Here's why Final Fantasy VI isn't the best FF game.
Lately, I've been thinking of new ways to infuriate people on the internet and I came up with this brilliant idea: why not share one hell of an unpopular opinion on mine? So here I am, ready to criticize one of the most popular games of all time.
Let me start by saying that I really like Final Fantasy VI. It has a great plot, the best FF villain so far and I really like the fact that it doesn't have a true protagonist. You are compelled by the story and most of the character arcs are exceptionally well written but, like every game, it has its flaws. To be clear, these are things that bug me not to the point that I find it to be a BAD game, I just think it makes it a worse Final Fantasy game than others. To illustrate, I don't have a favorite FF game, I've always been a big fan of VIII, IX, and X, they all have been the best for me in different points of my life and, even though I'm well aware of their flaws, I consider them to be superior to it in a lot of aspects. Final Fantasy VI, for me, would land somewhat between 4 and 5 in my TOP5 FF games, rivaling FFVII.
So, without further ado, I'm gonna list the top reasons why I think Final Fantasy VI shouldn't be considered the best game of the series. It will obviously contain some spoilers. I know that reading bad things about a beloved game isn't the best of the experiences but bear with me. My intention isn't to bash the game but to point out things that cripple the story and the experience while playing it.
The Esper System
First of all, I think the idea behind it is interesting. "Equipping" an Esper so that you can summon it in-battle and learning magic from it is a cool concept. However, it wasn't well executed.
The system gives you too much freedom to customize your character. Of course, each of them has its own set of strengths and skills with its own base stats and are to a certain extent unique, but after some grinding, you get to the end of the game with all of them being… well, basically the same. You can teach them all sorts of magic and upgrade their stats the way you want so you end up having physically strong members (obviously some stronger than others) that can all use Ultima and break the game.
It is not, by any means, the only Final Fantasy game that suffers from this. FF8, for example, is another one that lets you customize your characters in a way that they end up losing practically all of their singularity. The difference between the two is the progress.
FF8 is a game where you naturally achieve the point where every character is broken, especially in the last disc, where you can refine everything you own so that you have the maximum amount of power available. FF6, on the other hand, is a game where you need to worry about the system from the start. Each Esper gives you bonus stats when you level up, meaning that you only have a limited amount of opportunities where these bonuses are applied. If you miss the timing and a character levels up with the wrong Esper attached to it, that is going to be something that you won't be able to recover. It seems silly to worry about one level but, with so many Espers and — especially — characters, it is easy to get lost in the process of teaching magic and buffing your party and level up your characters the wrong way. This also connects with the next item of the list.
Too many characters
Again, this is not an FF6-only problem. Almost every Final Fantasy game has its own set of forgettable — and useless — characters, but this one took it a step further. There are A TON of them. Gau, Umaro, Gogo, Mog… I know that some of them if well trained can be useful but they are either so irrelevant to the story or so weak or not interesting that it becomes a pain to actually level them up.
And here's where it gets worse. You NEED to level them up. The last dungeon of the game requires you to use practically every single one of your characters splitting them into three different parties. Also, that dungeon is hard as hell so you better have them pretty high leveled or you're gonna have a really bad time.
I don't think that making the player use every character of the game is necessarily a bad thing, it pushes him or her to get out of the comfort zone and explore the game's full potential. Most Final Fantasy games do that gracefully during the game, splitting your party, making specific characters run specific errands and thus contributing to their development. But to force the player to use forgettable characters in the latest stages of the game not only makes you hate them even more but also makes up for an absurd amount of grinding and that's rarely the best experience.
The Opera Scene and Setzer
Oh boy, this one's gonna leave a bruise, just hear me out. This is not a BAD scene. This is a not a scene that I dislike. In fact, I don't even think it is something that makes this game worse, it's just something that I think makes it worse than everyone thinks it is.
I never really understood why people get so emotional and think that this part of the game is a masterpiece. In fact, I always saw a lot of "problems" in it and even in the scene that follows, when Setzer joins our group. So let me just recap what happens there.
We find out that the only way to get to Vector is with an airship and that Setzer, the infamous gambler, is the owner of the only one in the world. We also find out that he is planning to kidnap Maria, the main star of the Opera House who happens to look exactly like Celes. So, Locke has an idea that consists of using Celes as a decoy and, as soon as Setzer kidnaps her, following him to his airship.
This all seems like an absurd — and kinda sexist — plan to be honest. To put a woman of your group in that situation where she is gonna be kidnapped by god knows who, ON AN AIRSHIP, without knowing anything about where this person is gonna take her is just… wrong. But she goes along with it, so I'm gonna go too so that I can talk about the rest of the plot.
It turns out that Celes conveniently knows how to sing. In fact, she sings so well that nobody seems to realize she's not really Maria, an established opera star. After that, we see the game's most touching, beautiful scene. Or is it?
Celes acts and sings, following the script of the play and that's it. It is indeed beautiful but it's not touching or anything like that. She's not singing about anyone, although it is a love song, she's just playing her part. I know a lot of people see this as a big turning point for her relationship with Locke, but I can't help but think this is a stretch.
Don't get me wrong, I like Locke and Celes as a couple, but I don't think their relationship is well developed at that point in the game to have that big moment dedicated to it. I see it as a subtle growing relationship and I really like it that way. They do have a "cute" moment before the play begins but during it, we don't see anything pointing out that Celes is thinking about him while on stage. The lyrics don't even fit their relationship. The first time I played the game, the thought of this being a big moment between the two of them never even crossed my mind. Just after I heard about this that I revisited the scene to see if it made sense to me, but it simply didn't. There are a number of reasons why this is a powerful, memorable scene, but it doesn't have anything to do with a hidden romantic meaning behind it.
Moving on, midway through the scene, we see Ultros, the villain no one cares about, attacking the Opera House and after defeating it Setzer arrives, kidnaps Celes and we go after them, invading the airship. What happens next is odd, to say the least.
Imagine you are Setzer. A big excentric gambler, who owns the only airship in the world. You clearly care a lot about money and don't seem to have that big of a sense of justice (after all, you were going to kidnap a woman to do god knows what to her). You are also a rich man because you work for the Empire. Then, 4 strangers invade your airship and after around two minutes talking to you trying to convince you to LEND them your precious vessel by saying that the Empire is evil, what would you do? Well, apparently the correct answer is to accept, after a marriage proposal and a cheated coin toss, of course.
It also doesn't make too much sense for our heroes to blindly trust Setzer from the start, letting him join the party as a valuable member. The man was working for the Empire! He is also a very dangerous sexual offender, effectively kidnapping a woman and then conditioning his help and loyalty to marrying that same woman. That's not the type of guy you want around in your journey, especially around Celes.
World of Ruin
I absolutely love stories where the villain wins. It is so rare to see a game where you feel like the stakes are actually high and when you see one where the bad guy achieves his goals and you have to fight to rebuild, you are left with a bittersweet taste in the end. Having to fight even after you lost is a true testament of courage and hope. Final Fantasy VI almost pulled that off.
The issue here is not the fact that the world ended or even how it ended. It's what comes next. The way that every character is on one side of the planet and get together again for a final battle is really poorly executed.
Let's look back at what happened. One year after Kefka created the World of Ruin, Celes wakes up on a remote island with Cid. After some time, a well-timed death and a suicide attempt, she manages to get out of the island. She then stumbles across Sabin and after a (very short) conversation, the spark is on again. They travel the world in search of their friends so that they can take on Kefka and end his reign of terror.
But that whole thing just left me with a lot of questions. For instance, why now? Why couldn't the party reunite before Celes showing up after a whole year and try to take on Kefka? They are the heroes of the story! They were going toe to toe with the empire throughout the game and, although they suffered a huge blow with the… well… end of the world… it doesn't make sense to admit defeat and disband only to reunite again after a year of Kefka destroying cities, enslaving people and, more importantly, becoming stronger. What, they thought they were too weak to take on him with one member missing? Without Celes, they were so weak that it was better to just give up, but with her, they can now beat Kefka? Or was it a motivational issue? Celes never seemed to be the leader of the group and she certainly didn't make any dramatic speech to convince anyone to rejoin the cause. So what in Ramuh's name prevented the party from taking on Kefka 11 months sooner and what made them decide to do it now?
Just to clarify, from a narrative point of view, I don't think it is a bad thing to make your party suffer a major blow, disband and then reunite for a final push to defeat the villain. I just think the motivations and the way the story was told was bad, to be perfectly honest. There is really not a good reason for the party to be scattered all around the world after a whole year and there is not enough motivation for them to regroup. These two things are basically conflicting with each other.
The simple fact that Celes is alive and takes her time to actually find them is enough for them to decide to defeat Kefka once and for all. And if the thing that drives them to it is so weak, if they were so on the edge of storming into Kefka's tower, I don't see a reason for them not to have done it earlier.
Conclusion
Let me say once again that I love this game. Final Fantasy is probably my favorite game franchise after Pokémon and FF6 is certainly in the series top 5 for me. I believe it is an RPG that was ahead of its time and that aged well, but I can't overlook its flaws, especially when some of them are pointed out as strong points by a lot of people (I'm looking at you, opera scene).
This is just an unpopular opinion that came out on a discussion with some friends and I thought I would share it online. Maybe I'll find out it isn't that unpopular in the end. Probably not.
