One of the great sentinel events in video gaming, remastered for a new generation to appreciate.
The game opens with an ominous sequence detailing the slow revival of a world reduced to ashes during a horrific magical war between humans and magical creatures called Espers, and the efforts of the Empire to revive the very same powers which caused this conflagration. You are then placed in the role of Terra, an unwilling soldier of the Empire, who, accompanied by two Imperial grunts, ventures into the arctic mining city of Narshe to retrieve a frozen Esper by force. Terra is an enigma, born with magical powers at a time when magic is only a fairy tale and the world, like our own, is governed by scientific logic and technology. Eventually, the Returners, the anti-Empire resistance organization, rescue Terra from the Empire's clutches, and accompanied by an eclectic cast of characters, she embarks on a mission to discover both her identity and her purpose in life. However, this game is not about Terra alone; the game's other characters (14 in all) each have their own separate stories and beliefs, all of which you'll get to explore.
Such is Final Fantasy VI, a game of an epic scale unrivalled in 1994 and largely unsurpassed today. Designed by Yoshinori Kitase (who went on to design FFVII, FFVIII, and FFX) and Hiroyuki Ito (who has kept FF tradition alive in FFIX and FFXII), this game broke much of the ground treaded by its immediate successor. The graphics pushed 2-dimensional sprite design to their limits. The main characters are uniquely designed by Yoshitaka Amano, who stated that Terra is the FF character he most enjoyed designing, and the monsters are the most memorable for the series, including Ultros the megalomaniacal octopus. The environments are nearly as detailed as those in Donkey Kong Country, which released in the same year; the Phantom Forest is absolutely gorgeous. Even the SD sprites which represent characters on the game maps are detailed and loaded with humorous animations. Spells are as spectacular as the Super NES' 16-bit technology allowed. FFVI Advance is graphically a near-perfect conversion, especially in contrast with the PlayStation edition, which was riddled with immense slowdown and agonizing load times, FFVI is almost as smooth as the Super NES original, and it even looks good on a LCD TV on the Game Boy Player (the Super NES looks very grainy on a HD screen). Square made extensive use of the Super NES's mode 7 scaling (the world map, the chocobo and airship scenes, and many spells are dependent on this then-revolutionary hardware scaling effect); FFVI was also one of the few Super NES games to take advantage of the console's 256-color mode (which was a technological feat in that era).
Soundwise, FFVI's soundtrack is, IMHO, one of the three best soundtracks of all time for a video game, and is Nobuo Uematsu's best body of work (although his best single work is probably One-Winged Angel from FFVII). The overworld and battle musics are the best of the series, and each character has their own theme song. It pushed the legendary Super NES sound chip to its limits. Mostly, the sound converts well to the GBA, but the GBA's sound chip isn't quite powerful enough for perfect rendition, although it is again vastly superior to the rather tinny, muffled PSX edition. The sound in the famous opera scene is actually improved over the SNES original, with digitized (albeit a capella) voices, and Kefka's famous maniacal laugh is still here.
In the gameplay department, Final Fantasy VI is a typical Japanese RPG, with all the good and negative that entails. Every character in FFVI has their own unique skill, with different methods of execution (Sabin, the martial arts monk, executes his moves by entering control pad and button combinations similar to SFII or MK, for instance), and this variety in character skills actually makes the random battles rather enjoyable, and character development is likewise fun. Magic is learned from magicite - the crystallized remains of dead Espers, who can also be summoned from magicite. The world is vast, and there are varied challenges, such as an opera sequence and a diplomatic dinner with the Emperor, as well as some unusual puzzles. Final Fantasy VI is also one of the very few RPGs to strike a good balance between story and non-linearity. I personally don't care much for non-linear RPGs and games in general; they just seem pointless and aimless, and they don't hold a really coherent, epic story together. FFVI becomes non-linear about halfway through, as you engage on a quest to reunite your party and collect weapons, armor, and Espers to prepare for the last big encounter with Kefka; you'll have to pay attention to the clues you come across to find everything, and this lends a rather Zelda-like exploration aspect to the game. Usually, the quests in this part of the game also help the characters resolve their personal crises, so the story still holds up fairly well during the non-linear portion of the game.The only soft spot to FFVI is the challenge level, although this has been tightened up somewhat in the GBA version. Even so, your party members are still overwhelmingly more powerful than any of the regular enemies, the game's most powerful weapon can be found before the halfway point, and only one dungeon, the Fanatics' Tower, provides any serious danger. Combatwise, FFVI is the easiest in the series. However, the huge variety of unique skills and execution techniques more than overcomes this slight flaw.
The story is what really makes this game. I actually grew to care about my character and feel their pain. Final Fantasy VI pushed the 1994 boundaries for content in video games, touching on nationalism, scientific ethics, suicide, and even teen pregnancy, subjects which were previously taboo in mass-market games. Celes' attempted suicide scene was as touching as the death of Aerith, and the ending - well, you'll have to see it for yourself, but it is possibly the best ending ever for ANY video game, then or now. The game's villain, Kefka, is a psychopath who seems to have been inspired by the Joker from Batman. Sephiroth was a memorable villain, but his activities were tame compared to Kefka's, and he also came off as a victim of Shinra as much as a villain. Kefka is pure sadistic evil; there is no redeeming quality to him whatsoever. You'll see him poison the population of an entire castle, killing the wife and young son of one of your characters in the process, torture Espers, and ultimately murder his own comrades and Emperor - right before he launches a global cataclysm which wipes out most of the world's population, and if that STILL wasn't enough, he then burns down two of the surviving towns as a warning to the survivors to obey him. He's got some serious issues. In that respect, Kefka is the most successful FF villain ever; he actually achieves his goals. Your party must defeat Kefka not to stop his scheme - it's too late, the world is already ruined - but to end his tyranny and give the surviving members of the human race their last chance at life.
As with FFIV and FFV, there is extra content, in the form of four new Espers and two new dungeons, but it is less extensive than the other two games, and unlike the other two games, there are no graphical improvements. FFVI was one of the most technologically proficient games of its time, and didn't need any enhancements. The new English script is excellent, which combines the best of Square Enix's modern localization team while keeping the best of Ted Woolsey's Super NES translation; all of the weapons and spells have their original Japanese names.
With FFVI Advance, those gamers for whom RPGs began with FFVII on the PlayStation can see the roots of the game which made FF a household name. Final Fantasy VII was a revolution in presentation; FFVI is a revolution in game design and storytelling.