Final Fantasy VI is a classic role-playing video game more modernly referred to as a JRPG (Japanese role-playing game). It was developed and published by Square and released in 1994 for the Super Nintendo. In North America, it was initially released as Final Fantasy III (as you can see in the image here) … I know confusing as hell. This was because there were only 2 other Final Fantasies released in the North America prior to this, unlike all 6 in Japan. Hence the roman numeral nightmare. What makes it more confusing is that re-releases have come out with the proper “6” title and there is even a ps1 version thrown into the mix by the title of  “final fantasy anthology” ugh. What’s even worse is they actually have some minor differences between them like different names for items, added bosses, etc. So searching for any information can quickly become a major headache. Regardless of what version you play, FF6 is critical acclaim and is seen as a landmark title for the Final Fantasy franchise/the role-playing genre in general. It is arguably one of the best Final Fantasies, RPGs, and video games of all time.

Pros:

This game is good, it starts good, stays good and ends fucking good! It opens more like a movie than a game and it quickly throws you into some light action to teach you how to play, no handholding or tutorial bs. The storyline is great, you get thrown head first into an awesome struggle of industrialization versus scattered remnants of magic. The main character is a girl (awesome) and the characters you pick up are unique, relatable, dynamic and each has a good backstory to get you invested in them. It considered by many to have one of the best bad guys in video game history, Kefka. *spoiler alert who actually wins about half way through the game and you have to crawl your way back from the ashes, pretty awesome. It also has some of the best music of not only the “8-bit” era but quite possibly in all of video game history.

For the few people that still done know what the hype is about I think this video does an amazing job of showing just how amazing a feat this was for a freaking SNES. *spoiler alert obviously

Cons:

However, there are some drawbacks. My main gripe with this game is that the random battles that happen, happen way to regularly. so many battles. When exploring your players only walk, at least until you get an item called sprint shoes, which you have to dedicate one of only two precious item slots too.  Also as dynamic as characters are, because of their strengths and weaknesses, or specials, are so specialized, you can find yourself really depending on a specific character or getting stuck with a shitty character. And there are some pretty shitty characters in this game when it comes to battles. Last but not least, the way you learn magic, unlock awesome items, make your shittier characters less shitty, or gain any of Gau’s abilities is solely based on battling and lots of it … ugh. This makes the thing you do most in the game feel more like a chore than actually kicking ass. Lastly, Kefka is cool because he is kind of a Joker type wacko of a villain, which is unusual for a video game antagonist and he does do some awesomely evil shit without a care in the world in the game, but I don’t get why so many people view him as one of the best villains of video game history. The guy has NO back story, NO character development and the only reasons/excuses I get for this only help to show how shallow of a character he is.

BEST RPG EVER?

There is a pretty big argument online as for what is the best classic RPG of all time and it’s usually between Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 6 and Final Fantasy 7. Final Fantasy 6 is a freaking great game, and you will be happy playing through it multiple times. However, as my cons list above shows, there are some “imperfections” if you will. I am seriously hard pressed to find much of any obvious “imperfections” in Chrono Trigger, and any issues that FF7 has (and there are some) are so completely overshadowed by its successes that I personally think FF6 is actually the weakest of the 3. This does not make it a bad game, it really is one of the best classic RPG’s ever made and it is still blatantly worth your time and effort. To its defense it is the first one to come out of the 3 so, for its time, it really was the best RPG and quite possibly video game in existence. This is just my personal take on this never-ending retro gamer argument.