On this day in 1994, Final Fantasy VI was released for the Super Famicom in Japan (Americans may have known it as Final Fantasy III as it was actually the third FF title to make it to the US). It was the last iteration to use 2D sprites, and the first not to be directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi as Yoshinori Kitase and Hiroyuki Ito took the reins. However Yoshitaka Amano and Nobuo Uematsu stuck around for art and composition.
Final Fantasy VI is set in a heavily mechanised dystopian world, dealing with military dictatorship, rebellion, and just a lot of dark stuff in all honesty. The story included 14 permanent playable characters and gave players hours of compelling storytelling, rich settings, and a critically acclaimed soundtrack. This helped the game sell around 3.48m copies by 2003 and win many plaudits, including a seat at the GOAT table.
No matter which version you play and on which platform (Super Famicom/SNES, PS1, PS4, GBA, Android and iOS, PC, or Nintendo Switch), you’ll be in for a treat. And to think they hadn’t even reached their final (fantasy) form yet!
If you want to know more about the series, here are some links that you might find interesting:
- The Final Fantasy VI Retrospective
- Which Version of Final Fantasy VI Should You Play?
- Anniversary: Final Fantasy VI Is 30 Years Old
- Square Enix celebrate Final Fantasy VI’s 30th anniversary with new official video on Twitter
- 30 Years Later, Final Fantasy 6 is a Perfect Time Capsule for the Franchise
- The Pitch-Perfect Storytelling Of Final Fantasy VI’s Opera, And How The Pixel Remaster Missed A Note
- A Final Fantasy 6 Remake Would Take 20 Years to Make, Says Square Enix Producer
