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 didnīt 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 isnīt 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 donīt 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
itīs 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 itīs 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 Relmīs half sad and half happy theme
and Lockeīs "Iīm here to the rescue" -alike. Even non playable characters like
Rachel and Kefka got their own themes and thatīs 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 doesnīt
matter in RPGs, at least as long as it doesnīt 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, itīs 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 itīs still the best. Just because itīs 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%
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