50 Fun Facts About Final Fantasy VI

In Final Fantasy VI, Sabin can famously suplex which ghostly vehicle into the ground?

A train carrying the dead to the afterlife, the Phantom Train, can be flipped by his wrestling move. Fans love the scene so much that Square Enix reanimated it for the Pixel Remaster after complaints.

Final Fantasy VI first went on sale in North America under which series number?

Three was the number on the box because only two earlier entries had been released in North America. Every later version, apart from straight re-releases, went back to the Japanese numbering.

To trap a gambler with an airship in Final Fantasy VI, Celes poses as the lead in what kind of show?

An opera needs a stand-in because the gambler plans to kidnap its diva, Maria, and Celes looks just like her. IGN counted the impromptu performance among the game's most memorable scenes.

Final Fantasy VI's Kefka had his crazy personality modelled on which DC Comics character?

The Joker was the model for a villain the artist wanted to be completely insane. Early sketches tried several outfits on Kefka, all inspired by circus clowns.

Which 17-minute piece with an organ cadenza accompanies Final Fantasy VI's final battle?

Dancing Mad builds variations on Kefka's own theme as the fight climbs toward his godlike final form. Its composer later arranged the piece for his rock band.

What must players do on Final Fantasy VI's Floating Continent to keep the ninja Shadow alive?

Wait for him at the airship until the timer has almost run out and Shadow leaps aboard; leave early and he is gone for good. The writers originally intended him to die there.

What colour is Terra's hair in Final Fantasy VI itself, though promotional art shows her blonde?

Green was the pixel artist's demand: so many characters in the concept paintings were blonde that Terra would have been hard to tell apart. The painter kept her blonde in his own art anyway.

Final Fantasy VI's foot soldiers Biggs and Wedge are named after characters from which film series?

Star Wars supplied both names: Biggs Darklighter and Wedge Antilles. The pair made their debut here and have returned as comic relief in many later games in the series.

CNET called which sound made by Final Fantasy VI's Kefka one of gaming's greatest sound effects?

His laugh became the villain's signature. One music professor calls it quasi-musical and praises how much personality the sound engineers packed into so limited an effect.

Nearing a castle in Final Fantasy VI, what does Kefka make soldiers dust off in mid-desert?

His boots were an off-the-cuff idea from the writer, who found a plain march to the castle too boring. The gag was meant to suggest the villain was not entirely sane.

Which composer felt he could quit game music with no regrets after scoring Final Fantasy VI?

Nobuo Uematsu felt he had reached his main goal with a score that gives every major character a theme. His own favourite among the cast was the young painter Relm.

Which artist was given complete creative freedom to design Final Fantasy VI's Kefka?

Yoshitaka Amano worked from only brief character outlines. It was his last game as the series' main designer, though he went on designing the logos of later entries.

Series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi gave up directing Final Fantasy VI to serve in which role instead?

Producer was the job left to him after his promotion to executive vice president. He split the directing between two younger colleagues and supervised their work.

Which rebel group recruits Terra to fight the Empire near the start of Final Fantasy VI?

The Returners are led by Banon and secretly supplied by King Edgar, who poses as the Empire's ally. Their plan is to win the Espers over to their side.

What device does the Empire use to control Terra's mind at the start of Final Fantasy VI?

A slave crown kept her obedient through the raid that opens the game. Once it comes off, she remembers little beyond her own name.

What is the name of the airship the party flies in the first half of Final Fantasy VI?

The Blackjack is the only known airship anywhere until Kefka's cataclysm destroys it. Its owner then raises a dead friend's ship from her tomb to fly again.

How did Final Fantasy VI's twins Edgar and Sabin settle which of them would take Figaro's throne?

A coin toss freed Sabin to leave the court, but Edgar had rigged it with a two-headed coin so his brother would go free. The same trick coin later wins the party an airship.

Which Esper does Locke hunt for in Final Fantasy VI for the sake of his lost love Rachel?

Phoenix revives Rachel only long enough for her to tell him to move on, with her blessing for Celes. Guilt over her death is why the thief is so driven to protect women.

What is the name of the Doberman that follows the ninja Shadow everywhere in Final Fantasy VI?

Interceptor trusts almost nobody, yet takes to the young painter Relm at once, an early hint about his master's past. Nintendo Power once praised him as a wonder dog.

What name is given to the shattered, post-apocalyptic second half of Final Fantasy VI?

World of Ruin follows the World of Balance. The writers split the story in two because they were tired of heroes who always save the planet at the last moment.

What is the Empire's Esper-powered war technology called in Final Fantasy VI?

Magitek draws on captured Espers to power walking armour and to give soldiers spells. Kefka was its first human test subject, and the flawed process broke his mind.

What are the spell-teaching remains of dead Espers called in Final Fantasy VI?

Magicite lets almost any hero learn magic, and some shards add a stat bonus at each level-up. Dying Espers in the Empire's laboratory take this form by choice to aid the party.

Which combat system, built on action bars that refill by speed, does Final Fantasy VI use?

Active Time Battle debuted in Final Fantasy IV and became the series' traditional system. Here up to four heroes fight at once, each with a special command of their own.

Final Fantasy VI's rare Desperation Attacks were an early form of which later series staple?

Limit Breaks made the idea famous in the very next game, and it has returned as Trances and Overdrives. Here the move appears only by chance when a hero's health is low.

Which command lets Final Fantasy VI's Celes absorb most enemy spells cast before her next turn?

Runic was first planned for Locke, who began life as a dark, mysterious swordsman with a magic-sealing blade. When he became an ordinary thief, the skill passed to Celes.

On which monster-filled wilderness was Final Fantasy VI's feral child Gau raised by animals?

The Veldt gathers monsters from every corner of the map, which is how Gau learns his Rages: he leaps into a pack and returns having picked up its attacks.

In Final Fantasy VI's second half, Terra stops fighting to care for whom in Mobliz?

Orphaned children see her as a mother, and defending them from a demon is what brings her back to the party. Next Generation magazine suggested the episode might be the series' finest hour.

In Final Fantasy VI, Kefka ends a siege by poisoning the water of which kingdom, home of Cyan?

Doma falls in moments, and Cyan's wife and child are among the dead. Kefka acted as soon as a more honourable general was called away, and is later jailed for it during a sham peace.

Final Fantasy VI opens in which mining town, where Terra is sent to seize a frozen Esper?

Narshe's frozen Esper reacts to Terra, killing her escorts and knocking her out. The town's moogles then help Locke get her to safety through the mines.

Whom does Final Fantasy VI's Kefka betray and kill to take the statues' power for himself?

Gestahl, the Emperor, wanted only enough power to rule, while Kefka wanted all of it. Struck down by the statues, the old ruler is kicked off the edge of the Floating Continent.

In Final Fantasy VI, what are the petrified gods called whose balance Kefka upsets?

The Warring Triad turned humans into Espers to fight for them, then sealed themselves in stone out of remorse. In the last dungeon the party must destroy each of them in turn.

Which conflict, a thousand years before Final Fantasy VI, turned humans into the first Espers?

War of the Magi veterans left descendants in the village of Thamasa, who still hide their inherited powers. Everywhere else, magic had faded into myth.

Which Final Fantasy VI gambler fights with dice, darts and thrown playing cards?

Setzer grew out of a Gambler job class dropped from Final Fantasy V for having too much individuality. He later appeared in Kingdom Hearts II as a tournament champion.

Which shrouded master of mimicry joins Final Fantasy VI's party only after a monster swallows them?

Gogo lives inside the Zone Eater, a creature on Triangle Island. The mimic was written with no backstory at all, simply as one more fighter for players who wanted one.

Which yeti joins the heroes of Final Fantasy VI only when the moogle Mog orders him to?

Umaro adores Mog as his boss. Players cannot control him in battle, and a ring only he can wear lets him hurl a teammate at the enemy without hurting them.

Which carnivorous octopus keeps returning to fight the party as comic relief in Final Fantasy VI?

Ultros is called Orthros in Japan. One of his attacks is foiled when a young painter offers to draw his portrait, and he has cameoed in many later games in the series.

Which recurring series name belongs to the scientist who nurses Celes in Final Fantasy VI?

Cid built the Empire's magic laboratories, then turned against it. He tends Celes through her long coma on a deserted island, and whether he survives depends on how well she feeds him.

Which Imperial general in Final Fantasy VI refuses magical infusion and is murdered by Kefka?

Leo was so admired that players hunted for ways to revive him, even using glitches to keep him in the party. He dies defending a village when the Empire's peace offer proves a ruse.

What is Terra called in Japanese versions of Final Fantasy VI, a name American playtesters hated?

Tina was dropped because, the translator recalled, almost every American playtester disliked it. He argued his scripts were meant for a broader audience than import players.

What is the painter Relm to the ninja Shadow in Final Fantasy VI, though she never learns it?

His daughter was left behind when he walked away from his old life and name. Only dream scenes at inns, and his dog's instant affection for the girl, hint at the bond.

Nintendo's rules on religion led Final Fantasy VI's translator to rename the spell Holy as what?

Pearl replaced Holy, and the same guidelines turned town signs reading Bar into Café. Later translations brought spell names back in line with the rest of the series.

Which translator of Final Fantasy VI's original English script later localised Super Mario RPG?

Ted Woolsey had to fit the script into limited cartridge space and past Nintendo's censors, and several lines he invented for Kefka have followed the villain into later games.

Which Final Fantasy VI co-director wrote all of Kefka's scenes and calls Celes his favourite?

Yoshinori Kitase handled the story and events while his co-director ran the battles. He went on to direct Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VII.

Which Final Fantasy VI artist pitched its ninja and gambler, then led character design on VII?

Tetsuya Nomura also drew the monsters, and for the last boss he scanned hand-drawn sketches straight into the game. He had designed monsters for Final Fantasy V before it.

A 2006 port of Final Fantasy VI was the last title Nintendo itself published for which system?

Game Boy Advance owners got a new translation, four extra Espers and a bonus dungeon. In Asia it was the very last game released for the handheld.

What was the ninja Shadow's real name in Final Fantasy VI, back when he was a robber?

Clyde fled when his mortally wounded partner, Baram, begged to be killed. Dreams at inns reveal the guilt that made him bury his name and become a mercenary.

Which Apple Arcade RPG did Final Fantasy's creator model on Final Fantasy VI after replaying it?

Fantasian came about because replaying the 1994 classic rekindled its maker's love of crafting settings and stories. He wrote the two-part adventure himself.

Which book helped inspire Final Fantasy VI's feral child Gau?

Flowers for Algernon and tales of youngsters raised by wolves both shaped the boy, whose writer spent longer developing him than any other character.

What are Final Fantasy VI's powerful accessories called, which can even alter basic battle commands?

Relics can be swapped almost freely between party members, and the strongest let a hero exceed what the rules normally allow.

What is the Empire's capital city called in Final Fantasy VI, where captured Espers are drained?

Vector is where the party finds the dying Espers, and the city is later levelled when freed Espers pour through the sealed gate.