The greatest RPG to have graced gaming
One thousand years ago, a war between humans and Espers, known as the 'War of the Magi', resulted in the near complete vanishment of magic, until one day, it died out. Now, however, machines have paved the way for a new civilisation, by which people need not have to live with the potent threat of magic. There are still those few people who strive to revive the destructive force, and possibly bring about ruin. What will happen if this force known as 'magic' is revived? Could it bring the destruction of the world?
The most part of this game is seen through the eyes of a young slave of the Gestahlian Empire called Terra Branford. She was sent down to investigate the appearance of an Esper in the mining town of Narshe. The Esper causes her two companions to vanish, but Terra is simply knocked unconscious. Because of being a slave of the Empire, she lost her memory and tries to get it back. However, on her journey she re-encounters the Esper on Narshe, and is entranced and takes on the form of an Esper. She returns to her human form soon after, and regains some of her memory. Much more about her, however, is still to be known throughout the game.
The one who enslaved Terra was the right-hand man of Gestahl - Kefka Palazzo. A psychopathic clown with a god complex, he takes pleasure in destruction and murder. Often acting against his superior's will, as well as the will of others, he poisoned the water which flowed into Doma Castle, killing everyone but one man. He even attempts to burn down a castle just trying to find Terra (how does stone burn?). If it involves killing in order to get something, Kefka will do it, especially his aim of upsetting the balance of the world and attaining all of the Esper Magicite.
Along the journey, Terra encounters a number of allies throughout the game. Some of the party include a "treasure hunter" called Locke Cole, a young king of Figaro Castle called Edgar Roni Figaro and his monk brother Sabin Rene Figaro, a loyal knight of Doma Castle called Cyan Garamonde, a former Magitek general called Celes Chere, and young ninja known as Shadow, alongside a number of other characters.
There are four guest characters who you encounter during your quest. Two are with you at the very start of the game - they are Magitek Knights known as Biggs and Wedge. Both characters aren't entirely important to the storyline, since both characters are supposedly banished very very early on in the game. Another character is Banon, who is the leader of a resistance group called the Returners, and pledges to abolish the Gestahlian reign of the World of Balance. Lastly is a character who fights by themselves, and is a General to the Gestahlian Empire who rebels after Gestahl falsifying the peace agreement between the Empire and the Returners, but his rebellion results in him being personally killed by Kefka.
Battle mechanics. Every RPG I've played has battle mechanics of some description. In Final Fantasy VI, these work as so:
In dungeons, the World Map, or other areas in the game, you can encounter enemies at random moments. Once you encounter these enemies, you go straight to a battle screen, which shows your party members fighting the enemy on the upper section of the screen. On the lower section of the screen are the enemies' names, the characters' names, their health, and if you choose in the options, an ATB gauge.
The ATB System (also known as 'Active Battle Time') is a system which changes the game completely. First used in Final Fantasy IV, once time gradually passes, a character can use their turn to perform an action. Once a command has been entered, a character, depending on the action input, will take their turn either immediately (with physical attack or items), or will allow for the command to charge before it can be used (goes for magical attacks or summons, and most abilities).
The commands which can be input after the ATB gauge for a character fills up are 'Attack', 'Magic', the character's specific ability, and 'Item'. 'Attack' simply attacks the enemy with the weapon you have equipped, and its power is equal to its battle power. 'Magic' is an ability that is open only to Terra and Celes initially, but every character will be able to use magic later on in the game. Once a magic command is selected, depending on its power, it'll charge for a few seconds, and once it is fully charged it will initiate. Selecting a characters' ability command will allow that character to perform their specific ability (which will be touched upon later). 'Item' is simply a command where you can use an item to heal or inflict damage to an opponent, or switch weapons in the menu.
If you press left in the menu, you get an option to change the row which your character is stood. If you press right, you can choose to defend.
Characters are set in two rows: a back row, and a front row. Those in the front row can use physical attacks at their full power, but are more susceptible to damage from the enemy. Those in the back row will be better defensively, but their physical attacks reduce a little in power and accuracy. Magic attacks aren't affected. Ideally, you want physical attackers in the front row and the weaker mage characters in the back row for balance.
At the end of a battle, if you win, you will get experience points, money, and after you reach a certain point, Magic Points.
This game's magic system is somewhat different to what other games in the series have used. In Final Fantasy VI, through the game you can encounter different Espers, which are magical creatures from another world. These Espers can be taken up by the party and used as summons in battle, or to learn different magic spells.
As I mentioned a little earlier, Terra and Celes are the only magic users in the game when they start. After a certain point, however, anyone will be able to use magic. At that point, you'll start to earn Magic Points after battle. The Magic Points are not used to cast spells, but to learn spells.
Each Esper has a small spell set which you can learn spells with. Each spell has a different rate at which it is learned, and is completely learned once you earn enough Magic Points for that spell. Espers can give every single spell in the game, so you can try to level up to the point where you have every single spell in the game for each character. That can take a while, though, since there are over 50 spells which can be learned, and from 32 Espers.
Every Esper can be summoned by battle, but can only be summoned once in each battle. Each Esper has a unique ability, from a earth-shattering earthquake, to one of my favourite abilities: instantly killing an enemy and turning them into an item (that happens to be known as Ragnarok). Espers really can turn the tide of battle.
Each ability is unique in a few different respects. Terra has an ability called 'Morph' (in later versions it was called 'Trance'), which turns her mid battle into an Esper, which will double all damage she deals, and half the magic damage she takes. It's a really useful ability, especially fairly late on in the game. Other characters' abilities include using a sword to absorb a single magic attack, or to paint a copy of the enemy and use its moves against it, or an ability can be used to abuse a somewhat amusing glitch involving Sabin's "Suplex" Blitz, and the Phantom Train, which is one of the earlier bosses in the game.
Some abilities can be exceptionally beneficial in battle, like Sabin's Blitz abilities and Strago's Blue Magic abilities, but some can be a double edged sword (sometimes literally), like Celes' Runic ability, and Gau's Rage ability (which allows him to take on the role of any monster he has met on the Veldt before).
The game isn't all about battle, though. It involves a good chunk of exploration, as well. As in good old RPG fashion, there are a good few dungeons to explore, and a good few quests to do. It's a large world where you can do a good few things. Though, I spent most of my game time grinding for levels (I have an addiction to that).
Of course, if you're aiming to get 100% on everything, exploration is a must. If you don't explore, then that already increases how incomplete the game will feel.
The world map is the base for all operations. Within the world map, there are continents and islands, upon which are mountains, forests, towns, dungeons and castles. It really is a populous world, and it feels all the more realistic with its perspective in play. The Mode 7 capabilities of the SNES enabled for a slight added touch of realistic perspectives. And the detail put into the environment is amazing, and it makes you feel you really are living in the world of Final Fantasy VI.
By exploring, you can attain extra weapons, and many more Espers (my first playthrough, I don't think I got as much as half the total Espers in game). It's a really good way to level up as well, since you'll be a lot more active in the game than if you were just doing the main adventure and seeing it through to the end.
I think I may have gone overboard with the game mechanics… So instead, let's start talking about some of its more impressive features! Starting with…
The music. This is perhaps my favourite thing about this game. The music in this entire game is just so spectacular, and enthralling! In fact, what more ought to be said other than this game has Nobuo Uematsu as its composer. I really don't need to say any more than that, since Nobuo Uematsu is a game soundtrack god.
One of the best pieces of music in the game, and as agreed by a number of fans of the series, is the final boss theme, titled 'Dancing Mad'. It is a four-part epic that will even put 'One-Winged Angel' from Final Fantasy VII to shame. It consists of four parts, as I just said, and each part of the boss theme represents the four themes of Kefka's desire for cataclysm and oblivion, his constant surge of insane feelings, his sacrilegious intent, and his ascendance to becoming the god of magic. As a matter of fact, the final boss is symbolic in itself.
Nobuo Uematsu genuinely outdid himself with this soundtrack. The amount of dedication to get every single thing right and to make sure it fit in with the scenario must have been strenuous, and for his soundtrack for this game, I have grand respect for him.
Next up are the graphics. Now, I know what you are all thinking: "This is an SNES game! What graphics could you possibly comment on!" Well, to that, I shall respond with this being a great test of what the SNES can do.
We've seen that it can handle 3D stuff easy (Star Wing, if you're wondering what I am referring to) and can turn pixels into something supremely natural (refer to Super Metroid for that), and this game has extremely well-detailed worlds and the Mode 7 systems of the SNES compliment it with a slight hint of 3D-ness when you are flying an airship. It's really cool to see the world actually feel like you're flying in a plane as if it were the real world. It's really cool, and it's one of the first games to use the SNES's Mode 7 capabilities to that effect.
I also want to talk about how memorable the entire story is. Because it really is. In fact, it's only taken me one playthrough to remember most of the events of what happened in the game. Heck, that playthrough ended a couple of months back and spanned a few months itself…
There is so much emotion in this game that it could almost be considered a Shakespearean tragedy. One of the most infamous scenes in the game involved Celes, the Magitek general, awakens on the World of Ruin after Kefka's folly, to find her only family – her adoptive grandfather – dying along with the rest of the world. As such, she runs to the top of a cliff. A seagull flies in with Locke's bandana on it, and she assumes the worst, which in turn causes her to fall off the edge of the cliff.
This scene is one of the most infamous in gaming because at the time of its release, Nintendo of America wouldn't allow any graphic death scenes to be shown in their games (they were still included in Japan, as well as a couple of amusing sexual references here and there), and Ted Woolsey, the game's translator, simply dismissed this scene as Celes taking a 'leap of faith', which, especially for Nintendo of America's standards, is stupid. It's quite graphically obvious that this is an attempt at suicide, not a 'leap of faith'.
Of course, I have a couple of discrepancies with this game (naturally).
One of which is a particular moment half-way through the game as you are flying to the Floating Continent. As you are flying to it, you will encounter a good number of enemies, which can be a severe pain if you are unprepared.
Also, I am amazed at how little attention this game has managed to garner in comparison to Final Fantasy VII or X. Sure, both of those games are great, I won't deny. But I think it's a little unfair for a game of this kind to be disregarded in such a way. It's a huge shame, it really is.
Nevertheless, I am willing to overlook the little blemishes that may mar the finish of this fine game. Heck, I would go as far to say that this game is near flawless (of course, there IS no completely flawless game…) and say that this is the perfect game (again, probably isn't going to happen).
In conclusion, Final Fantasy VI is THE gem of the SNES era, and has stood the test of time since its release in 1994.