A Tale of Two Scripts: Let's play FF3 US & FF6 RPGOne!

Tier II is easily more dangerous than the first round. The blue guy, known as Hit, can only use Attack and is thus the weakest of the targets here by far; that said, watch out when he’s getting close to the end of his 28,000 HP, as he counters his death with 10 Hits, which deals out one extra-powerful physical attack followed by nine normal attacks. Still not too fearsome. The blonde figure in back is Magic, who knows lots of spells and isn’t afraid to use them. However, it’s vulnerable to Silence, so it’s not very hard to take it out of action without having to go through its high HP. Its most notable spell is probably Life 2, which it can use when it’s between about 50-75% health.


Behind Hit is Tools, which uses many Magitek attacks, including Atomic Ray, Missile, Magitek Laser, Gravity Bomb, and the pictured Diffuser, with a little Absolute Zero thrown in for laughs once it’s low on HP. These all pack quite a punch, but they’re nothing new. Stop and Condemn will both hit Tools, making it easy to deal with (if you have sources of those, anyway; as usual, I’m just dealing damage as quickly as possible with a few powerful, randomly targeted, and easily reused attacks).


The Tiger at the bottom is the nastiest of these enemies by far. It doesn’t act often, but when it does it uses the powerful multi-target attacks Flare Star or Southern Cross, with the occasional Northern Cross or Zombie Fang thrown in to Freeze or Zombie your characters. There’s nothing cute you can do with Tiger like you can with Tools and Magic, so just hit it as hard and fast as you can with your best Ice or non-elemental attacks.


One little graphical note is that the enemies in this gauntlet aren’t sprites, but part of the background, so they don’t disappear when killed and spell effects cover them up completely.

You may also notice Sabin’s spending a lot of time dead in these screenshots. He can thank his lousy magic defense for that. Well, his low magic defense and my inability to properly time a Life spell with a Cure2, leading Sabin to constantly stand up with a couple hundred HP then be knocked down again before he can be healed further. Honestly, while his raw damage output is the tops right now, the inability to aim him and the difficulty of keeping him standing probably makes him more of a liability than a help.


That doesn’t stop me from working hard to keep Sabin alive through another transition, just long enough for him to killed again as soon as Tier III starts. Rest, the blue man, and Girl are one of the best groups of enemies in the game for using teamwork. Rest casts Merton and W Wind, powerful spells that hit all targets for elemental damage. This hurts him but heals Girl, who absorbs all elemental damage. Girl, in turn, keeps Rest alive with Pearl Wind and Life 2.

Actually, the first time I beat the game was through a similar tactic, abusing Merton and Fire-absorbing equipment to deal massive damage to the bosses while healing my party. That being my first time through FF3, and probably my first time beating any RPG ever, I wasn’t really sure what exactly was going on but I knew I liked it. My best guess now is that everyone had Flame Shlds, a large number of which I probably glitched into my inventory by Sketching Hidon.


One little note about Life 2: it’s affected by the damage cap, so when a late-game boss like Rest is brought back by it they’ll still have only 9,999 HP instead of being fully healed. That’s a quarter of Rest’s max HP, so it’s a blessing. On the other hand it’s not as nice as it might sound at first because when he’s below 10K HP Rest uses Meteor every turn and counters all attacks with Meteor or Train, a spell that inflicts the whole party with Silence and Blind. One other note about HP: Girl has a max HP of only 9,999 HP, giving her the lowest staying power of any boss in the gauntlet and letting her fall to Fixed Dice pretty easily.


When he dies, Rest uses Calmness (at least once, possibly twice), which targets a random player character with immunity-piercing Instant Death; Gogo, however, easily sidesteps the attack itself.

It didn’t come up in this run, but I’ll go ahead and mention it now: Rest and Girl are well known for holding some of the most powerful weapons in the game. Locke can steal copies of Ragnarok from Girl and Atma Weapon from Rest. In this and the Playstation version you can only use them for whatever is left of these two and Kefka, but in the GBA version it’s possible to save your game after the final battle and keep playing with your new toys.

“Where’d they come from? And where are they headed...? These things... I am going to destroy!!”
With Girl and Rest put down, we move on up to this glorious arena, where Kefka lowers himself to meet us. Notice that I finally gave up on keeping Sabin alive and let Celes switch in for him; she might not be able to deal out as much damage, but she can take a hit far better than he can. In fact, her main purpose here for the first half of the fight is to use Runic to neutralize the Element 3 spells Kefka likes to use while he’s still on life.

You’ll also notice that Terra is still with us. Astute readers will have seen she had a Condemned timer over her head at the end of the last fight; it did run out as we transitioned from Tier III to Kefka, but the Doom spell never popped so she survived.


In a nasty parody of the Life spell, Kefka’s first turn summons fallen angels to reduce the entire party to one HP. Kefka follows up with the physical Havoc Wing to take out Celes, but Gogo pulls out the team’s one Megalixir to give everyone else a full heal before he can kill anyone else. (I blame her getting hit on her lack of glare-cutting Dark sunglasses like Terra, Setzer, and Gogo all have.) Celes gets brought back to heal and start using Runic while the others get down to doing what they do best.


Dealing out massive amounts of damage. Only one target here so every Bum Rush and every roll of the Fixed Dice is guaranteed to hit the right person and the damage adds up quickly. I picked this screenshot because I love little Darked Gogo peeking up in the corner.


Once we’ve taken off thirty thousand HP (which as I recall happened before Celes could even use Runic once) Kefka gives off his greatest laugh of ever, complete with close up on his face. He spends some time laughing while we beat on him and heal, and then...



AAAAAGGHH HHOOOLLYY SSSHHoh wait, that’s not so bad. Goner certainly looks impressive, I’ll give it that, but its damage is a bit lacking. Unlike Ultima, Goner doesn’t ignore magic defense or the split damage from hitting multiple targets so it deals much less damage despite having half again the spell power of Ultima. (If I’d had any Wounded characters when he pulled this out, it would have been more of a worry.)

Well now he’s just being petty. Revenger removes any positive statuses you might have; it doesn’t remove negative statuses like Dark and all the Protects and Shells I have come from equipment/Relics and can’t be removed, so it does nothing. Use it as a reminder to keep Runic active, though, as once Kefka’s tossing this around he’s also got a chance to counter any damage with powerful spells, Hyperdrive and Ultima, both of which can be absorbed by Runic.



Of course, he doesn’t actually use either of those, or live long enough to use Goner a second time like he does when he’s down to about 10% of his health. By the way, this picture series illustrates what I consider another reason why Kefka’s one of if not the best RPG villains of all time: no last words we have to sit and wait through. No complaints about the disruption to his plans, no disbelief that we’re so powerful, no angsty “I just wanted to be loved” bull. Nope, when he dies, he accepts it, disintegrating with the stoicism, grace, and aplomb that were his hallmarks in life.

Ok, so I’m getting a bit carried away. I still like this death.

Aaaannnd that's it. I'm the mechanics guy, there's not a whole lot for me to say during the ending cinema; except for some names there's not even a whole lot different between Woolsey's and Sky Render's scripts. Though... what the heck, in a little bit I'll put together a post showing a few shots I like that Sky Render glossed over.

It’s hard to tell in stills, but Setzer’s flipping a coin here and it lands to the left. And I’m pretty sure this:


Setzer: Let’s go that way!! Sometimes in life you just have to FEEL your way through a situation!
is meant to be him waving Celes and Edgar through the other door. Sprites is tricky sometimes.


Just a bit classier, I think.


That glowing red eye gives me chills. You know how some people want a replica of the Master Sword or whatever to hang on their wall? I want this mask.

This also shows something Sky Render didn’t feel like presenting (or he was going to mention it in a supplemental post. In that case: nyeh-nyeh, I got it first!): during this cinema the cast names are treated as credits as well, first showing the name the player gave them then their canon name.


I always saw this as a yawn, not a paw.


Well, now that I look at it those ninja stars are kind of hard to see. Like they’re supposed to be, I would think. Alright, well, there's nothing to say during the credits themselves, so that means...


it's time for my standard post-FF3-playthrough ritual of watching the starfield while letting ♪♪ Prelude ♪♪ loop for ten minutes.

It’s been great, folks. Thanks for reading.

Interceptor is just another status flag, so... but it does make you wonder why they couldn't just mask it out in the Rippler switch. So it's probably just one of those bugs that didn't get fixed.

Sweet work, guys! It was fun to read.

I thought that's supposed to be a mouth, not a paw.
Also, you lacked a shot of the party going up the left here, which was rather important...*snif*
Did you see some code that suggested they were supposed to join up mid-battle?

Also, there's allegedly supposed to be a dummy "Kefka" enemy in each of the three lower tiers to show up in the enemy text box, though none of the foes were to be named it individually (else, Kefka's name would vanish when that bit died, see?) but it isn't there for some reason.

Lucas, did Relm not get a line in FF3US? That doesn't seem right...

I have no memory this holding-a-severed-head, despite having beaten FF6 several times...

Also, for possibly the usual reason, Shadow says "I'm going to start over" in FF3US rather than "I'll be with you soon."

Congratulations on LPs well done.

Postmortem - Bonus Content!

Now that the LP is over and done with, it's time to give you some interesting facts and trivia about this game's script that wasn't covered in the LP proper. We've got a lot to cover, so strap in tight!

Missed Scene - Cayene is a Pervert!

There were a few things I skipped in the interest of getting this LP done in a timely fashion. To wit:



Cayene has a locked trunk in his room on Mt. Zozo.



He left the key outside.



And inside are things he probably doesn't want the party seeing.



Yep, he doesn't want them seeing it.

Dummied and Skipped/Alternative Dialogue - A Sampler of a Scrambled Script

FF6's script file is actually quite a mess, as I've alluded to before. Most of it is out of order, there's unused dialogue all over the place, and of course it's horribly huge and tedious to go through. But I did it for you anyway, because I like you all that much.

Narche through South Figaro

Please select a name. {They later decided to add character intros for everyone, which is why this got dummied.}

Tina "Get away from me!" {Tina was going to say this originally when Kefka tries to put the Slave Circlet on her.}

Cid "Yes. We have combined the powers of Magic with that of machinery..." {Cid had a role in Ghastra's speech to the troops originally!}

Lock "Urgh, I guess their help wasn't enough... Crap......" {If you fail to save Tina. This dialogue is in the Imperial Banquet section of the script.}

An error has occurred. Please contact RPGONE Translations immediately. Thank you! {Originally this read "please contact the development team immediately". It's a debug error message!}

Mount Colts to the Party Split

Edgar "Of course. Matias is Duncan's student... He must be trying to fulfill his debt..." {This was going to appear when talking to the man outside the training house to clarify who Duncan was. It got dropped.}

Tina "You? You're the student who said he killed Master Duncan and ran!" {More context-sensitive dialogue that never got used... This one's from when you meet Vargas.}

"Imperial search parties will never think to look for our headquarters here." {From the Returners base. Dummied-out NPC dialogue for a random Returner.}

Matias' Scenario

"Now that you mention it... I saw a strange child while I was traveling across the Beast Plains. Be careful if you go that way." {The Chocobo-mounted merchant is supposed to say this if you talk to him after the old man kicks you out for messing with his stove.}

Matias "Even two people against the Empire is dangerous." {Matias is supposed to say this if you refuse Shadow's help.}

Soldier "Who are you!?" {Talking to the roving soldier in the Imperial Camp was supposed to show this dialogue. It doesn't in any version of the game.}

Soldier "Intruder!" {And more dummied soldier dialogue... Though this one gets used later in Vector.}

Soldier "Hey! What do you think you're doing!?" {There's a lot of dummied "got caught" dialogue!}

Matias "I'm Matias, from Figaro. We can talk more later. We need to get out of here for now."
Cayene "I thank you for your assistance, sir." {Alternate dialogue for when Cayene joins up with Matias.}

Matias "Move it! Food, food! I'll eat it all!" {Matias actually does say this if you have him order food twice on the Spirit Train.}

"My love sent me a reply to my letter! He's okay... He's safe..."
"He sent me the record! I'm so glad..."
"He even sent a Potion for my mother. He's so kind..."
"I haven't received a reply to my letters from my sweetheart who went to war for quite a while... I'm starting to get worried..." {These are the other bits of dialogue that Lola in Maranda can say in the midst of the letter-sending quest in Mobriz.}

Defense of Narche through Zozo

Tina "Kefka... He's the one who put the Slave Circlet on me...?"
Lock "Damn you, Empire! I'll take you all down myself!!"
Celes "I'm free from my past... I am no longer a part of the Empire!"
Edgar "Damn that Kefka... What is he planning to do here......?"
Matias "Master Duncan's teachings, don't fail me now!"
Cayene "The destroyer of Doma... I shall return the favor!!!"
Gau "Gau! Gau do his best!"
Bannan "If they reach this point, all is lost. Stop them, I implore you!" {All the character dialogue from talking to your allies during the snowfield battle.}

Bannan "Ah, this is bad, now we've lost... What a pity......" {If you fail to defend Bannan. This is in the Imperial Banquet section of the script.}

Lock "I made a promise to Tina... I told her I'd protect her..."
Celes "The way she looked when she flew away... It was just like an Eidolon..."
Cayene "Surely, we can help her, sirs!"
Edgar "Go find Tina!"
Matias "I'll protect Narche. Your concern is to locate Tina!"
Gau "Gau do his best!" {And all of the post-snowfield-battle dialogue for when you can set up your party.}

"You've been through quite a journey, and right through the middle of a war, too? You can rest here, if you like." {This was going to be used when you rest at Figaro Castle without Edgar or Matias in the party.}

Edgar "If only Matias had come along with us..." {Edgar was supposed to say this if he came to Figaro Castle without Matias.}

"Rachel's... Her memory returned just before she died... She made one last request of us... 'Please tell Lock when he comes back... That I loved him all my heart'." {Unused dialogue for if somehow you triggered Lock's story scene in Corlingen without him. I don't get it either.}

"Some girl flew up to the top floor of this tower!"
"What? Could that be Tina...?"
"I don't suggest you go up there... There are creepy monsters living up there." {I think the One Honest Man in Zozo was supposed to say this at one point, before he got moved outside.}

Cayene "Can we really just walk into the Empire and back out, sirs...?"
Edgar "The Imperial Majick Research Facility... What secrets could be held there?"
Matias "Leave Narche to me!"
Gau "Gau do his best!" {This is the dialogue if you go all the way back to Narche to change your party after Zozo.}


The Opera through Getting Tina Back

Lock "You can't be serious!" {Lock's supposed to say that at the sight of Orthros about to drop a 4t weight on Celes.}

Orthros "N'gah! It's only four tons---!" {I think Orthros will say this if you get to the end of the show, fail to reach Orthros in time, and have to redo that part. I think.}

Matias "My big brother is the king of Figaro. I'm sure he'd reward you for helping us if I asked him to."
Cayene "I am a warrior of Doma. I also ask for your support, sir." {These bits will appear if you bring Matias without Edgar, and if you bring Cayene along.}

Matias "The Empire just lies to people and uses them."
Cayene "...I lost my family and friends because of them, sir." {Matias' and Cayene's defenses for why the Empire sucks when persuading Setzer.}

Cayene "Can such a method of decision truly be worth the risk, sirs?" {Cayene says this if neither Edgar nor Matias is along.}

Cayene "I knew we couldn't trust this woman!" {He'll say this if he's along for the ride during Kefka's "Celes betrayed you" scene.}

Cayene "Uaaah! What is that, sirs!?"
Gau "Gau! Gau gau!!" {Gau and Cayene's reactions to the Cranes. This bit is in the middle of the airship dialogue from before.}

"Your friend... He went into the pub." {I... have no idea. Referring to Shadow, maybe? This is up in the Majick Research Institute dialogue.}

The Sealed Gate and Negotiations

Lock "The Sealed Gate...... Tina, do you feel anything......?"
Tina "......" {Are you really surprised there's dummied-out alternative dialogue by now?}

"We can't persuade the Eidolons if we don't have Tina with us......" {This is the message that will make you smack yourself silly if you forget to bring Tina to the Sealed Gate.}

Tina "......I know I'm the only one who can persuade them, but I feel a bit uneasy......" {I think Tina will actually say this on board the airship at one point.}

You were caught and thrown out... {If you try to visit the Sealed Gate before the plot requires you to, you're gonna see this message sooner or even sooner.}

Cayene "This place is eerie, sirs..."
Matias "Good luck... Tina......"
Setzer "Why did I ever come to such a horrid place...?" {Various and sundry dialogue depending on who you bring with you to the Sealed Gate.}

"What happened...?"
"I don't understand it, either." {Dummied-out dialogue from the Sealed Gate sequence.}

Lock "Those Eidolons must have been heading towards Vector..."
Cayene "When the Eidolons assaulted us, I could feel the spirit of the samurai within them, sirs."
Shadow "...... Why am I still here...? For the money...... I guess."
Shadow "Rumor has it that Kefka is out to put an end to General Leo's life."
Edgar "Maybe there is a way to pull this off without borrowing the power of Eidolons......"
Matias "I wonder what the situation is like in the Empire... Let's hurry and find out!"
Celes "I...... I was an Imperial General. But, even I know the difference between good and evil."
Celes "I'm certain Kefka is thinking up another grand scheme. We need to stop him in his tracks......"
Strago "I have never witnessed anything like this in all of my years on this planet..."
Strago "Even though I feel like I'm about to fall off this thing any minute, this is the best time I've had in years."
Relm "Hey, hey. Relm can draw their portraits!"
Relm "Surely Mr. Eidolons aren't bad monsters!?"
Setzer "Damn it...... It seems that, for the time being, the skies don't belong to me......"
Mog "...Puu......"
Gau "......Ooh... Gau...not like...... Too high...Scared......Oooh......"

{A MESS of airship dialogue, some of it you can never actually see. Strago and Relm both have dialogue for before they ever join! And Shadow never rides the Blackjack, yet he too has dialogue on it! Actually, so do Umaro and Gogo, but theirs is identical to their WoR dialogue.}

Matias "Didn't I see you in Doma...? Yeah, I'm sure I did... I thought you the enemy at the time, though. So, you're General Leo......"
Leo "You're!? Cayene, the Samurai of Doma. I was unable to stop Kefka from poisoning your country... I must apologize."
Cayene "...... That was not your fault, sir." {Dialogue for if you bring Matias and/or Cayene along to the banquet.}

Triangle Island

Tina "Where's Gau...?"
Lock "He doesn't like ships. It can't be helped, we two will go." {Originally Gau was going to go along too, apparently. This dialogue, incidentally, is stuck in the middle of Matias' scenario. See what I mean about the dialogue being all jumbled up?}

"Go on, move it!"
"You're an unfamiliar face."
"...... Hmm!"
"And just who are YOU, yes?" {If you visit Thamasa before you're supposed to, the people there are a LOT more rude.}

"It's been a long time since I came back to the village, and it's in sad shape. What happened here, anyway?"
"I'm Gunho. The most famous man from Thamasa."
Strago "G, Gunho!?"
Gunho "Hey, it's Strago. Are you going to start hunting Hidun again?"
"Strago is on my side now, but he seems to be missing something."
Gunho "That's just the sort of character he is. He's reluctant to change his old habits. When you were younger, you used to fight the legendary monster Hidun, but you gave up since you could never find it, and said you would search later..."
Strago "No, that's not why I gave up...... Well, er... That monster only shows up on Eboshi Rock, and Eboshi rock is submerged beneath the sea..."
Gunho "You never have given me a straight answer."
Gunho "What a pitiful fool..." {I forgot to show this off, but Gunho actually shows up in Thamasa after Strago and Relm join up! This dialogue, in spite of that, is at the tail end of the game's script.}

Overall, the game script is a lot more stable from here on out, with a few odd exceptions.

Misc. World of Ruin Dialogue

Old Man "Ah, you're here to do repairs at last!"
"Um, no... We were actually wondering about the map that Emperor Ghastra had......"
Old Man "Map......? Somebody else asked about that recently, too..."
"What?"
Old Man "I told that repairman with the bandanna on his head about it, yep."
"Wha, you know where it is!?"
Old Man "The spot is where the mountains form a star shape... Well then. If only I could remember where I heard that in the first place..."
Old Man "You got that? It's where the mountains form a star shape." {This is dummied dialogue from before they stuck in the Emperor's Letter, I'd wager.}

Old Man "What a pity... I haven't seen any skilled repairmen lately..." {If you somehow manage to visit Gau's father without Gau but have already recruited Lock, you'll be treated to this dialogue. This dialogue is cemented firmly in the tail end of Matias' scenario for no discernable reason.}

Duncan "Watch it! Move aside! Huff... Huff... Damn... this old... body of mine......" {This shows up when you talk to Duncan without bringing Matias to see him first. It's stuck in the post-Tina-reunion section for no good reason. So is the World of Ruin Narche dialogue.}

"Hey, I'll sell you this Magirock for 10,000 Gil." > (Buy it) / (Forget it)
Received the Magirock "Quetzali".
"Hey, I'll sell you this Magirock for 50,000 Gil." > (Buy it) / (Forget it)
Received the Magirock "Midgardsormr".

{At one point Quetzali and Midgardsormr were apparently going to be buyable. This is also stuck in the middle of the post-Tina-reunion section.}

"I'm the owner of this Coliseum. At last, the world is totally at war. My dream Coliseum has finally been built. And I have Kefka to thank for it." {The coliseum owner says this if you talk to him before you talk to Orthros.}

"Lock came to this village a while back. He said that he'd found the locations of some fabled treasure, and that he was going after it..."
Celes "Lock... He's still alive..." {One of the thieves in Corlingen is supposed to say this at one point.}

"Cayene... Was it you? You look rather confused right now. Maybe you should return to your home country?" {Dummied dialogue from Maranda hinting at the Doma Castle sequence.}

"Papa is......? Where did papa go? Isn't he coming back?" {Dummied dialogue from Shadow's last dream, further driving home the point that he's Relm's father. Oh yeah, spoilers.}

"A few days back, a messenger from an aristocrat in Jidoor came here, and took a girl with him." {You see this dialogue from a Thamasa NPC if you didn't save Shadow on the floating continent after you save Relm in his place in the Veldt Cave.}

"Kweh!" {Yep, the famous Chocobo cry is in the script, too. And never used.}

Alternate Ending Dialogue

Cayene "My wife and son live within my heart."
Shadow "I have friends...... And family......" {Shadow and Cayene's dialogue for the self-help booklet speeches.}

Scene: Mobriz basement
*Tina suddenly looks up*
"Big sis Tina!"
Tina "Everyone is calling out to me."
*Tina runs off*
*Back to the collapsing tower*
Celes "Tina! You came!"

{Obviously Tina's optional for recruitment, but required for the ending.}

Edgar "If only Matias were here......"
Edgar "Ladies first." {This happens if you don't recruit Matias during Edgar and Matias' scene. The iron beam blocks the door, and Celes, Setzer, and Edgar all have to laboriously move it out of the way.}

Setzer "Don't fall! I still want to see you act as Maria again!"
Setzer "Going after a bandanna at the risk of your own life...... You're one hell of a woman."
Celes "This is my charm...... It changed my fate......"
Celes "Lock...... Will you protect me again some day?" {Setzer has to save Celes if you didn't get Lock. Also, further evidence that Cid was supposed to die there: Celes doesn't get the bandanna if he's saved.}

*Relm is walking down the conveyor belt when Celes knocks her over running past and she slides back*
Relm "Relm's not going to lose to a middle-aged woman!"
Relm "Relm will draw your portraits!! Don't go!!"
*Again, only this time Edgar knocks her over*
Relm "Wait up, randy man!"
Relm "Relm will draw your portrait!! Don't run so fast!!"
*And again, this time Setzer*
Relm "Crazy guy! You can't just leave Relm behind!!"
Relm "Relm will draw your portrait!!"
Relm "Relm's not going to lose!" {Pretty sure that's how it goes. Probably the best reason to leave Strago behind, it's hilarious.}

Edgar "Follow her!"
Setzer "Leave it to me!" {Unused dialogue from when the airship is following Tina out of the tower.}

Where Are They Now? - The Staff of FF6

Ever wonder what happened to Square's Dream Team after this game was finished? Well I did some research (ie. I searched briefly on Google and Wikipedia; this ain't a business report!) and found out what I could.



Hironobu Sakaguchi left Square a year after the Enix merger to found Mistwalker. He remains the head of that studio, and his company largely develops games for the XBOX 360, DS, and Wii now.



Yoshinori Kitase continues to work for Square Enix to this day as a producer, writer, and occasionally director (mostly the first one, though). He's the guy who's usually listed on the producer credits for any given Final Fantasy from FFX onwards.

Hiroyuki Itou is still working at Square Enix as well, often in the thick of it as game designer or battle system designer. The man prefers to have a good mix of gameplay to go with story, which would probably explain why he wasn't on the Xenogears design team. (ZING!)



Ken Narita has appeared often in the credits of Square Enix games, and it's safe to assume that he's still a programmer for Square Enix (or at least was as recently as 2006).

Kiyoshi Yoshii is also a series long-timer, with he and Ken being the main programmers for Square after Nasir Gebelli left following Secret of Mana's completion. (Technically Narita was hired on to sub in for Gebelli on FF4, while Yoshii was hired to help with FF5, but they were hired pretty close to the same time.) He left Square after the Enix merger to work for Brownie Brown.



Tetsuya Takahashi continued to design graphics for Square until 1997, when he was finally given a directing role for Xenogears (which he was a writer for as well). He quit Square shortly after Xenogears came out, founded Monolith Soft, and acted as the story and scenario writer for the Xenosaga series (as well as the recent Xenoblade). The man just seems to love the prefix 'xeno'.

Kazuko Shibuya remains an employee at Square Enix, and is still the one they call on whenever they need 2D spritework done.



Hideo Minaba is also still an artist as Square Enix, and still largely works on Final Fantasy games.

Tetsuya Nomura is the current lead artist at Square Enix. He's been an important figure on just about every Square project from FF6 onwards, and is now one of the most influential people at Square Enix.



Nobuo Uematsu remains a composer. However, he left Square Enix in 2004 around the same time as Hironobu Sakaguchi and founded a company called Smile Please. He was also the keyboardist for The Black Mages, an awesome Final Fantasy tribute band, before it disbanded in 2010. Now he has a new band, the Earthbound Papas.



Yoshitaka Amano remains an artist with a very distinct style, but only works as a promotional artist for Square Enix these days (and only under contract). He founded his own film production company last year, Studio Devaloka. No word so far on how that's going.



Yasuyuki Hasebe has been a bit incognito since the late 90s, when he left Square to work on The Legend of Dragoon.

Akiyoshi Oota later worked on Super Mario RPG, and was last seen in the credits of Suikoden II of all games.



Yoshihiko Maekawa went on to work on Super Mario RPG, and then got roped in by Nintendo to be the mastermind behind the Mario & Luigi games that are SMRPG's spiritual successors.

There seems to be no concrete info on Keita Itoh. Although he is not the same person as the Japanese voice actor Keita Ito, that much is certain.

Satoru Tsuji went on to work on Bahamut Lagoon before leaving Square some time soon after. He was last seen as in the credits of Shenmue II and Metal Gear Solid 3.



Tsukasa Fujita was last credited in Final Fantasy Tactics. That's about all I can find.

Keisuke Matsuhara stayed on with Square even through the merger, and was last credited as the battle planning director for Dirge of Cerberus.



Hiroshi Harata remains an employee of Square Enix, and is mostly known for working on the Kingdom Hearts series now.

Satoshi Ogata presumably still works at Square Enix, seeing as he was involved in FFCC: Ring of Fates.



Akihiro Yamaguchi still worked at Square Enix as of Final Fantasy XII. Not much info past that.



Minoru Akao presumably still works at Square Enix. He's credited for a great deal of games as the sound programmer, including FF12 and the Hanjuku Hero series most recently.



Hirokatsu Sasaki was last seen credited in Xenogears. That's about all I could find.

Takaharu Matsuo was last seen listed in the credits for Final Fantasy X. Once more, that's where the trail ends.

Yuusuke Naora went on to work on more Square Enix titles, and was one of the key people who worked on Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

Nobuyuki Ikeda kind of vanished from the credits of video games after the failure of the WonderSwan Color.



Tomoe Inazawa is in the same boat as Ikeda.

Kaori Tanaka, better known as Soraya Saga, stayed on as a graphics designer for Square until she became a scenario writer on Xenogears. She left the company with her now-husband Tetsuya Takahashi when he parted ways with Square, and acted as assistant scenario writer for the Xenosaga series. She's still working at Monolith Soft, too.

Takamichi Shibuya went on to work on Chrono Trigger as well, and was last spotted in the credits of Suikoden II.



I have no idea who Sinitirou Hamasaka really is. That can't be their real name, can it?

Akiyoshi Masuda stuck around with Square and went on to work on Chrono Trigger, Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XII, as well as The Last Remnant most recently.

Hidetoshi Kezuka left Square Enix with Sakaguchi, and was last seen working on Lost Odyssey.



Hitoshi Sasaki was still working for Square back in 2001, when he worked on The Bouncer. He was also part of the staff of Bahamut Lagoon and Final Fantasy VII. His whereabouts since, however, are unknown.



Kazuhiro Ohkawa remains a Square Enix employee, having most recently worked as a character texture designer on Final Fantasy XIII.



Eiji Nakamura has worked all over the industry since Final Fantasy VI, and currently works as a sound editor for pretty much anyone who will hire him: he's worked on Tekken 6, Soulcalibur IV, and Xenosaga Ep. 3 most recently.



Kazumi Mitome worked at Square until about 2000, when he and Hiroki Kikuta (a well-known Square composer who didn't have much to do with FF6) left to form Scanoth. Which ended up folding when SNK folded. He's now a composer, most notably the composer for one of the many Pokemon movies (Giratina and the Sky Warrior; he did the song Stay with This Finger).

Yoshitaka Hirota is a game music composer and bass guitarist now. He went into composing (and left Square) around the N64 era, starting with Bomberman 64: The Second Attack. He and Yasunori Mitsuda (another well-known Square composer who didn't have much to do with FF6) have collaborated many times, most notably on the Shadow Hearts series music.



Yasumasa Okamoto hasn't been heard from in video games since this game. It's possible he's a lawyer now; kinda hard to tell.

Shun Ohkubo also went missing after FF6. He does not appear to have become a lawyer, however.



Weimin Li is a hard person to find information on. Mostly because it's a fairly common Chinese name. No real info exists on his whereabouts now.

Aiko Ito is another hard one to track info down on. An actress shares her name, but given her age, I suspect it's not the same person (unless Square was employing 14-year-old future starlets at the time).



Masahiro Nakajima worked at Square as late as Xenogears, but information about him after that time is lacking.

Mitsuo Ogura went on to work on Chrono Trigger and Hanjuku Hero, but nothing more seems to be available after that.



Yasunori Orikasa basically only has FF6 and Chrono Trigger under his belt.

Yukata Ohdaira is in the same boat as Yasunori Orikasa.



Tetsuo Mizuno used to be the president of Square, actually. He was forced out in 1998, and went on to join up with AlphaDream in 2001. Nowadays he's involved with the Mario & Luigi games.

Hitoshi Takemura is yet another person who seems to only be known for FF6 and CT.



And there's no way in hell I can dig up information on people who are listed only by their last name and first initial, so that's where our little session of Where Are They Now? ends. Interestingly enough, over 80% of the main staff of Final Fantasy VI worked on Chrono Trigger as well, and a good chunk of them also worked on Xenogears. Also, of the game development studios that emerged in the wake of the exodus following the Enix merger, 3 of the 4 surviving studios are currently subsidiaries of Nintendo. Just some food for thought.

Yoshitaka Amano, Tetsuya Nomura, Nobuo Uematsu, Yoshinori Kitase, Hiroyuki Itou, Ken Narita, Kazuko Shibuya, and Minoru Akao all worked on Final Fantasy V as well.

And that concludes this LP once and for all! Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it. Here's to a future filled with more fun LPs!

You mean in the part where everyone's facing down Kefka before the final fight? Sure she has a line, if you bring her to the fight. The only characters who will be there for that scene are the (up to) twelve you take through Kefka's Tower; since I didn't bring Relm or Cyan with me, they weren't there to say anything.

(Though neither Umaro nor Gogo get lines there.)

Awesome work, guys! I look forward to the 6 months of general FF6 conversation that this thread is bound to become.

Or, alternatively, someone comes along and compares the SNES versions to the GBA release. �.�

At some point I should properly LP the first part half hour or so of the game; our original plan kinda exempted me from that, after all. And of course Lucas would have to follow up with an update of the part I did that he skipped. Any thoughts on that?

From Wikipedia: "On August 7, 2010, Uematsu announced the band had formally disbanded. He did not directly state the reason for the decision, though in previous interviews he had noted the band was increasingly finding it difficult to find time to rehearse together. In an April 2011 interview he said the main reason was because The Black Mages had been formed as a "Square Enix" band, they were unable to perform arrangements of work he had composed after leaving Square Enix or to focus on original pieces. Uematsu continues to play rock arrangements of his music as a part of the band the Earthbound Papas, which performed at the Distant Worlds II concert in 2010. He has been joined by fellow Black Mages band-mates Michio Okamiya and Arata Hanyuda, both continuing on guitar and drums, respectively. They had also left Square Enix; Uematsu built the new band to not include any current Square Enix employees so as to avoid the trademark and licensing problems of The Black Mages." So yeah, his other reason is because of the Distant Worlds series, so I think we can let him live

Speaking of which, if anyone here is going to the one in Houston, Tx tomorrow night, see you there!

I'm going to hope that ikaruga image macro means something along the lines of "go for it".

Yes, I seriously don't know. That's what I get for sticking to only the LPing forum, I guess...

We have a post for that. (It's the Western Grosbeak in small form. The Western Grosbeak is known as the ikaruka. A cover of Ikaruga contains the words "frothing demand". Thus it is the frothing demand bird...in small size, now.)

Thanks for clearing that up for me. Well then, Part I will paradoxically be the last part of this LP, coming whenever-I-finish-gathering-screenshots-for-it.

Part I - Digging Up Trouble

Hello and welcome to the other side of this FF6 LP! While Lucas tackles the famous official "Woolsey" version, I will be tackling the infamous fan-translated "RPGOne" version. You know, that one... wait, didn't I already do this?

...

Yep, I did! So what the hell is going on here? Well, due to , I have decided to go back and properly LP the first segment of the game since our original LPing plan let me skip it. Let's begin, shall we?



♪♪ Opening ♪♪

Dramatic title is dramatic!



The horrible thunderstorm pans down to a cliff-surrounded city...



"Great Demon War", argh pointless literal translations...



Slight difference here from Woolsey's script.



That wasn't subtle at all, was it?



Aren't they always in these stories?



"Nope."

"Goddamn it, Wedge, we traveled half the world to get here and we're in the wrong place!?"

"Of course it's the city, you idiot. Why did you even ask me when it's so obvious?"

"Did an Eidolon really survive here for 1,000 years, frozen after the Great Magic War...?"
*Soldier 2 gets closer to the cliff*
"And, is it really one at all?"
"Hmm, I've heard rumors about it, but nothing definite."
*Both soldiers turn around and soldier 2 walks up to the green-haired lass*
"And why do we have this rare magic user with us...? I've heard she killed fifty soldiers riding Majick armor in under 3 minutes. Truly fearsome."
*Soldier 1 steps forward*
"We're safe enough. That circlet on her head keeps her from thinking for herself. She'll follow orders well enough."
*Soldier 1 walks around soldier 2*
"We'll break into the city from the east. Let's move out!"
*All three move out*

The benefit of hindsight lets me point out that they're standing on the exact same cliff that Valigarmander gets planted on later. Meaning they had to go either around Narche or through it to get there. Either that or it's just Square recycling scenery again.



I just did a credits sequence, so I'll just skip past this one. They sloooooowly walk forward as the key people behind the game are introduced.



There we go.



Fun Fact: If you let the intro play at the start of the game before selecting New Game, you won't have to watch it again after selecting New Game!

...On second thought, let's not go to Narche. It is a silly place.



Oh pooie. Fine, let's go...



You don't want to know the answer to that, trust me.



And the coward sends his dog at us instead of taking us himself.



Quick, call the NSPCA!

We're getting quite a frosty reception here. (I see what I did there.)



Man, ?????? is armed to the teeth with deadly skills.



When in doubt, gas 'em!



Woo, the recruits leveled up! They should be even deadlier now!



...They sent level 1 grunts. Yeah, I think they're totally expecting them to come back alive from this mission and have it be a huge success. Who set this task force up, Kefka?

...Oh, according to the PS1 opening FMV, yeah, he did. Well... huh. Appropriate?



Fun Fact: you can skip this battle entirely by not stepping on the square 1 tile down from where ?????? is facing!



But I will anyway.



Man, MORE canine abuse!



?????? is secretly aspiring to be a vet when she grows up!



At least these dog-sacrificing dickcheeses aren't complete cowards.



Brave, yet stupid.



No way to avoid this fight like the last one, sadly.



Apparently one of the dogs ran away before the fight started.



Time to do a little patchwork.



GAS 'EM ALL!

Hahaha, come, break yourselves upon my armor!



WHEN A PROBLEM COMES ALONG, YOU MUST GAS IT!



Let's hope so. These cumbersome armors are too big to go anywhere else!



♪♪ The Mines of Narche ♪♪

Mines of Narche
Enemies: Wererat, Highway, Spiritza

The mines have encounters! This should be fun.



Yeah, so it turns out that gassing plague rats doesn't work too great. Amusingly, Bio Blaster gives both Sap and Poison status, meaning these rats routinely lose 2 HP to Sap, then gain 2 HP to Poison.



EDUCATE ME

"While at a save point, you can not only save your game, but also use items such as a 'Sleeping Bag' or 'Tent'. If you save, even if your party is totally destroyed, you can resume your game from a saved file. Even though you lose any Gil or treasures that you acquired during your gameplay session, you will gaina better picture of how much experience and what level you should be at to proceed. When you're on the world map, you can save at any time."

Thank you, mysterious narrator! Also, translation flub there: you actually keep your experience and level from when you got toasted. Meaning you can potentially have a comical situation where you save once at the start of the game, get killed at the end of the game, and go back to the start of the game with level 40+ characters in your party. But don't ever do that if you're not doing a natural magic game; any and all boosts from Eidolon equips are lost when you do.



Haha your gate is no match for my mighty bodyslamming armor! ...Why didn't they just shoot a Fire Beam at it?



Aww, pretty please?



You're sending a Norse mythological beast at me? Seriously?



♪♪ Decisive Battle ♪♪

...Ymir is a snail now. Wow. That sound you hear is the sound of countless scholars of mythology weeping into their hands.

Wedge "What do you remember?"
*Biggs waves his arms*
Biggs "I've heard rumors before about a monster that eats thunder......" {And craps lightning?}
*Wedge waves his arms*
Wedge "And stores the energy in its shell, or so the rumor goes......" {Well if you knew all along then why did you ask!?}
*Biggs waves his arms*
Biggs "Right. So, whatever you do, don't hit its shell, Wedge."
*Wedge's entire armor jumps twice*
Wedge "Got it!"

Enthusiastic, aren't they?

HUR HUR I WASN'T LISTENING HUR



Seriously, though, this is a joke battle if you pay attention.



Translation: Stop firing!



Heal up while we wait...



Translation: Start firing again!



The whelk is whipped! He even gives out a free High Potion.

♪♪ Victory ♪♪



Well, there's not a lot else it could be...



Ooh, minty blue!



♪♪ Eidolons' World ♪♪

What an appropriate name.

Wedge "Wait! Doesn't something about this seem wrong? Something is wrong......!"
*The frozen beast shimmers in its icy casing*
*The girl walks forward*
Girl "......"
The monster encased in ice begins to emit a faint light...



Ah, Wedge, don't leave me alone!!"

Then he gets insa-slain too. Only the truly worthy shall pass, I guess.



Pretty blase for having her allies both get killed. Not that she's aware of it, mind.

Huh, that doesn't look good.



Okay, that ISN'T good. Those things cost a half-million Gil apiece, young lady!



♪♪ Awakening ♪♪

Looks like someone came and saved her butt from the mines.



She immediately thanks the guy for it by raiding his clock for an Elixir.



Oh great, pervert alert! He's got her locked in with him!



*The screen mosaics up briefly*
Old Man "Whoa... And I just removed that slave circlet from your head, too..."
"My head... hurts..."



Dizzy and kneeling on the floor? I can't imagine any time this would be a good position to be in.



It floats improbably in midair!

With this on, the wearer can no longer control their thoughts, and are forced to follow orders."
*The girl stands up and looks down*
"I can't remember anything..."
Old Man "You'll be alright. Your memory should return over time."
"......"
*She shakes her head a bit, then looks down again*



She must have a deep and mystical name. Something that evokes how foriegn and unique she is. Something like... Like...



PERFECT! ...If you live in Japan, anyway.



Old Man "Wow... Your mind must be quite strong."

You know, thinking back on the LP already done, how DID they find out Tina's name? Madeline never mentioned it to Ghastra, and he kinda OHKO'd her ass after stealing Tina. What, did Tina have a dog tag on, or did Ghastra just happen to name her the same thing her parents called her by sheer coincidence?



I'm over-thinking this. Let's interrupt deep thought with prejudiced guards at the door.

"Send out that Majick Armor-riding woman now!"



"You open this door immediately!"
"Send her out!"
"She's an agent of the Empire!"

Crap, the fuzz!



Poor Tina's lost already.

*The old man runs up to Tina*
Old Man "No time, you have to get out of here. Come with me, I'll tell you how to get out of here, where they won't hear."*He runs around behind Tina, who faces him*
Old Man "Over here!"
*He runs into the bedroom*

I don't like where this is going, old man.



Oh, an escape route is a lot better than what I thought you had in mind.

♪♪ The Mines of Narche ♪♪

Well that plan didn't work at all.



This is definitely not Tina's best day.



At least multi-target Fire kills everything in here dead.



Welp, that runaway session got cut short.



Saved by plot contrivance!



Only to be knocked unconscious. Damn.



♪♪ Ghastra's Empire ♪♪

Suddenly a flashback!

With this circlet on your head, I'll control your thoughts!"
*Creepy Clown walks over to Tina and puts the circlet on her head*
*The screen flashes red, and they nod to one another*
*Creepy Clown turns around and laughs*



I don't think I'd want this man training me in the art of warfare.



It is a sacred power which only the chosen may use..."
*The three people behind Ghastra step forward and start cheering with the crowd*
Ghastra "Now, Ghastra's Empire shall rule the world!"
"Hurray!! Long live Emperor Ghastra!"

How disturbing.



Yep, Tina's conked. We need a new hero, stat!



Hey, I said a new hero, not a stinking THIEF!



Even the old man agrees with me.

♪♪ Lock's Theme ♪♪

Oh, he's a tray-jar hunter, is he? Nice cover.



Old Man "Hahaha! That's the same thing!" {Not quite the same impact as "Ha, semantic nonsense!", eh?}
Lock "No it isn't! There's a huge difference!"
*Lock waves his finger, then steps towards the old man*
Lock "By the way, why did you call me here?"
Old Man "Hmm... To tell you the truth, I found 'her'."
*Lock steps forward quickly*
Lock "!? You mean the magic-using girl we've been looking for?"
*The old man walks left a step and nods*
Old Man "Even while we speak, the city's guards are pursuing her... This city doesn't stand a chance against the Empire alone. Despite the Empire's rise in power, the city's not about to join the Returners, the underground resistance movement. I tried to explain to her that the Empire was just controlling her, but I'm not sure she believed me..."
*The old man looks down, and Lock steps down-right and nods*
Lock "I understand. You want me to go rescue her."
*The old man steps down and faces Lock*
Old Man "Hmm... Take her to the King of Figaro first thing."

Looks like Tina's unwittingly getting mixed up in something nasty here!



Incoming!



Eh?



Oh snap. We're gonna have to shut him up before he calls reinforcements.



Too late, he brought reinforcements.



And how!



I like the sound of that.



*The Moglies nod and spin-jump with their arms raised*
"Kupo!!"

Huh. Wonder what the guards of Narche did to piss THESE guys off.



That's very kind of you, talking mole-bat.

Would you like me to explain? > Yes / No {Teach me, Mogster!}
You'll be divided into 3 different parties to fight with. Press "Y" to switch between parties. If you're attacked and pushed back to where Tina is, you'll be defeated. Defeat the enemy Guard Leader before this can happen.

Okay, let's do this.



Oh, but first...



♪♪ Decisive Battle ♪♪

Yeah, this fight is too boring to really cover beyond the highlights.



♪♪ Victory ♪♪

I WINZ! Conditionally.



♪♪ The Mines of Narche ♪♪

True enough.

...Is a switch. Well done, Lock.



Aha, an egress!



Basically.

*Tina gets up and nods*
Tina "I... was saved...?"
Lock "Don't thank me, thank the Moglies."
*Tina crouches again*
Tina "Ugh... I can't remember clearly. Nothing recent, nothing from the past..."
*Lock freaks out!*
Lock "You don't have any memories!?" {In hindsight, we can see why this is so incredibly distressing to him after Rachel.}
*Tina gets up and nods to Lock*
Tina "But, an old man said they would come back with time..."
Lock "Your memories will... That's reassuring. I'm supposed to protect you. And I will!!"
Tina "???"
Lock "Since you've lost your memory... I'm... supposed to look after you... I'll protect you no matter what!!" {Lotta excessive ellipses there...}
*Tina blinks a few times and Lock poses*
*They leave the cave*



Yep, we're out of that cave.



And at the entrance of town! Bet they'll love us if we try to go back in.



Yep, they do.



Suspiciously specific destination. Also, a desert this close to an ice-covered mining town? That's not how geography works, Square.



This place is set up to advise those who travel about dangerous parts of the world."

It's also set up to provide free healing!



And so endeth Part I, and paradoxically the entire LP with it. Thank you once more for reading this LP. Hope you enjoyed it!

Oops, I guess.

Yeah, I didn't make any typos or errors in my translation at all, no siree. Except all the ones I did, but those hardly count, now do they? :P

You did very well on not making typos as far as I could tell, really.

If it makes you feel better, you did a much better job than the guys handling Battle Network 4.