Final Fantasy VI Review 3

	Final Fantasy VI Review 3 by Elena99
	Member Rank: Palace Guard
	Posts: 2591
	Member Since: Wednesday 17th January 2001

Scores	Plot	Graphics	Sound	Game Mechanics	Replay Value	Overall Score
	5	4	4	4	4	9/10

Note: All scores on a five-point scale, with five being highest, except for the overall score, which is out of ten.

Introduction

Final Fantasy VI is a game created by Squaresoft, and was first released to the North American continent for the Super Nintendo in October of 1994. It was also re-released as part of Final Fantasy Anthology, for the Playstation, in 1999; this is an indication of how popular it was, and still is.

This game is in a fantasy setting, in a world where machines used to be common, but are no longer. People travel by foot, chocobo, or ship. Only two airships exist in the world at any given time, and the only living person seen operating these is a rich gambler. Royalty is one of the main forms of government in most lands, and people live simple lives in small towns.

The main government is called the Empire, situated in the city of Vector. This city is far more advanced then any others, and they are in possession of some rather alarming weapons, such as the Magi-Tek armour. This mecha is basically a melding of magic and machine. With this, a typical soldier is made several times stronger in terms of offense and defense, especially if the soldier is a magic user. Although magic users are rare these days, the Empire has somehow acquired a natural one.

Game Mechanics

Out of battle, the world map is easy to use, and getting in and around towns is simple - with a few exceptions. In the SNES version, you had to have a certain relic equipped called Sprint Shoes in order to run (ie: in order to get around without feeling like a snail crawling uphill in molasses). This was a minor setback, since you could find yourself in a situation where you didn't have a single member in your party with the relic, and ended up having to plod along slowly. They remedied this in the re-release, fortunately, and now you just need to press a button to run.

Other aspects, such as manipulation of the world around you (hitting switches, opening chests, talking to people) work very smoothly, with the exception of in the Anthology, where there is the occasional lag.

The battle system is good, though not too different than what we've come to expect from Final Fantasy (looking at FF5, FF4, etc). There's a row of four people, in a turn based battle, and the player selects a command for each to perform. Each character has individual strengths, weaknesses, and abilities, which gives reason for the player to select different party members, based on the enemy.

Although not everyone has natural magic, everyone can learn it using magicite (more about that soon), though not everyone is as naturally strong in it. So in the end, you have your natural high physical fighters (Sabin, Locke), your sword wielders (Cyan), your natural magic users (Terra, Celes) and plenty more, including Pictomancer Relm, and a sasquatch named Umaro.

The way characters can learn magic is through magicite, which are dead espers (espers being the equivalent of the FFX Aeons, FFIX Summons, FFVIII G.Fs, you get the idea). A character can learn Fire3, for example, by carrying around the Phoenix magicite. Each magicite has spells that can be learned, along with learning rates, and special bonuses (in certain ones). In battle, you get points (usually between 1 and 3) that allow you to get closer to learning the spell. For example, if you have a magicite with Fire and a learning rate of 10, and then you get 2 points in a battle, you would end up with 20 points toward the fire spell. From there, that character would just need 8 more points to learn Fire.

Some may think this would be a tedious system, that forces the player to level up a lot to get anywhere. However, magic is a very powerful force; what fun is it if anyone can get it easily? Also, if it's so powerful and great (and magic is very important and rare in this game), why should it be easily available? So while others may take away points for this, I would instead give points.

For other aspects of battle, there are various types of weapons available for different characters, and some weapons can only be used by certain characters. For example, Relm can't wield a spear, and Locke can't use a rod. The encounter rate can be rather high at times, though, which can make the game annoying. There is a relic called the Moogle Charm that helps this by stopping random battles, but you need to have Mog in your party to use it, and the player doesn't get it until later on.

Graphics

Although the game itself is limited by the graphics a SNES can provide, there were still a lot of well down backgrounds, detailed enemies and character sprites, and generally a pleasant display of images. Proof that a game doesn't need dazzling (and possibly seizure inducing) FMVs to look nice. The non-player controlled action scenes are, for the most part, well animated, though the small sprite size does occasionally prevent the player from really seeing what's going on.
In the Anthology version, there are some really nice FMVs, including shots of Locke Cole, Terra Branford, King Edgar, Sabin Figaro, Celes Chere, Shadow, and Kefka, all looking well done from what we've seen of character sketches. Aside from Terra, whose hair changes from green to yellow for the FMVs.
FF6 graphics aren't really anything that weren't seen before, but they were rather good, and the player definitely could stand looking at them for a long period of time.

Music

Music is one of the elements of FF6 that is most memorable. From the hauntingly beautiful opening theme, set in the background with magi-tek armour walking calmly through the snow in the Narshe area with ill intents, to the whimsically evil theme of Kefka, to the memorable Aria de Mezzo Caraterre played in the Opera House, there is much to be heard in the way of music here. Like many FF's, most characters, places and specific events have themes; Cyan's and Terra's are also easily recognized, as Cyan's theme is also the theme of Doma, and Terra's theme is present in other places. The battle and boss themes are good as well, though not a huge change from the typical battle theme.

Plot and Replay

Out of all the Final Fantasy games out there, the plot for FF6 still has something original going for it. Sure, there are the cliches: The sad, childishly innocent girl with magic powers that she doesn't know the source to, the evil villain who's trying to take over/destroy the world, the evil government fighting against the ragtag resistance group. But something in the way it's performed, and in the little additions everywhere, makes FF6 a very enjoyable game. You start out as Terra, walking through the mines of Narshe in magi-tek armour, with Vicks and Wedge, two confused, more or less innocent guards from the Empire with her. After plowing through the defenses of the town, you defeat one of it's guardians, Whelk, and then eventually find yourself in the presence of an odd creature, entombed in a rock of ice. The air is charged with electricity, your guards disappear, and then...you wake up in the house of a stranger who helped you, relieved of a controlling slave crown and barely able to remember your own name.

The main character can switch a lot, too, which I liked. Sometimes Terra is your main character, sometimes Locke, sometimes Celes. I don't know why they gave up this system in favour of having one character always the leader, and always there. For the rest of the game, the plot moves smoothly, giving you surprises, sadness, humour, and yes, still the cliches. But the rest of the game is so good, that doesn't even matter.

As for replay value, I've played this game at least a dozen times, and still love it. It's very, very replayable, though arguably the player isn't going to find much new each time. You can, however, decide to do certain events in a different order, which is nice.