Eeyup. A masterpiece, and like you, it was my first FF, waaaay back in the day, on the SNES. I extol the same virtues you've listed here, regularly. In fact, i credit FF6 for showing me how to combat my depression and abuse, and saving my life. I resonated so much with Terra and Celes, and their scenes.

I always thought Strago's story was about ageism. Everyone think's he's old and useless; just some crazy old man. Then she shows them what he's still capable of. Before the team shows up, his only purpose in life was to care for Realm.

What an absolute masterpiece of video essay. Totally on pair with a masterpiece of a game.

Something I'd like to add about this game's theming and their characters: most of the cast lose their reasons for going and find new purpose. 1. Terra loses her, well, self, her identity. Simply finds a new ones as the "mama" of orphans and is able to keep going. 2. Locke loses his love and once he accepts she is gone, is able love anew. 3. Edgar loses his kingdom and sense of duty, only until he sees Celes and mimics her will that he actually fufills his duties as king and leads his people anew. 4. Sabin never really loses his sense of going forward, but he does gain the respect of his brother. 5. Shadow loses his humanity, and being surrounded by those who are determined to move on, well, depends on the interpretation of the end. Is he faking his death to live anew or giving in? 6. Setzer lives a selfish life until he learns from Celes he can live for others instead. 7. Mog learns he has friends despite losing his world and his people. 8 - 11. Cyan, Celes, Gau, and Strago, you've already touched on. 12. Relm learns that there's more to life than just one's work.

I felt the same when I played this long ago in the mid-90s as a teen struggling to find myself. Since I played it, there has never been a better narrative in any game, book, or movie than Final Fantasy 6. The only story/movie that I felt comes close to the same level of FF6 is Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. LotR had some very profound quotes littered throughout the movie, like the wishing speech Gandalf gives to Frodo in the mines, or when Sam tells Frodo he understands why they have to keep going, despite all the darkness and looming fear of not succeeding (because there's still hope in the world, and it's worth fighting for). Everything you touched on about FF6 is what I love about that game, with 1 piece you forgot to mention: the music. Likely, the best collection of themes in any video game ever made. Probably the saddest moment I felt in the game were 3 scenes: when Cyan has to say goodbye to his wife and child on the train, when Gau confronts his dad who completely rejects him as his son, and when Celes leaps off the cliff after Cid's death. Those were tear-jerkers.

Fantastic. For some reason it took the algorithm years to bring this video this lifelong FF fan. FFIV had always been neck and neck with VI for me, but my love for IV is purely for the nostalgia - the first JRPG I played with a real story. VI always had a far more complex story, and you hit themes I hadn't even thought about. I've loved introducing these to my kids especially through the remasters, and the replays have cemented VI as my favorite. Still, I'd love you to do a breakdown of IV. It sometimes gets overlooked, but it has has some real moments of its own too. Oh, and definitely subscribed.

Synopsis: "Final Fantasy VI is a god-damned masterpiece."

He could have said I have to remain strong in my old age for the people I care about?

sorry, but i always thought the opera scene was entirely irrelevent and has no bearing on character development.

My very first RPG ❤

14:44 That's exactly what I hoped the remake of Biohazard 2 would be. It's something I wished for. Sadly what we got was not it. Sacrificing content and features for story is a bad idea. Capcom should not have removed content from both "remakes."

Thanks, this video made me cry.

"There is no standardized unit for suffering." The milli-Nazi and kilo-Nazi would disagree.

Why are these all sci fi or fantasy

I felt so bad when I accidently let Shadow die.

Father... alive...? h. a. p. p. y.

Having lost two people that I loved dearly in the past 2 years. One through a breakup and a best friend through suicide, this was a really uplifting video. And one of my favourite games from childhood. Thanks.

I thought ff4 was a hot mess of a story. Too dark mostly and over the top heroics, but still delightfully satisfying. FF6 however, is one of the most complete and engaging RPG stories I’ve ever experienced.. They could easily do a live action movie based on this story and it would fill seats in theatres everywhere.

Thank you so much for making this video ❤️🥲

Very touching. This was a damn good review of one of the best games/stories made. Indeed, it's not nostalgia; sure we get to enjoy that as well. But, no doubt, it is a masterpiece, and i'm of the same sentiment, we didn't appreciate it enough back then. FF6 sit's comfortably at the top of my favorite games of all time.

The fact, that unlike other games, there is no main protagonist and every character, has his/her own backstory, personal pain and a reason to fight, is why, we love the game and have a deep connection with the game, the party member, fight not for hatred, greed or revenge, but for love, friendship and hope, this is perfect way to portrait the power of friendship, love and hope, without being to corny and obvious, this makes this game a timeless master piece.

To me, this is the best Final Fantasy game of them all, and beyond that, one of the best RPGs I've ever played. I thoroughly enjoyed your breakdown! This game dealt with so many mature issues so well that the story remains relevant today. Rejecting nihilism and despair in favor of hope and love resonates so strongly because there's never not a need for them in this world. Great video about one of the greatest games!

This game is literally a masterpiece in every sense of the word!💖

And people have the gall to say 7 is better than

I still think its pretty wild that this game had a fully playable moogle party member who was also a dancer. Just something very hilarious to me about running around the world as a spear-toting moogle

I grew up a Nintendo kid, so I was pretty disconnected from the FF series for many years. Then one day, as a teenager, I decided to play a final fantasy game. My emulator only had FF6, so I turned it on and started off. Man, what a banger. I remember playing others after 6 and feeling disappointed. Not because they were bad, but they were just never on THIS level. This game will always have a special place in my heart.

Eh? I didn't work for me - way to easy - Kefka is a wimp for a boss - World of ruin is too depressing ^poor combination

Wad lucky enough to play it on the SNES back in the day... when the internet was non existent - so I wasnt spoiled for who the actual final villain would be. The whole first half - your energy is directed toward this power hungry emperor, who just happened to have a magic jester for a lackey - who earned your hatred even more. But when he goes betrays the emperor because he went mental over seeing his own blood... jaw drop moment. I just started the pixel remaster om the switch a week ago. The game holds up.

This was an awesome video! Wish you were making videos as they're all great! ❤❤🎉

"Suffering is absolute" - Goes on about how she could not see her friends. 🙄

Locke is the main character because of 4 reasons: 1. He is necessary for all the other characters to be able to reach their journey's purpose. He is literally the archetype of The Magician because he actually functions as a psychopomp that guides a person to self-discovery that illuminates what their character was missing for the journey they were on. 2. He has the most transpositional analogy references aka symbolism/representation 3. He lines regarding "Semantics" fulfills a player non-interaction principle where he literally does what he wants without contradiction to his values [since Nihilism has 4 degrees of Initial Aggressor, Prosecutor, Lawyer, Final Judge....& Locke is the Prosecutor of lost treasure that had been judged to not be of enough value to keep on ones actual property, so he isn't actually a thief since he isn't trespassing any lawful territory, including the players] 4. The transposition of needing "Resurrection" is part of developing the player....& Locke STILL has that scene without interruptions FROM THE PLAYER, whereas the player interrupts all the other characters.

Too many spoilers

as someone who only got to play ff6 almost 2 decades after it's initial release, i can assure you it's not nostalgia. I'm not a turn based jrpg type of guy, and this game is for me one of the best games i've ever played and one of those games of my selected list of "if you think gaming isn't art, play this". While ppl were crying with tlou1 gorgeous storytelling and cutscenes, i was tearing in the opera scene, getting inspired with terra's discovery of true love, and melting my heart in tears with the moment everyone declared to kefka their reasons for joy in such a ruined world. I've already played ff10, 13, 7 and 8 at that point, but that sprite based game was something even more impressive and special and even though 7 is a goddamn great game, 6 is my favorite for how it felt i was playing through a big play with a fantastic and epic story. The only jrpg i can tell i felt the same thing was chrono trigger, and if ff6 is comparable to the best rpg of all time... you know is a masterpiece right there

Personally, I think Strago was supposed to be fleshed out a little more. Realm's mother died, maybe during child birth, and her father went to get smokes and never came back. Strago was left looking after a little girl by himself in his old age. He may have blamed her for her mother's death or he was trying to shelter her from the world and never let her express who she really was. Throughout the course of the game he realizes how blessed he is to have her and that his own daughter, Realm's mother, lives on through her. That gives his "I have my special little granddaughter" a little more weight. He's finally accepted his own daughter's death and is looking forward to watching Realm grow up.

While it is all about loss and melancholy, did anyone else think of the meme "So, that was a *bleep*ing lie?" regarding the Espers when the first half had made a big deal about humans and Espers co-existing with Terra existing as a bridge between the two sides... only for the Espers and Terra's Esper-Half to poof out at the end? :D

Thank you

Final Fantasy VI will always be my top Final Fantasy title. I got a hold of that in 1996 at 18. Had played I and IV vehemently. This one made those pale. Everything about it from story to gameplay to the backdrops of every character....masterpiece. That being said..... After recently enjoying the living shit out of XVI, I play I - VI far more than VII - XVI.

Very interesting your interpretation of Kefka as an embodyment of Niilism! I think you grasped the point that makes FF6 so relatable... I think that Niilism is dominant in this late stage of Capitalism society and we don't have an answer to Kefka questions... That's a strugle that I identify within myself: the hopeful humanist against the pessimist Niilist.

I feel like this game is vastly underrated... I really wish they would do a complete remake. They could even keep the same turn-based mechanics which I know will turn off a lot of contemporary, young, ant-brain gamers. But I would certainly pay $70 for a complete remake with modern graphics, voice acting, cut scenes, etc. Hell, I'd pay $200 for a collector's edition. I know I'm not alone.

This recently came up on Reddit, but Celes jumping off a cliff is the saddest moment I've ever had gaming. Aeris was shocking and unexpected and all, but being 12 and realizing that I had to make my favorite character in my favorite game at the time voluntarily walk up to a cliff and jump off, while her theme was playing, it made me impossibly sad. I'll never forget it. You spend like 15-20 minutes in the minigame trying to keep Cid alive, and fail, and then you have to kill yourself. It's an experience that may not fly today, but goddamn am I thankful to have played this game when it came out. A lot of this stuff shaped who I am today, and gave me a deep believe in empathy, and I'm not sure how much I would have had if these games hadn't had made some of their braver story choices. Celes, Cloud is actually a loser NPC, Cecil questions being a bad guy, Kain, all of it.

The fact that we have no clear-cut main character makes this game for me. Everyone, in a way, has their own moment in the sun, from Terra learning that love can make people move mountains and fight until their last breath, to Celes learning about hope in a world that seriously needed it. Whatever themes it handles, it handles with excruciating care, and that is important for a game that prides itself on its story. I enjoy the gameplay, but I only come back to replay it because the story is just too closely-tied to me on an emotional level.

One minor addition to your description of Celes: You say that the opera that she sings is to the tune of her theme music, but I actually hear it the other way around. Whenever a new character joins their party, their theme is playing when you choose their name - which is pretty much the only time in normal gameplay that you get to hear Gau's theme. The only exception is Celes - the music playing during her name-select prompt is "Under Martial Law." At that point in the game, Celes either has no theme music yet or her theme is still one of the themes representing the Empire. The first time we actually hear "Celes" play is when she and Locke are talking the night before they board the ship to Thamasa, and in my personal headcanon is that night is when Celes takes that moment from the opera house to represent who she is, when she actively rejects being "Under Martial Law" and chooses to be the person she can be around Locke and the other Returners as part of her character progression during the events of the story. Lovely analysis of the themes of the game!

Care to make a video about your favorite RPG’s? Kudos for not calling them jrpgs….

I think the strong reactions of players about Abby, of how they hate her has to do with the nature of interactive media. In literature, it isn't uncommon for a novel to have an unlikable protagonist. Lolita and Clockwork Orange have monstrous protagonists but are well liked works. This is so because the reader doesn't control the novel's protagonist and thus the player is not complicit in the protagonist's actions. But in a video game, we control the characters' actions. We become accomplices of their actions. We led Abby to meet Joel and thus we are complicit in his death. People didn't want to kill Joel. It created negative emotions like anger. This anger was then directed to Abby. And to Druckmann.

Final Fantasy peaked at VI

I'm actually glad that this is the first FF that I played. Playing this as a kid, I felt a lot of excitement because of the story and how the characters actually have a background

This RPG is not only my favorite FF game, it's my FAVORITE video game of all time. Sabin has always been my favorite character along side with Ultros lol. I named my blue nose pit Shiva after the Esper.

Brilliant.