^Anime ages mate. Always add about 5~10 years to get something resembling conceivable.
Also, why are you underleveled? You aren't going to gain anything by saving your levels for Espers when you aren't going to be using them in the first place.
LOL, thanks for the shout out, Jawsh. Surprisingly, I've only ever had people recognize me from VI a few times, and almost always after they start playing VI again.
Even as a kid, I always felt like Arvis had more to him than we ever got to see in VI. Not only that, but his fate is never revealed. So he's been my online alter ego since I was like 13 years old. So... about 20 years now.
Sorry I'm only just now poking my head into this thread.
EDIT, RE; Tincture
Obviously, Tinctures have some other properties that people buy them for. Obviously.
But... I don't know what they're for. Maybe they're the FFVI World's version of coffee.
"I'm useless until I've had my Tincture, ha ha!"
I thought you were the guy who invited Sigurd & crew to his fabulous barbecue?
As for Tinctures, The Empire has always had fauna that had low levels of magic to them, so there's one possible source of the stuff. Another is that Tinctures are kinda really crappy restoratives anyways so perhaps nobody even really knew what they were for and just liked the flavor of the not-Pepsi to Potions' not-Coke.
- A mysterious young woman controlled by the Empire, and born with the gift of Magic... ....

So that's great and all, but if a character isn't important enough to need to finish the game is she really the main character???? Was the choice to make the first character introduced basically optional by the end a brilliant/bold decision or just confusing?
I like that it gives other characters a chance to shine, but it definitely hurts her development for a kinda lame orphanage subplot. I'm...honestly kinda torn on Terra and Celes (Celestina!) as important RPG heroines, they find their courage in the 11th hour after a lot of self-doubt. They were good at the time, they sort of fit the 'lovely and fair' persona a lot of heroines had back then just with the added angle of being bumped up to lead players, but how exciting they were is a bit of a mixed back. Terra is a plot-device though, one that can go "lost" for a little bit and it definitely harms her character. I view her more as a positive force and symbol for girls in leading roles but not at all my favorite example.
At the time, she was a definite breath of fresh air, given just how few females were even playable in games at the time. Terra's predecessors were Alis(a) of Phantasy Star fame (who's still an incredibly rare example of a series where the first main character was female and was not heavily sexualized in the process), Samus Aran (who's sole defining trait was that she was A Gurl) and the bulk of the cast of the Valis series (back in the day when Bikini Armor was still kinda in vogue). Everybody else was either running definitely Male characters, animorphic mascot wannabes, CYOGender (with heavy assumption that you're male or going to play male) or were hella obscure titles (anybody remember Alisa Dragoon?), licensed titles (like The Little Mermaid), titles meant only as 4Gurls shovelware (go ahead, name me a Barbie title, make my day) or something something PCs something (I'm looking at you Sierra and your not-Nancy Drew aka Laura Bow).
Unfortunately, this game didn't age particularly well either as the undertones kinda undercut a lot of Terra's (and Celes') importance to the plot, especially if you follow the scars left by the nip/tucking of their plotlines, you'd get the sense that Locke was supposed to be the true main character of the game (or at least the first half, ala FFVII's Cloud). Its also evident in a number of other games that Sakaguchi worked on (The Last Story being a prominent example, FFs IX & X as well).
- On to The Returners' hideout and babysitting low level Bannon on the Lete River; AKA the first truly frustrating part of this playthrough.
yeah I hate Bannon. Between his ridiculous hair, his traffic-light-inspired gear, his low-level escort mission, and the fact he's an NPC even more absent than Terra later on (I guess he fucking dies in the WoR??) is just a perfect storm for a shit character.
Bearnon, Arvis and the rest of the Returners we're all kinda hanging around Vector when the shit went down, so I assumed that they all fell off a cliff between the WoB and the WoR (and quite possibly literally too given that cutscene at the end of WoB).