Known affectionately as the World of Balance, the first act in Final Fantasy 6 should account for approximately half of the game. Of course, this does depend on your appetite for side content, of which there is a great deal more in the second act’s World of Ruin, and indeed the version of the game that you’re playing. Regardless, you’re going to spend a good amount of time running around the green and unsullied hills of a pre-disaster world, and you’ll want to ensure that you give your team the best possible chance of success in battle. We’re not about to tell you that FF6 is a hard game, far from it, but you’ll significantly improve your chances in battle by focusing a little more on the following four party members.
Celes
Narrowly beating out Gau, thanks mainly to the awkward nature of returning to the Veldt to gather Rages, Celes takes the fourth spot in our list. What she offers to the team is a solid choice of equipment, balanced statistics that trend towards Magic, and a very useful unique skill in Runic. We like to think of her as a ‘battlemage’ of sorts; stronger and more defensive than Terra, Relm and Strago, but higher in magical ability than Locke, Edgar, Sabin and such. She slots into pretty much any team very well, to the point where she’s pretty much always our first, solid team building block throughout the entirety of Final Fantasy 6.
Her main real benefit comes from those statistics, because Magic is very powerful overall in FF6, however Runic can be a very useful skill. Essentially, once Celes activates Runic, she will absorb pretty much any spell cast on the team, with the caveat being that she’ll even absorb those of your own team. These will return the MP cost to Celes, and whilst that does sound like a nice benefit, your main usage will be in being able to ignore spells thrown out by bosses. Skills will not be blocked, and often attacks will fall into the skill category, but it’ll work against anything categorically spell based. All of this, combined with her being the best healer outside of the often-unavailable-Terra, makes her essential in the World of Balance, especially as it nears its end.
Member Benefits
- Good Magic stat means she’s an ideal healer & damage dealer throughout.
- Great equipment choices ensure her defences are high enough to survive.
- Runic is a useful skill, especially versus some boss battles, though we’d argue that it comes in much more useful in the World of Ruin.
- Availability can be a concern, but this is the case for most characters in the World of Balance.
- On the Floating Continent, which bridges the first and second act, Celes increases in value massively thanks to her high Magic and reasonable strength, which allow her to make use of elemental spells and swords respectively.
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Locke
To peel back the layers of FInal Fantasy 6 for a moment, each character essentially comes with their ‘thing’; Edgar has Tools, Terra has Trance, Setzer Slots etc. As you might imagine then, Locke has the ability to use the Steal command, which when used will attempt to pilfer an item from your opponent. This isn’t exactly unusual for an RPG game, and such a thing surely doesn’t make him all that essential, so why would we include him here?
In short, bosses and tougher enemies have items that you can steal, and some of these items are absolutely fantastic. Zozo is the best example of this, where Relics can be stolen in mass from regular encounters; Dragoon Boots from the Harvester enemy, Gigas Glove from the Hill Gigas enemy, and even the Thief’s Knife, which gives Locke a chance to steal whilst attacking, can be found by stealing from the Veil Dancer opponent! In a game where cash is always in relatively short supply, having these items can be a real boon, and it helps that Locke himself is pretty powerful at attacking alone, especially if you pair him with the Genji Glove Relic. He’ll even get some pretty powerful ranged weapons as you near the end of the first act, which keep him relevant when other party members really start to power up.
Member Benefits
- Stealing is a great way to grab yourself some useful bits of gear. Most of these can be purchased of course, but once you automate the process either through the Brigand’s Glove Relic, or the Thief’s Knife.
- Locke has a good health total and his physical stats are great. This makes him a good choice for the Genji Glove, especially with his ranged options being particularly powerful towards the end of the World of Balance.
- Availability is pretty good with Locke, so you’ll be able to put time into focusing on him.
- Elemental weapons will keep him relevant in his dip towards the mid portion of the game, at the Floating Continent.
- His Magic isn’t fantastic, so focus on giving him utility spells rather than attacking. Stick to those double auto attacks if you’re doing damage.
Sabin
Second place on our list is the muscle bound martial artist, Sabin. Now, when it comes to most other characters, our recommendations tend to point towards multiple aspects of their kit, like statistics, magical abilities and equipment. In the case of Sabin however, the entirety of our recommendation comes down to his attacking ability combined with his Blitz command. This is his unique skill that requires a command input likened to a fighting game special move, followed by Sabin dishing out some serious damage.
He is here because in many cases his Blitz attacks will deal more damage than pretty much anything else. His specific power trends rather well with magical attacks, which increase in value as things like Blitz and Tools deplete. For the World of Balance however, these are fantastically powerful and should absolutely be used. His Raging Fist, Aura Cannon and Suplex/Meteor Rush are very powerful in the early game, and they’ll remain so for quite some time. By the time you reach the end of the World of Balance, you can easily replace these with auto attacks via his powerful claws augmented by the Genji Glove relic, though we’d argue that his supportive Blitz skills at this point are actually quite useful, Air Blade/Razor Gale in particular.
Member Benefits
- Blitz skills are very, very powerful in the early game.
- Both Strength & Magic scaling skills are available by Blitz. The latter aren’t Sabin’s speciality of course, but this does mean that you can change your input depending on the opponent.
- As a character, Sabin is powerful through the World of Balance, but falls off in the World of Ruin, though this drop off can be slowed by using some excellent weaponry choices.
- Thematically, Sabin doesn’t exactly wear the most armour, and the result is a character with a poor defence, so expect him to take a little more damage than others in general.
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Edgar
Finally, far and away our favourite choice for the World of Balance is Edgar. The entirety of our reasoning behind this is because of his unique skill, ‘Tools’. These are items that are purchased or found, which can be used repetitively in battle to deal damage and/or turn the tides of battle in your favour. Not only are these Tools powerful, but they’re also completely free of an MP cost, requiring only that you have them in your inventory to make use of them.
Having thought at length about this subject, the true value of Tools is that they’re unlocked in such a smooth fashion throughout the World of Balance. The early game will feature the Auto Crossbow and Bioblaster, each dealing damage to the entire enemy team, which is perfect for dealing with random battles. As you progress, Edgar will get his hands on the Chainsaw and Drill, which do a fantastic job on single targets and in the case of the former, sometimes instantly kill the target. Finally, Noiseblaster will come in very useful on the Floating Continent and Flash will scale with magic as the game progresses, effectively replacing Auto Crossbow as your go-to group attack. Whilst these are all eventually eclipsed in damage terms by magic, Tools will do just as well or better in the World of Balance at least. To be honest, he remains in our team throughout the World of Ruin too, thanks to his excellent defences and all round utility, but your mileage may vary.
Member Benefits
- Tools are absolutely fantastic in the first half of the game, always offering good-to-great damage throughout its entirety. They’re also free of any MP cost, which is an oft-forgotten benefit for Edgar.
- Edgar has great equipment choices available, which combine well with high health and defence.
- Availability is less of a concern than some others in the World of Balance.
- Magic stat is certainly lower than others, but he’ll do great if you prioritise learning support and healing spells. The latter aren’t going to meet the higher numbers that the dedicated mages will, but they’re useful nonetheless.
- Make sure that you complete the clock quest in Zozo during your visit. This will unlock the Chainsaw Tool, which is one of the most powerful and useful tools in the World of Balance. At this point, it’ll likely do more than twice the damage of any other skill, spell or attack.
- Worth remembering that Drill ignores defences, Flash scales with magic and Noiseblaster is a great backup versus groups of difficult opponents.
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Categories: Final Fantasy 6