This is how rpg's should be made.
Gameplay: 9
The gameplay in this game is brilliant. It is of course a final fantasy game, so the menu's and control's are the same as usual. The difference is the variety of ways this game brings the action to you. This helps keep the game entertaining. It is always very easy to get into and very fast paced while still being challenging. There were only a couple areas in the game I felt dragged on to long and got tedious. The battle system is once again a typical turn based battle system with your characters on one side and your enemies on the other (unless you attack or get attacked from both sides). As I said before though, most battles in this game are extremely fast paced, which is something I like. This is because it has the same active time battle system as ff7. There is magic, attack, and item commands like always, but what makes this game unique is skills and espers. Every character in this game has their own unique set of skills that know other character has. This successfully gives every character a unique feel and reason to use or not use them. Espers are the summons in this game and not only do you use them as summons, but characters can learn magic from espers when they are equipped to that character. With all these different ways to go about winning the fast paced battles final fantasy 6 easily has one of my favorite battle systems ever, it is just plain fun. The only reason I marked gameplay down was due to some cheap tactics you can use to get through the game, as well as some of the cheap and frustrating moves enemies have.
Graphics: 8
The graphics are snes, so they were pretty good for their time. I have seen better on the snes though, such as that of Chrono Trigger or Mario rpg. They get the job done very well though, and that is all that matters.
Sound: 9
The sound in this game is fantastic. The music almost always fits the situation and sways your emotions the way it is supposed to. The music for the final battle is especially some of the best I have ever heard. With that being said, there are limitations to snes sound. It was all done using poly type sounds, and as masterfull as it was, I can only give it a 9.
Value: 9
I beat this game in 30 hours and completed most of the sidequests. Therefore, compared to more recent final fantasy's this game is much shorter. That is not always a bad things though. More happens in the 30-40 hours of this game, then in the 60-80 hours of other games. I personally appreciate games like that. And if you want to their are ways you can spend many more hours playing this game, I just chose not to.
Tilt: 10
The story is this game kept me entertained from start to finish. And just like I said before this, a lot happens in a short amount of time in this game. This is definitely the selling point for this game, but the biggest reason for that is because of all the characters.
Their are more characters in this game than any other final fantasy, at least to the best of my knowledge. There is a total of 14 playable characters, and the game does and extremely good job of giving you a lot of back story on almost all of them, at least the main ones (which is like 11 of them). All the characters are interesting and fun, and they are almost all very useful in battle which is also very important. Final fantasy six also has one of the best villains ever, whom you probably already know of. All in all, this is probably in my top five of character casts in a game ever. Conclusion
Final fantasy 6 is one of the best games ever made, hands down. It's fun, it's fast, it's innovative, and it has one of the greatest cast of characters ever. I believe it is the second best final fantasy ever, behind ff7. I would suggest and encourage anyone and everyone who loves rpg's to play this game.