Final Fantasy VI

Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy VI SNES boxart
Developer(s)	Square Co., Ltd.
Publisher(s)	JPN Square Co., Ltd. (SNES) NA Square Soft, Inc.(SNES) JPN Square Co., Ltd. (PS1) NA Square EA (PS1) PAL SCE Europe (PS1) JPN Square Enix (GBA) NA Nintendo of America (GBA)
Designer(s)	Hironobu Sakaguchi (game producer, original concept) Yoshinori Kitase (game director, scenario) Hiroyuki Itō (game director, game designer) Yoshitaka Amano (image designer, title logo designer) Nobuo Uematsu (composer)
Platform(s)	Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Sony PlayStation (PS1), Game Boy Advance (GBA)
Release	JPN April 2, 1994 (SNES) NA October 11, 1994 (SNES) JPN March 11, 1999 (PS1) NA September 30, 1999 (PS1) PAL March 1, 2002 (PS1) JPN November 30 2006 (GBA) NA February 5 2007 (GBA)
Genre(s)	Role-playing
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer

Final Fantasy VI (ファイナルファンタジーVI, Fainaru Fantajī Shikkusu) is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square Co., Ltd. (now Square Enix Co., Ltd.). The game was originally released on April 2, 1994 in Japan and October 11 of the same year in North America (see 1994 in video gaming and infobox) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was first released in North America as "Final Fantasy III", although the original name was restored in later releases. It is important to note that it is the last original game in the Final Fantasy series to be made and released for the Super Nintendo as well as the last game in the Final Fantasy series to be made for a Nintendo video game console until Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles in 2003 in North America (in Japan: Chocobo Racing). The story focuses on a group of rebels as they seek to overthrow an imperial dictatorship.

Final Fantasy VI was the first game in the series to be directed by someone other than producer and series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, with that role being filled instead by veterans Yoshinori Kitase and Hiroyuki Itō. Originally released to near-universal critical acclaim, it is still regarded as a landmark of the series and of the role-playing genre. At 24 megabits, it was the largest role-playing video game to appear on a console at the time of its release, with a significantly greater number of battle customization options than its predecessors and the largest playable cast in the Final Fantasy series to date, excluding spin-off titles. It remains widely praised for its storyline, characters and non-linear style of play.

Gameplay

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Navigation on a town's field map

Like previous Final Fantasy installments, Final Fantasy VI consists of four basic modes of gameplay: an overworld map, town and dungeon field maps, a battle screen, and a menu screen. The overworld map is a scaled down version of the game's fictional world, which the player uses to direct characters to various locations. As with most games in the series, the three primary means of travel across the overworld are by foot, chocobo and airship. With a few plot-driven exceptions, enemies are randomly encountered on field maps and on the overworld when traveling by foot.

The game's plot develops as the player progresses through towns and dungeons. Town citizens will offer helpful information and some residents own item or equipment shops. Later in the game, visiting certain towns will activate side-quests. Dungeons appear as a variety of areas, including caves, sewers, forests, and buildings. These dungeons often have treasure chests containing rare items that are not available in most stores. Some dungeons feature puzzles and mazes, which require the player to divide the characters into multiple parties.

The menu screen is where the player makes such decisions as which characters will be in the travelling party, which equipment they wield, the magic they learn, and the configuration of the gameplay. It is also used to track experience points and levels.

Combat

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A battle in Final Fantasy VI

Combat in Final Fantasy VI is menu-based, in which the player selects an action from a list of such options as "Fight", "Magic" and "Item". A maximum of four characters may be used in battles, which implement a pseudo real-time system called "Active Time Battle", or "ATB". Under this system, each character has an action bar that replenishes itself at a rate dependent on their speed statistic. When a character's action bar is filled, the player may assign an action. In addition to standard battle techniques, each character possesses a unique special ability. For example, Locke possesses the ability to steal items from enemies, while Celes' Runic ability allows her to absorb most magical attacks cast until her next turn. Characters are rewarded for victorious battles with experience points and money, called "gil" ("GP" in the North American localization). When characters attain a certain amount of experience points, they gain a "level", which increases their statistics. An additional player may play during battle scenerios, with control of individual characters assigned from the configuration menu.

In contrast to previous versions of the Active Time Battle system, the player is able to pick from any character that has a filled action bar and has not yet received any commands, rather than being forced to issue commands to whichever character had his or her action bar filled first. Another new element is the Death Blow, a powerful attack substitution that occasionally appears when the character's health is low. Similar features appear in subsequent Final Fantasy titles under a variety of different names, including "Limit Breaks", "Trances", and "Overdrives".

Customization

Characters in Final Fantasy VI can be equipped with a wide variety of weapons, armor and accessories (known as "Relics") to increase their statistics and obtain special abilities. Most of this equipment can be used by several different characters, and they may equip up to two Relics. Relics have a variety of uses and effects, some of which alter basic battle commands, allow characters to use multiple weapons, provide permanent status changes during battle or use protective magical spells in response to being near death.

Although only two characters start the game with the ability to use magic, almost every character can learn to do so. Characters may equip Magicite, which are this game's incarnation of summoned monsters (with several recurring summons such as Ifrit, Shiva, Bahamut and Odin, along with many new summons exclusive to Final Fantasy VI) enabling the use of specific magic spells. If a character has Magicite equipped, he or she will gain "Magic Points" after most battles. As a character gains magic points, he or she gradually learns spells from the Magicite equipped and will gain additional statistic bonuses when leveling up, depending on the Magicite equipped. Furthermore, equipping Magicite allows the player to summon that particular Magicite's Esper to aid the party in battle.

Plot

Setting

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A map of the World of Balance

Main articles: List of Final Fantasy VI locations and Terminology of Final Fantasy VI

Final Fantasy VI takes place on a large, unnamed world. During the course of the game, its geography and landscape change due to various developments in the game's plot. During the first half of the game, the world is divided into two major continents and referred to as the "World of Balance". The northern continent is punctuated by a series of mountain ranges and contains many of the locations accessible to the player. Halfway through the game, the world's geographical layout is altered, resulting in its two large continents splitting into several islands of various size situated around a larger continent at their center. This altered layout of the game's locations is referred to as the "World of Ruin".

In contrast to the medieval settings featured in previous Final Fantasy titles, Final Fantasy VI is set in a steampunk environment. The structure of society parallels that of the latter half of the 19th century, with opera and the fine arts serving as recurring themes throughout the game, and a level of technology comparable to that of the Second Industrial Revolution. Railroads are in place and a coal mining operation is run in the northern town of Narshe. Additionally, several examples of modern engineering and weaponry (such as a chainsaw, power drill and automatic crossbow) have been developed in the kingdom of Figaro. However, communication systems have not reached significant levels of development, with letters sent by way of carrier pigeon serving as the only means of long-distance communication. However, this is also somewhat of a mystery or a gaffe in the game's setting, as piston-engine or hover-craft propelled aircraft also make an appearance during an important battle scene, which are clearly technological innovations exclusive to the 20th Century both for warfare and transportation.

One thousand years before the events of the game, three goddesses who served as the source of all magic in the world were at war with one another. This quarrel released magical energy into the world, transforming any human touched by it into a magical creature known as an "Esper," each under the control of the goddesses. The goddesses then used the Espers as soldiers in their war against one another in a conflict known as the "War of the Magi". Eventually, the goddesses realized their war had disgraced them, and in order to repent, they returned free will to the Espers and turned themselves to stone. Their only request was that the Espers ensure their power remain sealed so that it could not be misused again. When the war ended, the remaining humans and Espers were burdened with differences in lifestyle, appearance, and beliefs. As a result, the Espers departed to another dimension, taking the goddess statues with them and sealing the entrance to their world.

Terra riding Magitek Armor

Gradually, the human race built a society based on technology while the War of the Magi passed into legend. In the present day, the most powerful technology is in the hands of the Empire, a cruel and expanding dictatorship led by Emperor Gestahl and his top generals, Kefka Palazzo, Leo Cristophe and Celes Chere. Approximately eighteen years before the events of the game begin, the barrier between the human world and the Esper's dimension weakens and a human woman named "Madonna" passes through. Though most of the Espers are untrusting of her and believe that humans cannot co-exist with Espers, one named "Maduin" believes that they should at least try before passing judgement. Madonna stays in the Espers' world, and soon has a child named "Terra" with Maduin. At this time, driven by greed to wield the legendary power of the Espers, Gestahl takes advantage of the weakened barrier and launches a strike on the Espers' dimension in an attempt to capture as many Espers as possible. Despite the Esper elder casting a spell to send Gestahl's forces back through the dimensional gateway and to seal the gate once again, many Espers are captured, and Madonna, Maduin and infant Terra are also caught in the spell. Madonna then dies, while Maduin and Terra are captured.

Using the Espers as a power source, Gestahl initiated a research program to combine magic with machinery and infuse humans with magical powers, the result being a technology known as "Magitek". The Empire allocated this concept of Magitek into large mechanical vehicles known as "Magitek Armor", allowing a soldier to use the power of magic. Additionally, Kefka Palazzo was infused with magic, becoming one of the prototypes in a line of soldiers called "Magitek Knights" that would later include Celes Chere, though — the process experimental at this time and unrefined — his sanity was impaired as a result. Another Magitek invention was the Slave Crown, a device that allows a person to control another. As Terra grew older, the Empire would use this device to control her actions and use her as a weapon. Though the potency of Magitek is less than that of natural magic, as of the beginning of the game, the Empire is on the verge of rediscovering the full potential of magic by reopening the gateway to the world of the Espers. However, the Empire's rule is opposed by the Returners, a group of rebels seeking to overthrow the Empire and free its territories.

Characters

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Various characters

Main article: List of Final Fantasy VI characters

Final Fantasy VI features fourteen permanent playable characters, the most of any game in the main series, as well as several secondary characters who are only briefly controlled by the player. Primary characters include Terra Branford, a reserved half-human, half-Esper girl who spent most of her life as a slave to the Empire and is unfamiliar with love; Celes Chere, a former general of the Empire, who joined the Returners after being jailed for questioning imperial practices; Locke Cole, a treasure hunter and rebel sympathizer with a powerful impulse to protect women; Edgar Roni Figaro, a consummate womanizer and the king of Figaro, who claims allegiance to the Empire while secretly supplying aid to the Returners; Sabin Rene Figaro, Edgar's brother, who fled the royal court in order to pursue his own path and hone his martial arts skills; Cyan Garamonde, a loyal knight to the kingdom of Doma who lost his family and friends as a result of Kefka Palazzo poisoning the kingdom's water supply; Setzer Gabbiani, a habitual gambler and thrill seeker; Shadow, a ninja mercenary, who offers his services to both the Empire and the Returners at various stages throughout the game; Relm Arrowny, a young but harsh artistic girl with magical powers; Strago Magus, Relm's elderly grandfather and a Blue Mage; Gau, a feral child surviving since infancy in the harsh wilderness known as the Veldt; Mog, a Moogle from the mines of Narshe; Umaro, a savage but loyal sasquatch also from Narshe, talked into joining the Returners through Mog's persuasion; and Gogo, a mysterious, fully shrouded master of the art of mimicry.

Most of the main characters in the game hold a significant grudge against the Empire and, in particular, Kefka, who serves as one of the game's main antagonists along with Emperor Gestahl. The supporting character Ultros serves as a recurring villain and comic relief throughout the game. A handful of Final Fantasy VI characters have reappeared in later games, such as Secret of Evermore and Kingdom Hearts II. Additionally, Final Fantasy SGI, a short technology demo produced for the Silicon Graphics Onyx workstation, featured polygon based 3D renderings of Locke, Terra and Shadow.

Story

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A scene from the opening sequence of Final Fantasy VI

The story opens with Terra Branford participating in an imperial raid on Narshe in search of a frozen Esper. However, during the raid, her controllers are killed and the imperial control over her is broken, but she is unable to remember anything about her past. Locke Cole, a treasure hunter, promises to protect her until she can regain her memories and helps her escape to the hideout of the Returners, a group of militants opposing the Empire. Along the way, they meet Edgar Roni Figaro, the king of Figaro, and his estranged brother, Sabin Rene Figaro, who join them. Banon, the leader of the Returners, asks for Terra's help in their struggle against the Empire, and she agrees. The resistance then prepares to return to Narshe to investigate the frozen Esper, but before they can, the Empire begins to invade nearby South Figaro. Locke heads to the besieged town to slow the Empire's advance, while the rest of the group makes their way via rafting down the nearby Lete River. However, they become separated after a battle with Ultros, self-proclaimed "octopus royalty" and a recurring antagonist, forcing the various members of the Returners to find their own ways to Narshe in three different scenarios controlled by the player.

While Banon, Edgar and Terra take a relatively straightforward path by way of the river, Sabin encounters Shadow, who offers to show him a path through an imperial encampment erected for the siege of Doma Castle, underway at this same time. During the siege, Kefka Palazzo, one of Emperor Gestahl's three generals, poisons the water supply to the castle, killing nearly everyone inside. Infuriated at the death of his king, friends and family, Doma's retainer Cyan Garamonde attacks the nearby imperial base seeking revenge. Sabin and Shadow join forces with him, and together the three escape. While Shadow soon takes his leave, Sabin and Cyan continue, passing through the Phantom Forest and over Baren Falls to the open plains of the Veldt. Here, they encounter Gau, who has survived in the wilderness alone since infancy, and who then accompanies Sabin and Cyan to Narshe. In the meantime, Locke infiltrates the Empire's ranks in South Figaro. While there, he frees and promises to protect the jailed Celes Chere, one of the Empire's own generals, now targeted for execution for defying the Empire's ruthless practices. From her, Locke learns that the Empire plans to attack Narshe, to which the two make their way while slowing the imperial advance. As time goes on, romantic feelings begin to form between the two.

Reunited in Narshe, the Returners — to whose ranks Celes, Cyan and Gau are added — prepare to defend the frozen Esper from the Empire. After the player successfully thwarts the imperial invasion, Terra approaches the frozen Esper, prompting her to transform into an Esper-like form herself. She flies away, confused and horrified by her own transformation.

The Returners set out to search for Terra and soon find her in the city of Zozo, though still shocked by her apparent existence as an Esper and unable to come to terms with it. There, they also meet the Esper Ramuh, who tells them that if they free various other Espers from imperial control, they may find one who can help Terra. With the help of Setzer Gabbiani, new recruit to the group and believed to be the owner of the only airship in the world — the Blackjack — the Returners then travel to the Empire's capital city of Vector. There, they attempt to rescue several Espers from the Magitek Research Facility, including Maduin, who is revealed to be Terra's father. However, the Espers choose instead to give their lives to transform into Magicite — the crystalized remains of their essences that form when they die and allow others to use their powers — to which they bestow upon the Returners. Before the group can then escape, Kefka arrives and causes the Returners, including Locke, to momentarily doubt Celes' loyalty, much to her anguish. However, she provides proof to them of her support by teleporting them out of the facility while she remains behind. The rest of the group then returns to Zozo, where they show Terra the Magicite of her father, prompting her to gain knowledge of her past and accept herself as the half-human, half-Esper child of Maduin and a human woman, Madonna.

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Kefka (left) and Gestahl (center) stand before the goddess statues

The Returners now decide that it is time to launch an all-out attack on the Empire, and Banon asks Terra to attempt contacting the Espers' dimension in order to gain their support. Terra succeeds in making contact, and when the Espers learn that the others captured by the Empire previously have now perished, they become infuriated and enter the human world, where they destroy much of Vector. When the Returners arrive in the capital, they find Emperor Gestahl claiming to no longer have the will to fight, inviting the Returners to a banquet to negotiate peace. Gestahl asks Terra to deliver a truce to the Espers on his behalf, to which she agrees. Accompanied by Locke, Shadow (now hired by the Empire) and Generals Celes and Leo, the player must then guide Terra to a remote village in search of the Espers, where they meet Strago Magus and his granddaughter, Relm Arrowny, who also accompany them. In the meantime, Celes and Locke's friendship is strained. At first, she is unwilling to forgive him for momentarily doubting her loyalty earlier, and when she later attempts to discuss the matter with him, he likewise brushes her off.

Soon, they find the Espers and Terra convinces them to accept a truce with Gestahl. However, during the negotiations, Kefka attacks the Espers, killing all of those still alive and capturing the Magicite their essences become. Additionally, he kills General Leo, who is appalled by Kefka's dishonorable tactics and attempts to defend the Espers. The Returners reunite, now aware that the peace was a ploy for Gestahl to obtain Magicite and the goddess statues within the Espers' sealed dimension. Kefka and Gestahl use their newly acquired Magicite to obtain the goddess statues, while the Returners — now joined by Mog (after the characters return to Narshe), the leader of the moogles, and a repentant Shadow, wracked with self-reproach over working for the Empire — attempt to stop them, first engaging in a final battle with Ultros. Despite their efforts, the Returners are unable to prevent Kefka and Gestahl from gaining the power of the goddess statues. Now empowered, Kefka promptly kills Gestahl and moves the statues out of their proper alignment, upsetting the balance of magical power and causing the destruction of most of the surface world. In the disaster, the Returners are separated from one another as Setzer's airship is torn apart. Providing the gamer waits to the last moment to board the air ship Shadow may be saved, if not he dies and cannot be found in the world of ruin.

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Celes discovering Locke's bandana in the World of Ruin (from a full motion video in the PlayStation rerelease)

One year later, Celes awakens from a coma on a deserted island and learns that the world has been devastated by Kefka. Much of its human population has died and its plant and animal life are slowly being killed by sickness to punctuate humanity's despair. Cid begins to pass away; if Celes and the player can not save him, after attempting suicide herself, Celes is approached by a seagull wearing a sling made from Locke's bandana. Taking it as a sign that he might be alive, Celes's hope is renewed and she sets out in search of the other Returners. However, if she does manage to save Cid's life, he provides her with a raft to look for the Returners with. One by one, she reunites the group, all still alive, and new members Umaro and Gogo are enlisted. Additionally, her relationship with Locke is repaired and continues to develop romantically. Together, the reunited Returners launch a new offensive against Kefka, utilizing the Falcon — an airship that belonged to a now deceased friend of Setzer's — to reach Kefka's tower and infiltrate it. Inside, the Returners battle their way through Kefka's defenses and destroy the three goddess statues, the source of Kefka's newfound power. However, the player now learns that Kefka has drained the magical power from the statues and become the source of all magic in the world himself.

Making a final stand against Kefka, the characters successfully destroy him, but since the goddesses' power was the source of magic, all Magicite begins to shatter and Kefka's magically-maintained tower begins to crumble. Terra leads the characters out as she begins to weaken due to her half-Esper heritage. However, before her father's Magicite shatters, his spirit informs her that by holding to the human side of herself, she may survive the passing of magic. In the end, Terra is allowed to live and the world is rejuvenated.

Development

Audio

Main article: Final Fantasy VI: Original Sound Version

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The "Aria di Mezzo Carattere"

The soundtrack for Final Fantasy VI is the work of long-time series contributor Nobuo Uematsu. The score consists of themes for each major character and location, as well as music for standard battles, fights with boss enemies and for special cutscenes. The "Aria di Mezzo Carattere" is one of the latter tracks, played during a cutscene involving an opera performance. This track features an unintelligible synthesized "voice" that harmonizes with the melody, as technical limitations for the SPC700 sound format chip prevented the use of an actual vocal track. The orchestral album Final Fantasy VI Grand Finale features an arranged version of the aria, using Italian lyrics performed by Svetla Krasteva with an orchestral accompaniment. This version is also found in the ending full motion video of the game's Sony PlayStation rerelease, with the same lyrics but a different musical arrangement. In addition, the album Orchestral Game Concert 4 includes an extended version of the opera arranged and conducted by Kousuke Onozaki and performed by the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra featuring Wakako Aokimi, Tetsuya Oono and Hiroshi Kuroda on vocals. The piece "Dancing Mad", accompanying the game's final battle with Kefka, is 17 minutes long and contains a lengthy organ cadenza. The ending theme, "Balance Is Restored", reintroduces various motives from the game, lasting over 21 minutes.

The original score was released on three Compact Discs in Japan as Final Fantasy VI: Original Sound Version. A version of this album was later released in North America under the title Final Fantasy III: Kefka's Domain, available exclusively through mail order from Square Co. Additionally, Final Fantasy VI: Grand Finale features eleven tracks from the game, arranged by Shiro Sagisu and Tsuneyoshi Saito and performed by the Ensemble Archi Della Scala and Orchestra Synfonica di Milano (Milan Symphony Orchestra). Piano Collections: Final Fantasy VI, a second arranged album, features thirteen tracks from the game, performed for piano by Reiko Nomura.

Graphics

Yoshitaka Amano, another long-time contributor to the Final Fantasy series, returned as the image designer, character designer and main graphic designer. Amano provided concept sketches to the programmers, who converted them into the sprites featured in the game due to technical limitations of the time. Liberties were taken during the conversion, such as changing Terra Branford's hair from blonde to green, and changing Celes Chere's outfit entirely. Amano also designed the title logo as well. The graphics for the game were all directed by veterans Hideo Minaba, Kazuko Shibuya, Tetsuya Takahashi and Tetsuya Nomura. In the full motion videos (FMVs) produced for the game's PlayStation rerelease, the character designs featured are based on Amano's designs.

Though it was not the first game to utilize the Super Nintendo's Mode 7 graphics, Final Fantasy VI made more extensive use of them than its predecessors. For instance, unlike both Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy V, the world map is rendered in Mode 7, which lends a somewhat three-dimensional perspective to an otherwise two-dimensional game.

Localization and censorship

Template:Frame right The original English language localization of Final Fantasy VI by Nintendo of America for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System featured several changes from the original Japanese version. The most obvious of these is the change of the game's title from "Final Fantasy VI" to "Final Fantasy III", implemented to reflect the fact that it was only the third Final Fantasy title to have been released in North America. Unlike Final Fantasy IV (originally released in North America under the title "Final Fantasy II"), there are no major changes to gameplay, though certain editorial adjustments exist in the English script. In a January 1995 interview with Super POWER magazine, translator Ted Woolsey explained that "there's a certain level of playfulness and ... sexuality in Japanese games that just doesn't exist here [in the USA], basically because of Nintendo of America's rules and guidelines". Consequently, some of the game's graphics were subtly altered to cover up instances of nudity. Additionally, building signs in towns were changed from "Pub" to "Cafe," and images of pipe smoking were removed from a few monster graphics.

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North American box art for Final Fantasy III

The English localization also features changes to several names, though some of these — in the case of characters — were necessitated by technical restrictions of only six letters per name (e.g. "Stragus" was shortened to "Strago"). Other changes were made in order for the game to meet Nintendo's aforementioned content guidelines, which, for instance, placed restrictions on the use of religious allusions, leading to the renaming of the magic spell Holy to "Pearl". Other changes were made simply due to cultural differences between Asian and North American audiences. For example, Terra's Japanese name, Tina, sounds exotic to Japanese speakers, but is a common Anglophone name. Finally, dialogue text files had to be shortened due to the limited data storage space available on the game cartridge's ROM. As a result, additional changes were rendered to dialogue in order to compress it into the available space.

Reception and criticism

Upon its release in 1994, Final Fantasy VI received a positive reception from most major gaming publications of the time. GamePro gave it a perfect 5 out of 5 score, while Electronic Gaming Monthly granted a 9 out of 10 in its October issue and named it game of the month over Earthworm Jim and Mortal Kombat II. Additionally, Electronic Gaming Monthly later ranked the game ninth in its 1997 list of the 100 greatest console games of all time, and when it was rereleased for the PlayStation, the same magazines rated it 4 out of 5 and 9.5 out of 10, respectively. For their part, Nintendo Power declared the game "the RPG hit of the decade", noting its improved sound and graphics over its predecessors, as well as the game's scope. Moreover, they suggested that "with so much story and variation of play ... fans may become lost in the world for months at a time".

Today, multimedia news website IGN ranks Final Fantasy VI as fifty-six on their list of the one hundred greatest games — placing it as the second highest ranked Final Fantasy title on the list after Final Fantasy IV — describing its graphics in a review of the PlayStation rerelease as "beautiful and stunning in context", as well as surprisingly emotive for its time period. Additionally, IGN commented that, at the time of its release, "Final Fantasy III ... represented everything an RPG should be and bumped up the standards in gameplay...", inspiring statistic growth systems "under different guises in games like Wild Arms ... and Suikoden ...". Moreover, they praised its gameplay and storyline, claiming that these aspects took "all ... preceding RPG concepts and either came up with something completely new or refined them enough to make them its own", creating an atmosphere in which "[players] won't find it difficult to get past the simplistic graphics or seemingly out-dated gameplay conventions and become involved ...".

The users of the gaming website GameFAQs chose Final Fantasy VI, in its translation as Final Fantasy 3 for the Super Nintendo, as the tenth greatest game of all time in 2005, while readers of the Japanese magazine Famitsu voted it as the twenty-fifth best of all time in early 2006. RPGamer gave a perfect rating to both the original game and its PlayStation rerelease, citing its gameplay as "self-explanatory enough that most any player could pick up the game and customize their characters equipment" and its music as "a 16-bit masterpiece". Alternatively, they describe the game's sound effects as limited and the game itself as lacking in replay value due to having "one ending, one [fundamental] path through the plot, and ... [mandatory] sidequests". Additionally, they regarded the game's English translation as "unremarkable", being "better than some but worse than others", and offered similar comments for its gameplay difficulty. However, they referred to the game's storyline as its "... most unique aspect", citing its large cast of characters, "nearly all of whom receive a great deal of development", and "surprisingly large number of real world issues, the vast majority of which have not been addressed by any RPG before or since, ranging from teen pregnancy to suicide". Overall, RPGamer regarded the game as an "epic masterpiece" and "truly one of the greatest games ever created".

Additionally, the North American rerelease on the PlayStation has sold approximately 364,000 copies.

Re-releases

PlayStation

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Final Fantasy VI PlayStation boxart

Final Fantasy VI was ported to the Sony PlayStation and rereleased in Japan and North America during 1999. In Japan, it was available both individually and as part of Final Fantasy Collection, while it was only available as part of Final Fantasy Anthology in North America. During 2002, this rerelease became available in PAL territories and was the first time the game had seen an official release in those countries.

Final Fantasy VI's PlayStation rerelease is very similar to the original Japanese release seen on the SNES. With the exception of new FMV cutscenes added at the beginning and end, the graphics, music and sound are left unchanged from the Japanese version. Additionally, unlike the PlayStation rerelease of Final Fantasy IV included in the Final Fantasy Chronicles compilation, the script for the English language version was left essentially unchanged, with only a few item and character name adjustments. For example, gil remained translated as "GP" and "Ultima Weapon" remained translated as "Atma Weapon". The only notable changes to gameplay involve the addition of a "run" option (without the need to equip an accessory), the correction of a few software bugs from the original, the creation or oversight of other bugs and the addition of a new "memo save" feature, allowing players to quickly save their progress to the PlayStation's RAM. The rerelease included other special features, such as a bestiary and artwork gallery.

Game Boy Advance

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Final Fantasy VI Advance Boxart

Final Fantasy VI was rereleased in Japan on November 30, 2006, and is slated for rerelease in North America on February 5, 2007 on the Game Boy Advance. First released as Final Fantasy III in North America on the Super NES, this version will be released under the title "Final Fantasy VI Advance," and will include additional gameplay features and enhanced visuals. Four new espers have been confirmed to appear in the rerelease for the GBA - Leviathan, Gilgamesh, Gigantuar, and Final Fantasy VIII's Diablos; along with a new dungeon, the Dragon's Den. The North American release will also contain a new translation and new boxart illustrated by series mainstay, Yoshitaka Amano. In addition, like the other handheld Final Fantasy remake titles, there will be a bestiary and music player included. The game is rated E10+ by the Entertainment Software Rating Board.

External links

• Original Japanese TV Commercial
• Square Enix's Official Final Fantasy VI website
• Nintendo's Official Final Fantasy VI Advance website (English)
• Template:Nintendo.com
• Template:Nintendo.com
• "A Fine Fantasy", Escapist Magazine article
• Final Fantasy VI at IMDb
• Final Fantasy VI at MobyGames
• Template:GameFAQs
• Final Fantasy VI at Wikia
• Final Fantasy VI for the SNES at MobyGames
• Final Fantasy VI for the PlayStation at MobyGames