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Final Fantasy VI vs Final Fantasy XV

Final Fantasy VI is an RPG JRPG game from Square (1994) while Final Fantasy XV is an action-RPG game from Square Enix (2016).

Quick answer: Final Fantasy VI has the higher Metacritic, 92 to 85.

Final Fantasy VI

1994 · Square

7.6GamingPickz Score

$17.99

Steam: Very Positive

Final Fantasy XV

2016 · Square Enix

85Metacritic

What each one is

Final Fantasy VI is filed under RPG and JRPG. In contrast, Final Fantasy XV under Action-RPG.

Final Fantasy VI

The original FINAL FANTASY VI comes to life with completely new graphics and audio! A remodeled 2D take on the sixth game in the world-renowned FINAL FANTASY series! Enjoy the timeless story told through charming retro graphics.

Description from its Steam store page

Final Fantasy XV

Final Fantasy XV is a 2016 action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix. The fifteenth main installment of the Final Fantasy series, it was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 2016, Windows in March 2018, and as a launch title for Stadia in November 2019. The game features an open world environment and action-based battle system, incorporating quick-switching weapons, elemental magic, and other features such as vehicle travel and camping. The base campaign was later expanded with downloadable content (DLC), adding stand alone story content and further gameplay options such as additional playable characters and multiplayer.

Description from Wikipedia

Story, characters and reception

Final Fantasy VI
Plot

Setting Instead of the strictly medieval fantasy settings featured in previous Final Fantasy titles, Final Fantasy VI is set in a world with deliberately more industrial and mechanical design elements; developers described a setting where machinery and magic coexist. Opera and the fine arts serve as recurring motifs—most notably the opera sequence—documented in developer interviews and later remaster materials. During the first half of the game, the… (Wikipedia)

Characters

Main article: Characters of Final Fantasy VI Final Fantasy VI features fourteen permanent playable characters , the most of any game in the main series, as well as several secondary characters who are only briefly controlled by the player. The starting character, Terra Branford , is a reserved half-human, half-esper girl who spent most of her life as a slave to the Empire, thanks to a mind-controlling device, and is unfamiliar with love. Other primary… (Wikipedia)

Reception

Initial Reception Final Fantasy VI received critical acclaim and was commercially successful in Japan upon release. In mid-1994, Square's publicity department reported that the game had sold 2. 55 million copies in Japan, where it became the best-selling video game of 1994 . (Wikipedia)

Final Fantasy XV
Plot

Setting Final Fantasy XV takes place on the Earth -like world of Eos, which is divided between four nations: Lucis, Accordo, Tenebrae and Niflheim. Lucis, occupying a whole landmass, possesses a magical artifact known as the Crystal, gifted to the reigning Caelum dynasty by the world's deities in antiquity and accessed through the hereditary Ring of the Lucii. Accordo, located in the southern part of Eos, is an island nation formed through a union of… (Wikipedia)

Characters

Main article: Characters of Final Fantasy XV Promotional artwork featuring the core and supporting cast of Final Fantasy XV and its expanded media The game's protagonist is Noctis Lucis Caelum ( Ray Chase / Tatsuhisa Suzuki ), the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Lucis, who loses his father in the Niflheim invasion. Noctis is accompanied on his journey throughout the world of Eos by his three friends: Gladiolus Amicitia ( Chris Parson / Kenta Miyake ), the… (Wikipedia)

Reception

Reception Final Fantasy XV has received "generally favorable" reviews from critics for all versions, according to review aggregator Metacritic . Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu gave both versions of the game a score of 38 points out of 40. Various game designers stated Final Fantasy XV was their favorite game of 2016, including Final Fantasy series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi , Atlus ' Shigeo Komori, Koei Tecmo 's Takashi Morinaka, and Sony Interactive… (Wikipedia)

At a glance

Final Fantasy VIFinal Fantasy XV
GamingPickz Score7.6/10—
Steam ratingVery Positive (92%, 4,975)—
Critic aggregate92/10085/100
Price$17.99Unknown
Install size1 GB—
Steam DeckplayableUntested
Released19942016
DeveloperSquareSquare Enix

Prices and Steam ratings are read live and move over time.

Final Fantasy VI vs Final Fantasy XV, point by point

Each facet side by side. A round is marked won only where a figure settles it; feel and "which is better" carry no mark, because no number we hold decides them.

  1. Genre and premise

    Final Fantasy VIRPG JRPG game
    Final Fantasy XVAction-RPG game

    What each is filed as. Each game describes itself in full above; we do not judge a premise.

  2. How it plays

    Final Fantasy VIRPG, 2D, JRPG
    Final Fantasy XVNo descriptive tags

    The tags players apply most, in order of votes. A read on feel, not a verdict.

  3. Reception

    Final Fantasy VI ✓Metacritic 92
    Final Fantasy XVMetacritic 85

    Metacritic's critic aggregate, from the game's Wikipedia reception where it was never on Steam.

  4. Content and scale

    Final Fantasy VI4,975 reviews · 2 add-ons · 1 GB
    Final Fantasy XV—

    Reach and footprint, not quality: more reviews or a bigger install is not a better game.

  5. Price

    Final Fantasy VI$17.99
    Final Fantasy XVUnknown

    Read live from Steam and subject to change.

Final Fantasy VI takes 1 of the marked rounds to 0. That is only what a number can decide, not which you will enjoy more.

Which to pick, by what you want

  • The better reviewed of the two: Final Fantasy VI (Metacritic 92)

Where they differ

Final Fantasy VI is also

RPG2DSingleplayerJRPGAdventureClass-Based

Final Fantasy XV is also

Tags players apply to one game and not the other.

Difficulty and who each is for

By the tags players apply, Final Fantasy VI is middle-of-the-road on difficulty. Final Fantasy XV is middle-of-the-road on difficulty.

Accessibility features

Steam store pages declare 6 accessibility features for Final Fantasy VI and 0 for Final Fantasy XV. A declaration is a floor, not a review.

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Common questions

How different are Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy XV in scope?

Final Fantasy VI has drawn 4,975 Steam reviews, ships 2 add-ons and installs in 1 GB. Final Fantasy XV lists little scope data.

Is Final Fantasy VI or Final Fantasy XV better?

Neither carries enough reviews for us to score it reliably, so we do not call a winner. The table above shows what each does have.

Which is cheaper, Final Fantasy VI or Final Fantasy XV?

One or both do not have a current listed price, so a straight comparison is not possible. See the table above.

Should I get Final Fantasy VI or Final Fantasy XV?

Final Fantasy VI has the higher Metacritic, 92 to 85. It also depends on what you want: the "which to pick" section above calls out which is cheaper, lighter on storage, better on a Steam Deck and the safer bet by weight of reviews.

Do you rank one above the other for a fee?

No. Neither game, nor anyone else, pays for placement or a verdict here. The order and every figure come out of the same public data the rest of the site uses.

All comparisons

How we compare, and what we will not do

The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment (adjusted for sample size), the critic aggregate and popularity, computed by the same code every ranked list on this site uses. The Steam rating label is Valve's own, reconstructed from the positive percentage and review count. Prices are read live. We do not write an opinion of which game is "better": we report the numbers and say which wins each measurable question above.

More on each