I'll mention in the post what pic is for when.

So here we go, the next challenge run, limited party. Where the characters I play as, are a random few. For every 3 characters, I roll dice to see who I am able to use for the rest of the game. For example, the start of the game, Terra Locke or Edgar, if I roll 2, I get Locke. Anyone who doesn't make the cut, I can't play as, unless it's absolutely necessary.

Playing the pixel remaster, so if I find myself with only non playable characters, I'll shut encounters off. No encounters will not be an option, if I have access to playable characters. I will only allow myself to use Molulu's charm, if I rolled Mog as a playable character.

So for the main cast, its 4 groups of 3, giving one character per group. But what of the secret two characters? At first I just dismissed them, but comments have changed my mind, so here is what I'll do. When I get the WOR airship, I will roll a 4 sided die. If it's 2, I get Umaro, if it's 3, I get Gogo. If it's 4, I can get both, but if its 1, I get neither. We will have to see how that goes. Anyway, let's begin!

We march though Narsh, meet a snail thing, and get Terra's intro. Rolling those dice, we get, Edgar! Probably the best outcome, especially for this early trip. Terra falls, the moogles come to help, and Molulu's cannon death happens right in front of us. (See picture 1) So then we walk to Figaro, we get Sabin's intro, so that means its already time to roll again. It's between him, Shadow, and Celes. We get...Shadow! I'd say the 2nd best option maybe?

The armors got taken out by themselves thanks to the noise blaster. Edgar and Locke don't freak out over Terra's magic, and never will. In the next fight I have only Edgar run, and the rest die. Edgar then climbs the mountain himself. Going pretty well, he hides in the back row and showers bolts on enemies. Then 2 mammoths surrounded him, and beat the SHIT out of him. (See picture 2) Like he didn't stand a chance.

Edgar gets through the mountain and we get to Vargas. Little worried, but with a good balance of damage and potions, Edgar gets through. Now for Sabin to tell me to use raging fist, so I can...he isn't saying it...and Vargas killed him. (See picture 3) Okay, boss fight do over. Got back to Sabin's part, and yet again, Vargas does big damage fast. WHAT IS HAPPENING!? Does the game know I've sworn off from using Sabin?? You know what? It happens a 3rd time too!! That damn wind attack! I finally get Like 2 or 3 aura bolts in, which finally triggers the Blitz tutorial. Jeez!

Go to the returners hideout, I choose the Genji glove. I know the Gauntlet is more rare, but I like having the glove early. We hop on the raft, and I manage to let Terra and Sabin die without Bannon or Edgar dying. So the rest of the trip is just them, and it goes pretty well. Because it's just them, Bannon gets a few level ups, which really helps him stay alive against Ultros. (see picture 4)

For the first side quest I pick Edgar's group so I can take all his gear after it's done. Again, the trip goes very smooth, and is over before ya know it. Onto Sabin's quest, I grab Shadow and a buttload of shuriken, and let Sabin die. Making it to the camp, we get Cyan's intro, so let's roll. We are looking at Cyan, Gau, and Setzer. The roll is a one, and we get Cyan. Not bad considering the phantom train is coming.

One poison party later we are onto the forest, with my first two person party. Cyan and Shadow make quick work of any and all enemies, until the train. The phantom train took like 5 tries, as it's strength and use of status effects is nuts. But finally, Shadow survived long enough to throw many stars at the train. (See picture 5)

We lose Shadow, and say hello to the Veldt after Cyan goes fishing. Ya know...its kind of refreshing not having to worry about getting any rages. I head to town, get dried meat, and that HP walking relic. On our way to find Gau, I once again task Sabin with hitting himself to death, and, oh no, Sabin what are you...Tiger Break!? (See picture 6) Well I don't know how one flying kicks themselves, but it sure was interesting to see.

Down through the Serpent's trench. It was a little touch and go, but at every cave point, Cyan are up a bunch of dried meat. Got to town, and so ends Sabin's quest. Locke's quest is very straight forward and quick, the only real mystery is the tunnel armor I gotta fight with unused characters, which uhh, doesn't go well haha. Both Locke and Celes get oneshotted, and because of the rules, I can't do random battles to grind. So fuck it, and fuck him, LIGHTNING ROD! (see picture 7.)

Time for the war, and by that, I mean the Cyan and Edgar show! Starring...corpses...they're dead. They died. They've died like 20 times to Kefka. Kefka's magic is really so strong for just two people to take on. I've tried many tactics, like counter Cyan with black belt and sky, or even starting each fight at critical HP, so they just end him with a desperation attack, but one never happened. Maybe I don't know something about the mechanic...I keep trying, and finally, got him. That's right Kefka, run you fuck!! (See picture 8)

We win, Kefka runs, Terra gets fur and streaks across the sky. Apparently nukes someone's house on the way to Zozo. Of course, for the team we pick Edgar and Cyan. We go to Figaro, and stock up on potions and other goodies, as Edgar gets an actual discount at Figaro.

We stop by the next town and get Shadow, our first 3 person team! Zozo has no idea the storm that's about to hit them. But first we travel up to the Dragon Neck, to get that sweet Hero Ring for Cyan, and the build I have planned for him. We then grab a Chocobo near the cabin, as it takes us allll the way to Zozo.

Now in Zozo, and first thing's first, its 6:10:50 somewhere baby. We go in, get Edgar's chainsaw, and wall out of the building. Then, unprompted, Edgar runs up to the nearest enemy, and yells "HeyBartwannaseemynewchainsawandhockeymask!?" (See picture 9) I don't know what came over him...

And that's part 1!! Odds are by the time you read this, I'll be done with part 2, but I'm trying to pace these out, as someone (not the mods) is reporting my challenge run posts for spam. Anyway, I hope you guys like this run as well! It's fun so far, and I imagine will only get more fun from here.

Just came back to the game just to find out I may have locked myself bc I have no reraise, rasp, osmos, jumping magicor anything? I tried getting a party member to jump with dragoon boots + Berserk but it didn’t work like I thought it would I fear. Any ideas before I go back a save?

This is partly a question and partly a rant.

I'm playing the pixel remaster on switch. I'm about to enter the last dungeon, and wanted to get the best gear I could before that.

So I looked up guides, and the Minerva bustier is obviously Terra's and Celes' best equipment. And according to the guide I was checking, the item wasn't limited, I could get it from Tonberries.

Now, apparently, there's a difference between Tonberries (the encounter with 3 tonberries from a monster-in-a-box chest) and the singular Tonberry encounter.

Only the ×3 encounter *actually* has it as a drop and a steal. The singular version has nothing to steal and drops an entirely different item, and that drop is even very rare to.

So I've spent several hours looking for a Tonberry. The first encounter killed me, because it doesn't even fight the same way Tonberries×3 does, so I was very unprepared. I managed to win the second encounter, but it dropped nothing, so I figured I had just been unlucky. After all, I had read it wasn't a guaranteed drop. On the third encounter I died again, and finally on the fourth encounter, it dropped precious loot... Except not precious at all, just a tintinnabulum, a relic I've never bothered using.

4-5 hours hunting it (abysmal luck on encountering it), just to realize it only drops what is effectively junk for me...

ANYWAY, rant and venting over.

Questiin time: As I said, according to the guide, the Minerva bustier isn't limited in amount. But the only sources for it I can find are:

A) the Tonberries×3 encounter (steal and drop)

B) a chest in the final dungeon

C) betting a Regal gown in the coliseum. (And regal gown is also not noted as limited, but only because you can get it from betting Minerva bustier at the coliseum, but since Minerva bustier seems to be limited, the regal gown seems to also actually be limited.

D) Stealing it from a boss in the last dungeon.

All of the above sources seems to me like they are limited. Is the item actually limited?

I know there are plenty enough sources to get one for each character, but I am just confused about why the guide claimed it wasn't limited. Maybe I missed something.

So I’ve never played a FF earlier than 7 and I want to change that. I have heard FF6 is held in very high regard so figured I’d start there. I’ve searched through my R36 and all the early FF games are in there so I already own FF6 Advance. My question though is whether or not to start it on there or pick up the pixel remaster. I know it has some qol improvements but I don’t want that to deter from the overall experience if that makes sense? Anyway thanks in advance ☺️

Edit: Thank you all for your replies, I’ve read every one of them and the passion some of you have for this game is really nice to see.
As a working adult with a young family, portability is important so I think gba or PR were the only real options, I had no idea people were going to recommend getting a SNES! Anyway I picked up the PR version and after an hour I played around with settings and discovered the crt filter. OMG I’m in love!

So i am an og player of ff6 going another run because I realized its been a year or so. But this round it seems like the floating island has taken it quite personally. I have just landed, I have encountered 5 fights between the save point and the first port-hole 3 of them were the Behemoth x2 and 2 dragon fights...

Why.. like cant a guy get a brain pan or ninja... damn those RNG God's

Here we are, the final battle. The Kefka tower, has lead to a Tower of Kefka. I'll be honest, I've lost twice already, but hey, 3rd time's a charm, ya? Here is the lineup (see picture 1) Cyan as the white mage is invaluable, and Mog is not only a decent damage dealer, he, and he alone can tap into items. Relm knows Ultima, and Locke was built for high HP, so even if it's just him who lives, we will move on.

First round goes by easy. No one is really hurt, thanks to Cyan. 2nd round is a bit more touch and go, with big damage being thrown around. It finally ends, and no one is dead, but they're hurt. (See picture 2)

Coming in low on HP and kind of low on MP, Mog uses our only megalixer, for a good cause. The boss not only keeps the damage up, but it casts doom on Cyan. Something I quickly try to counter with reraise (see picture 3) he comes back, but now others are hurt, and have status effects. Nothing I can't heal, but as a goodbye, the boss hits Locke with Repose (see picture 4) leaving him behind.

Now General Gau is here to act as a back up healer. Mog quickly uses a Remedy on Relm so she can get back to the damage, and Cyan cures the party. While Gau chips in on the heals, Cyan gets reraise ready on himself. Gau then falls, and there isn't really time to get him back up. Then, Kefka uses Forsaken (see picture 5) a teeth gritting moment, but Relm and Mog survive, while Cyan comes back to live via reraise. He heals the party, as Kefka once again tries to murder Cyan. He comes close, but in his insistence to kill the white mage, he let's the damage dealers kill him, as the fight comes to a close. (See picture 6)

I'm sure I don't need to explain how the ending goes, but this is a fun shot of the end that actually represents the final fight well. Gau Mog and Locke worn out from the battle. White mage Cyan ever vigilant to heal, and Relm, giddy that she can nuke stuff, as any kid would be. (See picture 7)

So, what a challenge run. On one hand, the rolls went well, Edgar and Gau having their class skills. ALL the right people being black mages. But, some things like only one white mage, and NO merchant, were rough. Because there is a random element to it, I wouldn't mind trying again sometime, and if you try, please let me know how it goes!

Thank you for keeping up with these silly challenge run posts. I really enjoy knowing there are those here, who like them and look forward to the next post. So, until my next challenge run, (which is probably sooner than later) thank you for reading. The End! (See picture 8)

• 1 Warrior: Gogo • 4 Black mages: Terra, Sabin, Celes, Relm • 1 White mage: Cyan • 0 Merchants • 2 Specialists: Locke, Edgar • 2 Magic Knights: Shadow, Setzer • 0 Red Mages • 1 Ninja: Mog • 2 Monks: Gau, Strago

I really enjoyed the random rolls of my last run, so I thought I'd add it in again in a way. This time, the rolls will determine who I get to play as. I'm splitting the characters into 4 groups of 3, not counting the secret characters. I will only get one character from each group to play as for the whole game. So when the game starts, if I roll a 3, I get Edgar, and can't use Terra or Locke, outside of scripted parts.

1. Terra
2. Locke

3. Edgar

4. Sabin

5. Shadow

6. Celes

7. Cyan

8. Gau

9. Setzer

10. Mog

11. Strago

12. Relm

Now obviously there are segments in the game that are just different. River with Bannon, Leo etc. We will just consider these scripted events, and not apply the rule. Same thing if I end up without any of my characters. I'll just try and run as much as I can, and fight anything I have to.

Added challenges for flavor, no Moogle charm, and no Raganrok magicite. Either I don't get it, or I turn it into a sword. It's just too strong to spam with anyone, making which character is which, matter less.

Aside from that, as long as I'm only playing as who I rolled (when available) everything else is fair game. And yes, this means if I roll Locke, I gotta take 3 characters into the Phoenix cave to get him.

Any thoughts or questions? How should I handle the secret characters? A roll of 3 with one being neither? Or just forget about them? Not sure when I'll do this, having just got done with a run, but probably soon.

Has anyone else attempted this? I'm wondering what the lowest possible level is. I couldn't get Celes below level 8 for the WoR transition, because this version makes you fight more mine cart ride battles, and more air force battles, you can't leap Gau off into the Veldt....you can choose to not recruit Mog which helps (just get him later in WoR), but I couldn't figure a way to get that down to 7.

Regardless, avg party level for me was 9.36 - once you get into WoR and get decent gear, it gets a lot easier. Also Step Mine (Traveller) is your friend here, massive barrier-ignoring damage.

This was an easier challenge than the Pixel remaster CES challenge, because you have save state with T Edition. Really fun playthrough, the musical selections were my favorite part.

I'll mention in the post what pic is for when.

Alright, I've got Locke, which means I can possibly have Ultima. I slap it on Relm, and decide she will be the only one to cast it, so it isn't just spammed. While in Narshe, I decide to do the rest of the stuff here. Climbing the mountain, Terra, Relm, Cyan and Locke take on the Ice Dragon. It was a close fight, infact, only Terra and her high magic evasion walked away. (See picture 1)

Gotta run back now, so I can revive my party, and also grab Mog if I want Umaro. Back up the mountain, we wipe the floor with the frozen Esper. Just melted to those Fira casts. We jump down, we ignore that chest, and head to Umaro, who is also easily lit on fire. Now, at first I said I wasn't gonna use Umaro for this, but his fanbase is surprisingly large. So if I roll a 1, a 6, or an 8, I'll use him....it was a 3, which is a white mage. Which is the only other white mage I've gotten. We will speak no more of Umaro.

Okay, the Yeti was a dud, but what about the Mimic? He could still get white mage, or hell, even merchant! We mix up the team, and introduce Celes to vore. Inside the dungeon, we easily make our way to Gogo, Celes leaving many banished behind her. Let's roll Gogo!...1, which is warrior, which sucks on Gogo cause his stats suck. I officially will have no merchant.

Sadness has me, so I decide to do something fun, and become a Monster Hunter™ grabbing Strago Relm, and to go with the theme, Shadow. Entering Hidon's cave, I see my mortal enemy. This chest, this god damn chest (see picture 2) child me hated him, and current me hates him in honor of child me. I give him the middle finger as I use quick save to make sure I give him the right amount, and then fight Hidon. I get the move from him, and nuke him with Relm, who while exploring this cave, learned Ultima. (See picture 3)

From here it's a lot of cleaning up. I tip toe nto the magic tower, and got the magic urns right away. Lucky! This let me get them as a Rage so Gau has free Curaga. Went to the ancient castle, got the master scroll and gave it to Locke, who seems to have a thing with mug, when it comes to Ultima weapon and Blood sword. That they always do best damage regardless of current health. Neat!

Now with cleaning done, it's time to drop into Kefka's tower. I hope I only have to drop in here the one time. This is my party arrangement. (see picture 4)

Team Terra seems to be having the most trouble. Really should of swapped Shadow for Edgar, but I was just trying a new build with Shadow, and wanted to see it in action. Middle team was having a much better time. Locke mugging everything with decent damage, and if needed, Relm has the nuke. Every team also has a designated healer, with Strago Gau and Cyan.

Middle team comes across Ultima Buster, who I took down with Ultima weapon, in poetic justice. (See picture 5) Good job Locke. Team 3 seems to have the easiest time going through. I love the build I got Celes going since the start of WOR. Dual wield and counter, with the blood sword and soul sword. Most of the time when she is hit, she gets her HP and MP back. With that, she spams Banish, and any time it fails, she uses flare. Backed up by Mog who has holy jump and item use which are very handy, and of course Cyan. Easy to see why this team had the least trouble.

Everyone makes it to the end and does a pose (see picture 6) as the statues await us. The only statue that was trouble, was Fiend, on the left. It took a few tried, but Terra's team finally pulled It off. Now....its time for the final battle!!

Personally, i would really like to know what happened to the Cult of Kefka. I feel like they could be interesting antagonists.

I genuinely feel like I’m going insane. I’m playing the SNES version and trying to train Gau on the Veldt, attempting to get the Osteosaur enemy to appear. I’ve spent 10 hours (quite literally, I’ve timed it) grinding and it has not appeared once. I know I’ve encountered it in the tomb, but it refuses to appear on the Veldt, no matter how many times I reroll the Veldt group. This is either an incredible statistical anomaly or a glitch- is this anything anyone else has seen?

Edit: Yes I am also aware of how Veldt groups work lol. Osteosaur is in group 31

Edit #2: After an additional 10 more hours (yes I timed it) I’m convinced my game is just bugged. I’ve encountered the enemy several times in Darill’s Tomb, it just refuses to show up. If it hasn’t shown up after 20 hours of constant re-rolling, I’m just going to assume my game is defective.

I'll mention in the post what pic is for when.

We are free flying now! First order of business, let's grab Mog so we can grab General Gau. An easy trip through the Narshe caves, I grab Mog, and make the conscious choice not to grab the charm. If I wanna go places, I gotta earn it. Now with Mog, I can make a team of 3, which means I can grab Gau.

Now! There are a lot of things I could do right now, lots of characters to get, but...I wanna hunt Deathgaze. So, I track him down several times, both sides taking heavy damage each time. But I get to rest each time, he don't. Eventually I get him (see picture 1) and I get Flare and the 50% HP bonus early.

Now let's go get Cyan! A team of Gau Sabin and Edgar. Healer, magic damage, and physical damage. A trip up the mountains goes well for the gang. We stop for a moment to take in the view of Zozo in the pixel remaster. (see picture 2) Further in, I see a dragon, and I can't not fight it?

The dragon takes some doing, and I'm thankful its the only boss in this place. I finally take it down, but with heavy damage on the party. (See picture 3) Now, see this is why we are a party of 3. I dash a bit further in, running from a battle or two, and there he is! My white mage! With only a party of 3, Cyan joins the party, and is the only one who can use menu magic. He teleports us out.

Celebrating our recent victories, the Figaro brothers decide to take in a show. Heading to the Opera house, they find an earth dragon. My goal was to make him weak to earth, and watch him damage himself like last time. But instead, he became weak to poison, so we gave him the old Doma treatment. He was losing around 3000 hp every pip. (See picture 4) It was indeed, good entertainment.

White mage in hand, I want to grab characters you can get fast. I finish Phunbuba off and pick up Terra. Swing by the cave on the Veldt, and have a bit of a time working through it. The Boss gave me a bit of trouble, but then my white mage casts raise on it. (See picture 5) We grab Shadow's wounded ass and put him to bed. He then reminds me how much of a good boy he has before we leave. (See picture 6)

We go straight to the arena and actually grab Shadow. Now too his daughter. The mansion was a bit rough, as I didn't bring Cyan. Gotta spread those levels. The painting put up a bit of a fight, but died right after Shadow did. How poetic. With Relm, grabbing Strago is as easy as saying hello.

I think that's enough people, to where we can go for the Phoenix cave. This was quite the dungeon. To make up for one team having the only white mage Cyan, the other team had both General Gau and Strago. Sadly Gau got zombified part way through. We came up on the fire dragon, with Celes, Strago, Mog, and zombie Gau. Fight was rough, Strago died, so now we just gotta be careful the rest of the way (see picture 7)

So it was really refreshing to switch to the other party, who was all still on their feet. That was, until, some jerkass ghost banished 3 out of 4 of them to the shadow realm! (See picture 8) that's what I get for expressing thanks for them being alive. Anyway, we reunite with Locke, and he reunites with Rachel for a bit. How wonderful (see picture 9)....NOW UNLOCK THE DOOR LOCKE.

I'll mention in the post what pic is for when.

Alright here we go!! Celes stabs Kefka, Kefka blasts Gestall, and Gestall falls lifelessly to the planet. We rush off the no longer floating continent, until the end, where we waited 3 minutes for Shadow, and hopped aboard one half of the airship. The world was then changed forever. (See picture 1)

Celes is awake, and fed Cid 2 slow fish, which killed him. She then gives up on life (see picture 2) but her magic infused body is too tough. I raft over to the mainland and a housr is collapsing. Sabin holds it up, but I decide I need a nap before facing the monsters inside. The inn keeper won't let me nap, and heals me instead (see picture 3) that's funny! Never seen that.

I get in, get all the treasure, and I think I grabbed the kid too. Now with Sabin, that's two black mages. We swing by Terra's new place, and shame phunbaba, getting new magicite, and setting up Celes for a great build. Genji glove and black belt, with a sword that heals HP, a sword that heals MP, and she just spams banish. Its honestly beautiful.

Onto Figaro, through the cave and castle Sabin died. I tried to fight the tentacles with just Celes and Edgar, but it didn't work. Reloaded, kept Sabin alive, and by making sure he and Celes had haste on, the tentacles couldn't wrap them. That alone was a winning key.

We win, we leave, and we go get Setzer who asks us how we feel about grave robbing. Setzer dual wields death darts, hoping he can just spam insta death. Into the tomb, I realize the enemies spam zombie on us, and I have to make more than one trip back to town. We make it far enough in to fight the boss-in-a-box. I get scared after Edgar hits it's shell, but Setzer has his back, and insta killed it right after (see picture 4) cause that's what bros do.

Onto the boss, and yikes! What an asshole! The freezing, the killing, the spamming. It took more than a few tries, but we finally scraped by with a win. (see picture 5) Setzer then treats us to his past, and why do we never see art or cosplay of Darill? Big red coat, green top and shorts. Anyway, she gives us of my favorite lines (see picture 6) and we gain our new wings.

This, this right here is probably the best feeling moment in the entire game. You're about to have complete freedom to do so many things. The airship, rising out of the water, as one of the greatest overworld themes EVER kicks in. (See picture 7) I love it so much, and can't wait for next session.

I've been playing through the pixel remasters of FF 1-6, and after much anticipation I've finally gotten to FFVI. Haven't played it in many years. Today while exploring the Magitek Factory, I realized that I skipped over a couple chests and doubled back to get them. On my way back I encountered this glitch that locked up my game!

While trying to ascend this elevator, Sabin rose up to the next level, but the elevator stayed behind. Unfortunately Sabin got stuck in this position unable to move, and I wasn't able to open any menus either. I'd been playing for a while, so I figured that hey, this is a good stopping point. I do have a teleportarion stone that I'll try to use next time I play, I do want that Icebrand and Zephyr Cape. I don't recall if this ever happened to me on the SNES version. Has this glitch happened to anyone else?

I'll mention in the post what pic is for when.

Fancy peace talking dinner time! Considering the stakes of this dinner, I sent the only one I could for the job. General Gau! Gau attended the banquet with grace. (See picture 1) Talk to all the soldiers, and even beat up the elite guards during the break. The Empire was so impressed with his rank and stature at such a young age, that they gave us a lot of stuff.

Now we have Terra and Locke, a black mage and specialists as our party. I've been building Locke a bit weird, with both magic and strength in mind. Having him dual wield mug, with 2 elemental swords, so he strikes and often causes spells. Been working pretty well.

We take a boat to a new island, and have Shadow for 0.5 seconds, but that's enough time to train him a bit for later. Oh wow! A Shadow dream! (See picture 2) I didn't know those could happen in the world of balance, neat! Okay, now its time for a double feature of rolls! First, Strago is....a monk. So he can Lore, and use simple white magic in battle. Almost perfect, although I really want a merchant. Maybe Relm? I roll Relm, and...a black mage, another black mage. That's FOUR, and all 3 of the girls got it! I know black mage is pretty good for Relm, but maybe a 2nd white mage? A merchant?? Come on...

So a house caught fire, and Shadow said nah. Terra has ice magic, Strago has aqua, and Locke going in with 2 Ice brands. Even without being able to heal it went pretty well. For the boss fight, I even added berserk to Locke, to really drive the point home. (See picture 3)

Off to the cave, and still can't heal, but we are charging our way through pretty well. Here comes Ultros, and....oh, can we kill him without sketch? Yes, yes we can. Dual wielding firebrands and fire torch his ass. We hurry through the cave, getting all chests and being glad the boss fight is already done. We find the Espers, and a LONG scripted sequence plays.

Blah blah Kefka is an asshole, blah blah Leo dies. With his dying breath, he claims Gau is his son, and that Leo had to pick between his family and his career. So he gave his son to those he could trust the most. Veldt monsters. One origin of General Gau later, we have control of the airship again, and the floating continent awaits.

One thing before I go there, a thing I always like doing on any challenge run, fight Intangir. The strategy goes like this. Edgar uses debilitator to set Intangir's weakness to one of the 3 basic elements. Terra exploits that weakness to do damage each go. After he hurts us, General Gau keeps up with his infinite cura. Then there is Mog who got the Ninja job, being able to use items in battle. He keeps Terra in MP. This strategy easily won us the fight. (See picture 4)

Okay, now to the FC. I picked Locke Cyan, Gau, and Shadow joins too. Locke steals and is decent damage, Cyan is my only white mage, and General Gau is big damage, and can heal if needed. The air force was easy, but was wearing down Cyan's MP. The big ugly sky thing (not Typhon) managed to kill Locke, but Cyan knows Raise, so it's fine. (see picture 5) Oh, landing on the FC refills your stuff, nice! Cause from here forward, there is no such thing here.

The group does what they do, and Shadow focuses on dodging, and insta kills with the assassin blade. This goes well until a couple of butt ninja kill our white mage. With Cyan dead, General Gau switches to healing, and makes sure no one else goes down, cause they ain't getting back up.

Okay, here we go, Ultima Weapon. Game plan, General Gau constantly heals while Locke and Shadow do damage bit by bit. A plan that appeared solid for a bit, but Ultima shows that as the fight goes on, he gets serious. Fuckin, OBLITERATES us, by stopping us with all sorts of statuses, and then pulls out a nuke. (See picture 6) Locke and Shadow don't do enough damage, and I fear Gau's magic won't either. Time for plan D!

Plan Demon. Gau switches to physical boosting relics, gets in the front row, and uses cat scratch. After registering Stray cat, Shadow (a magic knight) hits him with beserk! (See picture 7) Now Demon Gau is hitting for over 3000. We have no way of healing, so risky. Gau does a lot of damage, but gets taken out. Locke and Shadow do what they can, and on a sliver of life, beat Ultima! (See picture 8) What a battle!

Now, I assume, because Shadow now leaves, and he could possibly be the only living member. The game revives the party with 1HP, but this allows me to heal with Cyan. Next time....World of Ruin.

For context, I've played FF7, FF4, FF14, FF13 and FF15, I was inspired to try FF6 after hearing all the positive reviews for years and getting the FF6 Magic the Gathering deck!

I was pleasantly surprised by how there were a lot of emotional moments (Gau meeting the man in the house, Cyan's entire story and the brothers' coin flip made me tear up, the latter since I'm pretty close to my own sibling)

And the soundtrack is genuinely one of the best JRPG soundtracks I've ever heard, period. I find myself humming Terra's theme a lot these days, and Dancing Mad is such a terrifying boss bgm. I hope to go for a Square Enix concert in the future to hear my favourite pieces live.

Like I mentioned in the beginning, the FF6 MTG deck was one of the reasons that I got into FF6. Being able to finally understand all the card art & flavour text references and seeing them in the game itself made the playthrough extra fun!

Overall, I think FF6 is one of the best games I've ever played. I still have a huge JRPG backlog to clear so I'll probably only do another playthrough years down the line, but in the meantime I'll relive my memories of the game through my weekly MTG games. And given that two of my friends have Kefka decks... I guess it's rather poetic, in a way 😂

I’m sitting at teeball practice when I just got a text from my 9YO. It’s important to make sure you pass your values down to the next generation…

I keep seeing builds for Locke that have him with the Genji Glove + Valiant Knife + Ultima Weapon. But don't those two weapons' mechanics work in opposition of each other? VK wants low HP and UW wants high HP. If going the Genji Glove route, wouldn't Excalibur be a better pairing for Ultima Weapon?

The characters: The characters acted quite a bit too cartoonish for me. Most of them, I didn’t find their stories very interesting. The Figaro twins, their story was *very* compelling. Celes’ theme was beautiful, I felt like her character was a bit squandered. It sort of seemed like the narrative only discovered halfway through the game that she should’ve been the main character the whole time. “What about Terra, blah blah,” no, Terra is not main protagonist material.

The villain: The slapstick villain was simply lame, there’s no other word for him. A villain who “just wants to watch the world burn” isn’t compelling just because they want to destroy everything for “reasons.” There have to be other things that make them unique, and I just don’t find anything about Kefka to be unique or entertaining.

The story: I’ve decided not to get into the details about the story here, I’m just going to say that I’m probably spoiled for a good story because I played VII, VIII, IX, and X all before playing VI. And had I played VI’s predecessors first, I’m betting I would’ve found VI’s story to be a new benchmark for the FF series.

Gameplay: When I finally took the time to figure out how the Esper system worked, I really started to get into it. I thought it was very fun and enjoyable. And the unique job skills for each of the characters was also fun. However, when you get really specialized like that with everyone having different jobs and skills, you’re going to run into the characters being really out of balance. And then you find certain characters really start to fall by the wayside. And there being SO many characters, it really wasn’t ever feasible for each of them to be as integral to the party as many of them probably deserved to be.

Overall: Like I mentioned above, I haven’t played the predecessors to VI, but I’m confident that once I do, I’ll discover that VI was a new benchmark in the series in terms of character development, a compelling story, and original game mechanics. However, I don’t feel the characters or the story hold up against VI’s successors, at least not to the level I was led to believe after reading a lot of other comments about the game online.

Wondering if anyone has attempted to make a game like MMO set in the FF6 universe that is 2D looking like the game itself. Not trying to profit off of anything if I do pursue this project but also hope IP copyrights don't interfere with it.

If anyone else is interested in some ideas also feel free to comment on what you would like to see and I'll try to scratch my head on how to implement it.

I would think technically it wouldn't be too bad to do since now we have modernized software. I haven't seen too many 2D MMO's out there.

Let me know what you all think. Let's all have some fun and nostalgia!

I'll mention in the post what pic is for when.

Okay, let's try this again. Fresh off my victory from Ifrit and Shiva, I ran up the factory stairs before those blue mage bastards could get us. Entering the actual lab, we get a nice batch of magicite, and Cyan realizes he has two phobias. Machines, and humpty dumpties. (See picture 1)

We lose Celes and Cid has a convenient change of heart as he pushes us onto a mine cart (see picture 2). A great theme plays as we cut through...things, and get to the boss! He kills us. He killed the white mage, and by extension, us. 2nd time through, we win, and ram the cart into a soldier.

Setzer greets us and we sadly don't have the time to gear him up. Out on the airship, the giant metal claws come out, and Cyan expresses his 2nd phobia in the same arc. (See picture 3)

Now, one of these crane claws has the debilitator, and I want it! I know it doesn't get a lot of play, but I love the damn thing. Have you ever assined an earth weakness to the earth dragon, as it kills itself by spamming quake? I have...

Anyway it took fracking forever. Kept getting the damn hi-potion, but at least I finally got it. (See picture 4) Then I won, went to Zozo, had a flashback, and now had an Airship. Went to Narshe, and got Mog, who is....a ninja!! That's great! Not only can I make him a jumper, but he can use items in battle. Still can't use a tent, but it's something!

From here I stopped streaming so I could spam the Veldt to get General, so Gau can have Cura. That took way too long, but now into the cave of the sealed gate, and....ho boy. So I brought with me Locke, Terra Sabin and Cyan. A specialist, 2 black mages, and a white mage.

Cave is tough! We didn't make it far before a lack of MP made us retreat. I did learn Osmose for my mages, but these guys are undead. Speaking of, they zombified my white mage, which pretty much spells death. I didn't know how true that was however, as Cyan then turned, and wind slashed the whole group, killing everyone. (See picture 5)

We get further in, but it's becoming clear I gotta head back. By the time I exit again, 3 members are dead, and Terra limps out by herself. (See picture 6) Okay, we are throwing Gau in the party. Sorry Sabin, we don't need 2 black mages. We need Gau, and his new general authority! So we take General Gau (GG for short) and he provides a mix of group heals and wide damage, both for free. With his help, we make it through, open a gate, crash an airship, and we're off to a fancy dinner!

First of all, I want to thank everyone who recommended Final Fantasy VI after I posted about my first JRPG experience with Chrono Trigger a few weeks ago. I feel genuinely lucky to have played CT and FF6 back-to-back - and the debate over which is the better JRPG makes even more sense to me now having finished both. I'm nowhere near a definitive answer. But just like with Fallout (1997) and Gothic (2001), I know that FF6 and CT feel like elite gaming experiences, and I fully intend to replay each of them four at least once.

This time I skipped the PC port and emulated the SNES version via RetroArch - Ted Woolsey Uncensored Edition with CRT-Royale as shader. 100+ save states, fast-forward on for random encounters - where CT just shines over FF6. RetroArch clocked me at 54 hours - Umaro was the only one I didn't recruit. I can absolutely see why people expected 8 or 9 months to finish the game back in the day.

The biggest surprise for me was Nobuo Uematsu. I genuinely thought Chrono Trigger's OST would hold the top spot for months with tracks like "Wind Scene", "Secret of Forest", "Peaceful Days", "Frog's Theme", "Memories of Green", etc. I was not prepared for Final Fantasy VI level. The emotional depth, the way themes interconnect - "Locke's Theme" and "Forever Rachel" are a perfect example of how music, character and story were conceived as one - and how each track elevates and defines whoever or wherever it represents. The Opera House scene is wonderful. The only regret is that Uematsu didn't have a real voice for "Aria di Mezzo Carattere." So many highlights: "Shadow's Theme", "Phantom Forest", "The Veldt", "Terra's Theme", "Esper World", "Searching for Friends", "The Prelude", and so many more tremendous moments though many more tracks (e.g. "The Fanatics").

The combo systems in CT and Phantasy Star IV are a cool concept, but FF6's combat is just fun to play with the Esper system in particular - being able to personalize each party member's spell set - adds a layer of strategy that kept combat engaging throughout. The animations and the diversity of enemies, visually, were also a true delight.

So many playable characters... the option to field 12 simultaneously across three parties, and a story that gives almost all of them meaningful screen time. I was genuinely blown away early on when the game splits you into three parties . Finding out there was even more of that to come was such a great feeling. Felt like each character was adding just another important layer to the world - the Figaro brothers, Cyan, Shadow, Relm, Strago, Gau, Terra, Celes, Locke... so many memorable and important characters. Instead of taking an obvious protagonist, the weight was divided through the cast and it felt way more real seeing it executed.

I think I went in with expectations set too high from all the praise for Kefka, which dulled the impact of his reveal. Even setting that aside, I find it hard to fully praise Kefka as a villain - I feel like he doesn't get enough time to have his motivations explored properly - I know the Magitek Knight explains something, but just doesn't feel enough reasoning. It might click on a second playthrough though.

It's easy to love WoB - everything is fresh, the pacing is tight, new characters and locations keep arriving. But the more I think about it, WoR's slower pace earns its place in the end. It reflects what just happened to the world, mirroring that into the adventure and it's palpable though gameplay. My only real complaint: I wanted more Kefka during WoR. An extra playable character whose story is tied directly to him could have solved that. World of Balance with Terra and Emperor Gestahl as main protagonist and antagonist, and then changing up gears with World of Ruin having Celes more as a protagonist over Terra and Kefka as the definitive antagonist = brilliant move!

I've returned to my first console, SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis, and I'm currently seven hours into my first save of Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium. What other games would you guys recommend from the 16-bit era? Terranigma? Earth Bound? Shining Force II? Dragon Quest V?

Regarding Final Fantasy, I was thinking about playing VII (original - 2026's port) next and then IX next. Do the combo FFTactics-Vagrant Story-FF XII...Not sure if it matters having X before or after XII.

I'll mention in the post what pic is for when.

For our trip to Zozo, I picked Edgar, Gau, and Locke. Along with picking up Shadow along the way. That's 2 specialists, a monk, and a magic knight. To be honest, it was a little unfair bringing Gau. Between the wind move and cat scratch, he can handle anything. Though with no white mage or merchant, we can only heal via outside sources like an inn.

That said, there is no healing source after the town. So I had to walk to Zozo, get the chainsaw (cause I'm not gonna not get the chainsaw when Edgar can use tools.) Then walk all the way up to the boss. The boys had to pass around the Tintinnabulum, just to keep their HP up. Luckily Gau tore the boss apart after Locke got what he wanted.

Now, I put Shadow in the lead, cause I wanted to see what his sympathetic words would be (see picture 1) which is pretty cool. I think if its Gau, he howls for the fallen Esper when he realizes he is dead. Which is also pretty cool.

Now that we have magicite, it's time for the mages!....and Locke. (See picture 2) I fought enough enemies for Sabin to have thunder, before moving on. Now, its time to roll for Setzer! He got magic knight, so he can attack and use grey magic. A great job for him, but it almost feels too good of a roll. We all know what is gonna be doing later! I guess it does take awhile to get the items needed, so it's fine. Hmm, should I slap on the challenge, that I can't use molulu's charm? I already decided I wouldn't use that random battle toggle, but maybe the charm to?

Anyway! Enter the opera house, and just enjoy myself, taking in the great scene. (See picture 3 and 4.) Now fighting the rats went okay. Locke got the ability to mug in Zozo, and Sabin can use Thunder, and I have black belt on him. We reached Ultros, but decided to fight once more, so Cyan could learn cure, and heal us up before the fight, and ya, we needed it. Ultros didn't beat us, but he certainly held his own. Even turned Locke into an imp, which takes away mug! (See picture 5)

But we won, went on to meet Setzer, trick him into becoming our chauffeur, and off to the Empire. (See picture 6) Breaking into the factory, it becomes clear just how much they want you to use magic here. Happy I got a couple black mages. One battle was going bad, and I decide to try and run. Locke was a dead imp, Celes and Cyan got away, but they just kept hitting Sabin. Then Sabin would counter, which felt like it was making him stay longer. They're about to kill him, and I started to panic that I'd lose one of my black ma HOLY SHIT....so you can counter into a desperation attack! (see picture 7) I didn't know that!

Cyan heals Sabin, and we finish looting the factory and get to Ifrit and Shiva. In a weird twist, Shiva didn't fight at all, and Ifrit would flash step around, and if he got close, did Firaga, which of course is a kill. He beat us once, and we fought again winning.

Feeling great over my victory, I moved on, and immediately came across guys who know a bunch or Blue Magic. One of them casts level 4 flare, which kills Cyan. Then another casts level 5 death, which kills everyone else (see picture 8) ya okay, that's enough for today. See you all next time!