Never again will a game rise that so easily spellbinds the gamers for generations on.It exceeds all the superlatives...
So, Final Fantasy III was actually the sixth game in this legendary series. It was the last 2D game of FF on a mainstream console. And perhaps unarguably FFVI as I would prefer it calling, defines the series in one nutshell of a game.
But, what was meant to be more of a tribute to series 2D farewell, turned out to be by far the greatest RPG on SNES and who knows even in 2D era.
FFVI setting clearly,itself gives away the mindset of SquareSoft (now Square Enix) while they were making it. They shifted FF into a post-Industrial Revolution period where steam engines and mechanical tools are a common sight.
But, what a masterpiece of a story they created. It was plain but yet is so engrossing that once you do get into the groove of it,you will forget to pee.
The story is perhaps the darkest of all the 2D RPG's and displays a cast of wonderfully artistic and interesting characters of 14. That itself, says it is the largest cast in an FF game yet.
The story is a usual FF typo with a new type of unique test. In the post-War of Magi that destroyed almost the entire mankind, the world is restoring slowly, replacing magic with advanced tools. But, it is then that the greed of Emperor Gestahl rises and he with his equally greedy generals goes to do the foolish. To repeat the mistake, that caused War of Magi a thousand years ago.
The game kickstarts with a couple of Empire soldiers and the Empire-controlled magician--Terra. Their objective is to steal the Esper from the neutral city of Narshe. Everything goes wrong, and there begins the story.
The game which will basically take a good 25 hours to complete for an expert ,is divided into two parts.
The first part of the game contains some of the most memorable moments of gaming history. And,in no way am I exaggerating. If you haven't heard about the famous Opera sequence, then you might as well be living under a cave.
GAMEPLAY :10/10: The gameplay battle system remains structurally the same as FFIV. There are a few additions here though. Like FFIV, where Rydia the summoner can summon certain powerful creatures.
In FFVI, these powerful magic creatures are called Espers.They include some of the old favorites like Ifrit, Shiva,Ramuh,Siren,Leviathan,Bahamut and some new one like Bismarck,Carpuncle.
Unlike FFIV,the power to summon these Espers doesn't remain restricted to any single character. Infact, all your 14 characters can use that power at some stage of the game. But, the true strength of this system is that you no longer need to summon Espers regularly to use their powerful magic.
In fact, you will learn magic from them. Each Espers has certain spells that could be learnt by gaining Ability Points from the battles. Also, the speed of learning a spell varies. Some simple spells like Cure, Silent etc can be learnt within a couple of battles whereas more powerful spells like Ultima,Flare etc. take a longer time.
To learn these spells,you will need to "Equip" these Espers. You can equip only one esper at a time.
There are also weapons and armor which could be bought from the Arsenal present in all the towns and cities. You will notice that there are a wider variety of weapons for individuals. Also, there are relics or "special items" which could be equipped to gain special abilities in the battle like automatically casting a Protect Shield on the character on which the relic is equipped.
But, it is clearly indicated that magic is given a more preference than physical attacks. Magic in FFVI is far more powerful and useful than the basic physical attacks.
Moving on to the characters and their special abilities. Like FFIV, there are unique special abilities for every one of the fourteen characters.
Terra, the protagonist can turn into an Esper (Trance Mode) and use devastating magic that can wreck your enemies.
Sabin, can use Blitz which is hand-to-hand martial arts, a tribute to Alpha Fighter because even it requires a circular motion of the D-pad.
Celes, the runic knight can use "Rune", which absorbs any kind of magic weak or strong and heals her.
Edgar, can use advanced tools like Crossbow, Chem Sprayer, Chainsaw etc.
Locke, is the thief who prefers to be called as treasure hunter.
There are many more like this but one thing I haven't mentioned here and won't because I don't want to spoil the fun for you, is the deeply-involving background stories, these 14 characters have. Some of them are more important than others, but still as it is an RPG it is purely your choice of who will be your party's protagonist. There are also many events in the game that force you to split your party. In some events, you are given choices to decide which party will do what. This is one of the major strengths of FFVI that it so easily weaves these different sub-stories and plots into one masterpiece of a story. Yes, certainly like most RPG's there will be a time before the final boss battle that you will have to train a lot, but that can be compensated.
Surprisingly, there is a lot you can do. The game includes it's fair amount of side-quests like the Dragon Neck Coliseum which is like a Battle Tower in Pokemon.
There is also an Auction House where you can get very rare items at a VERY high price.
GRAPHICS:10/10
Actually, FFVI had got some of the best visuals in a SNES game at the time of release. Sure, it no longer held that place once Chrono Trigger came out.
The overworld visuals were some of the cleanest examples of 2D graphics and even the cinematics or cutscenes that played at the Credits roll was also nicely done.
Applaud goes to Yoshitaka Amano for creating and designing a cast of wonderful and imaginative characters. Unlike, previous FF games, FFVI had it's fair share of non-humans, mainly the adorable Mog the Moogle and Umaro the Yeti.
Even, the new airship point of view was pretty nice, though the overworld graphics were still a little choppy it was nice to see a change.
There was even an inclusion of an overworld map which meant spending less time there.
But, you would wish you were more in overworld, the reason is upnext...
SOUND: 10/10:
It simply comes down to this. The soundtrack of FFVI simply is the BEST music heard by my ears so far in a game, and hell why not even outside it.
Long-time FF composer Nobuo Uematsu gave one of his best music to FFVI that has even been regarded by many critics as the Best Original Soundtrack EVER.
Some of them, are so soothing and funny that you cannot stop listening to them. You would at times forget about playing the game and stand there listening to the waving arias and melodies.
Of them all, some of my personal favorites are Shadow's Theme, which is simply perfect with the unforgettable whistling voice that wafts around the strings of guitar.
Then, there is Terra's theme which is even played slowly in a more melancholic manner in the Opening Omen 3. Terra's Theme also is the overworld music for Part One of the game.
Obviously, who can even forget the Opera scene which even Shakespeare would be proud of. Aria di Mezza Caraterre, is a creation of a genius that even breaks the cold heart of people like me in a warm soothing manner.
FFVI will be a game that will last for ages to come in my game as the one that I truly loved. And,if you own a SNES, I don't see any sane reason to avoid playing this legendary game that DESERVES a sequel.
Closing my eyes, I would give this a PERFECT TEN...
My first ever....PERFECT TEN goes to FFVI...