This post is in direct response to Max's "Final F*** Up" post. As he stated, Max and I hate missing items in games. We get frustrated when there are items/armor/characters that we can miss in a game and cannot obtain them at a later time. Unless it's a really exceptional game, we usually only play through the average game once, but we play through them thoroughly. To begin, I'm a late arrival to Final Fantasy VI. I'm playing it more than a decade after its original release and boy, did it just get frustrating.

The game itself has been really good. It combines an intriguing story, well thought-out characters, and solid dialog. I've just reached the part of the game where the world, as you know it, (World of Balance) gets somewhat destroyed and turns into the World of Ruin. Soon I get to a scene where my task is to catch fish for the hungry, dying Cid... The only problem is, is that there are three varieties of fish you can catch: Yummy, Normal, and Rotten. Catching a Rotten Fish and feeding it to Cid almost guarantees his death. Catching a Normal Fish and feeding it to him, will keep him alive to a decent amount of time, but he still will eventually perish. The only way to keep Cid alive is to catch a Yummy Fish. There lies the problem. These fish spawn randomly in the shallows of the nearby shore. Like I mentioned, you're able to feed Cid a Normal Fish to keep him alive for a small amount of time, but you can't keep feeding him Normal Fish while you continually try to spawn the Yummy Fish. If you haven't gotten lucky and caught the Yummy Fish in that small window of time, you're out of luck. He will die. To make matters worse, this event is after: a relatively hard boss fight, a decently long cut scene, and then a timed escape from the area. So if you're looking to reload your save, you'll be going back a half an hour plus in gameplay time, depending on how long it takes you to defeat the boss each time, watch the scene, and finally escape. Even then, it's all a matter of luck if you'll get the Yummy Fish to spawn.

As I looked into this matter, I've also learned that there's another thing that I missed. During the first portion of the game you can get an optional character named Mog. He has an ability in battle that can only be acquired in the World of Balance. I just began the World of Ruin, without knowing of this ability. Damnit all.

Things like this get to me, and I can only start to describe the frustration of knowing this after being almost twenty hours into the game. Oh well... I guess there's no way to prevent these things from happening; it's the developer's call. I'll just post about it.

/rant off