Retro Reviews: Final Fantasy VI (SNES)

The last of the main Final Fantasy titles to be released on a Nintendo console was Final Fantasy VI for the SNES in 1994. With development of Final Fantasy VII on the Playstation looming, Squaresoft were determined to sign off from their seven year hosts with a bang. So arguably video gaming’s greatest creative team put their heads together for one last outing on the console they knew and loved.

The result is staggering. 13 years after the original release, Final Fantasy VI still boasts one of the most atmospheric and memorable opening sequences of any game, and this feeling is reflected in the next 40 hours of plot. The deep, engaging narrative follows the story of Terra, a woman with the ability to use magic, a mystic art lost for 1000 years after the deadly war it caused.

The characters are some of the most well developed the industry has ever seen. Even the more minor of those in the player’s party have an engaging story and play an important role in the game. The inclusion of a human villain in a world filled with magic and monsters was a refreshing change from previous titles and this makes the entire experience more believable.

The gameplay in Final Fantasy VI is barely different from any other titles in the series. The player controls their party around towns, caves and the overworld map, with the ability to equip weapons and accessories (or “Relics”) in the menu system as well as changing party members and using learned abilities. Battling is nothing revolutionary either, random battles take the player to a battle screen and characters fight it out in a turn based manner, utilizing the new Active-Time Battle system first introduced in Final Fantasy IV, a bar that fills at different speeds depending on the character’s statistics and commands can only be inputted when it is full. Whilst a useful inclusion, the speed of the ATB bar didn’t vary enough from character to character so waiting for it to fill feels more like a formality than an interesting strategic addition.

One interesting new dynamic is the ability to switch between different parties at certain points in the game, and managing to balance these teams properly becomes an essential skill, and the simple addition of a puzzle element brings something new to the series. That said, being forced to switch between different teams to accomplish different objectives can drag on a little and at times the player will just want to reunite the team and get on with the story. One of the most irritating aspects of the gameplay is simply transitions that move too slowly. Whether it’s from the overworld map into battle or checking equipment in the menu, the transition takes a second or two too long and this tends to break up the experience a bit too much.

For its time, Final Fantasy VI was a graphical masterpiece. Although all 2D, the artistic direction was top-notch and the character were able to show a much wider range of emotions than many would expect, and even today this helps the player to engage with them. Having said that, the dated visuals can detract from the experience somewhat, with enemy sprites barely animated at all and the squashed looking text can be difficult to read at times. In later titles whenever a character spoke a new text box would open, but in Final Fantasy VI speech from different characters is all in one box with no gaps between them, so reading what is said often becomes more like code-breaking and this can frustrate.

The entire game was scored by Nobuo Uematsu, and Final Fantasy VI is widely regarded as one of his greatest achievements. Each character and main location has their own theme, along with mood setting background music for towns and battles. The music was varied and memorable, and for one scene even included an Aria. The effect was to push the game forward ahead of its time and allowed people to feel emotions for their characters rarely seen before. VI also included some of the world’s first voice acting in game, albeit only a single distorted laugh used for the villain, Kefka.

Final Fantasy VI was all about pushing boundaries and doing things that could supposedly not be done on the technology available. To this end Square’s masterpiece was a resounding success. Unfortunately, many games from the pre-Playstation era suffer the passing of time more than later titles such as Final Fantasy VII or Metal Gear Solid ever will, and this is true with VI as well, the archaic visuals and gameplay turning the play through into a struggle. But for those who persist, they will find a rich, engaging story filled with lovable characters that will forever remain timeless.

Overall: 7/10