Intro –

Edgar and Sabin are two characters in Final Fantasy VI who have very different fighting styles that, by all accounts, make them awesome in their own way. Sabin is a martial artist, and Edgar is a machinist who, might I add, has some of the coolest Tools ever invented in any Final Fantasy game.

Personally, I use them together most of the time because the game sometimes creates situations where both brothers are needed, and their fighting styles complement each other.

One of the things I noticed is that Tools and Blitz aren’t abilities meant to be used only occasionally. Like always, the game will provide situations where they’re useful, and for me, there wasn’t a shortage of those situations from the moment I started playing until I finished my replay.

And let’s face it: no one does the Phantom Rush better than Sabin. To put a fine point on it, when I need a technique that requires something only one of the brothers can do, that’s when I call them in. Even during ordinary battles, if I needed someone to confuse enemies—and quite a few of them can be confused—Edgar was on the job.

Sure, it was easy to push the Attack button every turn, but here’s the thing: when shit hit the fan—and it did—it wasn’t always just, “Hey, a few hits from Sabin and this guy’s roadkill.”

Nah. In Final Fantasy VI, you never got off that easy. There was always going to be that one enemy who, for all intents and purposes, was going to take more than simple attacks to kill.

Enter Sabin’s Blitz or Edgar’s Tools.

I come before you today to make the argument that the Figaro Bros aren’t just ordinary men of war. They’re some of the most fun you’ll have in Final Fantasy VI. But be warned: they play differently, yet you’ll almost always find a reason to have them in the same party.

I did.

Edgar’s Tools Almost Feel Unfair –

To the untrained eye, Edgar’s Tools might look like regular attacks with machines when they’re far more dangerous than that. For one, Chainsaw, Edgar’s most devastating and damaging Tool in his arsenal, goes to work on bosses and really deals the kind of damage needed to knock them down a peg.

But that’s not to say his signature Auto Crossbow is a slouch in that regard. It’s not. That Tool has been the unsung hero of many a battle.

I remember one particular battle where I was up against several enemies—big enemies. So I pulled out Chainsaw, which is a huge damage dealer, and the enemy was there until they weren’t. 😂 The main Tool I reached for was Chainsaw because when I needed something to hit for big damage, that’s what I used. I hardly used Noiseblaster or Bioblaster.

Both had their uses, but Auto Crossbow and Chainsaw were my go-tos. Drill was a close third. Though I hardly used it, it definitely came in handy when I was cutting down those goons at Kefka’s Tower.

The Tools came through in a pinch whenever Edgar’s weapon damage didn’t deal the kind of damage I needed. But I will also say that I almost always kept Chainsaw for tough enemies and bosses. I mean, the kind of damage Chainsaw did usually made boss fights last about as long as drinking a soda in one go.

Edgar is an excellent damage machine with the right weapon, but with his Tools, his attacks went from ordinary to extraordinary.

More often than not, I felt like his Tools were his basic attack because I defaulted to them over his regular Attack command.

Sabin Gets You Into The Game –

What I love about Sabin’s Blitz attacks is that they’re not just attacks executed with simple button presses. They’re a sequence of directions and buttons you have to input to execute his special attacks.

Take Aura Cannon, a Blitz of pure Holy energy. While it’s easy to execute, it’s not without its difficulty when inputting the commands under extreme duress. And if I’m being honest, the experience of inputting the Blitz commands really gets you involved, with high-level damage being the reward.

It’s like Blitz is saying, “You want to use or activate me? You’ve got to do the finger work.” Personally, after what I experienced during the replay, it’s definitely worth it. All of Sabin’s Blitz moves are good for something and have a little something for everyone.

Phantom Rush easily became one of my favorites because of its raw damage. Aura Cannon is another favorite because I’ve always loved the idea of turning energy into raw power and then firing it as an energy beam. Beautiful.

Meteor Strike was another one. I didn’t use it as much, but when I had a single boss or difficult enemy I was trying to get rid of, Meteor Strike was definitely one of my go-tos. Razor Gale was another option when I needed pure Wind power to destroy an enemy or exploit a weakness to Wind. It definitely came through in a pinch. I felt like the ability was somewhat lacking in the damage department, but it was still a good Blitz to use to break down enemy numbers, which made it useful.

From personal experience, Sabin didn’t become one of my favorites only because of his Blitzes. He was also very dependable in battle, and yeah, he was satisfying to use as a character. His Blitzes definitely came across as more situational than automatic, which meant choosing the right one mattered. Soul Spiral was one Blitz I didn’t use because of its sacrificial nature.

Special Abilities vs. Regular Attacks –

With the Figaro Brothers’ special abilities, there were times in the game when I didn’t bother with regular attacks because I needed raw damage power right out of the gate. Whether that came from Sabin’s Blitz or Edgar’s Tools, both were needed to minimize, for lack of a better word, the enemy threat—of which there were many.

To put a finer point on this, the gentlemen’s special abilities became regular attacks once I got to the World of Ruin. Yeah, there were times when I used regular attacks, but those times weren’t many. When you get to the World of Ruin, there are already tough enemies sitting there waiting for you.

You either attack them or they kill you. I always stayed on top of my gear in terms of having that next strong weapon and whatnot, but there wasn’t any point in the game where holding back power was a lifesaver.

I think what really made these abilities different from those of other characters is that these commands weren’t magical or transformative in nature. They were commands capable of altering a battle situation.

For example, Edgar’s Noiseblaster confuses foes. That’s handy when you’re just trying to create an opening so Terra or Celes can use their magic to finish off an enemy. Flash is another one. Flash can inflict Darkness on enemies, which is definitely useful against foes that rely mostly on physical attacks to get the job done.

Final Fantasy VI itself gained legendary status by giving players more than just an Attack command or situational special abilities. It gives the player an engine with which to drive the game to the end their way. You’re not just getting Edgar’s Chainsaw to use against tough enemies, but against bosses that need to be destroyed through raw power.

It’s also about choice. You can definitely pick and choose when—and when not—to use the power at your disposal.

Conclusion –

To wrap up, Sabin and Edgar are great characters in the way they complement each other beyond simply being brothers. Sabin is the muscle, Edgar is the brains, and that’s what gives birth to their fighting styles. They’re not necessarily opposite sides of the same coin, although sometimes it can feel like they are. Instead, they come together as one on the battlefield.

Edgar’s Tools made him feel like a true machinist in the way they responded to him and through the damage that followed. Sabin, meanwhile, was trained in the way of Blitz, and only he can pull those techniques off.

Out of the gate, if someone were to ask me what I thought about the brothers and what makes them unique, I’d respond, “Their battle titles.” What playing these two taught me is that it’s one thing to input a command to get a special attack off, but it’s another to have commands that can make a battle work to your advantage—whether that’s confusing an enemy or using an enemy’s recovery period to recover yourself.

Sabin and Edgar were so fun to use because I got to utilize their unique abilities to make battles untraditionally fun, whether that meant using Aura Cannon on some Roaders or using Chainsaw on a Warring Triad statue. I had both brothers, and I capitalized on what each one brought to the fight.

One always picked up where the other left off, and that’s the biggest thing about using the two men together.