presented by nibbishment

Let’s begin our countdown with number twenty!

On the floating continent, juuust before you meet Kefka and everything goes to hell, you run into the guardian of the warring triad…

Well, okay then.

The first thing that got me about this part was the music. I do love the normal miniboss theme of Final Fantasy VI (that moment when you run into a surprise boss and “The Decisive Battle” starts playing almost made it, but it was just a little too vague, as it happens multiple times), but the music cue for Ultima (or “Atma” as I know him better) sets you at attention immediately. It’s a great theme, one of Uematsu’s best, for sure.

You’re set face to face with a big beastie who introduces himself, and then issues his ultimatum: Feeble creatures, GO!

Now, I’ve played through the Advance version, and while I vastly prefer the cleaned up script and proper localization translation in nearly every case, I like “Feeble creatures, GO!” a lot better than “Feeble creatures of flesh… Your time is nigh!” It just sounds more lively, plus it sounds dismissive of your party in a way that the updated version can’t quite hold a candle to.

The actual fight is not that difficult, which is sort of a shame considering the buildup. I mean, the guy claimed to be as old as the cosmos, and this group can’t even spam Ultima or use Bum Rush yet.