If IV revolutionized Final Fantasy's formula, then VI is the game that perfected it.
This game has one of the most succint and concise stories ever. Not a single wasted moment. You learn everything you need to know in such little time, the rate of progression in the writing is so on point that even in this localized translation it doesn't detract from the game, and most ports of this game still stick closely to the US SNES translation (Final Fantasy "III") and it still remains the best version of the game to play.
The PS1 version would almost be perfect, but the audio has been 'remastered' (mistake, the original audio was already perfect) and the new sound effects are just awful. Even when playing on PC it has an extremely long transition animation going in and out of battle and extremely long blackscreen opening menus. The GBA version is even worse because even though it adds new things like attack shortcuts, the audio and textures are too garbled. The Pixel 'Remaster' also seems to have gutted NewGame+ content. Y'know, just to rub salt in the wound. It has a very plain artstyle, while also still looking muted somehow, like the textures weren't imported properly and thus the colors have been muddled.
I went into it without knowing anything, I had never really played a Final Fantasy game before, except for the very first one, and I wasn't able to beat it then. I wanted to play Final Fantasy VII because of how everyone kept saying how great it was, but being the poor little boy I was, and without the ability to buy games whenever I wanted, I had to resort to emulator sites because I was too stupid to operate emulators manually. And PlayStation emulators weren't very good at the time, so I played the next best thing I could.
When I first played the game when I was young, I didn't really understand what was going on. I understood the meaning of the dialogue, just not the dialogue itself. Like I had no idea what it meant when they called Sabin/Mash a 'bear' but I still subconsciously knew.
I got super lost in the plot wondering where Terra/Tina went, add to that the long breaks I took away from playing the game, or getting lost in the grind, so the plot didn't really hit for a long time. But I still kept playing because the game was still enjoyable.
...And I don't think it was until you get to the World of Ruin, when Cid dies and Celes committed suicide when I finally realized how much more this game was. I must have been playing really slowly or grinding a lot, but I didn't think it was that special until this point, when it changed my life and I realized this was not some generic grinding simulator... this was art.
My problem with many modern games is that they fell hard on the 'world building' side that they overload the game with superfluous details that don't come up enough or don't add anything to the story or the game. And this blinds them into adding more than they need. FF6 might be one of the more cinematic RPGs but even then it is still remarkably concise compared to a lot of stuff that came out afterward.
For example, Edgar and Sabin's background is as quick as this: Two textboxes explaining the two brothers, a flashback about the side of duty versus freedom.
Skipping ahead a bit, we get one more flashback, showing the coin toss. Not only was that scene resolved succinctly, but it is later referenced before that and their story is used as an element and expanded upon with Setzer and Celes' bet and the coin flip, where Sabin also finds out the coin is two sided and only has one sentence of dialogue in response.
If this game came out today, Edgar or Sabin (or both) would spend as much time looking at the coin as the entire scene played out in the original. And it's only in about three textboxes as fast as you can read. That, or Sabin would've been yapping on and kept thanking Edgar for taking responsibility and staying home to rule over Figaro to Sabin follow his passion for training in martial arts.
None of what I just said is ever communicated like that. You get all that you need in little under three minutes. And I'm sorry for gushing but I love everything about this game. The beautifully efficient story is just one reason for that.
This game was made in barely two years, but it does not feel like that at all. It has stood the test of time as one of the all-time grates and for good reason. Square truly has earned its renown by having this marvel under their belt. And I hope that I can create something as wonderfully magnificent as this one day.