Is there a link between Final Fantasy 6 and the real world?

[Prince Janus]

...So, normally, I stick to the Chrono Trigger side of the fence. I never really liked the concept of random encounters, or having my precious time wasted by another friggin bat who just had to stop me from walking toward a chest. But I had to pick this game up, because frankly, everyone has been talking about it, and I wasn't going to be the uncultured swine.

Holy shit yes I love this game. I remember how I felt about Chrono Trigger when I was a child, and now I'm getting all like that again for these guys.

Anyway, I don't play in the series that much. I have the first one on Virtual Console, I got about halfway through 4, have 5 in anthologies that I haven't touched, and am now playing 6 (also in anthologies.) So, I don't know how common this is... ...is it me, or does this game successfully drop a few anvils regarding... I dunno, life? the environment? Our whole fiasco with oil and terrorist paranoia? I mean the continent that Vector is located on even looks *very vaguely and upside down, feel free to consider this Epileptic-tree thinking* like North America some, while the opera house seems located in a very warped and near-unrecognizable Europe. The map in general feels like they took North America, Eurasia, and Australia, rearranged them and flipped them as needed, then warped what was left so you wouldn't notice it at first.

...or I could be thinking too hard about this. Still, I don't think it a stretch that the plot was based on a few similar issues in our world, at the time. And now, I'm still seeing similarities.

[Samopoznanie]

Holy shit yes I love this game. I remember how I felt about Chrono Trigger when I was a child, and now I'm getting all like that again for these guys.

Damn straight, it's one of the few games - and stories - that I really consider a classic in every sense of the word.  So many memorable points and characters.  I picked up a complete  GBA copy for 25$ recently, and it's been like rediscovering part of my youth!  Back in the 90s (god, that sounds awful), it was always a battle between my sister and I over which was the better game, FFVI or CT. I never picked up on the real life parallels you mention but will have to keep an eye open on this playthrough.  Much of it I've forgotten over the years, being bogged down in school so long, so it's new thrills at every corner.  Be sure to pick up the yeti if you get the chance! 

[Lord J Esq]

I suppose you'd have to make a thorough critical reading of the game, or else interview the development team, to know for sure where the coincidences give way to inspirations, where the inspirations give way to allusions, and where the allusions give way to allegories. If I may, I would suggest that the best perspective for FF VI would be to look at Japan's point of view in World War II. I can read the game as a cultural act of catharsis; an apology if you will for the misdeeds of previous generations. I'm really not sure--being as I'm not an expert on Japanese culture--as to how much of the game is beyond Japan and concerns nations such as our own United States. I have noticed more than one Square game where the "Evil Empire" was located on the smaller continental mass, equivalent to the Americas versus Afro-Eurasia. However, that may simply be a function of the fact that the style of the time with RPGs required a large area of adjacent places to visit early in the game.

All in all, an interesting topic, but one that asks more knowledge of the Japanese than I possess.

[Prince Janus]

 There was an alternative interpretation I also gathered, though a bit more parodic, a bit more "for the lulz". Still...

 The Slave Crown: A McDonald's drive-thru headset. How appropriate that Terra spends her teenage years a slave to the corporate machine.

 Espers being used for energy at the cost of their health: Fat people.

 Kefka: Ronald McDonald. What? He's a clown...  (though I actually don't find most clowns scary at all. Even Kefka wouldn't phase me if he was honestly a nice guy. Or just a silly designated villain.

[Lord J Esq]

Yeah, that one's more than a bit of a stretch...