I will lay my cards on the table right off the bat: I believe that Final Fantasy VI is the best console RPG ever created and, quite possibly, the best console video game of all time. “Silence!”, scream the irate fanboys, as they parade their own champions. “Don’t you know that this game is vastly inferior to its successors, Final Fantasy VII and VIII? Aren’t you aware that the 3D revolution and the CD-ROM format rendered its primitive sprites obsolete a decade ago?” Indeed. There seems to be a certain form of misunderstanding -a hazy confusion- if you will, regarding the standing of this game within the Final Fantasy mythos. To many, FFVI’s merit lies squarely within the fact that it served as a transitory stepping stone (including Hironobu Sakaguchi’s stepping down as the series director, employing would-be FFVII and VIII’s Yoshinore Kitase) which gave place to the mainstream PSX Final Fantasies. In many ways, this is true. FFVI was the first game of the series without an underlying Crystals motif; it was the first game in the series to stray from its original medieval fantasy roots, replacing them with a gritty steam punk world in which technology has replaced the use of magic. But make no mistake. The only thing transitory about Final Fantasy VI is the fact that it represents the absolute peak of the series; its zenith and utmost ascension, starkly contrasting to its decadent PSX successors. I’ll be blunt: besides the name and some pervasive symbols, FFVI shares little with VII and VIII. It might as well be AD&D, compared to pong. What makes VI so great, and VII and VIII so pale in comparison? In one word: everything. Where VI soars by in a snappy, liberating pace, VII and VIII plod awkwardly. Take the fighting system. VI brings the ATB system, which was implemented in IV, to perfection. Battles are fast and furious, yet balanced and full of strategy. Every character is unique; though FFVI effectively blurs the distinction between rigid classes that had been a trademark of the series up to that point, everyone in your party has memorable traits: Shadow is a ninja, for instance, and plays as one, wielding katanas and tossing Shurikens. Sabin takes the concept of the monk / black belt one step further: the player can introduce several Street Fighter II style button sequences with the ‘Blitz’ command to unleash a series of powerful moves which Sabin learns throughout the game. Cyan, a samurai, develops several sword techniques known as ‘Bushido’, which are accessed via a counter that fills up during battles; depending on the Bushido technique ‘dialed in’, an attack will be performed: number one, for instance, is ‘Fang’, a basic single-target attack, whereas number 2, ‘Sky’, puts Cyan on hold to counter attack when targeted by the enemy. In other words: Final Fantasy does not only have great graphics, great story and a great soundtrack. It’s mind-blowingly fun to play. And since Random battles are what the player will spend most of his or her time doing, they might as well be fun, something which cannot be said about the succeeding Final Fantasies, which makes Gamespot's review criticism about the game's random battles quite ironic.
To those of you who know and love the game: the GBA version is simply necessary: this is a game that must be replayed, and the portability and newly polished and standarized translation make it all the better.
To those of you who jumped into the bandwagon with VII: play this game, and look beyond it's 2D sprites; you are in for a treat, and don't be surprised if Cloud's buster sword losses some of its luster in the process.
Other Helpful Reviews for Final Fantasy VI Advance
I got this game a few months ago, but I kept procrastinating to play it, because I was into another game at the time, but when I picked this game up, I didn't realize what I was missing! This is a good remake, and dif... Read Full Review
Final Fantasy VI (Or Final Fantasy III for those who still haven't adjusted numbers from the SNES days) has come to the Game Boy Advance. This true epic has stood the test of time, and is still one of the best stories to... Read Full Review
