"Heaven has finally come, FFVI but.....portable!"

Final Fantasy VI, one of the greatest games and greatest Final Fantasies of all time has finally gone portable, many people have been waiting for this day, including me and it's safe to say; it's finally come and it's bigger and better than ever before, literally.
I'm a massive fan of the Final Fantasy series and my favourite is FFIX but I have to say; this comes in at a pretty close second place!

Graphics: 9/10
Lets start with the graphics; this game, in my opinion, has always had beautiful graphics, so colour-full, smooth and they just looks pretty awesome to say they originated from a SNES game. Nothing has really changed since it was ported from the SNES, then to the PS1 and finally to the GBA.... and that's a good thing, basically because Square really couldn't have done anything to improve them as they've pretty much already achieved perfection in terms of GBA graphics, this literally is probably one of the most beautiful GBA games you will ever look at.

My only complaint with the graphics is the Overworld, I don't know why but the look of it has always bugged me, FFIV's overworld graphics looked great and so did FFV's, something that has always struck me as odd is; "Why the hell did Square decide to go from using nice, crisp overworld graphics to using these horrible, grainy graphics?" Of course, the town/dungeon graphics of FFIV/FFV really can't compare to FFVI's, this is why FFVI has scored so high in this department.

Story/Plot: 7/10
This game was the first Final Fantasy of it's time to have an actual decent story, this doesn't derive from the fact that it's still kind of cliché though, In it's time it was probably considered good but as of now it's story really isn't any spectacular. Here is a short summary of the story:

The Gestahlian empire is looking to acquire the ultimate power-source; Magicite so they can rule and control the world, quite close to the beginning of the game they discover the Sealed Gate, a gate to the Esper world from which they could receive all the power they could ever dream of because it turns out; Espers can be turned into the power source of which they seek. Kefka and Emperor Gestahl eventually capture a large group of Espers and turn them into Magicite but are later infiltrated by a group of people known as "The Returners" which are basically a resistance force who are trying to stop Gestahl from acquiring any more Espers and turning them into Magicite.
Eventually, it turns out Kefka and Gestahl know of a much stronger power; The Warring Triad, they decide to quit trying to gather Magicite together and go in search of the Warring Triad instead.

As I said before; the story really isn't anything great but it's still pretty decent, it's basically your whole "People searching for ultimate power so they can rule the world" type thing.

Gameplay: 9/10
The gameplay is nearly exactly the same as any other Final Fantasy but with a few changes to make the games battle-system unique, here's a jist of it:
In battle you control 1/2/3/4 character(s) and you take turns with the enemy to perform attacks and see if you can kill the enemy, each character has a technique which is special to them, Example: Sabin=Blitz, Edgar=Tools, Setzer=Slot, etc.

Some of the techniques are pretty much good through the whole game but eventually some become pretty much useless, Setzer's Slot for example eventually loses some of it's pirks and eventually only 1 option on it is actually useful, it's the same with Edgar really; his tools command eventually loses its purpose.

The battle-system is good and efficient, it's also much quicker than it's other two ports because it has hardly any lag, it has some lag but not nearly as much as its PS1 port for example. Overall the gameplay is great, there's hardly any change from it's previous ports really, anyone who is a veteran to the Final Fantasy series should feel right at home on FFVI.

Sound: 10/10
The sound on FFVI is just brilliant, it honestly has one of, if not the best soundtracks out there. Some of the tracks are quite dull though and basically just play the same tune over-and-over again which is kind of a bring-down but that really doesn't change the fact the fact that the majority of the tracks on FFVI are brilliant, a great thing with FFVI is; once you complete the game you unlock a ‘Music-Player' so you can listen to all of FFVI's tunes as many times as you desire.

Replay-value: 8/10
The replay value of this game is great, even though I've only beaten the GBA version once I can safely say I'll play it time and time again, probably getting to the point where I have done about 4 or 5 playthroughs. Honestly, there's just something about this game which keeps you coming back for more, if you're a fan of any other Final Fantasy and have played it more than once there is a guarranteed chance you will play this game many, many times.

Overall: 9/10
It is a great game but still doesn't deserve a perfect 10 as no game is perfect, if you're a fan of the RPG genre you really should buy this game because take it from a massive RPG fan: You will not be disappointed.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/26/07