I've always had a very controversial relationship with Final Fantasy, especially with Final Fantasy fans which might be one of the dumbest fandoms I've ever had the disgrace to interact with; however, I also managed to know a few people who are huge fans of this colossal series and they really belong to some of my closest friends to date.

The thing that I respected the most is that, even if I managed to not touch a single game of this franchise for literally years and started to re-explore the genre with Atlus games, they still managed not to yell in my ear to try FF again and genuinely waited for me to try to get into it again.

Now, I did not start again with this one, but with FFIV DS, which I found it to be...nice, but I think I should try the 2D version next time, eventually I'll talk more about it when I'll review that game.

Now, onto FFVI: I always take my sweet time to beat a JRPG, especially because they tend to be very long and with lots of different scenarios to digest before moving to the next one, yet I manged to beat this whole game in just 4 days.

4 days. Not only it never happened with a Final Fantasy, not only with a JRPG, but I barely remember whenever it happened with other games with the same length.
By having already played VII and X, which I think to be great games, I always thought Final Fantasy is a very great franchise that does not fit with me, really. It's like "yeah I perfectly understand its greatness" and it's cool but not something I'd go nuts over it.

But then I witnessed Sabin doing a suplex to a train.

Even though the plot itself might have few hiccups in its writing, I think the characters are some of the best I have ever seen; Locke might be my favourite FF character ever, with Celes and Terra being close seconds. I also think Kefka is an insanely great villain; whenever people point out he might be "weak" in terms of writing, I always imagine it's because people think of chaotic evil villains as "shallow" when it's actually incredibly hard not only to make a villain like that believable, but also an embodiment of the theme of nihilism and how that clashes with the indomitable human spirit who just manages to find a way to find meaningfulness in nothingless. It's not just Kefka being a silly little psycho, it's literally how he embodies what you know you're struggling against, but in spite of that you can still find an answer.

But what elevates this game so much to me it's the fact a lot of very impactful and important scenes are actually optional and play depending on your interest of different characters: you might never know what sad story lies in one of the characters you never gave a damn about and the game won't try to shove in your troath anything to prove otherwise, but if you change your mind you'll find out. And it will hurt like a bitch.

Final Fantasy VI is an absolute masterclass of character writing and storytelling that gains both actively and retroactively, with some of the highest moments I've ever experienced in a videogame.

Fuck the Colosseum and the Cultists' Tower though those fucking suck lotta dick.

I think this loses to 7 and 8 for the 90s FF titles, but don't let that fool you- it's a classic. Kefka is a bit of a meme and I don't think he's written or developed well, but what he represents and his role in the story is iconic. The man wins. The villain wins, and the only reason the protagonists succeed is his own desire for extinction. Man is a hater only outclassed by Jojos Dio. Generational hater for sure. Celes rocks, Terra rocks, the rest of the core crew are wildly overrated imo. If you haven't played 6, run directly to the nearest playstation and do so.

Final Fantasy VI is really interesting because it doesnt check a lot of boxes that i normally need to LOVE an rpg; The antagonist is entertaining and interesting but not insanely deep and doesnt have very meaningful interactions or relationships with the main characters, there is a massive cast and there arent too many great moments showing their cohesion as a group, the gameplay while well designed and difficult gets a little repetitive, and the art direction is amazing but due to technical limitations the graphics themselves dont always reflect it the best. even with all this i dont feel lukewarm about the game at all, the world is so intricate and packed to the brim with charm and wit, the main cast despite not having as much dialogue as contemporary rpgs are all beautifully written, memorable, and unique (which is especially remarkable considering theres 14 main characters), and at times the fact that there isnt a ludicrous amount of dialogue for every character prevents it from getting annoying or repetitives like a lot of ffvis contemporaries. The main plot moves at a great and varied pace, not to mention how it only gets better and better as it continues AND it subverts a lot of typical story progressions that you would expect, even 30 years after release. idk i could talk a lot more about ffvi but i try to stay away from long winded and wordy reviews i just found the game really cool