Final Fantasy VI

Released in the United States as Final Fantasy III originally, this role playing game contains a combination of drama, science fiction, and action into something resembling an independent film noir turned into a video game.

The story starts by explaining what has happened in the world up to that point in an intro story, and we are then introduced to three soldiers of the Empire in their mechanical Tek Armor: Vicks and Wedge, two bland troops, and Terra, a brainwashed prodigy. They enter the frozen Northern city of Narshe in search of a creature called an Esper. They fight through the city's defenses, but get more than they bargain for once they discover the creature in the caves to the North of Narshe. Since this is a video game, seeing the story progress depends on you being successful in the game, and you can achieve slightly different outcomes depending on your actions.

Terra is the center of the game, with Locke, Edgar, Sabin, Celes, and Cyan also as lead characters (did I mention the cast is big?). Supporting characters include Shadow, Gau, Strago, Relm, Umaro, Gogo, Mog, Setzer, General Leo, Getsahl, and Ultros, with Kefka as the resident villain.

I am a big fan of film, television, literature, and video games (I have no life), and am familiar with all four mediums. I have to say, Final Fantasy III is better than most movies I have seen, and I have seen a lot of good movies. Although the dialogue can be cheesy at times, and the scene at the Opera House is awful, there are many good points. The overall plot is astounding, but I do have to say it could only work in video game format, not film or television. Maybe literature. Still, the writing is great and original. The art direction is fantastic. The design of the backgrounds, characters, and monsters (especially in the battle scenes) is the most creative I have seen.

The best part, however, is the soundtrack. The music for this game is just amazing. Excluding the Opera House scene, every track for this game is something I would listen to, and i'm generally not even into instrumental music. I could start naming names, but everyone who worked on this project did a good job, so I won't pick and choose. Easily the best video game of all time, and better than most movies.

Final Fantasy VI is one of the best games I have ever played. The plot is so good and the characters are so perfect! It is the best RPG for Super Nintendo, and the second best of all (Zelda 64 is PERFECT). You have got to play this game. Now. Go play it now. Don't read this, go play it!

Final Fantasy VI is the only video game ever to capture me so completely with its narrative that I've never forgotten it. And nothing has ever matched it. The story is melodramatic, but somehow so deeply powerful. The characters all have very drawn out histories and personalities. I know them all very well, and I cared for them as characters very much. I was controlling them, but they went far beyond my hand. This may sound like a criticism, but it isn't: the reason that I played the video game was not because it was entertaining to play. I played only because I wanted to find out what happened next to the characters. And some of the plot developments made me weep. The Opera House is perhaps the crowning achievement in video game history. All I have to hear are the first two notes from the "Oh my hero..." song and I choke up. Never has a sequence been better in a video game. And there are 15 or so characters! I was quite disappointed with the 8 or so from Final Fantasy 7. Many people have complained that the great amount of characters detracts from the game's success, but really it adds much needed replay value. A game that takes circa 20 hours to complete, and I've played through it 4 times, each time there were enough differences to make it entirely worthwhile. The character design and the art direction in general is so great. This is a game that they should completely remake (without changing an iota of the actual gameplay) when the technology improves even further.

I don't know how available they are anymore, but if you can, try to find all the different versions of the soundtrack to this game (there is the regular soundtrack, a piano soundtrack (highly, highly recommended), and an orchestral soundtrack. I have even found an mp3 of a 23 minute version of the Opera Performance with real singing! It is godly). If you can't find it to buy, hey, they have no reason to complain about us having mp3s of these tunes. Nobuo Uematsu has to be one of the best composers ever to live! His compositions for this game (and for FF7 to a much, much lesser degree; he actually steals a couple of his own note sequences from his compositions in ffvi, e.g., three sequential notes in Aeris' theme are directly taken from the first three notes of Celes' theme) are on par with Beethoven and Mozart. Seriously. If you heard them on a classical music radio station, you would not realize that they were written for a video game. The score gives the video game an even more operatic and dramatic feel. My God, what a feeling!

This Final Fantasy was the second one released here in America and was the third overall released here. It made me kind of mad when later I found out that there were three games never released here. Granted, in retrospect the three never before released were all a bit off. This one is also quite different and a good FF game. I do not enjoy this one as much as IV, VII, IX and X, but I find it is a bit better than VIII and a V and there is no question it is better than the last two I have played in XII and XIII. It starts out very strong adding many cool features that at the time I had not yet experienced in a role playing game. The story was also very strong and I do believe this FF still has the most playable characters of any in the series. It is just at a certain point in the game, it just kind of weakens a bit as the story tails off for a bit and nothing new and inventive really comes into play anymore. Still a very fun and strong game overall, it just falters a little bit the second half of the game. Obviously, I do not think it falters too much as I still give this game a nine as a score.

The story has an empire that is trying to gain the powers of magic to rule the world. They enslave a mysterious girl named Terra, who is quickly the center of attention. Soon, the empire is attacking on all fronts as your party who consists of a good deal of people must fight back. Just as you think there is going to be a peaceful end, the world is thrown into absolute chaos by one of the Emperor's subordinates, a hateful man named Kefka who wishes nothing more than to destroy!

The game play is that of your typical FF game; however, they do add some interesting things here. Every character in the game can learn all the magic spells as you equip summons (here called Espers) and they help you learn many spells. Every character though has a unique ability akin to the limit break in the next three games. Granted, you do not have to build these up, and can use them anytime. Bad news for any monsters as some characters special abilities can do massively insane damage, like Sabin's blitz the bum rush! The story is strong and features great villains, that is until the second half of the game in a place called the world of ruin where the bad guys just consist of monsters and you do not see Kefka again until you face him in the final battle.

So this game is very fun and one of the best role playing games on the SNES. I would rank only FF II (IV in Japan) and Chrono Trigger as stronger ones. I like the many characters and I like the fact that despite the fact that even though they all can learn the same magics they still have unique qualities and skills. Unlike, say part XII where everyone can pretty much do what everyone else can do. So despite the fact the game does weaken a little during the second half of the game, it is still a very strong role playing game. I would take this game and its style over the last two FF games I have played (XII and XIII).

You know, the wonderful gameplay isn't this game's best feature. The best feature would have to be the story. The game stars 15 heroes, who are determined to demolish the Empire for separate reasons. No two characters are the same in this game, and are all unique in their own way. The game start off, like many Square Soft games (like FF4 and 7,) with the main character doing the dirty work for the evil side. When The Empire discovered she had the mysterious gift of magic, they quickly placed a slave crown on her, which put her under their control. One day while invading the town of Narshe, Terra and two other troops (Vicks and Wedge) come across a glowing crystal. Vicks and Wedge were instantly killed by stepping too close. However, the crystal has a mysterious effect on Terra, as she feels drawn towards it. Suddenly, lighting begins to flicker between Terra and the crystal, as if they're becoming one. Terra passes out, and finds that a local from Narshe took her inside once she wakes up. He takes the slave crown off her head, and for once Terra can think straight. However, she doesn't get too much time to think, as Emperial Troops soon come barging down the door. They need Terra's power back! Fearing for her life, Terra runs into a nearby hospital, where she falls down a manhole, and is knocked unconscious. The Empirials almost capture her, but a wandering thief (or he prefers, "Treasure hunter") named Locke comes in for the rescue just in time. Terra soon wakes up after being rescued, and tries to explain what happened. However, Terra has a hard time thinking after falling. Locke is frightened, as he's heard of how powerful Terra truly is. He's going to need help to save her, preferably the king of Figaro, Edgar!

If this intro intrigues you, then your jaw will drop in awe at least 7 times while playing this game. There's a total of 15 heroes, each with their own reason for joining the fight against the Empire. Characters range from Mog the Moogle (who joins your team after you save him from falling off the edge of a mountain) to Shadow (a mysterious man who is thought to be ruthless. However, he has a very soft side too, and finds love in his companions. He shows no love at all to the Empire however.) Overall, I have never been more impressed by a storyline than in this game (including books, movies, and TV dramas.)