As far as the story and themes of FFVI goes, there isn't much I can say that probably hasn't been said vastly better before. I think it's one of, if not the absolute top, best games in the series on a thematic level. It still carries a bit of the narrative and character simplicity the rest of the early FF games do, but it uses that to it's advantage to tell a story much bigger than any individual character in it and creates a very empathetic and human story about the world at large that's mirrored in it's large and varied cast.
However, of the first 6 FF games, 4 of which I've finished, it's probably in the bottom half of my experience actually playing it. This was obvious my first time going through, but even more my second playthrough where I tried to do everything. I feel, especially compared to V, it sacrifices creativity and fun of gameplay systems, for the story and characters it's trying to achieve. It's essentially a mirror of the same dynamic III and IV had earlier, of which I also enjoy playing III significantly more despite it's glaring faults. I honestly probably enjoy III more than VI honestly.
As opposed to the really creative and rich adaptive Job system V has, VI answers this with a very large cast of characters that fill different roles. There's parts of the game this aspect shines, especially towards the end when you can really adapt and choose different combinations that should always include Mog no matter what if you're a real one. Conversely there's many many parts of the game that railroad you in to using specific characters for narrative's sake and it was personally grating to me quite a bit. The lack of anything unique in the combat other than having a bunch of characters you can't even choose most of the game makes it one of the more bland time turn based systems I've ever experienced personally.
With that said it absolutely is one of the games where the story saves it enough for me to not remotely dislike it. It's more a personal issue I have with actually playing an otherwise great game so it's something I have to acknowledge.
However, of the first 6 FF games, 4 of which I've finished, it's probably in the bottom half of my experience actually playing it. This was obvious my first time going through, but even more my second playthrough where I tried to do everything. I feel, especially compared to V, it sacrifices creativity and fun of gameplay systems, for the story and characters it's trying to achieve. It's essentially a mirror of the same dynamic III and IV had earlier, of which I also enjoy playing III significantly more despite it's glaring faults. I honestly probably enjoy III more than VI honestly.
As opposed to the really creative and rich adaptive Job system V has, VI answers this with a very large cast of characters that fill different roles. There's parts of the game this aspect shines, especially towards the end when you can really adapt and choose different combinations that should always include Mog no matter what if you're a real one. Conversely there's many many parts of the game that railroad you in to using specific characters for narrative's sake and it was personally grating to me quite a bit. The lack of anything unique in the combat other than having a bunch of characters you can't even choose most of the game makes it one of the more bland time turn based systems I've ever experienced personally.
With that said it absolutely is one of the games where the story saves it enough for me to not remotely dislike it. It's more a personal issue I have with actually playing an otherwise great game so it's something I have to acknowledge.