I’m writing this as someone who has a lot of nostalgia for FF6. It’s one of the games that helped grow my love for the RPG genre as a kid, even if I admit back then I never made it to RoW. Playing the game in full today, I’ve come to appreciate some aspects more while also becoming much more aware of its problems.
My main issues with the game stem from how there are simply too many characters. Terra, Locke, and Celes felt like they got the best screen time and character moments by far, but they only make up 3 of the 14 party members. That’s not to say they all have nothing going on, but I think it would have been much better if the cast size was reduced. This could have given more dedicated screen time to the other characters and really help flesh them out.
Having a large cast really hurt during the many sections where players get full freedom for who is in their party. Many lines of dialogue during these parts use more generic wording and won’t list the speaker’s name, so I can only assume these lines are completely the same no matter the characters you pick. Even if I don’t expect Square to account for every possible party combination, for me it really took away from the characters when I could see how easily they could be swapped around in these parts. These interchangeable lines also prevent characters from receiving more development, and as a result makes FF6 feel really inefficient with its time. If Square was so insistent that players get freedom for their party, there are a couple ways they could have gotten around these issues. One would be to write the story so that more/all of the playable cast travels as a group. Another would be to force at least 1-2 characters during these parts, something FF6 already does in other sections. These aren’t the only solutions, but they both would have helped Square more easily account for player choices, leading to more characters getting development.
I’ll also mention I played this game on the Ted Woolsey Uncensored Edition. This hack aims to clean up the script using a thorough analysis of multiple official and fan translations of the game. It’s been too long since I played the original SNES version to compare, but the TWUE script seemed good on its own. It also includes various bug fixes, QoL improvements, and addons like a sprint button, that last one being invaluable. I highly recommend anyone playing the game today use TWUE or the sprint button addon on its own due to how slow the normal walking speed is. Similarly, a turbo button to increase the game speed felt mandatory. It can really cut down on the tedium you feel from watching the same animations over and over.
Overall FF6 does have some good qualities, but there are many issues that stem from having too many playable characters. It really felt like Square was either rushed for development time and/or they wanted a large cast just for the sake of it. I can still recommend people play FF6 but I just find it difficult to recommend over many other RPGs.
My main issues with the game stem from how there are simply too many characters. Terra, Locke, and Celes felt like they got the best screen time and character moments by far, but they only make up 3 of the 14 party members. That’s not to say they all have nothing going on, but I think it would have been much better if the cast size was reduced. This could have given more dedicated screen time to the other characters and really help flesh them out.
Having a large cast really hurt during the many sections where players get full freedom for who is in their party. Many lines of dialogue during these parts use more generic wording and won’t list the speaker’s name, so I can only assume these lines are completely the same no matter the characters you pick. Even if I don’t expect Square to account for every possible party combination, for me it really took away from the characters when I could see how easily they could be swapped around in these parts. These interchangeable lines also prevent characters from receiving more development, and as a result makes FF6 feel really inefficient with its time. If Square was so insistent that players get freedom for their party, there are a couple ways they could have gotten around these issues. One would be to write the story so that more/all of the playable cast travels as a group. Another would be to force at least 1-2 characters during these parts, something FF6 already does in other sections. These aren’t the only solutions, but they both would have helped Square more easily account for player choices, leading to more characters getting development.
I’ll also mention I played this game on the Ted Woolsey Uncensored Edition. This hack aims to clean up the script using a thorough analysis of multiple official and fan translations of the game. It’s been too long since I played the original SNES version to compare, but the TWUE script seemed good on its own. It also includes various bug fixes, QoL improvements, and addons like a sprint button, that last one being invaluable. I highly recommend anyone playing the game today use TWUE or the sprint button addon on its own due to how slow the normal walking speed is. Similarly, a turbo button to increase the game speed felt mandatory. It can really cut down on the tedium you feel from watching the same animations over and over.
Overall FF6 does have some good qualities, but there are many issues that stem from having too many playable characters. It really felt like Square was either rushed for development time and/or they wanted a large cast just for the sake of it. I can still recommend people play FF6 but I just find it difficult to recommend over many other RPGs.