Possibly the best way to say good bye to the GBA.
This game though is very excellent. The story isn't exactly the most gripping thing, and it in fact does feel a bit cliche, but for the most part, the main attraction is how the story was directed and how it heavily relied on the huge cast of characters.
The story focuses on the War of the Magi, or well the aftermath of the war that ended a thousand years ago, which ruined the world. Yet another oppressive empire is after magi-tek power [magical infused powers from summons called espers] yet the last ones who did this, destroyed the world. So The Empire is coming dangerously close to repeating a senseless and deadly mistake.
An interesting thing to note that is introduced in this game, is that it features an ensemble cast, meaning that there is no lead character. While the other games featured a strong protagonist who where the story seemed to center around him, this game started off with a female protagonist named Terra, but that only lasted about a few minutes, then the characters shifted and it was something that every character pretty much had a major part in, save maybe the three secret characters in the game.
It's also notable to the story is that it features one of the best villains of all time. Kefka is a villain that honestly: I hate. I hated Kefka's guts, and that proves that what a great bad-guy he is. He has no regard for human life, will do whatever he wants for power, and is just a horrible man, with a twisted agenda. He doesn't exactly have much depth or back story but if you look for it, you can find, he is a really well fleshed out villain, not just someone who was thrown in at the last minute. Kefka takes just as much spotlight as the characters do.
The story does have alot of great plot-twists, so the over-all thing does feel a bit done before, but the way the story was directed and executed shows other wise. It may take a good few hours, but once you get into it, the story kicks in, and it has one of the most shocking climax's ever. What you saw in the first half of the game, is completely different in the second half.
The game play for it's time was pretty revolutionary as you can see how it shaped future Final Fantasy games. It has the ATB system introduced in part IV, with the addition of an Esper system. When a character equips an Esper he can learn their magic. While the system is very tedious and does require quite a bit of management for it's time it was pretty good. Yet each character has their own set abilities and personality traits, so not every character turns out exactly the same. Yet because of how powerful and reliable the high healing and Ultima spells are, you most likely are going to want to teach that to all the characters.
The random encounter rate is pretty tedious but compared to part IV or part V it is an improvement, yet at times it feels very tedious. The difficulty feels just right. The enemies are challenging and the bosses put up quite a fight if you are not prepared. Yet the more you level the easier the game gets, but I feel it was balanced just right. No boss is ever a pushover and the game just felt balanced. It wasn't too easy and it wasn't too hard. A certain degree of preparation and strategy was required to win.
Also it's worth noting, once you beat the game, you can save it on a cleared file which lets you go back to just before you fought the final boss and revisit the world and explore a hidden dungeon or even complete the game 100% if you wanted to. Unfortunately there is no New Game + mode though.
If you just complete the game, do a few of the side quests, the game can take about 15-20 hours. Though the game is loaded with content and things to do, so those who are completionists and want to do the two extra dungeons, can easily more, much more than that.
So all and all Final Fantasy VI advance is a great RPG, and a great way to say good bye to the Game Boy Advance. If you were a fan of the original or just want a good challenging RPG, pick it up. If you started at Final Fantasy VII, it is defiantly worth checking this one at, so you can easily see where they got the original ideas for that game. It's accessible to old schoolers and new players alike.