Have you ever found a game that not only it met all of your expectations,but it also exceeded it by a very long shot?
That was Final Fantasy VI for me,I used to say that KH2 was my favorite game of all time before,but not anymore.Don't get me wrong I still love KH2 but Final Fantasy 6 has captured my heart so much I couldn't put it anywhere but number 1
Final Fantasy VI is now my favorite video game of all time
I looooooooooooooooooove this game so much,the amount of emotions this game made me feel is undescribable and I was so surprised that I would love this game so much....yeah when I first played it I expected to love this game from all the positive stuff that was said about it....little did I know that this game is waaaaay better than what I've heard when I actually played it
Long ago the War of the Magi reduced the world into a wasteland and magic almost ceased to exist,or so everyone thought.Fast forward to a thousand years later,after the world started to slowly revive itself with steampunk technology,The Gestahlian Empire managed to find away to extract magic by harnessing the power of the Espers and drain their energy to produce,using it to strengthens the empire's dominance over the world.A Mysterious girl named Terra(who at the time was being controlled by a mage named Kefka),accompanied with two imperial soldiers has reached the village of Narshe to find the frozen esper that remained intact for a 1000 years after the War of the Magi,but upon discovering the Esper in the Narshe mines,it killed the two imperial soldiers but spared Terra's life.Terra was later found by Locke and the Returners who asked them to join their rebellion against the empire....and so our story begins.
The story starts with a very simple premise that you'd expect from a FF game in fact it kinda had a similar start to FF2 when Firion joins a rebellion against Emperor Mateus..........but as you progress the story gets soooooooooooooo much better and you'll meet so many allies and witness so many great moments that'll capture your heart.And the main cast of FF6 are some of the most relatable video game characters I've ever seen.....despite the game having a huge cast of 11 characters(I'm not counting Mog, Umaro and Gogo,they're optional),each and everyone of them has it's own backstory and unique personality that makes you relate to them,I loved Terra,Edgar & Sabin,Cyan,Gau,Shadow,Setzer,Relm,Strago....etc.Also,all of them has it's own musical theme that fits with their character and backstory and puts you back with them especially Cyan's theme
Sure they're sprites yeah,but they've and shown more emotions that most HD heroes out there at least on my opinion
..........I won't go on much further cuz I'm not good at long explanation sometimes,but bottomline is.This is my favorite story in any video game,it was such an emotional experience for me that I didn't have with most video games I've played(with a couple of exceptions mind you).
Also,FF6 has a great villain.Kefka Palazzo.who as of now is my favorite FF villain.In short,Kefka is sort of like the FF version of The Joker(from Batman) only with much more power.I really like Kefka's dialogue and one-liners in this game
This is a bit spoilerific but it's the reason why Kefka is my favorite FF villain and one of the greatest villains in gaming in my opinion
WARNING:Heavy spoilers,don't open the spoiler if you haven't played the game yet...I repeat don't open the spoilers if you haven't played the game yet
HE ACTUALLY WINS...HALFWAY THROUGH THE GAME ON TOP OF THAT!
right when you reach the halfway point of the game,Kefka manages to not only destroy the world,but he also became the god of magic....how many villains in video games that actually managed to win aside from winning in an optional bad ending?Sure after Kefka other villains came and did something similar...but not many...especially in the FF series,Sephiroth dropped a meteor,failed and only caused Geostigma,Ultimecia tried to destroy time,and failed....etc,the only villain in the FF series after Kefka that actually won was Caius Ballad......but we know how this ended so I won't go to details more than I did before
Still I love Caius and he was my previous No.1 but Kefka took that spot for me now.
Also,what I loved so much about the story is that...the characters didn't gave up on their world....they didn't see that as the end of all things.Instead they've combined their efforts and power to start rebuilding their world..... unlike some other games I know..wink wink nudge nudge THAT'S THE WAY IT SHOULD BE LRFFXIII....INSTEAD OF ABANDONING YOUR CURRENT PLANET OF PULSE,YOU COULD'VE FOUND A WAY TO STOP THE CHAOS AND SAVE PULSE INSTEAD OF SAYING:F*** OUR WORLD WE'RE GOING TO PLANET EARTH!!!
I love this story,it's epic sure but it's also simple to understand and relate to,with a great cast of memorable characters....it managed to be both an emotional and epic experience without the overcomplicated nonsense that we're used to see in most of Square's games nowadays...you can still make a great story with simple writing and this game is a huge testament to that in my eyes..... I just can't praise it enough so I'm gonna move on to the gameplay before I start repeating myself
The gameplay in Final Fantasy VI is kind of an evolved version of FFIV's gameplay and ATB system so most of the things I've explained in my FFIV review will apply here,except for a couple of new additions that started in FFV and continued to evolve in VI,VII and later entries in the series.
Similar to FFIV each character here has it's own abilities but here it's much more useful like Terra's ability to morph into her esper form which doubles the damage of her magic attacks,Sabin's blitz attacks which can deal a massive amount of damage,Cyan's sword techniques,Gau's rage ability which allows him to use the moves of the enemies you encounter in the game,Gogo's ability to mimic other characters in your party,Edgar's tools which varies from things like the Auto crossbow to the powerful chainsaw,Setzer's slot ability ....etc
Sure you can teach them magic spells later on(which I'll explain in a sec) but they have their own unique abilities that are related to their character and job class and that's one of the things I really love about this game
Speaking of magic,later in the game you'll be able to teach magic spells to your characters by equipping them with a magicite,magical stones that stores an esper inside it ,and when you level up your magicite high enough you'll learn the magic spells tied to said esper.Think of it like FFVII's materia system only that the spells you learn are tied to the esper that you equip to your character.
Alongside your regular equipment,you can also equip two Relics for each character,the effect of the Relics can vary from boosting certain stats,to allowing you to equip two weapons or attack twice or more than 3 times,nullify random encounters like Mog's Moogle charm....etc and each can be useful depending on how you use it or which character would make more use out of a specific relic
Some of this sounds complicated at first but trust me it's very simple and easy to understand and get into.
I really really love the world of FFVI,it feels way more welcoming and bigger than the previous FF games before with a good variety of sidequests in it.There are two different maps in the game,one for the first half and one for the second half,each has it's own set of sidequests and dungeons.What I like about some of the sidequests in this game is that some of it actually ties into the story as some have flashbacks of what happened to a certain character before the events of the game occured.
The difficulty in FF6 for me was really balanced as nothing feels too easy or too hard,though like FFVII sometimes both lean to the easy side a little bit more once you discover spells like Ultima
Overall I really enjoyed the gameplay of FFVI and the crazy setpieces some battles in the game had like the battle against the Phantom Train(where you can SUPLEX THE TRAIN ITSELF) and overall it's still tons of fun to play and just as accessible for new fans as FFIV
as for the graphics
For an SNES game at least it's a much needed improvement over the old sprites from IV and V.The background looks clear and clean,the sprites are much more expressive which helps the immersion.Also the game uses the SNES's mode 7 technology that's used in games like F-zero to showcase a pseudo 3D movement which is used while riding a chocobo or while flying with the airship
Overall the graphics looks very good,not as good as Chrono Trigger sure but it's still very nice to look at
Now let's get to my favorite part of the game aside from the story
The music....my god...oh my god this soundtrack is ABSOLUTELY FREAKIN AMAZING BEAUTIFUL AND AWESOME
Hands down FFVI has my favorite soundtrack in any video game...period
it's beautiful,it's epic,it's soothing,it's atmospheric,every single track in this game fits the events perfectly and the character themes like Terra's theme,Cyan's Theme,Celes's theme,Gau's theme,Edgar & Sabin's theme....etc every character theme is awesome and it puts you back into their stance and makes you feel as if you were with them.....heck even the optional three characters:Mog,Umaro and Gogo have their own themes as well
And don't get me started on how sad the track "Forever Rachel" feels
The entire soundtrack of this game is a masterpiece and I consider it Nobou Uematsu's finest and ultimate musical work and it made Uematsu my favorite music composer ever...I can listen to this soundtrack over and over and over again without getting bored of it
In case it hasn't been obvious enough.....I love this game to death
Final Fantasy VI is one of the very very very few games that managed to touch my heart and tap my emotions,it's one of the very few stories that made me actually cry and shed a tear for a video game character(alongside Crisis Core FFVII).For me I couldn't find any flaw that detracted me from experience,sure there are some but I didn't feel them as the game kept introducing great moments to me one after the other.
It's my favorite video game of all time,I used to say KH2 was my favorite but this game surpassed it for me by a very long shot especially in terms of story and music.
I won't give the game a specific rating cuz for me it's more than just a simple 1010 that I throw usually on most games I cherish
So I'll leave it to the one and only mighty Jontron to sum this whole review in one sentence
Special Thanks to:lulus1,Daniel Black,Twilight Roxas and everyone else who decided to visit the previous FFVI thread I made and see my experience with the game and helped me when I needed something
Y'know.........playing this game made me so happy....yet at the same time it made me feel very sad.....very sad at what happened to the franchise,but that's for another time and another thread
Have you ever found a game that not only it met all of your expectations,but it also exceeded it by a very long shot?
That was Final Fantasy VI for me,I used to say that KH2 was my favorite game of all time before,but not anymore.Don't get me wrong I still love KH2 but Final Fantasy 6 has captured my heart so much I couldn't put it anywhere but number 1
Final Fantasy VI is now my favorite video game of all time
I looooooooooooooooooove this game so much,the amount of emotions this game made me feel is undescribable and I was so surprised that I would love this game so much....yeah when I first played it I expected to love this game from all the positive stuff that was said about it....little did I know that this game is waaaaay better than what I've heard when I actually played it
Long ago the War of the Magi reduced the world into a wasteland and magic almost ceased to exist,or so everyone thought.Fast forward to a thousand years later,after the world started to slowly revive itself with steampunk technology,The Gestahlian Empire managed to find away to extract magic by harnessing the power of the Espers and drain their energy to produce,using it to strengthens the empire's dominance over the world.A Mysterious girl named Terra(who at the time was being controlled by a mage named Kefka),accompanied with two imperial soldiers has reached the village of Narshe to find the frozen esper that remained intact for a 1000 years after the War of the Magi,but upon discovering the Esper in the Narshe mines,it killed the two imperial soldiers but spared Terra's life.Terra was later found by Locke and the Returners who asked them to join their rebellion against the empire....and so our story begins.
The story starts with a very simple premise that you'd expect from a FF game in fact it kinda had a similar start to FF2 when Firion joins a rebellion against Emperor Mateus..........but as you progress the story gets soooooooooooooo much better and you'll meet so many allies and witness so many great moments that'll capture your heart.And the main cast of FF6 are some of the most relatable video game characters I've ever seen.....despite the game having a huge cast of 11 characters(I'm not counting Mog, Umaro and Gogo,they're optional),each and everyone of them has it's own backstory and unique personality that makes you relate to them,I loved Terra,Edgar & Sabin,Cyan,Gau,Shadow,Setzer,Relm,Strago....etc.Also,all of them has it's own musical theme that fits with their character and backstory and puts you back with them especially Cyan's theme
Sure they're sprites yeah,but they've and shown more emotions that most HD heroes out there at least on my opinion
..........I won't go on much further cuz I'm not good at long explanation sometimes,but bottomline is.This is my favorite story in any video game,it was such an emotional experience for me that I didn't have with most video games I've played(with a couple of exceptions mind you).
Also,FF6 has a great villain.Kefka Palazzo.who as of now is my favorite FF villain.In short,Kefka is sort of like the FF version of The Joker(from Batman) only with much more power.I really like Kefka's dialogue and one-liners in this game
This is a bit spoilerific but it's the reason why Kefka is my favorite FF villain and one of the greatest villains in gaming in my opinion
WARNING:Heavy spoilers,don't open the spoiler if you haven't played the game yet...I repeat don't open the spoilers if you haven't played the game yet
HE ACTUALLY WINS...HALFWAY THROUGH THE GAME ON TOP OF THAT!
right when you reach the halfway point of the game,Kefka manages to not only destroy the world,but he also became the god of magic....how many villains in video games that actually managed to win aside from winning in an optional bad ending?Sure after Kefka other villains came and did something similar...but not many...especially in the FF series,Sephiroth dropped a meteor,failed and only caused Geostigma,Ultimecia tried to destroy time,and failed....etc,the only villain in the FF series after Kefka that actually won was Caius Ballad......but we know how this ended so I won't go to details more than I did before
Still I love Caius and he was my previous No.1 but Kefka took that spot for me now.
Also,what I loved so much about the story is that...the characters didn't gave up on their world....they didn't see that as the end of all things.Instead they've combined their efforts and power to start rebuilding their world..... unlike some other games I know..wink wink nudge nudge THAT'S THE WAY IT SHOULD BE LRFFXIII....INSTEAD OF ABANDONING YOUR CURRENT PLANET OF PULSE,YOU COULD'VE FOUND A WAY TO STOP THE CHAOS AND SAVE PULSE INSTEAD OF SAYING:F*** OUR WORLD WE'RE GOING TO PLANET EARTH!!!
I love this story,it's epic sure but it's also simple to understand and relate to,with a great cast of memorable characters....it managed to be both an emotional and epic experience without the overcomplicated nonsense that we're used to see in most of Square's games nowadays...you can still make a great story with simple writing and this game is a huge testament to that in my eyes..... I just can't praise it enough so I'm gonna move on to the gameplay before I start repeating myself
The gameplay in Final Fantasy VI is kind of an evolved version of FFIV's gameplay and ATB system so most of the things I've explained in my FFIV review will apply here,except for a couple of new additions that started in FFV and continued to evolve in VI,VII and later entries in the series.
Similar to FFIV each character here has it's own abilities but here it's much more useful like Terra's ability to morph into her esper form which doubles the damage of her magic attacks,Sabin's blitz attacks which can deal a massive amount of damage,Cyan's sword techniques,Gau's rage ability which allows him to use the moves of the enemies you encounter in the game,Gogo's ability to mimic other characters in your party,Edgar's tools which varies from things like the Auto crossbow to the powerful chainsaw,Setzer's slot ability ....etc
Sure you can teach them magic spells later on(which I'll explain in a sec) but they have their own unique abilities that are related to their character and job class and that's one of the things I really love about this game
Speaking of magic,later in the game you'll be able to teach magic spells to your characters by equipping them with a magicite,magical stones that stores an esper inside it ,and when you level up your magicite high enough you'll learn the magic spells tied to said esper.Think of it like FFVII's materia system only that the spells you learn are tied to the esper that you equip to your character.
Alongside your regular equipment,you can also equip two Relics for each character,the effect of the Relics can vary from boosting certain stats,to allowing you to equip two weapons or attack twice or more than 3 times,nullify random encounters like Mog's Moogle charm....etc and each can be useful depending on how you use it or which character would make more use out of a specific relic
Some of this sounds complicated at first but trust me it's very simple and easy to understand and get into.
I really really love the world of FFVI,it feels way more welcoming and bigger than the previous FF games before with a good variety of sidequests in it.There are two different maps in the game,one for the first half and one for the second half,each has it's own set of sidequests and dungeons.What I like about some of the sidequests in this game is that some of it actually ties into the story as some have flashbacks of what happened to a certain character before the events of the game occured.
The difficulty in FF6 for me was really balanced as nothing feels too easy or too hard,though like FFVII sometimes both lean to the easy side a little bit more once you discover spells like Ultima
Overall I really enjoyed the gameplay of FFVI and the crazy setpieces some battles in the game had like the battle against the Phantom Train(where you can SUPLEX THE TRAIN ITSELF) and overall it's still tons of fun to play and just as accessible for new fans as FFIV
as for the graphics
For an SNES game at least it's a much needed improvement over the old sprites from IV and V.The background looks clear and clean,the sprites are much more expressive which helps the immersion.Also the game uses the SNES's mode 7 technology that's used in games like F-zero to showcase a pseudo 3D movement which is used while riding a chocobo or while flying with the airship
Overall the graphics looks very good,not as good as Chrono Trigger sure but it's still very nice to look at
Now let's get to my favorite part of the game aside from the story
The music....my god...oh my god this soundtrack is ABSOLUTELY FREAKIN AMAZING BEAUTIFUL AND AWESOME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKnvKa5N410
Hands down FFVI has my favorite soundtrack in any video game...period
it's beautiful,it's epic,it's soothing,it's atmospheric,every single track in this game fits the events perfectly and the character themes like Terra's theme,Cyan's Theme,Celes's theme,Gau's theme,Edgar & Sabin's theme....etc every character theme is awesome and it puts you back into their stance and makes you feel as if you were with them.....heck even the optional three characters:Mog,Umaro and Gogo have their own themes as well
And don't get me started on how sad the track "Forever Rachel" feels
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM1xWXsPXFQ
The entire soundtrack of this game is a masterpiece and I consider it Nobou Uematsu's finest and ultimate musical work and it made Uematsu my favorite music composer ever...I can listen to this soundtrack over and over and over again without getting bored of it
In case it hasn't been obvious enough.....I love this game to death
Final Fantasy VI is one of the very very very few games that managed to touch my heart and tap my emotions,it's one of the very few stories that made me actually cry and shed a tear for a video game character(alongside Crisis Core FFVII).For me I couldn't find any flaw that detracted me from experience,sure there are some but I didn't feel them as the game kept introducing great moments to me one after the other.
It's my favorite video game of all time,I used to say KH2 was my favorite but this game surpassed it for me by a very long shot especially in terms of story and music.
I won't give the game a specific rating cuz for me it's more than just a simple 1010 that I throw usually on most games I cherish
So I'll leave it to the one and only mighty Jontron to sum this whole review in one sentence
Special Thanks to:lulus1,Daniel Black,Twilight Roxas and everyone else who decided to visit the previous FFVI thread I made and see my experience with the game and helped me when I needed something
http://kh13.com/forum/topic/72154-im-playing-final-fantasy-vi-now/
Happy 20th Anniversary Final Fantasy VI
Y'know.........playing this game made me so happy....yet at the same time it made me feel very sad.....very sad at what happened to the franchise,but that's for another time and another thread
Edited by Red Tribal