Square Enix has confirmed that Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster will retain the flip animation during the Phantom Train glitch, as a recent trailer showed it being performed incorrectly. The Phantom Train is among the Final Fantasy series' most memorable bosses, as it's an undead train that pursues the party, while they must battle it on foot.
The reason why the Phantom Train fight is so memorable is due to Sabin, who is the main character at this point in the story. Sabin has the unique Blitz command in battle, where the player must perform fighting game-style inputs to use special moves on the enemy. One of Sabin's Blitz attacks is called Meteor Strike and it causes him to perform a suplex on the enemy. This results in Sabin actually grabbing the enemy sprite and slamming it face-first into the ground. Many bosses in FF6 were vulnerable to Meteor Strike, even when they weren't supposed to be, thanks to a glitch. This means that Sabin can Meteor Strike the Phantom Train, by ripping it off its tracks and throwing it to the floor.
The game's newest form, FF6 Pixel Remaster, will launch on February 22 and Square Enix is promoting the game on its social media channels. A recent post on the Final Fantasy Twitter account confirmed that the Phantom Train glitch was still in the game, but fans noticed that the train didn't flip. Square Enix has now confirmed in a new post on the Final Fantasy page that the footage was from an earlier build of the game and that the train will flip in the final version of FF6 Pixel Remaster.
It's surprising that Square Enix responded so quickly to the fan criticism regarding the Phantom Train flip. There have been many issues raised regarding the Pixel Remaster series that took time to answer. The Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters have negative changes that fans initially had to fix with mods, such as the font being too small. It took Square Enix months to release a patch for the font, so fans had to take matters into their own hands during the wait.
The main goal of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series is to recreate the experience of the original games while retaining some of the modern QoL features that fans expect to see. This is why the additional content from later releases was left out, with many of the optional post-game dungeons and superbosses being left on the cutting room floor. Despite this, Square Enix has still retained the memetic moments that became famous on the Internet long after the release of the original games. This is why Garland has retained the "I, Garland, will knock you all down" line in FF1 Pixel Remaster, and why FF4 Pixel Remaster has the Spoony Bard line. The ability to suplex a train is one of the most memorable aspects of FF6 and it was apparently quite important that the train face the right way when it hits the floor.
Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster will be released for Android, iOS, and PC on February 22, 2022.