Final Fantasy VI GBA Preview
Final Fantasy III is one of the most fondly-regarded RPGs of the 16-bit era, even if Square's formerly convoluted naming conventions for its flagship series leave some gamers confused about what game that actually is. So forgive us if we've bludgeoned to death the point that last month's remake of Final Fantasy III for DS was not the same Final Fantasy III that fans were enjoying 12 years ago. It bears repeating.
Final Fantasy VI Advance, however, is that game. All the familiar touchstones are here: Kefkas and Espers and Morphs, oh my. It's your standard Final Fantasy Advance creation, offering Super NES content in the GBA format, with new content to compensate for the inevitable compromises.
And FFVI may in fact be the best Advance remake to date -- even though it actually looks the least impressive. The good news is that none of Final Fantasy IV Advance's battle system bugs are present, and the slowdown that often plagued Final Fantasy V Advance is rarely seen, even in large-scale sequences like the defense of Narshe (in which three parties of heroes battle a dozen on-screen groups of foes). But unlike its predecessors, none of the graphics have been redrawn, not even the battle backgrounds. The sound quality has taken a more noticeable hit. And the added content is more modest in scope: just some new summoned beasts, an extra dungeon, a few ultimate weapons (and Weapons).
But maybe that's OK. In the minds of many U.S. gamers, FFVI is one of the finest games ever, a work of of such excellence that drastic improvements aren't necessary. And while it may not have been the best of the 2D Final Fantasies, it was certainly the most impressive -- the link between the series' old and new eras. Sure, it looked like the a prettier version of the first five Final Fantasies, but it also paved the way for Final Fantasy VII and everything that came after with its emphasis on story and characters, its simplified skill system (drastically reducing the overall difficulty), its visual overkill and its enormous number of optional quests in the second half.
So it's true that the graphics aren't tweaked, but since it looked so much better than its predecessors to begin with, newcomers probably won't even notice.
And yeah, the music sounds off -- the famous opera house sequence really hurts to hear -- but the music in the original game was a notch above anything else on the system, pushing the amazing Super NES sound chip to its absolute limits. Even scaled back, it still sounds excellent.
The fundamental gameplay, as always, remains untouched -- players control a party of up to four warriors (drawn from a pool of more than a dozen), each of whom has a special ability. These range from fairly useless (Celes' Rune Blade, which nullifies most magic, both good and bad) to highly practical (Sabin's Blitzes, Street Fighter-style combo commands that hit for high damage) to the ridiculously flexible (Gau's Rages allow him to master the powers of more than 100 enemies) to the stupidly overpowered (Terra's Morph, which makes her far and away the most devastating character in the game).
Initially, only a tiny handful of characters can learn magic, but eventually everyone gets their hands on Magicite stones which allow them to train as mages under each stone's corresponding Esper (and permanently boost various statistics, too). By the end of the game, it's almost too simple to turn your party into a team of invincible god-like beings; a canny player can wipe out the final boss in a single turn without excessive leveling up. Fortunately, the game's massive world has enough to explore and accomplish that the lack of difficulty isn't particularly damning; and in any case, some of the new bonus content is reputed to be daunting enough to satisfy even the hardcore.
FFVIA's new material is almost entirely fanservice, including favorite Espers (FFVIII's Jumbo Cactuar and a certain dimension-travelling seeker of legendary weapons among them), the obligatory Omega Weapon battle and the first-ever appearance of the Kaiser Dragon, an infamous monster originally intended for the game's SNES outing but ultimately cut, though left hidden in the game data.
As for the English version, word has it that Square Enix is mostly sticking with the game's original localization -- a sensible enough decision, since FFVI is unique among older Final Fantasies in having been graced with an English script that was neither disastrous (FFIV) nor insulting (FFV). But it won't be a simple rehash; memory limitations reportedly forced the SNES team to cut roughly half of the game's Japanese script, and everything previously lost will be restored on GBA. Although the decision not to completely overhaul the dialogue will inevitably rankle some of the game's more frothing fanatics, the resulting balance between fidelity and nostalgia should offer the full depth of the story with the charming personality of the fan-favorite translation.
In any case, Nintendo is perfectly frank about its desire to put the GBA to pasture -- so FFVIA's February 2007 date will likely mark the last great release for the stalwart handheld's long and impressive run.
Link:
http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3155662
