GAME · 1994 · JAPAN
Final Fantasy VI
- Developer
- Square
- Publisher
- Square
- Platforms
- Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Virtual Console, PlayStation Portable, Microsoft Windows
51 archived facts 5 topics 2 sources Last reviewed Nov 2026
51 Interesting Facts About Final Fantasy VI
Interesting Facts (20)
- #001
When Square obtained a developer kit for the Nintendo 64 console, they created a 3D graphics demo showing Terra, Locke and Shadow from Final Fantasy VI fighting a large rock golem.
- #002
The opera performed during the game is titled "Aria di Mezzo Caraterre" and can be played both on the soundtrack CDs and in a video included in the PlayStation re-release.
- #003
Final Fantasy VI is included on the SNES Classic mini console under the title Final Fantasy III, and also on the Super Famicom mini console, which comes with 21 games.
- #004
The scene in which Celes is punched by the Guards and chained to a wall in the South Figaro basement was cut from the Game Boy Advance version not because of the ESRB rating but because of Japan's video game rating for violence.
- #005
It is the last Final Fantasy game to be released on the Super Nintendo/Super Famicom.
- #006
It is the last Final Fantasy game made for a Nintendo system before Squaresoft moved to developing for the Sony PlayStation.
- #007
The Pixel Remaster of Final Fantasy VI was released on Steam in February 2022 alongside many other early Final Fantasy games. While the character sprites and other graphics remained largely the same, other graphics such as the magic effects and the game's sound were updated and improved. The opera scene in particular was updated to include the full musical score (including singing) and new camera angles.
- #008
Final Fantasy VI is regarded by fans and critics as the pinnacle of RPG video games. FFVI has been praised in particular for its story, character development, improved sound, musical score and graphics, emotional depth and complexity. It routinely appears on critics' lists of the five best Super Nintendo/Super Famicom games ever produced as well as of the best video games ever made.
- #009
"Dancing Mad", which accompanies Final Fantasy VI's final battle with Kefka, runs 17 minutes and contains an organ cadenza with variations on Kefka's theme, while the "Ending Theme" combines every playable character theme into a composition lasting over 21 minutes.
- #010
The two soldiers who accompany Terra at the start of the game are actually a nod to the Star Wars characters Biggs Darklighter and Wedge Antillies. However, a translation error in the English version caused Biggs to be called Vicks. The same mistake was repeated with the characters who appear under these names in Chrono Trigger, and was corrected in later Final Fantasy games and in the 2002 PlayStation version.
- #011
When Square obtained the Nintendo 64 development kit, it prepared a 3D demo in which Terra, Locke and Shadow from Final Fantasy VI battle a giant rock golem. This demo served as an early hint of the series' future transition to 3D.
- #012
The game was first released in America under the name Final Fantasy III. Because the original Japanese Final Fantasy III is a completely different game, this naming caused confusion among fans for years.
- #013
The piece played in the game's opera scene is titled "Aria di Mezzo Caraterre". It can be heard as a full performance on the soundtrack albums and in a video in the PSX version.
- #014
Final Fantasy VI appears under the name Final Fantasy III on the SNES Classic mini console, and on the Super Famicom mini console as part of a 21-game package. This makes the classic game playable on modern retro platforms as well.
- #015
The scene in which Celes is punched by guards and chained to a wall in the South Figaro dungeon was removed from the Game Boy Advance version. The reason for this cut is Japan's rating rules regarding violence in video games; it has nothing to do with the ESRB.
- #016
In the North American SNES version, the game's name was changed to Final Fantasy III, Tina became Terra, and Holy became Pearl. The graphics of characters such as Siren and the Goddess were made more modest, and Dahling's cigarette smoke was erased, although his cigarette remains. Nevertheless, some sprites such as Shiva, the Goddess Statue and Esper Terra were not censored; religious references such as the word "God" and the tombstones with cross symbols in Thamasa and Mobliz remained in the game.
- #017
Final Fantasy VI is the last Final Fantasy game released for the Super Nintendo/Super Famicom. The game represents a magnificent closing of the 16-bit era on Nintendo consoles.
- #018
It is the last Final Fantasy game made for a Nintendo system before Squaresoft's move to the Sony PlayStation. This transition symbolizes the company's major break in hardware preference.
- #019
The Pixel Remaster version of Final Fantasy VI was released on Steam in February 2022. While the character sprites were largely preserved, graphics such as magic effects and the game's sounds were improved; the opera scene in particular was updated with a full musical score, vocals and new camera angles.
- #020
Final Fantasy VI is regarded by fans and critics as the pinnacle of role-playing games. It is praised for its story, character development, advanced sound and music quality, graphics, emotional depth and complexity. It regularly places in the top five on lists of the best Super Nintendo games and the greatest video games of all time.
Production Story (15)
- #021
Final Fantasy VI began development after Final Fantasy V was released in December 1992, and the game was completed in roughly one year with a team of about 30 people, which was considered large at the time.
- #022
Hironobu Sakaguchi, the series creator and director, took the producer role on Final Fantasy VI because his other projects and his 1991 promotion to Executive Vice President limited his involvement; direction was split between Yoshinori Kitase, who oversaw event production and the scenario, and Hiroyuki Ito, who handled battle aspects, while Sakaguchi supervised Kitase's cutscene direction and the project's overall cohesion.
- #023
The Final Fantasy VI team split the game into two halves, commonly called the World of Balance and World of Ruin, because they had grown tired of the usual scenario in which the hero narrowly saves the world.
- #024
While writing the post-apocalyptic second half of Final Fantasy VI, the developers let players choose their favorite characters to stress that every character is the protagonist.
- #025
Final Fantasy VI was retitled Final Fantasy III for its original North American release on the Super NES, a change made to preserve naming continuity because only two games in the series had been localized in North America at the time.
- #026
The North American localization of Final Fantasy VI introduced content and editorial changes to the English script, though unlike Final Fantasy IV it made no major changes to gameplay.
- #027
Final Fantasy VI's PlayStation re-release made only minor changes to the English localization, and the game's title was changed back from Final Fantasy III to Final Fantasy VI to align the series numbering in North America and Japan with the earlier release of Final Fantasy VII.
- #028
In the PlayStation re-release of Final Fantasy VI, a few item and character names were adjusted, such as expanding "Fenix Down" to "Phoenix Down", while the script was left essentially unchanged, unlike the PlayStation re-release of Final Fantasy IV included in the later Final Fantasy Chronicles compilation.
- #029
The Game Boy Advance re-release of Final Fantasy VI featured a new translation by Tom Slattery, which kept most character names, location names, and terminology from the Woolsey translation but changed item and spell names to match conventions used in more recent series titles.
- #030
Tom Slattery's revised script for Final Fantasy VI kept some quirky lines from the original translation while editing or changing others, and it clarified certain points of confusion in the original translation.
- #031
Final Fantasy VI was officially released in Japan on April 2, 1994.
- #032
A version of that album was later issued in North America under the title Final Fantasy III: Kefka's Domain, matching the Japanese release apart from packaging and minor track-name translation differences.
- #033
Piano Collections: Final Fantasy VI is a second arranged album of thirteen tracks from the game, performed on piano by Reiko Nomura.
- #034
A 2012 Kickstarter campaign raised $153,633 to fund a multi-CD remix album of Final Fantasy VI's music.
- #035
Andrew Aversa directed Balance and Ruin, a free remix album of Final Fantasy VI music featuring 74 tracks by 74 artists, each in a distinct style, available on the OverClocked ReMix website.
Behind the Scenes (12)
- #036
Tetsuya Nomura designed Final Fantasy VI's monsters and the visual aspects of its battles, and in a 30th Anniversary interview he said that for the final boss, the Statue of the Gods, he scanned hand-drawn sketches directly into the game to create sprites, a technique that was novel at the time and was not reused once the series moved to 3D graphics with Final Fantasy VII.
- #037
Yoshitaka Amano, the regular series character designer, created concept art that served as the basis for the models in the full motion videos made for Final Fantasy VI's PlayStation re-release.
- #038
Tetsuya Takahashi, one of Final Fantasy VI's graphic directors, drew the imperial Magitek Armors in the opening scene, disregarding Sakaguchi's intention to reuse the regular designs from elsewhere in the game.
- #039
Kazuko Shibuya drew the sprite art for the in-game appearance of Final Fantasy VI's characters, and the sprites kept an equally high resolution on the map and in battle, unlike earlier installments. This allowed animations showing a variety of movements and facial expressions.
- #040
Final Fantasy VI was not the first game to use the Super NES' Mode 7 graphics, but it used them more extensively than its predecessors; its world map is rendered in Mode 7, giving a somewhat three-dimensional perspective to an otherwise two-dimensional game.
- #041
For the North American release of Final Fantasy VI, objectionable graphics such as nudity were censored, town building signs were altered (for example, Bar became Café), and religious allusions were changed, including renaming the spell Holy to Pearl.
- #042
In the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VI, Kefka orders two Magitek Armored soldiers to chase Edgar, Locke and Terra with the line "Go! KILL THEM!", which the English localization rendered as "Go! Get them!".
- #043
When Imperial Troopers burn Figaro Castle in Final Fantasy VI, Kefka's Japanese line "then you can burn to death" became "Then welcome to my barbecue!" in the English version.
- #044
Ted Woolsey translated Kefka's Japanese swearing, spoken as Magitek soldiers watch Edgar and his guests escape on chocobos, as "Son of a submariner!" in Final Fantasy VI.
- #045
Final Fantasy VI's localization changed several names, including "Tina" to "Terra", and dialogue text files were shortened because of the limited data storage space on the game cartridge's read-only memory, forcing further compression of dialogue.
- #046
Final Fantasy VI's soundtrack was composed by Nobuo Uematsu, a long-time contributor to the series. The score includes themes for each major character and location, plus music for standard battles, boss fights and special cutscenes, with extensive use of leitmotif.
- #047
"Aria di Mezzo Carattere" plays during a Final Fantasy VI cutscene involving an opera performance and uses an unintelligible synthesized "voice" harmonizing with the melody, because the SPC700 sound format chip's technical limitations prevented an actual vocal track. In the Pixel Remaster, the track is voiced by opera singers in seven languages: Japanese, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Korean.
Characters & Cast (2)
- #048
Final Fantasy VI was built around the idea that every character is the protagonist, with the whole development team contributing character ideas and plot episodes in what Yoshinori Kitase called a hybrid process; Terra and Locke came from Hironobu Sakaguchi, Celes and Gau from Kitase, Shadow and Setzer from graphic director Tetsuya Nomura, and Edgar and Sabin from field graphic designer Kaori Tanaka.
- #049
Jillian Aversa, a Video Games Live composer and the wife of Andrew Aversa, made a music video tribute to Final Fantasy VI's Aria di Mezzo Carattere with cellist Tina Guo, expanding on the Balance and Ruin arrangement.
Deeper Meaning (2)
- #050
It was first released in America under the title Final Fantasy III. Because the original Japanese Final Fantasy III is a completely different game, this has been a major source of confusion among fans for years.
- #051
The North American SNES version of Final Fantasy VI was retitled Final Fantasy III after changes including renaming Tina to Terra, renaming Holy to Pearl, and obscuring several sprites, among them Siren and Goddess, to make them less revealing. Dahling's cigarette smoke was removed, though he is still seen holding a cigarette. Some sprites also remain nude, including Shiva, the Goddess Statue and Terra as an Esper. Certain religious references also remained in the game, such as the use of the word "God" and the appearance of cross symbols on gravestones in Thamasa and Mobliz that got past Nintendo's censorship.
Sources & editorial notes
Sources for the entries on this page
- Wikipedia Final Fantasy VI — Wikipedia
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