History VideoGame / FinalFantasyVI

* SpellMyNameWithAnS:
** Numerous examples due to a combination of official Japanese romanizations and two different English translations. Examples include Nalsh vs. Narche vs. Narshe, Lock vs. Locke, Mt. Coltz vs. Mt. Koltz vs. Mt. Kolts, Cefka vs. Kefka, Cayenne vs. Cyan, Bannan vs. Banon, Stragus vs. Strago, Orthros vs. Ultros, and Typhon vs. Chupon. A guard in Figaro Castle in the World of Ruin even {{lampshade|Hanging}}s this by mentioning how some of the members of the Cult of Kefka insist on spelling his name with a C instead of a K.
** Celes's name may have been meant to be [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Ceres]]. Do we care? No, we don't.
** Darill/Daryl is notable for being inconsistent even within the same version of the game: the SNES and PS versions use "Daryl" most of the time, but when you enter her tomb, the in-game message says "Darill's Tomb".

* StormingTheCastle

** Sabin and Duncan also give us the line, "Did you think a little thing like {{the end of the world|AsWeKnowIt}} would be enough to do me in?"

** There's also MBlock in the SNES and PS versions. Due to a bug, the Evasion stat is worthless and instead MBlock determines your ability to dodge both physical ''and'' magical attacks. The right loadout to max out MBlock can render a character almost invincible. The aforementioned bug was fixed in the GBA version, however.

''Final Fantasy VI'', the sixth game in the [[RunningGag bomb-droppingly popular]] ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series, is the third and final [[UsefulNotes/The16bitEraOfConsoleVideoGames 16-bit]] entry, released in 1994 for the UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem. The game was originally marketed outside Japan as ''Final Fantasy III'' because only two other games in the franchise (''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'') had been given international releases at the time.

The game has been ported twice under the original title: the first came as one-half of ''Final Fantasy Anthology'', a CompilationRerelease on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation. It added a number of CGI cutscenes, replaced all censored sprites with their uncensored originals, made some minor script changes to improve accuracy, included bonuses like a [[MonsterCompendium bestiary]] and an art gallery, added a run ability which doesn't require the SprintShoes, fixed some well-known bugs and glitches, and changed the battle transitions for the world map and dungeons. Unfortunately, it [[PortingDisaster suffered from slowdown and sound emulation issues]], at the least its original release. Its Greatest Hits edition, while still somewhat slow, is a major performance upgrade over the original release.

The other port, released on the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance, is [[UpdatedRerelease patched up even further]]: It includes [[BonusDungeon a couple new quests]], new gear, new {{superboss}}es, and four new Espers. It features a new translation which fixed some things (''e.g.'' Ultima Buster's [[MeaninglessMeaningfulWords famously cryptic]] pre-battle speech on the meaning of life) while retaining many of Ted Woolsey's [[AudienceColoringAdaptation now-iconic]] original lines and [[DubNameChange name changes]]. The GBA port also uncensored certain elements...while confusingly censoring others that had been ''un''censored in previous versions. On a technical note, the GBA port fixed numerous bugs (while introducing some brand-new ones) and featured a brighter color palette and remixed music--the last of which [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks remains a source of contention]].

Square Enix re-released the SNES version on the UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole in Japan, Europe and North America, and the [=PlayStation=] port on the [=PlayStation=] Store. A divisive version of the game was released for mobile devices and UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, but was delisted in 2021. The original version is also one of the twenty-one games included in the SNES Classic Edition, alongside other Square-developed games ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG''. A remastered version in the ''Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster'' series was released on PC and mobile devices in February 2022. This version was brought to the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch and UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 in April 2023, with extra quality of life additions and boosters, and an optional remastered soundtrack.

More notoriously, ''Final Fantasy VI'' also holds the distinction of being the last mainline title to be released on a Creator/{{Nintendo}} console for twenty-five years. After ''VI'' was released, development on ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' initially commenced for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, but Nintendo's refusal to use [=CDs=] as opposed to cartridges (which had a lower capacity for storage than the CD-ROM format) led to an acrimonious breakup between Nintendo and Square in which the latter ended up developing ''VII'' for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, which then marked the beginning of a long partnership between Sony and Square and resulted in ''VII'' becoming '''the''' KillerApp for the [=PlayStation=]. Further mainline installments as well as major spinoffs like ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' and ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' remained exclusive to the [=PlayStation=] and UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, but it wasn't until the colossal failure of ''Anime/FinalFantasyTheSpiritsWithin'' that Square went back to salvage its relationship with Nintendo - who by chance, were also looking for any third-party partners they could get to support the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube. This led to the ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChronicles'' games as a Nintendo-exclusive subseries, as well as other exclusive ''Final Fantasy'' releases like ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' and ports of the first six games barring ''III'' on the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance, remakes of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' plus ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyThe4HeroesOfLight'' on the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS, and ''VideoGame/TheatrhythmFinalFantasy'' on the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS. That being said, mainline installments past ''VI'' eluded Nintendo platforms until 2018 and 2019, when ''VII'', ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII VIII Remastered]]'', ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX IX]]'', ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX X]]/[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2 X-2]] HD'', ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII XII: The Zodiac Age]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV XV: Pocket Edition HD]]'' all made their way to the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, finally bringing the post-''VI'' installments to a Nintendo platform after so many years.

*** Random encounters can be disabled, which makes back tracking much easier. There’s also an option to boost the amount of XP and gil earned after battles, which cuts down on grinding.

* WideOpenSandbox: The entire World of Ruin, after you get the airship, is nothing but voluntary character-centric {{sidequest}}s, which was a really big deal at the time. It fits the plot of the game at that point, as all that's left is Kefka's tower, but you need to find your allies to stand a chance.

%%* FloatingContinent: [[TropeNamer Obviously]]. (ZCE: Obvious or not, this needs context)

* FloatingContinent: [[TropeNamer Obviously]].

* MagicalLand: The Land of the Espers is accessible from a bridge hidden deep in a mountain. A human woman named Madonna falls int here, falls in love with the Esper Maduin, and [[spoiler:eventually births Terra from this union. However, the Empire eventually finds this land, and the elder casts a barrier to drive out all humans (Madonna included)]].

* MadeofMagic: Espers are beings made of pure magic, not simply living beings infused with magic. [[spoiler:This means that they vanish forever once magic is erased from the world.]] Several enemies also appear to be this, since they die once they run out of MP.

* MadonnaArchetype: The mother of half-Esper main character Terra is a human woman named Madeline, literally Madonna in the original English translation, and the Esper Maduin, a member of a race of magical superbeings created to fight in the ancient War of the Magi. Their daughter, Terra, becomes the first human in a thousand years to be born with the gift of magic — only for the Evil Empire to storm the OtherWorld of the Espers, capturing Maduin and many of his fellow Espers. Madeline dies in the fighting, and the Emperor himself rips Terra from her arms. The game begins when she breaks free of the Empire's control, and joins the heroic Returners, a link between humans and Espers and the key to defeating the Empire.

* MagicIsFeminine: The game only has two natural mages, both of whom are females; the HalfHumanHybrid Terra and MagicKnight Celes. Additionally the character with the highest natural magic stat is Relm, the token girl of the group. Two other male characters, Gau and Strago, learn magic-based attacks from monsters but their power is limited next to real magic.

** Doubling as a BilingualBonus, Kefka means "toothbrush" in Slovak language.

** Intangir is something of a {{Bonus|Boss}} BossInMookClothing, as he's hard to find, completely optional, and tougher than anything else in the World of Balance. It's the same with the Brachosaur in The World of Ruin.

* TimeKeepsOnTicking: The timer in timed sequences keeps going even if you go into the menu; the only way to pause it is to pause a battle. The same applies for your save file's running clock that counts your total play time.

* VillainOpeningScene

** You know how party members not in the party loiter around the airship deck? If you somehow hack or glitch Umaro or Gogo into your party in the World of Balance, they still have places assigned to them in the Blackjack for them to appear when they're not in the party. The same goes for Shadow who normally isn't ever seen on the airship in the World of Balance.

LettingHerHairDown: [[spoiler: after defeating Kefka and helping to restore life to the world of ruin Terra's final act in the ending credits is to stand on the bow of the airship and untie her hair to flow freely in the wind, signifying her freedom from the empire's atrocities and unburdened by her past.]]

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

** The Paladin's Shield, which gives large bonuses to Defense, Evade, and Magic Block. It also blocks or absorbs every element in the game, and teaches Ultima to whomever has it equipped. Have fun uncursing it from the Cursed Shield by fighting 256 times with it equipped. It’s defensively the worst shield in the game, and inflicts every negative status ailment on the wearer.[[note]]Good thing there are pathetically weak enemies with single digit HP and pathetic attacks that make this task easy, and a ribbon accessory will prevent most of the status effects.[[/note]]
** The Snow Scarf has a defense rating of 128. For a point of comparison, the Behemoth Suit has the second-highest armor rating aside from the Reed Cloak (see below under Imp Equipment) and has a defense rating of only ''96''. Unfortunately it's exclusive to Mog, Gau and Umaro. Gau and Mog are somewhat tricky to use, and Umaro is very inflexible.
** The Minerva Bustier, Behemoth Suit, Red Jacket, Cat-Ear Hood, and as always the Genji equipment, have excellent defensive benefits and also give nice boosts to basic stats.

* AWorldHalfFull: [[spoiler:The state of the planet by the end of the game. Without Kefka, there's no more tyrant at the helm, so everything can start getting back on its feet. However, it's going to be done without the Espers, and without magic, since all of that fades.]]

* AfterlifeExpress: And the Phantom Train really doesn't care for its living passengers...

* AndManGrewProud: The War of the Magi.

** In the Japanese version, there's a bug that lets you equip any item in any slot, which requires putting it in the [[UsefulNotes/PowersOfTwoMinusOne 256th]] slot of your inventory. The US release addressed this bug by not letting you put items in that slot, and nothing else. Which means that it ''still works'', but only if you can find a different bug that puts items in that slot.

** During the climax of the World of Balance, an injured Interceptor comes to Thomas's to get the party to help him find Shadow, and stays behind there to recover. When the group gets to the Floating Continent and finds Shadow there, he won't have Interceptor to help him in battle as he did before. Similarly, [[spoiler:if Shadow dies, Interceptor becomes Relm's guardian in battle, as she is Shadow's daughter and Interceptor likes her as a result.]]

** As was standard for Nintendo of America at the time, all references to religion and alcohol were censored out of the English SNES version. Pubs were changed to [[FrothyMugsOfWater cafes]], "Holy" was changed to "Pearl", and some scantily-clad female sprites were covered up. The [=PS1=] English release kept the Woolsey script and censored dialogue, but did not retain the visual censorship, thus restoring the pubs and the nudity. The EnhancedRemake for the GBA and mobile/PC release had a new, uncensored script but kept some of the censored sprites. Both the English and Japanese ''Advance'' releases also censored the scene where guards beat a chained-up Celes in order to snag the CERO All and [=E10+=] rating--''not'' because of a real-life murder as many believed. While the mobile release undid most of the visual censorship (and was rated T for Teen), it still censored the Celes pummeling scene.

* ArtworkAndGameplayGraphicsSegregation: Terra's official artwork has her with blonde hair, but her sprite has green hair.