VIDEOGAMES FEATURE: FRIDAY FLASHBACK

It's a double dose of Friday Flashback this past week after Nick's brief hiatus. This week he's taking a look at one of the seminal entries in the Final Fantasy series as he continues his three-part look at the hugely popular JRPG franchise...

FINAL FANTASY VI 

Released: 1991

Developer: SquareSoft

Original Platform: SNES

Other Platforms: Playstation, Game Boy Advance, Virtual Console, Playstation Network

By Nick Murray, Videogames Contributor.

Welcome to part two of my trio of Final Fantasy Flashbacks. Last week we had a look at the undeniable game changer that was FFIV, and we continue this week with one of the games in the series that is often heralded as the best, Final Fantasy VI. 

Released in 1994, FFVI was the last outing the series had on the SNES, and was also the last Final Fantasy that had an exclusive release on Nintendo (at the time at least, being later ported to the PSOne as it was). Like FFIV, which was released as FFII in the west, FFVI was retitled as FFIII, meaning again that us westerners missed out on another stellar entry in the series (though thankfully, as mentioned, all available now on the trusty Playstation). In all honesty though, I could happily sacrifice those missing Final Fantasy games in exchange for FFVI, as missing out on that one would have been a real tragedy. 

VIDEOGAMES FEATURE: FRIDAY FLASHBACK

After an absence last week, our games contributor Nick returns with the kickstart of a new 'trilogy' of flashback articles looking at the most inaccurately named fantasy franchise of them all...

FINAL FANTASY IV 

Released: 1991

Developer: Square

Original Platform: SNES

Other Platforms: Playstation, WonderSwan Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Virtual Console, FOMA 903i/703i, PSP

By Nick Murray, Videogames Contributor.

Before I get into the main focus of today's Friday Flashback, I wish to address a problem facing many retro gamers the world over, particularly those of you who favour Nintendo consoles. Game saves on old consoles like the NES, SNES and even Gameboy meant saving directly onto the game cartridges themselves, and not the console. Inside each cartridge is a lithium battery which holds this save content, and while back in the day these little things did the trick, they only have a 15 year lifespan (give or take), so what a lot of gamers are experiencing now are their saves being lost, or not being able to make any new saves. It's more than a little annoying, and at times can be downright devastating!

The reason I mention this is because recently my copy of Final Fantasy VI rather selfishly decided to delete my saves, thus rendering the game essentially unplayable, which was made all the more frustrating because my intention was to write about it for this week's feature. Now that it's fixed though, it will be the game of focus next week. Taking its place this week is Final Fantasy IV, so that'll be a Super Nintendo Final Fantasy Double Bill for you, and since I like doing things in a trilogy fashion, the Friday Flashback following next week's outing will be another instalment in this epic series. With all that housekeeping out of the way, let's get this feature underway.