#16

Final Fantasy VI (Originally released in 1994 on the SNES)

A game that took so long to get to my hands, I could not wait to play this game when I was a kid. the anticipation was killing me. I could not my hands on enough magazines to just get a sneak peak at the screen shots.

I can remember them well.

There is a picture of Sabin at the Empires base camp right outside of Doma. A simple picture to be sure, but just seeing these made my die on the inside because I was not playing the game. Pictures would not suffice, but they were all I had for the longest time.

Then the game was finally released after an eternity and I didn't even get it on its release date. Still I had to wait, and what was worse was the fact that my step bother at the time had the game. I had to settle with calling him to get tidbits about the game here and there. The one part of the game I remember him telling me about was the twin crane attack on board the Falcon. That is a good deal into the game, so either he was playing fast or I was waiting an eternity to get a chance to play this masterpiece.

(That reminds me. Is it me or do people speed through games a lot faster nowadays. I remember taking a couple weeks to beat most of these old school rpgs. Now? I can see myself doing a speed run and beating games in a day or two. No lie. Crazy change of times and what not.)

So finally my mom took my out and bought me this game. FINALLY! After much delay, I was the proud owner of Final Fantasy III. (Squaresoft, for some reason decided to release FF6 and FF4 as FF3 and FF2 respectively. Don't ask me why. Then again Nintendo did the same thing with the Fire Emblem franchise.) And I will tell you this, it was worth the wait.

Final Fantasy VI was a big leap from the last game I played in the series (FF4) and that's saying something considering how much I love FF4. It introduced the largest group of characters I had ever seen at the time. It even had secret characters thrown in the mix.

It also introduced Kefka. The laugh is iconic. Kefka was one of Square's best adaptations of a pure villain. Actually Kefka enjoys being part of a list that most bad guys only dream to be a part of. Kefka destroyed the world. He succeeded in killing off almost all of the world's population and enjoyed a good year or being a world leader. The world was changed forever, and Kefka was to thank. Not a lot of evil doers get to add that on their resume.

He wasn't even that bad of a guy to start out with either. What many people do not know is Kefka's back story. How he became twisted was not by his own fault. All the blame goes to the Empires chief scientist, Cid. You see the Emporer wanted to harness the power of the Esper's magical abilities. He wanted his soldiers to be able to use the Espers magic without any help by the Espers themselves. So Cid started making Magitek warriors. Kefka was the Emperors most noble and bravest knight, right alongside General Leo. The process was unproven and required a subject to test the fusion. Kefka stepped up to the challenge and was the first solider to have magic infused into himself. The project was falty, however and Kefka's mind was lost to insanity thanks to the Cid's efforts. Cid did not plan this intentionally, but it was still interesting to note that Kefka's crazy ass does indeed have backings.

FF6 is a fantastic game. Its sad to see Square unable to produce the same greatness I was used to as a youth. To this day only one of their later creations even comes close to these amazing treasures. (That game being FF Tactics.) It doesn't bother me too much though. I can always just go back and replay these gems and remember the good ole days.