When Life Gives You Lemons

Go murder a clown!


Things have been cooking along very well in Final Fantasy VI,  in fact well enough that I believe I've managed to surpass the overall power of any party in my previous playthroughs.  Some of it is making use of newer information (I can't do circle motions on a d-pad to save my life, finding out there's alternate command inputs was awesome; finding out you can still learn Ultima via the Paladin Shield, making the Ragnarok sword far more attractive than the Ragnarok Esper), buckling down and using the leveling mechanics as intended (OMG look at them stats), and brining a RPG veteran mindset into things.


Using the Esper bonuses has been the major difference.  The short version is that this game's magic system is based on Espers' essence (the local magic rocks of magicness), almost all your characters can equip an Esper's magicite, with the majority giving a small but significant stat boost when that character levels up.  These bonuses are permanent and persist even when you switch to another Esper, meaning a bit of basic XP management can result in huge dividends.  This results in even the wimpy characters turning into meat-mulching agri-combines of death, and with their powers combined THE HARVEST IS UNLEASHED and not much can get in the way.


I also decided that the open-ended gameplay of the World of Ruin is actually pretty fun, never really realizing that this was a very major departure from the JRPG tradition of linearity.  There are a few oddities; there are bits of gear exclusive to one particular character you can buy, but the process of re-recruiting that character also comes with far superior gear choices, plus using his special skills (he's the local the--I mean treasure hunter) can result in more unique but redundant stuff for him.  There's also some areas on the world map that have random encounters far more dangerous than what you get elsewhere, that you can't even claim as a player nudge or beef gate, since the major dungeon in the area has far more manageable enemies, even the bosses are less lethal than the mooks prowling around outside.


Things are starting to come to a close, with only two dungeons really left (there's a couple I've already cleared than I'll probably return to use as grinding spots) before the big showdown with Jack Hamill in his big trash tower of terror.  The Harvest Never Rests!