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chuckroFollowing my trying out of the HMS Jayne Final Fantasy I randomizer, I decided to try out the Worlds Collide randomizer for Final Fantasy 6 (or, as it was originally published in the US, Final Fantasy 3).
I first tried their beginner settings, and immediately was turned off by them: I had two characters and an airship, but I couldn’t tell where I could go that the enemies wouldn’t immediately turn me into paste. I’d make a little progress only to discover that even if I found a boss I could beat, the random enemies in that area would toast me. And they set it up for level scaling, so grinding wouldn’t actually help.
So I set up an alternate setup where I turned off the level scaling and random battle randomization and juiced up the XP/AP and Gold multipliers. I played that through in vaguely the correct order, still occasionally running into bosses who would totally toast me (Atma, from the final dungeon, was in the Whelk slot in Narshe; and Doom was in the WoB Opera House), but once I’d collected a Paladin Shield and enough magicite that my characters could take down most bosses, I carved my way through the game. Kefka’s Tower was actually really easy, because I had a suite of high-level characters who already had the best equipment and had defeated all the hardest bosses already. Lete River Ultros was in Doom’s space!
I think I've figured out why the original setup wasn’t working for me: It turns FF6 into a SaGa game. In theory you can do anything in any order. In practice, you have a lot of false starts as you discover what areas you can and cannot handle, sometimes when you reach the boss, and you're never able to level past problems because of the scaling. Nothing is gated, except that everything kinda is. (I have a weird aversion to "testing the beef gates" gameplay, though I can't say why.)
What I generally want from a randomizer is an experience like the HMS Jayne FF: Dawn of Souls randomizer, where the key items get rearranged so you end up in a pseudo-metroidvania experience. I'm not sure you could do that with FF6, especially given the nature of the World of Ruin. There are options for “character gating” (you need specific character to access certain events), and to scale the enemies by progress or time rather than by character levels, and that would probably get me closer to what I want, but not quite.
I do really appreciate the quality of life adjustments they offer toggles for, like turning off certain bosses’ special attacks (Wrexsoul and Magimaster, particularly) or allowing you to learn Lores without Strago in the party. They also allow you to start with Moogle Charms that everyone can equip, allowing you to turn random battles on and off as you see fit.
Overall: This is a great utility that clearly people put a lot of time and effort into and I can see being really fun; but the fundamental nature of what it produces isn’t quite what I want in FF6. It was a fun way to replay things a little differently, though.
I first tried their beginner settings, and immediately was turned off by them: I had two characters and an airship, but I couldn’t tell where I could go that the enemies wouldn’t immediately turn me into paste. I’d make a little progress only to discover that even if I found a boss I could beat, the random enemies in that area would toast me. And they set it up for level scaling, so grinding wouldn’t actually help.
So I set up an alternate setup where I turned off the level scaling and random battle randomization and juiced up the XP/AP and Gold multipliers. I played that through in vaguely the correct order, still occasionally running into bosses who would totally toast me (Atma, from the final dungeon, was in the Whelk slot in Narshe; and Doom was in the WoB Opera House), but once I’d collected a Paladin Shield and enough magicite that my characters could take down most bosses, I carved my way through the game. Kefka’s Tower was actually really easy, because I had a suite of high-level characters who already had the best equipment and had defeated all the hardest bosses already. Lete River Ultros was in Doom’s space!
I think I've figured out why the original setup wasn’t working for me: It turns FF6 into a SaGa game. In theory you can do anything in any order. In practice, you have a lot of false starts as you discover what areas you can and cannot handle, sometimes when you reach the boss, and you're never able to level past problems because of the scaling. Nothing is gated, except that everything kinda is. (I have a weird aversion to "testing the beef gates" gameplay, though I can't say why.)
What I generally want from a randomizer is an experience like the HMS Jayne FF: Dawn of Souls randomizer, where the key items get rearranged so you end up in a pseudo-metroidvania experience. I'm not sure you could do that with FF6, especially given the nature of the World of Ruin. There are options for “character gating” (you need specific character to access certain events), and to scale the enemies by progress or time rather than by character levels, and that would probably get me closer to what I want, but not quite.
I do really appreciate the quality of life adjustments they offer toggles for, like turning off certain bosses’ special attacks (Wrexsoul and Magimaster, particularly) or allowing you to learn Lores without Strago in the party. They also allow you to start with Moogle Charms that everyone can equip, allowing you to turn random battles on and off as you see fit.
Overall: This is a great utility that clearly people put a lot of time and effort into and I can see being really fun; but the fundamental nature of what it produces isn’t quite what I want in FF6. It was a fun way to replay things a little differently, though.
