A Kefkaian drama
The fact of having started a part of Final Fantasy VI while an invasion was triggered at our doors, probably allowed me to realize how right the narration of the title was, and profound. I know Final Fantasy VI, it’s a game that has been with me for years, yet I had never made a parallel also crazy between this game and the horror of news. The evocative power of the title is simply out of the ordinary. Themes such as the destruction of the Earth by the madness of a man, the forces of nature or the conjunction of the two, yet very marked in the Japanese imagination of the 90s – in which I have been bathing for some time – take A different dimension when the stories threaten to become facts.
The first part of Final Fantasy VI truly tells us a war. Everything begins with an invasion, then territorial conquests, resistance, acts of barbarism, killed… I pass and worst. The player is faced with the imperialist ambitions of the Ghestal Emperor as well as KEFKA’s unfair methods his man of his sociopath to the chuckling of glazing laughter. Of course, Final Fantasy VI is and remains above all an entertainment. The adventures like the good mood of our heroes in the middle of this prey world of chaos bring with humor the touch of lightness necessary to depict with the simplicity of the means of the time – that is to say few words and a lot emotions – some very poignant dramas. The second part of the game puts us in the face of the consequences of the madness of a man with a powerless power and we all want that the artwork remains what it should be: a warning.
The genius of this scenario is this dosage that allows the audiences of all ages to withdraw something from the story. We really have several levels of reading. There is a world between me and my frangin who, children, leaves to the adventure in a wild universe, confronting mythical monsters, alive of the adults as original as well punctuated, and my adult look that measures the depth of some Themes as well as the accuracy with which they are brushed, whether in a few lines or by an environmental narration as effective as innovating for the time. It is in the small details that the wealth of Final Fantasy VI is located, a house in ruins, a village abandoned by the young parties to the war, soldiers who organize dog fights in the streets to kill the time or Messages between separate lovers sent by pigeon traveler… The situations are not lacking and the cities are sufficiently compact to allow to speak to all the NPCs in order to take the measure of the richness of the universe. Especially since the player is not only passive, he can get involved in some events.
The other wealth of narration of Final Fantasy VI, it is his heroes and the way these individualities are depicking with their own hardships in a context that overwhelms them. Paradoxically, despite our victories on the scenario, despite our successes in fighting, despite our avatars that become more and more powerful as in all RPGs, Final Fantasy VI speaks especially of the defeats of our characters. The anecdote wants each member of the development team to have created his own avatar – which led to proposing a rich gallery of credible personalities – to put them together against the great history of the world. We are therefore at the head of hero to the routes as diverse as broken: slaves, abandoned children, separated fraternities, deceived, enthusiastic in great suffering and frimets hiding a deep despair are your daily life. If most of the time the game handles good humor to stay light, some passages are emotionally very intense and also know how to nest the actions of the player and the narrative to strengthen our involvement.
Each character has his scriptwidth bow more or less expanded, but also partially optional. By visiting an area with the right teams, you can trigger additional cinematics that allow you to learn more about your group members. If some are quite obvious, others require more subtlety and deduction. It is possible to completely miss to whole stories of each. It is therefore up to you to seek the thread of the indices, sometimes obvious, sometimes hidden into the equipment parts, so of course the stories interest you. Rest assured anyway, with some exceptions you can trigger all major cinematics at any time of the game.
You will probably understand it, Final Fantasy VI does not put in place a hero surrounded by second roles, the idea here is that any character is the hero of his story. We thus find simple portraits, but especially very just to which each player can more or less identify himself. If at the beginning the composition of our team is imposed, very quickly it is up to you to decide which avatar play, and as much to tell you that you will quickly have your darling, and that it will be a drama when you will be removed. Indeed, if the first part of the game makes you discover the world relatively directed way, a split twist then totally renews the adventure. The game then opens completely, and if I would not go so far as to speak of open people, I want to note that in 1994 we could already be content to recover the airship before going to try its luck. The end boss.
Of course, the main interest of this second part is rather to explore the whole universe on us. This proposal is particularly completed, because we do not mop in the unknown, but we rediscovered a world that we have learned to know for 15 to 20 hours of play. It is at this point that the first part is made. has really served a link between the player and the Final Fantasy VI universe. This world, we have traveled, we lived there adventures, dramas, and we know its cities like its characters. This world is a little our world and we are attached to it, which makes the experience more poignant. Re-browsing, re-discovering – whether they are transfigured areas or accessible new places is such a rare experience as valuable in a video game. At this point, the main quest becomes almost absent, not being a bottom frame placing the stories of characters and emotions in the foreground. This is an opportunity to close the narrative arches of the different members of your group in a mix of narrative and gameplay. It is this implemented as rich as aniginal for the time, which puts on the relationship of the player with the world and with his heroes who conferred on the title his aura of sacred monster – and who always makes it a game too remarkable that indispensable nowadays.
Struggle Classes
Beyond this universe and this admirable narration, the gameplay is part of the continuity of previous opus. It is mainly distinguished by the tweaking of its classicism mastered small originality. We are still on dungeon investigation with hidden treasures, random fights, backup points and big bosses that sometimes hurt. The story often invites himself in exploration, whether to advance the story or bring a touch of humor, avoiding routine. The title is distinguished by the creativity and originality of its environments, especially in the first part, or even rebate the cards of the usual pundcles to make us start with a snowy city and then take us into the desert, rather than getting through us Cellars and plains. In the same way, the emblematic places of the video game are intelligently reworked, but I will avoid drawing up the list so as not to spoil the surprise of those who have not yet discovered the game.
There are also more original gameplay passages, some very successful as these camp defense phases where we run several teams against adverse hordes that advance on us, pseudo phases of infiltration and even dungeons in which it takes Leading several teams at once or raft passages that do not deprive ourselves of breaks between the fighting. The original game was trying to use the 7 mode of the SNES to make us live underwater adventures or in wagonnet not frankly successful and if the pixel remaster makes the thing visually more bearable for the part on rails, these short passages remain without high interest.
Unlike previous episodes, the class system is much less highlighted, even if securities – which were not present on SNES – appeared. The characters are interchangeable and if they are all functional, they are not equal. What is noticed the most is that everyone has a special and unique order varying their gameplay. For example, Setzer the flamboyr can rotate a bandit to launch special blows, Edgar the engineer uses construction tools with specific skills as long as they have purchased or found, Sabin the monk invokes jujitsu techniques in exchange From a small combo to the pad and Straco the blue mage must first learn the spells of the monsters and then reuse them.
It’s very nice, because every character offers a totally different gameplay, looked in addition to his personality and his story. The player can thus shape the team whose style is the most suitable for him. We see it through the four examples above, some avatars ask for more time and investment to get the most out of their abilities as others, sometimes without ever succeeding in totally devastating skills – not to say Cheatte \ – first, but there is no balancing problem.
The primordial point is the freedom given to the player to train teams with all the characters – and even to leave some some if you do not like them. One can choose to stay with a roughly fixed team if you wish, to make very classic warriors / wiry teams, but we can also have fun changing regularly, to use characters with randomly powerful skills or to make Teams that do not even control, whether to renew the gameplay, to find devastating combos or recolle the scattered pieces of the scenario. The equipment can easily be shared between the 14 characters and re-equip its heroes into a second handle, all changes are as fluid and natural. There are so many ways to play in Final Fantasy VI that there are players and moods, so the main thing is to experiment to find the way to play that makes you happy.
Beyond their special blows, the protagonists are distinguished by the equipment they can wear. The usual light / heavy armor are found as well as the types of weapons specific to certain characters, but also and especially the relics that can transform several native skills, or even make the members of your team more and more cheated. You only have two locations of relics by avatar, so you have to make choices, but arrived at the end of the game you have overpowering members who launch 8 fading attacks or who make two spells of magic for the shot derisory of 1mp – for the simplest options.
Once the first quarter of the game crossed, all the characters have access to the magic system. Each avatar can equip a magic, which allows it to both launch a combat invocation, but also to learn various magic for each victory and even strengthen certain stats during a change of level. If some of the magrid naturally happens in the story, you have to know how to get out of the way to get their hands on the most powerful invocations that also learn the most devastating spells. This system is very versatile, the more you play a character and the more he learns about magic. If it is not necessary to push the vice until you change magicity before each level up to give bonuses specific to each, the most picky players will not fail, especially as the end screen. of confrontation now tells us the remaining XP points before changing the level.
Overall, the fights are rather easy, the player can parameterize just about anything he wants, access a lot of powerful characters quite naturally and simply getting away from the bosses if he takes the time to adjust the relics Or get out of good spells or abuse good techniques. The goal of the game is really to create overpowering avatars to ride on local wildlife and this sensation is reinforced by the comfort options added to the Pixel Remaster. Some skills have been slightly reviewed, such as Cyan Samurai that charges its Bushido techniques in the background instead of blocking orders from the entire team or the RELM paint control that works now and punctually punctures your MPS. Other simplifications are outright abused: if it is nice to list the fashion orders way game of Baston Jujitsu de Sabin to avoid knowing everything by heart, the game now indicates whether our inputs are good and we Even even to start again, while the overpowering attack / order ratio difficult to go back – so that sometimes misses – was in the center of the monk gameplay. Same for Setzer, the automatic combat makes you succeed almost all jackpots – better than you would do it unless you are an expert from the Speedrun, but also suppressing for the Pad pros the ability to choose each wheel. Once again, all the characters are valid, all the characters can become overpowering, so do not feel blocked in a carcavan and especially have fun as you like.
the pixel remaste that gives a ballet shot
Square Enix had announced with great pump wanting to highlight the iconic Opera Scene using the HD-2D style of _ Octopath Traveler _ and triangle strategy. It is a total flop that makes it possible to realize how much the technique of the acquired studio is not that a depth of assets provided for a flat display. So of course, there is a need to stick to the original material, not to take too much of the rest of the game and we can consider that in reality the opera is also a world of decorations, however the experience here is More carton-paste than good tap. We will come back in the musics in detail lower, but the passage of the opera, sung in all languages by singers for the least unequal, left us without the landing is hard.
An opera in a video game on Super Nintendo , or even on GBA, with songs in “wah wah” and orchestrations in chiptunes, parallax of decorations, for the time it was simply as unthinkable as ‘incredible. Except that when the technical constraints jump – as is the case here – we see all the limits and the seams crack everywhere. We are at leagues of an opera and we are at leagues of what a video game can offer in terms of opera. Despite the humorous tone of this sequence, its transposition is a real shot on magical memories. Moreover, the last part of this test turns mainly around this question: Does the remill still bring something to the original? Are you able to love this proposal? This answer will really depend on everyone’s experience and holds more to your experience than the quality of the portage.
The more one step into the episodes and the less advances are notable compared to the first grinds, while the defects of this collection Pixel Remaste lost or get worse. Re-cite in bulk not to dwell on a writing font or aesthetic or aesthetic, a redesign of the menus that adds navigation stages, tearing problems and a more blurring analog filter than a non-astigmatism. corrected. More annoying, and more problematic, the cursor of magic that does anything in multiple combat targeting if you activate the memory option. The functional sorting of the magic found on SNES has disappeared, the display is no longer homogeneous between the characters and does not allow a simple scroll. In addition, the cursor scrolls if you have to go down the window. Each time, the pixel remastey miss an obvious thing in the ergonomics, which was successful in the original game. It’s always so flapless as incomprehensible.
In exchange, we gain comfort options, some very useful such as the possibility of walking quickly, the management of equipment that clearly details all objects or the ability to put the fights in automatic – which makes it possible to accelerate the speed. Others are very practical as automatic backup at each area change or even the ability to save when you want. Balancing does not seem at first sight not to have been touched and the translation is based on that of GBA, winning in standardization what it loses in originality.
However, it is the artistic aspect that appears at first glance and if one can recognize the efforts made to propose a pixel modern rendering, we see that the difference with the original is finally not so blatant. only that. It must be said that the game on SNES was already sumptuous at the time and that it has aged very well, to the point that the sprites of the enemies did not in all have been retouched – with the exception of a few iconic bosses. I guess the visual assessment will vary depending on the attachment of each to the game of origin and its number of parts. If you have never launched Final Fantasy VI, we are facing pixel modern art quite appreciable. If you have not played Final Fantasy VI for more than 15 years, the rendering will make the taff and nostalgia will fill the rest.
On the other hand, if you are of the genre to redo the game every two years, you will inevitably tick on the vector settings and not in pixel perfect, on the choice to cross the image in 16/9 instead of extending it (reducing it So the field of vision compared to the SNES) and on sprites too large in exploration mode… without it spoiling the experience. At the level of environments, there is to drink and eat. If some iconic areas have earned, others are far from transcending or even to match the original. I find the world map with too bright colors rather incoherent. It is on the combat screens that the title proposes a noticeable visual improvement, with decorations as neat as successful, as well as magic effects that respect the model while improving the rendering. We also deplore the great return of censorship, not dramatic when one hides the buttocks of an invocation, more problematic when a prisoner chained and blushes becomes a simple Sprite planted as a stick. If it is true that I greatly prefer the rendering of the game on my mini songs and more still on a good old cathodic TV (way that I encourage you to explore) and that I pinille on some details that shagrin me, we must recognize that The visual aspect of this pixel remaste is successful and will suit the expectations of most players.
The symphonic reorocestrations supervised by UEMATSU are, as for the previous Pixel Remaster, more successful. With few exceptions, all find the right balance between respect for tradition and subtle originalities or exquisite disabilities. I do not doubt that some will put you the tear in the eye and dreams of a CD or vinyl containing all the times in this series. Felted and Jazzy atmospheres in Narshe, Epic Brass in Combat Scenes, Crescendo as Diabolically Deniring As Glacing For The Theme of Larbin Service Psychopath, Guimbardies and Pipeau Tones Western in the Improbable Music Theme of a Solitary Ninja, atmosphere both intimate, but dramatic for the ghost train… everything is absolutely successful. However, there will be a little less musical risk taking than with the reorinstrations of previous opus. Moreover, we can extend this remark to the whole game. Is it because it was not necessary to destabilize the player or because the equilibrium was already reached?
FINAL FANTASY VI is an exceptional game! If you never played it or even if you do not know Final Fantasy, so skip the pixel remaste without the slightest hesitation! The narrative, very avant-garde, subtly centered on the world and the characters did not take a ride, the artistic direction is admirable, the exploration is as pleasant as diversified, combat and play systems are also dynamic as Affordable and offer the player both freedom and creativity, the graphics are very successful, like the soundtrack as remarkable as sublimated. It’s a great adventure, we were distraught, we have fun, we think, all the ingredients are there and perfectly dosed – if you have kids put this game between their small hands.
Final Fantasy VI is part of the Durpg pantheon, and this Pixel Remaster is a nice option to get there or. The only point that sits me is that this remake is not up to my memories, but what does it matter since the remill is at the height of his own legend – that of a timeless game able to cross all Generations of players without ever disappointing.
Last point, it would be greatly appreciated that the Pixel Remaster series now addresses the PlayStation episodes that would also deserve a pixel art and magisterial reorocestrations.
_Testé by Ulaanbator on PC via a test version provided by the publisher.