Final Fantasy VI

Final Fantasy VI is a console role-playing game developed and published by Square Co., Ltd. (now Square Enix Co., Ltd.) in 1994. The game initially appeared on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and has since been ported by TOSE with minor differences to the Sony PlayStation and the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. It was first released in North America as Final Fantasy III, although the original title has been restored in later releases. The game's story focuses on a group of rebels as they seek to overthrow an imperial dictatorship.

Final Fantasy VI was the first game in the series to be directed by someone other than producer and series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi; the role was filled instead by Yoshinori Kitase and Hiroyuki Itō. Originally released to significant critical acclaim,  it is still regarded as a landmark of the series and of the role-playing genre. It had a significantly greater number of battle customization options than its predecessors and the largest playable cast in the Final Fantasy series to date, excluding spin-off titles. It remains widely praised for its storyline, characters and non-linear style of play.

Gameplay
Like previous Final Fantasy installments, Final Fantasy VI consists of four basic modes of gameplay: an overworld map, town and dungeon field maps, a battle screen, and a menu screen. The overworld map is a scaled down version of the game's fictional world, which the player uses to direct characters to various locations. As with most games in the series, the three primary means of travel across the overworld are by foot, chocobo and airship. With a few plot-driven exceptions, enemies are randomly encountered on field maps and on the overworld when traveling by foot.

The game's plot develops as the player progresses through towns and dungeons. Town citizens will offer helpful information and some residents own item or equipment shops. Later in the game, visiting certain towns will activate side-quests. Dungeons appear as a variety of areas, including caves, sewers, forests, and buildings. These dungeons often have treasure chests containing rare items that are not available in most stores. Some dungeons feature puzzles and mazes, which require the player to divide the characters into multiple parties.

The menu screen is where the player makes such decisions as which characters will be in the travelling party, which equipment they wield, the magic they learn, and the configuration of the gameplay. It is also used to track experience points and levels.

Combat
Combat in Final Fantasy VI is menu-based, in which the player selects an action from a list of such options as "Fight", "Magic" and "Item". A maximum of four characters may be used in battles, which uses the series' traditional "Active Time Battle", or "ATB", which was designed by Hiroyuki Ito and starting with Final Fantasy IV. Under this system, each character has an action bar that replenishes itself at a rate dependent on their speed statistic. When a character's action bar is filled, the player may assign an action. In addition to standard battle techniques, each character possesses a unique special ability. For example, the thief Locke possesses the ability to steal items from enemies, while the Rune Knight Celes' Runic ability allows her to absorb most magical attacks cast until her next turn. Characters are rewarded for victorious battles with experience points and money, called "gil" ("GP" in the original North American localization). When characters attain a certain amount of experience points, they gain a "level", which increases their statistics. An additional player may play during battle scenarios, with control of individual characters assigned from the configuration menu.

In contrast to previous versions of the Active Time Battle system, the player is able to pick from any character that has a filled action bar and has not yet received any commands, rather than being forced to issue commands to whichever character had his or her action bar filled first. Another new element is the Death Blow, a powerful attack substitution that occasionally appears when the character's health is low. Similar features appear in subsequent Final Fantasy titles under a variety of different names, including "Limit Breaks", "Trances", and "Overdrives".

Customization
Characters in Final Fantasy VI can be equipped with a wide variety of weapons, armor and accessories (known as "Relics") to increase their statistics and obtain special abilities. Most of this equipment can be used by several different characters, and they may equip up to two Relics. Relics have a variety of uses and effects, some of which alter basic battle commands, allow characters to use multiple weapons, provide permanent status changes during battle or use protective magical spells in response to being near death.

Although only two characters start the game with the ability to use magic, almost every character can learn to do so. Characters may equip Magicite, which are this game's incarnation of summoned monsters (with several recurring summons such as Ifrit, Shiva, Bahamut and Odin, along with many new summons exclusive to Final Fantasy VI) enabling the use of specific magic spells. If a character has Magicite equipped, he or she will gain "Magic Ability Points" after most battles. As a character gains magic AP, he or she gradually learns spells from the Magicite equipped and will gain additional statistic bonuses when leveling up, depending on the Magicite equipped. Furthermore, equipping Magicite allows the player to summon that particular Magicite's esper to aid the party in battle.

Setting
Final Fantasy VI takes place on a large, unnamed world. During the course of the game, its geography and landscape change due to various developments in the game's plot. During the first half of the game, the world is divided into two major continents and referred to as the "World of Balance". The northern continent is punctuated by a series of mountain ranges and contains many of the locations accessible to the player. Halfway through the game, the world's geographical layout is altered, resulting in its two large continents splitting into several islands of various size situated around a larger continent at their center. This altered layout of the game's locations is referred to as the "World of Ruin".

In contrast to the medieval settings featured in previous Final Fantasy titles, Final Fantasy VI is set in a steampunk environment. The structure of society parallels that of the latter half of the 19th century, with opera and the fine arts serving as recurring motifs throughout the game, and a level of technology comparable to that of the Second Industrial Revolution. Railroads are in place and a coal mining operation is run in the northern town of Narshe. Additionally, several examples of modern engineering and weaponry (such as a chainsaw, power drill and automatic crossbow) have been developed in the kingdom of Figaro. However, communication systems have not reached significant levels of development, with letters sent by way of carrier pigeon serving as the only means of long-distance communication. This is also somewhat of a mystery or a gaffe in the game's setting, as piston-engine or hover-craft propelled aircraft also make an appearance during an important battle scene, which are clearly technological innovations exclusive to the 20th Century both for warfare and transportation.

The in-game historical context of the story is mysterious to the player at the beginning of the game, but over the course of the first half of the game (particularly towards the end of this segment), the characters come to understand the situation as follows. One thousand years before the events of the game, three gods who served as the source of all magic in the world were at war with one another. This quarrel released magical energy into the world, transforming any human touched by it into a magical creature known as an "esper," each under the control of the gods. The gods then used the espers as soldiers in their war against one another in a conflict known as the "War of the Magi". Eventually, the gods realized their war had disgraced them, and in order to repent, they returned free will to the espers and turned themselves to stone. Their only request was that the espers ensure their power remain sealed so that it could not be misused again. When the war ended, the remaining humans and espers were burdened with differences in lifestyle, appearance, and beliefs. As a result, the espers departed to another dimension, taking the statues of the gods with them and sealing the entrance to their world.

Gradually, the human race built a society based on technology while the War of the Magi passed into legend. In the present day, the most powerful technology is in the hands of the Empire, a cruel and expanding dictatorship led by Emperor Gestahl and his top generals, Kefka, Leo Cristophe and Celes Chere. Approximately eighteen years before the events of the game begin, the barrier between the human world and the esper's dimension weakens and a human woman passes through. Though most of the espers are untrusting of her and believe that humans cannot co-exist with espers, one named "Maduin" believes that they should at least try before passing judgement. The woman stays in the espers' world, and soon has a child named "Terra" with Maduin. At this time, driven by greed to wield the legendary power of the espers, Gestahl takes advantage of the weakened barrier and launches a strike on the espers' dimension in an attempt to capture as many espers as possible. Despite the esper elder casting a spell to send Gestahl's forces back through the dimensional gateway and to seal the gate once again, many espers are captured, and Maduin, his wife, and infant Terra are also caught in the spell. Maduin and his child are captured, while his wife dies.

Using the espers as a power source, Gestahl initiated a research program to combine magic with machinery and infuse humans with magical powers, the result being a technology known as "Magitek". The Empire allocated this concept of Magitek into large mechanical vehicles known as "Magitek Armor", allowing a soldier to use the power of magic. Additionally, Kefka was infused with magic, becoming one of the prototypes in a line of soldiers called "Magitek Knights" that would later include Celes Chere, though — the process experimental at this time and unrefined — his sanity was impaired as a result. Another Magitek invention was the Slave Crown, a device that allows a person to control another. As Terra grew older, the Empire would use this device to control her actions and use her as a weapon. Though the potency of Magitek is less than that of natural magic, as of the beginning of the game, the Empire is on the verge of rediscovering the full potential of magic by reopening the gateway to the world of the espers. However, the Empire's rule is opposed by the Returners, a group of rebels seeking to overthrow the Empire and free its territories.

Characters
Final Fantasy VI features fourteen permanent playable characters, the most of any game in the main series, as well as several secondary characters who are only briefly controlled by the player. Primary characters include Terra Branford, a reserved half-human, half-esper girl who spent most of her life as a slave to the Empire and is unfamiliar with love; Celes Chere, a former general of the Empire, who joined the Returners after being jailed for questioning imperial practices; Locke Cole, a treasure hunter and rebel sympathizer with a powerful impulse to protect women; Edgar Roni Figaro, a consummate womanizer and the king of Figaro, who claims allegiance to the Empire while secretly supplying aid to the Returners; Sabin Rene Figaro, Edgar's brother, who fled the royal court in order to pursue his own path and hone his martial arts skills; Cyan Garamonde, a loyal knight to the kingdom of Doma who lost his family and friends as a result of Kefka poisoning the kingdom's water supply; Setzer Gabbiani, a habitual gambler and thrill seeker; Shadow, a ninja mercenary, who offers his services to both the Empire and the Returners at various stages throughout the game; Relm Arrowny, a young but tough artistic girl with magical powers; Strago Magus, Relm's elderly grandfather and a Blue Mage; Gau, a feral child surviving since infancy in the harsh wilderness known as the Veldt; Mog, a Moogle from the mines of Narshe; Umaro, a savage but loyal sasquatch also from Narshe, talked into joining the Returners through Mog's persuasion; and Gogo, a mysterious, fully shrouded master of the art of mimicry.

Most of the main characters in the game hold a significant grudge against the Empire and, in particular, Kefka, who serves as one of the game's main antagonists along with Emperor Gestahl. The supporting character Ultros serves as a recurring villain and comic relief throughout the game. A handful of Final Fantasy VI characters have reappeared in later games, such as Secret of Evermore and Kingdom Hearts II. Additionally, Final Fantasy SGI, a short technology demo produced for the Silicon Graphics Onyx workstation, featured polygon based 3D renderings of Locke, Terra and Shadow.

Story
Final Fantasy VI begins with Terra Branford participating in an imperial raid on Narshe in search of a recently unearthed frozen esper found in the city's mines. However, during the raid, her controllers are killed and the imperial control over her is broken, but she is unable to remember anything about her past. Locke Cole, a treasure hunter, promises to protect her until she can regain her memories and helps her escape to the hideout of the Returners, a group of militants opposing the Empire. Along the way, they pass through the Kingdom of Figaro and meet Edgar Roni Figaro, the king, and his estranged brother, Sabin Rene Figaro, who join them. Banon, the leader of the Returners, asks for Terra's help in their struggle against the Empire, and she agrees. Just as the resistance is preparing to return to Narshe to investigate the frozen esper, the Empire begins to invade the nearby town of South Figaro. Locke heads to the besieged town to slow the Empire's advance, while the rest of the group makes their way via rafting down the nearby Lethe River. However, they become separated after a battle with Ultros, self-proclaimed "octopus royalty" and a recurring antagonist, forcing the various members of the Returners to find their own ways to Narshe in three different scenarios controlled by the player.

Eventually, the original party reunites in Narshe. Locke brings with him Celes Chere, one of the Empire's own generals, who he saved from execution for defying the Empire's ruthless practices. Sabin brings with him Cyan Garamonde, whose family was killed during the Empire's siege of Doma Castle when Kefka ordered the water supply poisoned, and Gau, a feral child he befriended on the Veldt. In Narshe, the Returners prepare to defend the frozen esper from the Empire. After the player successfully thwarts the imperial invasion, Terra approaches the frozen esper, prompting her to transform into an esper-like form herself. She flies away, confused and horrified by her own transformation.

The Returners set out to search for Terra and eventually traces her to the city of Zozo, though are still shocked by her apparent existence as an esper. There, they also meet the esper Ramuh, who tells them that if they free various other espers from the Magitek Research Facility in the Empire's capital, Vector, they may find one who can help Terra. Vector is on the southern continent, which the Empire does not allow maritime access to, so the Returners recruit the help of Setzer Gabbiani, believed to be the owner of the only airship in the world — the Blackjack. They then travel to Vector and attempt to rescue several espers, including Maduin, who is revealed to be Terra's father. However, the espers choose instead to give their lives to transform into Magicite — the crystallized remains of their essences that form when they die and allow others to use their powers — which they bestow upon the Returners. Before the group can then escape, Kefka arrives and causes the Returners, including Locke, to momentarily doubt Celes' loyalty, much to her anguish. However, she provides proof to them of her support by covering for the group while the rest escape. The rest of the group then returns to Zozo, where they show Terra the Magicite of her father, prompting her to gain knowledge of her past and accept herself as the half-human, half-esper child of Maduin and a human woman.

The Returners now decide that it is time to launch an all-out attack on the Empire, and Banon asks Terra to attempt contacting the espers' dimension in order to gain their support. Terra succeeds in making contact, and when the espers learn that the others captured by the Empire previously have now perished, they become infuriated and enter the human world, where they destroy much of Vector. When the Returners arrive in the capital, they find Emperor Gestahl claiming to no longer have the will to fight, inviting the Returners to a banquet to negotiate peace. Gestahl asks Terra to deliver a truce to the espers on his behalf, to which she agrees. Accompanied by Locke, Shadow (a ninja hired by the Empire) and Generals Celes and Leo, the player must then guide Terra to the remote village Thamasa in search of the espers, where they meet Strago Magus and his granddaughter, Relm Arrowny, who also accompany them.

Soon, they find the espers and Terra convinces them to accept a truce with Gestahl. However, during the negotiations, Kefka attacks the espers, killing all of those still alive and capturing the Magicite their essences become. Additionally, he kills General Leo, who is appalled by Kefka's dishonorable tactics and attempts to defend the espers. The Returners reunite, now aware that the peace was a ploy for Gestahl to obtain Magicite and the statues of the gods within the espers' now-unsealed dimension. Kefka and Gestahl travel through the open gate to the esper world, find the three statues, and prompt the island on which the gateway to the esper world is located to detach and fly in the sky as an ominous Floating Continent. The Returners attempt to stop them from causing further damage, but despite their efforts, they are unable to prevent Kefka and Gestahl from gaining the power of the statues. Now empowered, Kefka promptly kills Gestahl and moves the statues out of their proper alignment, upsetting the balance of magical power and causing the destruction of most of the surface world. In the disaster, the Returners are separated from one another as Setzer's airship is torn apart.

One year later, Celes awakens from a coma on a deserted island and learns that the world has been devastated by Kefka. Much of its human population has died and its plant and animal life are slowly being killed by sickness to punctuate humanity's despair. Celes sets out from the Solitary Island to try and reunite with as many of her friends as she can find. One by one, in a series of mostly optional side-quests, the gamer has the opportunity to reunite the group, all still alive, as well as new allies Umaro and Gogo. Together, the reunited Returners launch a new offensive against Kefka, using the Falcon — an airship that belonged to a deceased friend of Setzer's — to reach Kefka's tower and infiltrate it. Inside, the Returners battle their way through Kefka's defenses and destroy the three statues, the source of Kefka's newfound power. However, the player now learns that Kefka has drained the magical power from the statues and become the source of all magic in the world himself.

Making a final stand against Kefka, the characters successfully destroy him, but since the gods' power had come to reside in him and was the source of all magic, all Magicite begins to shatter and Kefka's magically maintained tower begins to crumble. Terra leads the characters out as she begins to weaken due to her half-esper heritage. However, before her father's Magicite shatters, his spirit informs her that by holding to the human side of herself, she may survive the passing of magic. In the end, Terra is allowed to live and the world is rejuvenated.

Audio
The soundtrack for Final Fantasy VI is the work of long-time series contributor Nobuo Uematsu. The score consists of themes for each major character and location, as well as music for standard battles, fights with boss enemies and for special cutscenes. The "Aria di Mezzo Carattere" is one of the latter tracks, played during a cutscene involving an opera performance. This track features an unintelligible synthesized "voice" that harmonizes with the melody, as technical limitations for the SPC700 sound format chip prevented the use of an actual vocal track (although some developers eventually figured out how to overcome the limitation a few years later). The orchestral album Final Fantasy VI Grand Finale features an arranged version of the aria, using Italian lyrics performed by Svetla Krasteva with an orchestral accompaniment. This version is also found in the ending full motion video of the game's Sony PlayStation rerelease, with the same lyrics but a different musical arrangement. In addition, the album Orchestral Game Concert 4 includes an extended version of the opera arranged and conducted by Kousuke Onozaki and performed by the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra featuring Wakako Aokimi, Tetsuya Oono and Hiroshi Kuroda on vocals. The piece "Dancing Mad", accompanying the game's final battle with Kefka, is 17 minutes long and contains a lengthy organ cadenza. The ending theme, "Balance Is Restored", reintroduces various motives from the game, lasting over 21 minutes.

The original score was released on three Compact Discs in Japan as Final Fantasy VI: Original Sound Version. A version of this album was later released in North America under the title Final Fantasy III: Kefka's Domain, available exclusively through mail order from Square Co. Additionally, Final Fantasy VI: Grand Finale features eleven tracks from the game, arranged by Shiro Sagisu and Tsuneyoshi Saito and performed by the Ensemble Archi Della Scala and Orchestra Synfonica di Milano (Milan Symphony Orchestra). Piano Collections: Final Fantasy VI, a second arranged album, features thirteen tracks from the game, performed for piano by Reiko Nomura.

Graphics
Yoshitaka Amano, another long-time contributor to the Final Fantasy series, returned as the image and character designer. Amano provided concept sketches to the programmers, who converted them into the sprites featured in the game due to technical limitations of the time. Liberties were taken during the conversion, such as changing Terra Branford's hair from blonde to green, and changing Celes Chere's outfit entirely. Amano also designed the title logo. The graphics were directed by Tetsuya Takahashi (graphic chief ), Hideo Minaba (background graphics ), Kazuko Shibuya (object graphic ) and Tetsuya Nomura (designer for some characters ). In the full motion videos (FMVs) produced for the game's PlayStation rerelease, the character designs featured are based on Amano's designs.

Though it was not the first game to utilize the Super Nintendo's Mode 7 graphics, Final Fantasy VI made more extensive use of them than its predecessors. For instance, unlike both Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy V, the world map is rendered in Mode 7, which lends a somewhat three-dimensional perspective to an otherwise two-dimensional game.

Localization and censorship
The original North American localization and release of Final Fantasy VI by Square Co., Ltd. for the Super Nintendo featured several changes from the original Japanese version. The most obvious of these is the change of the game's title from Final Fantasy VI to Final Fantasy III; because the previous installment, Final Fantasy V, wasn't localized in North America at the time, Final Fantasy VI was distributed as Final Fantasy III to maintain naming continuity, as they did with Final Fantasy IV. Unlike Final Fantasy IV (which was first released in North America as Final Fantasy II), there are no major changes to gameplay, though certain editorial adjustments exist in the English script. In a January 1995 interview with Super POWER magazine, translator Ted Woolsey explained that "there's a certain level of playfulness and ... sexuality in Japanese games that just doesn't exist here [in the USA], basically because of Nintendo of America's rules and guidelines". Consequently, objectional graphics (i.e. nudity) were censored and building signs in towns were changed as well as religious allusions. (i.e. The magic spell Holy was renamed Pearl).

The localization also features changes to several names, though some of these — in the case of characters — were necessitated by technical restrictions of only six letters per name (e.g. "Stragus" was shortened to "Strago"). Other changes were made for the game to meet Nintendo's aforementioned content guidelines (which Nintendo of America did to most games before the founding of the ESRB and its rating system) and simply due to differences between Asian and North American cultures. For example, Terra's Japanese name, Tina, sounds exotic to Japanese people, but is a common English Anglophone name. Finally, dialogue text files had to be shortened due to the limited data storage space available on the game cartridge's read-only memory. As a result, additional changes were rendered to dialogue in order to compress it into the available space. The translation was done in only 30 days by Woolsey alone.

Reception and criticism
Upon its release in 1994, Final Fantasy VI received a positive reception from most major gaming publications of the time. GamePro gave it a perfect 5 out of 5 score, while Electronic Gaming Monthly granted a 9 out of 10 in its October issue and named it game of the month over Earthworm Jim and Mortal Kombat II. Additionally, Electronic Gaming Monthly later ranked the game ninth in its 1997 list of the 100 greatest console games of all time, and when it was re-released for the PlayStation, the same magazines rated it 4 out of 5 and 9.5 out of 10, respectively. For their part, Nintendo Power declared the game "the RPG hit of the decade", noting its improved sound and graphics over its predecessors, as well as the game's scope. Moreover, they suggested that "with so much story and variation of play ... fans may become lost in the world for months at a time". They also ranked it in the top 40 in their "Top 200 games on a Nintendo Platform" saying "Is this the best Final Fantasy ever?... Quite Possibly"

Today, multimedia news website IGN ranks Final Fantasy VI as fifty-six on their list of the one hundred greatest games — placing it as the second highest ranked Final Fantasy title on the list after Final Fantasy IV — describing its graphics in a review of the PlayStation rerelease as "beautiful and stunning in context", as well as surprisingly emotive for its time period. Additionally, IGN commented that, at the time of its release, "Final Fantasy III ... represented everything an RPG should be and bumped up the standards in gameplay...", inspiring statistic growth systems "under different guises in games like Wild Arms ... and Suikoden ...". Moreover, they praised its gameplay and storyline, claiming that these aspects took "all ... preceding RPG concepts and either came up with something completely new or refined them enough to make them its own", creating an atmosphere in which "[players] won't find it difficult to get past the simplistic graphics or seemingly out-dated gameplay conventions and become involved ...".

The users of the gaming website GameFAQs chose Final Fantasy VI, in its translation as Final Fantasy 3 for the Super Nintendo, as the tenth greatest game of all time in 2005, while readers of the Japanese magazine Famitsu voted it as the twenty-fifth best of all time in early 2006. RPGamer gave a perfect rating to both the original game and its PlayStation rerelease, citing its gameplay as "self-explanatory enough that most any player could pick up the game and customize their characters equipment" and its music as "a 16-bit masterpiece". Alternatively, they describe the game's sound effects as limited and the game itself as lacking in replay value due to having "one ending, one [fundamental] path through the plot, and ... [mandatory] sidequests". Additionally, they regarded the game's English translation as "unremarkable", being "better than some but worse than others", and offered similar comments for its gameplay difficulty. However, they referred to the game's storyline as its "... most unique aspect", citing its large cast of characters, "nearly all of whom receive a great deal of development", and "surprisingly large number of real world issues, the vast majority of which have not been addressed by any RPG before or since, ranging from teen pregnancy to suicide". Overall, RPGamer regarded the game as an "epic masterpiece" and "truly one of the greatest games ever created".

Additionally, the North American rerelease on the PlayStation has sold approximately 364,000 copies.

Game Boy Advance
Final Fantasy VI was ported a second time by Tose Co., Ltd. and re-released as Final Fantasy VI Advance by Square Enix Co., Ltd. in Japan on November 30, 2006 and by Nintendo of America in North America on February 5, 2007 on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. It includes additional gameplay features and enhanced visuals. Four new espers appear in this re-release - Leviathan, Gilgamesh, Cactuar, and Diabolos; along with a new dungeon called the Dragon's Den (which includes the CzarDragon, here known as Kaiser Dragon, coded but not included in the original), as well as a Soul Shrine, a place where the player can fight monsters continuously. Three new spells also appear: Flood, Valor, and Gravija, and several bugs from the original (such as the Vanish/Doom glitch) are fixed. In addition, like the other handheld Final Fantasy re-releases, a bestiary and music player are included. The package features new artwork by series veteran and original character and image designer Yoshitaka Amano. The North American release contains a new translation and is rated E10+ by the Entertainment Software Rating Board. In 2007, this rerelease was named 8th best Game Boy Advance game of all time in IGN's feature reflecting on the Game Boy Advance's long lifespan. The original has since devalued from $50 to a mere $5.