The Phantom Train doesn't make sense.

[Kiddiec͕̤̱͋̿͑͠at 🃏]

I love this game and I like The Phantom Train too, however, it doesn't really make sense and it has never made sense, in any version of the game.

There are no railways in this game, like... anywhere (except for this ONE place).
There's just this random train station in a world without any trains, aside from this one.
The whole point of trains is that they go somewhere.

How can an ethereal train make sense as something that people understand when regular trains don't even exist?

[GarnetDivine]

Of all the things that don't make sense in not only this game but the entire series, this is the one you decide to analyze?

[findersword]

There are railways in Vector that are a path to a Research Facility. Its possible there were trains too, but they didn't actually visualize them on maps.

[Kiddiec͕̤̱͋̿͑͠at 🃏]

Originally posted by Garnet Divine:

Of all the things that don't make sense in not only this game but the entire series, this is the one you decide to analyze?

It stood out to me.

I used to ride trains a lot so when I played this game again I went... "wait a minute..."

And then I thought even deeper... "WAIT A MINUTE... why do I have to walk everywhere when they know about trains? There's not even a plot about The Empire ruining the railways - there's just no trains!"

Anyways, what sort of things did you notice?
From the sounds of it, you find there to be some bigger details that are out of place.

[hopefuldeath]

Actually this is technically explained as soon as you find the train. Cyan says "I thought all of the railways were destroyed in the war"

There were railways at some point, they're all gone. Except this one, for obvious reasons

[Kiddiec͕̤̱͋̿͑͠at 🃏]

Originally posted by hopefuldeath:

Actually this is technically explained as soon as you find the train. Cyan says "I thought all of the railways were destroyed in the war"

There were railways at some point, they're all gone. Except this one, for obvious reasons

Did he say that in the original version?
...because I don't remember it but I might have just forgotten.

[the_atolm]

Well, very little in FFVI makes any kind of spatial, logistical, or temporal sense. That said, much like other RPGs of the period, the game only grants access to a limited selection of locations while still allowing for the possibility or suggestion of places and things to exist beyond what the player experiences, while also having a very plastic sense of spatial and temporal scale (for instance, what one sees of Vector or Narshe from afar is several orders larger than what the player can explore; the various towns of Miranda, etc. are referred to [in the Japanese version, at least] as "countries," even though they are only single towns, it seems to take all of two hours to travel halfway around the globe underwater, etc.) Cyan remarks when the player first reaches the platform something to the effect of "part of the Doma railway hasn't been destroyed," from which we are to infer that Doma, at least, had a domestic railway system that has been dismantled or sabotaged in response to or as a result of the Empire's invasion, and from the reactions of the other characters, rail technology is not unknown -- it's just not accounted for elsewhere in the visible game world. The general level of technology (excepting Vector and the like) is mid- or early 19th-century, one can infer.

But then again, most of what makes a viable, inhabitable world remains unaccounted for in the game -- where are the fields or farms, the roads, housing for more than ten people? etc. Moreover, the game is replete with sequences and conceits that do more to test one's suspension of disbelief -- the Serpent's Path, Kekfa's poison that somehow can kill at a distance of several hundred feet, etc. -- even if one allows for the general sketchiness of the world-building.

[Asouva]

In Final Fantasy IV you take a boat from Fabul to Baron, but Fabul is the only country in the world with a port for the ship to even dock at. You can chalk it up to the Law Of Conservation Of Detail.

[fmalfeas]

Originally posted by Kiddiec͕̤̱͋̿͑͠at:

Originally posted by hopefuldeath:

Actually this is technically explained as soon as you find the train. Cyan says "I thought all of the railways were destroyed in the war"

There were railways at some point, they're all gone. Except this one, for obvious reasons

Did he say that in the original version?
...because I don't remember it but I might have just forgotten.


:seewhatyoudid:

Yep. I remember it because it surprised me that Doma had trains and Figaro didn't seem to.

Emphasis on HAD, because Gehstal and Kefka.

[HexGramarye]

Originally posted by Kiddiec͕̤̱͋̿͑͠at:

I love this game and I like The Phantom Train too, however, it doesn't really make sense and it has never made sense, in any version of the game.

There are no railways in this game, like... anywhere (except for this ONE place).
There's just this random train station in a world without any trains, aside from this one.
The whole point of trains is that they go somewhere.

How can an ethereal train make sense as something that people understand when regular trains don't even exist?


:ffvighost: :seewhatyoudid: :ffvighost:

Everything about that sequence is all kinds of weird. You flip the switches to stop the train, but then it comes to life and *chases* you? I guess because it's undead? Then why have the switches in the first place? Okay.

And then Sabin and the gang are somehow faster than a freaking train. Like, much faster. The train struggles to keep up as the party stays in the lead. Not to mention you'd think the train would go off the track after Sabin suplexes it. How does a train roll itself over and set itself back? Quite flexible for a train; does it do yoga??

I love this game.

[Phazon]

How about WoR Figaro Castle while it's stuck underground, where all the NPCs are struggling to breathe, yet Celes, Sabin, "Gerad" and those bandits are able to run around and talk just fine?

[Asouva]

Another way of looking at it is the Veldt is the Afterlife, and the Phantom Train/Phantom Forest is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the Veldt. But that would explain why nothing shows up on the Veldt until you kill it. The train doesn't actually go anywhere, all the souls come to it, and any perceived motion is purely figurative, a familiar sight that mortal souls may be comfortable with. Grim Reaper is scary, but if you make people think they're going on a friendly commute train ride, they'll line up to buy tickets.

Anyway, it's just a theory. A GAME THEORY!

[Nooneyouknow]

Originally posted by Asouva:

Another way of looking at it is the Veldt is the Afterlife, and the Phantom Train/Phantom Forest is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the Veldt. But that would explain why nothing shows up on the Veldt until you kill it. The train doesn't actually go anywhere, all the souls come to it, and any perceived motion is purely figurative, a familiar sight that mortal souls may be comfortable with. Grim Reaper is scary, but if you make people think they're going on a friendly commute train ride, they'll line up to buy tickets.

Anyway, it's just a theory. A GAME THEORY!

At least in the original, you don't have to kill a formation for it to spawn on the Veldt, just encounter it.

[Avatorn]

why does the phantom train need rails?

[fmalfeas]

Originally posted by Avatorn:

why does the phantom train need rails?

I honestly think that the phantom train used to be a normal train, but got blown up by the Empire with a full load of passengers, and that all that death at once is what created it. And thus it has rails because the souls that made it think trains need rails.

[Dyex]

Originally posted by Kiddiec͕̤̱͋̿͑͠at:

Anyways, what sort of things did you notice?
From the sounds of it, you find there to be some bigger details that are out of place.


:ninjasmoke:
:accrtrain: :seewhatyoudid: :papertrain:

How about how when your party all share a single diving helmet with no oxegen tank to dive across the serpent trench?

Also through the series the dragoon jump. Like what are you doing up there for 45 seconds how high did you go?

Some things were never meant to be asked...