Final Fantasy 6 (SNES) - Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN) 

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I cant wait till 2024 to hear about Chrono Trigger 😄

No matter what age, or how many responsibilities you have. A 60 hour save being corrupted would make anyone freak out.

I don't care if he's supposed to be the ANGRY video game nerd. The episodes where James talks about games he likes are always the best

For those wondering, the glitch happens in the SNES version randomly from using Realm's sketch ability.

When I was 14, 1996, I spent the summer with my grandmother. One day when at Albertson's she allowed me to rent a video game. Not knowing what this game was about or even having ever played an rpg up to that point in life, we left the story with this in it's little rental case with the box art cut and fit into a vhs box. This is the game that I played nonstop that entire summer, renting it over and over again to try and finish it before I had to go home. I didn't beat it that summer and for a whole year and a half all I could think about was this game. So to my shock and awe for christmas that year I opened a present and inside was a vhs box with cut up artwork of Final Fantasy 3. She had bought the game from the rental store for me. I spent the next month or so just playing that and grinding every esper to completion for every character, finally beating it without much resistance from Kefka. Thank you nerd for bring back memories of my Nana, she passed in 2019. What I wouldn't give to go back and spend the summer with her instead of this game, but at least when I think back upon this game it gets me to think about my Nana.

Uematsu composing the FFVI sountrack on a 16-bit chip is like finding out that Michelangelo did the Sistine Chapel with crayons

Where I grew up it was accepted that anyone could take the week of thanksgiving off from school to go deer hunting. One year back then I did all the paper work to get out of school to go deer hunting, but instead just sat in my bedroom and binged this game for three days. No regerts

If you read the 25th anniversary developer interview, it turns out the World of Ruin wasn't in the original plan. The devs were ahead of schedule when they got to the intended ending on the floating contiennt, and one of them was like 'haha but what if kefka wins'.

90's Squaresoft games had such amazing soundtracks.

An AVGN based on one of the greatest games ever. Thanks for the Christmas present, James

The step counter is useful. Strago has a lore spell called "step mine" that does damage based on the number of steps you take in the game

I can't believe 12 years later, I'm still rewatching this guy's videos. The best friend I've never met.

This game got me through my parent's divorce and major depression in 1994. I became this game. I poured my sorrow into the game. Even now the Terra theme makes me cry...but a little happier everytime. And the world of ruin...yeh that hit me. I knew i had to mend this world somehow even if..."forever changed"...

James I've been watching you for years. Back at the dawn of the PS3, back before I had kids. Now, at 50, with 2 children in their teens, I cannot thank you enough for all the laughs, and enjoyment you have brought me. Thank you from every piece of my heart. Merry Christmas to you and your family!

This entire game. Kefka's theme. The opera scene... this game is, SO nostalgia. Thank you for doing it justice.

It's hard to explain the feeling of awe from that game back then, how amazing and special it was, but you did it perfectly.

I genuinely can't believe that AVGN is 20 years old next year😵‍💫

When A Link to the Past was new I was playing it in my bedroom on the final boss battle with Gannon. My mother walked into the room with laundry, attempted to step over the SNES and kicked the cartridge. It shut off, when it came back on all of my saves were erased. Afterwards I couldn't even look at the game. To dedicate those hundreds of hours to get back there... it took me 25 years for the feeling to fade and finally go back and beat it. So I feel the story behind this.

It was an extra rainy year when FFVI came out. I remember being at a friend's house and the rainy weather of the town Zozo matching the outside perfectly. It's 30 years too late, but one thing to do is to make multiple saves in the hope that 1 of your saves survives an erase. I starting saving before entering a big area, like Kefka's castle, in case I needed that backup.

My favourite thing in this game is uncursing the Cursed Shield. You have to fight 255 battles with the Shield equipped. Before the internet this sounded like a troll. I was amazed when I found out it was true. It becomes the Paladin Shield, the best in the game and it teaches Ultima when equipped.

Interesting thing about "dancing mad" which is the title of Kefka's theme music, is the fact that it changes with the battle, as his health wears down, tell eventually sounding less triumphant and more mournful. The game is truly a masterpiece.

Possibly one of the greatest intros in gaming history with the mechs walking through the snow

That cracking sound that starts when you defeat a boss is such a relief

“Nothing is over” Dude, this uplifted my spirits so much. So amazing how III/VI is still giving lessons today. Thank you!

What an incredible episode. Definitely felt the love in this one. I think James should do a couple more of these where the Nerd plays a game he loves, because the passion really came through. Best episode in a long while.

AVGN needs to cover more RPG genres in video games. He did it with Earthbound, but now he covered Final Fantasy and I feels like Super Mario RPG or Chrono Trigger shall be next.

6:24-6:29 That part aged a little too well. RIP Yeti, James Rolfe's white cat (2008-2024)

Final Fantasy 3 was an epic game, and revisiting it every once and a while is just definitely worth it just for the nostalgia! Awesome to see the Nerd play it! And he totally needs to do Chrono trigger, oh and Super Mario RPG since they nailed the remake!

Kefka's laugh is the epitome of villainy of the 16-bit era.

What a way to cap off the end of the year by playing my favorite Final Fantasy games of all time. Thank you, Nerd

"Passion always comes through in spite of limitations" is one of the best things I've heard

I love the way James broke down the plot of this game, Celes’ despair and Kefka’s madness. It brought back my fondest memories 🥰

I still remember watching my cousin beating this as a 4 year old and thinking this has to be the best game I have ever seen. I remember forcing myself to learn how to read when FF 7 came out just so I could play it.

Nobuo Uematsu is the John Williams of video games!!! I still cry watching the end....just perfection.

Thank you nerd for still going. It means so much to so many. We love you

This game is so... perfect If a nihilistic can become a final boss, is this... the battle is SO EPIC even with the flaws, you feel like every moment jumps into a new whole level of clusterf**k Bravo!

I loved this game so much. I got my HS orchestra teacher to play Kefka's theme at one of their concerts.

AVGN is aging like fine wine after watching for almost 17 years. This episode in tandem with the Contra episode brought me back to my childhood in the best way possible. Thank you for this gift James.

I remember beating this game as a kid on a cold winter day and that end boss battle was so epic its been permanently etched into my core memory. FF7 couldn't even top it, even though it was close. FF4 was my bucket list game I beat last year finally that I remembered as a kid, and its ending was similarly epic. Would love to see you cover FF4 as well.

back in the SNES cartridge days. I equipped Celes with Force armour and White Cape and zephyr cape. Made her have 99 magic blk/eva (cant recall which it was back then) it was a broken stat. basically made your character immune to almost everything. By kefka, she was blocking everything he threw at her.

Sure wasn't expecting a new AVGN this late at night, but I'll take it!

I’ll always love listening to older gamers talking about their experiences with various games such as Final Fantasy back in the day as well as the reactions to the uniqueness of said games, their stories, characters, and music that would later become iconic and helped create the world of gaming. It’s so fascinating and insightful. It gives you a good reason why retro games should always be respected and preserved no matter how much time passes by and how much society and the world at large changes.

A bumbling Santa tripping over the power cord was great lol

I felt the same way as the nerd when I owned, played, didnt understand, put it down, picked it back up and finally beat final fantasy one. Sadly in those times the naming of subsequent titles and the difficulty finding them (pre-internet) kept me from playing any others to this very day. I remember when 7-8 came out, I played 8 to completion and just never played 2-6 nor did i know where or what system to find them on... the closest I came to recapturing the feeling of Final Fantasy one during the 90s era was Earthbound and Mario RPG. Other subsequent notable mentions: Rogue Galaxy on PS2 and Lost Odyssey on XBOX 360.

So happy to see Mike back on an Avgn episode! 🤩

You know what I love about AVGN? After 20 years, James still finds ways to keep it fresh. A review of a great game in an awesome storytelling fashion. The nostalgia! I love it! Merry Christmas james!

Personally this is my favorite video game ever. It's why I've bought it many times including the pixel remaster. I also play it yearly and it always brings a smile to my face. Even Terra's theme is my ringtone. I can play it in so many ways as well even though I've played it a lot of times so it's always fun for me. I'm glad you finally finished it and hope you enjoyed your Christmas.

3:00 Biggs and wedge?!? Where have a heard those names. Hmmmmm 🤔 my mind is up in the CLOUD with this one.

The Nerd deserves a win every now and then, and there's no better way than with this masterpiece of the 16-bit era. Awesome episode!

The game keeps track of the number of steps you've taken because some spells (blue magic or rages I believe) calculate damage based on it. If you have a high number of steps, those attacks will do considerably more damage.

well this wasn't a regular AVGN episode, but I liked it.. btw: "kefka" in my language means "toothbrush" or very small "brush" : )

My older brothers rented the game (that was a thing in Brazilian 90s), but didn’t finish it, when I was like 8 years old. I remember looking at the manual and be mesmerized by the amazing artwork. Didn’t know a word of English or Japanese, but just by watching it I got hooked. As a teenager, I was able to finally play (and finish, mind you) on my own and it has been, since then, my favorite game ever. You watch ceres scene on the island and you understand that pixels can make you emote just as hard as any 3d realistic image, if not more.

I had a friend as a kid named Ransom. His Dad was a lawyer, and they lived in a mansion. I remember he had this game, and we, over the course of many months, played this game until the very end. I will never forget those hot summer days. This game is among my most wonderful childhood memories. I even played this one with more than one friend, but I never owned it. I should play it with my son. ❤

I will never forget this game for two reasons, my best friend introduce me to it back in de 90s. It made the RPG genre my favorite ever since. Sadly my friend passed away in 2018.

The "winter break type of game" hit me right in the childhood. I remember my winter breaks and summer vacations playing memorable games like this.

Losing a save file that you put 60, 70, 80+ hours out of nowhere is an experience I can unfortunately relate to all too well...

The "christmas episode" of AVGN is now a tradition every year for me. Thank you for that

What a great episode. Another freaking classic. It was cool to see Mike back in a skit. It makes it feel even more nostalgic.

Kefka’s theme song “dancing mad” so perfectly fits how psychotic he is and being the GOAT FF boss

Nerd I think "Dragon Warrior 7" for the PS1 would legitimately be a perfect game for the AVGN series. It's the definition of a criminally underrated game.

I'll never forget begging my mom to go to my friends place to see what happens next in the story. Best memories ever.

So basically, that was the catalyst to years of being the Angry Video Game Nerd, thank you Final Fantasy "III", thank you.

15:40 considering how often you got blocked in the overworld, having your party snake around would probably be a nightmare.

The last few episodes have been really entertaining. I guess it's as everyone said, the new producer really brought the show back to its roots. I get that same feeling I used to get when I watched the older episodes. There was certainly a period when the episodes just felt really different and just didn't have that same enjoyment factor as they did before.

Terra’s Theme is the single greatest video game piece ever composed. No other melody has ever sounded so hauntingly nostalgic

As usual, the best Cinemassacre content comes from James talking about the stuff that's really important to him.

If you think about it, it is absolutely crazy that The Nerd drops a video for Xmas that tells the story about how his game froze, saves lost and the ANGRY Video Game Nerd was essentially born this day in his early childhood. It’s almost biblical.

Thanks for sharing this video, and especially that horror story! Whatever happened to your Final Fantasy III SNES cartridge and save games sounds a lot like what happened to me with Secret of Mana…except my save games weren’t erased completely; rather, to this day, the characters’ info is unviewable, and their names are scrambled (e.g. the boy became “is”, with lowercase letters, which you can’t even choose when naming, only uppercase). I’ve always assumed it was some sort of a power surge that caused this, but I guess we will never know for sure…

These are, by far, my favorite videos of James. Where he goes back and relives these memories and shares them with us. These reviews always make me smile.

This game blew me away. So much better than any game I had played to date. Beautiful and with an amazing score.

FF6 was truly groundbreaking. True magitek. And one of the best game OSTs ever.

My absolute favorite final fantasy game, 7 being a close second.

I love when James says "I've never seen anything like it before, and I've never seen it since", it's like he's an old wizard telling us of his journeys that we barely comprehend, but he is my hero, so I continue to listen

The ending always makes me shed a tear. What a game.

28:01 Mike...is that you?

Great video nerd! This is definitely my favorite RPG! Suikdoen 1/2, BoF 2, and CT right behind it. I’m surprised you didn’t talk about the limit brakes or whatever they’re called, when the characters are low health, and they randomly do their crazy signature attacks. Thank you for the awesome video! I just started playing Final Fantasy one through nine again, I’m currently on two. I can’t wait for six (our 3) hehe! I hope you have a blessed year friend!

I remember crying legit tears after the opera scene back in the day. It's still a top 5 gaming moment of mine.

the step tracker thing is neat because Strago has an ability that is based on how many steps you have. I forget which one, but another has a sword whose atk is tethered to the amount of times you've escaped a battle. and ffvii has a guy that gives you a certain item based on the total sum of battles you've had that game. i love little features like that, you don't see it too often anymore tho

So great to have a positive episode around Christmas. On one of my absolute favorites, too! Merry Christmas James!

If you liked that, I highly recommend Wild Arms. It often gets overlooked, but besides Chrono Trigger it's the only 2D RPG that's up there with the music and story.

so many firsts.... this game. It was an inflection point in gaming where we got a glimpse into the future of the art-form and it looked amazingly bright. cinematic cutscenes, character growth expressed through dialogue, adult themes of loss and even mature themes like suicide and nihilism were explored and all for the better. One of the few SNES games I go back and replay on occasion.

Every year for Christmas my old man would ask the guy at the video game store for the longest, most difficult game they had and on one got me this gem, greatest game ever!!

That opening walking 3 meks was super atmospheric... cheers man

Some of my greatest memories with my childhood best friend are this game. The music, the story, the characters, EVERYTHING was just unlike any game I'd ever played. The whole SNES era of my early teens was something I'll always remember, and this game was THE one to rule them all. Thanks for this great nostalgia refresh

The greatest Christmas gift of all, an all new AVGN episode.

It’s been decades since I played this game, yet hearing the music again still instantly brings me to the verge of tears.

I wish James still wrote the episodes...

That intro, what a thing of beauty.

One of my strongest Christmas memories was getting FFIII, and going upstairs to my bedroom to play it. I was called to dinner during that epic epic opening and man was it hard to put that down to go get something to eat.

"Passion always comes through, in spite of limitations." Well put.

"Passion always comes through, in spite of limitations." GREAT way of summing up why those early Final Fantasy games were revered as the most epic of adventures despite the limited animations and graphics. I love this game to this day, and FF IV before it (ie. II lol).

One of the best RPG's out there. I was able to bork the game with Lock using genji glove and offering for my relics and the weapons used were Illumina and valent knife.

It's still probably the best in the series. No graphics can make up for that emotional connection and throughline as you played through the story, that was alchemically "just right" in VI.

I’ve finished this game (pixel remaster) and let me tell ya, it was one HELL of an emotional rollercoaster!! Nobuo Uematsu is peak when it comes to connecting music with characters and scenarios. Dialogue: A+ Music: A+ Challenges: SSS Art: SSS Conclusion: SSS Emotional impact: SS Thank you, Square for making my day a whole worth while.

Hands down this is my top favorite game in the history of ever. Even now in my forties I still play this through once every couple of years. And I know it's six, but it'll always be three to me.

My friend renamed the characters names as his friends names, I was over watching him play after-school and was like YO you named (blank) Jason after me that is sooo cool. Made it so much more personal when anything happened to that character.

Easily the best episode in years, if not ever. Thanks for everything, James.

You absolutely nailed this game. I live in Denmark and imported these games from the US because they weren't available in Europe. I spent the best days of my life with my older brother shedding tears to the soundtracks. He and I shared all the ups an downs and epic adventures of a ton of games - But the best ones were Zelda, Chrono Trigger and the masterpiece; FF6(3). I learned English on a level that was waaay beyond the norm for a 9-year-old just to play and understand the games. I covered most of the soundtrack as guitar-arrangements, simply because the music was something so special. My brother committed suicide recently - but I still persevere, with a heavy core memory and lesson that this game taught. Thank you for this Christmas present James - If you would ever let me, maaan I would love to be a guest on the couch and chew the fat on retro games :)

I remember when I broke Kefka in my last run with Gau using Yojimbo/Retainer (Shock). The poetic justice of it was glorious.