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| Review of the game
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"Long ago the war of the Magi reduced the world to a scorched
wasteland, and Magic simply ceased to exist. 1000 years have passed... Iron, gunpowder, and steam engines have
been rediscovered, and high technology reigns. But there are those who would enslave the world by reviving the
dread destructive power known as "Magic". Can it be that those in power are on the verge of repeating a
senseless and deadly mistake?"
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The player enters the game as Terra, a woman with the unusual
ability to use magic, as she is being used by the Empire to capture an 'Esper'. Espers are beings who fled
to another world after the war of the Magi, to protect their gift of magic from the greed of humans and thus
prevent further wars with them. Terra is freed by a thief named Locke, who offers to accompany her to the
neighbouring land, where she may claim help and protection from the King. However, the Emperor
and his right-arm, the insane Kefka, are determined to use Terra's abilities to capture Espers and gain the power of
magic which would assure them supremacy over all other kingdoms. Then begin their relentless hunt for her and their
ignomous invasions and massacres of any who resist their claim for leadership.
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So admittedly, the graphics may look a bit dated, but the player
quickly gets over this slightly frustrating jump backward in technology, for many reasons. One, FFVI is as brilliant
a game as the later Final Fantasy instalments, and offers a chance to see the development of the amazing saga. The
drawings may look simplistic at first, but they are actually quite detailed and minutiously designed. Two, the characters
are great and very much endearing. Terra, Locke, General Leo, Celes, Sabin are amongst the most unforgettable people
ever created, while Edgar is simply one of the funniest. Three, the music is as usual wonderful, but that is needless to say because it is
a word that is implied in the composer Nobuo Uematsu's name. He once again signed here some beautiful pieces,
still so, despite the lesser sound quality. Terra's theme is my personal favourite. The
music for the introductory and ending CG sequences are absolutely superb too.
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Four, FFVI has a great ending. It just never seems to end,
animation
sequences suceeding one another in an endless "bouquet final". And after the 2D animation, there is a very nice
surprise, that is a 4 minutes CG sequence of breathtaking beauty
and visual poetry, designed, like the introductory one, especially for the game's re-release on Playstation.
Five, the story is very involving, as usual. Though the best story
has to be FFVII, FFVI still fares well. The player even feels at times touched or absolutely revolted
at some of the characters' actions in the story. The usual FF themes such as humanity, friendship, love, death,
betrayal, spirituality are explored through the various characters's experiences. The player is able to
choose amongst a total of 14 playable characters (of wich two are hidden ones), each with specific abilities,
which makes the battles more interesting.
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The introductory CG sequence is also very useful in the sense that it
sets the visual and atmospherical tone of the game. It confers to the older game graphics a richer visual
reference for the players, who can refer to the opening animation to imagine more vividly the rest of the game's
characters and actions in their minds. The ending sequence similarly captures all the key moments of the story
the players have just experienced and enable them to relive it in more detailed and realistic images. The tone
is as usual alterning between fun and tragic heart-wrenching events, between existentialist questions
and silly jokes. The characters' animation is excellent; their exaggerated expressions are both very telling and
funny. FFVI is one of the most poetic, fun, exciting but also tragic and compelling FF games.
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