How does the combat work?

[n13e86]

I read through the available material both in the game itself, and outside.
I still don't get it (or like it).
Not just the "active time" thing.
Is it supposed to be boring? Or is it just, as always, "not for me"?

[Lysamus]

I'm not sure what specifically you're struggling with, but I'll try to explain how it works. Let me know if you have any questions.

Turns
In a fight, characters can take their turn once their Active Time bar fills out. The bar for your characters is always visible, but the enemies' bar is not.

When you issue an order to a character, they go into a ready pose. They'll act once it's their turn to do so (if there are multiple characters in a ready pose, they resolve in order of when they took their turn. Enemies might also be ready and waiting as well, but they don't animate to indicate that and only flash when they act).

Once a character acts, their Active Time Bar resets and it needs to fill up again before they can act again.

In the game's settings, you can either set the game to "Active" or "Wait" depending on your preferences.
- Active: The enemy will act as soon as their bar fills up. Their bar never freezes. This means you can get attacked while you're looking through options for a character while it's their turn.
- Wait: The enemy's bars freeze whenever you are in a menu, making a selection for your characters. The battle is essentially paused until you confirm an action.

Row
Your character's can also be placed either in the front or back of the "Row"
- Front: Attacks do full damage (their attacks and attacks done to them)
- Rear: Attacks do 1/2 damage (their attacks and attacks done to them)
---- Some weapons bypass this rule. Ranged attacks (Setzer's cards, Locke's boomerangs) generally do full damage, even in back row.
---- Magic and most character abilities (Blitz, Bushido, Tools, etc) are also unaffected by front/back row.

There's a limit break system too, but you'll likely never encounter it.

As to "is it supposed to be boring" - I don't think anything is intended to be boring in this game, but ATB is old fashioned (especially in 2024), so I can see how it's not the most engaging battle system out there. In general, FF6 is a game that's more concerned with its narrative experience than its gameplay experience.

[n13e86]

At the time, I was struggling with the first boss - Vargas.
As I discovered after several more attempts of following an online guide, it was just randomly deciding not to proceed: the game intended me to use the Raging Fist ability, but doing so just continued the battle until Sabin was dead (before the countdown ran out).
And then, after several repeats, the battle just decided to include some dialogue there - eventually leading to him explaining this mechanic. Only after this did it all decide to continue correctly.
Is there any way to view enemy information in-game? I don't mind their invisible time bar (I do, it is what it is), but everything else.
Systems are usually more engaging when you have more information to make your decisions with. So, in a way, it IS designed to be boring.

[Lysamus]

Originally posted by n13e86:

Is there any way to view enemy information in-game? I don't mind their invisible time bar (I do, it is what it is), but everything else.

Later in the game, there's a spell you can teach to characters that will scan enemies and tell you stats like HP, MP, weaknesses and what they're immune to.

Some generalities that might help you until then.

Undead are weak to holy.
Water based creatures are weak to fire.
Trains are weak to suplexes.
Everything is weak to a stray cat.

[n13e86]

Are there some special circumstances, or do enemies just suddenly use attacks they never exhibited before?
I am currently fighting through Phantom Train, and at some point met Ghosts that turned out to be able to do two new fire-based attacks (that killed the entire party). It happened in a weird train car that wasn't even supposed to be there - what I entered, was the locomotive (but it looked like a regular train car inside for some reason).
Is there a way to predict what will happen, or to prevent these things? Like, what are my options?

[Lysamus]

Enemies have a fixed ability list they can pick between during a fight. That list never changes, but I don't know what logic the game uses to determine which attack they will perform. Some are definitely patterned to do specific attacks at specific triggers (start of fight, after HP reduced to 0, etc).

I don't believe there's any in game resource that tells you what attacks every enemy is capable of (it's not listed in the bestiary). There is this fan wiki though with that data if you think it would enhance your experience. You can use CTRL+F to find the name of your enemy and look for all instances of their name posted next to the ability on the left.

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VI_enemy_abilities

[n13e86]

Also, why is there so much magic?
Two of my characters can do magic (i.e., thing that spends MP - as opposed to superhero abilities that don't), regular fauna can use magic, paranormal entities can use magic.
And yet, the plot keeps telling me how rare it is.

The fight against the train was a disappointment. Four hours into the game, I still can't tell what I am even supposed to do. It just randomly succeeded on a second attempt - even though I just kept doing what I was doing the first time (hit it with things I have available, like in every single battle before that).

[Lysamus]

Capital M Magic has narrative significance. My read is that monsters are accessing some innate trait or talent that isn't "magic" exactly (there's a character you'll meet later to give some credence to this theory).

Honestly, you might be over-thinking the combat in this game. 90s RPGs generally weren't designed around complex and curated combat encounters. Using your biggest damage ability is probably the correct choice most of the time.

Having said that, I will acknowledge that the combat in this game feels dated even for its time, as it's largely a carryover from concepts in prior games (Random battles, ATB, etc). Again, FF6 is remarkable for its narrative elements. Not so much for its gameplay.

If you're not having fun now, it's probably not going to get better for you. Hopefully the story and characters are engaging enough to suffer through the rudimentary combat.

[n13e86]

In a way, I'm more disappointed in the way it is designed, rather than in my own experience with it.
A team of professional designers with several similar games of experience, somehow didn't bother with elements that the game actually consists of.

[Lysamus]

Originally posted by n13e86:

A team of professional designers with several similar games of experience, somehow didn't bother with elements that the game actually consists of.

An unfortunate consequence of high ambitions (trying to make every character the protagonist), short dev time (about 1 year), a small team (I think 50ish people) and a major pivot in direction during development (the details of which you may encounter later, if you stick with it).

Despite all that, it's easily my favorite Final Fantasy, but certainly not for its combat.

[Dimlhugion]

Originally posted by n13e86:

In a way, I'm more disappointed in the way it is designed, rather than in my own experience with it.
A team of professional designers with several similar games of experience, somehow didn't bother with elements that the game actually consists of.

Hironobu Sakaguchi, the "father of Final Fantasy" as he's known, went on record in a recent interview saying he personally though FF6 was "the most complete Final Fantasy."

Make of that what you will.

EDIT: correction on what I said. I just looked it up, apparently his favorite is actually FF9. But he thinks FF6 is the most complete game in the series.