Transcript

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome back to the Gaming Backlog book club. We are here to chat about the early moments of Final Fantasy 6. And as a reminder, we do go into spoilers. So if you want to avoid that, start at a previous episode, play along and come back until you’re caught up.

So I think we even both mentioned it in our intro expectations episode. The. The kind of just the pre credit or the intro credits roll I suppose, before you really get control of anything.

You know, after the three Magitech armor suits walk up to that cliff and see the city from afar, it kicks into those intro credits, right, where it’s just the kind of music and the three characters are sort of trudging through the snow as they slowly approach the horizon and the city starts kind of rolling up in the background.

It’s just such a really great cinematic use of the Mode 7 graphics that the SNES had, which I’m not sure how familiar you are with that, but allowed the devs to rotate and scale a background layer to simulate movement. Obviously this is all kind of back in the 16 bit era.

Obviously this effect is used to really good effect in games like Super Mario Kart and F0 and Star Fox where you’re just like going directly into the background. And I especially loved it how it was used in Super Castlevania 4 where in one level you use Simon’s whip to grab or latch onto something above you and then the whole room rotates around you.

[00:01:33] Speaker B: Oh, that’s cool.

[00:01:35] Speaker A: So I played, I played that also on the SNES classic.

And it’s just such a cool and kind of surprisingly immersive bit of graphics work in this low bit era of gaming.

While which with us revisiting here, Final Fantasy 6 at this point, it’s just you notice the things that they were trying even way back then in the 90s to put that cinematic touch in some of these games. And it shows actually if you look back on it from now.

[00:02:05] Speaker B: Yeah, it definitely does.

Yeah. I mean the intro on this is.

I don’t know. As I said, we haven’t played it before, but I’ve seen a little bit to the intro. It’s just so iconic.

[00:02:16] Speaker A: Yeah, it’s, it’s. It’s iconic. That’s a good way to put it. I mean it’s, it’s. And it’s so slow paced, but it’s so epic at the same time. I mean the scene right at the beginning is also the first appearance, to my knowledge, of Biggs and Wedge in the Final Fantasy series. I had seen Them, of course, and I think you probably have too by now of in many of the future Final Fantasy releases. And I always associated them with their namesakes and inspirations from Star Wars. But it’s cool to see where it all began. I knew they were Biggs and Wedge, but funny enough, since I’m playing on the Super Nintendo Classic, I found that that Biggs is actually named VIX in the original release. So I looked it up and it’s because that original translation missed that little detail because of the translation, the way you translate from Japanese to English. So they named him Vix instead of Biggs and then they recorrected it for every re release after the original one. Just random fun facts that I found out.

And yeah, I mean, I guess playing this here on my end on the Super Nintendo Classic, I just got to say that. Oh boy, the walk speed and battle speed is slow.

[00:03:27] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.

[00:03:29] Speaker A: But. Which I’m hoping that you’re probably taking advantage of the kind of quality of life thing of speeding things up here and there.

But, you know, at least sitting three feet in front of my TV makes it worth it, I guess. On the floor or on an ottoman. Fun times.

[00:03:48] Speaker B: Yeah, for the.

That’s funny. Yeah, for the Pixel remaster, because I’m playing on Switch 2. The Pixel.

Yeah, the Pixel remaster version on Switch 2. And in the Options menu, there’s an option for changing it from walking to running. Like, you’re just speed.

[00:04:03] Speaker A: Oh, by default.

[00:04:04] Speaker B: So I’ve just. Yeah, by default. So I just switched it to run so I don’t have to press the button down. It’s just running all the time. You can also speed up the battle systems or make it so it like auto battles if you want. Or.

[00:04:18] Speaker A: Like.

[00:04:18] Speaker B: I think I have mine though, on the Classic where it’s wait your turn or not wait, but like wait until it plays out. Instead of like. I think there’s an active.

[00:04:26] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:04:27] Speaker B: Where we just keep going, going, going.

[00:04:29] Speaker A: The active time battle, the ATV bar, which was also widely used in Final Fantasy 7 and probably 8 and maybe 9.

[00:04:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I have it on the wait right now.

[00:04:42] Speaker A: So basically it pauses so you have a chance to make a decision without getting attacked.

[00:04:46] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:04:47] Speaker A: Okay, that’s good.

[00:04:48] Speaker B: There’s still a couple times, though, where I take a little too long and I do get attacked. It’s right now in the early game. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s more of like also.

It’s also me. It’s taking long of like me picking. Of picking if it’s multiple enemies. Picking the enemy like which I want to attack.

[00:05:07] Speaker A: Actually target someone.

[00:05:08] Speaker B: Yeah. So it’s like I’ve been using the joystick, but I’m now like about starting with the joystick. But now like for movement I’ll use the joystick, but in battles I’m kind of using the little D pad on the switch to switch in between because it’s a little easier to pick who you want.

I will say though they, yeah, I will say they did make it a nice thing though that if you have an attack that can get everybody, you can just hit ZL like the back bumper and it’ll. It’ll automatically just put arrows on everybody and you can hit attack so that I, I like that they added that little like shortcut. I think that’s nice.

[00:05:44] Speaker A: Cycling all the way through.

[00:05:46] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:05:46] Speaker A: Yeah. I’m curious. I mean I guess I’m curious like at how far in will I have to decide that I am over the slow speed of walking would it take for me to get to. For me to decide, okay, I’m switching to the Pixel remaster actually instead and see how much time was actually wasted. I don’t know. Well, I’m gonna try to power through.

[00:06:09] Speaker B: Yeah. If you want, because so you walking isn’t there running button or you can buy running shoes. Isn’t that what you can use?

[00:06:15] Speaker A: Yeah, you can buy running shoes at the store which has a relic that takes up a relic slot. So if you’re able to sprint by. By default, then that’s even more. By default.

[00:06:24] Speaker B: Default.

[00:06:24] Speaker A: Yeah.

Battle ready.

[00:06:27] Speaker B: I changed it within like the first half hour of playing. I looked through the options and saw that and I was like, oh, I’m changing that from walk to run for decent speeding.

[00:06:35] Speaker A: The walking is slow. It’s.

And it, it is typical. And it, you know, part of it might even just be the capabilities on the dev side back then or just that, you know, if you walk half the speed then you can. What’s it called, you know, make the game take longer. Which was a big deal back then too because you, you know, a kid or a parent for a kid spending some money on it, you gotta make it make it last until the next major birthday or gift giving moment or lunch money or what’s it, Allowance money.

Here we are.

[00:07:09] Speaker B: Yeah.

Another I will say on the. I don’t know if you have this, but if you don’t, you’ll hate this.

On the Pixel remaster, I like this little feature.

So if I click the right thumbstick in it turns encounters on and off. So I can just turn them on and off randomly.

[00:07:28] Speaker A: Random battles.

[00:07:30] Speaker B: So when I’m in the world map, sometimes I just want to see where I’m going. I’ll shut encounters off so then I can run around the world map and see.

And then if I want to like do some leveling up, I’ll just click the thumbstick and turn encounters back on and then encounters will happen.

[00:07:46] Speaker A: Interesting.

[00:07:47] Speaker B: It’s actually, I don’t.

[00:07:48] Speaker A: You don’t even really need to fight if you don’t have to. Okay.

[00:07:51] Speaker B: You don’t have to know. But like, as I said, I’ll use it sometimes to like scope out a place quickly.

[00:07:56] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And then I’ll go back to like the star and then.

[00:07:59] Speaker B: Yeah, and then I’ll go back to the start. Or if I’m in the world map, go back to whatever and then I’ll just turn back encounters on and I’ll fight. But it’s also nice enough times where if my party’s like almost dead and I need to get back to somewhere to like rest or save or whatever, then I can just shut encounters off. I know it’s slight cheat and I get it. It’s not playing like a traditional way.

[00:08:21] Speaker A: But which is fine. I mean, it’s a little feature they.

[00:08:24] Speaker B: Added and I’m going to take advantage of it. I like it.

[00:08:26] Speaker A: If you consider a couple details here. Right. So number one, Quality of life is called quality of life for a reason. And it sounds like it’s extremely helpful.

Yeah, I think if you consider that we obviously have a massive backlog to get through because this is called the Backlog Club. It helps you get through your backlog more quickly. So that’s. That’s a perk, I would suppose, I would say. So that basically as background, the Super Nintendo Classic version of Final Fantasy 3 in this case is. Which is the North America release of six.

The only. There is no change to the game itself.

The only Quality of life upgrade is that built into the Super Nintendo Classic, there’s a.

A save state feature. So you have four save state slots when you hit the reset. The physical reset button on the console.

[00:09:17] Speaker B: Okay.

[00:09:17] Speaker A: It brings you back to the main menu and you can save wherever the hell you are instead of having to go to a save point. So that’s useful and sounds like that’s. I think that’s probably a thing on the Pixel remaster too. Because it’s.

[00:09:28] Speaker B: Yeah. On the Pixel Remaster.

So there are the little save spots that you’ll see that were obviously just the Original game.

[00:09:35] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:09:35] Speaker B: Then if you’re out in the world map, you can hit save, like and just save it.

[00:09:40] Speaker A: Or that’s a feature in the main game. Yeah.

[00:09:43] Speaker B: And. Or at any point there is a quick save feature that is always available.

So whenever I’m anywhere, I can just hit quick save and then it’s just saved a quick save file and that’s where I restart from, which is nice.

[00:09:59] Speaker A: That is the equivalent of what I’m doing then with the save states, which I really only keep like two save states at any given point. One is like when I log off for the play session, I’ll just save it there just in case I wasn’t at a save point in that moment. And then the other is like, okay, if I’m about to fight someone that seems to be difficult, I, you know, have a backup just in case.

[00:10:20] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:10:20] Speaker A: And I don’t want to run back from the save point to them.

The other quality of life perk here that I don’t know if you have this in your Pixel remaster is I’m playing with a Super Nintendo controller, which is awesome.

[00:10:32] Speaker B: Oh no, I’m. Yeah, no, I’m playing on the Switch.

I could though, right? Because they did they come out. Yeah, they came out.

[00:10:41] Speaker A: They came out with one for Nintendo Switch Online games that you could. I don’t know if you have one of those.

[00:10:48] Speaker B: No.

[00:10:48] Speaker A: Will it. Will it work for Pixel Remaster and other non Switch Online games? I have no idea.

[00:10:53] Speaker B: I have no idea. Yeah.

[00:10:54] Speaker A: Regardless, it’s a good game nonetheless.

[00:10:57] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, if I was to play. Mainly I’ve just been playing this handheld, but if I was to put it on the tv, I have a Switch to Pro controller, so I’d probably just use that.

[00:11:05] Speaker A: There you go. But yeah, that makes the most sense. It has a solid D pad, that thing.

[00:11:10] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:11:12] Speaker A: Well, okay. I mean, I guess getting into the actual game itself. Right. So that first mini boss against the Lightning whelk, it was called the giant snail thing.

I know, it’s just. It’s very clearly a tutorial mini boss.

But it would have been nice if they let you figure out on your own to not attack the shell. Maybe by attacking the shell and getting some damage from it, rather than just telling you immediately outright how to. How to fight it. So you don’t even take any risk in that moment. And it just says just don’t attack the shell.

[00:11:46] Speaker B: Yeah. And then basically when he’s in the shell, you just defend on your turn.

[00:11:50] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Just basically skip your turn and move Along. I mean, I suppose that’s useful information for somebody, but it’s. It takes the risk out. Right.

Minor gripe. And this is very early game, so there’s some things to make up for it later. So right after you fight that the Esper who seem to be the summons in this game yet to confirm that. But I thought it was hilarious that they basically just blink away, Biggs and Wedge out of nowhere and, you know, who knows what happened to it after you get knocked out. But I suppose we’ll figure that out pretty soon because we’re back in Narsh.

And then you learn pretty quickly after regaining consciousness and trying to escape that Kefka is the one who put the mind control crown on you.

And he works for the.

I guess there’s no voice acting here, so it’s all the pronunciation is just whatever we make of it. Works for the Gestalian Empire Emperor who wants to take over the world with the resurgence of magic. Kind of like that war, the Magi. What was it, a thousand years before or 100 years before?

I’m, you know, glad we’ve been able to break out of the mind control for now, but I guess we’ll see where that goes. Because you were a pawn of the empire.

[00:13:11] Speaker B: Basically.

[00:13:12] Speaker A: And then they. They immediately introduced Locke, who is another character that I knew the name. Like we both said we knew Terra and Kefka before playing this, but I also knew the name of Locke beforehand, but pretty much nothing about him. And it’s interesting playing this now and analyzing Final Fantasy 6 through our current modern gamers lens because obviously this is a foundational video game, but I have to compare it to things that we’ve experienced in our own gameplay. All that to say Locke, to me, gives off a kind of snarky Nathan Drake kind of vibe.

[00:13:46] Speaker B: Yes. I don’t know if you get that too.

[00:13:48] Speaker A: It made him.

[00:13:50] Speaker B: I think I kind of get that in my head when I’m reading his.

[00:13:52] Speaker A: Lines, you know, just with a bandana over his hair. It made him instantly likable.

And back to the Star wars reference. He’s asked to smuggle Terra out of Narse, just like Han Solo. So it’s like they’re very clearly, you know, taking as much as they can from there in this early part of the game. But, you know, all references are there for a reason. I was later a little surprised that a literal king was one of our party members, but they did say that Edgar was so young, so maybe that was him acting differently from a traditional king. That would Never risk themselves for their people.

He sure flirts with Terra way too much, though. In a very 1990s type of way.

[00:14:38] Speaker B: Yes, definitely.

[00:14:41] Speaker A: And then, I mean, I guess just like, couple other. So Kefka basically just lights Figaro on fire.

[00:14:49] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, he totally does.

[00:14:52] Speaker A: That was just. Just. Yeah, just. Okay, there you go.

You’re on fire.

And then the whole castle kind of does that weird shifting Transformers thing, which was interesting, too. For some reason, whenever Kefka says he, he. I read it in Michael Jackson’s voice. Just because of the way it’s written and the way that he looks. I. There’s just no getting around it.

Yeah, kind of.

You know, it’s a product of its time.

There’s also. And I know you’ve recently played Final Fantasy 10.

I know you’ve touched a number of other JRPGs over the years. Something about wandering around castles and towns like South Figaro in classic 2D pixel art JRPGs just seems really timeless to me. I mean, you have Earthbound Pokemon Red. For me now. You’ve played many more than I have Chrono Trigger Now Final Fantasy 6. You know, obviously the list is significantly longer than that, but those pop immediately into my head. Just like the hitting up the shops, talking to the townspeople, who have, like, one to two lines of conversation in them at best, but are still upbeat and social. Resting at the inn or a hotel to heal up. Kind of like we did in also in Undertale a few seasons ago.

It’s just. There’s something so classic about an early game.

Small town in a jrpg.

[00:16:14] Speaker B: Yeah, there is. I mean, I’ve just been all the towns that we’ve gone into so far.

Yeah. I literally go and like, in Figaro.

Figaro Castle, like, I go through, like, every door, talk to every person, just everything I can do. And then in this, obviously, you need to, like, check, like, barrels and crates.

[00:16:33] Speaker A: And other things, figuring it was all chests. But there’s more to it.

[00:16:39] Speaker B: There’s more to it. I don’t know if it works for you, but for me, on the Pixel remaster, if something has something inside of it or it can do something, a little red exclamation mark pops up over it. So that’s how I know. And then once I’ve got it, it just grays out the exclamation mark.

[00:16:56] Speaker A: And flipping around is useful.

Yeah, but, yeah, I mean, there’s so many random items kind of all over the place. And then.

Yeah, talking to people is actually, like, entertaining. Not just, you know, there’s so Many games these days, and I think open world games are extra egregious with this, but they just throw in like this filler NPC dialogue that really doesn’t need to exist at all because they don’t have anything interesting to say. But this is so much better. Even though it’s like a snippet of a conversation.

[00:17:26] Speaker B: Yeah, it is.

[00:17:28] Speaker A: And I think you know something that I noted too. So while it’s a very simple concept, the front and back row idea in combat is just so great. Obviously you take considerations that you do half damage, but you also take half damage. But then there’s the weird wrinkle that if you get ambushed or attacked from behind, then surprise. Your back line is now your front line and the people you were trying to protect back there are now in trouble. I learned that almost immediately when I switched someone to the back line. And it’s just. I mean, it’s just something that’s so, so simple, but it provides that little bit of a little bit extra strategy and then also something, I don’t know, something unique about it.

[00:18:12] Speaker B: Yeah, it does. I don’t think I’ve actually. Are you talking about the lands? Like I see obviously multiple enemies where it’s like say four enemies and it’s like two and two or three and one or whatever. But for me, when I only have. I always have a party of three, maybe four. I don’t know how can you switch them on the.

[00:18:31] Speaker A: So, so if you go into the. Like in the main menu where it shows your party members, whoever’s in your party in that moment.

If you, if you, if you basically instead of clicking on something, if you just move your cursor to the right and it, it highlights the actual character portrait.

Okay, you can.

[00:18:50] Speaker B: I think I know what you’re talking about.

[00:18:52] Speaker A: I don’t remember if it automatically like pops an arrow up there and you can just slide them left and right or if you have to hit like confirm and then do it. But you can basically just. It has like the portrait shifts to like a box and there’s a little arrow. So you can have it on the left side of the right side. So the left side is the front line and the right side of the back line.

But then because that’s. Because usually your party’s on the right. But then if you get. Yeah, if you get like sneak attacked or whatever, then it. Then your back line becomes your front and vice versa. So yeah, just FYI.

Worth trying out.

[00:19:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I’ll check that out when I log back in on that. Yeah.

[00:19:26] Speaker A: And then, you know, in those cases, like, I don’t know. I mean, I feel like we’re early enough game that we. I don’t get wiped or anything, so I don’t do anything about it. But if you want to. One of the menu items if you scroll is roe, I think it’s called. You can switch your row mid battle.

[00:19:41] Speaker B: Oh, yes.

[00:19:41] Speaker A: Okay.

[00:19:42] Speaker B: All right. I know. Yeah, yeah, I have seen that.

[00:19:47] Speaker A: And right. So, okay, so we get through the caves, leaving South Figaro, and you learn from the Returners about what the big plan is to fight back against the Empire and go to the river.

Once you get the river and fight Ultros the Octopus.

And then we’re confronted with a choice. So we talked about this on the side and you chose differently than I did. So I went with Terra’s team because we started our adventure with her, which made her feel like the primary protagonist. So it just felt right to get her memory back faster, I guess. That’s my headcanon on it. And not that it’s all that consequential, but, you know, the whole choice there is pretty straightforward. The river kind of just pops you right out by Narshe. And then since they didn’t believe that I had Edgar the King with me, we just snuck back into the town. The way we snuck in or snuck in the way we snuck out. Real simple, going back through the caves. And then you pop out in that same house you left before.

[00:20:51] Speaker B: I was just gonna say before, actually, before we get to that part. There was the part of. Remember, there was the part of Vargas. Remember we met Vargas in the mountains.

[00:20:59] Speaker A: There was that boss right before, right.

[00:21:01] Speaker B: Before, he was like. He’s like.

His picture shows up like, Yuga, we’re all little pixel people. And then he shows up and he looks like it’s like Super Saiyan from Dragon Ball Z or something just buffed out. And I was like, oh, my God.

[00:21:16] Speaker A: That’S a good point. I have noticed that many times and thought to myself, why are we pixel art? Like, I know we’re in the world map as pixel art, but why are we pixel art in the battles? And then see. And then you see all these enemies, like, super detailed and well drawn, and then it even like it double hammered. Hone the point to me because we. When you eventually fight, like fake, well, half fight Kefka with Sabin later, I was like, okay, I wonder what like super sweet jester drawing they did for Kefka. And no, he’s just a pixel art dude.

Yeah, so I’m. I mean, I wonder. I probably. Maybe it’s worth looking if there’s any interviews or any kind of details around why they hand drew all the enemies and then just kept using the same pixels for the main party. Interesting.

[00:22:08] Speaker B: For the main. Yeah, but. Yeah, but it was. Yeah, because it was taken on Vargas and I was like, that guy was actually. I think I might have died in one of the battles. But then you get saved by Sabin.

[00:22:21] Speaker A: Yes.

[00:22:21] Speaker B: I think is Edgar’s brother.

[00:22:23] Speaker A: Right.

I’m pretty sure. Edgar’s brother. Correct. Yeah.

[00:22:27] Speaker B: Yeah. So. And he joins the party, which was cool. I like Saban.

[00:22:31] Speaker A: Yeah. I liked his mechanic, which I’ll get into the whole mechanic thing in a little bit. But. Yeah, but it tells you again, they’re like, oh, I got to use this move. And then you. You do it. And I, I really like his especially because he basically use like fighting game move combos.

[00:22:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I like it too.

[00:22:49] Speaker A: Yep.

So it’s really kind of fun to do that. Punch those into the D pad and then they like confirm it.

But yeah. Okay, so I know you did which scenario first. I think you did Terra second.

[00:23:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I did Terra second. I did Lock first in my scenario.

[00:23:07] Speaker A: So Lock was my second. So we swapped them. What did you think of Lock scenario?

[00:23:12] Speaker B: I liked it. I mean, it was. It was fun. It took me a second, I’m not gonna lie. I had to look it up to figure out how to get through one of the passages to get through. Like, it. It took me a split second, like, oh, you gotta steal the uniforms and.

Yeah, yeah.

[00:23:35] Speaker A: I mean it like it kind of. Because up until that moment, you don’t know that you can steal something beyond an item.

[00:23:42] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.

[00:23:44] Speaker A: So it, it kind. I mean, basically like any, any of these party member characters, I usually try out their, you know, special mechanic in every battle just to see what happens. Especially actually in any jrpg, if I have a thief type character that has a steel option, that’s always the first move I use on an enemy.

[00:24:01] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:24:02] Speaker A: Before trying anything out. So I like, fortunately did that first and lucked into the answer.

[00:24:07] Speaker B: I had you. As I said I’d use it earlier with him in fights and just got, as you said, stolen items. So I didn’t think about it here. And like I fought, I fought the merchant and actually I might have done steel, but it stole like a potion.

I don’t know. But it didn’t do anything else. And then I ended up killing him. And then I did a couple times. I was like, how Do I get past this? So I just looked it up very quick and I literally just saw the like keep doing steel until you get uniform. And I was like, okay. And then I literally. Then I didn’t look at anything for the rest of that because then I kind of figured it out and got through the rest of it.

[00:24:39] Speaker A: So nice.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, playing through Locke scenario, it started to dawn on me that even though Final Fantasy 6 is often described as a pretty dark game within the series at least, and a dark story overall, and we still have a long way to go. So I’m not negating that yet. And you know, this is early game, but it does still have that light hearted 90s Final Fantasy slash JRPG tone to it with the pixel animated goofy things like Sabin earlier laughing at his own jokes and the pixel animated facial expressions of him laughing is just so kind of over the top because that’s all they had to work with.

[00:25:21] Speaker B: I like their eyes go big and I like it.

[00:25:25] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, the acting shocked and things like specifically like this, like Locke stealing the clothes from the merchants and the guards to sneak around. And then they do that funny like covering themselves up pose with the surprise expression in the battle.

Yeah, Now I see where Agent 47 from Hitman got his ideas. Just straight from Locke, straight from Locke stealing outfits.

But yeah, I mean all those kind of little details that you see from these characters is really great. And hats off to the pixel artist there. Really good job.

And then they keep piling on these random moments of humor. So there’s the secret tunnel and breaking out Celes from jail was funny too with the sleeping guard and the fact that he fake woke up.

Basically sleep talking, sleepwalking.

Like I thought we were about to go into a battle right there.

[00:26:21] Speaker B: Yeah, so did I.

I had to go back in. I didn’t realize that he had a key to something.

[00:26:29] Speaker A: Oh, the key to the clock thing?

[00:26:30] Speaker B: Yeah, the key to the clock.

So I was like looking for that and then I just like it’s just looking through rooms and clicking on stuff. And then I clicked on him and I was like, oh, I got a key. Okay, there it is.

[00:26:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I suppose. I mean I. It’s at least in these, you know, I think probably this game, like most final fantasies do, it will open up a fair bit later. But in so many of these older games and especially older semi linear games, I have that kind of. Not fomo, but more like when I know that something is the next part of moving, progressing things forward, I’ll just go to every other room available.

So I went past the room with a jail cell because I showed you where it was and went into the room with a clock tower, opened up all the chests, and then said, the clock tower said, oh, it’s not working. And so I figured, okay, I gotta find something to get this thing. And then, you know, later you realize it’s actually a door.

[00:27:20] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:27:22] Speaker A: But.

Yeah. So, you know, you bust out Celes from jail. The boss fight was interesting, and it took me a bit to realize that her runic special ability had to be re upped every turn so that you can be that lightning rod to absorb enemy magic attacks. I thought, when I clicked it, I thought it was a set it and forget it kind of thing.

And it.

[00:27:48] Speaker B: No.

[00:27:48] Speaker A: And you just set it once and it works the rest of the battle. And so while it occupied all of her turns to just use it. Every single turn.

That was significantly better than burning any more Phoenix Downs. I had.

I used it once and then thought it was set it. Forget it.

Kept fighting and having her attack.

And then she got killed. And I had to use, like, five Phoenix Downs from lock.

[00:28:12] Speaker B: Oh, wow.

[00:28:13] Speaker A: Because every single next attack was at her and would kill her because she was revived at 50% health or whatever it is. So it was fun.

[00:28:25] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:28:27] Speaker A: That was fun. Now, holy crap. Sabin’s scenario is so much longer than the other two.

[00:28:34] Speaker B: Yeah.

I’m trying to remember the second one. What’s Terror’s one?

[00:28:38] Speaker A: It was so short. It was Terror’s. It was. It was. It was literally just you.

You basically get off the raft. Get off the raft. You’re outside of town, like a short walk from the town, and then you just go through the cave that you escaped out of.

[00:28:54] Speaker B: That’s right. Yeah.

[00:28:55] Speaker A: And then you just go through the cave.

[00:28:56] Speaker B: Right.

[00:28:57] Speaker A: That was it.

[00:28:57] Speaker B: So you have to do the. I remember. Okay. Yeah. You go through the cave, and there’s like a little pattern that you have to follow.

[00:29:03] Speaker A: Yeah, the little white thing.

It was like the tiniest puzzle, and you end up having, like, the weird spinning thing that if you choose the right one, you don’t do anything. And if you just keep. So I had one fight and then just was able to get it.

[00:29:18] Speaker B: Same.

Yeah, that wasn’t too difficult.

[00:29:21] Speaker A: So. So, yeah, I mean, I think I. I. By accident, I ended up going from shortest to longest. It sounds like you kind of bounced around, but because terrorism. Super fast.

But yeah. Yeah. Savings is just so long. Like, it kind of makes you wonder why.

I guess to introduce him as a character or develop him a bit further.

Just had more story to tell there, but it’s just. I mean, why even split it into three scenarios? Why not just, like, set it up for us and have it. Have us go through an order? I guess some autonomy is good, but. Yeah, we here, we get our first. You know. Okay. Kefka lit the whole castle on fire before, but I feel like this is where we get our first true taste of how awful of a person he is.

[00:30:06] Speaker B: Yes. Yes, it is. He is awful.

[00:30:11] Speaker A: Poisoning a river so that everyone in town and the castle nearby dies is not a thing good people do.

Mm. Mm.

Cyan, the samurai’s family and the king and everyone else around are all killed by this too, except for Cyan himself. So they immediately throw some weight into how bad Kefka is. And then I mentioned the battle earlier, where you see Kefka in his pixel art against your pixel art, and he’s just basically another weakling that’s too smart and too cruel for his own good, since he can’t even take a hit from you without running.

[00:30:42] Speaker B: Without running. I know.

Yeah.

[00:30:45] Speaker A: But that’s kind of another archetype of a character.

Smart and orders people around, but then doesn’t want to fight himself.

Mm. You know, typical people at the top of the chain. Then, you know, once you get out of that imperial camp and make it to the haunted forest full of witches.

[00:31:05] Speaker B: Yeah, those. Yeah.

[00:31:07] Speaker A: I really. It was a great section of this game so far. I liked the sort of weird because it’s. I expected to be in, you know, another dungeon, basically, but it switched you into sort of a weird side scroller perspective with. With. If you take the wrong route, it pops you out to the beginning of the thing, and you got to go through it and, like, follow the right path. So very much like a haunted forest concept. And you end up at a train station.

And at that point, when I saw the train, I realized I knew it was coming because this is one of the other iconic Final Fantasy 6 things.

[00:31:42] Speaker B: Yeah. This is when all of a sudden he’s like, oh, it’s the Phantom Train. I was like, oh, yeah, I’ve heard of this. I remember that this was a thing in the game. Yeah.

[00:31:52] Speaker A: And, like, I, you know, it was kind of fun. Like, I.

I don’t know if you did this, but I thought it was really fun to have a ghost as part of your party.

[00:32:01] Speaker B: Yep. I always had a ghost. Yeah.

[00:32:03] Speaker A: For, like. I mean, and he’s literally just there for this one single area.

All you got to do is talk to him and he says he wants to come along, so that was sweet. And he had the possess ability, like a really cool little like very minor side character. And I think, you know, Shadow and Cyan made for a good combo of companions for Saban. I. I thought Shadow and his dog were pretty cool.

[00:32:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Shadow’s dog does a lot.

[00:32:29] Speaker A: Oh yeah. And he seems to just randomly attack, not attack.

And. And you know, I don’t know if you picked up. There was a chocobo merchant in the town before there that.

That sells throwing stars, so I picked up a bunch of those.

[00:32:44] Speaker B: Yep.

[00:32:45] Speaker A: And like those. Those are like. That’s a great.

Shadow’s a great character. Ninjas are just cool in general.

[00:32:50] Speaker B: I also picked up a relic that I put on Shadow and the Black Belt. I basically can attack. He attacks like twice sometimes, which was awesome.

So yeah, relics me to. I. I had done so I know I said like I could turn encounters off, but I did not. I. I did where I kind of grinded and got my guys up a little bit and I had a lot of Gil and I bought a bunch of potions. But then I’ve also bought weapons and upgraded quite a lot on my main characters right here. So I think. Is it Sabin? No, no, not Sabin. Edgar. One of them has a crossbow. I think it’s Edgar.

[00:33:27] Speaker A: The crossbow that I use.

[00:33:29] Speaker B: So I like. Yeah, I upgraded a few of them with their weapons, their armor, helmets, everything.

[00:33:36] Speaker A: And that’s the thing. Right. It’s like, you know, even with quality of life additions, it’s. I can understand like, obviously grinding in older games was very much included to pad out the game time, but also it’s like a big part of a JRPG is like fighting random enemies out in the wild and that’s how you skill up and all that. Yeah, it seems worth it. Like, it’s. It’s good if you want to kind of just power through the game to be able to turn them off or make them weaker or whatever else. But I’m glad you’re playing this kind of the.

The standard way, more or less.

[00:34:05] Speaker B: No, I’m playing.

I feel like I might be weaker than what should be where I’m at. I don’t know. I think my. I want to say my character is mostly maybe level 13, maybe 14. I don’t know what you’re supposed to be at around here. I mean, I’ve gotten past it.

[00:34:21] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean just. Just being in the, in the, you know, knowing about the random battles in the world map. I think I Just kind of like go in circles for a little bit until I get a level or two up from wherever I was when I entered the area. Seems to be useful, I guess.

[00:34:36] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:34:39] Speaker A: But yeah, yeah, it’s a.

The turn based combat is fun. And I think.

I guess I’ll say is when I finally reached this. The Phantom Train boss, right. You could you go through the thing all the way to the left. I was so stoked because it. This is such an iconic boss from FF6 for some reason and it’s so random. I think probably what is most referenced whenever I hear about the game is how freaking awesome and hilarious and random it is that you can use Saban’s meteor strike blitz move to literally suplex an entire train car. So you just grab it, the entire train, jump up in the air and smash it on his head. And then indeed, since I knew this was a thing, it was the only attack I had him use on it.

[00:35:26] Speaker B: You’re okay. I did not. Dude. I almost.

I beat this in one in on the first try. But two of my party members were dead. Like they were out at the end. And I think Shadow for me, I was just kept attacking with shadow and doing throwing stars because I had bought earlier before it was finished. Like I bought like 50 throwing stars or maybe solid.

So I was using because it does a good amount of damage and then. Yeah, and I kept using some Phoenix Downs on people. But it only heals like.

[00:35:58] Speaker A: Yeah, it’s not enough.

[00:35:59] Speaker B: Barely anything. But then also the train turns you into imps. And I didn’t realize that but like I had the potion. I forgot what it is. The one that cures.

I can cure you from being an imp.

[00:36:10] Speaker A: Cures the imp status effect.

[00:36:12] Speaker B: Yeah, the imp status effect.

Yeah. It was tough battle. I got through it. I got really lucky.

But I did get through it. It was tough though.

[00:36:21] Speaker A: You know, it’s just so weird and out there.

But I think it was so well executed.

[00:36:28] Speaker B: I wish I’d used that move that you did though. Because I did not think about that with Saban.

[00:36:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, to be honest, I never would have thought about it. Except that’s like the one thing that comes to mind if you. Aside from Kafka existing, that’s the one thing that I remember or I will. Whenever someone says file foundation, I’m like, oh yeah, you can suplex the train.

Weird, random, awesome. But yeah, you know, you get through that. And then. And then on top of it, they had the audacity to just emotionally gut punch you. And right as you’re escaping the ghost train to the afterlife.

Cyan’s wife and kid hop aboard.

[00:37:03] Speaker B: Yeah, that was cruel, man. I mean, obviously earlier you’re him and you go into your room and you see like his wife’s dead on the ground and then he pulls back the covers and his kid falls out of the bed dead. And I was like, oh, my God.

[00:37:18] Speaker A: Yeah, so there’s the dark to, you know.

[00:37:21] Speaker B: Yeah, that’s the dark to the game counter.

[00:37:23] Speaker A: The other side, that’s more light hearted.

[00:37:26] Speaker B: And then, yeah, you see them getting on the train. Your son’s just like, don’t worry, dad, I’ll continue to practice.

[00:37:31] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:37:32] Speaker B: I was like, oh, yeah.

[00:37:35] Speaker A: Not cool, man.

[00:37:36] Speaker B: No.

[00:37:40] Speaker A: Well, and then, you know, you just got to move on after that, apparently.

And you know, it didn’t take Cyan all that long to move on. But anyway, so you move on.

Shadow bails on you once you arrived at the waterfall.

Which seems just like the type of thing a ninja would do, doesn’t it? Yeah, it’s like, oh, I helped you move along. All right, see you later. I have a suspicion he’s going to be back though, because I’m pretty sure.

And then, you know, once you jump into the waterfall, which again has that cool Mode 7 background effect again.

[00:38:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I like. Yeah, that was cool.

[00:38:17] Speaker A: Both in the jumping over the edge with the rainbow and then when you’re actually fighting but you fight enemies while falling down a waterfall. Again, so random yet badass. I guess that’s what you do when you know you’re designing pixel art and you end up on the veldt. Meet the feral boy named Gao and then wander the plains there either fighting or end up in mobils. I don’t know what pronunciation you want to go with there. Mob.

[00:38:42] Speaker B: Liz. I don’t know. I know what you. Yeah, Marbles, Mobiles.

[00:38:46] Speaker A: I don’t know. I think. I think my brain says it should be mobiles, like the thing you put over a baby’s crib. But mobiles, mobiles, whatever. It really doesn’t matter. You know, it’s the little town, it’s got some kids, got a random guy running around like a chicken with his head cut off. And then the injured soldier in the bed in one of those buildings. Who. Did you go through his kind of series of.

[00:39:10] Speaker B: Yeah. And took his note and I mailed it.

[00:39:13] Speaker A: Yeah, take the note and then mail it. And then you take a.

What was it?

Did you go back and forth with the two guys?

[00:39:22] Speaker B: I went back to him after I mailed it, but he didn’t really say much.

[00:39:27] Speaker A: And then I just kept like I went to some other place in the town and then I went wandered back in there and he had another letter on his desk. So basically his girlfriend, wife, his significant other in the other town said just kept asking or mentioning things.

And so you bring like a book, another letter, a record and then something else. Oh, and like a potion because someone is sick. And so you do like one at a time, you bring it back to the carrier pigeon, USPS or ups. And hey, maybe they sent Norman Reedus. But anyway, and then eventually he gives you this, this relic as a reward for doing all that stuff. He still can’t walk or get out of the bed, so sucks for him. But since you were helping him out, he gives you this item that I don’t remember exactly what it was, but it seemed pretty useful, which I immediately clipped on someone.

He had a weird name though, so that’s all I can really tell you out of it.

[00:40:34] Speaker B: Interesting.

[00:40:36] Speaker A: You also hear from multiple people in this town. And this is something I quite love about these more old school games is you can get all the info you could possibly need about directions, the names of the places you need to go to, the items that you need, etc. Just by talking to the NPCs. Like they actually had something useful to say. They only had one or two lines of things to say, but they had something useful to say back then.

There’s no need for a guide, a walkthrough, a wiki. As long as you just pay attention to the interactions you have, you can get the info you need at least to progress.

So hey, another perk for old school games. And so a couple people in town talk about the kid roaming the veldt with the monsters, which is obviously Gao, the guy that you met when you first wash up on shore. And one guy mentions that he threw some dried meat to get a monster to go away when it attacked him out there. And the feral kid went after it.

And what do you know, the regular item merchant has dried meat for sale.

Did you go through this process?

[00:41:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I did. It took me, it took me a little bit to figure that out. I’m not gonna lie.

I’d like done everybody in the town. And I kept seeing Gal and I kept attacking him and run off.

And then I realized he was like saying, oh, I’m hungry, I’m hungry. And I was like, oh, that’s right.

I bought like three pieces of dried meat, like just ran for my team and I was like, oh, I have that in my items.

[00:42:07] Speaker A: I was like, I wonder.

[00:42:08] Speaker B: And so I gave them the dried meat.

[00:42:09] Speaker A: Yeah. So it’s okay. Yeah, it’s very much like they’re giving you hints. They’re not telling you go do this. Which. So this is where I’m glad they’re giving you hints. Instead of like that tutorial boss where they say, don’t attack the shell and. Right. You give up when you decide to do this. You give him the meat. And then you have that funny interaction between Gao and Cyan and Saban before he joins the party where Gao’s calling him thou or like Mr. Thou and Saban just hates it. And then you get this interruption that reaches out to you. Basically, it teaches you Gao’s mechanics. And it’s another one of those odd fourth wall breaking moments, like before the.

During the scenario party scenario selections where the Mog, or the It’s a Moogle is the name of the creature I want to say Mog is the name of. Like, a specific one goes and says, oh, like, who? Which party do you want to join? So there’s another one of those, but it’s some other creature I don’t recognize anyway, since the way they described it was like this kind of odd species of a blue mage that I was super used to from FF 8, 9 and 10.

I was really down for having Gal in my party because I love that class in JRPGs when they have them. And so afterwards, I was just wandering the veldt for a super long time, collecting enemy attacks, or Rages, I think they call them for him.

Yeah, And I tried out a handful as well. Who knew a stray cat could pack such a powerful punch? I don’t know if you got that one.

[00:43:35] Speaker B: I don’t know. Okay, so this is. This is. I’m wondering if this is something different with the pixel remastered version, because when I click on Rage or whatever, when I select one, I had already. I had done. I had done like one or two leaps, okay. But I had about nine or more different attacks.

[00:44:00] Speaker A: Okay.

[00:44:02] Speaker B: So I don’t know if that was already there. Like, and I could just pick them. Like, Stray Cat was one of them.

[00:44:08] Speaker A: You had done nine. So I think from what I gather, the way the leaps work, I mean, for starters, okay, I looked at his. The second I read that kind of fourth wall tutorial moment, I went into his skills section, looked at the rages, and I think I have like somewhere between four and six already there.

And then when you do the leaps, right, he goes away and Then you don’t even finish the fight. And then the next time he pops up, he comes back. And I think you get it described it as you get the specials from both. Both of those groups of enemies. So you probably picked up like another three during that process before you looked at it. And I think what I understand too is that you.

When you select a rage from his menu in a fight, you choose whichever one you want, which doesn’t give you quite enough detail. You kind of just got to experiment, I guess.

[00:45:02] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:45:03] Speaker A: And you choose whatever enemy it was. And then it either just does a regular attack or it does the attack of that rage.

That’s.

[00:45:13] Speaker B: That’s. And then figured out. And then you can’t control him after that.

[00:45:17] Speaker A: It’s just on autopilot.

[00:45:18] Speaker B: Yeah.

Okay. So yeah, I remember I got like.

[00:45:21] Speaker A: Were rabbit. Is it where Rabbit Where. Yeah, no, where Rat rabbit.

[00:45:26] Speaker B: Where Rat Doberman was one stray cat I had as well.

And then what is the. Yeah, whatever the bunny’s called.

The leaf bunny. Leaf rabbit. Something like that.

[00:45:39] Speaker A: Something like that. Yeah, well, the straight.

[00:45:42] Speaker B: I had those along within like a few. Yeah. Like maybe five to six others that were already there.

[00:45:50] Speaker A: Yeah, that’s. I mean, so someone on Discord mentioned the stray cat attack being like one of the best single enemy attacks this early in the game. So I thank you for that little nugget because you wouldn’t expect it otherwise. I mean, I basically, when I was wandering the belt, I just leaped everything every time that I had Gao in my party because why not? Yeah. Yeah.

But yeah, I didn’t really get much of a chance to use him in fights outside of the Veldt. So I guess we’ll see how useful he is outside there.

[00:46:21] Speaker B: Same thing I did.

[00:46:21] Speaker A: Kind of a random character, but yeah, I mean, you go through the veldt, you go through the cave. You pick up a old school diving helmet because for some reason that means you’re allowed to swim. I guess. Old school logic. And then you end up in the ocean current and it uses the Mode 7 graphics again. Kind of like on the river. And then you land on a dock and then you can shop around. Did you go into the bar?

[00:46:46] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:46:47] Speaker A: Where.

[00:46:48] Speaker B: Yes, Yes, I did. Yeah, I know what you’re talking about. Yes.

[00:46:53] Speaker A: So this guy’s. This guy’s wife and kid were just poisoned in a castle. I mean, okay, I guess we can’t assume that we know how long has time. How much time has passed in game.

But for me, for us personally in real life, it’s maximum been like an hour, hour and a half. So his wife and kid just died by poisoning along with everyone else he knows in the castle.

And then he goes and sees them get on the afterlife train. And then I guess he just says, all right, I can forget them now. Because he gets all flustered by the working girl coming onto him in the bar while Sabin says that his monk training lets him just be chill.

Yeah, it’s like, yeah, okay, I see where your standards are. Cyan and well, anyway, so you basically, I kind of just shopped around and see what they had. There wasn’t tons of stuff, but it’s useful enough really. Just kind of re upped on regular items and.

And then you hop on the boat and they ferry you over to their side. And when you finally arrive at Narshe with all three of your separated parties to reunite them, it doesn’t let you save immediately. So we set the stage here for our next segment and I have to say, it’s looking pret. Epic.

[00:48:12] Speaker B: Yeah, it is. It looks like his. Yeah, the whole.

Oh, what was I gonna say? The whole force. Not force, but no, I’m blanking long term.

All of his troops. Yeah, all the whole armies come in to Narsh.

[00:48:29] Speaker A: So there’s, there’s.

[00:48:30] Speaker B: Even though they were like, we’re neutral, it’s like.

[00:48:32] Speaker A: Well, yeah, really, like couldn’t care less about anything.

[00:48:36] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.

[00:48:37] Speaker A: There’s definitely a bound to be a huge battle. But luckily for us, we just formed our giant party. You know this.

To be honest, it kind of feels like one of the big climactic moments from major fantasy movies and books especially like something straight out of Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. And yet we are still so early in the game. So I could be wrong. This could just be gathering our group of misfits. Fellowship of the Rings moment before things get even crazier.

Here’s the hoping.

[00:49:11] Speaker B: Could be. I think. Yeah, I don’t know. I think we’re going to have a good battle.

[00:49:17] Speaker A: I think we’re gonna have a good battle with Kafka’s army. And Kafka is obviously going to escape or never begin with. Yeah, but he’ll throw some other boss at us.

[00:49:24] Speaker B: Oh, I’m sure. Yeah, we’ll see how that goes.

[00:49:27] Speaker A: Yeah, well, we’ll see, we’ll see. And there’s, you know, from what I can tell, there’s nowhere for us to grind out levels, so just gotta go in with whatever you have.

[00:49:36] Speaker B: No, hopefully. As I said, luckily I’ve upgraded some of My weapons on my people and other stuff.

[00:49:40] Speaker A: So yeah, the item, the weapon and armor micromanagement is a fun part of these games too. It’s not like they give you like 50 options. It’s really just like the next option is a stronger sword. But always check out shops.

[00:49:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I also like when I’m in the shop and I’m looking to buy a sword, I don’t know if it does this on the regular, but on the pixel version it shows your whole party underneath and it’ll give like if it’s an upgrade, a little green arrow above their head or if it’s the same it just doesn’t do anything. Or if it’s like a downgrade, it’s a shows. But then it only shows too. Yeah, it only shows on the people who can also use those weapons or armor or whatever too. Which is really useful to be honest.

[00:50:25] Speaker A: Right.

[00:50:26] Speaker B: Makes it easier to figure out, hey, they’re using this.

[00:50:28] Speaker A: Yeah, it’s better to not have to bounce between menus all over the place just to see if the person has it. And then when your party’s not with you, you can’t actually look at any of their stuff either. So. Yeah, so it’s convenient. Yeah, I guess. Do you have any favorite party members at this point? Whether that’s personality wise, viability in battle or anything? Any other reason?

[00:50:49] Speaker B: Oh, I will say.

I definitely. I think I like, I. I do like Edgar. I’ve got him up quite a bit and he’s with the crossbow. He does good amount of damage.

I like Locke as well, just with his personality. I still feel like though, for me he’s a little weak. I need to sort him up. And then Saban. I like Saban. I grew in Saban. I think Saban’s just funny. He reminds me. I feel like he’s like a character out of Street Fighter or something. I don’t know.

[00:51:22] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, that’s a good point. He’s like, he’s got, he’s got the ego, he’s got the weird kind of flat top haircut. It looks like it’s.

[00:51:34] Speaker B: Oh, God. What is the character?

Why am I blanking?

[00:51:39] Speaker A: Ooh.

[00:51:43] Speaker B: Oh, who’s the character? Yeah, I know, Flat top.

[00:51:46] Speaker A: Oh, the character from Street Fighter.

[00:51:48] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:51:49] Speaker A: Is that guy named Guile maybe? Or is it Sergeant Guile?

[00:51:53] Speaker B: Yeah, Guile. Lieutenant Guile, whatever. It’s one of them. Yes, Guile. He kind of reminds me of Guile.

Yeah, maybe that’s what they did. But yeah, that’s who he reminds me. But yeah, I Like them. I like both those two.

A little partial to cyan right now as well because of.

I just finished like a fantasy book about samurais in Japan. So that was kind of like cool.

[00:52:21] Speaker A: But yeah, like I like his Bushido moves.

You know, you don’t have to do anything crazy, you just kind of select it. But there’s. They’re entertaining. I use the one where he jumps around and attacks four times pretty frequently. Yeah, I’d probably say similar. You know, it’s just the diversity of roles in the party. It’s not quite exactly like an assignable jobs type system I would say obviously because I think that’s one of the big things in what was it, four or five?

And it really kind of honestly fits some of the archetypes of most JRPGs. But I guess it’s just been long enough since I’ve played any Final Fantasy game that I just forgot about it. So I like Locke being the thief who can steal items.

Edgar’s crossbow is sweet. I’m curious to see what other tools he picks up along the way. And yeah, again I love Sabin’s mechanic of the fighting game input. But combos. Yeah, that’s to do with different attacks. I think that’s great. I’m curious to see like. So Selous’s kind of runic absorb magic damage thing just seems kind of niche. Like is it going to get used that much?

Possibly.

Gauss think is interesting.

Yeah, it’s just like I like how they give every character in battle their own little flavor.

Yeah. And then you know, they write their personality in a specific way.

[00:53:46] Speaker B: But I like Bannon because he can do prey and just heal.

[00:53:51] Speaker A: Yeah, he’s just the white, you know, the white mage. But his I think prey doesn’t even take any mp.

[00:53:57] Speaker B: Nope.

[00:53:58] Speaker A: So that’s just like. It almost seems like a permanent party member in the late game. Unless he if able to.

[00:54:06] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.

[00:54:07] Speaker A: Right.

But no solid setup here and I think, you know, savings like spur of the moment kind of fighting game input sync kind of seems like the types of things that Claire Obscure recently just killed it with like just live like hitting an action when you’re getting attacked or about to attack.

Which I, I, you know, I thought took a lot of inspiration from Final Fantasy 8 because I don’t know if you have you played 8 at all?

[00:54:36] Speaker B: I have not played 8.

Yeah, yeah, 8.

[00:54:40] Speaker A: So Squall, the main character of 8 has his primary weapon type.

[00:54:44] Speaker B: It’s like a revolver sword thing.

[00:54:47] Speaker A: Yeah. I don’t know if the official word was gun blade. But yes, it’s literally it’s a gigantic revolver or like magnum revolver, but that has a. Basically a bayonet or like the whole barrel has an extended giant sword knife thing sticking out of it. So I mean, as a kid when I was playing this, I loved that you could specifically just with him, when you attack, if you time hitting R1 at the right moment, you pull the trigger and shoot. When you’re like in the middle of the enemy, so you’re slicing and shooting at the same time.

[00:55:20] Speaker B: Oh, that’s cool. Okay.

[00:55:22] Speaker A: So like that kind of thing I think just is awesome. It seems like something that’s similar to what the Claire Obscura is doing. And. And then it reminds me of Saban’s thing a little bit here too. But I’m. I’m. I. From what I can tell, there are more party members to pick up too. So I want to. I’m really curious to see where.

What they can do, what they’re about.

[00:55:40] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely. Same here.

[00:55:44] Speaker A: Well, any other first impressions?

[00:55:46] Speaker B: No, I’m just. I’m enjoying it so far. Yeah, I’m ready to keep going. It is quite nostalgic. It’s. Yeah, I’ve just found myself having fun with it.

[00:55:56] Speaker A: The music is pretty solid for the time, obviously. I know you mentioned the first little bit. You were.

What’s it called, multitasking and listening to something else at the same time. Did you pick up any of the. Or listen to any of the music further in?

[00:56:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I have.

The last however many few times I’ve been playing through the whole scenarios, I was listening to all the music.

[00:56:21] Speaker A: The music on the veldt was kind of a silly music for the Phantom Train was cool.

[00:56:26] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was a good one.

[00:56:28] Speaker A: They’re doing a good job. Cool. Well, for next time, our goal is to play until you complete the Magitech Research facility or factory.

So once you finish that and as much roaming or side questing as you’re in the mood for, save and quit and hang on for next time, just don’t move past that factory or whatever it’s called. Magitech Research something. That’s where we’ll stop and wait for the next one.

[00:56:53] Speaker B: Yep, sounds good. Thank you everybody for listening.

Thank you for following along with us here for Final Fantasy 6.

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