Final Fantasy III
	Genre: Turn-Based RPG (Fantasy) Developer: Square
Publisher Region Released Square NA 10/11/1994 Square JP 04/02/1994
AKA: Final Fantasy VI (JP)

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User Review

Review by gbness
April 24, 2004

The Final Fantasy series is definitely one of the best series' ever made. From the first FF, Final Fantasy became a legend. It brought FF3 to FF4, which elevated it to greater heights. Then FF5 and FF6 came out. Although it appears like I'm reviewing FF3, I'm really reviewing FF6. Before FF6 was released for the PlayStation, it was FF3 on the Super Nintendo, or FF3j, whatever you choose to call it. Anyway, as it is the sixth FF, it's what I'm reviewing here. Behold, it's the third best game in the whole series. Also, I will refer to it as FF6 in this review to avoid confusion.

There is a reason why FF6 has won all the hype that it has. Squaresoft is definitely one of the greatest companies ever. They not only made the Final Fantasy series, but they made several Chocobo games, Bushido Blade, Vagrant Story, the Chrono series, Xenogears, and much more. Truly, they are one of the most beloved companies ever, but unfortunately they merged with Enix because they were bankrupt, and they seriously went downhill. Still, forever we will have memories of classic games like this, Final Fantasy VI.

Final Fantasy VI doesn't have one of those confusing storylines, thankfully enough. The main character is a girl named Terra, who seems to be haunted with something in her past. She is able to use Magic, which is something that no human can do. She appears to have a mysterious connection with Espers (summons). The world is being dominated by the Empire, led by Emperor Gestahl. The main villian is a clown named Kefka. He is perhaps more evil than Sephiroth is. He poisoned towns, killed hundreds of people and did much more.

And that comes to the characters. Final Fantasy VI's characters are mostly excellent. The main six characters are Terra (the main character) Locke (a thief) Edgar (the not-so-proud, girl-hitting-on king of Figaro), Sabin (the bodybuilding brother of Edgar), Celes (one of the Empire's generals who betrays them, and who also has the power to use magic), and Cyan (a proud warrior). But these six aren't all. There are a grand total of 14 characters in Final Fantasy VI. These are the six that are the best developed. The only RPG I've played with more characters is Chrono Cross.

The other characters are Shadow (a dark ninja), Setzer (a gambler), Relm (a rude little girl), Strago (an old geezer), Gau (a very mysterious boy with the power to use enemy abilities), and three characters with zero character development at all: Mog (just a moogle), Gogo (a he-she mime), and Umaro (a yeti). Now, I'm not saying the characters are bad. In fact, the six mentioned above are some of the greatest characters of all time. Still, even though you will love the undeveloped characters very much, you'll probably want a little more from them. Still, FF6 has magnificent characters.

Even though Final Fantasy VI will never win any prizes for its graphics, it still had awesome graphics for a Super Nintendo game. Of all the 2D Final Fantasy games, FF6 has the largest sprites. Not large enough to make you howl, but not nearly as small as FF2's sprites, and bigger than FF4's and FF5's. All the stuff has a lot of detail to it, such as the town of Narshe. All the snow on the ground is very detailed, and the fire in the Imperial Base looks just like you would think it'd be. And the world map and its green plains and mountains look pretty good too.

Most of the character designs are great as well. Celes, for one, has a long blonde hair and is dressed in pure white, to match her spirit which is pure as snow. Cyan has a moustache and is dressed in black, to match his angry, knight personality. Most of the enemies look awesome as well, especially the robotic ones. One particular boss called the Guardian is big, brown, and really tough-looking. The human soldiers are pretty good too, and everything looks great in battle. The background, the characters, the enemies, it's all perfect. Overall, Final Fantasy VI's graphics are splendid.

Final Fantasy VI has such a great soundtrack on it, I feel very sad that its soundtrack that came with Final Fantasy Anthology (which contained FF5 and FF6), only had about 10 songs. A pity that only two of them were some of the game's greatest themes. Final Fantasy VI also has a variety of different themes, and just about the only bad ones are the occasional ones that play in the towns. None of them were really good, as most of them hardly had any tune to them. They still weren't bad, but a lot of them could have been improved.

The game also has one of the best battle themes that I have experienced in a RPG. It has a good upbeat to it, making it sound rather cool. I also love the boss theme so much that whenever I lost in a boss battle, I would just leave the game on so I could listen to it. Hell, even the victory song is great. Also, all the characters have their own special themes. Terra's theme, which plays in the times of her sadness, really captured all of it and brought it out for you to feel. The world map theme is excellent, and all of the other character themes are great too, especially Cyan's and Celes's.

Since most early RPGs don't have voice acting, Final Fantasy VI really isn't much in terms of sound. Still, that's no disappointment. Almost all of the sounds in Final Fantasy VI are great. Kefka's laugh, for one of them. He sounds incredibly mischevious and like he's doing evil stuff. Some machines make some sounds when moving, and all of it is great. Also, quite a lot of the best sounds within the game come from within the battles. Enemy attacks and magic spells just sound brilliant. Overall, the music and sound of FF6 are both great. Some of the best I have ever heard in a role-playing game.

And of course, the very point where Final Fantasy VI totally blows everything apart is the gameplay. This is the reason why Final Fantasy VI was such a huge success in its time, and to this very day many people still play it. The games uses the L and R buttons, which was very nice for a Super Nintendo game. The control was very nice and sweet... just typical SNES control. Also, there is an item called the Sprint Shoes in this game. If this is equipped, your characters moves VERY FAST. This makes up for the fact they might move a bit slow normally, but that's no real problem.

Final Fantasy VI has a terrific battle system to boot. I just love it. At the beginning of the game, the only character able to use magic is Terra, but later, everyone gets this awesome power. Final Fantasy VI offers the Esper system. Espers are the summons of the game, although actually, you really won't use the Espers too much in this game unless you have a lot of MP to spare or you have Relm or Celes with nothing else to do. When you equip the Esper, you will be learning magic. You can view the magic on the Esper screen. All spells are learned at once, although later ones are learned a bit slowly. I really love this.

It was also a good idea that unlike FF7 and FF8, Final Fantasy VI has characters that are entirely different. You get to have a bit of fun in choosing which characters you want in a battle. Each character has an awesome strength that no other character has. Sabin can use martial art skills called Blitzes, and Celes can use an ability called Runic that draws magic. This is what really makes you love the characters. That's also not to mention that say, Relm has high magic power but low physical power, yet Cyan's attacks are extremely strong, yet he has almost no magic power. I love this system majorly.

Final Fantasy VI is littered with side quests, plenty that will keep you busy. There are the three secret characters (Gogo, Mog, and Umaro), as well as a ton of Espers to collect. There are tons of optional bosses and stuff like that, and that's also not to mention that FF6 is a pretty long game. It takes about 40 hours to complete on the first time through, and maybe about 25-30 on the second way through. Every hour is full of nonstop fun, as well as no real confusion or anything. The battle rate is low so people won't get pissed off and nothing is really boring in this game.

Fortunately though, Final Fantasy VI also isn't a very difficult game, so all newbies can have a good time playing it. A lot of optional bosses are pretty tough (like Tritoch), but I rarely found myself dying throughout the game. Most of the regular enemies just take years to litter your huge HP down, and physical attacks in Final Fantasy VI tend to be extremely powerful. Even the final boss is easy. There are still some challenging enemies and some bosses have nice tactics, so it's not insanely easy to the point where veterans can't be slightly challenged.

It isn't like Final Fantasy VI is going to get anything less than a grade of perfection in its replay value. Sometimes I just cannot get off of this game, because the Esper system is extremely innovative, and the game is just so much fun. One of the best games that I have ever played in my entire life. All battles are very fun, and the storyline in this game is psycho awesome. This will keep you on the game for extended periods of time, wondering what's going to happen next. You'll also want to do the side quests a lot... so hell, what won't you want to do?

So... Final Fantasy VI has won in just about all of the gameplay ideas/parts of it. Compared to the last game (Final Fantasy V, whoa...), it's a nice, easy, and simple game, whereas FFV was a bit rough, and it was hard and it had a rather confusing job system. Final Fantasy VI also isn't hard to get into, and those who like challenging and complex games won't be completely disappointed, as Final Fantasy VI can still challenge them. The battle system is superb, and the game has such a great replay value that you'll definitely love this game. I can swear with all my soul.

And there you go. Final Fantasy VI concludes with a superb, awesome game that earns the spot of the third best game in the series. Nothing seems to be missing from this game (it even has semi-limit breaks!), and the game is one of the most fun I have ever played. The graphics are better than Final Fantasy VII's (while Final Fantasy VI was made in 1994, AND Final Fantasy VII focuses on graphics pretty strongly). The music is fantastic, and it has a simple but cool storyline. I definitely recommend you check this jewel up, as on some sites you can pick it up for a cheap price.

There is a reason why Final Fantasy VI is my fourth favorite game in the world. It's because it rocks. Buy it. Now.

Rating: 10/10

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