Final Fantasy 6 is a game with very interesting characters and those somehow make the game really immersive.
Summary
Nice graphics, and a beautiful soundtrack which unfortunately sounds not that good on the GBA/DS and really interesting characters and story make this game a great RPG.
The gameplay is pretty standard though (random encounters) and could potentially get repetitive, but luckily the battle system is solid enough to remain interesting throughout the game.
Gameplay
In FF6 you have to save the world....again. Although this sounds awfully cliché the story has got a lot more elements to it, especially thanks to the cool character design. It will really get you emotionally involved (o-p-e-r-a).
The main storyline (spoiler-free!!!) comes down to the following: 1000 years ago there was a great war and after this war magic dissappeared from the world. Now some madman is awfully close to recreating these events.
FF6 plays like a classic JRPG with a general overworld, separate towns/dungeons areas and a lot of random encounters. The battles are turn-based and use a time based battle system. This means that the time will keep flowing throughout the battle, and if a certain amount of time has passed one of your 4 characters in the battle or the enemy can issue an attack.
You can only use 4 characters at once in a battle, but you can 'recruit' many more in the game and at some times you'll have to play with multiple parties. The characters are an integral part of the story and as such keep the game interesting by their different attitudes and mindsets. Thiefs, Kings, you'll see them all!
Gameplay -wise the best thing are the relics and abilities. Like almost every other RPG you can equip your characters with nice weapons and shields next to levelling up to make them stronger. But this game will let you influence your stats by using abilities and relics. Relics can be seen like some kind of magic rings with some kind of cool effect significantly altering your chances in battles.
Abilities are both magic related and 'special-character-attacks' related. Magic can be learned by assigning espers (magical creatures) which sometimes will also boost your stats when levelling up. The special character attacks range from stealing to using high-tech weapons and really add to the depth of the turn-based battles.
For a classic RPG this game is actually pretty simple and won't require that much back-tracking just to level up!
Graphics
Great 2D graphics, although sometimes the perspective makes it hard to see where to go. The character sprites look great though, and the enemy design is pretty good as well.
The towns are pretty detailed and look great, but the overworld looks a little flat by today's standards.
Sound
A great and moving soundtrack coming a little distorted at times out of the GBA/DS boxes. Blaming this on the hardware is a little too simple as other GBA games can sound awesome. The tunes themselves though are absolutely stunning though and really help you get immersed in the game. A good indication of the quality of the score is that you can hear the villain's laughter in his theme and sadness or the sense of adventure etc. whenever appropriate!
Value
FF6 is a lengthy game with some very small extra optional quests which will give you some extra background info on the characters.
The game also has some extra dungeons after completion, but the real meat is the main game itself which is nothing short of amazing.
Closing comments
After several crystal-based Final Fantasies with little to nothing to offer on the story-side, FF6 is a great entry in the series. Finally a good story, and interesting characters instead of a dungeon crawling RPG (okay I'm a little exaggerating, though that is really true for FF1 and 2).
Play this game if you like RPGs, you won't regret it!