The wait for a Final Fantasy VI portable ends.
The story revolves around protagonist Terra Brandford, a young girls who the Gestahlian Empire raised and controlled. After being freed from the evil empire control, she sets out on a long journey meeting new heros/heroes and villains. The protagonist will change from time to time as progress. The character development is one of the deepest in the series. That is saying a lot by various standards. This is one of Final Fantasy's best. The story keeps you on your feet, rather intriguing. Some retranslation may confuse long time gamers but overall, this area is a "masterpiece".
The gameplay in FFVI: Advance is your typical turn base role-playing-game. The Active Time Battle (ATB) engine is implemented here. You wait until your bars is filled up for a turn to act. The character with the highest in speed stats will usually have a chance to attack first. It is pretty standard and easy to use for new/old gamers. Another ups about the game play is that every characters have their own special ability making them unique. "Blitz" for instant is a move of combination. Like a fighting game, you enter buttons combination to do a combo. Here is almost the exact scenario except you enter the combination to designate a move. Blitz is just one of the many special abilities that each character possesses.
The game isn't really very difficult but will punish you if you don't level up regularly. Throughout the game, espers (summons) can be obtain. Each espers have there own skills to direct stat increase. Having a certain esper equip will decide how your stat will be raised. Not only that the espers is a factor to stat increasing but they will also decide which magic you characters can use. Play your cards right and every character can have a max stat + all access to magic. Customization from FFVI can still stand toe to toe with some of the top role-playing of today. The characters here are all unique so they won't get tedious as you use them. Built a team of your style but compiling characters combination that you think works best.
Some of Nobuo Uematsu most memorable work lies in Final Fantasy VI. However, with the GBA speaker's quality, the sound of some track had to be "watered" down from the original unfortunately. Nevertheless, the music and sound is still a masterpiece here. Although I did find some track in there that sounded better such as the final dungeon. Either that or my imagination is running wild. Some of the greatest tracks in Final Fantasy history lies in VI. It is just a shame that downgrading the quality was mandatory with the technical limitation.
The graphic is just like how you have remembered it in the SNES days. At it's time, it was mind blowing, gorgeous, high tech. Now it is remembered as retro, classic and beautiful. The game looks great on the GBA. The spirit is well done and the color pixels is marvelous. It wouldn't pass as a console in today obviously but it sure does here one the GBA... classic. It looked good then and looks good now. Some noticeable slowdown are here but not many of it. Excellent spirit and superb use of art.
There is also some bonus material package with advance. You get a monster bestiary and a music player. If that is not enough, you also get an extra dungeon and espers that are not found in the original. Pretty interesting bonus and definitely a treat from Square-Enix for long time fan. The translation also had an overhaul so don't be surprised to see some renamed monsters. It is reasonable amount for a typical role -playing. Cure 2 is now Cura, fire 2 is now fira and so on matching the translation from the current of the series.
If you are looking for a good turn-base or rpg in general, Final Fantasy VI: Advance is a great option and it should be missed out on for any reason if you own a Gameboy Advance or DS system. Don't let the look fool you and play this game especially if you haven't already played the previous versions. This is one of if not "The Best" FF game out there. This game will run you about $30 in most retailers and for that price you are getting a lot for your bucks.
Prositives: Bonus materials, Fresh translations, Great replay value
Negatives: Audio downgrade