my favourite self-help booklet

[aestivalis]

hahaha imagine if I didn't update for six months and then updated twice in one evening.... unless.... (⸝⸝•́દ•̀⸝⸝)

Over the last couple of months I have been replaying Final Fantasy VI for the first time in many many years! This was another step along the road of showing shinsengumi all the valuable Final Fantasy games of my childhood; I think we've now played FFVI, VII, and X together, and she has specifically played VIII and IX herself. I also showed her a bunch of FFXIII, although we kind of idled out of it again, and we played FFXV together as well! (Final Fantasy VIII is her favourite, @ her about it.)

But Final Fantasy VI! I last played through this game about... fifteen... years ago. Ignoring how horrifying that information is, I have incredibly fond memories of playing this game with a friend I made in college (still friends!). This was one of the few FF games where you could set some characters to Player One and some to Player Two, so we'd assign all the characters between us and play through the story reading out our characters lines and eating Flumps (back when they cost 10p, sad). Fairly certain we used silly voices for every character we disliked, which was several of them. Characters I now like a lot, in some cases!

It was fascinating seeing this game again with a new perspective, and I played the Gameboy Advance version this time which has a different translation than the PSX version! And, with all the respect in the world to Ted Woolsey who was working under horrible constraints and still brought us iconic lines that persist to this day, the GBA translation is so much sharper. I feel like character motivations and story beats were just so much clearer than they used to be. It really brought me closer to the story than I'd ever felt before!

Playing again also gave me an opportunity to rectify some of the mistakes of the past. ***Incoming spoilers for a game that originally came out in 1994!*** The most significant thing I got to do differently this time was rescue Shadow from the Floating Continent! I never knew this was possible when I played through the game prior to this, and was shocked and horrified the first time I saw this piece of fan art (that I am reluctantly linking to on pinterest because I can't it at a home source, but this is the artists actual page!). Shadow turned out to be one of Fel's favourite characters, second only to the irrefutable Best Boy Gaugaugau, and I really enjoyed finally getting to see his story through this time! More on that in a moment.

I've also never explored the Ancient Castle before, and in fact did not even know it existed, so that was kind of wild. Just an entire optional dungeon with bosses and espers and lore and I just had no idea it was even there, oops. And we did some of the GBA exclusive content as well, like fighting Leviathan, Gigantuar, and Gilgamesh! I think we've Iprobably finished playing through together, but I might still poke around in the two post-game dungeons that were added for the GBA release. And if it turns out those dungeons actually have added story content then I will grab Fel and we'll proceed together again, I suppose!

The ending of FFVI is actually more lovely and more hopeful than I remembered, for all that it's quite simple and abrupt in what it portrays. It's a very immediate finale, focused pretty exclusively on the characters escaping peril and witnessing a new dawn of hope for the world. But it's just full of lovely little character beats, and really wonderful visuals for what they had available at the time, and such an energetic and ambitious soundtrack. I'm really so happy to have played it again!

But yes, Shadow. I was quite taken aback by the ultimate conclusion of his story, especially compared to everyone else. ***Again, spoilers for a 1994 video game!*** When everyone else is escaping, Shadow opts to stay behind. He isn't rescuing anyone, he isn't making a brave sacrifice for anyone else's sake. He just... decides to stay behind and die. Because he's done running from his past, and he's ready to face his mistakes on the other side. That being how he characterises it himself: he says he's finished running, and he hopes Baram - the partner he once abandoned to save himself - will greet him warmly. It's a real sombre note in the middle of everything else, and it's something that isn't touched on anywhere else in the ending.

He does, of course, send Interceptor away. First he attempts to do so more harshly, but Interceptor doesn't leave Shadow's side until Shadow kneels down and takes a longer moment with him.

Interceptor is a really good dog, you guys. And I'm glad I finally got to see this sequence. I'm not sure what my ranking of Final Fantasy VI characters would actually be if I was forced to list them all from favourite to least favourite, but I can say with confidence that Shadow is now much much higher than he ever used to be. The accursed shinsengumi influence strikes again.

I am now playing Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, which only came out yesterday! Because you know what Fire Emblem: Three Houses needed? It needed a canon AU sequel that plays out the timeline in a completely different way that just so happens to specifically to cater to me. ... I mean, I doubt that developers were actually thinking "let's design this around everything that Gargant would love best", but I'm telling you right now, that is what is happening so far.

I will make a proper update about it soon, with current thoughts, theories, and maybe some early spoilers! I am playing the Golden Deer route first, because I have standards and I know what is up. My god, though. I am being fed so well so far. So very, very well.

Comments

[necrophilia]

I downloaded the demo of Fire Emblem: Three Hopes with a lot of skepticism after the vanilla game did everything but lower my casket into the ground, etc., but so far I'm pleasantly surprised! I love the concept of the protagonist being the villain, as Byleth's blank stare and incredibly gendered outfits did nothing for me; and if the fandom is upset that their self-insert can no longer sexily self-insert, then I am here to feast on their tears and laugh. I look forward to your 3Hopes entry!

[shinsengumi]

and if the fandom is upset that their self-insert can no longer sexily self-insert, then I am here to feast on their tears and laugh

You and me both, friend-of-Gargant! You and me both. I know what the self-insert playable protags have done for the viability of Fire Emblem as a series and I do appreciate it, but boy are they not my jam and anything that makes them slightly less self-inserty (like having an actual voice actor) is excellent news in my book.

[necrophilia]

Right? They have become so bland and unappealing that I look back fondly on Robin, who had three-fourths of a personality and a sensible outfit(!), despite knowing what path they led us down.

[shinsengumi]

Frankly, it makes me long for the days of good ol' Tactician Mark, but you're right that in retrospect, Robin was quite a miracle compared to what we get now (what is female Byleth wearing).

And there's probably plenty of room to talk about how/what makes an effective silent protagonist and the difficulties of giving players so-called character building choices that have no effects on the narrative, but... that's a lot for comments, haha.

[aestivalis]

I was pretty skeptical too! I actually enjoyed a lot about Three Houses, largely due to affection for that huge cast of characters and all their colourful political nonsense. But nonetheless, I didn't really have very high expectations for this game going in. Warriors titles have never really been favourites of mine in the past, and I anticipated this being more-or-less a fanservice game.

... but, you know, now I've realised that I'm the fan being serviced I'm totally fine with that. Principles are for the weak and I have never felt stronger.

Shez is a pretty good character in their own right, it's true! Although the romantic picnics expeditions mechanic might raise your 'sexy self-insert' hackles a little, especially when it has you walk toward the other character in first-person view. Gives me heebie jeebies every time.

[necrophilia]

Although the romantic picnics expeditions mechanic might raise your 'sexy self-insert' hackles a little, especially when it has you walk toward the other character in first-person view. Gives me heebie jeebies every time.

... oh. Oh no.

Thank you for warning me! I really disliked the tea parties in the vanilla game, so I can't imagine this will be any better. I hope there's no petting. Tell me there's no petting.

[aestivalis]

There is no petting!!! ... that I am aware of. However, I have yet to experience a ~perfect expedition~ or whatever it'll be called, because I am apparently garbage at making anime children feel good about themselves. So there may in fact be petting that I am just too socially awkward to partake in. tragic, really.

The picnics are just slightly better versions of the tea parties in Three Houses, but I do mean it when I say they're slightly better. It's still the same basic mechanic of responding to the characters in ways they approve of, but you can actively ask the characters questions about a bunch of generic but nonetheless character-building topics ('what are your plans for the future?', 'what's your family like?', et cetera) and then you respond according to what they tell you.

You can also just let them talk freely and respond to whatever they lead with. Whichever way you go with it, it does feel like you get more character from these scenes than anything you really got from the tea parties. I'm certainly not saying this is the stuff of dreams, and I really do get heebie jeebies from the first-person shit, but! A minor improvement is still an improvement, one supposes.

[shinsengumi]

Commenting that we forgot about XII, which is tragic, because all my solo original FF experiences that weren't garbage came from Ivalice, and yet I played all of XII with you right beside me and can remember precisely none of it.

[necrophilia]

I'm simultaneously disappointed and completely understanding, because as many compliments as I can (and will, quite frequently and with little prompting) give XII, memorable is not one of them. Sigh!

[shinsengumi]

I think there's a lot to like about XII and plenty of it that is good, but most of both those things do not appeal to me. I particularly struggled to engage with the battle system, which felt a lot like I didn't need to play it (despite wanting to) and also like I was hampering my own progress in the game if I did play it too much.

But I sometimes feel like I must have played it in a fever dream because boy do I remember nothing. Seems a shame, really.

[aestivalis]

YOU'RE RIGHT, I COMPLETELY FORGOT, what does FFXII have to do to ever make a non-Cidolfus Demen Bunansa-shaped impression on me!

[shinsengumi]

I have forgotten the name of the guy who would have been my favourite if he'd lasted longer than an hour. I tried to look it up and couldn't remember the circumstances of him being in the game well enough to remember if he was supposed to be my favourite or not. /o\

[necrophilia]

Vossler, perhaps?

The only other character I can think that fits that description is Reks, and he's... a nothingburger.

[shinsengumi]

That's probably right, Vossler does ring a bell! Thanks ♥