il est bien
I've been truly left without words for the last couple of hours. Few and far between are the times that I've considered a gaming moment to be truly legendary. Final Fantasy VI has gifted me that and oh I am so thankful. I will now give myself the titanic task of attempting to convey some of my feelings about this great adventure.
I say feelings because most of the time that is what videogames give me. Whether it's wonder, some flavor of boredom, rage or anything in between; I believe that they all can be cherishable moments that serve as a reflection of what the PIECE OF ART (in this case) is trying to say.
That's also the style of reviews I like to write - kind of. They are more like a reaction rather than an objective summary of what happens in the game etc.
One of the first things I noticed after booting the game for the first time is the amount of polish it has compared to its predecessors - and I mean polish everywhere. There are more and more fluid animations, sprites look beautiful, the bestiary is large and thicc and it even feels like it's the biggest and most varied OST of any FF so far - and oh man, the writing and dialogue.
As I've mentioned before i think, the thing that makes me dislike a game more is weak plot and writing. It's not that a game has to have a serious plot or serious grown up writing about real life things, after all, we are playing videogames. What I look for and what I like the most is when the words are inspiring. When they aren't lazy. I love when I see wit and personality. I like when writers are brave enough to make their characters imperfect and human-like. I love that they all have their quirks. I love how they all exist in a tragic world and have very tragic things happen to them that make them what they are - and it's all told in such a smart and tactful way.
I love how Edgar is always a hopeless romantic and how he's always saying cheesy one liners to women. I love how Sabin is this tunnel visioned knuckle head that lightly mocks Celes when she suggests he might have been hurt after the world ends. I love how one of the characters is a moogle that can communicate with humans. I love the most that these traits aren't their whole personality. It shocks me and it's almost eerie how they managed to create so many playable characters (14!) that feel this developed. I mean, I have seen movies and read novels that have characters that are way more one-dimensional than the FF6 cast. This game might have even given me the first instance where I actually do remember the names of some of the characters i spent almost 50 hours with.
There are so many memorable moments in the game - tragic, wholesome and funny. It honestly surprised me how it just kept going and going. There's a section where you fight the undead and suplex a train. There's another where you find an abandoned kid raised by wolves and you adopt him into your party (a salute to Gau). I did feel sometimes that events were sometimes not connected in the most fluid way. Sometimes it did feel kind of forced and most of the time I felt kind of lost in what the game wanted me to do.
That takes me to the plot. I felt it somewhat similar to FFII in that it's this epic story of the empire vs the resistance. The Gestahlian Empire vs the Returners in this case. Magic is gone from this world because the empire has taken all of it because of some mystical beings that possess it (or create it?) and they were friends with humans, but there was a huge battle eons ago that left their friendship in shambles and eh, you should definitely go play it to understand it better - but it's definitely convoluted and a slow burn at first. You're introduced to characters relatively slowly, but many things happen quickly and when your party eventually starts getting large you get split and you get tasked with scheming schemes and thinking of ways to mess up the empire's plans. It's always a classic underdog story and our main villain is one hateable asshole. Which is good! Because it really drives the story. There is a fully voiced (sung?) opera, river poisoning, samurai dreams, a mercenary that becomes your friend and a little brush stroke of incelhood - and of course in a very FF style, it ends with you taking out a good amount of gods and celestial beings. A great story in my opinion.
This is all such a silly and wonderful experience that I highly recommend. It celebrates absurdity and storytelling and the beauty that is to understand that we all suffer as humans in very similar ways. The games in the pixel remaster series have all so many quality of life upgrades that the grinding time for many of the games sections can be reduced to your liking, making this a very appealing experience to have nowadays.
Anyway:
5 double casted ultima spells out of 5 🧿🧿🧿🧿🧿 (with an entry to my personal hall of fame)
As some of you may know, this concludes my journey of going through the first 6 Final Fantasy entries. Thank you for the ones that have read my reviews so far. I'll be back for FF7 and beyond!
I say feelings because most of the time that is what videogames give me. Whether it's wonder, some flavor of boredom, rage or anything in between; I believe that they all can be cherishable moments that serve as a reflection of what the PIECE OF ART (in this case) is trying to say.
That's also the style of reviews I like to write - kind of. They are more like a reaction rather than an objective summary of what happens in the game etc.
One of the first things I noticed after booting the game for the first time is the amount of polish it has compared to its predecessors - and I mean polish everywhere. There are more and more fluid animations, sprites look beautiful, the bestiary is large and thicc and it even feels like it's the biggest and most varied OST of any FF so far - and oh man, the writing and dialogue.
As I've mentioned before i think, the thing that makes me dislike a game more is weak plot and writing. It's not that a game has to have a serious plot or serious grown up writing about real life things, after all, we are playing videogames. What I look for and what I like the most is when the words are inspiring. When they aren't lazy. I love when I see wit and personality. I like when writers are brave enough to make their characters imperfect and human-like. I love that they all have their quirks. I love how they all exist in a tragic world and have very tragic things happen to them that make them what they are - and it's all told in such a smart and tactful way.
I love how Edgar is always a hopeless romantic and how he's always saying cheesy one liners to women. I love how Sabin is this tunnel visioned knuckle head that lightly mocks Celes when she suggests he might have been hurt after the world ends. I love how one of the characters is a moogle that can communicate with humans. I love the most that these traits aren't their whole personality. It shocks me and it's almost eerie how they managed to create so many playable characters (14!) that feel this developed. I mean, I have seen movies and read novels that have characters that are way more one-dimensional than the FF6 cast. This game might have even given me the first instance where I actually do remember the names of some of the characters i spent almost 50 hours with.
There are so many memorable moments in the game - tragic, wholesome and funny. It honestly surprised me how it just kept going and going. There's a section where you fight the undead and suplex a train. There's another where you find an abandoned kid raised by wolves and you adopt him into your party (a salute to Gau). I did feel sometimes that events were sometimes not connected in the most fluid way. Sometimes it did feel kind of forced and most of the time I felt kind of lost in what the game wanted me to do.
That takes me to the plot. I felt it somewhat similar to FFII in that it's this epic story of the empire vs the resistance. The Gestahlian Empire vs the Returners in this case. Magic is gone from this world because the empire has taken all of it because of some mystical beings that possess it (or create it?) and they were friends with humans, but there was a huge battle eons ago that left their friendship in shambles and eh, you should definitely go play it to understand it better - but it's definitely convoluted and a slow burn at first. You're introduced to characters relatively slowly, but many things happen quickly and when your party eventually starts getting large you get split and you get tasked with scheming schemes and thinking of ways to mess up the empire's plans. It's always a classic underdog story and our main villain is one hateable asshole. Which is good! Because it really drives the story. There is a fully voiced (sung?) opera, river poisoning, samurai dreams, a mercenary that becomes your friend and a little brush stroke of incelhood - and of course in a very FF style, it ends with you taking out a good amount of gods and celestial beings. A great story in my opinion.
This is all such a silly and wonderful experience that I highly recommend. It celebrates absurdity and storytelling and the beauty that is to understand that we all suffer as humans in very similar ways. The games in the pixel remaster series have all so many quality of life upgrades that the grinding time for many of the games sections can be reduced to your liking, making this a very appealing experience to have nowadays.
Anyway:
5 double casted ultima spells out of 5 🧿🧿🧿🧿🧿 (with an entry to my personal hall of fame)
As some of you may know, this concludes my journey of going through the first 6 Final Fantasy entries. Thank you for the ones that have read my reviews so far. I'll be back for FF7 and beyond!
The best Final Fantasy. Hands down
The best 2D FF out of all 6, from the gameplay to the narrative its really fucking good
Esse merece todo o reconhecimento, já que é a junção de tudo que deu certo nos outros Final Fantasy anteriores a esse. Mas é o melhor Final Fantasy, como muitos dizem? Na minha opinião, não. Ainda prefiro o Final Fantasy XII, mas para um game lançado no Super Nintendo, é realmente impressionante tudo o que o jogo nos proporciona.
Tem momentos aqui que eu de fato nunca vou esquecer. Logo no começo do game, já tem uma cena bem marcante com os Magitek caminhando na neve, foda demais. Entre outros momentos que não vou citar aqui para não dar spoilers, o tom do jogo é bem mais sério também se comparado com os outros, mesmo tendo quase sempre momentos de descontração.
A melhor parte para mim foi a primeira metade do game, que realmente é muito boa, apesar de demorar bastante para engatar de vez e você se envolver realmente com a história. E que história! Uma pena que só a primeira metade seja realmente muito boa; a partir da segunda, já fica no padrão de sempre. Mas, no geral, é uma boa história.
O combate, no geral, é o mesmo, com algumas adições, mas eu gostei bem mais do combate aqui do que no Final Fantasy IV. A maioria dos personagens são interessantes, e levando em conta que são mais de 10 personagens, isso acaba sendo bem relevante.
E sobre o vilĂŁo, que muitos dizem ser um dos melhores da saga, pelo menos para mim foi bem decepcionante. Um vilĂŁo operante apenas, faz malvadezas e Ă© isso, sem profundidade nenhuma. Pelo menos no game, nĂŁo Ă© passado nada do porquĂŞ ele faz as coisas que faz; entĂŁo, ele faz as coisas simplesmente porque Ă© mal.
A trilha sonora, como sempre, é impecável, muito boa mesmo. Mas isso sempre foi o padrão nos Final Fantasy. Os pontos fracos do game acho que ficam por conta da segunda metade do game mesmo e algumas coisas que são resolvidas de forma simples.
A duração do game também é um ponto fraco, já que são umas boas 30 horas para fechar ou quase 40 para fazer os 100%. Sei que é um RPG, então é normal ser longo, mas nesse caso, menos seria mais. Metade do tempo acho que seria o ideal.
Minha Nnota para o game Ă© 8.5/10.
Tem momentos aqui que eu de fato nunca vou esquecer. Logo no começo do game, já tem uma cena bem marcante com os Magitek caminhando na neve, foda demais. Entre outros momentos que não vou citar aqui para não dar spoilers, o tom do jogo é bem mais sério também se comparado com os outros, mesmo tendo quase sempre momentos de descontração.
A melhor parte para mim foi a primeira metade do game, que realmente é muito boa, apesar de demorar bastante para engatar de vez e você se envolver realmente com a história. E que história! Uma pena que só a primeira metade seja realmente muito boa; a partir da segunda, já fica no padrão de sempre. Mas, no geral, é uma boa história.
O combate, no geral, é o mesmo, com algumas adições, mas eu gostei bem mais do combate aqui do que no Final Fantasy IV. A maioria dos personagens são interessantes, e levando em conta que são mais de 10 personagens, isso acaba sendo bem relevante.
E sobre o vilĂŁo, que muitos dizem ser um dos melhores da saga, pelo menos para mim foi bem decepcionante. Um vilĂŁo operante apenas, faz malvadezas e Ă© isso, sem profundidade nenhuma. Pelo menos no game, nĂŁo Ă© passado nada do porquĂŞ ele faz as coisas que faz; entĂŁo, ele faz as coisas simplesmente porque Ă© mal.
A trilha sonora, como sempre, é impecável, muito boa mesmo. Mas isso sempre foi o padrão nos Final Fantasy. Os pontos fracos do game acho que ficam por conta da segunda metade do game mesmo e algumas coisas que são resolvidas de forma simples.
A duração do game também é um ponto fraco, já que são umas boas 30 horas para fechar ou quase 40 para fazer os 100%. Sei que é um RPG, então é normal ser longo, mas nesse caso, menos seria mais. Metade do tempo acho que seria o ideal.
Minha Nnota para o game Ă© 8.5/10.
I legit can not think of one major flaw with this game. A few nitpicks, sure, but nothing that stands out to me. Aside from the pixel remaster having ass fonts...
Literal masterpiece.
Literal masterpiece.
Sabin best boy đź’Ş
a ragtag group of misfits must save the world from the japanese joker
Arguably one the best RPG's of all time and my personal favorite Final Fantasy in the 2D genre. This game, while limited in its 2D approach, was magnificently written and designed. Each and every element in this game is flawless and one I wish could be remade like Final Fantasy 7. Don't be fooled by the 2D graphics, this game is finer than most in the market today.
Apartando de unos mĂnimos problemas que tuve con el juego (como que no puedes personalizar las ventanas, o que se congela el juego cuando obtienes la mejora de cierta Magicita si Ă©ste está en Español, pero no en inglĂ©s), la verdad es que me ha molado muchĂsimo este remaster, y la adiciĂłn del potenciador ha mejorado muchĂsimo la experiencia.
Sin duda, una de las mejores maneras de jugar al FF6, y la recomiendo muchĂsimo.
Sin duda, una de las mejores maneras de jugar al FF6, y la recomiendo muchĂsimo.
One of the best Final fantasy games.
The characters are amazing, the music is no sense, they even composed an opera for this fucking game.
And the antagonist... literally god.
The characters are amazing, the music is no sense, they even composed an opera for this fucking game.
And the antagonist... literally god.
This story quite a few good narrative aspects especially with Terra but it like many games w/ big cast, fumbles the bag and it especially prominent at WoR. I was waiting for shit to just end. Let's wrap it up
This review contains spoilers
I did not grow up with FFVI. I did not play it as a child or as a teenager and I have zero nostalgia for this game. And frankly, this is unfortunate. I want to see what so many people do in this game, but I just couldn’t. I overall did not have a great time playing FFVI and I think it was kind of a bad game.
There are several problems I have with FFVI, and I’ll get into them, but I think it’s main overarching problem that just has tendrils everywhere is that it wants so badly to be taken seriously but fails to present itself in a way that actually warrants that. The plot is painted as high stakes. In World of Balance, there’s a war. In World of Ruin, the world has “ended” (quotation marks that will get an entire paragraph later on) and everyone is in despair. World of Balance is very passive – you never push along the plot, the plot happens to you as you go. Your characters’ actions are virtually never in control and the plot is very reactionary to things other people do. World of Ruin is, on the other hand, kind of just plotless for the most part. Some characters have arcs, for all I complain about the writing I think Terra’s arc is genuinely very good and I did enjoy Strago’s, but you largely go around collecting characters and getting a couple of magicite and items until you are ready for Kefka’s Tower.
The actual details of WoB especially, but also WoR, are frequently undercut by silly and/or cringe moments (special shoutout to Ultros being disgusting. I’m sure they were trying to recapture Gilgamesh but Ultros is just gross), nonsense logic, or important events happening entirely off-screen (such as the fake peace negotiations where the characters you left behind just teehee suddenly dealt with it and met up with you). Multiple times you get lore-dumped at, and then a character suddenly has a big change of heart and does something drastic that ends up in your favor (this happens with both Setzer and Ramuh).
Speaking of Ramuh, the way magic is handled in this game is also sort of nonsense. I’m already bothered by Ramuh watching over Terra and then once you show up, deciding “hey I’m going to kill myself and turn myself into a stone so that you can have magic, rather than directly helping you” – only for it to be revealed later (sort of) that magicite isn’t quite dead but a spirit willing themselves to you. But if they’re not dead, how does the empire turn espers into magicite? And why is magic only part of the world because of the Warring Triad, later Kefka, when there is an entire esper world and also blue magic is separate but “forbidden”, but also not actually forbidden but a secret. Again, the game wants you to take it seriously. It’s deep, but you have to trust that as a vibe and never look into it because it’s actually as shallow as a puddle and completely fails under even the slightest scrutiny.
A non-trivial part of the narrative just completely falling through a sieve is centered around Kefka, who actively makes every scene he’s in worse. This absolute buffoon of a clown is never shown to be taken seriously in World of Balance. All the imperial soldiers hate him. Half the time he’s on screen he’s flopping about and is showing his upside-down sprite or laughing like a madman. You fight him and win on several occasions. Yet somehow he always gains the upper hand through cowardly actions or very contrived scenarios.
And then he “ends the world”. You get a cutscene, and then awaken to Celes on the solitary island. You go to the mainland, seeing the continental plates have all shifted, get Sabin (he’s technically optional but you’d be a fool to skip him if you’re not speedrunning), get Edgar, then get Setzer/the airship. You realize pretty damn quickly between Castle Figaro and Kohlingen that.. everything is mostly fine? Then when you get the airship there are multiple towns which are completely unscathed: Jidoor, Zozo, and Thamasa have not sustained a single scratch of damage. Though NPCs talk about how shit everything is (though funny enough one points out things are actually kinda better because the Imperial soldiers aren’t occupying their town anymore), you only see this really in Mobliz, and in Tzen where Kefka uses the Light of Judgement to… destroy a single house. Really? Then the entire time you are mucking about in the world Kefka just does absolutely nothing about it even though he’s allegedly God now and is all-seeing. Even his last speech, the (thankfully) only time you see him in WoR, is him having a toddler’s tantrum because you still have hope. This isn’t nihilism, that’s a spoiled brat.
But despite all this, FFVI has good gameplay, right? Well, no, actually.
The magic system somewhat fails to be compelling narratively, but mechanically it’s even worse. Early on when only Terra and Celes have magic, it’s okay, but then you unlock espers, and then all of the characters you’re using begin a rather-quick march to become an all-powerful master of All Magic, and realistically by the end of the game you can have your important units all become omniwizards with access to every important spell. Terra and Strago have a bit more going for them – Trance becomes ridiculously overpowered later on and leads to her doing 9999 damage with virtually everything, but is useless at first because it depends on her spell repertoire for some reason. Strago’s blue magic is very useful early on especially if you get Grand Delta & Magic Guard as soon as you’re able to, but eventually you’ll just have Strago using Ultima for 9999 damage too. An honorable mention to Sabin’s blitzes which have very good longevity especially for how early in WoR you get Phantom Rush, but by the time you’re fighting Kefka his time is better spent casting Ultima/Reraise/Curaga.
Most other characters don’t have abilities worth using when they can just use magic instead. Gogo and Umaro are their own things, but things like Edgar’s tools, Relm’s sketch, Shadow’s throw, and Cyan’s bushido all get outclassed by magic earlier than the ones I mentioned above. Some abilities are also not useful at all, like Locke’s Steal/Mug (you do not need to optimize for stealing in this game, there is no point in farming consumables), and Celes’ Runic (can be used to cheese some bosses but has severe drawbacks). Then there’s Mog, who takes the worst parts of FFIII’s evoker and geomancer and combines them into one class.
Then there’s Gau. Holy hell, Gau is abysmally bad. He’s not controllable outside of “selecting a rage”, and acts as a berserker. He learns these rages on a special area of the map, the Veldt, where encounters are selected from “anything you’ve encountered up to now” and everything awards 0 EXP. So to get rages you have to grind out here. For the parts you’re required to use him, and one part you can bring him, you’re actually completely unable to access the Veldt which means he can’t learn anything new. And then for some reason in WoR when you re-recruit him, he doesn’t autolevel at all and joins at whatever you had him at at the end of WoB. Every single thing about Gau is just awfully thought out and awfully implemented where you’d think he’s a joke character.
Dungeons quality is all over the place. Most are okay. Several of them are gimmick dungeons where all enemies can inflict a specific status effect. Awful if you’re unprepared, trivial if you go to the nearest town and buy the relics that prevent against that status effect. The Cultist’s Tower is particularly abysmal, with lots of bs enemies, the reflect status, and only being able to use magic. And you can’t run from enemies or use smoke bombs. Also blue magic doesn’t count for some reason. And you can’t trance. (Which again raises the question “what is magic, exactly?”). Great dungeon. Phoenix Cave and Kefka’s Tower also are multi party dungeons which have their own problem because the game does nothing to encourage you in WoR to rotate or balance your party and level multiple guys (critically, making people you don’t use not gain new magic), so you have to drag characters around who range from not as good as your main team to actively dead weight.
The boss fights also vary wildly in quality, with some real stinkers in there. Many of the same problems with dungeons: some bosses are status-heavy and immunity can cheese them but you’ll get crushed if you’re not prepared. The Tentacle boss in Figaro Castle is bad, unless you have Hermes Sandals. The Ultros fight in the Opera House is awful because of the party you’re supposed to use, and Ultros casting Level 3 confuse which is a right killer at that point in time. Ultima Weapon sometimes just users Mind Blast then you Lose. Any and every boss that can inflict the frozen status on your party, which you can’t protect against.
These things all add up to a game that’s very hard to enjoy even at the best of times. I know this is a really popular Final Fantasy game but I just absolutely could not get into it and didn’t find it any fun. The plot is actively kind of bad and nonsense, but at the same time so heavy. FFVI would be a lot better if it were lighthearted, but it isn’t that, and we have a game that’s story just kind of doesn’t work on its own axioms that it sets up, and without the gameplay to make it worthwhile to play for that alone. Very disappointed in this entry.
There are several problems I have with FFVI, and I’ll get into them, but I think it’s main overarching problem that just has tendrils everywhere is that it wants so badly to be taken seriously but fails to present itself in a way that actually warrants that. The plot is painted as high stakes. In World of Balance, there’s a war. In World of Ruin, the world has “ended” (quotation marks that will get an entire paragraph later on) and everyone is in despair. World of Balance is very passive – you never push along the plot, the plot happens to you as you go. Your characters’ actions are virtually never in control and the plot is very reactionary to things other people do. World of Ruin is, on the other hand, kind of just plotless for the most part. Some characters have arcs, for all I complain about the writing I think Terra’s arc is genuinely very good and I did enjoy Strago’s, but you largely go around collecting characters and getting a couple of magicite and items until you are ready for Kefka’s Tower.
The actual details of WoB especially, but also WoR, are frequently undercut by silly and/or cringe moments (special shoutout to Ultros being disgusting. I’m sure they were trying to recapture Gilgamesh but Ultros is just gross), nonsense logic, or important events happening entirely off-screen (such as the fake peace negotiations where the characters you left behind just teehee suddenly dealt with it and met up with you). Multiple times you get lore-dumped at, and then a character suddenly has a big change of heart and does something drastic that ends up in your favor (this happens with both Setzer and Ramuh).
Speaking of Ramuh, the way magic is handled in this game is also sort of nonsense. I’m already bothered by Ramuh watching over Terra and then once you show up, deciding “hey I’m going to kill myself and turn myself into a stone so that you can have magic, rather than directly helping you” – only for it to be revealed later (sort of) that magicite isn’t quite dead but a spirit willing themselves to you. But if they’re not dead, how does the empire turn espers into magicite? And why is magic only part of the world because of the Warring Triad, later Kefka, when there is an entire esper world and also blue magic is separate but “forbidden”, but also not actually forbidden but a secret. Again, the game wants you to take it seriously. It’s deep, but you have to trust that as a vibe and never look into it because it’s actually as shallow as a puddle and completely fails under even the slightest scrutiny.
A non-trivial part of the narrative just completely falling through a sieve is centered around Kefka, who actively makes every scene he’s in worse. This absolute buffoon of a clown is never shown to be taken seriously in World of Balance. All the imperial soldiers hate him. Half the time he’s on screen he’s flopping about and is showing his upside-down sprite or laughing like a madman. You fight him and win on several occasions. Yet somehow he always gains the upper hand through cowardly actions or very contrived scenarios.
And then he “ends the world”. You get a cutscene, and then awaken to Celes on the solitary island. You go to the mainland, seeing the continental plates have all shifted, get Sabin (he’s technically optional but you’d be a fool to skip him if you’re not speedrunning), get Edgar, then get Setzer/the airship. You realize pretty damn quickly between Castle Figaro and Kohlingen that.. everything is mostly fine? Then when you get the airship there are multiple towns which are completely unscathed: Jidoor, Zozo, and Thamasa have not sustained a single scratch of damage. Though NPCs talk about how shit everything is (though funny enough one points out things are actually kinda better because the Imperial soldiers aren’t occupying their town anymore), you only see this really in Mobliz, and in Tzen where Kefka uses the Light of Judgement to… destroy a single house. Really? Then the entire time you are mucking about in the world Kefka just does absolutely nothing about it even though he’s allegedly God now and is all-seeing. Even his last speech, the (thankfully) only time you see him in WoR, is him having a toddler’s tantrum because you still have hope. This isn’t nihilism, that’s a spoiled brat.
But despite all this, FFVI has good gameplay, right? Well, no, actually.
The magic system somewhat fails to be compelling narratively, but mechanically it’s even worse. Early on when only Terra and Celes have magic, it’s okay, but then you unlock espers, and then all of the characters you’re using begin a rather-quick march to become an all-powerful master of All Magic, and realistically by the end of the game you can have your important units all become omniwizards with access to every important spell. Terra and Strago have a bit more going for them – Trance becomes ridiculously overpowered later on and leads to her doing 9999 damage with virtually everything, but is useless at first because it depends on her spell repertoire for some reason. Strago’s blue magic is very useful early on especially if you get Grand Delta & Magic Guard as soon as you’re able to, but eventually you’ll just have Strago using Ultima for 9999 damage too. An honorable mention to Sabin’s blitzes which have very good longevity especially for how early in WoR you get Phantom Rush, but by the time you’re fighting Kefka his time is better spent casting Ultima/Reraise/Curaga.
Most other characters don’t have abilities worth using when they can just use magic instead. Gogo and Umaro are their own things, but things like Edgar’s tools, Relm’s sketch, Shadow’s throw, and Cyan’s bushido all get outclassed by magic earlier than the ones I mentioned above. Some abilities are also not useful at all, like Locke’s Steal/Mug (you do not need to optimize for stealing in this game, there is no point in farming consumables), and Celes’ Runic (can be used to cheese some bosses but has severe drawbacks). Then there’s Mog, who takes the worst parts of FFIII’s evoker and geomancer and combines them into one class.
Then there’s Gau. Holy hell, Gau is abysmally bad. He’s not controllable outside of “selecting a rage”, and acts as a berserker. He learns these rages on a special area of the map, the Veldt, where encounters are selected from “anything you’ve encountered up to now” and everything awards 0 EXP. So to get rages you have to grind out here. For the parts you’re required to use him, and one part you can bring him, you’re actually completely unable to access the Veldt which means he can’t learn anything new. And then for some reason in WoR when you re-recruit him, he doesn’t autolevel at all and joins at whatever you had him at at the end of WoB. Every single thing about Gau is just awfully thought out and awfully implemented where you’d think he’s a joke character.
Dungeons quality is all over the place. Most are okay. Several of them are gimmick dungeons where all enemies can inflict a specific status effect. Awful if you’re unprepared, trivial if you go to the nearest town and buy the relics that prevent against that status effect. The Cultist’s Tower is particularly abysmal, with lots of bs enemies, the reflect status, and only being able to use magic. And you can’t run from enemies or use smoke bombs. Also blue magic doesn’t count for some reason. And you can’t trance. (Which again raises the question “what is magic, exactly?”). Great dungeon. Phoenix Cave and Kefka’s Tower also are multi party dungeons which have their own problem because the game does nothing to encourage you in WoR to rotate or balance your party and level multiple guys (critically, making people you don’t use not gain new magic), so you have to drag characters around who range from not as good as your main team to actively dead weight.
The boss fights also vary wildly in quality, with some real stinkers in there. Many of the same problems with dungeons: some bosses are status-heavy and immunity can cheese them but you’ll get crushed if you’re not prepared. The Tentacle boss in Figaro Castle is bad, unless you have Hermes Sandals. The Ultros fight in the Opera House is awful because of the party you’re supposed to use, and Ultros casting Level 3 confuse which is a right killer at that point in time. Ultima Weapon sometimes just users Mind Blast then you Lose. Any and every boss that can inflict the frozen status on your party, which you can’t protect against.
These things all add up to a game that’s very hard to enjoy even at the best of times. I know this is a really popular Final Fantasy game but I just absolutely could not get into it and didn’t find it any fun. The plot is actively kind of bad and nonsense, but at the same time so heavy. FFVI would be a lot better if it were lighthearted, but it isn’t that, and we have a game that’s story just kind of doesn’t work on its own axioms that it sets up, and without the gameplay to make it worthwhile to play for that alone. Very disappointed in this entry.
The peak of classic final fantasy. The characters and story were amazing.
Um dia eu retento com outros olhos, mas a decadencia em comparação aos 3, 4 e 5 machuca demais
Excrement
This took me AGES to finish but what a ride this has been. I completely understand why people say Final Fantasy VI is among the best games ever. It just has so many cool ideas that it introduced and sure the story is pretty simplistic but the way it’s told is so beautiful at times. My only gripe with the game is that without a guide you can miss out on a LOT of stuff so I’d definitely recommend using one at least before going to the final boss.
Final Fantasy VI, eu te amo.
I made up so many little personal objectives, just so I wouldn't finish this game. What an absolutely joyous experience
Certainly the most ambitious project by Square until Chrono Trigger (and later, FFVII) and a game full of soul, nuance, and enormous emotional content.
The soundtrack is undoubtedly one of the best moments in Nobuo Uematsu’s career, if not the best, and a third of the party characters are easily among the best characters to ever appear in a JRPG. Visually, the game is a considerable leap compared to its predecessors on the SNES.
Final Fantasy had already been experimenting with multiple world maps in a single game, but I think perhaps World of Balance and World of Ruin are my favorite implementation of this idea. Like many, I have criticisms of the World of Ruin, but it is extremely powerful to finally have access to the airship again and go in search of your comrades to the sound of "Searching for Friends." And how much more powerful are the moments in VI, with music like "Terra's Theme," "Dancing Mad," and the entire Opera House arc. The Opera House in particular looks so beautiful in the Pixel Remaster. And not just that but all the theatricality that this game has for an SNES game, with its characters making faces and gestures, acting, and the emotion that these performances convey. That moment with Celes is one of the best moments in the series, no doubt.
It’s worth noting that the good humor of the series is not left aside even in such a serious game. I really like the moments with Ultros, despite these moments being somewhat nonsensical and out of sync with the general tone of VI.
That said, all this grandeur and ambition end up being FFVI's downfall. One thing I greatly admire in its predecessors (FF III, IV, and V) is how they manage to have an almost impeccable pace and how the ideas don’t end up being problematic for the gameplay.
For me, one of the worst things about Final Fantasy VI is precisely its bloated party. While a third of it is spectacular (Locke, Celes, Edgar, Sabin, Cyan), another third is quite uninteresting (Setzer, Terra, Shadow, Strago, Relm), and another third is simply ridiculous and shouldn’t even be in the game (Gau, Umaro, Mog, Gogo). I don’t think this mix of serious and well-developed characters alongside joke characters worked well in VI; it’s probably the worst implementation in games with multiple characters. And this is even worse when the game has multiple dungeons that require you to use these ridiculous characters. Not every character among the 108 you recruit in Suikoden is mandatory to use. Hell, not even in Chrono Cross (which has a much worse party than VI) are you forced to use them.
Another problem is that some characters are particularly useless to use in older versions of the game since the mages are simply overpowered, and in the end, everyone kind of turns into an Ultima battery.
Speaking of joke characters... I don't like Kefka. Like... at all. I genuinely think he’s one of the worst villains in Final Fantasy. I never quite understood the charm of a stupid clown like him and think Gestahl ends up having a more interesting role. Kefka's only saving grace for me is his grandiose final battle and, of course, his theme. "Dancing Mad" is one of the best prog music tracks I've ever heard in my life.
Regarding pacing, I have mixed feelings about the game’s pace; it may have the worst pacing of a Final Fantasy by Sakaguchi. Much of the first arc forces you to play with specific characters, and while it’s a good way to introduce these characters and tell a bit about them, these sections aren’t always fun to play. The second half of the game has an interesting premise that I particularly like, but the execution is generally disjointed and unbalanced. I find it an acceptable tradeoff, and it’s really nice to see how certain arcs conclude in this second half, but it’s far from a flawless execution.
In the end, VI is a very impressive game, especially for its time, with some of the most memorable high points in the entire FF series. However, it’s a game that stumbles a lot with an overly caricatured villain for the game it’s in, a protagonist who is too dull (Celes seems more like the protagonist of the game than the girl on the cover), and with a strange and unbalanced pace. It has too many characters and doesn’t know how to handle them. Not to mention that other games in the series did more and did it better. In terms of gameplay systems, its successor seems like a VI 2.0 with the Materia system.
For all these reasons, I really can't elevate Final Fantasy VI to the best game or best JRPG of all time. I think that’s a rather simplistic way of dealing with this game. Possibly not even among the top five FF games. IV and V executes their ideas way better and VII and IX are pretty ambitious too and doesn't trip over itsideas in such a big way that VI stumbles sometimes. And of course there's XIV, too...
Luckily, the Pixel Remaster simply allows you to brute-force through some of these problems. Simply turning off combat in the multi-party dungeons greatly improved my impression of the game as a whole, and the melee characters are less useless now too. The redone opera is amazing, and it’s a shame they didn’t redo more moments like that. Having played the PS1, GBA, and now this version, I can say this is my favorite way to play FFVI. I definitely end up liking the game way more than before playing this version.
The soundtrack is undoubtedly one of the best moments in Nobuo Uematsu’s career, if not the best, and a third of the party characters are easily among the best characters to ever appear in a JRPG. Visually, the game is a considerable leap compared to its predecessors on the SNES.
Final Fantasy had already been experimenting with multiple world maps in a single game, but I think perhaps World of Balance and World of Ruin are my favorite implementation of this idea. Like many, I have criticisms of the World of Ruin, but it is extremely powerful to finally have access to the airship again and go in search of your comrades to the sound of "Searching for Friends." And how much more powerful are the moments in VI, with music like "Terra's Theme," "Dancing Mad," and the entire Opera House arc. The Opera House in particular looks so beautiful in the Pixel Remaster. And not just that but all the theatricality that this game has for an SNES game, with its characters making faces and gestures, acting, and the emotion that these performances convey. That moment with Celes is one of the best moments in the series, no doubt.
It’s worth noting that the good humor of the series is not left aside even in such a serious game. I really like the moments with Ultros, despite these moments being somewhat nonsensical and out of sync with the general tone of VI.
That said, all this grandeur and ambition end up being FFVI's downfall. One thing I greatly admire in its predecessors (FF III, IV, and V) is how they manage to have an almost impeccable pace and how the ideas don’t end up being problematic for the gameplay.
For me, one of the worst things about Final Fantasy VI is precisely its bloated party. While a third of it is spectacular (Locke, Celes, Edgar, Sabin, Cyan), another third is quite uninteresting (Setzer, Terra, Shadow, Strago, Relm), and another third is simply ridiculous and shouldn’t even be in the game (Gau, Umaro, Mog, Gogo). I don’t think this mix of serious and well-developed characters alongside joke characters worked well in VI; it’s probably the worst implementation in games with multiple characters. And this is even worse when the game has multiple dungeons that require you to use these ridiculous characters. Not every character among the 108 you recruit in Suikoden is mandatory to use. Hell, not even in Chrono Cross (which has a much worse party than VI) are you forced to use them.
Another problem is that some characters are particularly useless to use in older versions of the game since the mages are simply overpowered, and in the end, everyone kind of turns into an Ultima battery.
Speaking of joke characters... I don't like Kefka. Like... at all. I genuinely think he’s one of the worst villains in Final Fantasy. I never quite understood the charm of a stupid clown like him and think Gestahl ends up having a more interesting role. Kefka's only saving grace for me is his grandiose final battle and, of course, his theme. "Dancing Mad" is one of the best prog music tracks I've ever heard in my life.
Regarding pacing, I have mixed feelings about the game’s pace; it may have the worst pacing of a Final Fantasy by Sakaguchi. Much of the first arc forces you to play with specific characters, and while it’s a good way to introduce these characters and tell a bit about them, these sections aren’t always fun to play. The second half of the game has an interesting premise that I particularly like, but the execution is generally disjointed and unbalanced. I find it an acceptable tradeoff, and it’s really nice to see how certain arcs conclude in this second half, but it’s far from a flawless execution.
In the end, VI is a very impressive game, especially for its time, with some of the most memorable high points in the entire FF series. However, it’s a game that stumbles a lot with an overly caricatured villain for the game it’s in, a protagonist who is too dull (Celes seems more like the protagonist of the game than the girl on the cover), and with a strange and unbalanced pace. It has too many characters and doesn’t know how to handle them. Not to mention that other games in the series did more and did it better. In terms of gameplay systems, its successor seems like a VI 2.0 with the Materia system.
For all these reasons, I really can't elevate Final Fantasy VI to the best game or best JRPG of all time. I think that’s a rather simplistic way of dealing with this game. Possibly not even among the top five FF games. IV and V executes their ideas way better and VII and IX are pretty ambitious too and doesn't trip over itsideas in such a big way that VI stumbles sometimes. And of course there's XIV, too...
Luckily, the Pixel Remaster simply allows you to brute-force through some of these problems. Simply turning off combat in the multi-party dungeons greatly improved my impression of the game as a whole, and the melee characters are less useless now too. The redone opera is amazing, and it’s a shame they didn’t redo more moments like that. Having played the PS1, GBA, and now this version, I can say this is my favorite way to play FFVI. I definitely end up liking the game way more than before playing this version.
It's peak, with quality of life features and a new soundtrack and translation that makes it the definitive version to play.
Started this game so many times over the years, finally got to it when the Pixel Remasters came out. Very glad I finished it, it is certainly one of the greatest games of all time.
Alright I think it's safe to say classic Final Fantasy is not my cup of tea unfortunately. This is now the third turn-based FF game that I ended up putting down. For what it's worth, I definitely enjoyed this one a lot more than FFVII or FFIX. I played 20 hours of this before I got tired of it.
While I was very much invested in the story because of Terra, Locke, and Celes, that's pretty much the extent of it I could get into. This game has too many damn characters and most of them are not important after their introductions. I can appreciate the ambition, as it's definitely impressive for an SNES game, but too many of these characters feel half-baked. They DO all have their unique attributes...kinda. The game clearly wants you to use the esper system to build up your characters with magic spells, but this makes them all feel the same. Why bother worrying about specific character abilities when the game makes it very obvious very early on that spamming magic is infinitely more effective? There are also instances where you have to use specific characters for story moments, and if you haven't built those characters up enough, good luck! I was stuck on one section for a good while just because I needed ice magic, and I couldn't use the character I had built up ice spells on, how fun! Creating a team with so many characters to pick from should be a fun experience, but the game ruins this with its own battle system. Switching out the characters you've put time into is a bad idea, and it absolutely sucks when you have to. It just makes things take longer than they should.
I do want to make it very clear that I was enjoying the story a lot, as bloated as it is. I'm a little bummed that I won't see the end of Terra or Celes's arcs, but this gameplay is just not doing it for me unfortunately. I was super into this game in the beginning, but the more I played, the more the mechanics bothered me . It being an SNES game, it has plenty of "old game-isms" that are annoying too. The pixel remaster doesn't help with these either which just confuses me. I really appreciate what it did for the time, but it's not a game I like all that much.
What will stick out the most about this game to me is the opera house segment, because the performance scene is HD-2D and nothing else in this release is. It's beautiful and I love it, but like...why?
While I was very much invested in the story because of Terra, Locke, and Celes, that's pretty much the extent of it I could get into. This game has too many damn characters and most of them are not important after their introductions. I can appreciate the ambition, as it's definitely impressive for an SNES game, but too many of these characters feel half-baked. They DO all have their unique attributes...kinda. The game clearly wants you to use the esper system to build up your characters with magic spells, but this makes them all feel the same. Why bother worrying about specific character abilities when the game makes it very obvious very early on that spamming magic is infinitely more effective? There are also instances where you have to use specific characters for story moments, and if you haven't built those characters up enough, good luck! I was stuck on one section for a good while just because I needed ice magic, and I couldn't use the character I had built up ice spells on, how fun! Creating a team with so many characters to pick from should be a fun experience, but the game ruins this with its own battle system. Switching out the characters you've put time into is a bad idea, and it absolutely sucks when you have to. It just makes things take longer than they should.
I do want to make it very clear that I was enjoying the story a lot, as bloated as it is. I'm a little bummed that I won't see the end of Terra or Celes's arcs, but this gameplay is just not doing it for me unfortunately. I was super into this game in the beginning, but the more I played, the more the mechanics bothered me . It being an SNES game, it has plenty of "old game-isms" that are annoying too. The pixel remaster doesn't help with these either which just confuses me. I really appreciate what it did for the time, but it's not a game I like all that much.
What will stick out the most about this game to me is the opera house segment, because the performance scene is HD-2D and nothing else in this release is. It's beautiful and I love it, but like...why?
Un opus absolument génial à faire au moins une fois dans sa vie
A really solid RPG that fumbles hard when you get to the WoR. Fun plot and characters up until that point, then it's nothing but grinding, doing annoying gimmick dungeons, no plot for hours, and party splitting to top it all off. Had high hopes for this with all the praise it gets, was let down at the end.
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.
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.
I love Final Fantasy VI. It's one of my favourite SNES games of all times alongside also its other two brothers, IV and V, and many many many others classics.
So why I'm rating this so much low? Because this version, as I played it originally on Steam, was a buggy mess that even with the time it took to develop and all those updates it still remained a glitchy mess.
The opera scena is the only real selling point.
Sadly I still think a proper hack rom of the original SNES game (with all uncensored and readaptation) will still be the definitive version since the PS1 has loadings and GBA has the debatable soundfont (didn't mind tbh) and the brightness.
So why I'm rating this so much low? Because this version, as I played it originally on Steam, was a buggy mess that even with the time it took to develop and all those updates it still remained a glitchy mess.
The opera scena is the only real selling point.
Sadly I still think a proper hack rom of the original SNES game (with all uncensored and readaptation) will still be the definitive version since the PS1 has loadings and GBA has the debatable soundfont (didn't mind tbh) and the brightness.
This review contains spoilers
Una obra maestra sin duda alguna. Luego de años, por fin entiendo porque para muchos es el peak de Final Fantasy, para mi no lo fue, pero lo entiendo a la perfección.
Destaca en tener un cast tan variado y una estructura inusual, con un segundo acto que te lleva a conocer un mundo devastado y todo el sentimiento que eso conlleva. El juego entre la desesperaciĂłn, angustia y esperanza es magnĂfico, especialmente cuando suena searching for friends por primera vez, esa idea de levantarse cuando literalmente está todo acabado porque no hay nada más que perder es un toque refrescante a estas magnitudes.
Kefka, si bien es un villano extremadamente plano y poco interesante, conceptualmente es perfecto para el cast de personajes, como lo era Necron en FFIX.
Quien no le ve sentido al motor de la vida y encuentra satisfacción solo a través del caos y destrucción es la anti tesis perfecta contra quienes lo han perdido casi todo, pero han encontrado el sentido de vivir en sus alrededores.
La pelea final es una de las más épicas en la historia de los videojuegos, es un espectáculo de arte, el diseño del jefe, mientras escalas con una de las mejores composiciones en la historia de los videojuegos es irreplicable, para terminar con Kefka en una figura de dios, mirándote hacia bajo, despreciando tus ideales, cine, como dicen.
Tuve varios problemas con el tĂtulo a nivel jugable, algunos narrativos, como el ya mencionado plano villano, pero se perdona completamente con todo lo que logrĂł y la importancia que tiene Final Fantasy VI.
Destaca en tener un cast tan variado y una estructura inusual, con un segundo acto que te lleva a conocer un mundo devastado y todo el sentimiento que eso conlleva. El juego entre la desesperaciĂłn, angustia y esperanza es magnĂfico, especialmente cuando suena searching for friends por primera vez, esa idea de levantarse cuando literalmente está todo acabado porque no hay nada más que perder es un toque refrescante a estas magnitudes.
Kefka, si bien es un villano extremadamente plano y poco interesante, conceptualmente es perfecto para el cast de personajes, como lo era Necron en FFIX.
Quien no le ve sentido al motor de la vida y encuentra satisfacción solo a través del caos y destrucción es la anti tesis perfecta contra quienes lo han perdido casi todo, pero han encontrado el sentido de vivir en sus alrededores.
La pelea final es una de las más épicas en la historia de los videojuegos, es un espectáculo de arte, el diseño del jefe, mientras escalas con una de las mejores composiciones en la historia de los videojuegos es irreplicable, para terminar con Kefka en una figura de dios, mirándote hacia bajo, despreciando tus ideales, cine, como dicen.
Tuve varios problemas con el tĂtulo a nivel jugable, algunos narrativos, como el ya mencionado plano villano, pero se perdona completamente con todo lo que logrĂł y la importancia que tiene Final Fantasy VI.
While I can attest to other RPGs from the era that appeal to me on a more fundamental level, be it aesthetically, interactively or thematically; I can scarcely think of many that are as consistently solid as Final Fantasy VI. For the time, you can hardly find other games with such a well-rounded and fun cast or with such breathtaking sprite work. One thing you definitely won't find in any other game, both then and now, is Nobuo Uematsu's 16-bit soundtrack masterpiece which elevates the whole experience to a new level.
Despite some gameplay depth regression from Final Fantasy V due to the loss of the job system, the inclusion of Espers and Relics do help bridge the gap enough to make the game fun to play. Although, because of a lack of balance, it does admittedly suffer from certain parts being too frustratingly clunky or uninspiringly easy.
Despite some gameplay depth regression from Final Fantasy V due to the loss of the job system, the inclusion of Espers and Relics do help bridge the gap enough to make the game fun to play. Although, because of a lack of balance, it does admittedly suffer from certain parts being too frustratingly clunky or uninspiringly easy.