There will be spoilers in this review. I finally got around to playing Final Fantasy VI, widely regarded as one of the greatest RPGs of all time. So what did I think? Well, it's mostly positive, but I definitely don't hold it to as high regard as some other people. Positives first. I loved the visuals and the music. Nobuo Uematsu once again shows why he's the GOAT. The story is great for the most part too, but I did find some flaws. The first half was excellent. I honestly had a great time, then Kefka destroys the world. While definitely an insanely epic moment, I thought it was only going to get better, but then the pacing of the game slows down to a crawl and now you have to explore the whole world on your own with very little indication on where to go. I never use guides for games. It's extremely rare, and I usually only use one to get unstuck from certain parts, but I'm not kidding you when I say I had to use a guide for the last 50% of the game. I had no idea where to go at all. Apparently, half of the game is just looking for your partners. I did not find that terribly exciting, although the stories definitely are good. I was just lost most of the time. I also mostly just used my favourite characters in combat, which became a problem later on. More about that later.
The combat is very fun, although I think there's a bit too many characters to really get into any of them. I only felt like a mastered a few of them, while many of them hardly got used at all, which was a mistake, because you need them all at the end. Or, well, at least 12 of them. And because I had only used my favourites, I had to go level up for a while. How long? 15 minutes? 30 minutes? No, I leveled up for several hours. It took forever, even with boosters on. I can't imagine how long it must've taken on the SNES to get all the characters up to an acceptable level. It's not like I'm bad at RPGs either. I just beat Final Fantasy 1-5 before this, and those didn't require much grinding at all. Well, except FFII. Ugh.
The game also had some annoying parts. First of all, the raft section. Just standing on a raft, choosing left, right or middle while fighting enemies over and over again wasn't very fun to me. Also, later, you fight waves of enemies on an airship, then two bosses, and if you fail at one of the bosses, it's everything over again, and that section takes a while too. I felt like some sections could've been designed better, but there are very few annoying parts at least.
Then there's Kefka. Such an entertaining villain, but I'm disappointed he wasn't more in the game. He shows up a lot during the first half, but you don't see him for pretty much the entire second half of the game, except for a few minutes at the end. I found that extremely disappointing, but he's still a fun villain. I also found Kefka's Tower a bit annoying, spamming bosses left and right, plus a bunch of annoying enemy types. Not exactly the way I wanted the game to end, but the last fight was epic as hell at least. Definitely had a blast with that.
This is actually one of the few times I think people are slightly blinded by nostalgia. I go back to old games all the time and have a ton of fun, and I did have fun with FFVI. Just not one of the greatest games of all time kind of fun. For instance, when I went back and played Chrono Trigger and EarthBound, old RPGs like that, I fell in love and they became some of my favourite games. Their age didn't matter at all. With FFVI, I'm noticing some cracks here and there. For me, Final Fantasy IX is still my favourite, but I'm still very happy to finally have played FFVI. A great game for sure.
The combat is very fun, although I think there's a bit too many characters to really get into any of them. I only felt like a mastered a few of them, while many of them hardly got used at all, which was a mistake, because you need them all at the end. Or, well, at least 12 of them. And because I had only used my favourites, I had to go level up for a while. How long? 15 minutes? 30 minutes? No, I leveled up for several hours. It took forever, even with boosters on. I can't imagine how long it must've taken on the SNES to get all the characters up to an acceptable level. It's not like I'm bad at RPGs either. I just beat Final Fantasy 1-5 before this, and those didn't require much grinding at all. Well, except FFII. Ugh.
The game also had some annoying parts. First of all, the raft section. Just standing on a raft, choosing left, right or middle while fighting enemies over and over again wasn't very fun to me. Also, later, you fight waves of enemies on an airship, then two bosses, and if you fail at one of the bosses, it's everything over again, and that section takes a while too. I felt like some sections could've been designed better, but there are very few annoying parts at least.
Then there's Kefka. Such an entertaining villain, but I'm disappointed he wasn't more in the game. He shows up a lot during the first half, but you don't see him for pretty much the entire second half of the game, except for a few minutes at the end. I found that extremely disappointing, but he's still a fun villain. I also found Kefka's Tower a bit annoying, spamming bosses left and right, plus a bunch of annoying enemy types. Not exactly the way I wanted the game to end, but the last fight was epic as hell at least. Definitely had a blast with that.
This is actually one of the few times I think people are slightly blinded by nostalgia. I go back to old games all the time and have a ton of fun, and I did have fun with FFVI. Just not one of the greatest games of all time kind of fun. For instance, when I went back and played Chrono Trigger and EarthBound, old RPGs like that, I fell in love and they became some of my favourite games. Their age didn't matter at all. With FFVI, I'm noticing some cracks here and there. For me, Final Fantasy IX is still my favourite, but I'm still very happy to finally have played FFVI. A great game for sure.