Robust customization features, including unique magic spells, a modified summoning system, and a wealth of weapons, made the traditional active time battle system feel like a constant joy.Įverything in Final Fantasy VI, from the story to the combat systems to the world, is made for a nearly flawless Final Fantasy experience. This level of freedom was astonishing at the time.

But the back half of the game opened things up, allowing you to complete objectives and dungeons in a nonlinear order.

The linearity of the first half allows these characters to grow, to let you build connections with each one - an impressive feat considering there are roughly a dozen major players on your side. The first half introduces the cast, from the compelling starting protagonist, Terra Branford, to the rebel treasure hunter Locke Cole - all of whom want to take down the Empire. Perfectly paced, Final Fantasy VI achieved such high levels of narrative impact because of its setup.

This is where high fantasy became the stuff of legend, and magic was replaced by scientific advances and the burgeoning technology from the Second Industrial Revolution. It featured a stellar cast of more than a dozen characters and ushered in the steampunk-style world design that would carry over to the PlayStation games in the late ’90s. Originally released in North America as Final Fantasy 3 (yes, it’s confusing), Final Fantasy 6 was the last 16-bit mainline entry. Final Fantasy VIįar and away the best mainline Final Fantasy game, 1994’s Final Fantasy VI is an absolute triumph in every sense. With the remake of the iconic Final Fantasy VII released a few months back, we decided to rank all of the best Final Fantasy games. If you’re just getting into Final Fantasy, though, where do you start? Most Final Fantasy games are at the very least good, while many are great - and others are masterpieces. Now, many of those same titles in the Final Fantasy series live on the Nintendo Switch and other consoles alongside newer RPGs like Bravely Default and Genshin Impact.

From there, the series made an incredibly successful jump to 3D on the PlayStation 1 before the mainline series started to take more risks, including the elimination of turn-based battles and massively multiplayer online game (MMO) entries. The fantasy Japanese RPGs debuted on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1987, but they became cultural touchstones in the ’90s as Super Nintendo games. Yes, we’re talking about Final Fantasy from Square Enix. While the role-playing game (RPG) has become a catch-all genre, now encompassing an almost silly range of games that don’t share much in common, there was one video game franchise in the 1990s that was the quintessential RPG.

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