Final Fantasy 6: T-Edition
When the holy grail of rom hacks finally became playable after a single IPS patch dropped recently I knew what had to be done. By the way you can get this hack here.
So what is Final Fantasy 6: T-Edition?
“A passionate Japanese Final Fantasy VI fan has been working on “Final Fantasy VI T-Edition“, a ROM hack that retains the existing game and adds a ton of new, creative content all around it. FF6T is very popular in Japan but not very well-known elsewhere, due to the language barrier.” (https://poematocx.com/ff6t/)
And boy does it add content. From the screenshots you can see a lot of the costumes that were added. By accomplishing certain tasks and such, you can open those up and change them in the Falcon in the World of Ruin. These costumes take inspiration from many other SquareEnix games, such as Locke getting a Romancing Saga costume, or Terra getting a Lightning costume from Final Fantasy XIII. Gilgamesh has made his way into being a reoccurring enemy as well. Multiple new dungeons, more music from all sorts of other SquareEnix games, new monsters, new monster AI, spells, etc. You name it, there’s been at least some tweak to it. It’s all laid out in the ReadMe website in the download of the hack. Yes, a website was needed because of all the new content.
If you’re a Final Fantasy 6 fan you already know the nuts and bolts here. However without spoiling too much I’ll talk about some awesome things added that will make it feel fresh. Pubs now house side-quests you can take for rewards. Some places that weren’t in the World of Ruin have made their way back, such as being able to make it to the Esper World! There’s even a new side-quest of finding the four elemental crystals to unlock Legendary Weapons! An achievement room that plays a song from Final Fantasy Tactics. Entire new dungeons have been added as well, full of tough as nails monsters and bosses. I didn’t even get around to all the content. There is an entire SECOND patch you apply and you basically get a huge boss dungeon that I’m sure would have made me curse until I passed out.
A normal playthrough of Final Fantasy 6 can take about 30-35 hours. Well in the last two weeks I probably spent about 60 hours or so. I utilized the fast forward option in RetroArch while walking and battling, so my game clock clocked almost 80. So if you’re not playing with that feature prepare to spend almost a month or more depending on your play style.
Espers, equipment, and party composition plays a huge part in this mod. Every boss has something you need to figure out to exploit if you want to have a decent shot at beating it. You can’t just brute force stuff anymore. I don’t think I beat more than the first few bosses on the first try. Some took over 10 times of fiddling with my set-up. I liked this a lot, because everything was fair once you solved the “puzzle” of the battle. Magic also plays a way larger role here, and each character definitely has their pros and cons. You can’t just roll with your favorites all the time like you could in the original.
TLDR: If you love Final Fantasy 6 play this and play it yesterday!
