Hehe, this is the first SNES review. I feel proud ;DWell, I felt it was time for me to do this review on Final Fantasy VI (III in USA), one of the best FF games so far, and probably the best game on the Super Nintendo. There are a few remakes of this game on the Playstation and also the GBA, the GBA version having better looking text, more features and more enemies and sidequests but of course they don't beat the original. It was also released as Final Fantasy III in North America. This is a long review, I have beaten it several times, first time was when I was about 7. Read on!When I first played this game, I just thought "wow". It was on the outdated Super Nintendo console, and it was one of the best games I'd ever played. Nearly everything about it is outstanding.
At first sight, I thought it was a bit worse than Final Fantasy V in graphics, it wasn't as clean, but the graphics and animations they had for it were absolutely amazing for it's time, being released 1994. They even beat some of the GBA and NDS games today. The characters had many different expressions, making moments in the game even more funny or interesting.It was pretty smart of them to use a sort of 90 degree angle when riding a chocobo, making the world map seem sort of 3d, the sand looked great. The sea, mountains, and fields do look quite bad though and it does look kind of messy, but what do you expect from a SNES game?The sprites and buildings look great, very well designed, especially the enemies, such as the legendary Dragons, reminds me of Bahamut Lagoon. Only bad thing is that all of the enemies are much larger than you, while your team remain regular sized sprites in battle. Also, the battle sprites are the same "shade" of colour as when playing, and all of the enemies look very "drawn".
The menus and text boxes are of course nearly unchanged in "look", remaining with the all of the options in the Main Menu on the right, with nearly all the same option names as previous Final Fantasies. Saving and loading is the same style also, having 3 save slots for saves.Although you can change the look of the menus and text boxes, by changing a few options in the Configuration, such as changing the colour, which mostly looks pretty bad, or choosing custom "skins". Battle screens/maps look quite awesome too, being nicely designed, and fit for the current location you're in.Battle animations are quite good too, with magics having different animations and such. I also liked movement in situations such as Sabin getting hurt by Ultros and flying off into the water, instead of dragging the sprite along and then just placing the new sprite in the water and then dragging that along.The music of the game is quite catchy, with great battle music and other music for those situations that need them. And they fit very well.Other sound effects include opening doors, chests, and winding the clock. Of course the tunes are midi like, not created by orchestras such as in One Winged Angel. Of course it was created by legendary Nobuo Uematsu. Not as bad sounding as Final Fantasy I, but great all the way.
Gameplay remains just about the same as the previous FF games. Allies starting on the right, enemies on the left etc. When it's a back attack, you start on the left backwards, first hit or "Pre-emptive Strike", you get to attack first and so on.Fighting is also ATB (Active Time Battle) based, just like previous games so relatively, combat is no different. However, there are no jobs like in FFV, but there are several ways to customize characters, including weapons, armour, and relics (accessories).Wielding certain kinds of relics have several uses and effects, such as making a character in "Haste" status for the whole battle. As well as summoning goes, there are creatures known as Espers (name used in FFXII) which are summoned by items called Magicite. You can also learn several abilities and magics from certain magicite as well as gaining Status bonuses.Another nifty thing they added, was of course characters own abilities. Such as Locke being able to Steal
from enemies, Gau's ability to learn enemy skills and the best of the abilites has got to be Sabin's. To use one of his "moves", you have to press a combination of buttons to perform it. After battles, you generally receive Gil, the games currency of course (GP in Final Fantasy III), and other items.Leveling up is also essential, but if you didn't train all that much and want to get ready for the last boss, after "The End", you can train in a forest and get a level every 2 battles or so, so nothing to worry about. All in all, gameplay is very easy, not winning wise, but very easy to learn on how to play, at the start of the game, you can mostly just keep holding A.There are a total of 14 permanent characters that you can play as, with several other characters who are only temporary.The game is quite long and time consuming (like a normal RPG), even after "The End" of the world. Making it even more enjoyable is sidequests. There's several such as beating all of the legendary dragons and fighting the hardest boss of the game. There are also several parts of the games which are interactive, such as saying the right words in the play as Celes.The language of the game is quite funny in the American version, having references to "witches", alcohol and gambling. What did you expect?
The main storyline of the game is very good, with a group of rebels called the "Returners" trying to destroy the evil empire lead by Gestahl. As the game goes on, it gets a bit more serious, as well as a bit emotional and funny of course, but I assure you, I didn't cry :PThe PSX version which I haven't played is supposed to have CGI scenes as well as some other extra features. I've played the GBA version, but since the GBA hardware is quite weak compared to the SNES's hardware, they had to lessen some of the graphics a bit. They also added some nice looking text and renamed all of the spells to the more modern Final Fantasy database, Fire1 Fire2 Fire3 to Fire Fira Firaga etc.They also added a bestiary where you can see all of the enemies you've versed etc. as well as a Music player with all of the music from the game. But if you want the real deal, play the original SNES version.It is a superb game, being rated 5 out of 5 by Gamepro, EG rating it 9/10, and IGN rating it the second best Final Fantasy game to date in 2005. I have played this game over and over, I don't know how many times now, it never gets old. If you haven't played the game yet, I recommend you do that by downloading it even if you don't like RPGs and if you have, why not play it again. This game is one of the best RPGs to date and one of the best games of all time.Now for the marks of the game itself:Presentation: 9/10 - Everything is easy to understand, nice features, everything is well put in place. Some of the battle magics and character abilities are hard to understand and use at first, but you figure it out within a minute or so of using.Graphics: 9/10 - Graphics are amazing for being nearly 15 years old, great sprites, maps, battle screens, enemies, tilesets and towns. If the graphics for the world map and the world map while being on a chocobo were spruced up a bit, it would have gotten a 10 for graphics.Sound: 9/10 - Great, catchy tunes. Awesome effects created on some tunes, every song sounds absolutely great. Only drawback is that they sound like ringtones but better.Gameplay: 10/10 - Great gameplay, excellent battle features, easy to figure out on how to battle, lots of customizations too.Lasting Appeal: 10/10 - Even though it's an RPG, it makes you want to play over and over again, never gets old. It's that good.TOTAL: 47/50 - This is my second all time favourite game, which I have beaten many times, might even get the PSX and GBA versions soon. It receives a Gold Award from anandjones :PNow, that's two reviews in two days. Might do one tomorrow. Anyways, hope you liked my review. And sorry for the different picture sizes :P-anandjones