• Yes, still stands the test of time. I skipped this in my youth, only played it for the first time… no, wow, it’s been ten years since then. Still, I played it long after the initial release and it played fine. The story and the gameplay were plenty engaging.
• I would rate this right below VI-IX (and FF7R, if we are including it).
• There was a piece of music I especially loved. I wish I knew the name. A choir piece that played right after the party collapsed under an icy lake or something like that.
• This is where they dropped the world map and the series never recovered from that. Spira did not feel like a full world the way the older ones did, just a series of corridors. I’ve never understood why the world map was abandoned. It’s amazing how non-linear the old games felt, even when they had like 3 optional side quests, and I credit the free roaming on the world map much of that.

I loved the sphere grid, especially late game when you could break it open. The synthing thing was cool as well, although it opened up a bit late.

• I always liked Locke.
• I would rate this right below the golden three from the PS1 era.
• Terra’s theme, the world map music from the world of ruin.
• I would make the esper system more interesting. It’s been years since I played, so I may be forgetting something, but:
  • Give some espers abilities that affect the character-specific mechanics. eg. a stealing boost for Locke, an imaginary beast for Gau, etc.
  • Make the stat effects of Espers arise from AP overflow, that is, from keeping them equipped after you learn all their spells. Connecting the effect to level ups makes the optimal strategy include too much juggling.
• I think I’ve played it two and a half times. First time the PS1 version, later the original on an emulator.

A few things I love about VI

• The distinctness of the characters, narratively and mechanically.
• How wildly effective some accessories could be.
• The story.

The story of VI may be the best, but I would agree that the esper system isn’t that great. It is well connected to the story, which is is nice, but otherwise it is a bit simple. Although compared to how dumbed down modern games are, it’s pretty interesting. The importance of the stat effects of the espers is a bit too subtle, though. And tying the effect to level ups makes the optimal strategy include a lot of tedious juggling. Of course, the game is balanced fine for all this being ignored, so it’s the players fault for optimizing the fun out of it. Still, I think it would be better if, for example, the stat gains would arise incrementally from overflowing AP, such that keeping a STR-attuned esper equipped after you have learned all spells from it would increase STR.

On the other hand I love how distinct each character is mechanically, and how parts of their mechanical development are tied to their “companion quests”. There is a lot of pleasing ludonarrative consonance there.

According to the PS5 timer, precisely 60 hours. That’s with all the side quests (and half the hunts), with Story Mode switched on from around halfway.

I used the accessory that gives you 20% bonus AP for normal fights. That and the ability to refund skills I didn’t use made AP a non-issue by the halfway point. Especially since the upgrades were not very interesting for the most part, except for being able to mix between eidolons.

Yeah, the massive piles of HP bosses and mini bosses had was the main reason I switched to Story Focused. It simply was not fun to do the same things in a loop that many times. I think the game would benefit tremendeously from adding a generous stacking damage bonus for combos, and making staggers scale up to 300%, like in earlier FF:s. That would make combat proficiency more rewarding. Also the skill bonus damage accessories should be more like 50%, giving your favourite skills a real boost.