An amazing adventure through with incredibly memorable characters, villains, and story. What more could you want?
User Rating: 9.6 | Final Fantasy VI SNES
In a generation where amazing games came out literally everyday, Final Fantasy VI stands strongly with them. The game is centered around Terra Branford, a woman who knows nothing of her past and is working for the evil Empire (not to be confused with the Star Wars version). In the beginning, she is tasked with finding and investigating something called an Esper - creatures you learn magic from and can summon later on - near a remote, independant village called Narshe. Once she and her Imperial associates arrive, the Esper attacks and leaves her defenseless, to be saved by the "treasure hunter" named Locke. After being liberated by a mind control device she had no idea she had, Terra and Locke begin on a journey of self-discovery, rebellion, and world-class heroism. The graphics in this game are quite very good, especially for their time, and for an RPG. The portraits are very well done, the models, enemies, towns all look very distinct. A wide variety of enemies all with many different attacks keep battles interesting, and the boss battles are almost always breathtaking. There's still the problem of recyclage of course, but that's to be expected when you're using a cartridge and not something more spacious like a Compact Disk. The Art Direction is fantastic. Technology blended with magic with brightly coloured enivronments that are very, very easy on the eyes. Bleak looking technological cities, magical and wondrous realms, and creative locations add to the game's fantastic visual prowess. Sound is one of the game's very strong points. The music is beautifully composed and to this day I still go to listen to the very dramatic opening theme. It's definitely a classical score, but you might not think it that, because this is all limited to MIDIs. Even so, it sounds incredible. Each piece of music - whether it be the boss battle theme, Terra's theme, or Kefka's theme - all fit their respective character/situation very well and maintains the mood very well. The game itself will keep you playing for a long time. On my first play, I racked up more than 50 hours, and that's not counting replayability, which is gushing from this game. I'm telling you, you'll return to this game at least one more time in your life. The game may be linear, but the gameplay, story and characters are just too good to neglect after one time through the game. Gameplay is where most of the game is. It basically involves you moving in the areas with the directional pad, and you can enter almost every building. Cities are largely limited to just armour, weapon, item, and relic shops and maybe one story area. Once on the world map, you can move around and at random points you will enter battle, which are turn-based. There are several differences between Final Fantasy VI and its predecessors. First off is character specific traits. This has been severely cut back compared to other games. Everyone can now learn magic, instead of certain classes receiving it. Learning magic is relatively simple. You equip an Esper to a character (you gain different Espers throughout the game) and once you win a battle, you collect AP. The AP fuels the development of magic spells, of which specific ones are offered from different Espers. Some spells develop faster than others. For example, the most basic ones - Fire and Ice, will develop 5% for every AP received, but other more powerful ones - like Ultima, will only develop at 1% for every AP. Once the spell is learned, that's it, you just equip another Esper and repeat the process. Gaining levels is much the same as other games in the Role-Playing Genre. You defeat enemies, gain experience, and get enough to gain a level. Certain Espers can upgrade your character at every level up. For example, some Espers will increase your HP by 30% every level that you have that certain Esper equipped. At the sametime, you can upgrade your base statistics - Vigor, Speed, Magic Attack Power - with different Espers. Another change that is offered (or atleast to my knowledge) is relics. You can equip two of these items at once, and each will alter your character's ability in some way. For example, there are Sprint Shoes, which make you run around instead of walking by default. As well, there's the Earrings, which increase the force of your magical attack. These help to deepen the strategy of battle, as you can change your characters so that they attack four times, or cast a certain spell once their HP is low. Whatever it is, it's up to you. Even if everyone can do this, it's not as if everyone is now a mere shell with a story behind it. Each character has their own unique ability. For example, there is only one person who can steal, only one person who can throw items, only one person who can perform karate combos, and only one person who can use tools to damage the enemies. While does not offer the uniqueness of character classes, it manages to keep things fun while giving you the freedom of what you want each character to do. All of these well-structured elements form together to create an incredibly well thought out role-playing game (and I use that term very loosely, because you don't actually get to choose much) that stands up there with the classic games of yore. If you still have the chance, get this game, because you certainly won't regret it.
