We move to find out what happened to all of the Espers. Maybe Terra should try and open the gate and talk to the esp-AH NO STOP NO CLOSE IT CLOSE THE GATE STOP! Well, maybe Terra talking to the Espers over and over is just not a very good idea. Let’s find out just how bad of an idea it is in this episode! We end after the warring triad does what the warring triad does… when it’s not aligned in a proper triangle. If you enjoyed the video, please like and comment, it really helps us out. Thank you!
Time Codes:
1. Intro (0:00)
2. On a Boat (0:32)
3. Thamasa (20:48)
4. Esper Caves (41:24)
5. Magitek Mayhem (58:25)
6. The Warring Triad (1:13:10)
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First of all, a quick correction: Yes, this is the last time we FIGHT Ultros, but it won't be the last time we see him!
Secondly, this is the order in which we will be visiting areas during the World of Ruin: Solitary Island (obviously), Albrook, Tzen, Mobliz, Nikeah, South Figaro, Figaro Castle, Kohlingen, Colosseum, Darill's Tomb, Maranda, Back to Mobliz, Zozo, The Veldt. I doubt we'll actually get through all of that in the next episode, but that will cover everything I've played up through at this point.
Thank you guys, watching your podcast one evening a week makes me feel less lonely in Japan since I moved here one month ago ^^ I've been watching your podcast actively since 2017
Listening to the geometry bit at the end reminds me of congruent angle's thesis video, someone mashed up an old geometry video with cruel angel's thesis it's amazing
1:04:25 Before Aertith, Leo's death spurned a million rumors about how to revive him. One particularly sticky rumor involved fighting some kind of super dragon boss who you can't fight without hacking the game (and even then the dragon is incomplete.) The GBA port and the first iOS/Android port adds a bonus dungeon with said super dragon.
1:09:10 This is probably the most infamous line in the game. Either Edgar is hitting on a 10 year old girl (right after "hitting pay dirt" with a waitress), or he's warning her not to throw her life away so early, or he's lamenting the weight of war because Relm is basically a child soldier. Each translation has never been clear and the true meaning really changes Edgar's character.
Oh right, the Japanese is even worse!
1:26:35 Ted Woosley's HATE HATE HATE HATE rant is legendary, and I'm sad the new translation removed it. Kefka isn't the type to curse creatively when directly threatened – he just gives in to raw emotion.
This is one of the funniest episodes you guys have done. All your observations and appreciation for the humour the game's writing contains is just cracking me up listening.
How is it you guys don’t understand? Shadow used the smoke bomb to distract the fire ravaging the building, so he can sneak them out undetected.
To garrote someone is to kill them via strangulation with a wire across the throat. Spies and ninja types like to use this method of murder because it silences the screams of the victim.
I'd like to see a full remake… and like an episode shadow (lol). And the subtle struggle when he opts not to go to the fire….. but I doubt they'd do it right tbh.
I like in movies, TV shows and games where silence speaks volumes. I feel in this game they do have some points where they use animations to convey thoughts in place of dialogue.
I'd also like to see strago recognize the dog, and maybe whisper his name to see if he reacts.
It all kind of went wrong this week; I got to the floating continent but I didn't really want to go into the second part of the game without making sure I'd got everything. Only problem is, I couldn't really be bothered to do that yet 😄
What if the weak Kefka was gogo impersonating him?
Don't leave Shadow behind!
The discussion around the 'fake' Gestahl during the scene with Leo, and the Gestahl/Kefka dynamic, makes me wonder if you could interpret the characters as more than simply a philosophical narrative device, and is actually two aspects of the same individual. That Gestahl has always been a projection of Kefka (i.e. a Fight Club scenario) and he has been trying to wrest control of his own psyche.
After winning the WWE championship and then getting ambushed by a folding chair when he wasn't paying attention, Shadow then destroyed the world by moving the statues. Kefka was helpless as he got pinned by the statues. The true destroyer was Shadow all along.
1:24:28 you actually used Gau? hardcore
Mike also please do voice acting
I never thought World of Ruin as a spoiler because the game came PACKAGED WITH A DOUBLE SIDED MAP, WOB AND WOR. if you bought this game on SNES, you knew about the WoR the moment you opened the game. Haha.
1:31:59 The uniqueness of Kefka being a villain that actually suceeded and you having to gather the survivors to build the world from scraps really makes me think of the two Avengers latest films, with Kefka being nihilistic like Thanos.
On the off-chance you don’t know Sam Griffin… he does a beautiful version of Relm’s theme. He even hits a wicked string bend 🙂
Siegfried and Ziegfried are two different characters. One is pretending to be the other, who is a great fighter. I believe the fake is Ziegfried?
I think Casen's new favorite word is "jacked."
An interesting detail I noticed is that Relm has a base magic power stat of 44, which is significantly higher than everyone else's. The next best is Terra at 39, Celes has 36, and the remaining cast are typically in the mid/high 20s – low 30s.
I think of the base magic stat as a guage of a character's magic potential, so this signifies not only Relm's Magi heritage, but also her overall potential since she is learning to harness her magical abilities at such a young age.
Since smoke bomb is capitalized, it's probably a reference to the item which allows you to escape battles, not an actual smoke bomb and probably doesn't works like one.
Don't know how far in advance you film these but if you don't at least bring up the Adeli Stevenson -> Gogo rumor i'll be a little disappointed.
Garrotte is not only torture device. In Italy mafia used a piece of of wire with two handles to strangle people. So I think Shadow meant that he was not going to kill them by strangling.
Just want to add that if you go to Albrook just before you go to the Floating Continent, it's completely dark because it has been overcast by the shadow of the floating landmass above. It isn't really significant or worthy of more than a note, but I thought it was a nice detail.
I misremembered the explanation given for Espers. The actual 20th Anniversary FF Scenario Ultimania doesn’t explain if they were ever once human. It just says “those who were caught in the crossfire became Espers.” Then it goes on to say that due to the intense magic their forms changed into either animal, demi-human, or human. I will post the actual Japanese below for anyone who wants to read it; it’s a short snippet.
体内に魔導の力を宿した異形の存在。三戦神同士の戦いに巻き込まれた者が魔導の力によって姿を変え、神のしもべとなったのが起源だと伝えられる。動物に酷似している者、半獣半人、人間と見わけがつかない者など、その姿は千差万別。
It then goes on to talk about Esper Human relations and how they sealed themselves off. That part above is pretty much the only information on the Esper origins.
Great episode for one of the most memorable section of FF VI !
To add to the Warring Triad symbolism, I've seen some comments mention gnosticism and that's even more obvious when you look at the name of some of these but, while it might be a stretch, I think it also ties in a little bit into alchemy. In some sprites, each of the statues has a distinct "color", you have black, white(-ish) and red, which are the nigredo, albedo and rubedo concepts of alchemy. The fact that they turn into all-powerful statues of stone makes me think of the philosophical stone. On another note, espers turning into magicite is a lesser version of what the three statues are and Kefka and Celes are kind of homunculi. I don't have all the keys at hand needed to analyse this much further but I feel like there might be some significance to be found there.
…yeah, I didn't wait for Shadow..😖
1:11:07
I really like Edgar, and I wanna think was maybe just a different kind of joke, culturally, for them over in Japan. Or maybe something is lost in translation, just a tad, in terms of what the tone is meant to be. Like, maybe Edgar is thinking that in a sarcastic way?
Thanks for the original Japanese insight as always, Casen! Now I'm stuck wondering about the morals of Edgar which I didn't think I'd be doing 😂
Ultros either didn't know what he looked like, ot he was going "well, I'm just dumb" and the phrazing kinda makes it like he didn't know what he was
Another excellent discussion. I have a question – what is the song playing at the end of these videos, I really like it? Thanks!
Thanks for reading my comment!
Those last ten minutes man. Damn.
I love this game so much that I played it a second time to finally have Shadow in my party 🥷🏼😵
"Gestalt" in Swedish means "a person's form or shape".
This explains why I lost Shadow 😢
If you do get Shadow kill, Interceptor stays with Relm and protects her like he did Shadow.
The Brady Games Final Fantasy VIII strategy guide misspoke too and called Gau the blue mage of ff6 while ignoring Strago.
Something I love about Relm as a character is that she doesn't seem to be conscious of the power she wields while Sketching. I see that reflected in the way her character theme is so innocent and sweet, and then it plays during that Ultros battle, where we see her Sketched Ultros beat the shit out of the real one while the sweet innocent music still plays. Also how later on, she threatens to draw a Sketch of one of the party members (for some reason I can't remember) and they're all like "NO RELM DON'T DO IT"… And she's just dissapointed because she doesn't get to draw a funny cartoon of them LMAO
I always had trouble taking the Leo death scene seriously because it looked more to me like Kefka was taking a bite out of his butt. It never occurred to me he was actually stabbing him with a knife there.