History YMMV / FinalFantasyVI

** Don't be so blindly loyal. General Leo is a genuinely good person who works for the emperor. However, despite how sinister and evil the emperor is, Leo stays loyal to him. This ends up costing him his life from the hands of one of the emperors men no less when he finally realizes how bad they actually are.

* SacredCow: In spite of the BrokenBase surrounding different versions and certain gameplay and story elements, the reception of ''Final Fantasy VI'' as one of the greatest entries in the series-- if not ''the'' greatest-- is a nearly universal one. Any claims of it being overrated being sure to draw huge amounts of fandom ire. It helps that its more contentious aspects are nowhere near as overshadowing as those of later games (especially ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', which is either the greatest or most overrated video game of all time, depending on who you talk to). Even though a lot of its innovations on the JRPG formula have since been [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny done to death]] by later games, they still hold up well to those used to the comparatively tame and by-the-book nature of most other SNES-era [=RPGs=] (barring only [[VideoGame/EarthBound1994 a small]] [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger handful of]] [[VideoGame/TrialsOfMana other SNES titles]]). It also helps that, unlike other popular entries, ''VI'' has never been turned into a miniature CashCowFranchise that annoys the fanbase.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny:
** Sadistic villain that wants to destroy the world and transforms into an angel? Characters with developed personalities and their own personal problems? Vast amount of side-quests with plenty of TearJerker worthy moments? The two most important protagonists are female? Dealing with real-life issues like suicide? Big deal; it's been done in video games before. But in 1994, all of this (''especially'' the prominence of female main characters) was brand-new. Not helping is the fact that ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' repeated the "sadistic villain that wants to destroy the world and transforms into an angel" formula three years later while achieving far greater mainstream success than any of its predecessors, which is why we call the "last-minute villain power-up" trope "OneWingedAngel" and not "Purple Clown God."
** At the time of its release, almost all [=RPGs=] had fairly generic protagonists, and those that had more interesting characters had almost no major further development in play after you recruited them. This was the first game where character development was one of the primary focuses of the game, and having non-combat skill sequences like the Opera were unprecedented at the time. There was nothing like this game when it came out, and while a few developers in Japan did try to match it (with titles like ''VideoGame/StarOcean''), Anglophone gamers wouldn't see much like it again until the ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' series. Nowadays, RPG games have become so cinematic that the Opera scene looks primitive in comparison, and has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWfdIJ0AACM#t=6m13s even become a punchline]] in a ''WebVideo/FinalFantasyInANutshell''.

** Don't trust a unhinge person. The Emperor seems to ignore all the red flags that Kefka is too dangerous and ultimately pays the price for trusting him.
** Don't be so blindly loyal. General Leo is a genuine good person who works for the emperor. However despite how sinister and evil the emperor is, Leo stays loyal to him. This ends up costing him his life from the hands of one of the emperors men no less when he finally realizes how bad they actually are.

* GoddamnBats:

** Doomgaze/Deathgaze, for being a CowardlyBoss that you encounter at random on the airship in the World of Ruin. He's got an annoying tendency to run away after just a couple of turns, and it can take anywhere from a couple of seconds to twenty minutes or longer to encounter him again! And you do want to encounter him, since he drops the Bahamut magicite upon defeating him, which teaches the very useful Flare spell. Of course, when you first get the airship, Deathgaze is about twice your level and will [[CurbStompBattle curbstomp]] you effortlessly if you encounter him.

** His vocalized laughter is perhaps his most memorable character trait, since it gets used any time Kefka is in a scene, often to announce his arrival or to punctuate something he said, and is even worked into the final boss theme. Even with voice acting becoming the norm for the series, some fans have opined that they want the original SNES sound effect to be retained for Kefka in future appearances, because it's just ''that'' iconic for him.

** Cyan's Soul. One of the longest dungeons in the game with fairly tough enemies, two boss fights including an annoying PuzzleBoss that is quite difficult to beat, a party of three people (since Cyan is taken out), and you can't leave the dungeon until you beat the boss. It's possible a run through the game can be stopped cold here if you can't beat Wrexsoul.

** The Cultist's Tower is a headache, top to bottom. Most of the enemies have the Reflect status, rendering the majority of your magic attacks useless. That wouldn't be so bad if you weren't restricted to using only magic attacks and items in the Tower. Even if you do make it to the top, the final boss will cast Ultima upon defeat, annihilating you if you forget to cast Reraise on at least one of your party members. And after all of that, you have to climb all the way back down the tower, fighting the same enemies you came across on your way up. And you cannot escape from most of these fights. The entire dungeon is optional, but the relic that you get for doing so is incredibly useful, as it lets you cast two magic spells at once. That is to say nothing of obtaining Edgar's final tool, or the Holy Dragon which the player must defeat in order to obtain the Esper, Crusader. You ''can'' choose to avoid all this by grabbing Molulu's Charm first and equipping it on Mog (which prevents random encounters), but then you're just running up endless flights of stairs without [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Barret, Tifa, and Cloud bantering to take off the tedium]].

* {{Woolseyism}}: Like ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV IV]]'', the original SNES release suffered from [[{{Bowdlerise}} the typical Nintendo censorship]], but the English translation by Ted Woolsey was regarded as one of the best translations of the 16-bit era, even though it wasn't the most faithful (Woolsey is the TropeNamer for Woolseyism, after all). He changed a lot of things in the Super NES release, some for cultural reasons, some for censorship (e.g. Kefka's "Son of a submariner!" was originally a simple "Damn it!"), and others just for dramatic flair. For the most part, they work, and provide charm that a faithful translation probably wouldn't have. (In particular, the Woolseyisms are commonly credited for Kefka being RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap outside of Japan.) It's telling that Tom Slattery's Game Boy Advance translation kept many of Ted's changes.

** The final battle with Kefka is relatively simple. Unlike the three previous phases of the battle, there's only one opponent, and while his HPToOne attack can keep you on your toes, he isn't all that dangerous, especially since he gives you ample warning to prepare for his ultimate attack. The fact that there's only one target means that the X-Fight/Genji Glove combo gets eight hits on the boss per turn, potentially ending the fight quickly.

** In the Cave to the Sealed Gate, there's a switch in a treasure chest that destroys a section of bridge up ahead, preventing them from reaching the end of the dungeon. This was likely intended to be a puzzle that forces the player to backtrack and figure out how to make the bridge reappear, except the developed overlooked that another switch that is obligatory to hit to reach the end will make the destroyed bridge reappear on its own. This results in the apparent puzzle being nullified and many players thinking the first switch did nothing.

** There's many PopCultureUrbanLegends about the Eight Dragons. By Petrifying the Blue Dragon, you can get the Raiden magicite without losing Odin, allowing you to get all the Magicite pieces at once. Then once you killed all Eight Dragons and got Crusader, you would be forced into a rematch with stronger forms of the Eight Dragons, ending with a fight against their boss, [=CzarDragon=]. Now, take a look at the Gameboy Advance port -- the bonus dungeon Dragon's Den pits you against powered-up forms of the Eight Dragons to unlock the path to the depths of the dungeon where you fight the superboss Kaiser Dragon, he guards the ultimate Magicite Diabolos, and the Soul Shrine bonus dungeons ends with a fight against all Eight Dragons followed by Kaiser Dragon. And Kaiser Dragon's sprite and pre-battle taunt are all updated versions of [=CzarDragon's=] sprite and taunt found by hacking the SNES coding. It's like AscendedMeme and DummiedOut came together to have a beautiful ironic baby that made the fandom's rumors about cut content come to life.

* PortingDisaster: While the Gameboy Advance port turned out okay, ports on non-Nintendo hardware always suffer somehow.

** The mobile/PC port, which is just plainly ugly. There's a lack of artistic consistency between ''any'' of the games different art assets, with simplified character sprites, detailed Amano art for dialog portraits, poorly upscaled enemy sprites and backgrounds, and so on. For some reason, sprites are put through a smoothing filter, while the backgrounds are rendered sharply and don't conform to any resolution you can set the game to, resulting in things simultaneously looking flickery ''and'' blurry at the same time. The Finally, the PC port uses a giant, touch-centric interface that looks terrible blown up onto a monitor or TV, and can't be set to any common resolution like 1080p. The graphics are so hated that the fanbase pretty much immediately got to work with mods to redo them in various ways. The port was eventually delisted in favor of the 2022 Pixel Remaster version, which was met with much better reception.

** At the time of its release, almost all [=RPGs=] had fairly generic protagonists, and those where the character was slightly more interesting had almost no dialogue in play after you recruited them. This was the first game where character development was one of the primary focuses of the game, and having non-combat skill sequences like the Opera were unprecedented at the time. There was nothing like this game when it came out, and while a few developers in Japan did try to match it (with titles like ''VideoGame/StarOcean''), Anglophone gamers wouldn't see much like it again until the ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' series. Nowadays, RPG games have become so cinematic that the Opera scene looks primitive in comparison, and has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWfdIJ0AACM#t=6m13s even become a punchline]] in a ''WebVideo/FinalFantasyInANutshell''.

* {{Woolseyism}}: Like ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV IV]]'', the original SNES release suffered from [[{{Bowdlerise}} the typical Nintendo censorship]], but the English translation by Ted Woolsey was regarded as one of the best translations of the 16-bit era, even though it wasn't the most faithful (Woolsey is the TropeNamer for Woolseyism, after all). He changed a lot of things in the Super NES release, some for cultural reasons, some for censorship (e.g. Kefka's "Son of a submariner!" was originally a simple "Damn it!"), and others just for dramatic flair. For the most part, they work, and provide charm that a faithful translation probably wouldn't have. (In particular, the Woolseyisms are commonly credited for Kefka being RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap outside of Japan.) It's telling that Tom Slattery's Gameboy Advance translation kept many of Ted's changes.

* {{Squick}}: On the Floating Continent, Gestahl offers a chance for Celes to rejoin him; whereupon she'll get busy with Kefka and produce some heirs for him.[[note]]Only in the localized version of the UsefulNotes/{{G|ameBoyAdvance}}BA [[UpdatedRerelease version]]. In the original, he gives a bog standard "WeCanRuleTogether" speech.[[/note]].

** Shadow the assassin and his dog Interceptor. He's the classic {{Ninja}}.

** Some of the attack names are this in the SNES version thanks to CharacterNameLimits, the ones that stand out being Meltdown becoming Merton and 1000 Needles becoming [[FlatWhat Blow Fish]].

* BadassDecay: Espers are a far cry from the all-mighty demigods that eidolons are in other ''Final Fantasy'' games. Even though it's justified through Magicite being weaker than a pure Epser, it doesn't lend itself well to gameplay.

** It's a common assumption that Setzer's plot to kidnap Maria was a mutual arrangement between the two of them, given his cheerful reaction to the party's deception, his past relationship with Daryl, and the fact that he never behaves in a lecherous way during the game. Since the real Maria never actually appears onscreen, there's no way to confirm or deny it.

** Some love the World of Ruin for being an open world experience once you get the Falcon, allowing players the freedom to re-recruit their party members in almost any order they want, explore the side-dungeons in any order they want, and it gives every party member closure on their personal story arc. Detractors point out that the overarcing story peters out here, the game instead focusing on resolving character arcs. Kefka, up until then a very active and threatening villain, is reduced to an OrcusOnHisThrone who is apparently content to just wait for the party to get to him in the final dungeon.

** Sabin's scenario after he gets separated with the party in Lethe River. Edgar/Terra/Banon's scenario is the easiest; the enemies in their scenario are fairly easy to defeat, and there are no bosses. Locke's scenario is a not-so-difficult stealth mission, and there's only one boss, which Celes outright tells you how to defeat. Sabin's scenario, on the other hand, is considerably long, has some more difficult enemies, one party member (Shadow) may leave him at any time except during Phantom Train, and another party member (Gau) has an unusual battle mechanic. One of the bosses, Phantom Train, is also very difficult unless you took advantage of ReviveKillsZombie.

* SacredCow: In spite of the BrokenBase surrounding different versions and certain gameplay and story elements, the reception of ''Final Fantasy VI'' as one of the greatest entries in the series-- if not ''the'' greatest-- is a nearly universal one. Any claims of it being overrated being sure to draw huge amounts of fandom ire. It helps that its more contentious aspects are nowhere near as overshadowing as those of later games (especially ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', which is either the greatest or most overrated video game of all time, depending on who you talk to). Even though a lot of its innovations on the JRPG formula have since been [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny done to death]] by later games, they still hold up well to those used to the comparatively tame and by-the-book nature of most other SNES-era [=RPGs=] (barring only [[VideoGame/EarthBound a small]] [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger handful of]] [[VideoGame/TrialsOfMana other SNES titles]]). It also helps that, unlike other popular entries, ''VI'' has never been turned into a miniature CashCowFranchise that annoys the fanbase.

** Should the player try to save Cid at the beginning of the World of Ruin, or should they let him die? Many players argue that it's more thematically appropriate for Cid to die, because the fallout is that [[spoiler:Celes is DrivenToSuicide by jumping off of a cliff, but survives the attempt and gets a HopeSpot by seeing a bird with Locke's bandanna on it, prompting her to hold onto hope and leave the island. This ties into the themes of holding onto hope in the face of despair, even when all seems lost]]. This argument also says that Cid doesn't really do anything even if you save him, so there's no point in making the effort. There's also the fact that the death scene is, simply put, a lot better: it features a pretty elaborate cinematic and a lot more dialogue, and it actually gets acknowledged later on in the game (Celes's epilogue references something that only happened there), suggesting the designers considered ith the "preferred" option. Just as many people argue that saving Cid is more fitting, since it shows that Kefka's StrawNihilist philosophy is inherently flawed by Celes saving Cid in spite of the trouble it takes. Also, saving Cid goes with the game's theme that you don't need a reason to live on, so long as you make the effort. There's very little consensus over which is the better option. The only thing anyone seems to agree on is that the method to save Cid is [[ThatOneLevel a huge pain in the butt]].

** Should the player try to save Cid at the beginning of the World of Ruin, or should they let him die? Many players argue that it's more thematically appropriate for Cid to die, because the fallout is that [[spoiler:Celes is DrivenToSuicide by jumping off of a cliff, but survives the attempt and gets a HopeSpot by seeing a bird with Locke's bandanna on it, prompting her to hold onto hope and leave the island. This ties into the themes of holding onto hope in the face of despair, even when all seems lost]]. This argument also says that Cid doesn't really do anything even if you save him, so there's no point in making the effort. Just as many people argue that saving Cid is more fitting, since it shows that Kefka's StrawNihilist philosophy is inherently flawed by Celes saving Cid in spite of the trouble it takes. Also, saving Cid goes with the game's theme that you don't need a reason to live on, so long as you make the effort. There's very little consensus over which is the better option. The only thing anyone seems to agree on is that the method to save Cid is [[ThatOneLevel a huge pain in the butt]].

** Among North American fans, ''VI'' is one of the most popular games, especially among old-school SNES players, and considered [[FandomRivalry a big rival to]] [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII its successor]]. However, in Japan it was considered a step down from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'', which Japanese players loved due to its Job System, customization choices and [[{{UsefulNotes/Kawaisa}} sheer cuteness]]. Conversely, many Western fans [[AmericansHateTingle hate FFV]] for those exact same reasons. [[WordOfGod Yoshinori Kitase himself]] has said that [[http://www.gamesradar.com/making-final-fantasy-6/ he often has Western fans ask him to autograph]] their ''Final Fantasy VI'' cases when in Japan he'd expect more for Japanese fans to ask the same of ''Final Fantasy VII''.

** The script and gameplay build Terra and Celes as {{Foil}}s; they're both former imperials and innate magic users, the only female party members for a good part of the game, Terra is initially meek and hesitant while Celes is proud and forthright, and Terra has fire magic and offensive abilities while Celes has ice magic and defensive abilities. You'd think these two would play off of each other great. Too bad that they're only around each other thrice. The first two times, they barely say anything to each other. And their third conversation is during the ending. The only other times they might interact is while recruiting Terra in the World of Ruin, where Celes's dialogue is the same canned dialogue as any other character.

* AntiClimaxBoss: The Eight Dragons are legendary beasts that people warn you about early in the World of Ruin and form an ongoing sidequest, but they aren't nearly as dangerous as [=NPCs=] fear. Most of them have a WeaksauceWeakness to a status ailment; the Ice Dragon and Holy Dragon are vulnerable to Silence, the Red Dragon can be Confused, the Skull Dragon can be Rasped to death (and has only 2000 MP, so that'll only take a couple turns), the Gold Dragon can be Berserked, and the Storm Dragon can be Blinded. Several of them also just don't have very powerful attacks or can have their offense dampened with simple strategies: Angel Wings nulls the Earth Dragon's earth attacks, Reflect Rings reflect all of the Holy Dragon's spells, and Celes can Runic all of the Gold Dragon's attacks.\\

** Doomgaze/Deathgaze, for being a CowardlyBoss that you encounter at random on the airship in the World of Ruin. He's got an annoying tendency to run away after just a couple of turns, and it can take anywhere from a couple of seconds to twenty minutes or longer to encounter him again! And you do want to encounter him, since he drops the Bahamut magicite upon defeating him, which teaches the very-useful Flare spell. Of course, when you first get the airship, Deathgaze is about twice your level and will [[CurbStompBattle curbstomp]] you effortlessly if you encounter him.

** Guest characters like Banon and General Leo lack a Chocobo riding sprite, as the developers presumed they aren't in the party at a time when you can do this. However, there's a Chocobo stable south of Figaro Castle which you can visit during the time Banon is in the party. It's a long walk, but doing it will treat you to the fun of Banon's glitched-out sprite riding a Chocobo.

** It was originally a twist that Kefka was the BigBad. While Emperor Gestahl fit the mold of previous villains which tended to be TinTyrant EvilOverlord types, Kefka had more in common with [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyV Gilgamesh]] or [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyII Borghen]], just one of the Emperor's more eccentric and wacky flunkies who keeps popping up. Then comes the Floating Continent, where Kefka proves too insane to control, overthrows Gestahl, and takes power for himself. These days, the one thing most everyone is likely to learn about this game at a glance is that Kefka is the villain.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Cid as a character has become increasingly controversial as the story's demographic ages. His intention, like a lot of Imperial characters, is that he's a fundamentally well-meaning guy [[JustFollowingOrders who's in a bad situation]] and doesn't fully understand the consequences of what he's doing, then has a HeelRealization and aids the protagonists. The issue is, the thing he was doing is experimenting on fully sapient beings capable of speech in a fashion that put them in immense pain and left them as ruined shells--at that point, the idea that he simply didn't realize what he was doing was bad (or wasn't bad enough that it was worth it for the greater good) starts to strain disbelief. Additionally, for all we see, this is something that cannot be fully credited to his superiors, as in the case of the most obvious candidate, Kefka, he ''created'' Kefka, and then knowingly used a similar process on Celes. This has led to him coming across as downright stupid instead of merely naïve, and that's often the favorable interpretation, with the less favorable one being that he's a full-on Mengele-esque MadDoctor.

** Ebot's Rock, where you find Hidon (the source of what is considered Strago's best Lore, Grand Delta. There is a treasure chest that wants Coral, so you have to find it in the cave and feed it to the treasure chest. The game doesn't tell you how many pieces it needs, so you are constantly running around collecting Coral to feed it. However, it's another GuideDangIt -- you have to feed the chest 22 pieces of Coral ''all at once''; feed it a few pieces and you're just wasting your time.

* AntiClimaxBoss:
** The Eight Dragons are legendary beasts that people warn you about early in the World of Ruin and form an ongoing sidequest, but they aren't nearly as dangerous as [=NPCs=] fear. Most of them have a WeaksauceWeakness to a status ailment; the Ice Dragon and Holy Dragon are vulnerable to Silence, the Red Dragon can be Confused, the Skull Dragon can be Rasped to death (and has only 2000 MP, so that'll only take a couple turns), the Gold Dragon can be Berserked, and the Storm Dragon can be Blinded. Several of them also just don't have very powerful attacks or can have their offense dampened with simple strategies: Angel Wings nulls the Earth Dragon's earth attacks, Reflect Rings reflect all of the Holy Dragon's spells, and Celes can Runic all of the Gold Dragon's attacks.
*** Particular mention to the Blue Dragon. The first time you fight it in the Ancient Castle, its stats are pitiful for that point in the game and it can be downed in a single round (especially since the Ancient Castle also contains the [[GameBreaker Master's Scroll]]). The second time you fight it, it isn't that much more powerful than before, it just has more HP and has an attack to inflict Stop. In both fights its gimmick is that it'll inflict debuffs on itself and then use Rippler to swap its status with a party member's, with the intention being that he'll steal the party's buffs while inflicting debuffs. The first problem with this is that he only uses Rippler if the party ''has'' buffs in the first place: just not casting Haste, Shell, or Protect on them means he'll never use his Rippler trick. The second problem is that in order for this mechanic to work, the Blue Dragon has to be vulnerable to those debuffs in the first place, namely Blind, Poison, Sap, and Slow.

*** "Hate hate HATE!" [[labelnote:explanation]]Exclaimed when he kills General Leo, and essentially a more succinct version of the above.[[/labelnote]]

*** Adding on to this, Terra’s mother is named "Madonna" in the English version. Those familiar with pop culture believe it is a reference to [[Music/{{Madonna}} the famed singer]]; those familiar with the MadonnaArchetype would know this is a reference to the Catholic name used for Mary, the virgin mother of Jesus, as a way to further connect Terra with the MessianicArchetype[[labelnote:however]]It should be noted that Madonna's persona as an EthicalSlut is used as a way to [[IronicName contrast her name]], and she is culturally Catholic herself, so there is a connection[[/labelnote]].

*** And speaking of the magic evasion bug on the SNES version, you can exploit equipment and relics to raise the [=MBlock=] stat so high that characters (especially Terra, Edgar, and Celes via the readily-available Enhancer sword) will dodge virtually any attack, aside from defense-ignoring spells and skills.

*** Speaking of ComicBook/TheJoker, the way Kefka drains power from the Warring Triad is very similar to how the Joker would gain [[GodEmperor god-like powers]] from [[ComicBook/{{Superman}} Mister Mxyzptlk]] in ''ComicBook/EmperorJoker''.

** The SNES version of the game had a relic called "Goggles" which were supposed to render the wearer immune to blindness. However, the truth is the Blindness status effect was bugged and had no effect on gameplay (other than the exception with Strago), making the goggles in turn have no effect either. [[TheGogglesDoNothing The Goggles were doing nothing]] long before this trope was ever named! Or even before ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' named it in the first place.
*** There actually is a hilarious glitch involving the goggles which was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIjJZNM3rDA&feature=youtu.be&t=2h59m00s heavily abused]] in a speedrun. However, it involves using them as an item in combination with the Sketch glitch, meaning that their original purpose is ''still'' useless.

*** Likewise, the Zone-Eater's Belly on Triangle Island is an absolute nightmare on the iOS version. It was meant as a very arcade-like action challenge on the original SNES, but was not modified for the iOS/Android despite the fact that your input interface is a lot cruder. Get used to having the green men knock you off the platforms and/or being squashed by the crushing ceilings a LOT.

*** This also seems to be the fanbase's general reaction to the iOS/Android port, the main issue being the graphics changes (and particularly the character sprites, which look like someone just upscaled them in Photoshop, used the smudge tool on them, and called it a day - strange since they were apparently done by the same artist as the originals).

** The Switch and [=PS4=] versions of ''Pixel Remaster'' allow you to customize how much experience is earned, including disabling it entirely.