FF6 had the best characters.
True, but -- as pointed out by Sora, of all people (a stuck clock is right twice a day) -- a lot of its charm comes down to the Woolsey translation. Have you played the RPGOne version? Apparently they've redone half of it since I played it, so it might be better now, but pretty much the only thing it had going for it in version 1.0 was cursing.
...what's wrong with a decent translation being largely responsible for a game's quality? There are certainly some games that suffered horribly for poor ones, and some that are overrated for their good ones (not naming names, we're already having too many debates in this topic already), so the translation is basically a part of the package you're buying.
Besides, it's not like the characters don't stand on their own... the dashing thief, the troubled mage, the goofy but strong-hearted knight... you notice something about those archetypes? They didn't necessarily show up in 1-5 in such forms, but when Square went and thought of the "classics" when cocking up FFIX, they naturally went for Locke, Terra and Cyan.
FFX had the best gameplay.
Change "gameplay" to "combat system" and I'm willing to agree. The dungeon maps sucked, though. I believe it was you who described them as having all the complexity of Super Mario Bros levels.
Okay, point. But lately I've been learning to appreciate minimalist dungeon layouts, especially from Square. Complicated mazes, like random battles, just... don't work in the new dimension.
Honestly, I would not mind seeing an FF4 DS-style remake of FF6. What with the voice acting and whatnot, provided they preserve the GBA port bonus content.
That said, a good rebalancing is just what 6 needs. Things like Bum Rush shouldn't be game-breaking. ...Don't know WHAT they could do about the old eight-hits thing, though.
Honestly you'll have broken the game way before you get Bum Rush. Which, really, proves your point.
Could go for an FF6 rebalancing too, with each character having a more defined role. As much as I loved Locke, his Steal ability was pretty unattractive compared to Blitz, Slot, Dance etc., and Celes/Terra become almost irrelevant when
everyone gains the ability to sling around spells (not that I ever used anything that wasn't Cure).
A stricter economy, limits on what spell each character can learn, a total re-leveling of everyone's secondary powersets and making almost esoteric shit like Desperation more accessible, would be aces.
