The battle system is the most refined out of the SNES series, utilising the best elements from 4 and 5. Characters each have their own unique skill sets as they did in FF4, but you can also tune and customise characters using Magicite, which borrows slightly from the open ended job system of FF5.
The soundtrack was a treat as well and felt more dynamic and eclectic than what we had previously in the prior games. Each piece captured the mood perfectly and were far more complex arrangements than that if it's peers at the time.
We never had an official release of FF6 in the UK, until the PSX port came out (with some unpleasant hang ups; mainly the load times).
I eventually came to play FF6 on the Gameboy Advance, which by all accounts is the definitive version with many of the bugs and quirks from the original SNES game ironed out. I was ready for this, and I was assured that I would see FF6 through to the end and see for myself what it was so many found great about this game.
My journey through FF6 had some ups and downs, this is a very old game by todays standards and some of the pacing can feel really off. I also found chunks of the game were not at all difficult and I could breeze by, simply spamming the usual over powered attacks over and over.
FF6 does offer many ways to plan out battles but with such a huge party roster you end up with a lot of characters who are substantially less useful than others and you generally end up using the same foursome over and over again, so as not to handicap yourself.
There's no denying FF6 was an ambitious game, it's party roster is huge and unlike previous entries you get to use the whole lot of them by the endgame and it's pretty much essential to have a well balanced full compliment of teammates by the time you get there.
Whilst some may find this takes away from the game, making it more linear it certainly does a great job of conveying the story and the urgency of the situation FF6's characters find themselves in.
Act One; starts with the intro and concludes at the point where Terra, Edgar, Sabin, Locke and Banon are split up.
Act Two covers the next several hours of gameplay that ends in Zozo.
Act Three is by far the longest segment and spans right up until the end of the floating continent which leads to Act Four: The World of Ruin and finally comes to end with Act Five, Kefka's tower.
Each act establishes a goal and ends with said goals completion. Each act also effects the flow and pacing of the game.
In Act One the game establishes that Terra has to choose to aid the Returners or risk being captured by the Empire.
In this act we also learn the basics of combat and that each character has a specific skill set. The enemies in act one are pretty simple and don't really take any tactics to beat, but you get to experiment with the party skills without a great risk of failure.
The final boss of this act is Vargas, who is actually the first real formidable enemy you fight in the game and requires you to use what you've learned in a very immediate fashion.
Once this battle ends it's a pretty straight forward path to Terra agreeing to aid the Returners and promptly sets up act two.
In act two the goal is to reunite the Returners and gain the help of the Frozen Esper in Narshe. It's a long segment that spans multiple continents and also introduces us to three (possibly four if you hire Shadow), party members.
Sabin's journey is effectively the core element of this act. It's not only the longest but also contains the most character development. When you meet Cyan there is a lot of character depth explored through the loss of his wife and son.
It's also in the Doma area where we see that Kefka is not just another general in the Empire but an altogether cruel and heartless enemy. It's here we're supposed to hate Kefka and root him in as the main villain.
His clownish appearance and unhinged personality give Kefka inhuman qualities that inform us he is an incredibly dangerous enemy that must not be taken lightly.
It's a well paced scene that sets the stage for later sections.
This act largely becomes gameplay based once the player escapes off the haunted train and there is no plot or character development. Though the game uses this opportunity to introduce us to Gau and teach us how to improve Gau's character skill by allowing us explore the Veldt in order to obtain him.
Ramuh gives us some exposition and that awards the player with Magicite for the first time.
Magicite can be equipped one at a time to a party member and allows them to learn magic at variable rates.
Gaining access to this key element of party development, changes the tone of fighting for the rest of the game as you become more and more dependant on magic and cannot just spam the usual attacks as before.
Gaining Magicite also makes characters such as Locke and Celes more viable in battle as their character skills alone are so context sensitive, they really pale in comparison to characters like Sabin or Cyan who have powerful attacks right from the off and with no MP cost..
In Act Three we are finally set the goal of stopping the Empire, which is not a straight forward process in terms of narrative or gameplay.
You're first trip to the Magitech Research facility is a wake up call for using magic. Almost all the enemies in there have specific elemental weaknesses and the damage foes can dish out ramps up. Spells such as cure become absolutely essential from here on out and pretty much renders potions redundant in every situation.
We also get a hefty dose of character development for Locke, Celes and Terra. The former two gaining the most attention as the writers setup the love story for them.
It's also the point where we see our character roster begin to bloat with Setzer, Rem and Strago joining the ranks. None of them are particular amazing in terms of battle utility, Strago comes into his own later with amazing Magic stat improvements that combined with powerful endgame spells, make for some serious damage.
Due to his exploits with the Empire's dictator Emperor Gestahl, Kefka learns of the Warring Triad and in this whole act, we the player are pretty much oblivious to Kefka's goal of obtaining the Warring Triads power.
We also learn the full story of the Espers and how the world was formed in the wake of the Warring Triad, powerful Gods that battled endlessly and almost inadvertently destroyed the world in their ongoing battles.
They eventually agreed to stop and entrusted the Espers with protecting their statue forms from anyone who would upset their balance for power.
It's not explored too well but Kefka performs two of his most shocking deeds in this act with the first being the complete eradication of all Esper, when he converts every single last one of them into Magicite.
And then lastly he comes to destroy the world as we know it in the final location we explore in act 3 and the World of Balance itself.
Kefka's final action occurs on the floating continent, effectively a fail safe if the Espers are to fail protecting the Warring Triad, the Esper homeland is levitated into the air and becomes only accessible to airship.
This location I personally found required me to start grinding for better magic spells and levels up, not so much for stats but for more HP.
The Floating Continent difficulty curve is pretty steep with enemies unleashing all manner of powerful attacks - instant death spells, multiple ailments and lastly the Behemoth that has a nasty trick of raining down a powerful meteor spell on your party when it's beaten. This spell alone can wipe a party, it's a harsh lesson for the player.
We both succeed and fail at the end of act three; the Empire is ultimately destroyed but Kefka achieves his goal of obtaining the power of the Warring Triad and the party end up scattered all over the world in the ensuing calamity.
This beginning section is all about instilling despair into the player. Even when we leave the island we see that the entire world map has been changed to reflect the catastrophic damage Kefka has caused in disturbing the Warring Triad.
This whole act is very open ended, as Celes you're more or less free to explore the world of ruin as you wish. It's alien, after such a structured and linear experience the game takes the leash off and says have at it.
I've found through my discussion with other players that this point of the game was incredibly divisive. Some players loved finally getting the chance to do it how they wished while others didn't enjoy dumping extra hours into just getting their bearings.
The singular goal of this act is to reunite, but much like the free reign exploration, the extent of uniting you do is up to you. You can finish the game with just four characters (madness!) or you can explore every corner of the world and get the whole gang back, even Shadow if you were kind enough to wait for him at the end of the floating continent section.
Once you're done here and you have an airship you're free to initiate act five: ending Kefka.
The tower is plot light, what you need to know occurs in the previous chapter and the degree of involvement you have depends on how much you sympathised with each party member you rediscovered.
What the tower is though, is a true test of your mastery of combat.
I'll be honest, on my first playthrough of Kefka's tower I was decimated over and over again. Getting wiped out was a serious concern, enemies boasted some formidable skills and you're also forced to split everyone you've found in to three groups. Most players will have settled on a standard team of four, but having four OP party members and a load of others very under levelled is a recipe for disaster in the tower.
I had to grind in a desert against sandworms for a very long time before my teams had enough HP to survive and enough variety of high level magic to swiftly deal with the enemies in the tower.
Now, FF6 is the second to last FF game I have finished (the latest being FF15!) so I've been incredibly spoiled. No endgame dungeon in a JRPG has given me as much trouble as Kefka's tower. It was a real hurdle to overcome, but once I got to the Warring Triad bosses I had pretty much conquered the dungeon.
He questions life, existence and the purpose if it all. Kefka is alone with his perceptions of the world. His ascension to godhood has fully dissipated any sense of sanity he had.
It's an interesting but brief interaction you have with Kefka prior to the fight. Kefka spent much of the game's plot, cruelly carrying out Emperor Gestahls orders.
We never really get to see things from Kefka's perspective or even get a hint of what he knows and is planning.
Throughout the entirety of the World of Ruin we don't hear a peep outta Kefka. Only stories of his cruelty and the effect he has had on the world.
In this final moment, before we set about to destroy him Kefka chooses to reflect on the essence of existence.
It's the hint of a more complex character, and I so wished he got more development in the World of Ruin but perhaps it's a good thing. It gives some levitation to the moment, Kefka's final words...
As a final boss he is quite straight forward, primarily just dealing out huge sums of damage for you to heal through. By the time I came face to face with Kefka I was spamming auto-life and dealing out huge DPS, to say I was overpowered might have been an understatement...
Regardless, Kefka is an enjoyable thematic fight and defeating him does grant a sense of victory and closure.
The final act draws to a close as our heroes flee Kefka's crumbling tower, there is a nice bit of character bonding here and independent stories are wrapped up nicely.
Final Fantasy 6 is a swan song for the SNES and serves as a fine example of classic JRPG. Even with the limitations of the SNES system they oozed every last drop of tech to get out the best game they could.
The battle system is pretty dated and it lacks the balance of later games, but you cannot deny the eclectic cast and narrative really make this journey something special.
You feel the desperation and sorrow of these little pixel people and get truly immerse into their little oblivious world, teetering on the edge of destruction.
For me FF6 deserves it's spot in gaming history as a true classic.
