Review# 1: Final Fantasy VI: Eternal Crystals

By popular request I decided to write a mini request on the rom hack of Final Fantasy VI.

Character Overview:
Eternal Crystals is a fairly well done hack with a lot of changes to the original Final Fantasy VI. Some changes involve characters being locked to certain skill sets. Edgar for instance is moved more to a Dragoon even with Dragoon sprite. He receives the skills of both jump and Dragon which replaces skills. Tina/Terra pretty much remains the same and learns Magic naturally and via Espers, but now has blonde hair from the concept art. Locke gains the throw command, but otherwise remains the same. Sabin by default can dual equip claws which are his only weapons, he gets the Kick command from Yang/FF5 Monk and keeps his Blitz command. Blitz though is severely hindered due to Sabin's low magic stat. Shadow is pretty much the same, but receives Gil Toss and by default can dual equip weapons. Cyan probably has the most changes as for the first part of the game he is a Dark Knight and has his same old SwdTech renamed Dark Swd with differing effects. But after the dream sequence he becomes a Paladin and gains access to Magic via Espers/Equipment and some really overpowered weaponry and armor. Setzer remains the same old Setzer same skills and can still learn Magic via Espers. Gau gains the ability to equip more weapons and has the fight command, but otherwise is very much the same with learning rages. Mog gets the control command and still keeps the dances renamed Geomance. Strago becomes a Black Mage sprite but otherwise is the same. Relm remains the same more or less with Sketch and can learn magic via Espers/Equipment but is titled as a white mage. Celes is the same old Celes Runic/Magic. Umaro had a complete transformation into Biggs who is a Magitek soldier and is controllable. Gogo becomes Emperor Zemus, but otherwise is the same Mimic and since he has a higher magic stat can make full use of Blitzes.   So overall the characters are very refreshing but at the same time still the same core cast.
     Now one problem you will soon realize is that characters that can equip Espers generally become better due to stat bonuses compared to other characters. I'll say that Cyan and Tina are probably the top tier characters due to having access to X-Magic accessories. The same strategy of X-magic+Quick results in tons of turns not to mention each receives equipment that boosts their MP to near max and you can easily use Osmose with X-Magic to restore your MP supply.  The next tier would probably fall to Celes as she is everything Tina/Cyan is minus X-Magic overpowered equipment that boosts her MP to near max she also like Tina gets access to high level swords. After Celes I would say the next most useful character is Strago and if Strago had access to the same equips as Celes he'd probably be better as Grand Train and other Blue Magic makes him almost indispensable not to mention the Blue Magic equivalents are usually cheaper to cast than the normal magic version. Give Strago a gold hairpin and watch him destroy.  Shadow would probably be the next character with access to Aura which gives X-Fight and the fact he can dual equip means Shadow can still do decent damage with the fight command, not to mention gil toss and throw can still out damage most everyone else. Biggs probably comes next in the character hierarchy and possibly could be higher up as he has some very useful Magitek attacks and his equipment choices are decent. Setzer/Relm would probably make up the next tier just for having access to magic. Magic really is OP in this hack and every magic user could be near the top, but sadly equipment is lacking for Setzer and Relm to have them any higher. Gau who if you put time in collecting all his good rages could be at the top, but he is one of the characters that is more  of a chore to make good but is more useful than stock Gau just due to having better equip choices. Edgar has access to some Dragoon only equip and has an accessory that allows him to jump 4-5 times on an enemy, sadly most Dragon tools  do lower damage again due to running off a low Magic stat. Mog really has one good use and that is simply the Moogle Charm and in battle he can also be useful for blue magic gathering with control. Sadly his equip choices make him a bit disappointing. Locke/Sabin would probably be the lowest tier. Now Locke overall could be higher as throw can still be super useful even late game, but his equip choices are lacking. Sabin would be amazing if  he had a higher magic stat to take full advantage of his Blitzes, his dual equip claws can be useful, but again magic is king. Zemus who I have left out of the character ratings just because his usability depends on the skills other characters will be using. If you are using Quick/X-Magic then Zemus is at the top by mimicking the combo.  Zemus can stand  on his own with the right skill set and makes  a great Blitzer.
Character rating overall: 3/5 Namely due to the lacking character balance

Story: The transformation of the story was refreshing. Changing the story to follow the classic 4 Crystals keeping the world in balance and the balance being disrupted by the Dark Crystals. The new dialog at points was well written to fit the narrative. The references thrown in from other Final Fantasy games made this feel almost like a Final Fantasy all-star story. So yes I loved the tweaks to the story bringing in elements from FF10 about the final summoning and then establishing the story to follow similar to FF3. That and since it still follows the same story structure of FF6 it was remarkable.
Rating 5/5

Bosses: The boss choices were interesting from throwing the Mist Dragon in to using Zande from FF3. Unfortunately some of the bosses were designed with a poor gimmick. I mostly will mention Atmos, who was an optional boss,  but the gimmick was to win you more or less had to run him out of MP as he countered every attack with White Wind. Rasp/Rasp/Rasp pretty much is what the battle comes down to. Outside of this one boss most bosses presented a real challenge. I will leave this playlist of boss battles I created to give a sample of bosses Boss List. Some really good bosses and some just annoying. The Atmos battle alone though is almost  enough to take a full point off from this section. However the fact the game has Battle of Big Bridge for some battles saves it from th full point deduction. I have a soft spot for the Gilgamesh Battles because of the theme. Which brings us to the next category,
4.25/5


Music: The music choices are great between the music used from other FF games. Here's looking at the FF4 music used throughout. But hey Battle of the Big Bridge is here. Also untouched is Dancing Mad so the soundtrack holds up and fits the mood of the story very well.
5/5

Challenge: FF6 Eternal Crystals has a strange curve. Some of the earlier battles seem a lot more challenging namely due to skills available. The major road block early on is the Gilgamesh/Enkidu battle. Outside of that battle the rest of the game is pretty smooth sailing until the evil Cerebus boss later on. Kaiser Dragon probably presents the biggest challenge especially if you don't use the quick/x-magic spam. (To be fair I forgot where to get the accessories before this battle). Overall the challenge is there and then some if you're not prepared. So much like the original Final Fantasy VI the challenge depends on your preparedness , but overall it probably is more challenging than the vanilla game.
4.5/5

Game play: The game plays like Final Fantasy VI. Not really any major improvements done just skills swapped around. Really wish they would have used the auto dash feature so you wouldn't have to use Sprint Shoes. But it's not a big mark against it as possibly the patch wasn't around at the time of this hack.
4.75/5

Presentation: The hack has wonderful visuals and even the graphics used from other games fit well into the FF6 engine. The game is pleasing on the eyes. Again mostly because it's still FF6 at the essence .
5/5

Overall
 31.5/35 or for those who like percentiles 90%