Final Fantasy VI has always been one of my favorite games of all time. I hadn’t played FInal Fantasy VI in many years so when I bought the remastered collection I was curious if in 2023 it was still the masterpiece I remembered or did I have nostalgia goggles on. Let me tell you even though I had the game ranked 9th on my all time favorite games list, I was surprised of how I would feel in this playthrough.

The three things I remembered loving specifically was the characters, the story, and the music so I will start there.

Obviously in this story section there will be some 30 year old spoilers, but regardless huge SPOILER WARNING from here on out.

When I was younger I understood that the story was riddled with sadness and tragedy but I don’t think I fully grasped the true meaning and impact throughout the game. To me it was a game that while I understood some of the tragedies and sadness I just thought of it as heroes doing what they had to do to stop an evil in a war. But really it is much more of the characters inner battles with the tragedies in their own life. It’s after being completely broken to find the courage to put themselves back together, find hope, trust in friends, lean on and be there for those friend, and fight for themselves and others so that they could put the world itself back together and help people find hope. The game is simply about loss and pushing through life after loss.

I’m going to dive into the story much more than I normally would so I can explain the characters and what makes the story so special to me.

We spend the first half of the game as a groups of oppressed people from all over the world fighting against the evil Empire led by Emperor Ghastal and his two right hand men General Leo and Kefka. In a world where there is no magic the empire has learned not only to use it but can also infuse it through machines. Later on in the game we find out there is a mysterious race known as the Espers that sealed themselves off from the human world. Espers are where magic comes from in this universe. The Empire had been draining the life out of some Espers they managed to capture before the Espers sealed themselves away from humans and in turn used them to infuse their leaders and magitech armor with magic. Our group befriends some of the Espers and hope with their help they can stop the Empire. The empire sets up a way to trick the Espers, kill many of them, and steal their power. Kefka uses this power and the power of the gods to turn on Emperor Ghastal to take the world for himself. While Ghastal wanted to rule the world Kefka just wanted to destroy everything. Kefka did what no other villain I can think of does. He achieves every goal he sets out to do, including destroying the world as you know it while killing most of the population and leaving the survivors helpless. Now the heroes are scattered throughout this new wasteland of a world.

That is a very loose version of the first half of the story but it hits enough of the points I need to explain what makes this game special.

Every character goes through tremendous growth and the game uses this helplessness to achieve its goal of showing the power of hope, love, and picking yourself up and pushing on.

Terra is the only half esper half human in this world. When the Empire originally found the Espers before the seal was set Emperor Ghastal killed Terra’s human mother and captured he Esper father and stole Terra at the age of two to train her to be a weapon for the empire. Being that she was half Esper Terra was the only human that could use magic naturally with this power Ghastal knew he had a weapon that no one could stand up against. Terra was being controlled by a device that made her basically dead to the world and to only take orders from the Empire until she was rescued in Narshe when the game begins when she is 18 years old. Throughout the games, before even knowing she is half Esper, struggles to relate or fit in anywhere as she has basically been a mindless drone for 18 years. When she finds out about her being half Esper she feels even more alone. She stuggles to feel human or Esper and wonders if she is even capable of being or feeling loved. After Kefka ended the world she finds herself in a village where all the adults are dead. There are only a handful of young children and two teen lovers that are pregnant. She becomes their protector and eventually they even call her mama. She finds love for the first time in her life but loses the will to fight because she wants to be there for her newly found kids. She eventually realizes that she is capable of not only being loved but also loving. She realizes she had that with her friends she’s met along the way as well as with these kids and even though she lost the will to fight she must so they and her can all have a future in this world.

Locke is a man whose parents died when he was a young age and had to resort to becoming a thief. He later met Rachel and they began a relationship against Rachel’s father wishes due to Locke being a thief. Locke took Rachel to a cave and promised to protect her as they looked for a treasure. While on an old bridge that Locke was standing on gave out Rachel jumped onto it to push Locke off resulting in her falling and going into a coma. Locke brought her back to town where she awoke but had no memory and was uneasy of him. Rachel’s father told him to leave town. Not too long after she began to regain her memory but unfortunately the town she was in was attacked by the empire. Rachel died and her last word were Locke I love you. Locke couldn’t forgive himself for saying he promised to protect her only for her to go into a coma and then not being there to save her when the Empire attacked. Locke tells Terra and Celes (we will get to her soon) that he will protect them many times throughout the game in an attempt to right what he feels like was a wrong with Rachel. He finds away through the Esper Phoenix to bring Rachel back but only for a moment. She tells him to forgive himself and forge ahead.

Edgar and Sabin Figaro were the princes of Figaro. When they were young their father was poisoned by the empire leaving one of them to become king. Neither were ready and they were grieving their father. Sabin asked Edgar if he wanted to just run away from the kingdom together and be free. Edgar told him that someone needed to protect the people his father died to protect and told him they would flip a coin. If it landed on heads Edgar would stay and tails Sabin would stay and the other could have their freedom. Edgar wanted his younger brother to be free from the burden and used a double sided coin to ensure that Sabin would have that freedom. Edgar was forced into the roll of a king and had to forge and alliance with the same empire that killed his father to protect the people of Figaro. Sabin’s freedom came at the cost of feeling like he let his brother down and ran from his problems even though it’s later revealed he was training to become stronger so he could come back and protect his brother from any threats. Not only did they lose their father but in a way they lost each other.

Gau’s mother passed away while giving birth to him causing his father to go insane. He blamed Gau for his wife’s passing. He believe Gau was a demon that killed his wife and was no better than the monsters that have been plague on this world. He decided to not only abandoned Gau at an early age but he threw him into the Veldt. This is a place where only monsters roam. Gau found a way to survive but with no interaction from humans he became a “Tarzan” type of human.

Cyan was the strongest warrior in all of Doma but when the river around Doma Castle was poisoned by Kefka he was unable to use his power to save his people, his king, his wife, or his young son. He’s powerless as he watches their souls leave on a phantom train. He blames himself and doesn’t grieve properly leading to a demon that feed on sadness actually feeding on his soul.

Shadow has a criminal past of stealing and assassinations with his best friend Barim. He is willing to be an assassin under any assignment if the price is right. One time Barim was injured so badly he couldn’t move. Shadow tries to move him but with the Empire after them Barim tells Shadow to leave without him but to mercy kill him so that he isn’t tortured or enslaved. Shadow can’t bring himself to kill his own friend says sorry and runs off. Trying to start a new life he falls in love and settles down in Thamasa a small quiet town far away from every other city. In fear of his enemies catching up to him and harming his family he feels forced to leave his wife and baby daughter Relm behind. He believes the only way for him to live is by being alone. He even says at one point “There are people in this world that have have chosen to kill off their emotions.” Years later during the events of the game every time Shadow is around Relm they show Shadow physical uncomfortable or unable to look directly at her. He loves his daughter but won’t put her in harms way. He constantly has nightmares about Barim and leaving his family behind.

Celes was a general in the empire’s army that was infused with magic from an Esper. When Locke finds her she is being beaten by Imperial troops that says she was a traitor (we never find out what she did) and her execution date is set for the following day. Locke without hesitation saves her and tells her he will protect her. Celes is confused by this as she has always just been used by people for her magic and prowess on the battlefield. She has never been cared for or treated in this manner. She and Locke fall for each other throughout the game. But at first Celes has a hard time believing anyone could love her. Especially after being a general in the army and all of the bad things she had been a part of. The opera scene is one of the best moments in the game as her lines are for the opera but they are exactly how Celes feels about her new found feelings for Locke. “I'm the darkness, you're the stars. Our love is brighter than the sun.
For eternity, for me there can be, Only you, my chosen one.” She is the darkness and Locke is the light.

Now that we have some background on the main core of the cast, you can see they have clearly been through a lot. Now add on the fact that they went from being so close to winning a war against the empire only for Kefka to destroy the world. The villain has won and our heroes failed.

After Kefka destruction we come back to a completely ravanged planet with little population, little plant life, little hope, and a lot tougher monsters roaming. We take the role of Celes who wakes up out of a coma after one year due to her injuries. She wakes to the news that the world was in fact destroyed, she is on an island, and only her and Cid (a “granddad to Celes from her time with the Empire) are left on this island. She learns that CID is sick. There is a path you can take where Cid lives or a path where he dies based on your decision making. While the plot moves on if you save him and that is the happier route the death route really fits the tone of the game and gives you one of the best scenes in the game. If he dies Celes will give up and run to the highest cliff on the island and attempt to commit suicide. As tears fly from her face as she is falling off the cliff you can’t help but 1.) Obviously be depressed but more importantly 2.) will immediately make of you think of the opera scene. Here is the rest of the lyrics from the opera scene that Celes sings. Oh my hero, so far away now. “Will I ever see your smile? Love goes away, like night into day. It's just a fading dream. I'm the darkness, you're the stars. Our love is brighter than the sun. For eternity, for me there can be, Only you, my chosen one... Must I forget you? Our solemn promise? Will autumn take the place of spring? What shall I do? I'm lost without you. Speak to me once more! We must part now, my life goes on. But my heart won't give you up. Ere I walk away, let me hear you say, I meant as much to you... So gently, you touched my heart. I will be forever yours. Come what may, I won't age a day, I'll wait for you, always...” Again clearly this is about her and Locke. In the opera when she says the last line she throws flowers off the top of the castle. The castle at the stage at the opera is in the same focus as the cliff is during her suicide attempt and he body falls in the same way as the flowers that were thrown off the edge. Luckily Celes attempt fails and she is washed back up onto the beach. When she washes up there is a bird who had been injured. Its wing is tied up with Locke’s signature bandana. Celes immediately picks herself up, finds a way to carry on and find Locke and her friends. She boards a raft and sets out with hope that some of them are still out there.

Of course eventually the crew is back together.
Terra finds love and the courage to fight again with the hope that one day her adopted children will live in a safe world. Locke finally comes to grips with the loss of Rachel and forgives himself for his mistakes. He continues his promise to keep his promise to protect his friends and follow his heart and love again with Celes. Celes finds she isn’t just a war machine and lets herself fall in love with Locke. Edgar and Sabin reunite as brothers that would die for each other. Gau meets his father who still believe he is a demon. Gau has the most mature response saying he’s just glad his father is alive. Gau is ok because he now has a big family of friends. Cyan has the demon removed from him with the help of his friends and lets go of the grief and guiltiness of his families death. He decides to live life to his fullest while carrying his family inside of him. Shadow for the first time in his life is doing the right thing because it was the right thing without being paid.

But to counter all this hope and love there is arguably the best written character not just in the game but in all of Final Fantasy, Kefka. We don’t know much about Kefka before the events of the game. We aren’t sure if he’s always been a nihilistic psychopath or if he was normal at some point. What we do know is he was the first person to ever be endured with Esper Magic. It’s possible with him being the first test subject that could play a role in his behavior but that is speculation. What we do know is he is a maniac and a true problem that is clearly a big threat from the very beginning. Even though he was only Ghestals right hand man it always seemed like he was going to be the one to watch. The game does a great job of making you see his atrocities and making you fight him several times to keep him fresh in you mind. Thought the game we see Kefka burn a city to the ground, cowardly poisoning Doma, killing Espers just to gain power, manipulating everyone allies and enemies, killing his two biggest allies, and literally destroying the world. Like I said earlier he literally achieves everything he set out to do. By the time you fight him you want to help the heroes kill him.

When you fight him at the end he truly thinks he is right. He asks why the heroes continue to fight in a world with no hope. The heroes all give their own answers and say humans will always love, survive and rebuild. Kefka can’t understand this thinking. He knows every building eventually falls apart, every one eventually dies and wonders why humans hang on to stuff they know won’t last. Kefka being the nihilist he is has grown tired of the world he created as there is nothing left to destroy. Side note Kefka also has some of the best creepy quotes of all time.

Once the heroes inevitability beat Kefka they have to escape as Kefkas tower falls apart. This is where the credit begin and we see the gang working together to get out. Before we get to the happy stuff there is one realistic sad part to the ending. Shadow splits off from the group believing he has done to much bad in this world and feeling by stopping Kefka he may have atoned for his sins he decides the world doesn’t need someone like him in it and allows the tower to come down with him in it. As a kid I hated that he stayed behind. It’s an emotional depressing moment but as an adult it felt all too real. As for the rest of the group they get away on their air ship and see people rebuilding buildings, planting flowers and trees, and living their lives with a new found hope.

To me this is arguably the greatest story in all of video games. For a game from 1994 to have teen pregnancy, assassinations, a woman getting beat, the world ending, a nihilistic maniac, with a story of loss and hope was beyond ambitious. I loved it as a kid but appreciate it much more as an adult who has experienced much more sadness than younger me.

Every.track.is.AMAZING! Each character has their own track as well as a melancholy version of the same track. All locations have their own track. It has one of my top 5 OSTs of all time with my favorite song being Kefkas Final Boss track Dancing Mad. I also love that in the credits they did something subtle but awesome. They play a different arrangement of each characters songs. They do Relm and her song blends in almost as an opening for her father Shadows song. Celes and Locke’s songs harmonize with each other. It’s just another great touch to this game.

The pixel art is about as good as you are going to get for a SNES game. I love that they matched some relationships with color pallets like Edgar and Sabin matching as well as Relm and her adopted grandfather Strago both donning red.

The gamplay is, well, what you would expect from an old school Final Fantasy game. I do like the streamlined the battles. Cyans Bushido is no longer a waiting game to get the attack you want you just pick it and it goes. Sabins Blitz shows you the input so you didn’t have to memorize every blitz.

There are a few minor flaws in this game. One is that while each character has their own unique class that is valuable in the early game by end game everyone is pretty much just using the best magic spells making class irrelevant. My only other problem is while the core characters get fleshed out so well there are handful of optional characters that we know almost nothing about.

If you are a fan of JRPGs at all this is a must play although I’m sure most JRPGs fans already have. All in all with my new understanding of the story as well as the streamlined battles this game is an absolute master class of the medium and has moved from 9th on my all time list to somewhere near the very top. I’ll need a day or two to really think hard on where it need to be. I know I’m not the best writer in the world I’m just a person that loves video games and if you read this far thank you.

I originally played Final Fantasy VI on an emulator when I was like 12 years old. I got up to the opera house segment and hard bounced off, probably thinking something along the lines of "this is stupid when do I get to fight more monsters." Now, over a decade later and having played hundreds of games since then I've returned to FFVI only to find out the parts where you're not fighting monsters are the best bits!

The first half of FFVI is filled with so many unique events and setpieces that sometimes I was actually bummed out when they wanted me to fight some enemies. Not because the combat is bad, far from it, but because all the other stuff is so unique for a JRPG from this time. There's just so many interesting bits with hardly any combat - the aforementioned opera house segment, the part where your party splits up and you have to sneak around as Locke, the dinner party, and I could go on. This is without even mentioning the amount of variability each scene has depending on who's in your party. I think these sections are the reason that people remember this game so fondly, and why it still feels fresh even almost 30 years later.

The second half of FFVI is not the generation defining experience that the first half is, but it's still pretty good. Stripping back the story to its barest essentials allows the gameplay to breathe in a way it hadn't had the chance to in the bombastic first half of the game. It was here that I grew to appreciate the Magicite system to its fullest. The combination of Magicite and relics along with the wide array of party members to choose from really allows you to tweak your party to a level almost as satisfying as the job system from FFV, and that's a huge compliment because the job system owns my soul. I also really appreciate how many dungeons in this half of the game have a little gimmick to make them more interesting, even if some of those gimmicks suck.

As I started getting into JRPGs in the last few years and began looking around the internet for suggestions, there was one game that consistently kept coming up as one of the all-time greats. I knew that I had to play it one of these days, just to see if it matched up to the almost legendary status that surrounds it.

Since this was my first time playing FF6, I tried to keep my expectations in check as much as I could. Up until this point, I had played a handful of the other FF games, and I was excited to experience this game for the first time. All in all, I feel like FF6 managed to impress me in a number of ways, but there were some aspects that left me wanting more.

I think this game's strongest asset is its writing. The decision to forgo one main character and to instead focus on a larger party was one that, in my opinion, worked really well. I feel like games with large character rosters can often feel overstuffed, and they almost always end up focusing too much on a few characters while leaving others out on the margins. FF6 did a wonderful job of giving most of the cast time to shine and by the end I felt a lot more connected to the party than I thought I would.

The music was another high point for me - the main theme and overworld music have been stuck in my head for days now, which is a testament to just how good the music is. The opera scene in particular was excellent, and I loved the inclusion of recorded English lines for that section of the game.

Where I felt the game was lacking was in its pacing, particularly in the final 1/3 of the game. It seemed like, at a certain point, we were hurdling towards the end/the final boss battle, and it felt like there was more room to flesh out the plot and characters a bit more. While I thought Kefka was a great antagonist, the rapid pace of the final act didn't allow him to really shine as much as I would've liked, although he still ranks as one of the better video game villains in my book.

FF6 is a great game, no doubt about it. I had a similar experience with FF7 where I think I let the reputation and mythos of the game cloud my experience, and I went in with sky high expectations that were impossible to meet. I tried not to do that here with FF6, but I think some of those expectations still managed to slip through the cracks. I really enjoyed my time with it, and I think I'll do another play-through somewhere down the road when I've had some more time to digest it.

Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI might be the perfect video game trilogy. Final Fantasy IV introduces a large cast of characters with a powerful, emotional story while still being pretty strict in terms of character customization. Final Fantasy V returns to a much smaller cast, but refines the job system from III into what might be the best gameplay in the franchise in terms of how free you are to do as you like. Final Fantasy VI combines the best of both worlds: A large, rich cast and a powerful plot, and just enough customization that characters do not lose their identity but still allowing for the player to break the game wide open. Final Fantasy VI is the quintessential JRPG experience.

I think the key standout point in FFVI is that there is always something going on. Each set piece in the story has some unique gimmick that makes it memorable in the plot, and very rarely (though it does still happen) are you in generic cave or generic mountain as part of the plot. It really feels like they doubled-down on the feeling of "adventure".

As I mentioned previously, FFVI also features a pretty robust "esper" system. Every character has their innate abilities (Locke can steal, Sabin can do fighting game inputs for special attacks, Strago is a blue mage, etc.) but on top of that, each character can equip an esper (a summon). Each esper comes with a list of spells that can be earned through winning battles, and so each party member can learn whichever spells they see fit. This is a good compromise from the job system in 3/5, because I didn't really feel like any of them stood out in those games because anyone could do the same things.

There's really a lot to love about FFVI. For everything I already knew about going in (because FFXIV can't go five minutes without referencing VI), there was still tons more yet to be discovered. It was the first of the classic FF games where I really set out to do as much of the optional stuff as I reasonably could. The story, cast, music, and exploration are all wonderful and it's easy to see why this is one of the most beloved in the franchise.

Has some of the best set pieces I have ever seen in a JRPG, or in an FF game. The opera house segment was really unexpected, and Zozo is one of the most memorable areas ever.
I felt the game lose a bit of steam near the end of the first half, especially since I got my ass beat up badly in the Flying Continent, but the second half is where the game really shines.
Having a plethora of side quests and extra playable characters that you can get in any order (mostly) is a breath of fresh air from previous FF titles.
The gameplay was top-notch and a significant step-up from FFV.
My only gripe is that I had to grind a lot for some characters before I attempted the final area, but I guess that just comes with the territory.
The final area is bonkers all the way through, although I spent a solid 10 minutes fighting one of the bosses because of a poorly balanced party.
The final boss was really challenging and I died a couple of times, and I placed the party in the wrong way and had to fight the final final boss with a joke of a party, although they got through just fine.
A JRPG for the ages.

My first completed retro Final Fantasy outside of XIV. Very enjoyable overall, and the plot is a classic (though I'd been heavily spoiled on it, it was still very enjoyable to see it all in-context). Sometimes it felt like the game had a hard time striking a balanced difficulty; usually the game is quite easy, but then you run into enemies that debilitate you before you can finish menuing and everything just falls apart. Music and spritework were phenomenal, and the voxel effects added in some parts of the Pixel Remaster looked fantastic.

Wife’s Reaction:
“Hokay, so… it’s ze end of ze world.”

The Final Final Fantasy:
After many years I’ve finally finished all of the singleplayer Final Fantasy games, and FFVI was a perfect finale. The game has a fun, diverse cast all swept up in a dramatic story filled with plenty of light-hearted moments. FFVI lived up to the hype I’ve heard over the years; I loved it all and just wish I had more time with the characters.

Final Fantasy I - VI: De tropeços a um Espetáculo!

Olha, sinceramente falando não acredito que conseguirei colocar nesse texto tudo que se pode falar dos 6 primeiros Final Fantasy, na verdade eu tenho certeza absoluta disso... Cada um desses jogos poderiam ter vídeos de mais de uma hora apenas dedicados em dessecar tudo o que eles apresentam...

Por conta disso eu pretendo, nessa análise, apenas passar brevemente a minha sensação e experiência com os jogos... Dividindo elas em duas trilogias, a original, composta por FF I, II, e III, e a subsequente, formada por FF IV, V, e VI.

De fato deve dizer que já tinha tido contato, e jogado, diversos jogos dá franquia Final Fantasy, de FF, X, X-2 e XII a Trilogia FF XIII, FF XV, FF VII Remake, também o recém lançado FF XVI... Além de ter jogado algumas horas do FF XIV... Tô na espera por Dawntrail inclusive.

Sim eu conseguia facilmente dizer que era, e sou, fã da franquia, porém não podia afirmar que havia jogado os seis jogos originais... Além de outros, como VII original, Tactics, VIII e IX... E depois de concluir a trilogia Mother, parecia fazer sentido mergulhar de fez nessa franquia e terminar minhas pendências.
Com isso dito, vamos a cada um dos jogos...

- Trilogia Original:

Final Fantasy: O pior livro finalizado é sempre melhor do que o melhor livro escrito pela metade.

Eu ouvi essa afirmação de um escritor amigo meu, e sem entrar em muitos detalhes, de fato concordo com ela... As vezes ideias e franquias brilhantes começaram com obras não tão brilhantes assim... Pois cada passo é um passo... É assim com a grande maioria das obras que conhecemos, óbvio que existem exceções, porém em sua maioria o primeiro jogo de uma franquia, ou de um estúdio, tende a ter coisas a melhorar... Pense que se FF I, e Tes: Arena fossem descontinuados, seja por venderem pouco, ou por não serem tão bons para sua época, não teríamos duas franquias tão espetaculares como temos hoje... Eles precisam apenas existir para que passos maiores fossem fatos depois.

FF I de fato tem seus méritos porém também seus erros, e em geral acaba por ser um jogo interessante, porém que para nesse aspecto... Sua história definitivamente não profunda ou detalhada, porém faz seu pequeno papel... Ao mesmo tempo que seu combate é coerente porém pouco profundo para o que poderia ser naquela época.

Final Fantasy é o primeiro passo, e um primeira passo necessário que me deixou com um gosto bom na boca... mesmo que seus sucessores façam praticamente tudo o que ele faz melhor... Para ele um 7.3/10 ou um 3.5/5...
Um primeiro passo para uma gigantesca franquia.

Final Fantasy II: Castlevania 2, Final Fantasy.

É interessante notar a trajetória parecida dos segundos jogos de muitas franquias antigas... FF II e Castle 2 são dois excelentes exemplos de como ideias novas e boas não necessariamente tornam jogos revolucionários para sua época... Ambos tinham ideias que só retornariam a serem apresentadas em um jogo anos depois.

Dá tranquilamente para afirmar que Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest é o "precursor" do ideal de Metrodvania que veriamos anos depois, assim como FF II carrega consigo muitas coisas que só iriam ocorrer muito tempo depois de seu lançamento, como poder explorar todo o mapa logo no começo do jogo...

Pensando dessa forma até pode parecer que ambos os jogos são bons porém... Ambos são extremamente frustrantes, chatos, e ruins de se jogar... Quebrar a cabeça tentando descobrir como passar de uma parede no Castle 2 ou encontrar uma battle a cada trinta segundos no FF II são coisas extremamente frustrantes, seja pra época em que foram lançados, seja para hoje em dia também...

No final das contas FF II, como eu disse, tem boas ideias, mas boas ideias não fazem um bom jogo, e quando mal aplicadas... Bom, se torna como ambos os jogos citados acima... De fato algumas coisas nesse segundo jogo são interessantes, a trilha sonora é mais sombria, acompanhando a história que também é mais sinistra... Mas isso não apaga o amontoado de coisas frustrantes que esse jogo carrega... Pra ele um bom 4.8/10 ou 2.0/5

Final Fantasy III: O mesmo trajeto do outro lado já visto.

O que dizer de FF III... Ele definitivamente é legal de se jogar, comete, ao menos na minha opinião, erros diferentes do primeiro jogo, o que deixa eles praticamente empatados em minha análise.

Mas ao mesmo tempo é um jogo absurdamente melhor e mais divertido de se jogar do que o segundo... Foi aqui que a escrita da série passou a ser um pouco mais robusta, e ele definitivamente foi o respiro que a franquias necessitava depois do segundo jogo.

No final das contas, Final Fantasy III definitivamente é um jogo que eu não devo me lembrar muito daqui pra frente, mas que tem seu importante papel na caminhada da franquia, pois apresenta coisinhas que se tornariam pequenos clássicos ao logos dos jogos, ele é bom, na medida do possível...

Seu resultado final definitivamente é positivo, e a partir daqui os jogos da franquia passaram por um salto de qualidade é enorme... Pois ao menos para mim, aprenderam exatamente onde deveriam acertar e corrigir... Para FF XIII, um 6.9/10 ou um 3.0

Segunda Trilogia: Clássica Subsequente.

Final Fantasy IV: A Arte de pequenos e grandes paralelos...

Falar de FF IV, ao menos pra mim, é falar sobre paralelos, ideias que referenciam outras ideias, mesmo que com construções originais... É notório que a partir daqui FF passou a ter um outro nível de qualidade, nível esse que... Pelo menos eu espero... (Por favor FF VII, VIII e IX, Sejam Bons)... Só vai cair no Final Fantasy XIII...

A construção de mundo história e personagens passou a ser melhor escrito, mesmo que esses aspectos sejam "simples" comparados aos dias de hoje, é fácil falar que uma evolução pode ser notada aqui.

Como disse acima, FF IV tem muitos paralelos em suas ideias, seja na cultura oriental e ocidental, seja em conceitos religiosos, ou aspectos criados em sua própria narrativa... Realmente eu achei toda a contrução de mundo desse jogo muito interessante, mesmo que no final eu possa dizer que ele têm seus problemas, a partir daqui o saldo dos jogos passou a ser extremamente positivo pra mim... Não mais parando no "bom, mas só bom."

Definitivamente eu consigo dizer que esse jogo é uma experiência que deve ser testada ao menos uma única vez para quem gosta do gênero, pois ele apresenta pontos muito específicos e coesos ao longo de sua campanha... Eu gostei bastante, pra Final Fantasy IV um belo 9.1/10 ou 4.5/10

Final Fantasy V: A simplicidade é uma ótima forma de se mostrar a arte.

Final Fantasy V é simples, sim, é difícil descrever o que sinto com esse jogo... Principalmente pois estamos falando de um gênero onde quanto mais profundo, complexos, e bem trabalhados os seus sistemas são melhor ele é.

É difícil pra mim falar sobre isso, pois ao menos em minha cabeça, jogos como Fallout 4 e Final Fantasy XVI, perdiam pontos em minha análise no geral, muito por conta disso... Mesmo que eu ache ambos os jogos muito bons...

Então ao jogar FF V eu tive que repensar muito do que sabia sobre isso, pois até então, isso que ele apresentou ia contra o que eu acreditava, que construía um bom jogo de role playing...

Ao menos a conclusão que cheguei é que a apresentação de Final Fantasy V beira a perfeição... De fato posso dizer que a construção de seu game design, história, gameplay, trilha sonora, até mesmo design de personagens e arte, são realmente mais simples...

Porém a forma como isso é apresentado ao jogador que torna esse jogo tão bom... Em nenhum momento essa simplicidade incomoda, ao menos nunca fiquei instigado a pensar que seus sistemas deveriam ser mais, pelo contrário, eles são divertidos, instigantes ao demostrar o jogador o quão belo suas pequenas coisas podem ser...

Um caso parecido com isso, ao menos pra mim é The Witcher 3... Sim, TW3... É notório que esse jogo de fato pode ser descrito como um Rpg simplificado, pois não podemos interpretar o Gerald, protagonista, como nós mesmo... Ele já tem uma história definida, um passado, uma personalidade, seus interesses... Até a classe dele nós não podemos mudar... Porém Witcher 3 apresenta seu mundo, suas mecânicas, e principalmente suas histórias de uma forma muito interessante, que me instigou do seu começo ao fim... Assim como Final Fantasy V também o fez da mesma forma.

Definitivamente é inteligente e demonstra que a simplicidade em um RPG não necessariamente é ruim, basta ser bem apresentado e bem aplicado... Acredito que isso seja muito difícil de dar certo, mas aqui ocorreu corretamente... No fim posso até afirmar que isso é uma exceção no que faz um JRpg e um Rpg serem bons... Mas ocorreu mesmo assim.

Sim, eu aconselho muito, para quem gosta do gênero, testarem Final Fantasy V, ao menos para mim ele é muito bom, e um clássico que não pode ser esquecido... Para ele um 9.4/10 ou um 4.5/10... Quase que eu deixei ele na casa das 5 estrelas, mas acabou que não ocorreu.

Final Fantasy VI: A Lágrima Final da Fantasia de um Breve Palhaço.

"Clap... Clap.... Clap... Clap..." Final Fantasy VI não merece palmas... Merece Tocantins inteiro...

Tá bom, tá bom, eu sei que não deveria fazer essa piada horrível, e também deveria começar essa parte de um jeito sério, mas não queria perder a oportunidade...

Agora falando sério mesmo... Que jogo cara, que jogo fantástico que é Final Fantasy VI... Posso descrever essa obra como um espetáculo, é um jogo que é espetacular em praticamente tudo o que se propõem, comete muitos poucos erros e tem pontos positivos muito grandes...

Ao menos para mim, existem dois jogos do gênero JRpg acima dele... Mother 3 e Chrono Trigger, com o segundo citado sendo o melhor dos três... Uma tríade que eu tenho muita dificuldade em pensar que algum jogo possa de fato superar, em algum momento...(Alguns jogos eu acho que podem chegar perto... Cof.. FF VII... Cof... Persona 5... Cof...) Mas que independência disso, devo dizer que esses três jogos são muito bons... Mesmo... Tipo... Espetaculares.

E o interessante é que ambos os três são muito diferentes entre si, seja pela construção de suas obras, seja pelo momento em que foram lançados ou seja pelo o que apresentam, mas todos isso três fazem muito, e de forma muito competente...

Final Fantasy VI é um jogo que, ao menos até aqui, demonstra muita maturidade, sejam em sua trilha sonora, seja na história, e principalmente na gameplay, aspecto esse que eu citei pouco nos outros jogos, exatamente pois queria falar quando chegasse aqui...

Cada um deles foi adicionando uma coisinha que poderia ser icônica na série... FF I deu o primeiro passo, FF II colocou a construção épica da história e os Chocobos, FF III o sistema de Jobs e por aí vai.

E é aqui, nesse jogo, FF VI, em que todas essas coisas estão maduras, e em seu auge... É fantástico ver cada ideia se convergindo em um jogo que, não apenas fez muito sucesso, como também é bastante reconhecido pelo o que é, e por ser tão bom também...

Definitivamente eu fico feliz por dizer que Final Fantasy VI, ao menos até agora é um baita jogo, um dos melhores de todos os tempos, e o meu FF favorito, por enquanto ao menos... Para ele um belo 9.8/10 ou um 5/5.

Os próximos da lista são os jogos subsequentes da série até o XIII, pois dele para frente eu já joguei, também irei testar o Final Fantasy Tactics, que muita gente fala bem... Espero que eu tenha uma boa experiência com todos eles, conhecer o começo da franquia e ver o caminhar dela, mesmo com os tropeços, me deixa feliz... De verdade...

If you are interested in this remaster or you are already playing it, I highly recommend these mods:

SNES Sprites
Old Backgrounds
Pixel Font (Video Tutorial)
Total Madness
FFVI UI Overhaul
Old Menu Portraits
Overworld Mobile Tiles
Pixel Art Button Prompts
SNES Battle Numbers

Will give you the real Final Fantasy VI experience, all mods are from Nexus Mods.

I totally understand why this is the favourite Final Fantasy game of so many people.
It has a really solid story and even better characters (for the most part). I imagine this game was to a lot of people what Bastion was to me, i.e. the revelation that video games can be about more than just having fun.

The best thing about this game is its characters. You have some really great characters like Terra and Cyan, some solid characters like Sabin and some characters that don’t matter all that much but they’re amusing like Gogo.
Unfortunately, there’s also Locke, who is really weird and creepy and please stay away from Celes.
Another thing holding back the characters of this game is that most of the dialogue is happening while your party is entirely flexible and the game doesn’t even try to make the dialogue match the party, it just puts nameless text boxes on screen. Aside from it meaning a lot of opportunities for characterization are lost, I streamed this game for my partners, and we voiced it and it was just really frustrating to not know who should voice a given line.
Speaking of frustrations while trying to voice this game, some of the dialogue boxes scroll on their own (some of them because they’re somewhat timed to animations on-screen, some of them because ¯\(ツ)/¯) and they go way too fast. Even if you’re not trying to read them out loud they might be too fast for you if you’re not super familiar with the language you’re playing this in but fortunately the game is localized in a lot of languages so unless you’re Turkish you’re probably going to be fine.

If you know nothing about this game, you might be thinking “Well it’s cool that the game has a great cast I guess but I’ll probably just end up using the same party for everything”. Wrong!
Even ignoring segments that force you to use specific characters you’ll end up using most of the cast because there are multiple instances of using multiple parties to clear a dungeon. This is such a cool concept; I wish more games did that.
I wish the game would let you switch party members a bit more freely instead of just at the airship but it’s not a big deal.

I should probably talk about the combat a bit. After the fantastic FFV combat, VI was pretty much guaranteed to be a disappointment. And it was, but I was still expecting a bit better than this.
One big issue is that equipping a magicite does nothing at first. You need to actually win a few fights with it equipped to gain the spells it teaches you, so if you notice that your party is lacking something you have to make it through a bunch of combats first. This especially stings if you need someone with a healing spell. In the mid- to lategame, healing spells are pretty much the only viable options for healing because Potions and Hi-Potions heal basically nothing and there’s no readily available potion above them.
Another issue with the way learning spells works is that obviously you’re gonna teach everyone the strongest spells so everyone ends up knowing mostly the same spells so people with mostly useless command abilities end up feeling the same.
The fights themselves are also a pain to get through. Enemies have way too much health and random encounters take way too long. At the same time, way too many enemies have a lot of frustrating status effects and instant death effects.
You will eventually get some kind of broken thing. There are a lot of different broken things which I honestly really appreciate, but they’re often broken to a degree that combat gets completely trivialized and unlike in V where it feels like a reward for figuring out some broken build it just feels like a thing that happened because you played the game enough so it doesn’t really feel satisfying either.
Dishonorable mention to Ultima which is so strong it outclasses even the once per combat Esper summons so you end up with all these cool summons that you never use because Ultima is just strictly better.
Speaking of summons, it’s a bit sad to see that Titan and Leviathan didn’t get to be in this game, especially Leviathan who up to this point was as much of a part of this series’ history as Bahamut to me.

The music in this one is obviously good as always, but I was honestly a bit disappointed. A lot of it was just good and very little of it was great. The Decisive Battle is pretty much the only track that really stuck with me.

In conclusion, if you’re a fan of JRPGs, don’t play this game because it will make you question why other games of the genre don’t let you use most of your characters. Jokes aside, this is an amazing game and you should play it for the Opera scene alone, even if some features of it could have used some more refinement.

I've been meaning to play Final Fantasy VI for a long time, so when I saw the pixel remaster's announcement I knew that it would be how I'd play the game, and I'm glad it was. The music is fantastic (despite not knowing all of the songs from the original) and the pixel art is some of the best I've seen in the game, with some effects looking insanely detailed and realistic.

As for the game itself, I absolutely love it. I previously heard that the story wasn't as crazy as the later final fantasy game, but I still found myself becoming engrossed in the world and characters. I liked Terra and Locke, but Celes in particular stood out to me, which went against my expectations.

As for the gameplay, I found that very enjoyable as well. There's lots of variety in gameplay mechanics spread throughout the many areas, making each area feel unique. Most characters also have their own gimmick, further adding to the gameplay variety. However, some aspects of combat got frustrating, particularly status effects like frozen. It was annoying when everyone became frozen and there was nothing I could do about it besides wait a few minutes.

All in all, I really enjoyed Final Fantasy 6. It's a fantastic experience that RPG fans will be sure to enjoy. I was surprised by how much Square was able to put into an SNES game, and I'd love to see a full-on remake or HD-2D-style game in the future.

FF6 is an interesting game where I have to review it from two angles: from the perspective of a SNES game released in 1994, and of course my own enjoyment in 2023.

Coming from FF5, which is more ambitious in terms of its gameplay systems, FF6 is ambitious, well, everywhere. Graphically it's clearly pushing the SNES to its limits, with complex minigames (for the time), pseudo-3d environments, in-battle dialogue, every character having their own wacky mechanic (granted some of them are watered down jobs from 5 but still), a ridiculously large cast of playable characters with full party customisation, and very wild amounts of freedom late game. Most dungeons feel visually and sometimes even mechanically distinct, and I was quite surprised with how little this game reused its own assets to pad out play time—it rarely feels stale, which is unusual for an older RPG.

In terms of the narrative, good lord is it ahead of its time. It takes the approach of a sprawling epic with an ensemble cast, and somehow manages to do a decent job at giving almost every playable character an arc. There are also a notable amount of side characters that feel decently fleshed out, and the background of the story is more explored than ever, right down to having interactable flashbacks.

I won't go into explicit spoilers, but needless to say the structure of the second 'half' of the game is really unique, and clearly influenced the genre for a long time to come.

Cast-wise, they sort of attempt to give each character focus, but its hard to deny some get more than others, with Terra, Celes, Locke and Edgar being the most prominent. It's especially interesting how Terra tends to represent this game as the protagonist, when Celes ends up being the most central character in the story (and my favourite!). In a sense, Terra does kind of get the short end of the stick with surprisingly limited screen time despite her memorable introduction and relevance to the core plot.

Villains... mostly sucked, honestly, though Kefka is an obvious exception. I found him kind of disappointing at first after all the hype and praise I'd heard from him, but by the end I think I would have to agree he is quite strong, and a very unique villain at the time. The only SNES RPG that I personally found to have a stronger villain was Tales of Phantasia, but even then I wouldn't say it's directly comparable to FF6, as they take a fairly different approach. His motives are simple yet oddly realistic, and I think he could really shine if this game ever got a significant remake (especially after seeing a certain scene in Dissidia).

In terms of twists, I wouldn't say this game really has many compared to say 4, but these days I don't really value plot twists as much as I used to, so I didn't find this to be a problem (especially since the twists in 4 are... questionable to put it nicely).

Now you've probably noticed that I'm slowly sliding more into my general enjoyment of the game, so I think it's about time to get fully into that by going into the aspects that did not age very well for me. One of the two biggest elephants in the room is the obvious downside to having such a sprawling cast in a game that gives you endless freedom with party structure: non-mandatory characters simply aren't allowed to influence the story in the scenes they're in. Even worse, there are a lot of hive mind dialogue boxes said by nobody and everyone at the same time, sending me right back to the FF3 experience—which I think is unacceptable in a game with a much stronger emphasis on narrative and developing distinct characters.

This ends up especially depriving the story of character chemistry, as your party just is not allowed to interact with each other and end up feeling more like a disjointed military unit than an actual ragtag team. At first I don't think it's as much of the issue, as characters are allowed to interact with each other plenty early on, but the further you go through and the more your party expand, the less actual dialogue of value you get. Coming from FF5, which features a ragtag group with surprisingly strong chemistry for a SNES game, along with a lot of unique and fun dynamics, I was more than a little disappointed to see that aspect de prioritised so heavily here. This especially hit me during an optional quest with Gau near the end of the game, which features one of the rare times we're able to see the party's chemistry, and made the lack of it elsewhere all the more disappointing for me.

Another major issue I had was the gameplay—it got old for me fast. The magicite system is neat in theory, but ends up making the party feel extremely homogenous while also butchering the summon mechanic into being mostly useless and situational. Balancing wise, it feels like the game expects you to turn everyone into a magic powerhouse, as individual character abilities become more and more useless unless your name is Sabin or Terra. Most character abilities are also very frontloaded, and you'll generally have most of what they can offer super early on, killing variety as you get further into the game. I also was not a fan of the busy work that many characters expect to get you to build them up, with Gau being the main culprit. Not to mention Strago and Relm are respectively butchered versions of the Blue Mage and Beastmaster jobs from FF5. Overall, I do think the gameplay systems were poorly thought out despite how cool they seem initially, and by the end I had completely lost interest in the gameplay and was abusing boosts/the encounter toggle more than any other pixel remaster.

This isn't to say I think these aspects make the game terrible or something, it's more that FF6 is an undeniably ambitious game that revolutionised the genre (before FF7 came in to do it again), and sometimes it trips under its ambition. It's unfortunate that a lot of newer RPGs take what FF6 forayed into and do it better, as you end up with a bit of Seinfeld Effect while playing it as a modern gamer.

Overall I have to say while I appreciated how impressive this game was for its time, I still came out of it finding FF5 a much more enjoyable experience, as one of the rare old RPGs that made me actively engage in more random battles to experiment with its systems more, along with its significantly better cast chemistry. It's a shame that it generally gets more disrespect in the West for having a deceptively simple exterior and taking a lighter approach to its storytelling.

That being said, I completely understand the love for 6, it's a very special game and there's some stuff that truly stands the test of time: the legendary OST (Dancing Mad is... ??? how did they do this on the SNES???), the gripping premise, a varied ensemble cast that gives (almost) everyone a chance to shine, and one hell of an opera scene.

Overall, this gets a strong recommendation from me for anyone who wants to check out a legendary classic, while being mindful of the time it was released and what the RPG landscape was like back then.

I think this part of Final Fantasy if not the best, but one of the best. Story is full of different events, from some fairy tale, to very depressive, yet one of them can be avoided. This game is a great example for shoving sometimes dark and depressind story with so simple graphics.

Combat is good due to all 14 playable characters. Some of them is unlockable if explore Narsche and location from second part of game. Each character have individual special command, Edgar have mechanical weapons, unbreakable and not consuming anything. Also has a secret with chainsaw in Zozo location. One character here can mimic literally every attack. For example if you want to use summon of some character and want mimic guy(or girl, its unknown) to repeat that attack, just choose character you want to mimic first. Sabin have strong martial arts and even can strike powerful unique atack with ~1/16 rate in critical situation. Shadow has powerful throw attacks, ye he complicated to recruit, but it worth it.

Some optional content also exists here, some magicite, some optional party members. Even some optional bosses.

I have been returning to this game periodically for 2 years, partially completing it. I own 2 steam versions(yes old with shitty graphics) and that pixel remaster. And this game won't maked me to abandon it or disappoint in some way.

So I gonna say that FF 6 is a my personal masterpiece, as a jrpg and just as game.

i first played final fantasy 6 back on the PS1 when i was like, 6 or 7, something like that. could barely get past Mt Koltz when i was that young, if i got that far. like its younger brother FF7, this game has been with me for my whole life. and with the pixel remaster i have FINALLY finished it. what's really remarkable about FF6 by itself however, is just how ahead of its time it was. you compare this to a lot JRPGs today and it still blows them out of the fucking water. the expressive sprites, the fantastic music, the beautiful enemy and esper sprites, and the great characters. admittedly its characters are a little more simplistic than later games in the series, but when you have a cast of 16 characters i think what is produced is astounding. especially seeing as newer games with half the cast (octopath traveller lol) have even more barebones characters with worse writing. (side note, octopath traveller is the worst jrpg i have ever played.) i still kind of cant believe just how good FF6 really is. the entire world of balance is fantastic, it sprouts a huge and interesting world that feels interconnected and personal. i always loved the way Nikeah and South Figaro have a trading route between their ports, and I love that the towns on the outskirts of Vector have been colonised by the empire. there's a real understanding of the towns are neighbours to each other which only arguably FF4 had before it (and even then not to this degree). the flow of the story is great and its set pieces are brilliant. Sabin's route after the returner hideout is genuinely one of my favourite ever video game experiences, and i think the only thing wrong with it is that its not longer or got more to it lmao. it is a whole mini story by itself which is so impressive, and the phantom train is soooo gooood dude. phantom forest is a beautiful piece of music, and the very experience there is weird and fun and interesting, and totally unlike anything else i've ever seen in a game. the games comedic moments between sabin, cyan, and gau are whimsical and delightful. just think about when you recruit gau and have that whole shindig with him, a game like pokemon could NEVER even BEGIN to dream of that kind of stuff. and this game came out in freaking 1994 dude!!!!
i wont go on about the entire world of balance but, needless to say, it is unabashadely fantastic. (the opera scene in the pixel remaster is also amazing, people have noted they wished the whole game was done in hd2d but to be honest i'm glad it wasnt. we've only got two games right now in that style and i'm already sick of it! plus FF6's art direction is part of its charm; i dont think it necessarily needs changing)
on FF6's game design, i only realised for the first time THIS playthrough that the only way to get stat gains on a level up is to use specific espers on each characters. having come off the ass of FF8 with its weird stat gains i was a bit worried about this, but its simplicity does it favours here, and allows you to grind specific stats in a satisfying and noticable way. have the right espers on and levelling up twice makes you notably stronger. bueno nice or whatever!!!!
FF6 is of course, not a perfect game however! there are pacing issues around the world of ruin time. in particular i think it does start with the world of balance, the way strago and relm join your team and then immediately leave it is a tad disappointing. like most JRPGs the later party member additions never feel like they have the weight the starting lot do, and FF6 suffers from this. the lack of story content in the world of ruin definitely is noticable as well, the difficulty spike and the lack of story hits this game hard but thankfully if you like it enough to get to the world of ruin, you'll probably see it through anyway. unlocking the ultima spell makes the game totally trivial too; it is ludicrously powerful, cant be dodged/reflected, and hits all enemies lmao. busted. next time i play i will be smashing up that esper into a sword instead.
anyway, i love this game. i would probably write more but i have to go to work now. bye!

This was, at least for me, the definitive version of the game.

This is coming from someone who never got to REALLY enjoy, let alone finish the game before. And I played EVERY version before, losing counts of how many times I played through the first few hours of the game in the past five or six years.
So, what's special about this version that made the game work for me?

Basically everything. an immersive 16:9 aspect ratio, revamped battle backgrounds, new character sprites (I genuinely love the original artwork, but I think these new ones work a lot better in HD screens), revised mechanics, a BEAUTIFUL and organic rearranged soundtrack and, by far, among some other little things, the best addition: Auto-battle.

In my opinion, this Pixel Remaster is worth it for the new soundtrack alone, but I simply can't express enough how much auto-battle does WONDERS for this game. Being able to repeat your last actions and let the battle roll 1.5 times faster mitigates tedious grinding and constant manual repetition, and I think this is the key factor to this remaster.

I finally got to experience this beautiful world with its cast of charismatic characters, filled to the brim with memorable moments and tied together by an astounding soundtrack and tight gameplay. FFVI still is not my favourite in the franchise, and still not among my favourite JRPGs, but now I can finally fathom what truly makes this title special.

P.S. change the fonts to the JP file and apply a mod to change the world map tileset for the original Super Nintendo ones. Find the game's page in Nexus Mods and thank me later.

Final Fantasy VI is one of the most pivotal video games ever. Most attribute the rise in cinematic storytelling in videogames to this game's successor, Final Fantasy VII, but the level of balance THIS game achieved between story and video game design is nothing short, of contemporary genius.

Developed as the last hurrah of Final Fantasy's retro era, VI saw its development occur after FIVE previous entries. This meant that, at this point, Squaresoft was pretty much at a level of expertise that few other game studios had at the time. Enix was close with their Dragon Quest series, but in the overall scope of storytelling in video games, Square was peerless.

V may have taken a backseat towards gripping narrative, a downgrade from its predecessor, but that was done purposefully -- a lighthearted, well-designed adventure at its core, V was everything you could possibly expect about Final Fantasy at the time.

But. What of Final Fantasy VI?

Well, for the sake of not mincing words, I must say that Final Fantasy VI is one of the most important video games ever, and one of the greatest video games ever at the same time. My most favorite games, Mass Effect 2, The Witcher 3, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Assassin's Creed IV, Bioshock, Disco Elysium, God of War, KotOR, and yes, EVEN THE LAST OF US owe so much to this game.

Now that's a tall order, right? Well, lemme explain. Prior to FFVI, the gaming industry was typically made up of action-packed 2D platforming romps save for the occasional exploration-heavy Legend of Zelda game. Before VI, the closest thing people had to an AMAZING video game story was FFIV, and Dragon Quest V. And its needless to say that, comparatively, FFVI blows those two games, and literally every other video game before it out of the water. This is THE video game of the 2D graphics era in my opinion.

We owe that accolade to its story. FFVI sports the most gripping narrative in the series' entire catalogue, save for a few personal favorites of mine like FFXIV's various expansions, XVI, and maybe even VII on a good day. But I try to say this in the eyes of a critic, because ultimately, FFVI's story progression, character development, and worldbuilding is the best the entire industry would ever see, up until either TW3 or TLOU. Every single dramatic video game owes its story to this one -- because FFVI offers so, SO many innovations in storytelling at its time that following it, implementing an actually FANTASTIC story into a video game became SO much more common.

This game has been spoiled to hell and back. I will not be divulging details here, because its true -- you have to have a blind eye to truly be mindblown by certain moments of story this video game has. But just know -- these moments that do exist are the best story moments in video game history. And when these moments happen, they occur linearily and in a nice, tight package alongside LEGENDARY characters like Locke (who is now my all-time favorite FF character) that its so obvious that games like TW3 look up to its story design for inspiration.

As for the game itself, FFVI returns to FFIV's static job system, but this time with a little more innovation. It is by no means simplistic, but VI offers a lite-job system mainly through new magical pseudo-skill trees with the Esper system, alongside a relic system that gives hints towards the jobs of old. But mainly, each character has a clearly defined focus, whether it be tools, martial arts, bushido, or just plain magic -- you still get a lot to play with. Sure, thanks to the Esper system, you could make your whole party ultima-casting maniacs, but for what its worth FFVI's game system is about as solid as it could get. I think I honestly still prefer the MEGA-simplicity of FFIV's static job system, but overall the system here is NOT a failure. It complements the story immensely well and does nothing short of offer another satisfying retro FF experience.

But, all things truly must come to an end. If you played this game, you know that by now haha. By the time FFVI released, Squaresoft was through with creating the same game over, and over, and over again. They needed to take FF into a direction that transcended its silly, chibi-esque qualities of the 16 and 8-bit eras. While I appreciated FFVI's art design in-game, it became so increasingly obvious that the limitations of a 2-Dimensional space weighed on its story. No facial animations aside from a few rudimentary ones, impactful character acting and in-game design was a zone of improvement Square was desperately trying to improve with each new entry of this series, whether in some ways or others.

Ultimately, this drive to create an even more massive and sprawling video game adventure would culminate in the form of one of the most legendary video games of all time... Final Fantasy VII.

But, this game's imprint must not be forgotten. While its legacy seems to have been forgotten by Square nowadays, I can so clearly see the impact this game's storytelling had on literally the entire video game industry. Its absolutely legendary. And while it did not feel like I was gaining as FLOORING an experience as The Witcher 3's entire story while playing this game, I have so, so much respect for it nonetheless.

Final Fantasy VI is, arguably, the most important game when it comes to what I personally find in video games. Sprawling worlds, amazing and lovable characters, a gripping plot, and a tearjerking end that all ties together offering one of the best narrative experiences you could ask for in video gaming.

For what this game did for me, and by proxy millions of others, the score must be clear by now. Final Fantasy VI is one of the greatest video games ever made.

100/100

I guess 90s RPGs are just built different, I think the RPG boomers are on to something with this one
Of the very few Final Fantasy games I've played, this is undoubtedly one of my new favorites; I can definitely see why the fandom flocks to this one when trying to call FF7 overrated. It just gets so much right. It's got a very engrossing story, an interesting world, charming characters, engaging character progression and party building, super variant party diversity, deep and fun exploration, simple yet effective combat; this game has it all, and it's easy to see why this game gets the sheer love it does.
The two biggest knocks against it are, One: How dated it is; this game definitely feels like a 90s game, complete with extremely cryptic side, and even main, quests that only a walkthrough would know on their first try. Like most other 90s RPGs, it also has a deadly allergy to quality of life features that many modern RPGs have; beyond, of course, the ability to boost resource gain and auto-battle to cut down on grinding, because it's a remaster, and remasters of old RPGs really need that stuff (looking at you, FF10). Two: how braindead easy it is, the entire way through. I never once struggled in this game unless I was actively handicapping myself, and frequently hit the damage cap on most attacks late in the game, despite being deliberately underleveled because of how little I was struggling. While it does cut down a lot on time spent grinding, it comes at the cost of making 90% of the boss fights super anticlimactic because they just die in 5 or so hits; the few that don't are either super frustrating (I hate the Magic Master holy shit), or are, you know, the final boss.