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Caves of Narshe Forums > Final Fantasy VI > What was your big "WOW" moment?

Posted by: TheEvilEye 14th March 2017 15:47

What was the moment in this game that made you go from "This game's decent so far" to "whoa, this game is amazing" while experiencing it, probably for the first time?

For me, it was when they showcased the split party groups, specifically this moment:

user posted image

The Moogle Party in the beginning was certainly an "oh that's neat" part, but then the moogles left you immediately, and you don't deal with most of them ever again. But when the party splits up with different missions and experiences, the game took a turn into the amazing for me.

They didn't handle party members leaving like FF4, where people just left and came back and summed up their experience through a few lines, never straying from Cecil's point of view. You got to experience each path which had its own choices and difficulty, and nice character development for each. For many of them, you get to explore and practice their unique abilities as well, and I always spend way too long on the Veldt with Gau. I think this also helps during the jarring transition into the World of Ruin for obvious reasons.

Posted by: Rangers51 14th March 2017 17:25

Man, this is a hard question to answer. I know I've played the game less frequently than some folks here, but I doubt anyone here played the game much before I did (though I did have to wait two days post-launch to get my preorder!).

The game definitely had me from the jump, though, as that Mode 7 intro grabbed me immediately. However, I would say that the part that really made me sit up and pay attention was the escape from Figaro on Chocoback. That was the kind of set piece that had a lot of classic dialogue and a lot of action at the same time, and it was the kind of thing that would eventually become a hallmark of Final Fantasy games - but it hadn't really been done before then, not like that.

Posted by: Sabin 15th March 2017 13:50

https://youtu.be/d44dZaV-Ue4

Kefka's laugh. First time I heard it, I was a wide eyed nine year old thinking "What ... the heck was that?"

Everyone probably remembers, but back in the day, games hardly featured much voice acting at all due to technological limitations. So to have a malevolent laugh register was something simultaneously cool and horrifying at the same time. It was new, and it was one of the subtle things that hooked me at an early age.

The "can't put the controller down" moment came after the snow battle when you discovered (and I can't believe I need to put this in spoilers--it's like the person who gets upset when someone tells them Darth Vader is Luke's father ...oops, spoiler. But for the off chance that the one person who's never played it is watching)

Possible spoilers: highlight to view

Terra is an esper.

Blew my mind. Did not see that coming.

Those were the two things that stand out on my first playthrough.

Posted by: Mr Thou 15th March 2017 19:39

The game caught me by surprise right from the start.

I had previously glimpsed the game at my friends' house, he had purchased it from an import game store with all the cash he had saved up at the time, and I thought it looked really good and felt different than all the game I had played so far on my Super Nintendo. It reminded me of a souped up version of a Zelda game for some reason, but with loads of dialogue and crazy battle system. I came and played in succession with him for a couple of weeks.

At the time, my dad used to go once a year to the NAB event at Las Vegas for the french TV, so when he asked me what I wanted for a gift, I said FF3.

My dad being one of the greatest man alive, he brought back FF3 and FF2 to boot, just to be sure, from a retail shop.

Now, to understand the last part, you have to realise one small detail : me and my friend were very eager to play when we gathered at his', so we mashed the buttons to go to our save and load it as fast as possible. But when I booted the game for the first time, it was in the small TV in my parents' room, where the console was plugged. And my dad wanted to check what he bought me, so we chatted about it a little.

That's how I saw the opening and intro for the first time, and how I was able to show something my best friend didn't know about the game he had had many months before me.

Best of times. The intro is incredibly moving and efficient, a perfect in media res.

Posted by: Spooniest 16th March 2017 04:36

...It's when Edgar tells Terra "No human is born with the powers you have!"

Terra has a panic attack. That struck me, as a kid who was prone to them myself, as a very human thing to have in a video game story. She is having a panic attack. She yanks the reins of the Chocobo hard enough to bring it to a stop, and Edgar and Locke have to circle back around because Terra is just freaking the heck out. And of course she is; how would you feel if somebody told you while you were in an amnesiac haze that you obviously aren't even human?

...Deep stuff. Gives me goosebumps to this day.

Posted by: Kame 18th March 2017 18:42

That moment for me was when Kefka actually destroyed the world. Sure, we've seen many villains threaten and cause mayhem, but this was the first time I've seen in any game where they succeed. It just floored me.

Posted by: grimlock1972 27th April 2017 22:05

I have a few. The first was when you got to control multiple groups and Moogles!

The second was Gau and his backstory. Just damn.

The third was that Terra is 1/2 esper .

The final one is Kefka ( The original insane clown) blew up the world and you were powerless to stop him and then had to pick up the pieces and go after some sweet revenge.

also Kekfa > Sephiroth.

FFVI Forever.

Posted by: Magitek_slayer 12th August 2017 07:31

The level of cruelty in figaro castle from kefka was the first thing to catch my attention.

From setting the castle on fire to his outright cruelty to soldiers.

I had seen villains at the time who would conquer the world and destroy stuff sure, but kefka was unique in that he actually tortured his very own soldiers and enjoyed watching people suffer.

Before ff6 my only reference was FF4 because at the time ff5 wasn't out in europe

Posted by: Eagle Caller 4th December 2017 07:20

Hard to say. I enjoyed almost every minute of it. The fact that you can equip and learn magic made me excited.

Posted by: Locke Unlocked 15th December 2017 23:13

EvilEye, you got it on the money for me. When I got to the Scenario screen, the depth and breadth of the narrative, the care that went into the ensemble cast (hey, it's not just Terra and friends)... That just sealed my faith in the game forever after.

Also, similar to Spooniest's pick, I'd say the long cheekily unrealistic dialogue the moment you cast Fire in the battle with the two Magitech Armor's while fleeing Figaro with Edgar flipping out. The longer conversation after was psychologically savvy like you say Spooniest and I appreciate it's empathic overtones, but I was really first struck by the humor of the in-battle scene and the recognition that the routine things we take for granted in an RPG fantasy setting are actually mindblowing to the characters.

And finally... Hi, everybody! I exist! I used to live and breathe this stuff as a kid (specifically FF4, FF6, and CT), now I'm geeking out on it all over again as I show it off to my wife and 9-year-old. Came up with some crazy ideas to share and I love the site so here I am.

Posted by: Eagle Caller 16th December 2017 01:33

Welcome. To answer your other topic I did beat FFVI at level 19 years ago. It should be in my sig.

To find an ideal game is probably impossible. You can believe it's ideal but there's many other people besides you who might find a reason to hate it. Justified or not.

Edit-I did answer Evil Eye's question too. Any game that lets you expand on the characters. It is true the game doesn't change unless you alter it. FFVI is stuck the way it is.

In Final Fantasy Tactics at least the overworld map battles have the enemies leveling with you. But the main story is locked at a particular level.

My opinion is that's good for new players yet bad for experienced players.

Posted by: BlitzSage 16th December 2017 15:06

My younger cousin showed me the game long before I played it, and he talked about how much he loved it all the time. He showed me the opera scene, which was cool but didn't make sense to me at the time. He also showed me the Jurassic Forest on another save file. I also watched him play what was either the Phoenix Cave or the Cave to the Sealed Gate. I looked for the game forever, and finally found it at a flea market (when I brought it home, and turned it on... nothing, blank screen! Had to try it several times, but anyways).

So, I knew that I was going to like the game, because I was predisposed to it. But it was a slow build for it to become my favorite game ever. At the time, one moment from the opening really stuck with me (and this could probably be in the overlooked thread too):

After Terra runs off, and falls through the hole in the cave, they play a flashback of her getting the slave crown put on her by Kefka. Something about that scene--everything from the fade to black without music, into the greenish, dreamlike flashback, to the fade in to the appearance of Locke. I don't know why that scene in particular pulled me in, especially with all of the other great scenes there are. But I think it's because that was the moment that I said to myself, "This game is serious. It's really going to tell a great story."

That moment prepared me for the other great moments in the game. I can't find a video or image that isn't from the stupid iOS version, so instead, watch this.

Posted by: Eagle Caller 18th December 2017 08:57

The moment you realize that if Kefka wanted the world destroyed he could do it once he gets the statues.

If he's so powerful he doesn't have to wait for someone to confront him about it. He can rid of the world with the Light of Judgment at his leisure.

Posted by: BlitzSage 19th December 2017 00:30

Quote (Eagle Caller @ 18th December 2017 04:57)

If he's so powerful he doesn't have to wait for someone to confront him about it. He can rid of the world with the Light of Judgment at his leisure.

That's why it's so incredibly interesting that he doesn't. That is definitely one of the moments that hit me long after it happened.

Posted by: His Shadow 15th July 2020 20:04

So I rented this game for six months when I was 8. So from other peoples saves I already knew about the World of Ruin also keep in mind my reading comphrension. So some events I played through like the WoR Doma event really didn't spoil much for the story.

After renting it for six months someone else rented it and never returned it and my family finally bought me the game. So I have two responses here my wow moments from when I was a kid and adult.

As a kid the Madonna scene in the Esper World or the 'dance' was the wow scene because me and my friends thought they were having sex and it didn't help that a kid appeared right afterwards. lol As a kid what got me was Kefka killing General Leo and of course the entire events in Vector.

As an adult I reflect about the sucide scene with Celes. I had no idea she was jumping off to try to kill herself. In fact I couldn't imagine it. I thought with my young mind she was just jumping into the water because you seen in various movies as well as in real life kids jumping off cliffs into the waters below.

Posted by: Glenn Magus Harvey 17th July 2020 21:15

I think the biggest wow factor for this game, for me, was the music, in general, and the atmosphere it contributed to.

The game started a little oddly for me -- I was expecting something where you just pick up more allies along the way, kinda like FFIV or Super Mario RPG. The shifting perspective confused me a little at first.

But my fondest memories of the game are, not so much being amazed at the plot events themselves, some of which I was already spoiled on before I played the game, but more so, being in awe of and immersed in the actions and storyline happening in the game, thanks to the gameplay and music.