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Final Fantasy VI-- Retroview |
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The One, The Only. My Favorite.
By: Castomel
Review Breakdown |
Battle System |
9 |
Interface |
9 |
Music/Sound |
10 |
Originality |
10 |
Plot |
6 |
Localization |
10 |
Replay Value |
9 |
Visuals |
9 |
Difficulty |
Medium |
Time to Complete |
35-60 hours
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Overall |
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Criteria
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I can still remember the first time I played Final
Fantasy VI. In fact, I still have the first game I ever played saved on
the cartridge. I know the save battery's probably going to fail pretty
soon, but it's still nice to have it on there, to be able to look back
fondly at the game I've loved from the moment I first played it, the way
I played it that first time. Quite simply, FFVI is a masterpiece, and
I have yet to play a game that has engaged me as much.
Final Fantasy VI begins with a bang, as you, playing
as the lovely(albeit slightly zombified)???????, Vicks, and Wedge, (in
their debut appearance), are wandering the snowy reaches of Narshe, presumably
for fun and profit. I can't see why else you'd want to wander around in
MagiTek armour; after all, though it certainly LOOKS cool, your range
of options are much more limited than with conventional attacking. This
is one area where Final Fantasy VI branches out over its predecessors.
With a greatly improved battle system over either FFV or FFIV, this game,
though some may complain it is too customizable, also offers one of the
many incarnations of the ATB. This, of course, entails waiting around
impatiently for your little gauges to fill up so you can do any number
of things. There are as many abilities as there are characters, as well
as the traditional fight, magic, and item. This broad array of choice
succeeds admirably in laying the groundwork for the future incarnations
of this system we would come to know and fight about.
Final Fantasy VI also features what I feel is the best menu
system in any Final Fantasy game. Easy to manouver through and yet offering
a wide and comprehensive array of options, it offers an optimal mix of
simplicity and choice. The only reason I don't give it a ten here is because
of the horrible, horrible chocobo background colour scheme, which, if
used, is an invitation to epileptic seizure. Don't say I didn't warn you!
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Swampwater: Revitalizing the weak and weary since 1745
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The music in this game, quite simply, is incomparable.
This is the best soundtrack that Nobuo Uematsu has put together, plain
and simple. Almost every track is memorable, and the sound makes optimal
use of the SNES's capabilities. Many of the songs lend emotion to the
scenes and characters, and the game just wouldn't be the same without
the music as it is. Truly the best part of this game, the music has yet
to be matched, in my eyes.
Final Fantasy VI was a huge improvement over previous
games in the series. Not only did it introduce an element of non-linearity,
but it also introduced many extras into the game that had not existed
before. Side-quests, the coliseum, the auction house, even the opera scene;
each of these had no parallel in prior games, and set the foundation for
the many extras that would subsequently be included in the series, such
as the prolific mini-games that permeated Final Fantasy VII. At the same
time, however, it managed to retain all the basic elements of the previous
entries in the series; in short, the combination of old and new elements
merged to provide an excellent experience.
Final Fantasy VI does have a somewhat conventional plot; what sets the story
apart is the growth of the relationships between the characters. There is
actually surprisingly detailed attention paid here, given the large number
of characters. The storyline itself begins in somewhat rudimentary fashion,
borrowing some basic elements from Secret of Mana(fortunately, Square has
largely abandoned the evil emperor/more evil sidekick scheme since then)
and then, though the body of the story is unique in itself, the end is also
rather pedestrian, with a good, old-fashioned maniac raining destruction
on the earth and threatening all that is good. These somewhat thin elements
aside, the plot is still adequate; the characterization is admirably done,
and the gameplay is more critical to the game than anything else.
Why Square did not retain Ted Woolsey's services, in light of such
translation debacles as FFT or (somewhat less prominently) FF7 is a mystery,
because Final Fantasy VI has one of the best translations ever. Moreover,
the game is perfectly localized, and aside from the occasional son-of-a-submariner(which
I suspect is largely censorship more than anything else), there are no
glaring oddities in the dialogue. This is how a game SHOULD be localized,
and it is a shame that things regressed to the level of tortured thieves.
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The neighbours are lousy, but what a view! |
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By virtue of the open-ended nature of the story a
good deal of replay value exists. Since there is a wide variety of items,
abilities, and even several optional quests that can be embarked upon,
playing through the game several times may not even be sufficient to truly
find everything. Add to that the degree to which the characters can be
customized, and it becomes evident just how good this game is in this
regard.
For its day, Final Fantasy VI had very good graphics. The world map especially
made optimal use of the technology available at the time, taking things
one step further than strictly 2 dimensions. The battle graphics were
also the effective pinnacle of the SNES's capabilities; even later titles
failed to make significant improvements over what was seen in this game.
On a more aesthetic level, the colour scheme suited perfectly the mood
of the game; in the World of Balance, things were lush, and green was
the colour in most evidence, while in the World of Ruin, more browns and
greys were used more. These are the little things that help further a
game's quality, and are part of what makes Final Fantasy VI such a great
game.
Occasionally, Final Fantasy VI can be a bit of a pain; sometimes, the
level of coordination involved in some of the multiple battles can present
a challenge, and there are occasional bosses that are fairly powerful.
Particularly, a certain Wrexsoul had me ripping my hair out for about
an hour before I figured out the trick to beating him.... That said, after
a certain point, your characters should be powerful enough to withstand
anything(if nothing else, hammering everything unfortunate enough to cross
your path with judicious doses of Ultima should be enough to keep even
the nastiest of monsters out of your hair) and things get considerably
easier.
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Magitek Armour |
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Final Fantasy VI is, in my opinion, the pinnacle of RPGs, and has every
element a good game should possess. The music and graphics are very well
done, though not excessively flashy, the story is prominent but not overdone,
and everything else shines. Most importantly, it is a great deal of fun
to play, and it does take a fair amount of time to complete- about 35
hours if you breeze through it and, according to Squaresoft "100
hours" of gameplay can (somehow) be wrung out of it. Without parallel
before or after, this game is definitely worth taking the time to play,
if you haven't already.
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