I finally revisited this game after 10 years, and... I just couldn't beat it again, albeit for very different reasons. I started FFVI on emulator as a teen, and really enjoyed what I played of it, I got roughly 1/3rd through the full story and had gotten so sucked into the combat that I loved just grinding for fun on end. I only never finished it because I got so distracted with other games and priorities that I forgot to go back to finish it. I came back to it recently after playing Crisis Core Reunion made me remember wanting to check out this game again, so I gave it another shot. I got to the final act and... just don't have the motivation or drive to keep going now.

I think this game's first half is incredible, very much ahead of its time. In the same vein that Dragon Quest V's story and gameplay mechanics were revolutionary for the RPG genre in the early 90s it was made, Final Fantasy VI is very similar. It has a lot of really interesting and cool ideas for its characters with specialized roles, such as complex button inputs for Sabin's martial arts and special abilities, different timing to get different moves out of Cyan's Bushido, Slot Machine rolls for Setzer's abilities, and more. The story also takes a lot of interesting new directions and risks, such as having many different focal points of characters you play as through the story, constantly swapping your party all the time, as well as the villain actually succeeding in some areas that had never been done in any other RPG up to this point (other than Dragon Quest V).

But at the end of the day, I feel that VI's real claim to fame is just that. It was revolutionary for its time and set the foundation for future JRPGs, within its same series and other series to go much further with the ambitious ideas it introduced and polish them up to a shine and utilize them far better than VI ever could. I understand completely why people love this game, and I think it has a lot of good in it. But I sadly lost all interest in beating this game when the final act became a giant grind of having to recruit all my party members, level them up seperately, go through a giant gauntlet of bosses and other dungeons to do so when the game's story has crawled to a halt and holds little to no real substantial content to keep me interested anymore. This final act really just soured what was an otherwise great game for me, and I just can't bring myself to finish it anymore. I'll always respect VI, but I think this will be the last time I ever play it.

Here's hoping I enjoy Chrono Trigger way more, as it sounds like it aged much better than this game has.

This is easily the best Mega Man collection to come out of Capcom right now. The input lag is nonexistent compared to prior releases, and it does have some great extras like alternate music for some segments and the ability to unlock and use the Z3 ecards. ZX is set up in a way where you can for the most part comfortably use the touch screen even on a gamepad, and there's quite a few options for customizing the experience. The ports themselves run great and if you're on PC you have the added bonus of being able to mod the music out for their cleaner, crisper, higher-quality CD counterparts (look it up!).

The games have always been fantastic - Zero 1 and Zero 4 are considered the weaker titles, as well as the ZX series, but at their worst I'd say they're "fun", whereas Zero 2 and Zero 3 are highlights, well-known for being masterpieces amongst action platformers. Great visuals, strong music, tight gameplay and interesting narratives make up all the games in this collection, so if you want to get into the series this is far from a bad way to start.