Pong and Beyond

625th played so far

Genre: Role-Playing
Platform: SNES
Year of Release: 1994
Developer: Square
Publisher: Square

This game was moved up in the queue because Peter wanted to play it for his Before I Kick blog. By the time this publishes, his write up hasn’t gone out yet – he’s a month or two ahead, so it’ll be a while.

Still, I’m happy to go for it. The general consensus is that this game and Final Fantasy VII are the pinnacle of the series. From what I’ve seen of this game – not necessarily played, but also seen in Let’s Plays and the like – I agree this game is up there, even if FFVII didn’t live up to the hype for us. Final Fantasy X was the best of the ones we’ve played, but I also know this is quite a different game. I’ve been looking forward to playing this, so I’m glad to go for it now.

Our Thoughts

I am really enjoying this game. Present tense because this game is so big, I’m far from done with it. I’m basing as much of my experience on what I know of the game, and what Peter has seen while getting ahead of me. And to cover the other controversial main item – we’ve played both the Steam version and the GBA iteration of the game. We’ve seen both versions of the graphics, as well as some of the other changes.

Why is it that good? First of all, the characters are incredibly interesting. There is a large cast and while not all of them are too relevant to the plot, they all feel distinctive and have their own story. This transfers to battle too – each has their own ability or set of abilities, some stronger or more useful than others, but it really lends to who they are. The one time it feels they truly overlap, there is a story reason for it as well, making it even more interesting.

The world itself is fairly big, and while it certainly feels the need to hit certain points, it also creates a lot of specific, out of the ordinary set pieces. For example, the opera house and phantom train are both fun and feel different in their own ways. They are some pretty cool sections to explore, and the mid-game event strengthens that further. The characters also have links in different places, which ties the areas together further.

Beyond that, the variation in gameplay offers feels large – from boat rides that feel more interesting than normal to longer stealth sections and a lot of monster collection that feels more natural. It feels like one of those games where there’s something for everyone. I’m not quite sure whether that’s true, but I’m certain there are some areas that I’ll end up ignoring that’ll capture others.

Final Thoughts

With Final Fantasy VI, the series went out with its last major 2D title.  It goes out with a bang, with a large but (mostly) well realized cast, an interesting world and many nooks and crannies to explore. The battle system is interesting, with a twist for each character that might not make all of them viable, but makes them feel unique with a clearer niche. Possibly the best Final Fantasy title – at this point I’m not sure which one I’d rank above it.