Square's role-playing video game Final Fantasy VI (released as Final Fantasy III in North America) features fourteen permanent player characters, the largest number of any game in the main Final Fantasy series, as well as a number of characters who are only briefly controlled by the player.
Final Fantasy VI was the first game of the series to feature character designers other than Yoshitaka Amano. While Amano drew most of the character artworks, monster designer and graphic director Tetsuya Nomura created the original designs and many story episodes for Shadow and Setzer Gabbiani,[1] and field graphic designer Kaori Tanaka created the original designs of Edgar Roni Figaro and Sabin Rene Figaro.[2] A character named Angela was developed and then cut from the game.[3] She was to be like a "big sister" to Cyan and wield a whip, allowing the story to explore Cyan's vulnerability and private side.[3]
Co-director Kitase wanted to create many characters that could stand up to be main characters and ensure the story did not revolve around one character, so each character could have something to bring to the table.[4] In fact, one of the themes of the production was "everyone is the main character" according to Yoshinori Kitase, one of the game's two directors.[5] Kitase also believes that this approach with the game's characters is one of the game's lasting appeals.[5] And despite having a large cast of playable characters, the game is well known for its subtle revealing of character relationships and backstories over the length of the story.[6] Cut scenes of character interaction also feature simulated "camera movement", with a similar emotional effect found in movies.[6] During the game's development, the whole team contributed to the stories of the game's characters, which were then adjusted for consistency with the story by Kitase.[5] Instead of just being "ciphers for fighting, players would have more choice in what the characters would do, and how that would alter the narrative and invest the player more deeply in the story.[7] To make the characters even more distinct, their fighting styles and abilities were all made totally different as well.[7] Balancing so many characters was a challenge, and as a result Celes and Kefka became much bigger characters than were initially planned.[7]
Terra Branford, known as Tina Branford (ティナ・ブランフォード, Tina Buranfōdo) in Japanese media, is the first introduced character, a mentally-enslaved Imperial super-soldier gifted with devastating magic. Hironobu Sakaguchi, the ‘’Final Fantasy’’ series creator, greatly influenced the characters creation.[7] Originally, Terra was to disappear with all the other Espers at games end, but the developers decided it would be a “waste” to have the character discover her humanity and be erased, so she instead lost her powers.[3]
Locke Cole (ロック・コール, Rokku Kōru, also romanized as Lock Cole) is a thief, though he personally prefers to identify himself as a "treasure hunter."[8][9] Like Terra, Hironobu Sakaguchi was also a major contributor to the creation of Locke.[7] ‘’IGN’’ praised Locke as being the connection between Terra and Celes, helping tie the plot together, and having a unique ability to steal from his enemies.[10]