The evolution of video games is wild. What was once one of the grandest adventures you could have on a console feels like nothing special compared to modern titles. Sure, FF6 remains the finest 2D Final Fantasy game. The sense of exploration for a SNES jRPG is nearly unmatched here, but what does a SNES jRPG have to offer someone born after the SNES' heyday? I can't imagine a 20 year old kid would get much out of FF6... besides the music. The soundtrack here remains timeless with a wonderful orchestral reimagining. Sprite work is also great, both the original and this remaster.
The story is hampered by the dialog limitations of the time, this goes for characters as well. FF6 opts for an ensemble cast, which is great for mixing up party composition over the runtime, but severely impacts the amount of character development each character can receive. Most characters do have a small arc to their backstory, but it feels like one never spends enough time around the main cast as a whole. The plot and backstory are certainly serviceable, but there's really only so much the game can convey. The break into a pseudo-open-world in the second half remains a great design choice. World lore and character backstories are developed more in the second half during a series of vignettes discovered by exploring the world.
The Esper system is a decent jRPG system. It's an interesting way to balance learning magic with levelling up stats. However, I found that Esper stat boosts from level up are fairly low impact. A lot of damage and damage mitigation is based on character level, not stats. Sure, you could really min-max the boosts to make them impactful. An additional 30 STR is going to be noticed. The question remains though, "why?" I was able to beat the game around level 45 with a fairly un-optimized party and still managed to dish out 9999 damage on most of my attack turns.
All in all, I can't help but think about a kid forced to play this asking his dad, "This is what you went apeshit over in the mid 90s?"
Game gets 3 stars from me, plus a half star for the soundtrack, plus a half star adjusted for nostalgia and the game's age. 4/5.
The story is hampered by the dialog limitations of the time, this goes for characters as well. FF6 opts for an ensemble cast, which is great for mixing up party composition over the runtime, but severely impacts the amount of character development each character can receive. Most characters do have a small arc to their backstory, but it feels like one never spends enough time around the main cast as a whole. The plot and backstory are certainly serviceable, but there's really only so much the game can convey. The break into a pseudo-open-world in the second half remains a great design choice. World lore and character backstories are developed more in the second half during a series of vignettes discovered by exploring the world.
The Esper system is a decent jRPG system. It's an interesting way to balance learning magic with levelling up stats. However, I found that Esper stat boosts from level up are fairly low impact. A lot of damage and damage mitigation is based on character level, not stats. Sure, you could really min-max the boosts to make them impactful. An additional 30 STR is going to be noticed. The question remains though, "why?" I was able to beat the game around level 45 with a fairly un-optimized party and still managed to dish out 9999 damage on most of my attack turns.
All in all, I can't help but think about a kid forced to play this asking his dad, "This is what you went apeshit over in the mid 90s?"
Game gets 3 stars from me, plus a half star for the soundtrack, plus a half star adjusted for nostalgia and the game's age. 4/5.