FFVI Review Post

[Flying Arrow]

I love the amount of love and care that's gone into VI. I think it's great that a character is permanently lose-able like Shadow. When it comes to obtuse secrets that allow for different playthroughs, I totally get it - I really do (my favourite game from the last half-decade is Dark Souls).

I just watched a clip of how the Floating Continent scene plays out, and it's not as bad as I remember it (I remember it being really obtuse, for some reason). On the one hand, if they drew too much attention to the choice, it would never be a conscious choice at all but a 'do it because it's there'. It also works as a secret because there aren't a bunch of other secrets like it prior to that moment to school the player on 'hey, here's how you're supposed to approach this moment'. The scene is cool, I am going to give it that.

However, say the player does save Shadow the first time through. Then that player will forever miss the content (small though it may be) that comes from not saving him (why would you? Conversely, why would one kill Magus?). To get that content, you have to willingly ignore a secret you know is there. There is no gameplay benefit to losing Shadow - you're giving up a playable character, plain and simple, for obscure game lore later in the game. I guess that might not be an issue for some, but that does kind of gall me in a way that I feel like I'm losing all the change out of my pocket just so I can bend over and pick up a nickel.

Okay so I'm giving some ground on that Shadow argument.

One argument I won't give up on is the customization issue. I get that choosing which spells to give to which character is technically customizing each one. My issue, however, is that none of the customization feels meaningful. Sure you can elect to not give character certain abilities, but with abundant EXP and ABP, you're really just neglecting to fill out the checklist. I said before, I feel like the customization system is entirely dependent on how much time the player has to dedicate to learning spells. My favourite way to play FF is Blue Magic, Blue Magic, Blue Magic - and, with Gau and Strago, grinding is the main vehicle for making them fun to play (or watch).

In VII, customization is a matter of taking, giving, and switching (as opposed to just neglecting to make things stick on certain characters). There are secrets and some grinding involved, but more or less a lot of what you need is made available to you over the critical path of the game. Customization in VII is a matter of giving some things to everyone but not all things. Sure, you can also give all your characters the same things by buying duplicates of the same materia, but, hey - that's the player's choice. If you want to change it up, you still can. On the other hand, once Sabin knows Fire, he knows it for good. There's no reason to not just teach it to Edgar, Setzer, Shadow, etc, because the only downside to it is time spent.