Final Fantasy VI "Ban Something" Part I
Jul. 27th, 2026 10:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
freshfeelingIn the past few years I got the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster compilation on both Switch and PC. I had done a Four Job Fiesta on Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster in 2024, a Four Job Fiesta on Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster in 2025, and the Side Quest Challenge on Final Fantasy I Pixel Remaster also in 2025. I had been thinking I wanted to still play II, IV and VI and was thinking of conditions to play those under, and especially having been burned out on Pokemon I decided to fire up Final Fantasy VI for something.
The actual idea was to go back to my "Ban Something" playthrough that I did with FF1 in 2016. Ten years ago, it was actually my very first streamed playthrough of anything (and the streams were really bad). I made a topic explaining the premise on the FF6 board on GameFAQs and started collecting suggestions.
The premise, in brief, is that people in the community propose minor aspects of gameplay to ban and then I play with all those things banned. It doesn't make a cohesive challenge playthrough, but you do get to play the game in a way that feels fresh and different. I had primed this group with some of the old ones I particularly liked so great suggestions came in quickly. There were also a few suggestions I got from people outside of GameFAQs.
A few of these were tempered in discussion, or included a bit of interpretation on my part, so I'm going to list them the way they're being enacted rather than always the verbatim original text.
I thought a lot of these rules were the right level of impact and pretty easy to track and implement. I'm a bit worried about keeping track of which of Terra's and Celes' spells are from their natural magic list, and I'm not sure what planning esper spell learning is going to feel like later.
Collectively, the bans have made many specific characters quite a bit worse or harder to use, including Terra, Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Shadow, Cyan, and Gau - everyone from before Zozo other than Locke. Mog and Umaro are fully out-of-play. I could see myself emphasizing the use of Locke, Setzer, Strago, Relm and Gogo because of this.
I began play on July 26.
At first, all I had to do was keep right hands empty (sometimes keeping just a weapon, sometimes just a shield), never putting anyone in the back row, avoiding the use of status effects (e.g. Magitek Confuser), and not casting any magic. At first I was also trying not to press 'up' in combat at all but I think I eventually became forgetful about that and re-phrased that rule to still be impactful but just less annoying.
Edgar had to use no right hand item and no armor (and no stat-boosting relics) but other than that play with him still made things easy: as usual, the Autocrossbow carried. At a few points I intentionally fought a few extra battles to get a level or two; for example, I thought the moogle defense might be tough with minimal moogles, so I had Terra gain one extra level in the mines. I thought the lack of Cure spell might make Vargas harder, so I pumped one extra level before the save point on Mt. Kolts.
Avoiding relics that give stat boosts actually negates the use of a lot of relics, including the Hyper Wrist - which isn't great, but I'll often use it early on - and the White Cape. However, both the Gauntlet and Genji Glove give a small defense boost, so they are out of play. I got the Gauntlet and immediately sold it for 1 gil.
Despite the rule about status effects, I reasoned - with kingbob08 providing no clarification on GameFAQs - that it related to in-battle actions. Edgar was still able to use the Hermes Shoes to pump out the Autocrossbow a bit more quickly.
With all this, while it was different than usual for me, the early game was still pretty easy. Terra is somewhat useless - only chucking Potions against Vargas - but Edgar can still use Autocrossbow (only) and Sabin can still use Raging Fist/Pummel (only).
I did Terra and Edgar's scenario first, and it was fine.
I did Locke's scenario second. The dungeon under South Figaro is actually pretty tough without the use of Celes' magic so we ran from everything there. I thought that Tunnel Armor (TunnelArmr) might be hard as I had struggled with it a bit when I was young, even when trying to properly use Runic. I collected the Thunder Rod and planned to use it but I figured I should do the battle "properly" and see how it went before jumping to that conclusion. I was surprised that it went very well.
Sabin's scenario was going to be an interesting one: Sabin can effectively only use Raging Fist/Pummel, Cyan can literally only use Bushido/SwdTech (and some of those aren't very useful) and Shadow must throw a weapon if there's any weapon available. I bought a large stack of Shurikens. Really, this isn't even a bad way to play this part of the game.
The "ban doggo" rule was explained as, "If Shadow ever Interceptor Counters (not blocks, but counters), you must make sure he dies by the end of the fight." Smash_Master, who proposed this, acknowledged that there was some RNG to this and had an alternative for if that ban was "considered too RNG due to Interceptor being, er, Interceptor". So I would do my best to kill Shadow when Interceptor countered. I wasn't sure what to do when, for example, vs. Telstar/Satellite I couldn't kill Shadow because the team was berserked - but Interceptor failed against him anyway, so I changed the terms of that rule slightly to be that it's only for successful counters - plus, if Interceptor was the finishing blow or a queued action after Interceptor's action ended the fight I wouldn't fret about it but make an effort to kill Shadow in the next battle. That resulted in this situation:
Shadow quickly Shuriken'd himself to death to better meet the requirements. This is somewhat annoying since Phoenix Downs are also banned, but I was surprised that Shadow comes back with 1 HP between the enraged Cyan fights for some reason..?
Fights are pretty quick when they consist of Raging Fist, Shuriken and Fang. As long as things don't get bad such that they require healing (which I suppose only Sabin can technically be doing), it's fine. The Phantom Train was kind of easy except for the monster-in-a-box where its counters wrecked the team other than Cyan's last couple of hit points.
Phoenix Downs are banned, but this room is practically right next door to a save point where we could use a Tent, so it was fine. Also since Phoenix Downs are banned, there was no cheese available for the Phantom Train itself - but it only Evil Tooted at the end and wasn't a particularly bad fight.
Cyan had been using the Black Belt since he was the only one of these characters with a weapon equipped, so he kept countering the fish at Baren Falls. This limited my strategic options, so instead I basically just auto-battled with Sabin using Raging Fist and Cyan using Fang. Thankfully, Rizopas didn't get to El Nino.
We did the Veldt sequence. I took the time to get the Tintinnabulum since relics that give stat bonuses are banned. I didn't spend long hunting for rages - a lot of them are banned anyway - but I did manage to pick up another Green Beret from a Satellite before I left.
The teams met up in Narshe and I saved before the multi-party battle. So far, this has been pretty successful and fun but I think the interest is going to ramp up once I have access to some magicite.
The actual idea was to go back to my "Ban Something" playthrough that I did with FF1 in 2016. Ten years ago, it was actually my very first streamed playthrough of anything (and the streams were really bad). I made a topic explaining the premise on the FF6 board on GameFAQs and started collecting suggestions.
The premise, in brief, is that people in the community propose minor aspects of gameplay to ban and then I play with all those things banned. It doesn't make a cohesive challenge playthrough, but you do get to play the game in a way that feels fresh and different. I had primed this group with some of the old ones I particularly liked so great suggestions came in quickly. There were also a few suggestions I got from people outside of GameFAQs.
A few of these were tempered in discussion, or included a bit of interpretation on my part, so I'm going to list them the way they're being enacted rather than always the verbatim original text.
- I ban Edgar from not dropping trou the second a woman is in his presence. (Boldrin)
- This means Edgar needs to take his body armor off if there's a woman in the active party or in the current map area.
- I ban the back row. (VVagner)
- This was simplified from a more complicated original idea - although it probably makes gameplay tougher.
- I ban Gau from using Rages from monsters with first letter L through Z. (VVagner)
- I ban purposefully using status buffs/debuffs or curing them in battle. (kingbob08)
- The words "purposefully" and "in battle" were added by myself.
- I ban having a full party of 4, unless needed for the story, or the final boss. (VVagner)
- I ban actions that require pressing the 'up' button in battle. (Wyldstar)
- Originally I was trying to just not push 'up' in general, but that was complicated and annoying. This still bans summoning, in-battle re-equipping, and a few Blitzes.
- I ban equipping an esper if you already have any of the spells learned 100% that it teaches. (CB_Archer)
- This will necessitate some conscious 'routing' for choosing which spells to learn and in what order.
- I ban the doggo. (Smash_Master)
- If Interceptor successfully counters, you need to kill Shadow for the rest of the battle (to the best of your ability).
- I ban any of Sabin's Blitzes that scale off of magic. (pumaloaf)
- This includes Aurabolt, Rising Phoenix/Fire Dance, Air Blade, and Phantom Rush.
- I ban (optional) Moogles. (MonadoGuy25)
- No recruiting Mog (and thus Umaro) and no Moogle Suit. This also means no abuse of the Moogle Charm.
- I ban Phoenix Down. (Outl4w)
- I ban not using SwdTech/Bushido. (Knight S. Hade / sierramadresquatter)
- This means keep Cyan in the active party at any point that you have the option, and he can only use Bushido/SwdTech.
- I ban any relic that gives a stat boost. (kingbob08)
- I ban natural magic. (Smash_Master)
- Literally Terra and Celes may never use any spells that are on their natural magic learning list.
- I ban Dexter; no equipment is allowed to be used in the right hand. (FFTacticsKevin)
- I ban Shadow not living out his dream of being a life-coach starring on hoarders. (Boldrin)
- This means "if there's anything that can be thrown, Shadow must use Throw".
I thought a lot of these rules were the right level of impact and pretty easy to track and implement. I'm a bit worried about keeping track of which of Terra's and Celes' spells are from their natural magic list, and I'm not sure what planning esper spell learning is going to feel like later.
Collectively, the bans have made many specific characters quite a bit worse or harder to use, including Terra, Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Shadow, Cyan, and Gau - everyone from before Zozo other than Locke. Mog and Umaro are fully out-of-play. I could see myself emphasizing the use of Locke, Setzer, Strago, Relm and Gogo because of this.
I began play on July 26.
At first, all I had to do was keep right hands empty (sometimes keeping just a weapon, sometimes just a shield), never putting anyone in the back row, avoiding the use of status effects (e.g. Magitek Confuser), and not casting any magic. At first I was also trying not to press 'up' in combat at all but I think I eventually became forgetful about that and re-phrased that rule to still be impactful but just less annoying.
Edgar had to use no right hand item and no armor (and no stat-boosting relics) but other than that play with him still made things easy: as usual, the Autocrossbow carried. At a few points I intentionally fought a few extra battles to get a level or two; for example, I thought the moogle defense might be tough with minimal moogles, so I had Terra gain one extra level in the mines. I thought the lack of Cure spell might make Vargas harder, so I pumped one extra level before the save point on Mt. Kolts.
Avoiding relics that give stat boosts actually negates the use of a lot of relics, including the Hyper Wrist - which isn't great, but I'll often use it early on - and the White Cape. However, both the Gauntlet and Genji Glove give a small defense boost, so they are out of play. I got the Gauntlet and immediately sold it for 1 gil.
Despite the rule about status effects, I reasoned - with kingbob08 providing no clarification on GameFAQs - that it related to in-battle actions. Edgar was still able to use the Hermes Shoes to pump out the Autocrossbow a bit more quickly.
With all this, while it was different than usual for me, the early game was still pretty easy. Terra is somewhat useless - only chucking Potions against Vargas - but Edgar can still use Autocrossbow (only) and Sabin can still use Raging Fist/Pummel (only).
I did Terra and Edgar's scenario first, and it was fine.
I did Locke's scenario second. The dungeon under South Figaro is actually pretty tough without the use of Celes' magic so we ran from everything there. I thought that Tunnel Armor (TunnelArmr) might be hard as I had struggled with it a bit when I was young, even when trying to properly use Runic. I collected the Thunder Rod and planned to use it but I figured I should do the battle "properly" and see how it went before jumping to that conclusion. I was surprised that it went very well.
Sabin's scenario was going to be an interesting one: Sabin can effectively only use Raging Fist/Pummel, Cyan can literally only use Bushido/SwdTech (and some of those aren't very useful) and Shadow must throw a weapon if there's any weapon available. I bought a large stack of Shurikens. Really, this isn't even a bad way to play this part of the game.
The "ban doggo" rule was explained as, "If Shadow ever Interceptor Counters (not blocks, but counters), you must make sure he dies by the end of the fight." Smash_Master, who proposed this, acknowledged that there was some RNG to this and had an alternative for if that ban was "considered too RNG due to Interceptor being, er, Interceptor". So I would do my best to kill Shadow when Interceptor countered. I wasn't sure what to do when, for example, vs. Telstar/Satellite I couldn't kill Shadow because the team was berserked - but Interceptor failed against him anyway, so I changed the terms of that rule slightly to be that it's only for successful counters - plus, if Interceptor was the finishing blow or a queued action after Interceptor's action ended the fight I wouldn't fret about it but make an effort to kill Shadow in the next battle. That resulted in this situation:
Shadow quickly Shuriken'd himself to death to better meet the requirements. This is somewhat annoying since Phoenix Downs are also banned, but I was surprised that Shadow comes back with 1 HP between the enraged Cyan fights for some reason..?
Fights are pretty quick when they consist of Raging Fist, Shuriken and Fang. As long as things don't get bad such that they require healing (which I suppose only Sabin can technically be doing), it's fine. The Phantom Train was kind of easy except for the monster-in-a-box where its counters wrecked the team other than Cyan's last couple of hit points.
Phoenix Downs are banned, but this room is practically right next door to a save point where we could use a Tent, so it was fine. Also since Phoenix Downs are banned, there was no cheese available for the Phantom Train itself - but it only Evil Tooted at the end and wasn't a particularly bad fight.
Cyan had been using the Black Belt since he was the only one of these characters with a weapon equipped, so he kept countering the fish at Baren Falls. This limited my strategic options, so instead I basically just auto-battled with Sabin using Raging Fist and Cyan using Fang. Thankfully, Rizopas didn't get to El Nino.
We did the Veldt sequence. I took the time to get the Tintinnabulum since relics that give stat bonuses are banned. I didn't spend long hunting for rages - a lot of them are banned anyway - but I did manage to pick up another Green Beret from a Satellite before I left.
The teams met up in Narshe and I saved before the multi-party battle. So far, this has been pretty successful and fun but I think the interest is going to ramp up once I have access to some magicite.
