I don't really have much to say here besides "play FFVI", so I'll just sing it's praises: it's one of the most underrated JRPGs ever made, even though it's still pretty well-known. Despite being overshadowed by it's successor, FFVI has always sat in my heart as having one of the most fascinating stories, best music and greatest characters of any SNES RPG, or SNES game in general. I hold it in higher regards than I do Mother 2/Earthbound, Chrono Trigger and all the previous Final Fantasy games. If you're snowed in this weekend, I highly recommend booting it up, or at least listening to it's musical motifs. Kefka's theme and Dancing Mad makes One-Winged Angel sound like a toothlessly sane track in comparison.
I don't know if this is a generational thing (I'm nearing my mid-30s) or what, but to hear FFVI described as "underrated" or just "pretty well-known" is so weird to me. In my circles it's always been considered the best Final Fantasy and the best 16-bit JPRG (or maybe second-best behind Chrono Trigger), maybe the best JPRG ever. Even though it's definitely exceptional, if I'm being honest I've always thought of it as a little overrated!
The story and characters are phenomenal, but random battles are cancer. That's where Chrono Trigger wins IMO. Sticking with random battles was an absurd decision which I never understood, and the momentum lasted way, way too long at square.
There is nothing wrong with turn based combat, but structured encounters with meaning always beat infuriating RNG encounters that are there just to run out the clock so they can claim a "40h experience".
I'm of the same generation, and though I agree that in some circles it's widely praised as the best Final Fantasy in the mainstream it's extremely overshadowed by VII. It makes sense, VII sold about six times more copies than VI in the US
I am in the same generation and have been replaying a lot of the SNES classics, but I have to say - random encounters are absolutely infuriating sometimes. Chrono Trigger has really become my favorite for never having those.
Its such a great game, I think the story might be my favorite of all the final fantasy games, I like chrono trigger overall more but the story of FFVI cannot be beat.
There's finally a good official release of it on Steam. Every time they release it they mess something up - last time it was amateurish new graphics, this time it's "just" the English font is bad, but I think you can patch that.
