Final Fantasy VI (1994)

First I want to straight things up. Final Fantasy VI was renamed to Final Fantasy III when it came to America and now when it is re-released with Final Fantasy Anthology there may be missunderstandings about the name. But now you who didn´t know from before that Final Fantasy III in US is the same game as Final Fantasy VI is in Japan, will know it now. Alright, now to my review of this giant of games.

Story and Gameplay:

In the world, magic has been replaced with technology and the evil Empire is going to drain all Espers (magic beings not very different to humans) of their magic because magic is the source and way to power. And your task is to stop them from doing it. After about the half game the world destroys as we know it and the atmopsphere in the game gets darker and more rough. The other difference between World of Balance (before the world shatteres) and World of Ruin, (after the world is shattered) is that in World of Ruin the games isn´t linear at all and you can choose where and what you want to do by yourself. You are also able to explore and find out things about the characters, and you have freedom to decide in what order you want to do things and if you want to do them before you challenge the last boss or if you don´t want to do these sub-quests at all. Here comes a little explanation about 5 of the main characters:

Terra Brandford:
Age: 18
Special Ability: Morph
A young woman earlier enslaved by the Empire but now she seeks her own identity. Born with the gift of magic.

Locke Cole:
Age: 25
Special Ability: Steal
Prefers to be called "treasure hunter" instead of thief. Has a weakness for ladies who needs to be rescued.

Edgar Figaro:
Age: 27
Special Ability: Tools
Young king of Figaro castle. A real womanizer and a skilled mechanic.

Sabin Figaro:
Age: 27
Special Ability: Blitz
Twin brother to Edgar. Refused the throne because of his freedom and studied under the martial artist master Duncan, and of him he learned the Blitz techniques.

Shadow
Age: unknown
Special Ability: Throw
Comes and goes like the wind, his only real friend is his dog Interceptor who both helps him in battle and comfort him in his loneliness. Shadow is haunted by his own dreams and not much is known about him.

All characters have their uniqe ability or abilities. The thief, Locke has the ability "steal" and the Martial Artist, Sabin can do "Blitzes", you launch certain button combinations and he does one of his powerful "Blitz" attacks which do some of the most severe damage in the whole game. You choose yourself how the characters are equipped with shields, weapons and armors and you have total control of how good the characters will be. The story in this game is great, for one because of all the amazing characters and secondly for the great plot. The menu and battle system is similar to the one in FFVII and the earlier FF games, but here you gain magics with the help og Espers instead of materia, jobs or junction. When you equip a character with an Esper , he learns it´s special magics when he gets experience and magic points in battles. I you equip someone with the Ramuh esper for example he will learn lightning related magics like Bolt and Bolt 2. I think this is a great system of learning magics and I prefer it both over materia and junction.
Rating: 96%

Music and Sounds:

The soundtrack of Final Fantasy VI must be the most well written, beautiful and memorable soundtrack ever done for a videogame. There are funny tracks like "Spinach Rag" and "Johnny C Bad" that plays at funny moments but when the game gets seroius it shows it´s best side of music. The intro "Terra" is the best song Nobuo Uematsu, composer of all the FF games, have ever written and it also plays when you walk at the field, some world map themes get boring after a while but this song just get better and better. You could without lying say that Final Fantasy VI has one good track for every emotion or event. All characters got their own theme song and they all show a good image of the character, like Relm´s half sad and half happy theme and Locke´s "I´m here to the rescue" -alike. Even non playable characters like Rachel and Kefka got their own themes and that´s one thing that make this game so good, even the computer controlled characters and villains got their own personalities and goals.
Rating: 99%

Graphics:

The graphics may not be the best aspect of FFVI but you must remember that they were astonishing when the game was released a few years ago. The backgrounds in the fights are actually better looking than the ones in FFVII and the other graphics really suites the games, I must agree with them who say that graphics doesn´t matter in RPGs, at least as long as it doesn´t look like in the NES Final Fantasies. Here the characters are at least able to show their feeling with different faces and it goes fast in the battles. And if you want to take yourself through the citys real fast you should buy a pair of sprint shoes.
Rating: 69%

I think that Final Fantasy VI is the best in the series, it´s the most solid and the standard is pretty high through the whole game, it may not have the graphics from FFVIII, the coolness from FFVII or the storyline from FFIV but it´s still the best. Just because it´s Final Fantasy VI and it got something that we never will stop get fascinated by: beautiful music, the best gameplay you could buy for money and a character gallery good enough for 10 games more.
Overall rating: 97%

Be sure to check out our complete list of other Final Fantasy Reviews.