Final Fantasy 6 which way should I play it?

I played both. But I prefer the GBA version, since I do need to grind in this game, I'm a completist and prefer to play easier games.
But the SNES is better with sound and maybe graphics.
 
The music in the SNES version is far, far superior. But this is speaking from a biased point of view, where I draw upon playing it in fifth grade and being in awe of the game. Which is to say, I only noticed the shortcomings of the GBA version because I'd played the SNES game, and a lot of my favorite tunes had minute differences in the later one that stood out sourly to me.

There's also some minor dialogue changes, but I can't remember them at the moment. There's probably an old thread on here in the DS board that would expound what said changes were. I'm thinking Kefka's "son of a submariner!" line was changed. FF6 was a Woolsey game, who did a lot of the translating back then, and his stuff was superb. So this is another tiny complaint against the GBA version.

You can think of it like watching a subbed anime versus a dubbed one - if you're not terribly worried about the original, you'd be just fine with the dubbed version. It's sort of like that, except the changes are even smaller. In this case, if you played A before B, you notice the faults in B. But if you played B before A, you might think A had faults, since you'd hear different music and read an altered translation.

You could get away with the GBA version if portability is a big issue. But I'd push for the original way it was meant to be played.
 
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SNES. If you have access to a Game Genie, you can get out of the level grinding. At least, I had to level grind towards the end of the game.
 
[quote name='Kirin Lemon']The GBA game has the superior translation, but yeah, the sound and graphics of the SNES version are better, so I'd go with that one.[/QUOTE]

Oh come on! It's a Woolsey!
 
[quote name='Strell']Oh come on! It's a Woolsey![/QUOTE]

Woolsey *massacred* Secret of Mana to the point of near-incomprehensibility. I appreciate some of the quirky charm he injected into FFVI, but the GBA script kept in some of the more amusing classic lines, while still delivering a more accurate translation.
 
I'd also go with the SNES version. I played it on the GBA and used my GBA Player when I was at home. On my 50' DLP it was very ugly. The graphics take a huge hit, and the audio is painful to listen too. Still, I could play it at work.
 
[quote name='nickerous']SNES. If you have access to a Game Genie, you can get out of the level grinding. At least, I had to level grind towards the end of the game.[/QUOTE]

Back when the game just came out, my friend showed me you can beat the game WITHOUT getting any characters in the second half... in other words, he used only 3 characters.

There's a magic combo that works on almost all the enemies and a lot of bosses in the game (even Atma)...

Vanish + Doom/X-Zone (I can't remember if its doom, x, or both)

For whatever reason, vanish makes those enemies 100% vulnerable to the second spell.

Oh, he also used a two sword combo (Usually on Locke), one was Valiant and the other was Ultima. At least I think those were the swords, one is supposed to increase damage if you're close to full health, the other increases damage as you're low on health. So, no matter what, you do a ton of damage. Of course, you needed Genji Gloves to equip two swords at a time.
 
OP, don't read this post if you don't want tactical spoilers.

The Vanish/X-Zone combo works because Vanish makes your vulnerability to magic skyrocket at the cost of physical attacks whiffing, which is why it works so well on enemies.

The Ultima sword definitely works better with the more health you have, evolving its animation to reflect as such. I remember thinking this tiny thing in FF6 was an amazing little detail.

You can also use the infinite loop when you have Bannon in your team during the river rapids section, letting you get tons of experience early on. This was back in the days when we had to rubber band down a button and left the game running all day and night, giving you level 99 characters after a while. At some point, Bannon can't be killed by the enemies, and there might even be a way to let his heal option be used every time (I forget what its called).
 
If you're a JRPG nut at all, you'll prolly wanna play it twice any way. Play the SNES version first. Better music, and truth be told the localization of the SNES version is pretty good.

... then play the super awesome cool GBA version when ya wanna replay it.
 
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The only problem with the SNES version is that batteries in cartridges are getting old. Are we talking about an actual cartridge version or the SNES rom? At this point I wouldn't risk losing hours of progress to a fading SNES cart. That shit is heartbreaking (glares at Master of Monsters Genesis cartridge).
 
Always consider cartridge batteries...

SNES is the way it should be experienced (at least once), but the PS1 and GBA versions get the job done nicely. Personally, I've played through the game more often on my PS1 copy, although my GBA copy is on its second playthrough.
 
[quote name='Kreutz']Always consider cartridge batteries...

SNES is the way it should be experienced (at least once), but the PS1 and GBA versions get the job done nicely. Personally, I've played through the game more often on my PS1 copy, although my GBA copy is on its second playthrough.[/QUOTE]

Uh no, the loading time for the PS1 version is horrible.
 
[quote name='Gamer_4_life']Obviously the GBA has a better resolution than SNES. Twice the cababilty.
So go for GBA version[/QUOTE]


I'm pretty sure that the SNES has a better resolution. Either way, I vote for the SNES version due to the improved audio, since FF6 has an excellent soundtrack.
 
GBA resolution is 240x160 while the SNES is 256x224. The Sony SPC700 sound chip in the SNES is also noticeably better than the GBA's. The GBA was kind of pathetic considering the SNES was a whopping 11 years older, but... Nintendo has a history of being overly stingy on hardware.

I recommend using the emulator bsnes for any SNES games you want to replay. It's as close to the real thing as you can get.
 
My thinking is this: The SNES version was near and dear to me as well. Play it via an emulator, assuming you own the game of course :lol:. The main reason I promote this is because of the level grinding many mentioned earlier. I'm sure some know this, but you can hit the (I believe it's the key on the keyboard and adjust the speed of the game to maybe 2x or 3x). --There are other ways to do it too.-- Anyways, it is perfect for quick, level grinding; and you don't miss out on anything once you slow it back down. I do this all of the time on those old rpgs I've always wanted to play, but didn't want to lose a significant portion of my life in doing so. That way I can quickly get it out of my system. :applause:
 
[quote name='smiley241275']My thinking is this: The SNES version was near and dear to me as well. Play it via an emulator, assuming you own the game of course :lol:. The main reason I promote this is because of the level grinding many mentioned earlier. I'm sure some know this, but you can hit the (I believe it's the key on the keyboard and adjust the speed of the game to maybe 2x or 3x). --There are other ways to do it too.-- Anyways, it is perfect for quick, level grinding; and you don't miss out on anything once you slow it back down. I do this all of the time on those old rpgs I've always wanted to play, but didn't want to lose a significant portion of my life in doing so. That way I can quickly get it out of my system. :applause:[/QUOTE]

I agree with this. Your speed point made me think of something else though that I don't think anyone's mentioned: If it's between SNES and GBA, the GBA version does have a dash feature (which stacks with Sprint Shoes). Over the course of the game that probably reduces total play time significantly (tough to say by how much). But that's only if time is a factor, though this is not a game to be rushed through obviously.
 
Effing late to the party, but I'd push for the GBA version first, if only for the script. Then you can go 'back' to the SNES one for the technical capacities and to get "in" on the Woosleyisms.
 
[quote name='Kirin Lemon']Woolsey *massacred* Secret of Mana to the point of near-incomprehensibility. I appreciate some of the quirky charm he injected into FFVI, but the GBA script kept in some of the more amusing classic lines, while still delivering a more accurate translation.[/QUOTE]

The problems Woolsey always faced was that he had only a few months to translate complete games before the programed then in. The limitations on SNES kept him from being able to use full words and names in some instances.

The funny thing is, when Kefka utters, "read my lips," it wasn't a translation at all, it was his little ad lib referring to the first President Bush's war on Iraq. When the GBA translation came out, Japan liked it and kept it in.

I say go with SNES. I'm a little biased since I first played it on SNES, but I just seem to enjoy it more on that platform over GBA and the dreaded and laggy PS1 copy.
 
[quote name='SpeedyG']yea I gotta go with emulation on this one. Saves States are you friend![/QUOTE]

Save states and the ability to speed up/FastForward using the accent/tilde key!
 
I suggest you play both versions. Final Fantasy VI is such a great game it deserves multiple playthroughs.

The music is immensely better in the SNES version, but the script and general text is much better in the GBA version. Of course, if you can read Japanese, go with the Super Famicom version and have the best of both worlds.
 
sssssssssssnnnnnnneeeeeeessssss

I've played this game half way about 4 times already over various emulators and finally the actual cart. I need to finish this stupid thing.
 
It would be difficult to obtain a cheap SNES one that would actually work well, and SNES cartridges tend to die pretty easy. The GBA one is definitely a safer bet, and, on the plus side, it's portable. The GBA one had a much better translation and better sprites, but the SNES had the Mode 7 ( or whatever it's called ) for the world map, and had slightly better sound quality.
 
Yeah, a copy of FF 6 on the SNES would run you at least $30 just for the console. I've never had save issues with my copy and I played the piss outta it, too.
 
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