If you haven't played Final Fantasy 6, stop reading this and go buy this game.
The story for FF6 is where a lot of said praise should go. The story at first seems similar to that of Star Wars. An evil empire is using magic, an art that has been lost ever since the terrible war of the magi ended 1,000 years before, to conquer the world, and a small band of rebels are standing up to said empire in their conquest for world domination. It may sound generic, but this is way, way better than many game stories today. It is epic in every sense of the word. The plot is full of action, suspense, humor, and sorrow; it has lots of big twists during the whole game; and the characters are some of the most diverse and memorable in any video game I've played. There is no brooding angsty jerks, no annoying, whiny losers, nothing like that. Everyone in this game has wonderful personalities, and some very great theme music. The story has many things in it that make it unique, like the opera scene. And how many stories in ANY form of media have the main villain actually win? It all comes together to give me an ending that left me 100% satisfied.
I've spoken a lot about the story, so now how about we go on to the gameplay aspect? Final Fantasy 6 is a fantastic RPG that is fun, deep, and quite addicting at points. It's really old school, so the battle system is pretty basic. You select commands when it's your turn to fight to try to defeat the enemies you come across. But even when modern RPG's try to make new types of battle systems, this game will keep you hooked until the game is finished. Enemies are imposing and often times challenging, and whenever you beat a battle against bosses that keep you from progressing in the story is really satisfying. I've nearly given up on the game a couple of times when I thought I was stuck.
FF6 also has some great customization abilities. You can equip your characters with weapons and armor in standard RPG fare; you equip them with magicite, which gives your characters magic skills after you fight many battles, and more. If you love RPG's, then you will love FF6.
But FF6, while great, falls prey to many of the usual RPG trappings. You will many times have to grind for levels to succeed; when you die, you will lose any items, money, or AP (which will give the characters magic spells) you've earned will be gone; and random battles, which are the single most annoying aspect of any RPG. Plus, many of the new side quests for the GBA version are maddeningly difficult. But as long as you're doing well in the game (and have a lot of patience), you will ignore many of these flaws and have great fun.
When it comes to the presentation, Final Fantasy 6 is at the top of its game. The graphics are hand drawn, and there is a lot of attention to detail. It looks fantastic, and it looks great even on the GBA (way better than the other Final Fantasies on GBA). But the music practically surpasses anything this game has to offer (other than the story). FF6 has one of the greatest soundtracks in any game period. The music ranges from epic tracks that get your blood pumping, to more somber, tragic tracks that can make you tear up. Sadly, the GBA version's music is scaled down a lot, so it doesn't sound as good as the SNES original. But even then, the music is still phenomenal.
Some games don't hold up well after their original release. Final Fantasy 6 is a game that not only holds 17 years after its release, is a game that is just as good, if not better than, as any RPG today. Final Fantasy 6 is one of the greatest games I've ever played. If you haven't played this game yet, then Kefka, the games villain, will hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, HATE YOU!