Final Fantasy VI Advance [GBA]

There are a couple of other fixes and additions worth mentioning as well. Bugs that were present in the older versions, for example, have been completely amended and four new Espers have been tacked on to the already-large lineup of summons (Gilgamesh, Leviathan, Gigantaur, and Diablos). Square Enix has also thrown in a couple of new spells, a special "Dragon's Den" dungeon, a "Soul Shrine" for level grinders in search of experience points, several new items and equipment, and the mainstay bestiary and music player options found in previous GBA Final Fantasy re-releases.

If there's a knock against all this re-working, it's that there is occasional slowdown during more populated or effects-heavy battles and that some of the content has been censored (Celes not getting beaten during her interrogation is the most publicized example, but there are other instances as well). Moreover, audiophiles will probably be perturbed with the GBA's inferior handling of the soundtrack, since all of its mixing is handled by the game and not the system. This means that some of the songs have been adjusted and aren't quite as complex as they used to be, but composer Nobuo Uematsu's general intention is still quite clear. Even at 80% of the quality it used to be, the score is still among the best in any videogame ever

Even with Final Fantasy VI's faults, there are still a million great things to say about it. After all, the game's battle system is ridiculously robust and offers completely different combat techniques for every character involved. Each hero can be customized in multiple ways too, and the quantity of hidden material, cool sidequests, neat boss battles, and other high-value content still stands up today. Just expect to run into enemies a little more often: the random encounter rate has been slightly augmented.

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