The Video Game Revue

Final Fantasy VI

Wow, Final Fantasy VI... aka "Final Fantasy III" for the Super Nintendo. In a nutshell, this is my favourite game of all time. Seriously, I've played thousands of games, and I own hundreds of them, but FF VI is simply the best. And it's not hard for me to justify why.

First off, the game's artwork is astoundingly good--better than the artwork that was put into any game before it, so far as I am aware--and not just the visual artwork but the musical score as well. Yoshitaka Amano is simply an amazing artist, and some of Nobuo Uematsu's finest muscial compositions are in FF VI. Both of these artists are beloved by millions.

But the artistry does not end there. The character cast, the setting, and the storyline in FF VI are all equally as brilliantly crafted. FF VI is packed with sub-plots of a classical myth-worth nature, with such incredibly rich depth behind them; the round characters and the character foils, the internal and external conflicts, and the sense of awe and mystery surrounding the story's entire make-up are nothing short of pure magic. Final Fantasy VI has the perfect RPG story with the perfect RPG characters. I've never seen another game so flavourful and operatic.

Arguably, the storytelling could be better, but I chalk that one up to the format. FF VI is a mid-90's console RPG, after all, and as much as it pushed the envelope (a lot, actually), it still fit squarely into the genre. As for the game system, I consider it to be absolutely top-notch. Combat is both quick and interesting; it features compelling tactics without becoming daunting, and it moves along at a brisk pace that I find myself wishing was more common in console RPGs.

Overall, Final Fantasy VI deserves top marks in every regard. It is a pristine production; a near-perfect RPG that reaches a plateau of quality that hardly any other game has ever touched.

There is an epilogue that is worth mentioning here and will likely anger many Final Fantasy fans, but you are the fans who need to hear this and need to be angered by it, so listen carefully: for sixteen months before Final Fantasy VII was released in North America, I pined for that game. I bought nearly every game magazine that I could get my hands that had a feature on FF VII, and I literally pawed at the early previews published in GameFan. I wanted nothing more than for FF VII to trump FF VI and to become my new favourite game of all time--it certainly seemed to have the makings of such a thing, what with the dark, epic characters and setting. However, FF VII was a total let-down. That's not to say that it isn't a good game, because it certainly is, but FF VII is nowhere near the sort of amazing game that FF VI is. That is not an opinion of mine--it is a simple fact. The characters in FF VII are hackish and cheesy, the storyline is confused, muddled, and sometimes even seems not really to exist, and as for the setting, well, actually the setting is totally awesome and I have no complaint against that. I just wish that against this insanely gorgeous and interesting backdrop, FF VII delivered some equally compelling content, but it really doesn't. If you think that FF VII is the best RPG out there, then it was probably the first one you played, and if you think FF VIII is the best, then either you played FF VII or FF VIII first. I don't mean to be completely condescending here, but it's hard not to be. You guys need to wake up and realise that being 3D didn't make the later Final Fantasy games any better. Final Fantasy VI has more content and artistry behind it than any game I've seen out of the series since, although I might have to make a concession for Final Fantasy X, since that one too is simply jam-packed with brilliance.

Perhaps I'll continue this rant another time. Something tells me that if there are any RPG fans reading this blog (and I really doubt it), I'll be hearing from them in the "comments." You can lash out againt me, but I speak only the truth! heh

posted by Parappa @ 9:15 AM 0 comments

F-Zero

Here's one that you might not expect: F-Zero. It was the first game that I ever played for the Super Nintendo (yes, before Super Mario World, although that was a close second), and did it ever blow my mind. It must have been early in 1993 or late in 1992. Whatever the case, I was struck immediately by the simulation-like feel of the game; the controls, physics, and overall gameplay was totally solid. And you could drive backwards! Alright, so none of these things is impressive by today's standards, but at the time, F-Zero was bar none the most impressive racing game available for any console. You had to buy a PC to get anything else even close to the same experience.

Technical considerations aside, F-Zero also has a great deal of character. The setting, artwork, and music are all high points of the game, as are the epic tracks and the furious in-game battling of cars. Knocking other cars around in F-Zero wasn't encouraged quite as much as it was in later F-Zero titles (I'm thinking of F-Zero X for the N64, for example), but there was the occasional good hit, and those hits were all the more sweet for being so dangerous. Any mid-air collision was just as likely to destroy you as the other car, so you really had to be in control to want to do it. Overall, the whole feel of the game was just that much more believable than most fantasy racers, like Wave Race 64 or Jet Moto. I loved both Wave Race 64 and Jet Moto, but neither of them was as engrossing as F-Zero because, as an overall experience, F-Zero simply did a better job of making me believe in the game--that is, drawing me in, and allowing me to suspend my disbelief so much that the game world seemed real.

A younger gamer would likely pass over the F-Zero titles with little more than a shrug, and I can hardly blame them. What F-Zero has become is not all that impressive, as much as I wish it were otherwise. However, the original F-Zero, the SNES launch title, did capture my attention in a way that few games ever have. I don't know if it is really possible for a gamer born in, say, 1990 to imagine that the year is 1993 and F-Zero is an astoundingly cool game that does things no console gamer has ever seen before, but take my word for it at least: F-Zero is a great, great game.

posted by Parappa @ 8:43 AM 0 comments