Final Fantasy VI is the Most Important Final Fantasy
Why this 1994 classic remains a fixture of the series
Purple lightning flashes, occluded by foreboding clouds the color of ink. A somber melody plays, operatic and minor, each note resounding from the press on an organ key. As if presenting a horror masterpiece — and not an RPG — the title, Final Fantasy VI, rises in lettering of rust and burned paper, the score reaching a harrowing and haunting apex, a chilling exclamation of Phantom of the Opera-level audial gore.
1994. Squaresoft.
As we are removed from the title screen and taken from what must be the harbinger of our collective doom, the setting changes dramatically. The clouds and lightning vanish. We are drawn downward, into darkness. The soundtrack is no longer operatic and terrifying but signals the start of an adventure, notes tinkling and dwindling as our gaze sweeps across the crags and lights of a distant city, built from a mountainous cleft of stone.
An exposition is brought to us, a piece of narration that is small in detail but sweeping in scope. The War of the Magi. The lost power of magic. Steam power…
