uglyrodent will now review a game he loves.

As the followup to reviewing a game I hate, I'll review a game I love. Final Fantasy VI. No need for an introduction, let's jump right into it.

-Graphics/Aesthetic
While the actual graphics may not be great, the aesthetic is great. Admittedly, the characters do look a tad blocky considering it's 16-bits and not too early in the SNES's time. However, insofar as they do show the characters' appearances, they do so with a lot of personality. In fact, all the game's graphics are chock full of personality. Despite the characters, every other piece of landscape, background, monster, or mugshot gives you a very clear and direct idea of what you're looking at, and none of it is especially displeasing. Certain enemy sprites do look a bit...well, muddled do to color limitations and the pixelly nature of the SNES. Occasionally, a sprite will appear to be odd or simply parts of it will be indecipherable. I'm not saying Square shouldn't have been creative, I'm just saying toning down Kefka's costume would have made him a bit easier to see.
4/5

-Multiplayer
I haven't used it much, but I've used it enough to understand it. Characters can be set to be controlled by player 1 (who controls the characters on the map as well) or player 2, and during battle the appropriate player controls the appropriate characters. It works pretty well but really, RPGs are for the most part built to be single person experiences. I can very easily see having fun with the multiplayer, but frankly it doesn't fit with how the rest of the game is constructed.
3/5

-Mechanics
The equipment system leaves something to be desired, as it's a matter of what's best rather than what you want to use. However, not only was this normal for the era but the game isn't too emphatic on weapon usage in general, and even less on what type you're using. So it gets a pass there. The Magic/Esper system is pretty rich, and allows an interesting kind of customization to your characters. Effectively allowing you to choose between rapidly learning a bunch of spells, or slowly learning the best ones. Additionally, each character has a unique skill that only they can use in combat, which is pretty neat.
4/5

-Gameplay
It's...well, it's not amazing. Map screens work how you think; move up, down, left, or right. Get where you're going. Deal with the occasional gimmick. But in combat, the game pretty much becomes a slower version of a turn based RPG. See, each character has a bar that fills up depending on how fast they are. When it's full they can put in an action, and all actions are executed in the order they're put in. And to let you really plan, bars don't fill up when one of your character's bars is full, giving you as much time as you need to decide what to do! In theory, this sounds pretty tactical and exciting, but in practice it boils down to a standard turn based RPG with frequent, if short pauses that break up the action. To their credit, you can make it so taking a turn doesn't make everyone else wait, which puts a little pressure on you to be quick and decisive. If this was the default it would count for them. It's not. They thought the other way was better, and frankly it's just a drawn out version of FF1's combat.
3/5

-Story
A very deep story with a lot of characters sounds pretty great, and it is but...well, not counting secrets there's 11 characters. Each one is unique and is pretty well written, but it's also a lot of fucking people to keep track of. The game is also pretty much divided into halves. The first half is hectic, a villain rises and you realize it too late and react in similar fashion. Shit goes bad and you're all split up. This part is more or less set up, the second half being a pause. During the second half you round up the gang to kick some ass, and every person you find has their own struggle or adventure going on. The characters gain a LOT of characterization here, and it all culminates in a very satisfying boss fight and ending sequence. While I do enjoy the format they went with, it would have been nice to mix the two parts. Have it be a chunk of the set up part, then some characterization from the second half, more characterization, three parts set up...you know, mix it up. Make it less polar. It would have felt a lot more fluid. They could still even keep the whole "get the band back together" thing and have each personal thing be smaller. It would keep that pause before the big showdown, and if the characterization is earlier it would all flow much nicer. But this is all a tangent. The story they told, as they told it, is pretty involved and deep, and you really end up caring about at least half the cast. It just could have been more fluid.
4/5.

-Level Design
Nothing to write home about. It wasn't bad, but most of the time the level was only unique due to the monsters in it and the tileset used. They did keep the theming in this regard very consistent, and the shapes of the maps did feel like what they were (a town was shaped very much like a town while a cave was much more cave-y), but ultimately it's the same stuff with a new look. The puzzles, when presented, were pretty well done. And a couple dungeons require splitting up your characters and controlling two parties, which is a BLAST.
3/5

-Sound
If you are familiar with it, I don't even need to say anything. If you are not, then I still have nothing to say because words cannot do it justice. Go listen to Aria De Mezzo Caraterre right now.

Overall looks like it averages about 4/5. A solid 4/5, as there isn't a tenuous question of story as in the CoD review. I HIGHLY reccomend this game as a role playing game. If you want to be swept into a world of beauty, action, drama, and magic, this game will give you all that and more. However, if you want a game with unique, intense gameplay and a rich equipment system...maybe look somewhere else.