message in the story, rather than just "there are bad guys, kill they ass."

The themes of these particular stories tended toward the bittersweet, probably because it was the general thread running through most popular fiction of the time. The question I wonder about is, "Why?" Why is the general tone of Final Fantasy 6 so desperate? What is this inherent longing that is being put forth, and where did it come from?

I suppose that if enough people ask such questions, someone will try to find out (presumably from the writers of said stories). The problem is that we've continued to write video games off as "mindless" even though they've proven to us, since that time, to be thought-provoking. When Symphony of the Night started with an (albiet horribly acted) intro where Richter and Dracula have the beginnings of a philosophical/theological argument, I started asking questions.

So more on topic, what questions and thoughts does Final Fantasy 6 raise in your mind? I know this is all very purple and "deep," but see exhibit A (quoted above) for an explanation of that.