Final Fantasy VI (1994) by Square

I fondly remember the days of playing this game in my parents house as a 9-year old, awestruck by just how good video games can be. I played it for hours upon its release and it ignited a love for RPGs that lasts to this day. I still go back every once in a while to replay the game, and I'm happy to see that it's been ported to Steam so I don't have to break out the old Nintendo DS or -- gasp! -- my grandfatherly SNES that still sits in my closet next to a shoebox on my most cherished titles from the '90s.

Most reviewers gripe about the graphics "update", and while I generally do prefer the original sprites (sprites tend to age better than any polygonal graphics), I don't find the graphical change to be much worse. It's different, sure, but really not worse in any objective way. I can understand how the greybeards would be miffed at a change to their beloved classic games, but it really didn't bother me. And as a nearly day-one played of the original title in 1994, I'm about as old school as they come.

I absolutely adore Final Fantasy VII, but I did knock some points off for how bad the port from the PS1 to Steam was, and I'm happy to say that's not much of a problem here. This one, while it's not fantastic, seems to work fine. You're going to lack some high resolution options here, but given how badly they were implemented in Final Fantasy VII with its disastrously upscaled backgrounds, I'd say that's not too much of a problem. This isn't an HD remaster, it's just a port of the original game, which was designed for tube TVs rather than PC screens. As such, this is a perfect game to play windowed while you've got some other stuff going on in the background.

While the graphics have aged incredibly well, the story and writing, however, have not. When this game released it helped to push the bar of good character writing and narrative. Unfortunately that bar has long been pressed onward and well past where Final Fantasy VI left it. While the characters are still incredibly charming and thoughtfully written, and the plot has some decent surprises in store for you, the writing in general lacks a lot of the depth that we can find in modern day games.

That's no reason not to play Final Fantasy VI, though. The combat system is still fun, with a grand cast of party members each featuring their own special abilities carrying combat through the majority of the game. Using such a colorful cast of characters is a joy, and the game really takes pains to ensure that they're all unique and introduces them in a manner in which none of them are just a face in the crowd. You genuinely care about them all and want to see them succeed. You'll find yourself cheering when one of them lands a critical or pulls you out of a tough situation. The game isn't overly challenging unless you've got no idea what you're doing, though.

The Esper system is good, but lacks a little bit compared to the job system and the later Materia system, which is probably my favorite in the series outside of Final Fantasy Tactics' jobs and abilities system.

Seriously, Squeenix, can we get a PC port for Final Fantasy Tactics? Please?

It'd be a crime not to mention Nobuo Uematsu's unbelievably amazing score, which is among the best in the Final Fantasy series and certainly among the best scores in all of video game history. It's spellbinding, utterly engrossing. To this day I can't hear a track from it that doesn't take me back to sitting on my parents' carpet, staring up at the 20" tube TV, playing the best game I had ever played up to that point of my life; one that would stick with me more than 20 years later and inspire me to write a review about this newfangled Steam version. And that's why I love this game so much. It's a charming, emotionally impactful roller coaster ride to a simpler time.

Play it and maybe it'll be the same for you.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Playtime: 108 hours