The more talented older brother that Final Fantasy VII will always be jealous of. "FF6! FF6! FF6! Always FF6!"
Few games have stolen my black-heart the way Final Fantasy VI has. With a cast of characters as memorable as any role playing game ever made and a story to match them, it's no wonder I loved this game. Each character has their own special ability and all are pretty useful in their own ways. Some more than others, but oh well. This game has the largest variety of summons spells (Espers) I can recall any FF having, but they're much more useful in FF6 than they are in the others. In FF6, your espers are how you learn your magic and since there's a boatload of espers, you know what to expect as far as magic spells go. As far as the battle system goes, you pretty much know whatto expect whether you've played previous Final Fantasys or once released since FF6. It's that same turn-based goodness...I just prefer it more in this game's case, because every character has their own unique abilities, as mentioned before. There are a ton of things to do on the side. Whether it's hunting down the best weapons, learning all of Gau's hundreds of Rage techniques, or gathering all of the espers, you're not gonna run out of things to do for some time. If those three aren't your cup of tea, you could always just see an opera or throw away your hard-earned gil at the auction house. You get the point, don't you? There's a ton of **** to do in FFVI. More than any Final Fantasy to date. Oh. And in closing for this particular section, I would just like to say that Edgar is a pimp. The best character in the game. When you play it, name him either Brett or Sol. I'd appreciate it. :-)
Visuals
There's only one department where FF7 outshines it's predecessor and that's visually. But when you consider that FF6 is a SNES game and FF7 didn't even look good for a Playstation game, that's easily made up for. There's not really anything special about FF6 visually. The spells are nice-looking for their time and the backgrounds are up to a much higher standard than its characters. I hate FF sprites. They're the most annoying of all sprites, but still...for it's time, it looked as good as anything (Other than Chrono Trigger and Star Ocean) that Immediately springs to mind.
Sound
Final Fantasy VIII had what I consider the greatest videogame soundtrack of all-time and Final Fantasy VI ain't too far behind. What's my personal favorite you ask? Definitely "Coin Song." One of the more beautiful songs I've ever heard on the SNES. Great in the sound department as FFs tend to be.
Value
Tons of replay value if you're a fan of old school role players. As far as monetary value is concerned...a second mortgage on your house. Luckily, you shouldn't have to pay that much. You could always opt for the PS1 remake though.