Final Fantasy VI

titled Final Fantasy III in its initial North American release, is a 1994 role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the sixth main entry in the Final Fantasy series, the final to feature 2D sprite based graphics, and the first to be directed by someone other than series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi; the role was instead filled by Yoshinori Kitase and Hiroyuki Ito. Long-time collaborator Yoshitaka Amano returned as character designer and concept artist, while composer Nobuo Uematsu returned to compose the game's score, which has been released on several soundtrack albums.
Set in a world with technology resembling the Second Industrial Revolution, the game's story follows an expanding cast that includes fourteen permanent playable characters. The game's themes of a rebellion against an immoral military dictatorship, pursuit of a magical arms race, use of chemical weapons in warfare, depictions of violent and apocalyptic confrontations, several personal redemption arcs, teenage pregnancy, and the renewal of hope and life itself all make the storyline darker and more mature than earlier entries in the franchise.
It was ported by Tose with minor differences to the PlayStation in 1999, and the Game Boy Advance in 2006. The Super NES version was rereleased for the Wii's Virtual Console in 2011, and by Nintendo as part of the company's Super NES Classic Edition in 2017. The game was known as Final Fantasy III when it was first released in North America, as the actual Final Fantasy II, III, and V had not been released outside Japan at the time. However, all later versions of the game—other than re-releases of the original version—use the original title.
Final Fantasy VI received widespread critical acclaim and was praised for its graphics, soundtrack, story, characters, and setting. Many critics have ranked it as the best entry in the series, as well as one of the best video games of all time. Due to its impact, Final Fantasy VI is also often deemed a watershed title for the role-playing genre. The game was a commercial success, with the Super NES and PlayStation versions selling over 3.48 million copies worldwide by 2003, as well as over 750,000 copies as part of the Japanese Final Fantasy Collection and the North American Final Fantasy Anthology.

Gameplay

Like previous installments, Final Fantasy VI consists of four basic modes of gameplay: an overworld map, town and dungeon field maps, a battle screen, and a menu screen. The overworld map is a scaled-down version of the game's world, which the player uses to direct characters to various locations. As with most games in the series, the three primary means of travel across the overworld are by foot, chocobo, and airship. With a few plot-driven exceptions, enemies are randomly encountered on field maps and on the overworld when traveling by foot. The menu screen is where the player makes such decisions as which characters will be in the traveling party, which equipment they wield, the magic they learn, and the configuration of the gameplay. It is also used to track experience points and levels.
The game's plot develops as the player progresses through towns and dungeons. Town citizens will offer helpful information, and some residents own item or equipment shops. Later in the game, visiting certain towns will activate side-quests. Dungeons appear as a variety of areas, including caves, forests, and buildings. These dungeons often have treasure chests containing rare items that are not available in most stores. Dungeons may feature puzzles and mazes, with some dungeons requiring the player to divide the characters into multiple parties which must work together to advance through the dungeon.

Combat

Combat in Final Fantasy VI is menu-based, in which the player selects an action from a list of such options as Fight, Magic, and Item. A maximum of four characters may be used in battles, which are based on the series' traditional Active Time Battle system, first featured in Final Fantasy IV. Under this system, each character has an action bar that replenishes itself at a rate dependent on their speed statistic. When a character's action bar is filled, the player may assign an action. In addition to standard battle techniques, each character possesses a unique special ability. For example, Locke possesses the ability to steal items from enemies, while Celes' Runic ability allows her to absorb most magical attacks cast until her next turn.
Another element is the Desperation Attack, a powerful attack substitution that occasionally appears when a character's health is low. Similar features appear in later Final Fantasy titles under a variety of different names, including Limit Breaks, Trances, and Overdrives. Characters are rewarded for victorious battles with experience points and money, called gil. When characters attain a certain number of experience points, they gain a level, which increases their statistics. An additional player may play during battle scenarios, with control of individual characters assigned from the configuration menu.

Customization

Characters in Final Fantasy VI can be equipped with a variety of weapons, armor and, particular to this entry, powerful accessories known as "Relics". Weapons and armor increase combat capability, mostly by increasing statistics and adding beneficial effects to attacks. By comparison, Relics have a variety of uses and effects, are almost entirely interchangeable among party members, and are extended in sophistication to alter basic battle commands and exceed normal limitations of the game's systems.
Although in VI only two playable characters start the game with the ability to use magic, magic may later be taught to almost all other playable characters through the game's introduction of magicite and the Espers that magicite shards contain. "Espers" are the game's incarnation of the series' trope of "summons", powerful monstrous beings, many of which are recurring throughout the series, such as Ifrit, Shiva, Bahamut and Odin. Besides those returning from previous entries, VI features approximately two dozen of them in total, with more added to later versions of the game.
The setting and plot of the game revolve heavily around Espers and their remains when deceased, which are referred to as "magicite". Each piece of magicite has a specific set of magic spells that a character can learn when they are equipped with it in the menu. If used often enough, these abilities become permanently accessible, even if the magicite is removed. Additionally, some pieces of magicite grant a statistical bonus to a character when they gain a level. Finally, when a character equips a piece of magicite, they may summon the corresponding Esper during battle.

Plot

Setting

Instead of the strictly medieval fantasy settings featured in previous Final Fantasy titles, Final Fantasy VI is set in a world with deliberately more industrial and mechanical design elements; developers described a setting where machinery and magic coexist. Opera and the fine arts serve as recurring motifs—most notably the opera sequence—documented in developer interviews and later remaster materials. During the first half of the game, the planet is referred to as the World of Balance, and is divided into three lush continents. The northern continent is punctuated by a series of mountain ranges, the southern continent has been mostly subjugated by the cruel Gestahl Empire, and the eastern continent is home to the Veldt, a massive wilderness inhabited by monsters from all over the world. An apocalyptic event mid-game transforms the planet into the World of Ruin; its withering landmasses are fractured into numerous islands surrounding a larger continent.
The game alludes to a conflict known as the "War of the Magi", which occurred one thousand years prior to the beginning of the game. In this conflict, three quarreling entities known as the "Warring Triad" used innocent humans as soldiers by transforming them into enslaved magical beings called Espers. The Triad realized their wrongdoings; they freed the espers and sealed their own powers inside three stone statues. As a precaution, the espers sealed off both the statues and themselves from the realm of humans. The concept of magic gradually faded to myth as mankind built a society extolling science and technology. At the game's opening, the Empire has taken advantage of the weakening barrier between the human and esper domains, capturing several espers in the process. Using these espers as a power source, the Empire has created "Magitek", a craft that combines magic with machinery and infuses humans with magical powers. The Empire is opposed by the Returners, a rebel organization seeking to free the subjugated lands.

Characters

Final Fantasy VI features fourteen permanent playable characters, the most of any game in the main series, as well as several secondary characters who are only briefly controlled by the player. The starting character, Terra Branford, is a reserved half-human, half-esper girl who spent most of her life as a slave to the Empire, thanks to a mind-controlling device, and is unfamiliar with love. Other primary characters include Locke Cole, a treasure hunter and rebel sympathizer with a powerful impulse to protect women; Celes Chere, a former general of the Empire, who joined the Returners after being jailed for questioning imperial practices; Edgar Roni Figaro, a consummate womanizer and the king of Figaro, who claims allegiance to the Empire while secretly supplying aid to the Returners; Sabin Rene Figaro, Edgar's independent brother, who fled the royal court to hone his martial arts skills; Cyan Garamonde, a loyal knight to the kingdom of Doma who lost his family and friends when Kefka poisoned the kingdom's water supply; Setzer Gabbiani, a habitual gambler, thrill seeker, and owner of the world's only known airship; Shadow, a ninja mercenary who offers his services to both the Empire and the Returners; Relm Arrowny, a young but tough artistic girl with magical powers; Strago Magus, Relm's elderly grandfather and a Blue Mage; Gau, a feral child surviving since infancy on the Veldt; Mog, a pike-toting Moogle from the mines of Narshe; Umaro, a savage but loyal yeti also from Narshe, talked into joining the Returners through Mog's persuasion; and Gogo, a mysterious, fully shrouded master of the art of mimicry.
Most of the main characters in the game hold a significant grudge against the Empire and, in particular, Kefka Palazzo, who is one of the game's main antagonists along with Emperor Gestahl. The clownish Kefka became the first experimental prototype of a line of magically empowered soldiers called Magitek Knights, rendering him insane; his actions throughout the game reflect his demented nature. The supporting character Ultros is a recurring villain and comic relief. A handful of characters have reappeared in later games. Final Fantasy SGI, a short tech demo produced for the Silicon Graphics Onyx workstation, featured polygon-based 3D renderings of Locke, Terra, and Shadow.