Here’s a suggested ten-week study guide for the game, including our recorded analysis and recommended readings. Each discussion corresponds to roughly an hour in-game.
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Week 1 – Magic and Tech
1 – Opening to Figaro Castle escape
- Franz Kafka and The Marriage of Figaro are two essential touchstones for much of the game’s complex aesthetic
2 – Figaro Cave to Returners Hideout
- Pandora’s Box and Tale of Genji show the breadth of allusions in this section
Week 2 – Allies
3 – Sabin’s Quest to the Veldt, via Phantom Train
- A more lugubrious Train Blues, a sillier Gilgamesh, a more beguiling Bradbury introduction would be hard to imagine
4 – Locke and Terra’s Quests to Kefka Battle
- See also: Citizen Kane passwords, Ceres and Terra etymologies, or La Celestina (per a connection raised by the Retronauts and their audience)
Week 3 – Love Letters
- Flashbacks and Hacks…
Week 4 – Politics and Myth
7 – Vector and Magitek Research Facility
- If there’s a topic so far that’s caught your interest, this week would be a good time to do some writing!
8 – World of the Espers and Airship Exploration
- Even if, as seems likely, Maduin is not a reference to Mael Duin, the connections raised there are still worth a look
Week 5 – The Silence of the Espers
10 – Sailing to Thamasa and the burning house
Another week for writing and revising papers…
Week 6 – The Fall and the Leap
11 – Statue Cave to General Leo’s Death
12 – Floating Continent to Celes in the World of Ruin
- Hereafter, most of the allusions we’re discussing tend to be internal to the game and the series. Comparisons of Leo to Galuf and Aeris, for instance, or looking at Cid across the main titles would be excellent topics…
Week 7 – The Light of Judgment
13 – Sabin’s Reappearance to Figaro Castle Engine Room
14 – Setzer in Daryl’s Tomb and the Falcon
- As the game opens up at this point, so we suggest opening up the class to more student-directed approaches, such as presentations of research, and to a breadth theoretical lenses (for instance, how feminist or transhumanist reads of FFVI might look, particularly think about how it sets up its successor…)
Week 8 – Searching for Friends
15 – Cyan on Mt Zozo to Umaro in Narshe
16 – Gogo in the Zone Eater to Dirt Dragon in the Opera
Week 9 – Fantasy and Art
18 – Gau’s Makeover, Relm’s Painting, Phoenix Cave
Week 10 – And You
19 – Ancient Castle and Cultists’ Tower
20 – Kefka’s Tower, Final Battle, End Credits
- Sorry about confusing millennia and centuries here since the War of the Magi…
Many thanks for listening, and if you are teaching or writing about FFVI in any form, we’d love to hear from you! The chance to talk FFVI with our friends and listeners is always a Gem Box, a Genji Glove of a treasure, as in this conversation with Alex Schmid on comparisons with FFVII.
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General FFVI Resources:
Video Game Academy 