A Gamer Looks At 40
An exploration of the history of video games told through the stories of the every day people who lived it. Join me along with a rotating cast of friends, family, gaming journalists, and industry types as we share personal recollections from the last thirty years of gaming, one story at a time.
A Gamer Looks At 40
Ep 106: Final Fantasy 6 (Part 1) - Intros and First Impressions
From the second the title faded from my 19 inch Zenith CRT and the opening montage began, I was an insta-fan of Fina Fantasy 3/6. Nothing could have prepared me for the epic adventure that awaited me. An experience rich with high drama, interesting characters, engrossing gameplay and a story for the ages, FF3/6 remains one of my Top 5 games of all time.
Anyone who's played this world class RPG has a similar story. So, let's hear them! On Part 1 of our multi part exploration of Final Fantasy 3/6, over a dozen guests share their unique first impressions and why this game stuck with them for the days, weeks and in some cases, years to come.
STARRING (all handles from Twitter)
Aiden Moher (@adribbleofink)
Greg Sewart of the Player One Podcast and Generation 16 (@sewart)
James and JJ of RetroFits on YouTube (@FitsRetro)
Julian Titus (@julian_titus) of The Stage Select Podcast (@StageSelectPod)
The Lets Play Princess (@TheLPPrincess)
Mekel Kasanova (@MekelKasanova)
Mike of the Distorted Illuminations YouTube channel (@MadMonarch_DI)
Mike aka MageORage on Twitch and YouTube (@mageorage)
@Mustin
Ryan aka @GameswCoffee
Ryan Lindsay of KISS 105.3 in Ottawa (@THERyanLindsay)
Seth Sturgill (@twodollarhero) from @allnpodcast
Tim Knowles of The Leetist
Trevor and Jeff of New Dad Gaming Podcast (@NewDadGaming)
Trey of the NintenDomain Podcast (@Ninten_Domain)
Wade aka (@ProfNoctis)
Xerxex
Yurik (@YurikArkady on TikTok)
SONG COVERS
FINAL FANTASY VI: 'Terra's Theme' | Classical Guitar by John Oeth Guitar - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY7mJvYNLYE
Kids Run Through the City Corner (Final Fantasy VI) by John Oeth Guitar - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxnKF7geWwg
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you Final Fantasy 3 -6 on the Super Nintendo was my first encounter with interactive drama. Before Final Fantasy 6, my gaming consisted of Mario Paint, Turtles in Time, and the occasional round of Tetris. But even as a 14 year old, I had limited what I would call media literacy. Top tier drama consisted of Star Trek Next Generation, and that one episode of Alf where the tanners hold a cottonball intervention. Movies and TV had moved me in the past, but something about Final Fantasy VI was entirely different. Just more special, more personal. During the opening scene of Biggs, Wedge, and Terra slowly tromping their way through a snowy mode 7 landscape toward Narshe, I remember just being in absolute awe. My Super Nintendo made Mario and Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball happen. This was not this playable mini movie with actual dread, drama, and tension backed by a somber soundtrack. worthy of the big screen, not my 19 -inch Zenith CRT. As Final Fantasy VI grew from sequel to legend, many people had a similar, yet different experiences with this masterpiece title. On this episode of A Gamer Looks at 40, we chat with over a dozen fans about their first brush with the world of Final Fantasy VI and what kept them entranced for years and years to come. Time to board our Magitek armor, gather our party, and trudge solemnly toward our wintry destiny as we jump into Final Fantasy VI, Part 1, intros and first impressions. Show me what you got. Yeah Next! Ooh, scary. Now in case this is your first encounter with this massive A Gamer Looks at 40 Final Fantasy series, I always like starting with those first glimpses. And boy boy, Final Fantasy 6 has one of the best. Starting us off is Julian of the Stage Select Podcast, followed by Seth Sergel of the All In Podcast, then Trevor and Jeff of New Dad Gaming kinda sorta share their experience, and then finally Ryan Lindsay of Kiss 105 .9 in Ottawa joins the conversation. All right, man, so let's talk about the star of the show, the wonderful, incredible, and my favorite Final Fantasy game, and it's definitely top five. of all time for me probably, probably number three if I had to do a fast ranking from of all time, which is Final Fantasy six, which was of course, Final Fantasy three here in North America. So Julian, what was your first, what was your first taste of the classic? My first taste of it is something that I still say and I still quote to this day, which was the American TV ad for Final Fantasy three with the like, I don't even know if it's, I don't think it's. might be stop motion. I'm not really sure what the animation is, but it's Mog doing monster auditions for the game. Yes. I remember this. Next! And to this day, like, apropos of nothing, like prompted from nothing, I will just say, ooh, scary. Because that is like, that is the line from that ad. That was my first expo. Like, you know, I'm sure, I'm sure there was probably like a... like an import preview that I saw in EGM or something like that. But the first thing that sticks to mind is that ad. It is such a great ad. And I want to I want to try to expand that impression of Mogg for a character for my show, The Stage Select, because I love it so much. It's it's just it's I don't know. It always brings me joy. Like I will randomly just like look it up on YouTube sometimes when I just need a smile. That's awesome. So that was your first first taste. What was your first playthrough? Did you get it upon release? Was it one of those you got? Nick, because you said earlier you didn't get a lot of games. So is this one the one you had to have? It would not have been at release because we got it when we got our first computer, which was in 1995. I remember 1995 because we got our computer literally months before it was completely obsolete because Windows 95 came out. The first like Pentium processor came out. There are like two other like major things that happened like right after we bought our computer that Basically like our computer was like in the Stone Age immediately. Yeah So it would have been the year after it was released and I'm not like yeah, because I don't even know Cuz I don't I don't think I actually got my my super Nintendo until that or yeah, I'm trying to think. It's all a blur. No, no, no, no, that's not true. I got my Super Nintendo in 93. So I'd had it for a couple of years. But I don't remember renting it. That's the weird thing. Like I really do, like in my memory, and you know, it gets hazy now. It's one of the reasons why I love that you do this show because I think it's important to get this stuff out there. But I want to say that that was probably my first experience with it was actually getting it. And I convinced my mom, you know, we were getting a big computer. So I was like, well, but, you know, we could get Final Fantasy three and illusion of Gaia. You know, it's not going to be that much more than. than the computer. So that's what we did. And that was also my first attempt at trying to play two RPGs at the same time. And I realized that doesn't work for me. So at some point, I put Illusion of Gaia down until I finished Final Fantasy III slash six. I'll say six from here on. But especially when I'm thinking of this era, that's what it was. So yeah. And I mean, this is it. What more can be said, right? It's the magnum opus. It is a masterpiece. It is not my favorite Final Fantasy game, but I do feel that it is the epitome of everything that Final Fantasy is. And I think there are still things that Final Fantasy VI did. that the series has never really achieved like since as far as like gravitas of the subject matter and you know, like characterization and just like, you know, I think I'd mentioned this on an earlier game, but there's definitely someone in this original guard of the Final Fantasy creators who came from a theater background. You can definitely see it even from Final Fantasy II as far as the staging and the way it's written and stuff like that. But Final Fantasy VI is like a theater production with a capital T, right? To the point that it actually has a theater production within the game. But even beyond that, it is so like... baked into the experience to the, you know, from the fact that all of the characters have like very specific, you know, musical themes that play for them to the fact that like at the ending, it's basically like seeing the credits for a for a movie or a like a play where, you know, it's you realize that like the characters were actually the actors playing the characters, right? Like it it's this very interesting, very bombastic. production, right? And I just, the more I think about it, like the more it impresses me in that respect. We talked earlier via Discord and other places about some of your Final Fantasy experiences. So let's just hear from you straight up. It sounds like six and 10 were big ones, but let's just start from the very beginning. What were your first experiences with Final Fantasy? And we'll just get the ball rolling from there. Yeah, I think, well, it's interesting because I had played, I remember kind of sort of trace memories of earlier Final Fantasy games than six. But Six was the first one that I personally played. And I think I remember like my uncle or like my childhood friend Justin, who I played like a lot of these games with. We were huge into RPGs. I mean, huge, especially when you're talking about like the mid to late 90s, it was really on another level. The RPGs that were coming out at that time and we're kids and we're just so, we have all the time in the world to invest into these things and... We were just way, way into it. But Six was my real introduction, I would say. Six was like a pretty, a pretty revolutionary experience for me as a, like, not only as a gamer, but as like a appreciator of like art or whatever. Because like, we played that game, I think I couldn't have been older than like nine or 10 or something like that when we played that game. And I mean, like, I just, I remember being so floored. by like some of the moments in that game and feeling like, I probably shouldn't be allowed to be playing this. I remember having that thought and we, you know, like it was just so like intense and like it's the first time I had like an emotional reaction to a video game, I think ever in my life. Yeah, it's that one special. That's the first one that I have like significant experience with. The other ones were kind of just like I said. trace memories, maybe I saw other people playing them at six. Six is kind of my real entry point, I consider. Interesting. And six is an easy one to fall in love with because it's got such a grand scope and scale. There is a huge wealth of characters to attach to and to identify with. Let's jump! it Okay, so six slash three Yes, this one again is very much the same story where it's started it in nth number of times, never was able to beat it. And again, it's just one of the initial scene as I'm sure this isn't like some great hot take. This is the same take for many people, but just the reason it resonates is like that opening scene is just stunning. And that's unless correct me if I'm wrong, but this is where like the machines are stomping through the snow. as it's like, god. Moat seven snow, the winds coming towards you, the credits are rolling, yeah. And it's just that it's so cinematic. Like, and especially compared to the rest of it. So again, like the SNES comes out, it's Super Mario World, hey, Peach is gone, you're in a dino world, get after him, and you're just jumping around. And then flash forward a bit and they start to understand the medium and the next thing is this godfather -esque cinematic masterpiece where like they're stomping through the snow, you have. warring factions, you have sacrifice, you have manipulation, like everything just keeps on piling into each other and it's nuts. And then it just, the story is the characters and eventually you start suplexing trains. Like it just, it all just comes together so great. So if anything, yeah, it's unfortunate it's one of those things I just could never get past. It started, came back, got confused, never able to beat it, but the moments within it were just remarkable. Remember the feet remembering the feeling of it seeing that like opening cinematic or like busting through the mountains and getting chased by those various items. So just to this day, like amazing. I can't believe what they were able to achieve. What about you, Jeff? Yeah, again, I will echo Trevor and it is one of the best openings I still remember I can play the music in my head and again the mode 7 where it's almost like the semi 3d thing Just again as a child as a kid was They did it what Final Fantasy 4 or 2 and then they did it again with 3 slash 6 right? Like it was one of those things like they up the bar like completely again like that's insane. So for them to do that and then you go through the game and what really resonates with me is all of the music. Every single part of that game is the music. I still remember in the opening city like Narsh, Narnia, Narsh, not Narnia, Narsh. There's like this like kind of like breath of a woman. Like it's like a, it's in a song and it almost feels like you're this in this steampunk cold town and it's just. this isolation and feeling of like, what's next, right? There's magic, but you're not sure where the magic came from. There's humans, there's these magic tech armored things, and you're not sure how they work. And it's just like this feeling of wonder that they recreate all over again. And then that all goes to crap. Like again, once again, suplexing trains and fighting God and all this stuff. But another thing that I found interesting with that game was the with Suplexing the train and sabin I think is his name right is the inputs you have you so it made you do the inputs and if you screwed up You don't you don't get to attack like that's it So it kind of added this extra anxiety that maybe kind of lived with me Since final fantasy 8 and the gunblade that you had the time back again But no excellent game again that blew all kind of preconceived notions of what I had as a kid of what the next one would be just out the window and it still sticks with me and I if you can complete it Trevor Is not by a long shot So let's like move on to Final Fantasy 6 this came out, you know three or four years later I think it was 94. I want to say yeah 94 cuz chronic trigger was 95. So yep 94 When was your first brush with age you play upon release was it later on? I was still young 94 I was 12 if we're being okay for most of my January birthday. So most of the year was 12 If I remember correctly, I got it for Christmas that year. I'm pretty sure. I'd have to go look at the release dates to figure it out. I know I got the game for Christmas and it was one of those like, I remember exactly the moment I unwrapped it. I lost my mind. I may have cried as a child. I don't know. I remember running down the stairs the second I was given license to do so with the copy, a Toblerone that was way too big for a kid that size. I went through everything I could while pounding my way through the Toblerone and it is it's one of those things that I've got burnt in my brain just playing that game Non -stop until I was yelled at to come upstairs because apparently it was dinner and I had no idea Wow, no so into it and and so like this is brilliant the story's amazing I love this everybody's got something different. I'm learning these different techniques. I'm doing this I just suplex to train what just happened like All these things are happening and you lose yourself in it and that's what happened and I remember it so fondly. Like I can envision myself pulling the wrapping off of the package and holding that purple box, man. Dude, I had a very similar experience. I think I got it that year. 94 sounds about right because I was I'm sure I was asking for it because I had the power, Nintendo power. So I knew. the stuff to get. The Santa list was well -stocked. And I, so I'm sure I asked for it. I remember distinctly, again, going to the basement, popping it in, and very similar experience, you know, five hours later, Billy, it's time to go to your grandma's. And it's literally the argument I have with my eight year old now, just reflected 30 years ago. Yeah, man. You tried, you're like, all right, fire dance them all, everything's gonna be fine. I got this. Yeah. I love the, I just, yeah, I remember thinking that I'd never seen media do that. I wasn't a big movie watcher as a kid. My parents were careful about what they let me watch and things of that nature. So I wasn't... media literate in that, at that age, even at 14. But I understood how beautiful, and again, we use cinematic very loosely, I think, in games sometimes, but I mean, there's no other better way to say cinematic. I mean, it was like watching, experiencing, and playing a movie. And for its time, nothing had done that at that scope or that level. This is not a humble brag, but just to put it into perspective, okay? When I was a kid, I was actually an actor. I had gotten in with an agency. I was doing some cartoon voicing. I was trying out for a bunch of TV shows and I had read a crazy amount of scripts for my age. So when I got to this, making my way through it, that's all I could think. The whole time I'm like, this is the best movie I've ever seen in my life. There are so many things happening. and I'm following it and I wanna know what happens and I wanna know more and I also wanna level grind but I want more story. my gosh, I'm never leaving my house again. That was my mindset when it happened and I swear they must've had to pry me out. I think my parents must've had to like come down and threaten to melt the Super Nintendo to get me out. That was me, I was in and I played it through. I finished it eventually. at some point in time, which probably took a lot longer than it takes me now. But I've done that in my life so many times. It's one of those go -to games, not for like a quick fix. I have a brief game, as dumb as that sounds, that's not it. But I do go towards that game probably once every year, once every two years and make my way through. Continuing our journey through first impressions is the guest know only as Xerxes Followed by Mike of major rage TV on Twitch and YouTube then Tim Knowles Formerly of the leadest and then finally content creator Mikhail Casanova So let's not let's just shift gears to six because if I fancy six this is gonna be I'm probably gonna spend a month Because you just can I think Final Fantasy IV. VI is a very personal game for me. So I would love to hear yours first, when you played Final Fantasy VI for the first time and how it felt when you first popped it in and kind of what your reaction to was, if you can think back to that. Okay, yeah, I can definitely relate to that one. So for me, I played that, that was a Christmas present the year that it came out. And it was one of the most anticipated moments because I knew two months in advance that that's what I was getting for Christmas. I'd actually seen it in the place where my parents were hiding all the presents. So for two months, I was just like, my god, Christmas needs to get here right away. I can't wait. I love that. And when you popped it in for the first time, I'm assuming Christmas morning, you open it up, you can tell the shape of the box, right? That's the one. I know that's it. Everything else can go away. That's the one. I'm sure you popped it in, you know, Christmas morning. What was that? Can you take yourself back to that moment when you popped it in for the first time and how you felt? Let's see. Yeah, so it's like, you kind of knew ahead of time a little bit of what I was getting into because I had Nintendo Power back then. So at that point, I was reading all the articles and everything, getting a feel for it. And so I popped it in. You got that original music playing and everything. you know, like starting it up, listen, you know, like watching the three magic tech armor, going through the snow and everything, just getting all yourself typed up for that. then, you know, like getting into it and just like being in that like magic tech armor for like the first time and just like how powerful it felt just to like one shot every all those, all those rats. Yeah. And then Bert, you know, like of course it's like bursting your way into the town as well. And then it's like, wow. Or, you know, like just starting out with being like the bad guys as well. It was like a pretty, you know, like a, actually the other thing about it, it's like, that's really not that big of a, you know, like that's not really a new thing because you were the, you started out as kind of like the bad guy in four as well. That's true. But in Six you start out as an unwilling bad guy, as an unwilling villain, as opposed to Cecil, or Cecil, however you say it. However, as opposed to Cecil following orders, in Final Fantasy Six you're following orders against your will. And I think it puts it in a very vulnerable spot. You feel very vulnerable. You're doing this stuff, but you know you're not doing it of your own will. I think it's interesting. You know, but in that argument, you don't really know that until after you've like, got, you know, like you got into that first like, you know, cut scene where you find out about the, that, that mind control helmet. Right. Exactly. You're right. I'm trying to remember when they revealed that. Is it after they see Tritok or? that's like, that's very beginning. That's like as soon as, yeah. That's like right before Locke is even introduced. Right. Yeah. Yeah, right. So they that's yeah, that's super super duper early So you do get a lot of opportunity to spend time in the shoes of Tara knowing that you are you're not a willing combatant in this which I think is interesting and I think How did you feel? Can you remember how you fell as a kid like when you first popped it in and you get the the snow and that mode 7 magitek armors had you experienced something like that before or what was I remember how I felt very vividly. I'm just curious where you're at with that. Let's see, as far as that goes, I mean, it's like, if anything, it felt a lot like home just because it was like, it just felt like a continuation of how I felt playing 4. And so it was one of those things where it just felt like before but better. Gotcha. Like newer. It sounds like it felt very comfortable, very cozy almost, where it's like, I'm back into Final Fantasy world, but obviously this is three years down the road, much better everything, right? But still it felt cozy to you, it sounds like. Yeah, it still felt cozy. It was one of those things. And then, you know, it's like, then as things started to go, you know, and you start to get introduced to all the different characters, you know, like it's, you start to get introduced to all the, the characters and the characters felt a bit more fleshed out than, than what been given in 4. What was your experience with that title? That was a story of rented it a lot and continued like lucked out our save file mostly me and my friend our save file mostly didn't get messed with we had to restart once and we got all the way to the final to the floating continent before that store sold it out from under us. We completed the floating continent and got to the world of Ruin and then it's like, well, now you gotta find a way to buy it. go on this epic quest, I find a copy and the realities of finances hit young Mage and they hit him hard when Majo Mom explains that there's just not money in the budget for a $60 used video game right now. But I would go on to obtain my own copy by trading a copy of Final Fantasy Tactics. interesting, okay. So I still have that copy actually. It's in my bedroom on a little display shelf. It's well loved. When I got it, it already had a crack in the case itself. So you can pull it off and look at the board, see if it's all original. But I keep it because of the memories. It's an intersection of a connection with game characters, but with an actual human connection as well. that the person that I traded for six, my first day of seventh grade was at a new school and this was out of district school and the kids who lived in that area were mostly transplants from out of state and something I've always been very self-conscious about is my southern accent. I have some weird shame about it. I don't know why I'm self -loathing. So they gave me hell about the accent when I was trying to like make a connection within like, like, hey, I, you know, I got glasses over the summer. I wear glasses too. He's like, you got, my glasses are in my locker. You got molasses in your locker? What? Pretty, pretty decent burn, pretty decent burn. But so, but you know, ended up, you know, realizing it was, you know, a young boy kind of, you mess with somebody that's just kind of the back and forth dynamic with a lot of people, you know, in that age group and, you know, becoming friends and ended up, you know, obtaining my copy of Six that way. So I look at that, I'll look at that cart and think of how enemies can become friends. Tim man, thank you so much for taking time to chat with me about the masterpiece and I use that word Honestly, that is Final Fantasy six. So Tim before we get started man, just let's what's your history with it? Where'd you get started with it? What was your what's your brief history with Final Fantasy six? Sure Yeah, my brief history of Final Fantasy six started with Final Fantasy three You know for the Super Nintendo, of course. Yeah Before that, actually, I was truly amongst the group that was like the target audience when they decided to introduce RPGs to the West when they brought over Mystic Quest. And that's where I got my Final Fantasy start. I was a little kid. I watched my older brother play, I think, Final Fantasy 2. And it was a little too much for me. There was a lot of reading and... all that other stuff, so he had a copy of Mystic Quest and it totally hooked me. It did the job that it was supposed to do. So as I got a little bit older, played Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III, then Final Fantasy III is the one that stuck its claws into me. That was like, yeah, I'm into this genre. That's cool. And being a, I was still young, so it was kind of hard to digest a lot of what I was. playing and what I was experiencing from the storyline. You know, it was more into the fighting, you know, like the most fascinating spells were the offensive spells, whereas Adult Tim really likes the crowd control spells and stuff like that more, you know. But I didn't have a concept of that. I just thought getting Ultima was the best possible thing you could do in that game. When I was first playing it, my brother showed me, I don't know if you've talked to other people about this yet or if you're familiar with it, My brother introduced me to the the the trick to power level in Final Fantasy 3 Are you familiar with this one? I I don't think I know this one fire away. I'm good cool so I can't remember the exact location or what it's called the game off the top of my head but when you have Bannon the temporary party member in your party the one that can do the freeheal ability and I think you also have a Sabin you have Edgar and you have Tara you end up on a raft and you're going through the water. If you have yourself a turbo controller like any good self -respecting Super Nintendo player did back in the day, you could do a little bit of a setup. The setup was you could go into the config options in the menu and you could change the position of what abilities were at the top of your list. So instead of fight, you could put Eggers tools at the top. So that's what you did. You reconfigured it so that Bannon put his free healing ability at the top. Edgar put his tools, which auto selected his auto crossbow at the top. no. Look at this. Yeah. Sabin and Terra would just keep fight. You got to a point in the river where if you had an option to choose up or left, if you chose up, you went in a big circle. And then, so if you had your turbo controller and you taped it down, and turned your TV off for a night, you'd power level from something like 15 to 40 or 45. Wow. Yeah. It was amazing. And it was just what... That's amazing. Yeah. It's exactly what little kid, you know, Tim needed in order to... That's so good. Are you like one -shotting bosses? yeah. Absolutely. You find Ultros to just one... Yeah, night... man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You just jet through the rest of the game. I mean, Terra, who's, you know, one of the few natural spellcasters in it, she knows Fire III. you know, automatically. You, I mean, you just plow through everything. And of course, every character that you pick up does level scaling with you. So they're all the same level with you. Yeah. It was actually funny enough. every time I did that, that was a separate storyline than Lox. And so if you do Lox storyline right after that, he's the only character in the game that you'll still experience like the low level thing. how funny. Right, right, right. But most of his stuff, yeah, is just is just doing his thieving through. what is it? Not Narshe, I can't remember which town he's in, but most of us just doing beach stuff. South Vigro, I think it is. There we go, yeah. That's all he's really doing, so you don't even have to deal with the consequences of being a low -level character. I love that. Listen, I think some of that stuff is so fun, and I love when kids find that exact place. Did you know if you said your brother found it, or did you find it? It was probably out of Nintendo Power, or any word of mouth. Yeah, I was thinking maybe it's not only playground knowledge and that's one of those really cool things about Final Fantasy, even gaming back in those days where all this playground knowledge became this like tribal knowledge as they call it. And it's so interesting. Like I'd never heard of that. That sounds fantastic. And again, I talked about Final Fantasy 6 with all my friends. So that's really cool. Yeah, I love that man. There was a lot of little things like that that I had to do with games when I was a kid in order to, you know, Stay into it. Memorize that Konami code. Street Fighter II Turbo, make sure you can put it and get 10 stars for everything. That was the spice of life. Fun, man. That's very fun, dude. Let's talk about a game we should bother with. Hey, how's that for yet another transition? I know. The wonderful, the wonderful Final Fantasy 6. So when was your first experience with that game? First experience with that game, I want to say it was probably 94, I believe. It was my first experience with it. And they set the tone with the opening like when you power the game on and you just see you know, actually you don't see anything other than like I think it's like the dark clouds and lightning and then you hear that the organ of the piano like it is just like grand I'm just like I'm just I remember holding the controller and I'm sitting next to my mom like Is this gonna be scary? You know, it was super intimidating But then like, and then when you start the game up and you got, you know, theme of, theme of tar, I believe, right? I think so. Yeah. Yeah. So it plays that. And then you see them walking the three magic tech armors is walking. I'm just like, okay. This is, this is, and I remember my mom sitting there. She usually sat in a rocking chair and she just, she sat for, and she had her, she's like, what's going to happen? Like she was this really really invested in it too. And so, and that was one fall fancy where, you know, cause I grew up with brothers and an older sister and they didn't really care about games other than like, you know, action games and fighting games and whatnot. But that was the one, cause the music caught them. So when I started up, everyone kind of gathered around the TV and they were just like, what is this? And then when you started playing, you know, you're going through just wiping people out in your magitek armor and It gives you that power fantasy rush at the beginning before it takes it away from you I mean, of course Castlevania Symphony of the night did the same thing. Yeah, but you know it it started off really strong and then the way everybody was characterized just my god Hmm. Yeah So first time. Yeah, go for it. No, I was going to say this. Yeah, you're probably going to agree with me. I have been getting so annoyed with people saying Final Fantasy 7 remake and rebirth of the greatest Final Fantasy of all time. Have you not played Final Fantasy six? Because if you have not, please exit this conversation. You just you just should. You just should do that. And I Final Fantasy six for me was I'm going to say this 100 times in these conversations. And that's fine. I didn't realize media could do that. When I was growing up, I didn't watch a lot of movies. My parents were pretty careful of what I watched. I liked Batman and stuff. I wasn't a big movie person. I read a lot. I read a ton. But I really, as far as visual medium, I wasn't. And I was playing, like, Kangarffy Jr. Presents Major League Baseball, and I'm playing Mario World. That was great. I love that game, by the way. I still play King Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball. That's one of my 20 minutes. I love that game. That's another whole episode there. But, so I play this game with this intro that's just, again, cinematic is sometimes an overused word when we have these conversations, but I don't have another word for it because that's what it is. It's a cinematic experience like this, the magic to Tom are slowly walking through the snow and You're dropped into this world of uncertainty and I didn't realize media could do that. Not just games, like media. And I was so invested immediately, just so invested in the story of Terra and the returners and everything going on. Do you know what's better than casting Ultima and then have GoGo cast it again simply by running a copy command? My wonderful patrons, that's who! Starting with Terry Canare, SirCoffeeOfHouseBland first of his name, BT Gobbles, Julian of the Stage Select Podcast, Seth Sergel of the All In Podcast, Tim Knowles formerly of the Littest, The Let's Play Princess, Greg Seward of the Player One Podcast and Generation 16 series of videos, Philip Becker, and the one and only brother from another mother, Pete Harney. If you'd like to join these wonderful people, go to patreon .com forward slash a gamer looks at 40, check out the tiers and see if you want to sign up. And if not ratings and reviews and spreading the word are always greatly appreciated. Let's jump back into the episode. Spoiler alert, I talked to a lot of people about Final Fantasy 6. So let's keep the intro phantom train a-rollin' with Trey Johnson of the Nintendo main podcast, Brian, aka Games with Coffee, and then James and JJ of the Retrofitz channel on YouTube. So yeah, my first Final Fantasy experience was Final Fantasy 6 or yeah, as we knew it as a as we knew it at the time, Final Fantasy 3. for Super Nintendo. And that was probably the first, I mean, it's not the first role playing game that I ever played, but it's the first role playing game that meant a lot to me, I guess. The one that really like made me like, yeah, role playing games are awesome. You know, like that sort of thing. I never really played like an RPG type thing. I guess the only thing I'd played before this was Dragon Quest 1, or Dragon Warrior, I think I call it in America because I got it for free with Nintendo Power, as a lot of people did. Yes. Yeah, I actually already had Nintendo power and I convinced my mom to cancel our subscription and then restart it So it could get a free game out of it. that's cool. Wow. What a good look good for you. That's nice So we totally did that. No, we did that to get the free game and I was so confused by Dragon Warrior I had no idea what to do because I never played a game like that. I thought it was funny I thought like the I thought like the old English talk or whatever was funny. I thought that thought it was funny that it said I thou art dead when you died or whatever, but I was not but I never really beat it I never really knew what to do with it or whatever that sort of thing right Which actually actually did beat it a few years ago because when I started playing through all the Dragon Quest stuff But Final Fantasy 3 6 was the one that you know first introduced me to role -playing games and all that sort of thing and I was like Wow, this is like a movie, you know, and yeah, I remember renting it and being really impressed with it and You know showing it to all my friends and all that thing all that sort of thing and my had my sister's a boyfriend at the time her husband now We were both into Super Nintendo games so we would hang out play Super Nintendo games And yeah, who's always like I want to play like a D &D type game and this was you know I remember he was in the like Breath of Fire like those games, but yeah, I never got any of those I just watched him play it but but yeah, this one was the one that we both had we both had Final Fantasy 3 so we kind of like you know would trade stories back and forth and we're both kind of playing through it at the same time and I ended up getting it for my birthday that year. So I was 15, I guess, when I got it. I got it from my dad. I got that and Blackthorn on Super Nintendo, which I still love Blackthorn. I don't know Blackthorn. Have you ever played Blackthorn? No. It's very much a product of the 90s. It's this badass guy with long black hair with a shotgun that goes around. And it's like a 2D. I don't know. I guess you could compare it to stuff like Oddworld, that sort of thing, where it's like a it's not like a but it's not like, you know, Mario or Sonic or that's yeah. Yeah, that's cool. I kind of kind of puzzle based Mm -hmm, and you and you go from like one point to another and yeah You're just this badass dude from the future and you're shooting these goblin guys And I thought it had really cool cutscenes for a Super Nintendo game. You can actually get it on Switch it's on there now. They did a really? Blizzard arcade collection or something that it's called there with with what's it called? It's on there with the rock and roll racing game and that other one with the dwarfs like three dwarfs. yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You can play. They actually have different versions. There was a 32 X version you could play on their black. That's awesome. It was a cool game where you had a shotgun and you were a dude and you went around killing people. And I enjoyed it. But yeah, I get that one was much, much shorter than the Final Fantasy one because Final Fantasy, I put like a good 60 hours into it. And I remember my dad got me. Got me the strategy guide with it, the Nintendo Power strategy guide, which I still have. It's not, I don't have it on hand, but it's in the other room. I have like a bookshelf with all my Nintendo Power stuff on it. It's over there. So he said that he's like, yeah, the guy at GameStop or Babbage's or whatever it was, or EB Games, wherever he got it from at the time, he was like, he said you should have this strategy guide. So I got it. So I got this for you. So that was cool. And my dad, at the time, my dad had a van that had two TVs in it. with two Super Nintendo's in the van. So I guess that was the thing. So like for a year for like one of my for like a trip that I did over the summer, we basically drove because my dad lived in Florida. We basically drove from Illinois to Florida and I played Final Fantasy six in the van on the TV while we drove there. So that's so like my first a lot of my first experience of Final Fantasy six was in that van with the TVs and all that. I love that. That's so cool. It sounds like it was a roving peewees playhouse. Was there like a talking chair or their slides? Like that sounds amazing. I wish that sounds amazing. I couldn't believe it because well, you know, at the time, you know, your parents aren't really into video games or video game. Well, you like to play him or whatever. My dad was never really a video game person. I was really surprised that he bought a van that had two Super Nintendo's in it, but it came with two Super Nintendo's. And it came with Donkey Kong Country. So like all of a sudden my dad and their friends are fucking talking about Donkey Kong Country. And I'm like, what the fuck is happening? Like, right? And you know, I've, I, you know, all of a sudden you're talking about things that I care about. This is weird. So yeah, I think for like a minute there for maybe like a year, everybody was into super Nintendo's because that's cool. That's cool. But you got a chance to play Final Fantasy three slash six. On the road, that's awesome with headphones on so I got to hear that amazing Noble Uematsu music up in through my eardrums and all that beautiful and the funny the funny thing was Whenever you turned off the car, it would turn off all the super Nintendo's obviously so So we got to the point where they would like, you know my dad and my stepmom would ask me if I had saved or whatever you know like that sort of thing because I think they killed it one time when I was in the middle of the game and I'm like, no, I was doing something. no. Are you, you know, have you saved or whatever? It's yeah. I'm surprised they were that nice about it. Cause like I said, I didn't, I don't think my dad liked video games at all. I think for a second. He was talking about it. I do a similar thing with my kids when they're listening to music. Like if they're in the middle of a song, I wait for the song to end before turning the car off. I can't imagine a game. I know the song will be done in two minutes. I'll give the kids two minutes to finish their song. It's there's seven and three and it doesn't go well when you just turn it off. I can wait two minutes. Man, I can't imagine like, Hey, listen, I'm, I'm at Atma weapon right now and I just started. So you're giving me like 15 minutes or so. Yeah. Sorry. That's probably, that's probably where I learned that you had to save a lot to the top to save often, you know, because Yeah, because you'll have to go through it all over again. Even though I didn't I didn't realize until later than Final Fantasy three, six. If you die, it actually keeps your levels even though you start over again, which I didn't even know that. Yeah, which is nice. Which is great. But you still have to start where you say from, but you still have the same experience points. Yeah. Yeah. Which is so it's not total waste, which is which is awesome. I would ought to be for sure. Again, this is through emulation. I was way late to the Final Fantasy 6 game. So I was about 60. I'm going to say I was about 60 when I started playing Final Fantasy 6. Wow, okay. Okay. Yeah. Because I emulated that off of ZSNES. Best emulator, by the way.-huh, yep. Love that. That emulator has just been with me from time and I cannot stress how awesome that emulator is. Anyways. Yeah, so I played it for the first time then. This was... I was already pretty much knee deep in the Final Fantasy at this point. I was like, okay, I gotta play the rest of them at this point. I've already played 7, 8, 9, 10 Origins, so 1 and 2 Chronicles, which is Chrono Trigger in Final Fantasy IV. Started in Final Fantasy V, and I'm like, okay, now I gotta play 6. And my brother and I, we played 6 kind of almost together. So this is one of our, this is one of the other few Final Fantasies that the two of us would kind of like team up on. He actually played a lot of it first, and then I ended up playing it as well too on a separate save. to Final Fantasy 6 though, because I definitely want to hear some of your personal stories about that and kind of how your experiences with it. So James, we'll start with you, man. Six, what was the, give me some, what was your first touch point, right? We kind of already covered it. Yeah. My first touch point with it was when they did the Final Fantasy Anthology releases on the PS1. When they released it with five, it, I mean, it struck me as because the two that I'd played previously were Tactics and then Seven, which was readily available. But Six struck me as a project specifically where they felt like they had limitations just due to hardware at the time. And their goal was to surpass every expectation that people had with what they thought could be done with that. Because even at the time, Final Fantasy VII looked blocky and a little silly. And we love it for that. We loved it. It was great. Final Fantasy VI was working with sort of the, this feels sad to say this, but kind of the dying breath of original pixel art. And they were like, well, we're going to make this the best looking, you know, most streamlined, most colorful and yet, you know, vibrant but muted set of wonder that you can look at and play. And it had a lot of things that like, as a younger person especially, because I was playing it when I was like, you know, nine, 10 years old, that really messed with me in a way where I was like, is this what like... have to deal with when you're an adult, because this sucks. These are grown -up emotions. I don't like these grown -up emotions. No, no. I want to go back to school and... I don't, I have no... When I was stomping goombas, I didn't care for them. I could care less about their backstory. The little family of goombas they left behind just when they went to go out to get some milk. Comes in some plumbers stomping on their head. I could care less, but here I am in the world of ruin. Yeah, I can totally see that being as an eye -dropper. Totally. Well, and the first thing you do in the World of Ruin is the one thing that I think stuck with me forever. Yeah. Because we did the Final Fantasy Pixel remaster for Six on our show. Which is phenomenal. Yeah. The music that they redid, everything. We can talk about that for hours. But the first thing that you do in the World of Ruin is the main character switches. perspectives, which is from Terra to Celes, and where is Celes? you know, she's like in a cabin with her like the, you know, only father figure she's ever known, and he's dying, and if you don't get him the exact right fish, he just slowly gets worse and worse and worse and worse, and then he dies. And then she just takes herself up to a mountaintop and is like, nah, this blows, I'm out, and like just... you know, there's a whole suicide attempt. And of course, like, you know, it fails and she finds hope again. But when you're there in that moment and the screen goes dark slowly and you're just like, did I? I want. I need an adult. I need an adult here. I need a parent. Yeah, I totally remember that. I was 14 when I played on original hardware. So I'm clearly older than you guys, which as I get older, I am quickly realizing I am now the oldest person in the room wherever I am. And I'm so OK with that. I'm so good with this. I'm fine. I love it. I'm like, great. I want to be like an old wizard soothsayer. Like, remember when Netflix sent DVDs? Like, I like being that guy. so that's how I watched the entirety of a Battlestar Galactica. There you go. Like DVDs. Beautiful. I still have some dead throats DVDs that I never sent back. Yeah, because when they shut it down, they stopped asking for it back. They probably figured sunk cost, it's over. But when that scene, if you remember with cells in that scene, they don't give you any instruction on how to save Sid. You have no idea how to do it. So you're just the sense of hopelessness and helplessness is it's stunning. Yeah, man. What about you, man? What about, yeah, some. Big moments for you. Yeah. Yeah, it was pretty much anthology for me as well. And I mean, I think I was like in high school, like 14, 15. And yeah, it was it was a gut punch trying to figure that stuff out. I think I remember, of course, the Internet was infant stage in like the early mid 2000s. And so I remember looking some stuff up. Including an over one hour long introduction is the one and only Greg sewer of the player one podcast and generation 16 series of videos Followed by cosplayer yurik arcade II on tik -tok. That's yurik. Why you are IK? Arc a RK a dy he's also in the show notes check out his cosplay the eyes incredible and then finally music producer extraordinaire Mustard, thank you again for for joining me on yet another conversation about the Final Fantasy series, one of many, as we slowly trudge through this franchise on my podcast. But today we're gonna talk about a game that's probably my, it's my favorite and one that was the most influential for me personally, which was Final Fantasy 6, three of course here in North America. What was your first impressions with Final Fantasy 6? And yeah, we'll just kind of roll from there. floored from the first time I turned it on. I'd said before that with Final Fantasy IV, aka II, it felt like the most sort of narrative -driven RPG I'd played, and it felt like a soap opera, and it felt kind of along the same lines of sort of the very small smattering of anime that we were seeing, especially me being a big fan of Robotech back in the early 80s. I mean, that was just a soap opera, and that's kind of what I was looking for, and Final Fantasy II really brought that element to the series. Final Fantasy 6 felt, it was on another level. It felt theatrical from the moment you turned it on. When you press power and the camera started tilting down that stormy sky with that gorgeous soundtrack right off the bat, you're just like, I am in for something I've never experienced before. And it just, from the word go, it just never stopped. Then you get into that open where you've got the the three characters in the Magitek armor doing a little bit of dialogue to sort of set the stage. But then you've got that credit roll where they're walking through this dark snowy field and you can see Narshe, I hope I'm saying that right, you can see Narshe sort of rising up over the horizon in the distance. It felt so huge right from the start. I wasn't ready for it when I first turned it on. I'll never forget, I love the fact that you brought up that moment of Narshe coming into focus in the horizon because I agree with you, I still can remember what it looked like, that the flickering lights in the windows of the houses as you're making that approach. Games didn't do that. I'd never seen a game do that in that way. And it's really a testament to the designers having such mastery over their tools at that point. Because we're talking now, 94, 95. We're talking the end of the life cycle for SNES, we're getting close there. And they just knew what they were doing and it was kind of like the height of their powers almost on that hardware. Yeah, I would agree. When you look back at the first Final Fantasy on the system, I mean, it had some nice graphical touches, but that was back when everybody was using, especially Mode 7, kind of however they could. And it was great. It made it look new back in the early 90s. But you're right, it's like now we know what tools are in our chest, we know how to use them, and we're going to come as close to something you would see on film as we possibly can using this hardware. And they just did it in such amazing style. And also, I don't know if a lot of people feel this way or not, but I have this weird affinity for anything set in like a wintery setting or a snowy setting. So that kind of made me fall in love with the opening as well, like walking through basically a snowy night. I mean, that's maybe it's because I'm from Canada, but I know how peaceful that can be because the snow has this deadening effect on sound that it just sort of, it just added to the overall atmosphere and it made me fall in love with it immediately. Did you play it upon release, I'm assuming? Yeah, so Final Fantasy III, I don't 100 % remember, but I believe it was one of the two games that actually convinced me to buy a Super Nintendo. right. At that point, I'd experienced Super Nintendo games via my best friend. He had a Super Nintendo, I had a Genesis. But yeah, Final Fantasy III was one of the games where it's like I'd seen enough of it in magazines and... I knew I was gonna like it. I was still a huge Final Fantasy nerd. I was like, it's time to get a Super Nintendo. So I got a Super Nintendo quite late, but that was one of the key games. And at that point, being, I think I was, what year did it come out? I think I was like 17 or 18 years old when the game came out. Had like 21 inch color TV in my room at that point. Had a stereo system. It's hooked up, which is another thing. I wanted to experience it using the stereo system. as well, which my friend I knew I was going to be able to do on my own terms with going and playing it with my friend, although I'm sure I would have enjoyed that immensely as well. So, yeah, just sitting in my room, my space totally enveloped in the experience right from the word go. Yeah. So I bought it day one. No, that's awesome, man. And I think it's really cool that that's the game that inspired you to get the SNES. Had you played it before or was it because of like screenshots or magazines? I don't believe I'd played it before, but I'm not 100 % sure. I was still, again, a big enough Final Fantasy fan that I wouldn't have had to play it to lay out the money for it. Gotcha. Gotcha. You just knew it was coming and you're like, okay, well, now it's time to get the SNES because I know I can't get this on Genesis. Yeah, that makes sense. So Yerrick, I really appreciate you taking the time to join me to talk a bit about Final Fantasy, namely Kefka and your experiences with that character. But before we get started, I'd love to hear a bit about your introduction to Final Fantasy, how you got into the series initially, and we'll just go from there. Yeah, so when I was really young, I lived with my grandfather and every weekend. or almost every weekend, we would go to Blockbuster Video and rent a couple of Super Nintendo games. And I couldn't read very well at the time, so he would do a lot of the reading for me for games that required it. And I remember one of the games that we rented was Final Fantasy. People are gonna be mad at me, I can't remember which one it was. I was just talking about it. It's the one with... No, with that with Kane. Final Fantasy 2 slash 4. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. So and remember like kind of playing through that and being like I have no idea what's going on, but this is really cool. The next week we thought we were renting the same one, but we actually rented a 3 slash 6. yeah. And so totally different game. And I but I got like so into it like right away and still had no idea like what was going on. and my grandfather was reading everything to me. And as he was doing that, I was kind of picking up more and more words. I was able to read it myself. Interesting. I love that. Yeah, I know. I cite it as the reason that I can read. It's the game that taught me to read. Yeah, that's cool. That was the introduction. I'm not sure if I'm gonna be able to do that. But I think that's very cool, man. Very cool. I love I've heard that from. You're not the first person I've heard that from have that final really help them to I've had stories of people who have had dyslexia as a kid and Final Fantasy help them learn to read and figure that out, like speaking it out loud to cousins and brothers. And yeah, that's that is really cool. I love that aspect. So obviously you have a really close relationship with the game, then. I have to with that kind of story for sure. Hey man, thank you again for taking time to chat about Final Fantasy 6 or 3, depending on when you played it originally. So before we get started, let's just, I'd love to hear your first impressions with it. Did you play of its time? Like when did you first get a feel for Final Fantasy 3 slash 6? In Nintendo Power magazine, I loved 4. I was anticipating 3, 6 and seeing... Those couple of screenshots just got me super excited and then for all the Terrible things my mom was one of the cool things that she would do Is on a big release like this. She would call me into school sick Nice so Tuesday October 11 1994 30 years ago I called my she called me to school we went up to software etc and the mall. yeah, and man that game was like 80 bucks, which is like I think For inflation, it's like six hundred thousand dollars right now so Something like that. Yeah, and then went home and just like the box and the purple and just you know, mog is there but like what is going on with this and Golly putting that freaking cartridge into that that machine and turning it on and just the blackness and the lightning and the super ominous pipe organ. I mean, it was just out the gate. It was the best game ever. And I hadn't even pushed start yet. So I was just super excited. I knew that it was coming from Nintendo Power and I was all saved up and ready for launch. That's awesome. So you had the whole day. to go and play it. I did. That's so cool. That's real cool. I had several friends jump on the wrong bus so that they would get bussed to my house right after school and come check out what was going on. And it was just like so hard to catch up. So I went ahead and just saved my game and let them all start over and experience the jewel. Hey, a new podcast alert! If you enjoy video games, nerd culture, and rapier wit repartee, you need to check out Nerds Abroadcast. Two friends of the show, the Let's Play Princess and TB, aka TeacherBloke85 on Twitter, has joined forces on a podcast adventure of epic proportion. The duo talks games, they play games about games, and take wild tangents that must be heard to believe. Come for the conversation, stick around for the comedy, and prepare to exclaim angrily in your car because you totally knew the answer to, is this a character from a Kojima game? Because you celebrate the man's entire, entire catalog. Available wherever you download podcasts and all the socials you can think of, Nerds A Broadcast. It's one thing to be entranced by a game with a big opening. It's quite another to stick with it for hours, days, months, and in some cases years. To talk about why Final Fantasy 6 became a lifelong obsession is Mustin followed by the aforementioned Let's Play Princess, then Seth Sergel, and then finally Yurik. So Final Fantasy 6 rolls around. So 4, you love it, you got it. But Final Fantasy 6 rolls around 1995? Did you play that upon release? Was that one of those I must have this because I'm a super fan now? Situations totally. Yeah, it was April 94 or maybe that was a Japanese release. I'm not sure, but yeah, I my mother was not. She never won mother of the year, but there are three things that she did for me. That. I will remember as being good. And one of those things was calling me into school on Tuesday morning sick and then taking me to software, et cetera, at the mall. And then I bought Final Fantasy 3 on Super Nintendo, Final Fantasy 6. And I went home and I played that and I didn't even realize it whenever my friends showed up. Like they took They took my bus, even though, you know, they lived elsewhere. They took my bus to come to my house after school to come see what was going on with this Final Fantasy six game. And man, I, I obsessed over that game. I loved that game is like so everything to me. I mean, four is so important and I absolutely adore it. But six, If I'm looking at my walls here, I've got a really cool clock. I've got this great Da Vinci style schematic of the epic from Chrono Trigger that's signed by Balthazar. And then I have a awesome, beautiful original marker drawing of the Final Fantasy six cast done by Briandre Hard, who does the the harpy g comic and then behind me is a five foot mural of the dancing mad the final the final battle with kefka pixel pixel perfect five feet tall on my wall just always there staring down at me kefka the phone 11 so i just i just absolutely adore it the soundtrack the music the the story all this stuff except for one piece of music that I don't like. Otherwise, I think it's pretty much a perfect game. And I got hooked on it from that time. I thought the graphics like going into the, what is it called? The Phantom Forest and seeing the backgrounds and seeing like the water and the reflection and then like the... the multi -dimensional trick where you can show the distance is moving panning left and right. I was like, this is the most gorgeous video game that's ever going to be made. Ever. Ever. Like this is it. This is it. And I just adored it and all like just the music just really fits so great. And then like I used Mario paint to take graph paper and go through and every single sprite I I drew all the characters and learned how to do it and then put it into Mario Paint so I could do really intensely graphic things to them in there. I was just completely obsessed. That was my whole thing. I didn't think it would get better than that. My first impression of Final Fantasy VI was the Game Boy Advance version. I believe I got it from my father for a Christmas and it instantly became one of my favorite Game Boy Advance games of all time. And it's in fact one of my top three Final Fantasy games. It definitely has some of the best character development that you can see in the franchise. It has some of the best music you can see in the franchise. And this is the one game in the franchise that made me cry. There's a lot going on. How old were you when you first played it? This would be around my teens, because the Game Boy Advance game version came out around 2005, I want to say, so I'd be 14 to 15. 14 to 15, so yeah, that's exactly kind of when I played it on the Super Nintendo for the first time. So that's right in the pocket where you're just, I think, for me at least, just starting to understand media. For me at least, I was kind of a late bloomer when it came to a lot of that. six grabbed you. You mentioned you, I think you sideways mentioned that there's an emotional attachment there. What about it just captured you as an 11 year old, 12 year old? Yeah, it was around there. I mean, I couldn't have been. Yeah. I mean, 11 might be generous. I was young and I remember like just the way that game opens, like the opening of that game is like harrowing. Like even still to this day, like you, the game opens with you like committing like genocide, you know, it's like crazy what they sort of were able to achieve on that in that game. And I remember like I played that and that was the first time like my friend Justin and I, like I said, we're playing it together. He had the game. It was not my copy of the game. So I was at his house as I was a lot of the time and we're playing it. And I just remember being like, like, like this is so different from like Zelda or like Mario. or anything like that. Like this is like a grown -ups game. Like we're playing like a grown -ups game right now. And I remember being very sort of like, I don't think I quite understood the gravity of some of the things that happened in that game. I don't think I would come to understand them until I grew up and would replay and stuff, but I remember the feeling. Like I remember the feeling of like... I think on one of the Zelda episodes we talked about like that kind of weird off-putting feeling that is maybe a little bit intangible when you first go to like the dark world in A Link to the Past, you know, something like that, but kind of like there's something a little off here. There's something kind of like, like sad and bleak and so unlike anything else that I had played before that point. And I was always drawn to that. And then like, you know, it was the characters too that I felt really attached to. This game is really good. about you not only having a ton of characters, but also not really having like a main character. So you can kind of like attach yourself to everybody in a way that I feel like I feel like having a main protagonist can sometimes remove some of that. It can make you feel like you're being forced to see the world through the eyes of cloud or squall or whoever. Whereas this It's like I've got like 14 people or something like that that I'm like getting to learn about and learn the backstories and like the ins and outs and like this person has like a wife and child that you know is passed on and all this stuff, you know, that's like so, you know, so deep and heady. I've never seen anything like it. It's like a literary scope, like a novel scope in a video game. Sure. Yeah. very good way of putting it. It has a, it has, again, cinematic, I think is a word that's kind of overused sometimes in these situations, but I think you can definitely put that label on Final Fantasy 6 in that it does have this very strong narrative that you get to experience almost firsthand, which is such a rare thing. And again, as we all know, that's kind of the joy of video games is experiencing these narratives and experiencing things firsthand, having your hands in there as opposed to a movie or a book. So when you're actually controlling Locke as he's wandering around pining for his lost love and as you're controlling Sabin and going through all that, it's yeah, there's a lot there to experience personally, which I think is interesting. to play. I'm not sure if you want to play closely. any what character was the last time you've played through the game? Last year, actually, probably late last year, I think, August, November, around there, sorry, August, September, around there. OK. So when you played it last, what I love about Final Fantasy 6, and the best Final Fantasies do this, 6, 4, 10, the best ones for me, they age beautifully and they resonate different every time I play them. How did Final Fantasy 6 resonate with you differently upon this playthrough last year than it did in your first ones. So I think this year I kind of went in I play it once a year so like it's still yeah it's one of those games it's like probably that earthbound Krone Trigger or like the the once a year playthrough games but no it still changes like every year. I really paid a lot more attention just to Terra. Basically, her kind of growth from like amnesiac who like is kind of gung -ho about like figuring out who she is and then... of a ruin happens and she's like I don't want to fight I don't want to do anything and then after that she gets into like protecting the kids mode and seeing that kind of character growth for like a female protagonist in 1994 yeah is like pretty wild to think about it actually is yeah right and like I didn't like she's always been there but it's something I don't really I didn't really think about strongly until this last playthrough where kind of like because at this point I'm like fully I'm fully embracing like mama Tara, both the cosplay and like the character in the game with that like personality because I'm like noticing that now and I'm like, I never clued into this before. Like how crazy this was for a character like this in 1994. Yeah, I agree with that. I think even then that's a really good touch point as far as moments ago when you discover Tara in the world of ruin and she's basically a mother figure. Yeah, there's no way as a 14 year old that connected with me. There's no way my thoughts. What are you doing? Yeah, kids join the team. We're gonna fight bad guys now now How could you like how could you leave them? As a 14 year old as a 14 year old too if you're this this woman is talking about like I want to know what love is and you're probably thinking like she wants like a like a romantic partner You're probably not in your head thinking like she now has maternal love She knows what it's like to love all these children right right and it's yeah She she got that goal and probably not the way that we expected when we were playing at the first time and that's that's good Like it's not, she doesn't have like a love story the same way that you would expect. Absolutely, absolutely. And it's one of the different types of love almost, you know? It's really thoughtful. And it's wonderful again how those notes change in temperature as we kind of get older and our experiences change. I think it's really cool to, especially in my Final Fantasy VI, that is replayable. I've probably played it 10, it's been a few years since I've played it last, but it's one of those every three years. go through it. But it's one of those I've played so much that for this show and for this series, I don't need to play it again. I've played a lot of Final Fantasy 6. Some of these I have to replay to kind of refresh myself on a bit. Final Fantasy 6, I do not. This has been a long one, but thank you so much for sticking with the show and sticking with the episode. We have four more guests. You simply must here to close out this edition of a gamer looks at 40 starting with the incredible Professor Noctis sharing his recollections followed by gaming journalist Aiden Moore, then coffee returns. And finally, Mike of the Distorted Illuminations YouTube channel plays closer on this action packed episode. Any other Formative moments, I would say, even like from maybe six or... Because it sounds like you were playing those of its time. Yeah. Final Fantasy VI, I remember particularly because it was even more than four, so character -driven. Even having... It was the first experience I'd had with a truly ensemble cast where you wonder who is the main character the entire time. And I remember a beginning in an appreciation for art. and for music. I mean, the opera scene, right? I mean, everybody remembers the opera scene. And to play that game as a small town Alabama boy, that was my first exposure to the arts. And so I began to say, okay, I used to think of like, you know, these large women in Viking horns singing in opera, and now I have a different framework. And I like found music that was operatic. And I was like, okay, maybe I like opera. And I remember that moment of enhancing my worldview of what culture is and what music is, and then noticing those same thematic motifs throughout the rest of the game. I was also kind of really big into writing when I was in, I guess I was in fifth grade when that game came out. And I remember I began to write my own fiction stories for class and for fun. with music in mind. Like this is going to happen. I remember listening to cassette tapes and maybe early CDs. I just got a CD player, I think. And writing with that kind of choreography in mind. It's really funny. That actually goes into all of the YouTube videos that I make today because I'm constantly asking what kind of music is going to really emphasize this point so that my students and viewers, for that matter, are going to catch this in the heart. it, but I traced that back to Final Fantasy 6 more than anything. But then certainly the tones and themes of Celis sacrificing herself when all hope was lost halfway through that game and what it means when you lose. To my knowledge, or to my recollection, Final Fantasy 6 has the only time that you lose and have to actively come back from it. Now, I guess interpretations may vary, but that one strikes me. Again, big for a fifth grader. And again, I love when we talk about Gaelic in four and six especially. This is 94, 96. I was 14, so I'm older than you then. I was 14 in 94 and, you know, 16 in 96. So, I... I remember seeing the scene when Selis sacrifices herself. And again, not to get too, too deep into it, which I don't mind doing on this show, but I knew what that hopelessness felt like. It was a visual representation of stuff that I was feeling. Like, again, I'm not saying I was suicidal or anything, but I will definitely say that I could connect with that, that idea of hopelessness, that idea of what other option is there. And in a very... visceral way very very very affecting as a 14 year old said in our first Twitter conversation that Final Fantasy 6 almost changed your life or literally changed your life. I want to hear that story. So let's just dive into your Final Fantasy 6 experience. Let's just dive into that. Yeah. So I mean, like the big thing for me and I sort of told the beginning of the story earlier was, you know, when I was young and I was, you know, I was born in 83. So I was like 10 when Final Fantasy 3 came out. Final Fantasy 6 came out. And I liked video games. I had recently gotten my first Super Nintendo, which was the first home console I owned. We used to rent a Nintendo. But when you're renting games, you gravitate towards games that you can sort of pick up and play, right? So I was really into platformers. I was really into stuff that, you know, level -based stuff where you just play it and it doesn't matter if your save game gets deleted by the next person who rents it. I had a Game Boy and it was the same thing, like a lot of pick up and play and that was what I was into. And so like video games to me were really like in the moment type of experience. Like it was something that I picked up and played and it was really like, you know, just focus on it then. But not something that I necessarily like devoted extended periods over extended parts of my life to. But I was a big reader, which you do do, right? You take a book and you know, I was reading novels at that time and you read them over the course of weeks or even months at that point. And I like that experience. And so when my babysitter came over, and like I said, we would usually play Doom. But he popped Final Fantasy 6 in. And that opening scene in Darsh was just unlike anything I'd ever seen before. And again, at that time, I was mostly a science fiction reader. I hadn't really discovered fantasy yet. I mostly thought it was kind of like for unicorns and girls and princesses and stuff. I had this sort of like, you know, really like, Culturally defined idea of like what fantasy was sure and like in hindsight like there's that was obviously wrong and there's also like, you know Unicorns and princesses and stories about them aren't for girls anyway But as a young boy in Canada, right sort of taught that right but science fiction was about laser guns and time travel and robots which are like boy boy coded things so I was really like Enmeshed in that but Final Fantasy 6 sort of had that steampunk element to it, right? It didn't look like a traditional fantasy story. And so I think that appealed to me. And you start off and there's these Magitek army armor, like these mechs that they're riding in. It's like, this is like this. I've never read anything like this. I've never seen anything like this. And then, you know, Tara escapes. She's she's going through the mines of Narshe and you're getting into the combat and you know, like it's kind of tense and it felt really tense to me as a kid. And then we've reached that first save spot in the game and like When you step onto a save spot in Final Fantasy 6, the whole screen kind of glows. It's like really welcoming blue, and there's this really distinct chiming sound. And as soon as we stepped on that, my babysitter was like, OK, we're good. We can use a tent. We'll heal up. We can save now. I was like, that's like that feel of relief washed over me. And I was like, this is like, this is it. This is what I've been looking for. And so from that point on, I was just ravenous. So, you know, like just scouring all of the video game magazines for for Final Fantasy related stuff. So I got on, you know, the Chrono Trigger bandwagon really early before it was released, because I didn't, you know, all I knew was it was from the guy who made Final Fantasy six. And I was like, that's it. That's my game. That's easy enough. It's my identity. But also what happened is around the same time, one of my good friends. Also was discovering japanese rpgs and so I would like we would just hang out playing final fantasy 6 at his house and like, you know We were nine or ten and like we had he had a big unofficial guide So we were like, you know finding all the secrets and that was back, you know now I play final fantasy 6 and I do everything in the game in 35 hours and it feels small to me But like that was back when we would spend, you know, like hours and hours trying to like figure something out, right? Yes, so we would just like, you know blast like the the offspring like we would just play smash at like max volume in his bedroom playing Final Fantasy six together. That's such a formative time in your life that like it just like they just really created that core memory and core part of my identity like you know punk rock and Japanese RPGs. So when you first play 16, you're emulating it. You had already played some of those later ones at that point. You've played, I think at that point, you probably played maybe 10. I'm trying to remember your timeline. Up to 10. How was it going back to that classic style, to that 8 to the 16 bit style after playing, you know, your nines and your tens and things like that? Honestly, it wasn't really much of a. I wouldn't say it was jarring. It felt pretty natural to me because I grew up with 8 and 16 bit games. So it's not like when I went to transition from the stunning 3D polygonal textures of Final Fantasy X to the 2D based sprite work. It's like, it's still Final Fantasy and it still looks gorgeous. So it wasn't really a jarring experience for me going back to that. In fact, actually, I feel like I feel like I learned to appreciate it. I learned to appreciate Final Fantasy 6 more. Going back and playing it at the age I was versus when I would have played it when it came out. I would have been about maybe... I would have been about eight, no, seven or eight. Seven or eight when it came out. So I think I would appreciate it. I know now I appreciate it much more when I played it as a teenager versus when I would play it as a kid. Because back at that time I was playing Dragon Quest and I had no idea what an RPG was but I liked walking around the field and getting into battles with the slimes and raising up gold so I can get the weapons. I don't know why, I just enjoyed it. I kept dying a lot but I enjoyed it. Again, I wouldn't understand or appreciate the uniqueness of Final Fantasy VI had I played it then versus when I was 16. Yeah, no, that's totally fair. And I think that's very fair and valid because I, wow, it's one of those things where I played it when I was of its time. So probably like 14 or 15. And I remember just hitting me in that right place. Kind of like what Seven did to you. Because we're going to talk about Seven a lot. And I know Seven obviously has a huge, huge history with it. Final Fantasy 6, what was your first touchpoint with that game? You just know since I played Final Fantasy 4, 6 was one of the ones at the rental shop. Alright, let's rent this one next. That other one was so good. At first, for some reason I didn't like it as much as 4. I couldn't really tell you why now. Interesting. But yeah, it's just one of those things after a couple years I'm like, this is amazing. It's a slower burn than four. It takes longer to get really rolling. So your first impression though was a negative one, it sounds like. It was good, it's just, I'm like, it's not as good as the other one. Interesting. Well, because the original one, A, you spent a lot of time with it when you were younger, and B, and again, this is me just thinking it through, it starts off with that big bang, right? It starts off just running, where there's more of a buildup for Final Fantasy VI. What about it? Intrigued you as you got through it and as you started playing it and getting into it I think that's kind of where I started to realize I liked the darker tones it had Hmm, I think that might be why I like four more at first cuz you know, I was young I didn't know a lot I didn't I wasn't thinking about as many different things at the time at that point in life But I start to appreciate more of the darker themes and nature of Final Fantasy 6 compared to four So I think just as time went on I just Realized I started liking those kind of things more. Same reason Majora's Mask is my favorite Zelda game. I love the darker tones. Yeah, Majora's Mask is. I did three episodes on Majora's Mask for my Zelda series a year and a half ago. It's genius, and I had never played it before a couple years ago. So, yeah, no, I totally get that, for sure. What about Final Fantasy? For Final Fantasy, I'll ask the same question I asked for 4. What characters really connect with you, again, either as a kid or as an adult? My favorite character hasn't changed. Sabin'. I mean, I'm always going to love the suplexing of the Phantom Train. This is the most ridiculous thing you see in that game. It's pretty great. But no, I just kind of like the idea that there was this between the two brothers. He's just like, no, no, look, I'm out of here. I'm going to do my own thing. I'm not letting what everyone else is doing dictate my life. I kind of like that attitude. Yeah. And you know, we had some really funny lines in the game. As a kid I really liked doing the blitzes and the attacks, you know, because other RPGs are... Well, in this case, other RPGs at the time didn't have that kind of inputs for attacks. So it was something different, unique about his character that helped him stand out a lot. No, absolutely. That's true. And it's also cool too, because it really connected the dots for me, for saving at least, was using the techniques to do the special moves. I do hate learning years later. Most of his blitzes are based off his magic stats, so I built them wrong. interesting. Yeah. Bumrush is based off his magic stat, not his strength stat. Really? I had no idea. I had no idea. I literally had no idea. Nobody clearly does. Wow. Until like, modders, like the weird rom hacking people started looking at stuff and like, wait a minute. What's wrong with this picture? Everything's wrong with this picture. Wow. That's so weird. Because magic is not something you normally worry about with Sabin. Yeah, and it's his worst stat. Yeah, by far his worst stat. That's funny. It's weird when you start to get to see under the hood of some of these games. It is pretty interesting, right? And I think Final Fantasy 6 is probably one of those that is very interesting under the hood and under scrutiny, for sure. Did somebody say scrutiny? That's what the next five weeks of A Gamer Looks at 40 is going to be all about. Next week we begin our dissection by talking about the game's dozens and dozens of big and small impactful moments. It's going to be a wild episode with a ton of great insights and I cannot wait to share with you so please be sure to check it out and tell a fellow Final Fantasy friend how many F's are in that sentence and spread the word. people we can get listening, the more stories we can collect, and the more enjoyable the show is for everybody involved. Thank you so much for listening to this edition of A Gamer Looks at 40. If you haven't done so already, check me out on Twitter at A Gamer Looks at 4040 or just go to agamerlooksat4040 .com for all of my everything, including full playlists of my entire long deep dive series. They are a fun binge and I think really captures the emotional essence of these legendary franchises. So be sure to check those out. Until next time, thank you so much for listening. Thank you to Kev and Pete for editing these interviews for me. And until next time, just be kind to yourselves and each other.
