Android owners playing the mobile re-release of Final Fantasy 6 have run into a major problem. A bug is currently preventing them from finishing the campaign.
The description of the bug is a major story spoiler. I'd be surprised if there are JRPG fans out there that haven't played Final Fantasy 6 yet but who knows.
The crash occurs about half-way through the campaign in Thamas. The game crashes during Kefka and General Leo's battle. This glitch prevents players from advancing any further in the campaign. Fortunately it takes several hours to reach this point so the game's not useless without a patch.
The Google Play store (via Joystiq) mentions that Square Enix is currently working on a fix. They also acknowledged that "Esper" is misspelled in the game and that Sabin's Blitz ability is displaying incorrectly. These errors will also be corrected in a future patch. No release date was provided for these fixes.
FF6's Google Play listing adds that the game will close unexpectedly on select Android devices. Square Enix recommends saving regularly and closing the game with your application manager when you've finished playing. If the game's not working, turn your device off and on before attempting to play again. There's no mention of whether these unexpected exits will be fixed soon.
The Android re-release of Final Fantasy 6 launched last week for $15.99. This remake updates the graphics to make them brighter and more colorful. The characters look hand-painted rather than pixelated. You can read my thoughts on the visual changes here. The menus have been reworked to make them friendlier for touchscreens. The mobile version also features the bonus content from the 2006 Game Boy Advance remake, including four new Espers and one new dungeon.
Square Enix also plans to bring this remake to iOS. They've yet to announce a release date, though. When the game does arrive on iOS, I hope it's free of this particular game-breaking bug.
