I bought this game in 2001... and my jaw still dropped with amazement.
User Rating: 9.8 | Final Fantasy VI SNES
From the second you pop in the cartridge, till you slay the final boss, every thing in this game looks, sounds, and feels so amazing. With a superbly written story that drives emotion into every twist. Which there are many shocking surprises throughout the game, one deeply troubling moment still stands as the best plot twist of all time (for me). FFIII, in my mind, has the best character development out of any other title ever made. There are very few games that can master the technique of attaching people to characters to the point where you'll actually feel sad if they die. Most importantly, the characterization of the main antagonist, Kefka, is done so well that you will, I really mean will end up hating this coward with pure passion. The cinematics also pull the story together quite perfectly, with intense, orchestrated music, affects and even camera techniques that had never been put into any 2d game before. The battle system for FFIII is practically the same almost turn based system you've witnessed up until FFX, minus the limit break. It's almost unfathomable how many animations each character has in all the battle situations (attacks, magic spells, summons, or spells cast upon the character). One innovative feature of the battles is the implementation of espers. Their background and nature is explained in the story, so I won't go into detail, but basically espers release a piece of magicite when they die, and your party collects these pieces of magicite, each piece will give your character the chance to summon that esper to unleash its attack or effect, they can raise certain ability levels for your character, and certain espers will teach your character how to perform specific magic spells the longer they are equipped. However; the most innovative feature the battles impose, are each character’s special...uh, thing. See, each character has some fighting style about them that makes them stand out, and ultimately makes every character unique in their own way. There are just the most innovative fighting techniques you can think of at times, like Gau's ability to jump onto enemies and then later returning to your party, having learned all the attacks that were used on your party in his absence; another example would be Sabin's Blitz command, which allows you to push the button sequence for the move you want to perform at that time. Those are just a couple examples, there's a different fighting style for all 14 playable characters that you'll obtain. Don't get me started with the presentation of FFIII, it's perfectly crafted backgrounds, characters, affects, and animations are the most jaw dropping out of any SNES RPG produced at it's time, and even after its time (With the exception of Chrono Trigger, also made by Square Soft). This is a title that was so far ahead of the graphical standards for RPGs. My reactions I'd say are the same when it comes to the immaculately produced music that has rarely been matched by games of the next generation. Giving the deepest emotion to every seen, every battle, and every moment through out the entire game, you will almost never hear yourself saying, " Awwww man, not this song again." Instead you'll find yourself humming along happily. The only gripe of this game would be that it's an RPG, so its replay value isn't anything to talk about, but with all the secrets hidden deep with in you're almost bound to play the game over again, searching for the best weapons, all the party members, the 7 dragons (later in the story), all the espers, and the rarest items. FFIII is a memorable game with many admirable qualities. If your one of those people who's loved the series since Final Fantasy VII, then you won't want to miss FFIII. Really, this game's for everyone now that I think about it, even casual gamers will be pulled into FFIII's deep story and awesome action.
