6. Final Fantasy VI (SNES)

I don’t want to sound full of my own opinions… but, how to say this… Final Fantasy VI is the greatest rpg ever made or ever will be made. Was that straightforward and in your face enough? I hope so, because FF6 deserves such a spirited defense. Everything in this game ties together in a package so elegant, that it’s a marvel to believe that such a piece of art, yes, art, could be accomplished on a little 16 bit machine like the Super Nintendo. From graphics that push the limits of the 2d form to a soundtrack crafted by the brilliant Nobuo Uematsu, FF6 has it all. What it has most, however, is story, an epic story. The plot of FF6 is that an evil empire has risen up and is using the “dread destructive force known as magic” to enslave the world. Luckily, a group of rebels have banded together to fight back. Yeah, so it’s just an evil empire again, right? Wrong. FF6 starts there but doesn’t end there. Eventually the emperor’s magician known as Kefka kills the emperor, and takes on the godly power of the three statues of the Warring Triad and becomes more dangerous than the entire empire. With this power, Kefka scatters the heroes of the game (which consists of a massive 14 playable characters) to the far corners of the globe, and proceeds to destroy the entire world… yeah, the world gets destroyed, and that’s only the halfway point in the story. Once your characters awaken in this “world of ruin” you must gather your strength and launch one last desperate attack against the evil magician in his tower. The final confrontation with Kefka is the stuff of legends. The game’s cast all speak to Kefka and tell him why he is wrong about humanity not having any hope, and why life is worth living. Predictably, Kefka being the evil bastard that he is, doesn’t listen, and the epic final battle ensues. Play this game and experience a story as grand in scope as the original Star Wars trilogy.