A riddle for you: What is long, meaty, and missing some pieces here and there? If your answer is a 12′ meatball sub, then you must be the culprit who’s been stealing bites of my sandwich! However, if your answer is Michael Gray’s blind playthrough of Final Fantasy VI Advance, you’re right! But I’ve still got my eye on you.
FFVIA is a Game Boy Advance re-release of the strangely popular SNES game known in the United States as Final Fantasy III and in Japan as Boy, Those Americans Really Don’t Know How to Count. The game is essentially the same as its Super Nintendo counterpart, though it sports a new translation, slightly modified (and, in my opinion, inferior) music, two additional dungeons that Michael didn’t tackle, and a number of other changes that Michael probably didn’t notice because this was his first time playing any version of the game, and it shows.
No, no. I’m not being mean here—this run of FFVIA gives a unique perspective on a game that, for many people, is so much a part of them that they know every little secret, trick, technique, and plot twist inside and out. Not so with brave Michael, who has the gall to rename all the characters as GameCola staff members, who gets wiped out because certain game mechanics aren’t properly explained, who makes up the plot as he goes, and who KEEPS MISSING ALL THE BEST TREASURE CHESTS!!! YAAAAARGH!!!
Yeah, there are some dedicated fans who’ve left some agitated comments about everything our heroes did and did not do.
Rest assured that there is running audio commentary to keep things interesting and that, eventually, most of the redundant random rattles—erm, battles; sorry, the alliteration just got away from me for a second—get cut out of the videos to help speed things along. This is especially important, because the entire video series is already something on the order of 17½ hours long.
Please remember to breathe and blink between videos. No need to show off your endurance skills.
Embedded below are the first two of 110 (!) videos for Final Fantasy VI Advance. If you’re not hooked by the end of the second video, try the third embedded video, from much later in the game (and from when Michael returned from a Final Fantasy hiatus)—it’s a humorous recap of what happened in the game up to that point, and it’s a great place to hop on board if you don’t feel like watching a newcomer fumble over Blitz commands and menu options for the first time.
Check out the full Final Fantasy VI Advance playlist on the GameCola YouTube channel! Or, if you’re still not sure whether you’re ready for this kind of commitment, watch the next video and then check out the full Final Fantasy VI Advance playlist on the GameCola YouTube channel!
