Final Fantasy VI is sort of in the same category as games like Resident Evil 4 and Mega Man 2 where I don't really think I have to say anything, because everything has already been said about it many times over. You know the game, I know the game, we all at least like it to some extent and can say that the opening with the Magitek armors walking in the snow towards Narshe while Terra's theme plays is a 5/5, the opera house sequence is bizarre but iconic, the soundtrack is probably the best on the entire SNES, and the big twist is very cool, and in many ways both the best and worst thing about the game.

I do actually want to say at least something about the game's second half. I know a lot of people really don't like it and think the game falls apart at that point, and I sort of agree, but I also find it so interesting. First half is a pretty standard Final Fantasy where plucky rebels are fighting evil empire that are trying to take over the entire world, people die along the way and there's some weird tonal shifts that do not work super well (like going from Cyan's introduction and then straight to the super goofy Phantom Train), but make the game just a bit more endearing and chaotic.

Then the game ends halfway through. I mean, it even was supposed to end there for real, but development went so well that Square had the time to add even more, and so we got World of Ruin (at least according to the Final Fantasy Wiki, and I feel like that's a pretty trustworthy source.) It has to be said that this second half is way too ambitious for what Square could do on the SNES, and probably also with less development time and sleep than they needed to really succeed in everything. Mainly in the way that character interactions barely exist, with Sabin not even reacting when his brother Edgar shows up alive and well after the party has been separated for a year, and some ways to re-recruit party members are way too obscure. Everyone fights in the same party and to defeat Kefka, sure, but they really do not care for one another, not even when being reunited, with the party leader just getting some stock line no matter who it is or who they're speaking with, which is kind of a shame when the ensemble cast of characters (except for Umaro, Gogo and Gau. I will not tolerate Mog being included among these) are so strong in their own right, but they all exist in their own little worlds into which no one else can be invited. This sort of sours the experience of getting the party back together again, and is honestly the main reason why I could see an FF6 remake from the ground up could be a good idea.

But it's also fantastic, because the game's technically over already, or the main story is. I don't think I appreciated this fact enough when I was younger, but having the second half of a game basically being its epilogue where you just tie up loose ends in a world that probably can't be saved is so compelling, especially in how NPCs react just like the player, with nostalgia over how it used to be and how, even though the world was awful before, it was a safer place and people took their lives and homes for granted. Now, everything is falling apart, people are looking for any joy in life, and without the empire being around anymore, there isn't really a common goal for most to fight against, so what's even the point of living anymore when everything is soon going to end anyway?

And the party that we've grown to love in the World of Balance are just like everyone else! Their main adversary is destroyed, they've all been separated and have no idea whether any of their comrades survived, so they just went on with their business, chasing their dreams with the time they had left, finding themselves or completely giving up because everything and everyone they once had is gone. But, and despite my issues with character interactions I think this says a lot about their bond to each other, as soon as they are reunited (and I really do appreciate how the game really doesn't give clear pointers on how to find most of them, since you can't possibly know whether they're even alive at this point. You just wander the world and hope for the best), they immediately go back to working together not really to save the world, but to at least try to make things better, hope for the best, and get another shot at stopping what they couldn't before. Even the ending, which I absolutely love, that ends on an optimistic note, doesn't really assure you that the world is healing, but that despite everything and how hopeless things seem maybe life can work out after all, even in the apocalypse.

The game is about carpe diem, is what I'm trying to say.