So my friend and I are about to start playing Final Fantasy VI. I have experience with the series, but not a lot with VI, she has zero experience with any FF although plays games frequently. We're playing the SNES version and wondering if any of you had any tips for us? Obviously refrain from spoilers, more just general things we should/shouldn't be doing. She will be taking the lead, and I've thought of having my own file to play alongside whenever we aren't playing together. Is that a horrible idea? Should I just keep the game fresh, only play through it together and not risk burning out early?

Thanks guys!

The biggest thing I can suggest is that once you get to a new area grind out a few levels and pieces of equipment for your primary party members. Also don't stick to just one set of party members once you have the ability to swap them in and out. They need to be leveled as there are multiple points in the game where you are stuck using a select few party members. There is nothing worse than trying to grind out levels on under leveled characters just so that you can progress.

Also I think the one thing that the game won't tell you is that you can use your Espers just like summons in the game. This is never told to you but if I recall correctly if you go to your item menu and press up it'll allow you to get to your party members esper for use in battle. Some are downright useless but there are others that are very beneficial to have early on in the game.

I wouldn't recommend simultaneous playthroughs. While VI is one of my favorites in the franchise there aren't any choices you can make that would make the game feel different enough.

@squidc00kie: You'll want to use a guide for some of the dungeons as they have high encounter rates by modern standards. There's an especially odious town that is full of random encounters and puzzles that you'll want a guide for.

You'll also want to be intentional once the game's Esper system opens up a few hours into the game. That system lays the groundwork for customizing characters. FFVI is a hybrid of the rigid character roles of FFIV and the freewheeling customization of FFV. Every character has some innate abilities and strengths that are central to their utility, but the Esper system will grant them additional spells, summons, and stat bonuses that can enhance strengths or fill in weaknesses.

It's a pretty long game, so you might get sick of having to see everything twice if you play your own file on the side.

There are the obvious things: don't keep running from battles if you want to stay properly leveled up, and always check for equipment upgrades in each new town that you come across. Try to keep all of your party members at least somewhat levelled up and geared, since from time to time the story forces you to use specific characters (or, like the part Drew played on that recent UPF, all of your characters).

There are also little things that the game doesn't explicitly tell you, because this is the era of the game expecting you to read the manual, rather than tutorializing everything: things like pressing R to toggle between single-target and multi-target for spells, or being able to target yourself or an enemy with pretty much any spell. Every character has a signature ability that's specific to them, and for the most part, they're all really powerful. Experiment with them and learn when they're useful.

@thatpinguino: I agree that a guide is pretty damn helpful. There are a couple of items/espers that can be missed without it such as the cursed shield and its future potential.

Oh and if you want to suplex a train find a guide for all the Blitz commands Sabin can get.

Hey I just picked this up for the first time a couple days ago as well! My only experience with final fantasy was actually FF xv which is obviously so unlike any other final fantasy. I've been playing on iOS which I know isn't the best version but it works perfectly fine for what it is. The game absolutely holds up, I can see how people playing this when it came out would have been blown away. Once you start getting espers you can basically make each character have the skills you think are most useful. Also I have only stuck with a party of characters that I like and maybe I'm wrong but the characters not in my party have still leveled without me using them at certain points in the story. I haven't skipped any random encounters or anything and have only died a handful of times. Not using a guide or anything either. It's really fun.

You probably don't want to ignore party members. The game has a few points where you have to make a A and B team. Or A,B,C team. It sucks having level 99 characters and then having a level 30 painter drag down the party led by the character you have no direct control over.

If you're going to play without her, I'd say use that time to keep the non-popular characters leveled up.

You can usually target multiple enemies with spells and abilities by tapping in their direction a few times (I think, maybe one of the bumpers) and you may also need to hit yourself to counter sleep and confuse.

If you have an item that hard counters an element, keep it. You never know when it'll be useful. You can make some bosses a cakewalk if you have an item to nulify all their abilities.

I think the GBA version of FF6 gives you sprint shoes options right off the bat. Very nice quality life option to have that you don't get in the SNES version until dozens of hours in...

Wait. Waiting can bring good things.

Honestly, I think that as long as you don't run from any random encounters you will be appropriately leveled for new areas, VI is among the easier games in the series and I don't really think grind is necessary. Maybe use a guide to help with elemental weaknesses and missable items and espers. As long as you are there to coach her through some of it (with patience) you should be able to manage without grinding.

Save as often as you can - losing lots of progress can especially kill momentum for someone who isn't used to videogames without autosaves.

You don't need to level every character, they are all occasionally brought up to a baseline level throughout the game (I don't remember exactly how that one works, maybe look it up).

Always make sure your party members have espers equipped that are teaching them new spells (the spells they teach are more valuable than the actual summons, especially later in the game).

Oh yeah, and know about multi-targeting spells. Don't think VI explicitly tells you about that, but it's common practice in FF so you probably knew already

And this. You will know what it means when it happens, just wait as long as you possibly can.

@thatpinguino: @cloudymusic: @zirilius: @zelyre: @effache: Thanks guys thats really helpful. Looking forward to starting it tonight.