Final Fantasy VI is the greatest game I have ever played in my entire life. It's not my FAVORITE, that's still Omori. But it's the best, and I don't know what's ever going to top this fucking magnum opus of the RPG genre.
This website likes to overuse the word "iconic" to the point where it doesn't mean much. But I gotta say, there is no other word that describes this game quite as well. This game is iconic. There are mountains of moments in this game that will stick with you forever, to the point where I don't even know where to start.
Who is the main character of this game? There really isn't one. Not specifically, anyway. There are arguments to be made for 3 or 4 different characters being the most important, one of whom is the main villain, but we'll get there when we get there. You wind up with a whopping 14 total party members in this game, only 1 or 2 of whom could be considered benchwarmers but they have their own uses in this game and are not filler, even if they should be warming the bench for everyone else. This is a game about the ensemble cast, not about any individual, and pretty much everyone gets their time to shine.
I guess we should start talking about the iconic moments here. Let's start from the start.
The very opening of the game, the first thing you see after starting a new file, is 3 people in mech suits walking across a frozen wasteland. The tone of this game is INSTANTLY set with that legendary shot. Two of them, Biggs and Wedge, are servants to the Gestahlian Empire, while the third, Terra, is being mind controlled by them. Terra is the character you start the game with, as you traverse the wasteland and try to figure out how exactly you got here. She quickly meets up with a professional thief, Locke, and the 2 run off as your initial main party.
The Opera House scene is a 11/10 scene, every single element is perfect. One of your party members, Celes, is a lookalike of one of the performers in tonight's show, Maria. A note was sent to the man in charge of the show stating that Maria was going to be kidnapped by one of the only airship owners in the game, Dartz. Everyone collectively decides Celes should take Maria's place in the show tonight. Meanwhile, COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT OF EVERYONE ELSE, another fucker you've fought a couple times through the game so far is trying to sabotage the show by dropping a huge weight on you. Everyone is aware of all this and there's schemes on top of schemes on top of schemes, but the show must go on in order for anything to work. So Celes takes the stage.
Now, I played the Pixel Remaster version of this game, so it had the old art style but touched up a bit. One thing I did NOT expect, though, for was for Celes' performance to be COMPLETELY VOICE ACTED. The one and only instance of voice acting in this entire game was to give a show stealing rendition of an opera song written for this game, Aria De Mezzo Carattere. The entire Opera House sequence is one of my favorite sequences in all of gaming. I genuinely wish I could go back and experience this again for the first time.
AND WE AIN'T EVEN HALFWAY THROUGH THIS GODDAMN GAME YET, BABY!
It's at this point where I must now bring up the primary antagonist, Kefka. He starts this game as nothing more than the Gestahlian Empire's court jester. Just a literal clown who is there to be funny. But this motherfucker is more evil than anyone. His first big moment is poisoning a town's water supply from a distance/the source so they all start dying. He does, of course, kill off the king of the empire and take his place, but it's what this absolute monster does at the midway point that etches his name into the annals of villain history:
He destroys the world. Successfully. You have to watch as the planet literally falls apart and is reduced to rubble. Your entire party is scattered except for Celes, who takes over as the de facto leader who has to put the gang back together and sort all this shit out again. ...after her suicide attempt, of course, which you have to control. You have to guide her up the cliff she then throws herself off of. This, immediately after watching Celes' father figure die, which comes immediately after you watch the world get destroyed, is a one-two-three punch of harrowing shit that will wake you the fuck up and kick your ass into gear for what is yet to come.
Once you get everyone back, you can go face the monster that is Kefka. Except he's not a court jester anymore. He now controls the magic of the universe and has ascended into godhood. He descends from the heavens as Dancing Mad comes on and instills the fear of God into you. And you know there's nothing you can do but fight.
No write-up I do could ever hope to do this game justice. I don't know what the hell I could ever play after this that would hope to match up to the icon status of this masterpiece. Every good thing you've ever heard about this one is true. The hype is real. Play it.
