MOG: Uhhhh...
January 19, 2012 10:24 AM Subscribe
Let's Break Final Fantasy 6 is a delightful Let's Play of a familiar and beloved game in which an enlivened youth sets off on a long and arduous journey of playing a long and (well, somewhat) arduous game without...saving in order to... Wait. What? Where'd that airship come from and what is that moogle doing to that train?
Sorta-kinda answers and more (much more! like rafts! and ghosts! and...that thing!) in Let's Break Final Fantasy 6: taking you on an unasked for journey to catch All the Bugs in a game you never knew you never knew.
Table of Contents
1.) An Introduction
2.) Operas Don't Work That Way
3.) Character Switching Explanation
4.) Jenkees!
4.5.) Here's A Thing
5.) Why am I here...?
6.) 1.21 Gigawatts
7.) Sketch Glitch
8.) Ultimate Sketch Glitch 2: Extended Edition
9.) Murder Everything
10.) Totally Not a Buildup Update
11.) All About Maduin
12.) The Adventure Ends
Sorta-kinda answers and more (much more! like rafts! and ghosts! and...that thing!) in Let's Break Final Fantasy 6: taking you on an unasked for journey to catch All the Bugs in a game you never knew you never knew.
Table of Contents
1.) An Introduction
2.) Operas Don't Work That Way
3.) Character Switching Explanation
4.) Jenkees!
4.5.) Here's A Thing
5.) Why am I here...?
6.) 1.21 Gigawatts
7.) Sketch Glitch
8.) Ultimate Sketch Glitch 2: Extended Edition
9.) Murder Everything
10.) Totally Not a Buildup Update
11.) All About Maduin
12.) The Adventure Ends
Gruuu
posted by The Whelk at 10:30 AM on January 19, 2012 [18 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 10:30 AM on January 19, 2012 [18 favorites]
Please do not post things like this in the future. I have things that need to get done in my actual life.
posted by RolandOfEld at 10:34 AM on January 19, 2012 [7 favorites]
posted by RolandOfEld at 10:34 AM on January 19, 2012 [7 favorites]
If we're on the subject of anti-walkthroughs, may I submit my favorite Ultima collection.
posted by Wossname at 10:46 AM on January 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by Wossname at 10:46 AM on January 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
I also enjoyed this LP of Zelda: Link's Awakening whereby Meccaprime glitches and breaks his way through the game, resulting in what feels like a bad trip.. in a hilarious sense.
.. birdphone!
posted by pyrex at 10:52 AM on January 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
.. birdphone!
posted by pyrex at 10:52 AM on January 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
I fucking love Final Fantasy 6.
posted by Hoopo at 10:56 AM on January 19, 2012 [5 favorites]
posted by Hoopo at 10:56 AM on January 19, 2012 [5 favorites]
im going to watch someone else play a video game
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 11:05 AM on January 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 11:05 AM on January 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
FF3 is the one role playing game I came close to beating. But I couldn't figure out how to get into that damn tower. By the time someone told me I had to land the airship ON it, I had no interest in going back and finishing.
My only other memory of the game is fighting tiny pickles on a remote desert island for massive xp points.
posted by Brodiggitty at 11:14 AM on January 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
My only other memory of the game is fighting tiny pickles on a remote desert island for massive xp points.
posted by Brodiggitty at 11:14 AM on January 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
Those were cactus, not pickles! They were called Cactuar and lived in the desert.
posted by Hoopo at 11:19 AM on January 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by Hoopo at 11:19 AM on January 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
Metafilter: Tiny pickles on a remote desert island.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 11:40 AM on January 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 11:40 AM on January 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
Holy shit! I have, to this day, never beaten FF6, because the one save I had that was pretty far progressed one day glitched out and fucked up my inventory, and nothing makes a game feel cheap like having 100+ economizers. I'd never known what happened, but apparently I inadvertently triggered the Sketch Glitch. Incredible.
posted by TypographicalError at 12:04 PM on January 19, 2012
posted by TypographicalError at 12:04 PM on January 19, 2012
I was thinking about posting this, but wanted to wait until it was archived on the non-Somethingawful site since public viewing of the forums is word filtered, uglier than usual, and subject to being taken down whenever they need more money for 'server fees'. It's pretty cool, regardless.
posted by codacorolla at 12:06 PM on January 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by codacorolla at 12:06 PM on January 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
public viewing of the forums is word filtered
I may be five, but the substitution of "gently caress" makes me snicker every. single. time.
(Now, back to reading Let's Play guides.)
posted by restless_nomad at 12:57 PM on January 19, 2012
I may be five, but the substitution of "gently caress" makes me snicker every. single. time.
(Now, back to reading Let's Play guides.)
posted by restless_nomad at 12:57 PM on January 19, 2012
FF6 is probably my favorite game that I've never finished. That game is looooooong.
I usually get to the World of Ruin, a bit further, and then some important life event distracts me from the game long enough to misplace the save files (or, in one case, I went ahead too quickly without enough experience, couldn't fight my way out, and stupidly overwrote my savegame). Every few years, I come back to it, almost finish it, and then never quite make it.
But it's a great damn game with an awesome story, art, and music. I seriously hope that it gets remade or has a followup title someday. I swear that I'm not being an old fart when I say that they don't make games like this anymore; the amount of attention to detail that went into this game is simply staggering, especially when you consider the technical limitations that the designers had to work with, and the fact that the game also adds up to a very satisfying whole (a common fault of modern RPGs, which either tend to be glued to the rails, or set in a fascinatingly detailed sandbox that perpetually feels 95% finished and lacks a gripping central plot *cough*bethesda*).
Terra's Theme is easily one of my favorite bits of videogame music (Nobuo Uematsu deserves a freaking medal for creating a compelling orchestral soundtrack on the SNES). The Fight Song was my ringtone for ages before I had to change it when I got a real job.
What's this? It's on PSN? Uh oh....there goes my next 3 weeks. Seriously. There are about 3 dozen games that I apparently "need" to play, because I play approximately one or two games a year, and don't have time for anything more. I still haven't played FFVII, which is apparently a severe dereliction of my nerd duties.
I guess I could cut sleep out of my schedule...
posted by schmod at 1:29 PM on January 19, 2012
I usually get to the World of Ruin, a bit further, and then some important life event distracts me from the game long enough to misplace the save files (or, in one case, I went ahead too quickly without enough experience, couldn't fight my way out, and stupidly overwrote my savegame). Every few years, I come back to it, almost finish it, and then never quite make it.
But it's a great damn game with an awesome story, art, and music. I seriously hope that it gets remade or has a followup title someday. I swear that I'm not being an old fart when I say that they don't make games like this anymore; the amount of attention to detail that went into this game is simply staggering, especially when you consider the technical limitations that the designers had to work with, and the fact that the game also adds up to a very satisfying whole (a common fault of modern RPGs, which either tend to be glued to the rails, or set in a fascinatingly detailed sandbox that perpetually feels 95% finished and lacks a gripping central plot *cough*bethesda*).
Terra's Theme is easily one of my favorite bits of videogame music (Nobuo Uematsu deserves a freaking medal for creating a compelling orchestral soundtrack on the SNES). The Fight Song was my ringtone for ages before I had to change it when I got a real job.
What's this? It's on PSN? Uh oh....there goes my next 3 weeks. Seriously. There are about 3 dozen games that I apparently "need" to play, because I play approximately one or two games a year, and don't have time for anything more. I still haven't played FFVII, which is apparently a severe dereliction of my nerd duties.
I guess I could cut sleep out of my schedule...
posted by schmod at 1:29 PM on January 19, 2012
Schmod, it'll probably use the new translation they whipped out for the GBA verison. Better written but has that strange not-matching-your-memories vibe going on
posted by The Whelk at 1:30 PM on January 19, 2012
posted by The Whelk at 1:30 PM on January 19, 2012
FF6 is probably my favorite game of all time. I will be watching this over the weekend. Much thanks.
posted by X-Himy at 1:39 PM on January 19, 2012
posted by X-Himy at 1:39 PM on January 19, 2012
The fight music was my ringtone for a while too, until I switched it to the Chrono Trigger fight music for a change of pace. It might be time to change it back though!
This post motivated me to actually count how many different playthroughs of this game I am working on intermittently. Turns out there are seven (!). Two on an emulator (one near the end of the game, one near the beginning for a partial bestiary project I was working on for a while, with screencaps of Sabin suplexing everything that can be suplexed), three on virtual console, two on Playstation (despite the load times, ugh). Maybe that is a little ridiculous, but for me it's like re-(re-re-re-re-)reading a favourite comforting novel or something.
posted by bewilderbeast at 1:47 PM on January 19, 2012
This post motivated me to actually count how many different playthroughs of this game I am working on intermittently. Turns out there are seven (!). Two on an emulator (one near the end of the game, one near the beginning for a partial bestiary project I was working on for a while, with screencaps of Sabin suplexing everything that can be suplexed), three on virtual console, two on Playstation (despite the load times, ugh). Maybe that is a little ridiculous, but for me it's like re-(re-re-re-re-)reading a favourite comforting novel or something.
posted by bewilderbeast at 1:47 PM on January 19, 2012
FFVI and Chrono Trigger had, no contest, some of the best scores of their time, perhaps ever. Browsing down memory, however, did lead me to this... curiosity, regarding Robo's theme.
posted by Panjandrum at 2:15 PM on January 19, 2012
posted by Panjandrum at 2:15 PM on January 19, 2012
FF6 is possibly my favorite game of all time OF ALL TIME. I've played through it endless times, and I've done all sorts of too-much-time-on-my-hands things like getting everyone up to level 99 and playing through the World of Ruin with only the three characters you need before you get the airship and deliberately flubbing all the lines in the opera. ("Prince Ralse... yeah, so? I hate him, everyone does!")
I discovered the Sketch glitch on my own, by accident: I was all like "hee what'll happen if Relm sketches Gau?" and all my characters changed colors permanently and I got several zillion of all the extra-cool weapons and relics. It was the best thing that had ever happened and I was all "I will never NEVER save over this file." If we still have the cartridge somewhere, it's still there.
Relm was my favorite character by far, which makes me cringe a little now. That's about as lame as having Howie D. as your favorite Backstreet Boy. which he was
posted by Metroid Baby at 2:21 PM on January 19, 2012 [5 favorites]
I discovered the Sketch glitch on my own, by accident: I was all like "hee what'll happen if Relm sketches Gau?" and all my characters changed colors permanently and I got several zillion of all the extra-cool weapons and relics. It was the best thing that had ever happened and I was all "I will never NEVER save over this file." If we still have the cartridge somewhere, it's still there.
Relm was my favorite character by far, which makes me cringe a little now. That's about as lame as having Howie D. as your favorite Backstreet Boy. which he was
posted by Metroid Baby at 2:21 PM on January 19, 2012 [5 favorites]
Oh my hero,
So far away now,
Will I ever see your smile?
posted by pecanpies at 2:50 PM on January 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
So far away now,
Will I ever see your smile?
posted by pecanpies at 2:50 PM on January 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
I'm playing this now!
Android phone and SNES98x and time to play courtesy of bus transiting time. (I've been playing for the past 4 months I think).
And I now know that blind *is* useless. Nice to have that confirmed.
posted by sleslie at 3:07 PM on January 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
Android phone and SNES98x and time to play courtesy of bus transiting time. (I've been playing for the past 4 months I think).
And I now know that blind *is* useless. Nice to have that confirmed.
posted by sleslie at 3:07 PM on January 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
I hated the opera house parts so. bad. Me and my buddy kept dying or screwing up the lines while impatiently button mashing, and had to go through it what felt like a dozen times.
posted by Hoopo at 3:29 PM on January 19, 2012
posted by Hoopo at 3:29 PM on January 19, 2012
I was thinking about posting this, but wanted to wait until it was archived on the non-Somethingawful site since public viewing of the forums is word filtered, uglier than usual, and subject to being taken down whenever they need more money for 'server fees'. It's pretty cool, regardless.
I posted this hesitantly, because of this. It seems like it'll inevitably end up archived, but I thought it was too neat not to share sooner.
I am a nerd, and so so happy that other people love this game as much as I do.
posted by byanyothername at 3:50 PM on January 19, 2012
I posted this hesitantly, because of this. It seems like it'll inevitably end up archived, but I thought it was too neat not to share sooner.
I am a nerd, and so so happy that other people love this game as much as I do.
posted by byanyothername at 3:50 PM on January 19, 2012
Been following that thread! Really looking forward to the super-secret bonus update.
posted by kafziel at 4:23 PM on January 19, 2012
posted by kafziel at 4:23 PM on January 19, 2012
The reveal at the last post was exquisite. It was like finding out Santa Claus is actually real.
posted by Panjandrum at 4:43 PM on January 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Panjandrum at 4:43 PM on January 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
I played this through with my kid brother, taking turns, looking over each other's shoulders, rooting each other on. Best enjoyed as a two player game.
We were both Cyan fans (samurai! so noble! so tragic!) but in game terms he tended to be slow and underpowered. It's good to know he's capable of murdering anything and everything on the screen with an endless series of blows from his sword. I think it would be perfectly in character for him to be capable of doing this at any time. He doesn't because he's holding himself back. It wouldn't be fair to take 100 swings in a row at the other side -- have to give them a turn.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 4:53 PM on January 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
We were both Cyan fans (samurai! so noble! so tragic!) but in game terms he tended to be slow and underpowered. It's good to know he's capable of murdering anything and everything on the screen with an endless series of blows from his sword. I think it would be perfectly in character for him to be capable of doing this at any time. He doesn't because he's holding himself back. It wouldn't be fair to take 100 swings in a row at the other side -- have to give them a turn.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 4:53 PM on January 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
The Fight Song was my ringtone for ages before I had to change it when I got a real job.
Why change it? My ringtone is still Lucca's Theme, despite having a job. Since I never answer my cell phone, it's pretty much just an excuse to randomly hear a pretty rad song every so often. I figure, if I have to listen to people's stupid text message sounds all the time, then they can tolerate my ringtone on the rare occasion that I'm the recipient of a phone call.
posted by Redfield at 4:53 PM on January 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
Why change it? My ringtone is still Lucca's Theme, despite having a job. Since I never answer my cell phone, it's pretty much just an excuse to randomly hear a pretty rad song every so often. I figure, if I have to listen to people's stupid text message sounds all the time, then they can tolerate my ringtone on the rare occasion that I'm the recipient of a phone call.
posted by Redfield at 4:53 PM on January 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
I played this through with my kid brother, taking turns, looking over each other's shoulders, rooting each other on. Best enjoyed as a two player game.
The fact that enormous numbers of kids grew up playing video games in exactly this way -- figuring out how to turn 'solitary' entertainment into social glue -- is probably the single strongest argument against the 'video games turn kids into creepy glassy-eyed loners' canard. Playing long long games like the original Final Fantasy (oh that one hallway in Giant Cave where every step was a combat, how I loved and loathed you), my brother and I grew much closer and really learned to manage our emotions together. That might sound stupid, but we were teenagers learning all over again how to share. It was awesome. Other games with other friends, same thing. We were working together and we loved it.
I was lonely through some of my childhood, but this multiplayer-single-player-gaming experience was some of the least lonely I ever felt: geek fellowship, pure and simple.
I'm sure D&D nerds had much the same experience around the gaming table. But the weirdness of playing video RPGs this way adds a special kick, for me.
Anyhow.
posted by waxbanks at 5:21 PM on January 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
The fact that enormous numbers of kids grew up playing video games in exactly this way -- figuring out how to turn 'solitary' entertainment into social glue -- is probably the single strongest argument against the 'video games turn kids into creepy glassy-eyed loners' canard. Playing long long games like the original Final Fantasy (oh that one hallway in Giant Cave where every step was a combat, how I loved and loathed you), my brother and I grew much closer and really learned to manage our emotions together. That might sound stupid, but we were teenagers learning all over again how to share. It was awesome. Other games with other friends, same thing. We were working together and we loved it.
I was lonely through some of my childhood, but this multiplayer-single-player-gaming experience was some of the least lonely I ever felt: geek fellowship, pure and simple.
I'm sure D&D nerds had much the same experience around the gaming table. But the weirdness of playing video RPGs this way adds a special kick, for me.
Anyhow.
posted by waxbanks at 5:21 PM on January 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
I'm going to read this entire thing, thanks.
When I was a wee one, my favourite thing to do on SNES was to break Final Fantasy 2 in a way very similar to this. It required a game genie, but it was a pretty trivial matter: use the wallwalk cheat and start a new game. When you are walking around the start town you can access the area where you run into Cid and he will give you the airship at level 1, no questions asked. The net effect is the same as this glitch, interestingly: you have the airship at the very beginning of the game with only Kain and Cecil in your party. You can then proceed to break it in all sorts of glorious, bizarre ways. And then invite friends over and show them your completely messed up save games.
posted by mek at 5:28 PM on January 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
When I was a wee one, my favourite thing to do on SNES was to break Final Fantasy 2 in a way very similar to this. It required a game genie, but it was a pretty trivial matter: use the wallwalk cheat and start a new game. When you are walking around the start town you can access the area where you run into Cid and he will give you the airship at level 1, no questions asked. The net effect is the same as this glitch, interestingly: you have the airship at the very beginning of the game with only Kain and Cecil in your party. You can then proceed to break it in all sorts of glorious, bizarre ways. And then invite friends over and show them your completely messed up save games.
posted by mek at 5:28 PM on January 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
I'm sure D&D nerds had much the same experience around the gaming table. But the weirdness of playing video RPGs this way adds a special kick, for me.
I had both! D&D with friends, SNES with my brother. Many a dull rainy afternoon spent handing off the controller and the special save point at the Opera so we could watch it over and over.
It funny thing is, I sometimes play online co-op games with my brother and the same dynamic comes out "You're too impatient!" "You're too cautious!" 'You die all the time!" "But I'm having fun!"
posted by The Whelk at 5:38 PM on January 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
I had both! D&D with friends, SNES with my brother. Many a dull rainy afternoon spent handing off the controller and the special save point at the Opera so we could watch it over and over.
It funny thing is, I sometimes play online co-op games with my brother and the same dynamic comes out "You're too impatient!" "You're too cautious!" 'You die all the time!" "But I'm having fun!"
posted by The Whelk at 5:38 PM on January 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
Well I was planning to sleep tonight, but...
posted by Gordafarin at 9:56 PM on January 19, 2012
posted by Gordafarin at 9:56 PM on January 19, 2012
This was a great read. I hope that he manages to make that last glitch work. I enjoyed being able to reminisce about how fun though broken this FF6 could be.
posted by andendau at 2:19 AM on January 20, 2012
posted by andendau at 2:19 AM on January 20, 2012
Schmod, it'll probably use the new translation they whipped out for the GBA verison. Better written but has that strange not-matching-your-memories vibe going on
Better written? Son of a submariner!
posted by ersatz at 8:33 AM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
Better written? Son of a submariner!
posted by ersatz at 8:33 AM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
I hope that he manages to make that last glitch work.
"Elephantgun" is a woman (she corrects someone else in the SA thread).
posted by dhens at 1:51 PM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
"Elephantgun" is a woman (she corrects someone else in the SA thread).
posted by dhens at 1:51 PM on January 20, 2012 [1 favorite]
By the way, Elephantgun mentioned Let's Break Pokemon Blue in one of the posts... I'm reading it through presently and it's also great fun, if you're into that kind of thing.
posted by Gordafarin at 5:35 PM on January 20, 2012
posted by Gordafarin at 5:35 PM on January 20, 2012
Thanks for the clarification I enjoy reading about her exploits.
posted by andendau at 10:27 PM on January 24, 2012
posted by andendau at 10:27 PM on January 24, 2012
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posted by bewilderbeast at 10:30 AM on January 19, 2012