Final Fantasy VI is an extremely fun and enjoyable game, and an unmissable experience
(NOTE: this game will be refered with its real number, VI, instead of the american III. However, due to my lack of experience with V, the comparissons, will be made with IV)
GRAPHICS:
Games on the SNES and Genesis generaly hold up pretty well nowadays, since they feature colorfull sprites and nicely detailed backgrounds. And VI is no different. In fact, it is also deserves a lot of credit for featuring animated sprites for the characters. They can waggle fingers, blink, and all sorts of things that make them extremely expressive. One downside of this specific game, unfortunately, is that it uses the Mode-7 graphics to render somethings, and it looks really bad nowadays, such as some first person scenes which are ridiculously pixelated. The good side is that these scenes are few and far between. 4/5
SOUND:
The music of the series is great. The music in the SNES is great, and often considered to be some of the best on the respective series. And, once again, VI is no different. The music in this game is amazing, featuring more organic themes in comparisson to its predecessor, such as the amazing overworld theme (the first one). Boss battles and regular battles are also great sounding. The music also helps to create some of the most memorable scenes in the game, such as the opera scene, which's music helps to create a great mood. One other thing that is also really neat is that this game contains the first instance of voice acting, as the villain Kefka has a laugh, that is so silly that is just awesome. 5/5
STORY:
The story in this game resolves around a group of revolutionaries, who wants to stop the Empire to recreate a war that happened a thousand years ago, which resulted in the extinction of magic. The Empire want powers from the Espers (the summons of the game), so they can rule the world.
While the story itself may not ring as original or anything like that, it is an incredibly solid plot, mostly due to the incredibly strong cast of characters we have. Terra, the mysterious girl with amnesia; the "treasure hunter" Locke; the young king of Figaro, Edgar and his bodybuilder brother Sabin and so on. These characters have so much personality, and are so diffferent from one another, that they compliment themselves perfectly. Also really great is that, despite there being about 16 playable characters (besides the optionals), they are all developed and have backstories to them, which makes them complete characters. The story is also interesting in the way it progresses, as, while the is the overall objective of defeat the empire, all the towns have some kind of story to themselves, which makes them more unique.
The main villain of the game, the clown/jester Kefka, is considered to be one of the best ones ever on the series, and I have to admit, he really is awesome. Between his awesome laugh, he is simple an awful human being, and carries ou his will regardless of what anyones else thinks. He fits as a villain, even if he isn't that compelling of a character; he still is a lot of fun to watch. 5/5
GAMEPLAY:
The game is an active time-based RPG. Your party consists of 4 characters, which you can choose for the most part, but the game locks you to certain parties at times, but it nevers gets unbalanced.
Characters all have some kind of special ability to their own. Edgar can use tools, Sabin can use Blitzes (which are special moves with button inputs), Gau can learn physical abilities from enemies, Strago the magical ones, and so one. And for the most part, they are usefull on their own rights; some are situational, like Celes' Runic, which absorvs magic, while some are pretty useless, like Relm's Sketch, which copies an enemy ability and uses it against it, but since enemies normaly resists the attacks they use, it isn't that good.
But after a certain point of the game, you gain access to this game's summons, the Espers, who were killed and turned into Magicite, which is basicaly them in crystal form. Your party can equip them and learn their abilities, like Fire, Bolt, Ice, Cure and so on. And it is a really cool way to do so, since you can basicaly give your characters any move you want them to have, giving the game a lot of customiability. Truthfully, there are some really broken spells in this game, like Ultima, which just rapes everything, but you can choose not to use them if you don't want, and they still are fun to use, seeing the enemies and bosses just disentegrating at once. But their inclusion do unbalance the game somewhat, as it gets ridiculously easy if you use it.
Besides the Magicite, your characters also have equipment. While weapons and armor are pretty standard, this game's "accessories", called Relics, give a little more flare to your characters. Some make you able to equip two weapons, others attack twite in a turn. And so, they once again can make the game really easy if you abuse it, but are still fun to poke around.
The battles use the same active time based on IV, the only difference being that there are only 4 characters in the party, instead of 5. Since all your characters have some different kind of ability, the battles are normaly quite different to one another, and are always fun to do, specially since they are so fast paced. Even the random encounters can prove a challenge, since some enemies can get you off guard, and the bosses are the same thing, since they can pack quite a punch if you are not ready, but aproaching them with caution is the key to success, and even the final boss can be easy if you know what you are doing. Oh, and just as a side note, the random encounter rate in this game is really high, specially in dungeons, and can get really annoying at times.
The game can be basicaly separated in two segments. Not to spoil much, but the first one is more linear, with you getting your party together to fight the empire, and the second one is to regroup your characters after an apocalypse. It is pretty easy to say that the first part is more straightforwad and storyheavy, and the seond one if much more nonlinear, as you can do just a few things and go to the final area. An unfortunate aspect is that the second part has much more unbalanced difficulty, and a beginner will have problems in his first playthough. Despite that, it is neat to get the characters back again, and exploring what is basicaly a new world is really cool.
So, in the end, we have a really fun game with lots of customiability, and it last for a while, since a first playthough can take about 30 hours, and there is replay value since you can play the game again experimenting with different parties. Even with an unbalanced difficulty on the second half, it still never gets boring, and is always entertaining. 5/5
OVERALL:
Final Fantasy VI is one of the best 16-bit RPGs you can find, and that is saying something. It is extremely fun to play, and the story and the characters are highly memorable. There is no reason an RPG fan should skip this game.
The good:
-Great graphics
-Outstanding soundtrack and sound effects
-Story is entertaining
-Characters are memorable and well developed
-Battles are fun and fast paced
-Lots of customiability, which heightens the replay value
The bad:
-Mode-7 graphics look really bad nowadays
-Second half isn't as fucused