Like Kaiser Dragon, I've completed the game 3 times, gotten at least half way twice, enjoyed it thoroughly, but am still puzzled as to how it gets paraded around the internet as the masterpiece it has become. I can think of maybe ten 16-bit RPG's off the top of my head that I would say are fairly to alot better, 2 of which are FF's.

For one, its cast of characters is near-disgustingly over-appraised. I couldn't tell you how many times someone has proclaimed every one of them to be "deep", (especially when compared to later FFs) when I have to say they are all paper thin with many of them having some of the most unbelievable character-archs I've seen in RPGs.

Not to mention Kefka. He's probably the least effective villain I've encountered in an RPG. The game gives no reason at all as to why he seems to know more about Phantom Beasts/Magicite/The 3 gods of battle than anyone else. Ironically, fans of the game like to use his lack of backstory or even detail as proof of him as being a good villain.

The Esper/Phantom Beast system is also one of the most disappointing in the entire FF series. It has no implication on statistics at all, save when you level up, and it only gives characters spells, which is fairly inappropriate when, traditionally, most jobs don't use MP.

Other battle mechanics spoil the game also. Characters like Edgar, Shadow, Cyan, and Mash all have abilities which can be spammed at no cost (save Shadow's inventory of near-costless shurikens) in order to defeat huge waves of opponents. Not to mention that all except 2 characters can learn the -aga class spells and Ultima (and might as well during the course of the game) takes pretty much all of the strategy out of it.

The ATB also wasn't anywhere near as well-timed as it was in the games that sandwhich it (V and VII). Some disagree, but in my experience I spend alot of time with all of my characters on full waiting for the next animation to finish so I can have one character's fill up again. It effectively regresses the game into a turn-based RPG.

While I consider FFVI to be a "good" game, it really isn't that "great" to me, and I would probably rather start a new game of any other FF before it.