Final Fantasy VI: A 30th Anniversary Retrospective Gaming Documentary

On April 2nd, 1994, Square Soft concluded its masterpiece 16-Bit Role Playing Game Trilogy! (Chapter Markers and more below…)

Episode information
GTV 167 “Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary" Season 9 Episode 7
Original Airdate: March 31, 2024
Produced March 19-29, 2024
Recorded at Butsudan Studios and edited on my 14” MacBook M1 Pro! Edited and produced with Photoshop and Final Cut Pro, all paid for with Gainful Employment™ while riding the train to work and home, back and forth, day after day, and lunch breaks too!

0:00 GTV ID: A Chip in Your Pile Where Available
0:33 Act 1: Troops March On
7:51 CM 1: Final Fantasy VI is Coming! (Super Famicom, Japan, 1994)
8:08 Act 2: The Decisive Battle
14:54 CM 2: Final Fantasy III Auditions (Super NES, U.S., 1994)
15:26 Act 3: Kids Run Through the City
21:49 CM 3: The Finest Fantasy VI (GameBoy Advance, Japan, 2006)
22:06 Act 4: From That Day On
27:49 CM 4: Final Fantasy VI Now on Sale (Super Famicom, Japan, 1994)
28:06 Act 5: Coin of Fate

This video is a follow up to the episodes about Final Fantasy IV and V. If you missed those, why not watch them now?

Will there be a video on Final Fantasy VII? That's a tall order....

All the GTV episodes about Role-Playing Games!!


Partial transcript

Long ago, the War of the Magi reduced the world to a scorched wasteland, and magic simply ceased to exist.1000 years have passed... Iron, gunpowder, and steam engines have been rediscovered, and high technology reigns...But there are some who would enslave the world by reviving the dread destructive force known as “magic.” Can it be that those in power are on the verge of repeating a senseless and deadly mistake?

When Final Fantasy VI first went on sale in Japan on that second day of April in 1994, publisher SquareSoft, the development team behind the game, and the fans at home had already been on a amazing ride. Following the successes of the first three Final Fantasy games, the series moved to the Super Famicom, where 16-Bits meant more colors, better sounds and larger memory. All of which delivered more realistic worlds and a richer experience, compared to earlier installments. While Final Fantasy IV, released in 1991 and V, in 1992 lead the way, the early years of the 16-Bit Era also saw entries from other Square Soft series: SaGa, Mana and Hanjuku Hero, while the spin off Mystic Quest, known as Final Fantasy USA provided a large stable of games for everyone to enjoy.
Drawing from three years of experience, and seven releases overall, SquareSoft learned the ins and outs of the Super Famicom hardware, and in Final Fantasy VI, it shows. Character Sprites are now bigger and more proportionate than past games. Larger bodies lead to smaller heads, looking more realistic, and less cartoonish than before. Each character sprite has more color, adding more detail.

The backgrounds feature more animation. Things are always in motion, layers of fog, smoke, clouds, water and light add more atmosphere. Some areas are almost photorealistic, all which makes the world of Final Fantasy VI lifelike. Mode 7 effects were used throughout, most notably when flying the airship, which is now in 3D for the first time.

Other minor graphical touches, such as the gradients in text boxes make everything in Final Fantasy VI standout against IV and V, showing how much improvement can be made in such little time.

When the Super Famicom debuted in 1990, one touted feature was the ability to display 256 colors on screen at once. Despite the high number at the time, not one single game ever reached that full amount until Final Fantasy VI, the first game to reach the 256 color limit.

All artwork done by the great Yoshitaka Amano!

Gameplay footage provided by The FF TV Channel.

[Zeomantic]

I was an air force brat growing up, and one time my dad bought me a machine that copied SNES games onto floppy disks during a deployment to Singapore, and one of the gamess included with it was FF6. This was a few months before the game came out in the US. I got stuck at the part where Sabin had to use a blitz on Vargas and I couldn't read any Japanese at the time, so the death counter always got me. It was annoying for my 13-year-old self, but it made me excited for the rest of the game beyond that part. Woolsey got way more heat than he deserved for that localization. The poor guy did what he could in the scant 30 days that he had. To this day, I still use lines from these games like Setzer's "when things fall, they fall", or Cyan's "You just have to show technology who's boss!" Or even a favorite from Chrono Trigger: "Like any egg, it represents a possibility. It may or may not hatch."

As for FF4 vs FF6, that's a tough one... Played the hell out of both, and they left their mark on me in different ways. I may have to give this one to FF4, so slightly, since it helped ignite my love for this style of game, which has led me to where I am today. As an adult, I find FF6's characters much more relatable. Sabin was always a favorite of mine, and I can see why Chris Sabin took that ring name. Great stuff as always!

[ruinerdown]

For an guy like me in my 40s that grew up with all you cover, this channel is something special

[HeresWhyItsCool]

When I was 13, in the 8th Grade, my brother, who was 6 years older than me, took me on a quest to go buy Final Fantasy "3" and we played it til 2am, even though it was a school night for me.
I was blown away within the opening minutes as the MagiTek armor marched across snowy fields towards Narshe...
I cheered with my brother the first time we inputed the Blitz "Pummel"
and to this day, the Opera House is one of the defining Gaming events of my life.
When I was 18yrs old I found the imported CD soundtrack at a quaint little store in my city that my friends and I often visited, and to this day many of the tracks from that soundtrack still come up on my playlists in the car.
Final Fantasy VI is truly one of the greatest games of all time.
Thanks, GTV Japan, for this video. Just one more of my favorites that you've made here on YouTube. :D

[boardstar]

GTV, I ran across your channel by accident; but have consumed almost ALL the content you’ve created over the last 12 months. The quality of research you’ve put into your videos is unparalleled. Despite all the “filler” and “rehash” content creators; you managed to stand SHOULDERS above the competition in delivering videos like the yume kojo deep dive that no one has even come close to. I hope the YouTube algorithm is one day in your favour. Keep up the great work.

[video-luver]

"Terra's Theme" may be the most beautiful piece of music ever composed for a video game.

[stupidbluebird]

sabin's train suplex cemented him as my favorite character. another great video, thanks for sharing!

[DW]

I remember me and my brother getting this on Christmas of 1994.
The entire winter was spent playing this game. He had his own save file and I had mine.
The soundtrack was simply epic for its time.
Although when the tedious task of building levels was needed, I popped in Nine Inch Nails the downward spiral album.
Here we are 30 years later and I still kind of consider that album part of the final fantasy 6 (or 3 as it was at the time to us) part of the soundtrack 😄

[GTV-Japan]

My favorite character is Locke! I'd like to think that his name was inspired by John Locke, one of the greatest philosophers of The Enlightenment.

[Reluctant_Hero]

Locke, Celes, Shadow & Sabin. That’s my FFVI dream team. I loved this game game at release when I only knew it as Final Fantasy III. It’s truly a timeless classic.

[james]

These ff documentaries you’ve done over the years are top class

[Prodmullefc]

That last part about the IV/VI dichotomy was really good. There doesn't need to be a single best when FFIV and FFVI are the king and queen of the series. Who is the king is a matter of pure opinion because both games have objective arguments in their favor. Another great doc, senpai.

[Kenshirord]

Final Fantasy VI is my absolute favorite game in the series. The story, music, world and characters absolutely enthralled me. Terra/Tina is one of my all time favorite characters, and her theme was the first piece of music to move me to tears, as a kid.

[retrobution]

So timely, I just started a new playthrough after avoiding this game for over a decade. Back in 1995 I found a copy of it purely by accident in a small country town called Lara in Victoria, Australia. Nowhere else had I ever seen it, it was an NTSC copy, and had a honey bee converter with it. I hired this, Earthbound and Chrono Trigger together(what a haul..!) Chrono took most of my time and I just enjoyed it more as I wasn't a huge fan of turns based combat and loved secret of mana too. After hiring these games several times I took a chance and asked the owner if he would sell them to me...and he did. At a ridiculously low price. I got home and chucked ff6 on deciding I was gonna give it a red hot go and I never looked back. The combination of narrative and audio, coupled with the amazing cinematic style that I didn't think 2D games were even capable of, blew me away. I will never forget those times, when I went on the adventure to end all adventures. No one else I knew had any idea about these games, and it was a personal and very special experience for me. I was so lucky, it was one in a million! Memories that will last a lifetime. That's why I avoided it for so long. I didn't want to replace those old memories with new ones until now. Thanks for the video mate, as usual, top tier you legend

[Postumeartist]

My appreciation for Terra’s character development and arc has only grown as the years go by. It might be my favourite arc in the whole series. Celes has some of my favourite moments too.

[marsindustries]

Wow, a nice late night surprise! I still have my original SNES cartridge of this game, easily my (and many others) favorite FF of the series.

[Alexvander]

20:16 This official player's guide from Nintendo was insanely complete. I had it and from what i remember it had every detail and secret explained clearly. One of the best strategy guides ever produced.

[Alexvander]

This one and 4 are the best in the entire series in my opinion to this day.

[njp]

My day always gets better when a new GTV Japan video drops. Cayenne/Cyan is my favorite character from VI. Just the right combo of nobility and spice.

[LanEXHikari]

Wholeheartedly agreed with the final comparison, both are the best --games and albums. Thank you for such a nostalgic episode ✌🏼

[video-luver]

Dragon Quest has always been my most favorite JRPG series.
That said, Final Fantasy 6 is, by far, one of my favorite JRPGs of all time, full stop. The game is just a complete masterpiece in every single way.