FINAL FANTASY MARATHON RANKED:
https://www.backloggd.com/u/fragilant/list/final-fantasy-marathon-ranked/

I try so hard not to be the basic bitch but I must submit myself to Final Fantasy VI and embrace its greatness like everyone else.
There's so much to say about VI, but there's not a lot that hasn't already been said a million times before but I'm gonna say them anyway.

There really isn't a lot of games like this one, not in the series or outside of it.
6 games in and Square finally nail the execution of world building, character interactions and set pieces which results in so many memorable scenes that ended up being iconic, which wasn't really the case in the previous games outside of very few scenes.

The amazing opera scene, the Phantom train, and of course the World of Ruin which completely changes the game a little over the midway mark, and makes exploring 10x more exciting since a majority of scenes in the endgame are completely optional.
I absolutely loved recuriting back my squad a year later and seeing how their character has evolved, and you get so much good loot out of doing it. (I even accidentally killed Shadow and I actually thought you being able to miss a character was awesome af even though I missed the guy). Easily my favourite part of a game jam-packed with amazing parts.

These amazing parts wouldn't be as amazing if it wasn't for Square's masterclass of presentation here though, especially for the SNES.
My jaw hit the floor at many points due to how beautiful each scene was presented, including Uematsu's best score so far by a landslide.
It makes me a bit sad that one of the highest reviews on here is just a mod to the original SNES look of the game because I think the pixel remaster does an incredible job at being faithful to the original, and making everything so much more cinematic and breathtaking.
That orchestrated version of Searching for Friends might be the best song in the series, and I am not joking.

While I think the characters and story work really well most of the time, there are some times where having a cast of characters this big really hinders the immersion and even pacing.
Optional characters like Gogo and Umaro just feel completely useless, and since recruiting back your characters is completely optional, they don't really feel like they're a part of the overarching narrative anymore due to them being forced to just plaster a bunch of generic dialogue onto whoever is in the front of your party, but I am willing to take this for the amount of fun I was having at this point of the game so whatever.

I also don't think the game picks up until the opera scene, the part where you split up into 3 parties drags to me in particular.
After 5 hours I actually found myself thinking if I liked Final Fantasy V a good deal more than this game until it really started to click with me, if I had to guess it was right as that "Searching for Friends" remaster came on. I was splooging.

The biggest issue is that the game is piss easy, though.
I didn't die once until Kefka, and FF5 being fresh on my mind really made me notice this a lot more, but overall I am a narrative slut, so I don't mind if the gameplay takes a bit of a backseat for this since I know the battle systems do get a lot better again after this.

Final Fantasy VI really is as good as everyone keeps saying, even after all these years.
Out of the pixel era, it is the one that aged the best by far, and now that the remaster can breathe even more life into it, it will be a game that sets itself apart in my favourites.
I'm excited to get into the Playstation era now, but this was a perfect send off.