"Uwee-hee-hee, good, good, burn them all to a crisp!"

Author's Rating:

Pros: The GBA port of the classic RPG has all the elements making this game great.

Cons: Cons for Final Fantasy VI are so minuscule they aren't worth mentioning here.

The Bottom Line: 
Want an RPG that will never bore, but keep you enthralled in its world?  This is one that will.

Author's Review
Many Americans were introduced to RPG video games by way of Final Fantasy VII in 1997, but for a significant portion of gamers of similar age, the first excitement of the Final Fantasy series (and RPGs in general) actually came from either Final Fantasy IV or VI in the early and middle 1990s.

When Final Fantasy VI came out on the SNES in 1994 under the name Final Fantasy III, many gamers had never been so immersed into an RPG world before. The magic of Final Fantasy VI is not only in the addictive gameplay and improved ATB (Active Time Battle) system, but particularly in the excellent storyline and character development. To this day, I have never since been so taken into an imaginary world and cared so much about what happened to the characters like I do with this game.
 
In a somewhat unusual twist, rather than have a singular hero, Final Fantasy VI has a group of heroes. Perhaps the most predominant is Terra Branford, the first character you control. Terra is actually the most stereotypical of the group, however, having many of the same characteristics of Rydia from Final Fantasy IV - even down to the green hair. But along the way, this woman of mysterious magical power becomes surrounded by the well-meaning thief/"treasure hunter" Locke, the handsome, flirtatious king of Figaro named Edgar, the muscular, quietly intense Sabin, the determined Celes, family man and sword-wielding king Cyan, the secretive yet sensitive assassin Shadow, a humorous feral warrior child, and several other characters who the gameplayer will grow to love in short order.

While there are many characters in Final Fantasy VI, there aren't so many that you lose track of them (in other words, this definitely isn't Chrono Cross). As a unit, the 14 playable characters must battle an evil imperial regime and a creepy dictator/jester named Kefka. Kefka has his minions across the story, too, minions just as ruthless and dead-set on acclaiming power and worshipful admirers. I actually think Kefka is one of the best-done villains in any RPG. Rather than be just another "scary dark lord" type such as Exdeath from Final Fantasy V, Kefka combines his evil with some truly zany and hilarious moments which make you _almost_ like him at times - that is, until he reminds you of his true twisted and sinister motives.

Another feature making Final Fantasy VI compelling is how the storyline alternates between a linear first half to a more open-ended second half. Some wish the game were either completely linear or completely open-ended, but the problem I actually have with so many RPGs is they get painfully dull and tedious after eight to ten hours because they are either far too sequential or so wide open that I get lost and confused. But I enjoy following the story and watching the characters come together in the first half - and just when it all comes into focus in "The World of Balance," the world changes at the halfway mark, making the gameplayer wonder what is in store next in "The World of Ruin." There's certainly a story in "The World of Ruin," but you can complete it in any manner you want, going from town to town to see what has happened to the characters in the "new world" before taking on Kefka in the final battle.

Of course, a great RPG isn't made just of fun, well-weaved storylines and fascinating characters. In fact, another facet helping Final Fantasy VI feel so "alive" is the brilliant score from Nobuo Uematsu. Each character has a theme song which suits his or her personality perfectly. The overworld, town, dungeon, and other various "place" themes each are intensely redolent and atmospheric of the places they represent.

Regarding the battles, what now seems like a rather typical battle system was actually once revolutionary for its time, and still is enjoyable to systematize today. Sure, it can get annoying to have so many random encounters (part of why I think so many prefer the SNES 1995 RPG Chrono Trigger is that those pesky random battles are eliminated), but the battles per se don't have to be a nuisance. The ATB system, introduced in Final Fantasy IV, has been touched up in Final Fantasy VI, where you are now able to customize to a greater extent. As usual, you wait for a character's bar to fill up before enacting a move, but now players can choose from any character who has a full action bar instead of having to pick the character whose bar filled first. This really comes in handy when you want to have a particular character do something before another one! Characters also have specialized actions - for instance, Locke can steal, Celes can use a magical absorption ability called Runic, and so forth. A lot of the classic standards are still around as well, including the three different levels of ice, fire, and lightning magic. But now there's a really kick-butt spell at the latter stages of the game called "Ultima" - and when you get it, enjoy, because it causes up to 9999 damage points. Sweet. Besides all that, much of the battles are typical RPG fare: if you fight a lot and win a lot, you level up a lot and get lots of gil (money) to buy items and weapons.

In comparing this GBA version to the SNES predecessor, there are a few minor differences, but nothing that detracts from the gameplay. A few translation precision issues have been updated: instead of Edgar being called "Machinery," for instance, he is called a "Machinist." And a few of Sabin's specialized power moves have cooler names: instead of his first move called "Pummel," it now has the more interesting name of "Raging Fist." None of this is truly game-changing stuff - and that's good, because there isn't much to improve upon and reason to tinker with in a game as amazing as Final Fantasy VI. Thankfully, the battle speed also goes at the same rate as the SNES version, which is something I can't say for the GBA port of the fourth Final Fantasy, which sometimes gets ridiculously slow compared to the SNES version (Final Fantasy II). I am glad the GBA port did not repeat that error for Final Fantasy VI; all smoothness is retained.

Besides some minor changes, there are a few new goodies included on the GBA version worth mentioning.  There are four new espers you can get magic from, there's a new dungeon with a new dragon (a dragon which was supposed to be in the SNES version, but was accidentally omitted), and a place called the "Soul Shrine," where you can fight enemies constantly.

Graphically, the game is identical to the SNES version. Who needs fancy 3D renditions (which I don't believe the GBA is capable of anyway) when the cute 2D sprites work just fine? Sound-wise, the GBA may not have the speaker system that a SNES hooked up to a nice TV does, but you can still hear many of the fine nuances from Uematsu's score. In regards to the game's overall controls, there is nothing overly complicated to learn other than basic button-pushing to equip weapons, make battle moves, etc. and moving your character around in the basic 2D directions of up, left, down, and right. The speed of moving around on the overworld is also reasonable, and I explained earlier that the battle system does not suffer any kind of lag. Menus are easy to handle - all your items can be arranged without too much hassle, and you don't have the rather annoying limit on what you can retain like you do in Final Fantasy IV.

Final Fantasy VI is still my favorite RPG after all these years, and the 2007 American GBA version does it justice. This game is proof that you do not need to have fancy graphics or an overly sophisticated battle system to be a great RPG. Instead, it keeps you compelled with characters worth caring about, a storyline worth following, music worth hearing, and an intangible charm that makes you come back for more, even after beating it for a first time.