why is this game "the best"?

[omnislasher]

Not including this game, I've played and completed ff5-X2. Now I'm one of many who think that 7 is the best game in the series, but I know that lots of vets and game experts say that 6 is the best. I'm in the world of ruin right now looking for my people before I go to the tower. what makes this game the best?

[Kirobaito]

What doesn't make this game the best? It has the perfect mix of everything - storyline, graphics (for its time), gameplay, sidequests, music, and especially character development...EVERYTHING. FFVII had storyline, sidequests, and music. I'd say the one thing that makes VI better than VII is because of that character development. The game practically has 3 main characters - Locke, Terra, and Celes - and that makes it much more realistic. It truly is a wonderful game. The sidequests in the game are just impossible to count, and that's good. I love the gameplay, and the music. The music is wonderful.

Thus, this game is "the best."

[DJZen]

FFVI is the best because it has an intelligible plot line, thanks to the efforts of the most over-abused translator in gaming history. Granted, there's some mess-ups, but it's nothing that damages the story, and even the things that got "censored out" are still there in the subtext.

Unless Kishi knows something that I don't.

....I mean specifically about FFVI.....

...I mean....

Dangit.....

[Trumpet Thief]

It has very great characters, like Shadow, one of the best FF Characters IMO. Also, Kefka was a great villan. His theme is one of the greatest ones. Terra was probably the best female character, or whatever in my opinion.

[Felldoh]

What doesn't make this game the best? It has the perfect mix of everything - storyline, graphics (for its time), gameplay, sidequests, music, and especially character development...EVERYTHING. FFVII had storyline, sidequests, and music. I'd say the one thing that makes VI better than VII is because of that character development. The game practically has 3 main characters - Locke, Terra, and Celes - and that makes it much more realistic. It truly is a wonderful game. The sidequests in the game are just impossible to count, and that's good. I love the gameplay, and the music. The music is wonderful.

Thus, this game is "the best."

What King Bahamut said. :D

[Del Murder]

This game is a true epic and I can't think of anything bad about it. VII is still a great one, though, and falls just shy. KB said it best, I think.

[Mr. Graves]

I don't think FF6 is the best.

Let's look at gameplay. It lack of the depth of, say, FF5, or even FF1. You can't change abilities for characters, and the only way you can sculpt the characters to your liking is through relics and the spells learned from espers. The espers are another thing. There's never been a time where I absolutely had to summon anything in this game. No reason for Ifrit or Shiva, a simple Ice 2 or Fire 2 spell targeted on an entrie group of monstered handled the whole thing.

Now, the graphics. The same sprites that are used for battle are also used on the field, with no real changes. Even FF4 and FF5 used different sprites. While the general graphics (like the battle backgrounds) were more retouched, I found it boring. On a final note, you can only move by square steps, unlike Chrono Trigger, which has much better moveability.

Those are my only complaints with FF6. But they're valid enough to keep FF6 from being "The Best", in my own view.

[DJZen]

FFVI came out quite a while before CT did. Also, the lack of difference between field graphics and battle graphics is not a bad thing when you consider that the field graphics were about 4 by 4 tiles while battle sprites are 4 by 6 (or is it 8?). The characters just look a lot better all the time instead of only having playable characters look good for only the duration of battles. The sprites are also just much higher quality. ESPECIALLY the monster sprites. Just look at a bomb from FFIV, now look at one from FFVI. The animations are smoother, the effects are better implemented and are more numerous... technically, it's just far better than FFIV.

FFI had more control over your characters' development? Not unless you count that one optional Rat Tail subquest... In FFVI you COULD give characters new abilities with relics. You could also have anyone learn any spell in the game. Want a monk who can cast Ultima? Done! Want a pictomancer who can cast Holy? Done! Try giving Flare to your Knight or Monk in FFI. Doesn't work. In fact, the ONLY "abilities" in FFI are magic. In FFVI you at LEAST have more than that to work with. Thiefs can now steal, ninjas can use shuriken, monks can do crazy martial arts type moves, and as I said before, anyone can learn any spell at any point. I mean, sure, you need the esper/item that can teach that spell, but in FFI only a BW can cast Flare, meaning you need to do that subquest. In FFVI, magic isn't restricted from anyone except maybe Umaro and Gogo (one being a berzerker who shouldn't be using magic technically, and the other being a mime who can just repeat any spell for free, which you'd probably be doing if you were properly strategizing anyway).

The characters can only move in "squares" but so what? It's not like you especially NEED to move diagonally at any point in the game. It's not like there's even a point where that'd even be helpful. For that matter, there's no need to have movement be on anything other than the grid system. The only times where your position on screen is that important are times where it's actually GOOD to have that system, it makes it harder to be ever so slightly off and thus mess up the puzzle through no fault of your own.

In conclusion, I disagree with you. :tongue:

[Del Murder]

I like a balance between being able to sculpt characters to my liking and them having their own unique abilities. VI does this the best. V's characters have no unique abilities and VII-VIII's limits were not enough for me. I, IX and IV's characters were unique but you couldn't sculpt them. The ability to bulid magic and stats via espers worked was a good compliment to the unique battle commands.

[Mr. Graves]

FFVI came out quite a while before CT did.

Less than a year before is quite a while? ok.


Also, the lack of difference between field graphics and battle graphics is not a bad thing when you consider that the field graphics were about 4 by 4 tiles while battle sprites are 4 by 6 (or is it 8?). The characters just look a lot better all the time instead of only having playable characters look good for only the duration of battles. The sprites are also just much higher quality. ESPECIALLY the monster sprites. Just look at a bomb from FFIV, now look at one from FFVI. The animations are smoother, the effects are better implemented and are more numerous... technically, it's just far better than FFIV.

Graphics mean jack to me, in all honesty. There's a reason I didn't like FF10. =P It could have very weak graphics and if the gameplay is sweet, I'll play it to death.


FFI had more control over your characters' development? Not unless you count that one optional Rat Tail subquest... In FFVI you COULD give characters new abilities with relics. You could also have anyone learn any spell in the game. Want a monk who can cast Ultima? Done! Want a pictomancer who can cast Holy? Done! Try giving Flare to your Knight or Monk in FFI. Doesn't work. In fact, the ONLY "abilities" in FFI are magic. In FFVI you at LEAST have more than that to work with. Thiefs can now steal, ninjas can use shuriken, monks can do crazy martial arts type moves, and as I said before, anyone can learn any spell at any point. I mean, sure, you need the esper/item that can teach that spell, but in FFI only a BW can cast Flare, meaning you need to do that subquest. In FFVI, magic isn't restricted from anyone except maybe Umaro and Gogo (one being a berzerker who shouldn't be using magic technically, and the other being a mime who can just repeat any spell for free, which you'd probably be doing if you were properly strategizing anyway).

Ok, so you could control your party and their development, not as much as FF6. I'll give you that one. The fact remains that, to me, it just doesn't match up to FF5 and it's customability.


The characters can only move in "squares" but so what? It's not like you especially NEED to move diagonally at any point in the game. It's not like there's even a point where that'd even be helpful. For that matter, there's no need to have movement be on anything other than the grid system. The only times where your position on screen is that important are times where it's actually GOOD to have that system, it makes it harder to be ever so slightly off and thus mess up the puzzle through no fault of your own.

It bugged me. I think, if Square had wanted to, it could've been otherwise. But whatever. A minor flaw.

[Lord Chainsaw]

I don't consider FF6 to be the best.

I consider the best to be Final Fantasy 7, with Final Fantasy 4 the runner up.

Final Fantasy 6 is good, but it isn't that good. I prefer the materia system over the esper system. It provides for much more customization. I don't care if my characters are nearly identical, that just makes choosing my favorites more of a suitable option instead of choosing characters I may not like simply because my favorite characters suck.

I think the special abilities each of the characters have in FF6 are very unbalanced. Some characters are just TOO useful. Really, who is going to take a team other than Edgar, Shadow, Cyan and Sabin? You can but you'd be gimping yourself. Who in their right mind is going to use Relm? Celes? Great character but crappy runic.

That leads to another problem I have with Final Fantasy 6. It's too easy. FF7 is easy, but FF6 is too easy. You can win any fight for a good portion of the game just with Sabin's fire dance. Before you get that just use the autocrossbow. Hell, once you get the drill you can wave bye bye to Edgar's attack command. Ultima is easy to get, and even if you miss it they still give you a second chance to get it with the paladin shield. The battles are too easy. I believe the hardest fights in the game are that one with the giant in the box on the floating island and the one with Ziekfried in the coliseum. I'm not even going to get started on the last fight (despite how cool it is.)

I have no problems with the story. It isn't bad. It isn't superior. It isn't average. It is an above average storyline. It doesn't have the depth that some of the later games have, but that is understandable since it was for the SNES. I'm not going to say Dragon Warrior 3 and 4's stories weren't as good simply because they weren't as complex as maybe Dragon Warrior 7's. That is an unfair comparison. I can however, compare FF6's story to Chrono Trigger's. Chrono Trigger is an exceptional story and represents one of the pinnacle games of SNES storytelling.

As for the villain...

I thought the villain was great. Kefka is my third favorite Final Fantasy villian (Seymour and Kuja being the first and second.) He was a great break in the mold. It was about time we had a chaotic, maniacal madman instead of a more collective and cool villian. Besides, everytime I think of Kefka, I think of Piedmon from Digimon. And he's one kickass villain, so Kefka gets points there.

The music I would consider to be some of the best in the Final Fantasy series. I liked the Veldt, the World of Balance overworld, and of course, Dancing Mad. I do, however feel that both FFIX and FFVII had superior music. I liked You are Not Alone, Dark Messenger, Last Battle, Birth of a God, One Winged Angel, Aeris' Theme, and J-E-N-O-V-A more overall.

As a whole I'd give FF6 an 8.6/10. I'd give FF9 a 8.9/10, FF4 a 9.1/10 and FF7 a 10/10.

[The Man]

FFVI is the best because it has an intelligible plot line, thanks to the efforts of the most over-abused translator in gaming history. Granted, there's some mess-ups, but it's nothing that damages the story, and even the things that got "censored out" are still there in the subtext.

Unless Kishi knows something that I don't.

....I mean specifically about FFVI.....

...I mean....

Dangit.....Amongst the things that were removed from the translation are:

Celes was slated to be executed before Locke removed her from Imperial custody.
Duane and Katarin are implied to be married in the Woolsey script, while the Japanese script makes no such implication.
In the Woolsey script, Madonna asks Gestahl to take care of Terra as she dies. In the Japanese script, Madonna begs Gestahl not to take Terra from her, at which he tells her to shut up and proceeds to finish her off.
Sabin and Edgar's mother is stated to have died during childbirth in the Japanese script. As far as I remember, the cause of her death is not mentioned in the Woolsey script.Nothing hugely major, and most of it was probably actually removed due to Nintendo's influence, but still a considerable amount. I'm probably forgetting things, too.

[DJZen]

They did hint at Celes' excecution in the Woolsey script though. It's subtle, but if you read into what the soldier says it becomes obvious. People also complain about what Celes before she jumps off the cliff. In the Japanese version she apparently says something about how she doesn't want to live anymore, while she says something more like "maybe I'll feel better if I jump" in Woolsey's script although I clearly remember playing through this when the game was still new and knowing fully well what was going on. That's definitely one that we can blame on Nintendo though. At the time they had a very strict no blood/explicit death/profanity/religious content policy. This is why Holy got changed to Pearl (in FFIV it was changed to White and in FFI it was changed to FADE of all things). The thing is that in Woolsey's script, changes have been made, but it's still a very good script. The story is still moving, the characters are compelling, things make sense, there's no horrible Engrish in the dialogue (Ultima isn't a real word and Meltdown is obviously a mistake that doesn't affect the intelligibility of the game), and there's really nothing that smacks me in the face as being wrong with it. I can't say the same thing about FFVII which was censored a lot less (but still censored, as you'll notice if you read Cid's lines), but is difficult to follow because of its awkward wording. FFVIII suffered for the same reason, but to a much greater extent. I definitely get the impression while playing the game that some sort of relationship between Squall and Rinoa was supposed to have been hinted at but didn't make it to the final translation. he just all of a sudden loves her for no reason when before he'd been completely cold to her and didn't care one way or the other about her.

Sorry for rambling, this is just something that bugs me a lot when fanboys start whining about how Woolsey "butchered" the script.

[aeris2001x2]

while i prefer ffVII, ffVI is still sheer divinity and is just behind ffVII. cant we just agree that ff6 and ff7 are the two best ff games???

[DJZen]

No, II is far superior to both combined.

Just kidding, but it's really just a matter of personal taste.

[Edgar]

while i prefer ffVII, ffVI is still sheer divinity and is just behind ffVII. cant we just agree that ff6 and ff7 are the two best ff games???

I wish, but there will always be one 'best' :P

[Outsider]

It'ss really a matter of personal opinion, but I say that FF6 is the best FF, because I feel that it was the most original so far.

The storyline surprised me a few times when I first played through the game, a great and original villain (not the same all-powerful arrogant bad guy I'm used to see), some excellent characters (I love most of them), and an amazing soundtrack.

The fact that it has no main character adds a lot to the storyline, and the sidequests are fun to play.

The graphics and the gameplay are impressive for a game that was released in 1994, and I like it. The only downside of this game is that it is way too easy, but I can live with that.

Maybe you had to play it back then to like it that much, I dunno...

[aeris2001x2]

not at all i played it in 2002 and i recognised its genius. and everything said about ffVI is true, it really is that good. and i think the graphics r still amazing now, gorgeous.

[Terra666]

FFVII Rocks hard FFVI rocks even harder. end o' story
FFI was better than dragon Warrior FFIV was better than the Phantasy Stars
Its all a matter of competition and timing, I'll put FFVI against any RPG past , present and Future. I also think there's no excuse for FFVIII thru X2, and Tactics is just sad
Love,
terra

[Terra666]

OH lest We forget the best rainy day time killer
MYSTIC QUEST !!! that totally rocked

[aeris2001x2]

yep, mystic quest rocked as much as the band slip knot...a very bad way.

[Terra666]

That was cold aeris, real cold

[aeris2001x2]

quite fitting i met my end in a cold place then :D aeris always did use ice 3 and shiva alot.

[Terra666]

How can you not like Mystic Quest it is so cute!!!

[aeris2001x2]

about as cute as barney the dinosaur and we all know hes secret...

[WIDOWMAKER]

very true. i mean if hes a T-REX he shoud just eat the kids right?

[Rusty]

I dont think Final Fantasy 6 is the best, even though I have never had the chance to play it.I have read alot about it. I think FF8 and FF7 run a tie on the best game of the series, but thats just my opinion :)

[DJZen]

I dont think Final Fantasy 6 is the best, even though I have never had the chance to play it.I have read alot about it. I think FF8 and FF7 run a tie on the best game of the series, but thats just my opinion :)

*triple takes*

[Erdrick Holmes]

Sabin.... the coolest FF character I had ever seen. Needs no weapons, nor magic. 'Nuff said.

[m4tt]

I dont think Final Fantasy 6 is the best, even though I have never had the chance to play it.I have read alot about it. I think FF8 and FF7 run a tie on the best game of the series, but thats just my opinion :)

Reading about it and playing it are two completely different things. o_O

[Polaris]

I think that FF6 was a suprise and has some great FMV for the time it was published so it's considerating the best!

[Edgar]

FFVI stands out, you see. The villain is not much of a schemer, in fact, he is insane. He has no plans other than to destroy the world. He has no purpose in doing so, he just wants to do so, simple as that.

There is hardly ONE 'hero' character. There is no ONE character who leads the entire party. Almost everybody shares a part in leading the party (I'm talking about the actual plot. not the 'organize your group' thing).

I don't care about graphics much. I can enjoy playing FFVI many times in a row but if you give me a game like Suikoden 3, no way!

Music is an important factor to the game, like sound effects are an important factor in horror movies. It is the sounds that frighten you, not the video. I did a little listening on my FFVI mp3 collection (downloaded it off a website :P) and the FFVII ones, including a little bias-ness against FFVII since it came out later. For some reason, Celes' theme and Aeris theme seemed to have an intriguingly strong connection between each other. I'll have to get the sheet music to observe closely.

IMHO, and observing several FF forums, FFVII and FFVI seemed to always go against each other, instead of FFVII and FFVIII, arguing about which is the best. Take a look at the forums. There's always an annoying deadlock between FFVI and FFVII in the 'best FF' threads. There's always an annoying deadlock between Kefka and Sephiroth in those 'best villain' threads. Usually FFVII won them but I believe it is because more people play it than FFVI...:P

[Mr. Rothgar]

the fact that anyone in this thread compared kefka to kuja is just astounding--its not even close kefka made kuja look like a cubscout

as for the diff between ff7 and ffVI--i think people run into trouble grading these games because most like playin ff7 a lot more because there are things to do and u can customize everything etc--but ffVI is undoubtedly the better game that put square on the map--and had extreeme character development for 15+ characters

not to mention i can still remember the realm song--

music--ffVI wins for quanity and the aeris and yuffie song win for quality

bottom line--chrono trigger was better than both of them and anyone thats ever played these three games should know that

[aeris2001x2]

IMHO, and observing several FF forums, FFVII and FFVI seemed to always go against each other, instead of FFVII and FFVIII, arguing about which is the best. Take a look at the forums. There's always an annoying deadlock between FFVI and FFVII in the 'best FF' threads. There's always an annoying deadlock between Kefka and Sephiroth in those 'best villain' threads. Usually FFVII won them but I believe it is because more people play it than FFVI...:P

thats because ffVI and ffVII are genrally considered by most to be the two best ff games. however, while i believe ffVII is better, i think its unfair if ffVI loses such debates because not enough ppl have played ffVI. i dont think ffVII fans should enter such debates unless they have completed ffVI, and oftern thats not the case. i want ffVII to marginly beat ffVI fairly :D

[Trumpet Thief]

I dont think Final Fantasy 6 is the best, even though I have never had the chance to play it.I have read alot about it. I think FF8 and FF7 run a tie on the best game of the series, but thats just my opinion :)

Trust me, as Proto Man has already said, reading and playing are two different things, and you shouldn't judge a game without even playing it. Although I love FFVIII and VII, I think that the older Final Fantasies VI and IV were just better. They had a certain feel that the newer ones don't have. It's hard to explain.

Storyline wise, I would have to say FFVI and Xenogears are the best. Final Fantasy VI's story flowed smoothly, with many secrets waiting to be revealed. And the music was the best too! Celes' theme probably being my favorite. And great plot twists like General Leo's death

I have read in another thread that in the newer games, the game focuses more on the hero and the heroine, making the other characters seem like supporting actors, and I have to agree with that statement. In Final Fantasy VI, it had a balance. Heck, I thought anyone could be the main character! And with a balance like that, you could see more character development and more dialouge between different characters.

Don't even get me started on the villan. Kefka was one of my favorite villans along with Sephiroth. While playing that game, I didn't think that a villan had to be a mastermind plotting some evil scheme that would give a harmful effect to the world. But someone truly evil not caring about a living soul, a maniac; I seem to take a liking into antagonists like that.

I love many of the Final Fantasies, but all of them are behind VI.

[aeris2001x2]

I have read in another thread that in the newer games, the game focuses more on the hero and the heroine, making the other characters seem like supporting actors, and I have to agree with that statement. In Final Fantasy VI, it had a balance. Heck, I thought anyone could be the main character! And with a balance like that, you could see more character development and more dialouge between different characters.

are behind VI.

now i know why our opinions differ. u see i thought ffVI had amazing character development but it had WAY too many characters and much of it was diluted imho. i think its the games only story flaw(apart from too easy and no super bossess) but enough for me 2 prefer ffVII.

in ffVII i thought every character was well developed. Cloud, Aeris, Tifa,Barret were all as developed as Locke, Edgar,Terra,Sabin and Celes.

however here is the difference. i thought Cid, RedXIII, Caitsith/reeve were fantastically developed too. however because there just was not enough time, Shadow, Gau, Cyan, were just below there quality, while strago, relm, setzer were not as developed as i would have liked.(there still good, i,m not saying they sucked or anything)

and then u had Mog, Umaro and Gogo who just sucked. ffVII secret characters Vincient and Yuffie were absolutlely fantastic so the former three were really disapointing.

ok i know i,m nitpicking and yes, ffVIII-X did concentrate more on a few ppl. but i think its unfair to chuck ffVII with those games. i actually consider the game more old school then new school. its ffVI that ff started to change, not ffVII anyway, not 2 mention the games are so similar.

this was just my opinion and i love ffVI and it is the second greatest achievment in human history, but i believe ffVII pips it because of BETTER character development! maybe u think thats strange but i do believe that.

[Trumpet Thief]

I'm not putting FFVII in with that pile. I actually enjoyed those kind of games as well. FFVII really deserves a section of it's own. The character development was magnificent, given to even those optional characters. I was tingling with excitement when Vincent had met with Hojo. One of the best VG moments if you asked me.

I like FFVIII. I know that it revolved around two characters, I found it well either way. FFVII I liked as well. Spreading a good amount of character development towards all the characters, with a great plot taking them in.

I know that some of the characters had crappy character development, but they still did have a bit, I think... (With the exception of Umaro) Either way, I agree with your points, and I love FFVII, it's just a bit behind FFVI which I think is better by other issues rather than character development.

[aeris2001x2]

so would u join me in agreeing that ffVI and ffVII are the best ff games?

and i was not talking about you, just certain ppl in general. sorry if i offended thee.

[Trumpet Thief]

Nah, I wasn't offended. Yeah, FFVII and VI are the best Final Fantasies IMO, I agree with you there.

In third would be FFIV, Fourth would be FFVIII and so on, but FFVII and VI seem to jump ahead of these games.

[Az Lionheart]

IMO FFVI is no wheres near the top but that is just IMO :D

[Edgar]

I thought Shadow is the most developed character other than Terra. I feel he is more developed than Locke =/

[bkkguy]

Edgar is the coolest character ever ;) Plus, I just like the fact that he is a very good king and care a lot about his people.

[Estes]

We all know FFVI was the superior title, never been a better game. I wish they would remake the game so badly with flashy graphics and such, so the newer game crowd could experience the magic of VI. I believe graphics should have stayed at super nintendo then the newer games would be more focused on story and gameplay and not flashy eye candy!!! Oh, and we all know Cyan was the real main character (at least in my game he was)

[shigogouhou]

My favorite's FFVI.
With the other three I've played (VII, X and X-2) the plot line is so forced.
No matter what you do, you end up with basically the same characters, the same things happens to them at the end, and most, if not all, loose ends are tied up.

With FFVI you could really pick and choose what plot lines to follow.
You don't like Shadow? Don't save him, or if you've already done that, don't go get him!
Not a fan of Mog? Leave him there!
Hate Strago? Ignore him!

With every other game I've played there's such a forced plot line, and no real reason to continue playing once you've completed it.
Look at this forum alone, people.
The game was made 3 Nintendo systems ago and we're STILL talking about plot lines, hidden characters, real identities, hidden dreams, resurrections, etc.
I don't think that'll be the case for any of the other FFs, past or present.

[Lost Heretic]

With every other game I've played there's such a forced plot line, and no real reason to continue playing once you've completed it.
Look at this forum alone, people.
The game was made 3 Nintendo systems ago and we're STILL talking about plot lines, hidden characters, real identities, hidden dreams, resurrections, etc.
I don't think that'll be the case for any of the other FFs, past or present.

*Sniff* You're my hero

Oh and FFVI is the best, if you don't count FFT.