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[R^2]

Celes has survived worse. Dropping into the sea barely leaves a scratch.


In the SNES version, Celes accuses the seagull of having nursed her back to health.








Granted, in this version she still talks to the thing like she expects it to respond, so maybe she did wang her head on a rock or something.

[Friday]

The image of a seagull barfing food into unconcious Celes' mouth will be forever burned into our minds

[R^2]

...a note?














From this point on, the game plays out exactly the same. Whether Cid lives or dies makes no difference to the story from here. If he lives, he wanders around the shack on Solitary Island and says one line no matter who talks to him, so it's pretty clear his unsatisfying-to-the-narrative survival was thrown in at the last minute.

And as for Celes jump from the cliff mimicking the path of the bouquet she threw from the stage at the opera... sssssssort of? Not really. The flowers are flung into the air, while Celes just drops from the cliff. Once both bodies start descending they accelerate in about the same way, but the similarity can probably be chalked up to the programmers trying to approximate a descent of ten meters per second per second without a whole lot of options.

Which is, looking back, my biggest gripe with the opera scene. It really doesn't matter. They could have had the story in the opera mirror the greater events of the story of the game, or provide some sort of character background beyond Celes being a general and not an opera floozy, but... didn't. It was an amazing setpiece back in 1994, but the whole sequence could have been skipped and the game wouldn't have suffered for it.

[Friday]

I dunno, I think they intentionally set it up so it'd look familiar, if nothing else. In both cases Celes (or at least the character she's playing) is filled with despair. Throwing the flowers off the balcony is symbolic of Maria throwing away her feelings of love for Draco, Celes mentions Locke on the cliff. They both fall off a high place on the right toward the left.

Just seems a bit too similar to be a coincidence.

[Classic]

Unfortunately, if FF6's weakness is that it's too episodic, it's going to wallow in that weakness even more.

[François]

Dang, you can say that again. I must have tried to play this game like three or four times from the beginning before I scrounged up the motivation to go any further past the beginning of the world of ruin. I so loathed the mechanics that once the plot stopped immediately driving me forward I just lost all interest.

To the game's credit though, I did eventually manage to power through and complete it, unlike, say, FFs 4 and 8.

[François]

You know, giving it a bit more thought, I think I know what took the wind out of my sails. After the floating continent, the game stops being plot-driven and starts being more character-driven. Of course there's nothing inherently wrong with that. In fact, I usually could stand the game right up until you get your new airship. But since almost all the characters are optional and their segments are so episodic, it just never gets the chance to gel back into a legitimate ensemble piece until the ending rolls around and people start actually interacting with one another again.

I guess in a way, the World of Ruin almost kinda feels like postgame content, and I rarely go for that even in games that I love to begin with.

[R^2]

For all the shock and amazement you might get from the destruction of the entire world as a close to act three of a video game... that there is a "World of Ruin" in the game, with most of the same locations as the overworld map you start in, is spoiled by the pack-in map that came with the game. And hey, there are two landmarks named after this "Kefka" fellow, I bet he's important!

Music: From That Day On... The typical town theme of the World of Ruin.


Celes makes landfall near Albrook, The Town That Can't Catch a Break.








The first location named for Kefka is, yes, the Tower of Kefka, which now sits at the center of the southern continent between Albrook and Tzen. To show just how chaotically rearranged the world is, Maranda isn't even on this continent anymore.










Since this is the first town you visit in the World of Ruin, several people do their best to set the tone for the game from here out. And that tone is "bleak".

[R^2]

There are a few hints that the rest of your party is, in fact, still alive somewhere.


No small part of that is the shop equip screen, which shows everyone you recruited in the World of Balance hopping up and down when you indicate you might buy something they can equip. Spoilers weren't really a thing in 1994...


Painter: I have no idea why he didn't like it... I even painted that thing he originally asked for in the background! Anyway, I sure didn't need a painting of the emperor, so I sold it to a rich man in Jidoor named Owzer.


Bird-watcher: I'd hate to think what would happen if some poor sod in an airship ran across that thing...


Scholar: "Eight dragons seal away its awesome might... the might of the one called Crusader... And when the eight fall, the one again shall rise...

Of course, there are several people around who hint heavily at sidequests to do later, nonsensical as they may be. Who even cares how people in airships might feel? There was only one in the world, and it snapped in half.

[R^2]

Music: Dark World. The background music for the overworld kicks in after Celes lands her raft, and it's... hollow is about the best word I can think of to describe it.


Heading north to Tzen on one of the hot tips from an Albrook citizen, Celes walks past the tower of assembled debris and detritus. This is the Tower of Kefka (SPOILERS: FINAL DUNGEON HERE) but she can't get in.






As Celes enters Tzen, there's a flash of light, and an explosion! The ground shakes, and everyone runs off in a panic.






This guy explicitly tells you to equip something that will prevent Petrify status -- like one of the Amulets they sell at the relic shop -- but I've had Celes equipped with a Ribbon since she made landfall here.


Sabin: Oh...! Celes!
Celes: Let me help you!
Sabin: Wait! If I move, the whole house'll collapse. First... save the child that's in there! I don't think I can hold this up much longer... You've gotta hurry! ...Urgh!

Yep, Sabin just happened to be in the right place at the right time to use his train-suplexing might to act as the one load-bearing support for an entire rather large house.


He can only do it for six minutes, though.

[R^2]

It's a tough call. Do you use the Ward Bangle to prevent running into so goshdarned many random encounters, or Hermes Sandals or the Alarm Earring to make escaping from said encounters easier?


Of course, it wouldn't be a timed dungeon without treasures to grab.


...and fake treasures to slow you down.


Having done a couple of fire and tornado drills at the preschool where I work, I can attest that in times of emergency and disaster, it is the nature of small children to stand agog and do absolutely nothing to assure their self-preservation.

[R^2]

Sabin: Of course I am! Did you think a little thing like the end of the world was gonna do me in?


Celes: I'm sure we're not the only ones! We need to find everyone! And then...
Sabin: ...smash Kefka, and deliver peace unto the world! All right, count me in!


And Sabin joins the party! This half of the game lacks narrative thrust; it's basically just wandering around finding old friends and solving their personal dilemmas. If the game weren't already packed to the brim with as much data as would possibly fit into an SNES cart already, I think it would have been better to have a scenario- or chapter-based structure where two or three people go out and find a few friends, then the groups meet up by contrivance or design. But as we'll soon see, Celes and Sabin were the only ones looking, so














GUYS WHERE DO YOU THINK I SHOULD GO NEXT IF ONLY SOMEONE WOULD GIVE ME A HINT

[R^2]

Actually, for all my snark, Mobliz is an optional destination. The next plot point is at Nikeah, which is still at the opposite end of the Serpent Trench from Mobliz (although the entire Veldt is elsewhere). And it's such a long walk across the world map to get to Mobliz that I skipped the scenes there while I had only Celes and Sabin and came back later.








...then I discovered that the Chocobo Stable near Tzen is still in business.






As the rumors said, Mobliz is a burned-out ghost town. Except for one child...


A stack of boxes in the basement of the postman's house has been moved, revealing a door.


Inside is a cavern full of children and salvaged furniture, guarded by a boy that Sabin could easily lift out of the way with one hand.

[R^2]

Terra's your... what now?


Party: Terra, come with us! There's no saving this world unless we defeat Kefka once and for all...
Terra: I know... But...

[R^2]

Anyway, I'm sure the kids can fill us in.




Oh, so she didn't spend the entire last year pregnant with... (four... five...) octuplets? Who develop really fast for at-most-three-month-olds? That's comforting.

[R^2]

Terra: The very day the world collapsed, Kefka turned his LIght of Judgment on this village. The adults... these kids' parents... They all died trying to protect their children.






There's never any stated reason for why Kefka might have made Mobliz his first target upon attaining godlike power. But then, it's Kefka -- he doesn't have much of a reason for anything, he destroys and kills because it amuses him to do so.










Duane's all big talk until Katarin shows up. He flees then.


Katarin: Please, forgive him. It's just... if we lose Terra, we lose the only thing that's holding this village together.
Terra: I don't know why these kids need me... And it's not like there's anything forcing me to protect them. It's the strangest feeling... But once that feeling took root inside of me, I lost the strength to keep on fighting. I feel like I'm on the verge of understanding something important. It's hard to describe... But the harder I look for the answer, the more I lose my strength to fight.

[R^2]

Despite having just said she wasn't strong enough to fight, Terra runs outside to handle the legendary monster we heard about back in Albrook.








I happen to know that Humbaba is weak to poison attacks. Terra knows Bio. But since she's lost her strength, it does 0 damage.




She's lost the strength to defend herself, too.

[R^2]

Yeah, not so tough without your bullshit plot invincibility, huh?


It takes a few applications of Bio, but Humbaba is driven away. He flees, but isn't slain, so you can be sure this will come up again later.


Yeah, pretty pathetic showing out there, Terra.


Terra: Maybe after a little more time has passed... I need to understand what's happening to me.




Fenrir teaches Teleport, Banish, and Stop. Summoning him casts Image on the whole party, making each character immune to three physical hits. If his magicite is equipped on level-up, there's a bonus of +30% MP to be had.


This is also around the point I check to see if Sabin learned the next Blitz when his level got adjusted upwards, and sure enough, he did. Chakra takes Sabin's current HP, divides it by the number of other party members, and heals each of them for that amount. He doesn't heal himself, but there's no detriment to him either, making it better overall than Transfusion but not as good as White Wind.

In the SNES version, the biggest value of Chakra was that it could instant-kill any enemy it was used on. This took some finesse -- you had to have someone choose to cast Confuse on Sabin, then before that spell resolves, give the command for Sabin to use Chakra. Once confused, any character uses the last command they were given, but things that targeted the party are done to the enemy and things targeting the enemy are done to the party. So Sabin would Chakra all the enemies on the field.

But the formula for how much healing is done calls for the number of party members Chakra affects, not the number of targets. So in the formula (Sabin's current HP) / (party members), using Chakra on monsters makes (party members) in this case 0.

The game resolves divide-by-zero errors by dealing 65,000 damage to anything targeted by the attack that caused the error. Nothing has that much HP in the SNES version, so that's an unavoidable instant kill.

[R^2]

There's another stable in the forest south of Mobliz. Overall this game is pretty good about putting chocobos in places where they're useful.


On the way through the Serpent Trench, we pass the Cult of Kefka Tower in the mountains. It's that little blue bar in the valley, there. Things rendered in Mode 7 can't stand up straight! It'll be another sequel on a different platform before there's a polygon-modeled world map!
Despite what the screenshot looks like, chocobos can't cross over mountains, so I can't get into the tower yet.

And that's a good thing.


Wark!




Returner: I don't know if there's anything I can do for you now, but I did hear something you might be interested to know... Apparently, four espers escaped from that Magitek Research Facility not long before you guys snuck in there. There's no way of knowing if they're still alive, but if you could find them, I bet they would lend you their power!

"So hey, this is a remake of the game, so we added some new stuff, you know? And this is what it is. There's four more espers that weren't in the SNES version, so get crackin' looking for them!"

Also, this isn't one of those games where you can beat your summoned monster in a fight and it agrees to join you. Espers are only good to me dead, so I doubt they'll just happily accompany us on our jolly quest.




Somnambulist: When I tried to sleep there, monsters came for me in my dreams... Oh, it still frightens me just to think of it!








There's no sailing to South Figaro from here... not yet, at least.

[R^2]

If all you want is some booty, that harlot who accosted Cyan is still hanging around at the bar.










Once you talk to all the brigands, one of them stands on the table and calls for the rest. They file out.