Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is an eye-opener. Playing it 11 years after its original PlayStation 2 release has made us realise just how ahead of its time the game was back in 2006. Unlike Final Fantasy X - which also received the remaster treatment not too long ago on PlayStation 3, Vita, and PlayStation 4 - XII, for the most part, has aged shockingly well. So much of the release still holds up; the twisting narrative puts the series' more recent attempts to shame, the world of Ivalice is fantastical yet intriguingly grounded, and gameplay-wise, the title remains incredibly cohesive. The Zodiac Age is a poignant reminder of just how brilliant Final Fantasy used to be.
And that's not really us having a pop at Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XV - two games that aren't all that bad as far as we're concerned - but it is clear that Square's property once had a magic touch that it's gradually let slip away over the years. We're around 20 hours into The Zodiac Age and we find ourselves engrossed in a complex role-playing title that pulls no punches. It's a far cry from the franchise's current form.
Final Fantasy XII was a divisive game when it first launched and we're sure that its return will be met with split opinion as well, but we've always been of the belief that it's actually one of the series' stronger entries. That's not to say this enhanced re-release is without its decade-old blemishes - lead character Vaan is still a whining little git, for starters - but everything just feels so refined. From the elaborate and plentiful cutscenes right down to the crisp art direction, XII is expertly crafted.
It's fitting, then, that it's also been expertly remastered. Main character models have been touched up perfectly, and although there's still some blurry PS2 texture work on display, the aforementioned art direction holds everything together rather effortlessly. The original release was one of the console's best looking titles, and thanks to no small amount of polishing from Square, its 2017 rebirth is no slouch either.
So, how about that gambit system, eh? A sticking point for many, those who disliked the battle system back in the day will likely be disappointed to hear that nothing's changed. Basically, gambits allow you to set up automatic commands for every character in your party, which essentially means that, with the right set of actions queued up, the game plays itself. On paper it sounds weird and in practice it's... yeah, it's still a bit weird. That said, once you have wrapped your head around how everything works, gambits offer a huge amount of depth, and putting together a team that can tackle any situation is certainly rewarding in its own way - it's just unfortunate that the remaster doesn't do more to explain the system in greater detail, or at least introduce it in a more structured manner.
Indeed, as hinted, Final Fantasy XII isn't a fan of holding your hand. It's a massive, intricate release that doesn't hesitate to throw you into the deep end barring a very basic tutorial section at the start of the game. Again, it's a shame that it doesn't do more to ease you into the details, but there is fun to be had in experimenting with its many systems and discovering your ideal way to play. It's an enjoyable learning process overall.
We've got a long way to go before we reach Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age's finish line, but so far, we've fallen in love with this grand adventure all over again. Will it still divide opinion, 11 years after its initial release? We reckon that's a certainty, but for us, XII was the last great single player Final Fantasy title - and it's still more than capable of holding its own.
Are you looking forward to returning to Ivalice this month? Were you a fan of the original PS2 release? We'll have a full review of Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age before it launches on the 11th July, but until then, become a sky pirate in the comments section below.
Comments 56
Twice I started it, twice I stopped playing. First time I lost the memory card, second time my PS2 left me for a better place. Let's hope tis time I will finish it!
The battle system irked me. Only way I'll return to Ivalice is through FF tactics
This isn't one that I ever spent much time with as I didn't really like the battle system back then but that was on the back of playing the excellent games VII-X. Maybe now I'll be able to appreciate it for what it is whilst having the added benefit of pretty much the entire game being completely new to me
I love the FF12 artwork, it's so good.
I reckon I'm gunna have to pick this one up. Just hope it somehow both sees me through to the release of Pillars of Eternity, and doesn't make fed up of RPGs by the time that comes out lol
It looks beautiful for sure.
Man, the borderline clickbait titles are strong here and at NL today
@RedMageLanakyn It's the truth as far as I'm concerned!
@ShogunRok I know, just poking fun!
This article suggests that FFXII was great to begin with.
Spoilers:
It's not.
@Fight_Teza_Fight WRONG.
Isn't this the one that pretty much felt like you was playing an offline MMO the whole time? Looked nice but was pretty lackluster to me coming off the back of FFX. Wont do any harm giving it another shot though, It has been a while.
I remember playing it on ps2 and doesn't like the story, characters and mmo like gameplay.
The combat looks rather interesting, can't wait for this you can't beat a bit of FF.
No it's not.
FFXII at the time was 1 of the most fun games I'd ever played, I put about 150 hours into it which was my most by far of any game, think FF7 was around 100. But the part that makes it FF, my first 40 hours or so, was kinda lame, the other 100 after that is where it was fun. This wasn't FF, it was a MH spinoff. Saying this is reminder of how great the series used to be would be like saying Grandia X, a dungeon crawler with all story removed, is a reminder of how great that series used to be. Only G1 and G2 were great, 3 was mediocre, nobody cared about X, similar to the Jak&Daxter series actually.
So yes, go play this game, lots of fun to be had, and it was a really great looking PS2 game, but it isn't a reminder of the FF glory days, those were all single digits. I'll agree it's all downhill after this, it was the last really fun time I had playing an FF game, only it wasn't a great FF game, just a game, it fails by FF "glory days" standards.
@Fight_Teza_Fight That's your opinion. In my opinion, I think it's the best Final Fantasy game alongside FFIX.
I love the gambit system, it's a lot more tactical than the previous turn based combat and the button mashing in FFXV.
I remember renting this game when I was younger. Never beat it. Honestly the only thing I remember was finding a good spear lol.
Weird huh?
But since I hardly remeber playing this game, it's pretty much gonna be a new Final Fantasy for me.
So I'm super excited!
@kyleforrester87 The main character designs are by Akihiko Yoshida. He's one of the best character designers in the gaming industry in my opinion and I also love his art style. He's most recent work was designing the main characters for Nier: Automata.
@WanderingBullet Yeah thought it might have been him. I know he did Bravely and Vagrant Story too. Love it.
@kyleforrester87 Yeah, its unfortunate that he left Square Enix back in 2013. I think he's currently mostly working on Japanese mobile games.
@ApostateMage That's cool. In my opinion it's crap. Vann is reason enough for this game to be an instant turnoff.
Then again, I LOVED FFXIII & apparently the rest of the west suffers from Final Fantasy disease & hated it.
For the record FFXIII has the best combat system. No game will ever make turn based combat feel that exhilarating .
@Fight_Teza_Fight The combat system for FFXIII wasn't that bad to me either. Reminded me a lot of how combat was in FFX-2, and X-2 was a damn good spin-off.
What about the remaster FFX? :v
I like XII but I'd take XV over it any day. My biggest "problem" with XII is that it's the only one in the series that doesn't really feel like a Final Fantasy to me. It's just a very good high budget JRPG. I look forward to play this version anyway, maybe my opinion will change.
FFXII was fantastic. The MMO-esque combat, numerous side missions, and open world bring Xenoblade Chronicles to mind, even though it preceded that series by at least 4 years. More importantly, though, this game actually had some awesome side content, like Mark hunting, which made it feel almost Monster Hunter-ish at times. The game was visually gorgeous for the time. And the gambit system, despite being somewhat limiting at first, is one of the only times SE's experimentation with the series' mechanics actually worked out really well. It was a lot of fun designing different gambit algorithms to deal with the various challenges one faced throughout the game.
Easily the best FF on the PS2, and a top 5 FF game overall.
Looking forward to playing this again and hoping that it will surpass my expectations as I was disappointed at the time, despite liking the battle system. Just thought the story was lacking. I did love the sequel, revenant wings on Nintendo ds though. Wish that was part of the package, but guess translating an rts game across might have been tough.
Think final fantasy cares far to much about looks than gameplay now. FFXV is a good example of this and XIII. Two games that look beautiful but when it comes to combat and actual strategy are both lacking. I think the turn based combat of the older games really made you think about how to attack and use characters to the full potential. In XIII you basically just watched the fights on auto and only got involved for paradigm shifts. Don't get me wrong I still enjoy final fantasy it's just not what it was and the last few games haven't really been as good as they could of been.
@Ralizah Comparing it to XC is the best recommendation for me, if I needed one as an FF fan who missed this entry! Bring it on.
I played the fan-translated Tales of Phantasia on SNES a good while ago, so the concept of programmable AI companions in battles never seemed odd to me. In fact, Paradigm Shift remains my favourite battle system in Final Fantasy so far, and I look forward to experiencing its predecessor. FFXIII being one of my favourite FF flagships in general (and FFXV looking quite interesting from what I've seen before and since its release), I don't share the "used to be great" sentiment either, but the world and characters of FFXII were a hook enough that I found myself racking up many hours in its SEQUEL after merely trying it for the relative novelty of a handheld real-time tactics RPG. So much for archive binge order, yeah. XD
Revenant Wings didn't even feel all THAT spoilery, at least; neither did Dissidia - I have played as Gabranth and against Gabranth and I still don't really have an idea who the guy is. XD Final Fantasy Record Keeper spoiled me more, but I expect enough surprises from the story nonetheless - on top of all the other offerings the game promises.
@Xaessya IMHO on par with FFVII but not among my top faves in the franchise. X-2 proved overbashed as well (it's actually reminiscent of FFV in some aspects), but at that point I couldn't even pretend to be surprised at a Final Fantasy game getting subjective flak. FFXV is the current whipping boy and will remain one until FFXVI release, it seems - which means it'll remain one for a long time.
@ShogunRok It's not the best in the series, but it's miles ahead of the XIII trilogy and XV...
@imtom2002 "In XIII you basically just watched the fights on auto and only got involved for paradigm shifts"
That's what the internet likes to say but it was jossed into next Saturday when I got to play the game for myself. Paradigm Shift involves a truckload of strategy even in the relatively easier Coccoon chapters (emphasis on "relatively" because folks like Aster Protoflorian would laugh at the word "easier"), and mastering it in the generously spread-out tutorial is a must if you want to do well down on Gran Pulse where every random encounter can be a mini boss fight in its own until/unless you outlevel the enemy by a mile. And that's not counting the later bosses or Mission Marks!
Auto-battle is optional in practice - there's even a setting to default the cursor to Abilities in battle, - but after real-time rummaging through gargantuan endgame command menus of FFVII, it's easy to see the feature as a logical part of the system that lets you chain multiple commands from the very beginning. It doesn't automatizes the battle like specific buttons in, say, SMT Strange Journey - it just offers offers combination templates (sometimes multiple to scroll through), and its especially handy in conjunction with the game taking target notes on the fly (too bad that was altered in XIII-2) - if your leader's a ravager, Auto-chain command will tend to offer all the available elemental spells at once, precisely to try and figure out what the newly encountered enemy is weak amd strong against. The other ravagers in the party will immediately make use of the revealed knowledge, too. It's a common sense thing many players would try, just lifted off your fingertips before you make the input.
Party AI is generally impressive - its few issues (like inability to change leaders automatically, medics sometimes wasting healing spells on the empty space if the target was KO'd, saboteurs going through available debuffs "by the book" even if the target has a known weakness to Stop/Pain/Fog) are pretty much the game's few objective issues in general, but it's so solid otherwise, you can trust the party members to hold their ground and be crucial for the fight as long as you keep up with the right paradigms. Synergists knowing Haste, for instance, will always cast it ASAP, starting with other - if any - present synergists (and Haste is pretty much the best buff in the game).
And in my experience of ten prior flagship FFs plus X-2, it's the same glorious ATB but freed from a lot of micromanagement. Paradigm Shift, as someone put it well, "lets you focus on the strategy without needing to execute all of this strategy manually". Then there's the actual usefulness and even SMT-tier IMPORTANCE of debuffs, the ability to use black magic fruitfully instead of saving it for bosses like in Mega Man games (because ethers are never really cheap or common)... yes, you can spam -agas and it doesn't even break the game since these spells are not crazily powerful; their value lies mostly in area-hitting attacks whose usefulness depends on the ever changing locations of friends and foes on the battlefield. You can even launch some enemies into the air which has its own strategic value but can naturally work against area attacks. It's my favourite FF battle system for a reason - it's complex, deep, fairly challenging yet exciting. Sure, some critically outlevelled enemies can require little strategy beyond Relentless Assault, but that's par for the course with critically outlevelled enemies in any RPG. It won't be everyone's cup of tea because nothing is, but it's much better off experienced than judged on the basis of lazy internet "couch critique".
@nhSnork That was a highly detailed description lol but it wasn't lazy internet "couch critique. I got to gran pulse and played that for hours but I just didn't enjoy the structure of the game, I missed the towns and distractions of npc an side quests. I know there were "missions" to complete but they just felt flat with out any motivation behind them. That's all my own option not something I've read. Compared to the past games of which I've played quite a few it felt the least final fantasy to me. I'm glad you seemed to get so much enjoyment out of it though.
I honestly thought FFXV was pretty great. It was WAY too easy, but the combat was incredibly fun and satisfying, warping all over the place and slamming into enemies. Oh, and let's not forget the fun fishing minigame. Yes, it was a bit of a mess, but it was a huge step in the right direction for those of us who find turn-based combat to be dull. If they could balance the difficulty and make magic and summoning more useful, future FFs could be outstanding; unfortunately, I have little to no confidence that Square Enix will do that.
I have to agree. This is a far better game than 13 and 15, even with its faults. I look forward to playing it again.
@Reanfan7 Tend to agree. I don't think XIII is near as bad as some people make out, and I did enjoy XV quite a bit, but going back to a very intricate 'proper' RPG like XII is a reality check.
The gambits, Fran, the Armour and the in game use of language were all awesome.
Vaan, poor dungeon design and lack of sub quests other than hunts was not awesome.
@themcnoisy Read that as "Fran, the LACK of Armour"
Story was always odd for me, cause Vaan isnt really the main character. Hes just along for the ride, all about Ashe reclaiming her kingdom, innit
To me alongside VI and XIV (6 and 14) XII still the best final fantasy.
I really like VII too, but aged very bad.
@nhSnork To me the battle system is the gem of XIII, but honestly I miss the job system, which is coming back in Zodiac age. XIII is gorgeous also, but the main problem is the core concept, the world is uninteresting, unnecessary complex and the main cast is unbelievable bad. I know a few people who defend Hope, Snow, Lighting and Vanille, but dear god I can't remember a FF with a main cast so bad, bland and poor written as XIII.
To put the nail in the coffin, the game tries so hard and becomes a kind of edgy, like Shadow the Hedgehog.
Really looking forward to playing this game. One of the games in the series I didn't play yet. The style and setting look amazing. Still hoping they do a remake of chrono trigger or FFVI sometime
Loved this game and I only stopped playing it because my backwards-compatible PS3 died and I lost my save. I absolutely loved doing the hunts/side quests. I cannot wait to play it to death again. It was very hard to play on my PS3 because of the standard definition graphics and this release will fix it. Counting the days....
@SuperSilverback Yeah, it's a weird one. Vaan and Penelo are just along for the ride like you say - basically there because they get caught up in events and can't really walk away from it. Still, gets them off the street.
You could say Balthier and Basch share the main character role alongside Ashe - all three of them lead the narrative to some degree. In my opinion that dynamic makes the story quite interesting.
@SuperSilverback @ShogunRok I never really considered Vaan the protagonist at all. Beyond a certain point I didn't have him in my party (I liked walking round as Balthier 'cause he's awesome) and he didn't play a leading role in the story either. It definitely felt focused on Ashe, Basch and Balthier.
Top 5 Final Fantasy for me. Interesting story, fantastic world, intricate battle system, oodles of content and it was absolutely gorgeous to boot. On the battle system, I never really understood the "it plays itself" thing. Gambits can be turned off. I preferred to have them on but micromanage accordingly.
Hmm... was thinking of getting 15, but now this review has me hesitant and maybe leaning this way or maybe Tactics for android lol
Is this the one that had the floaty football game in a sphere thing?
Honestly after getting a bit older and playing a large variety of JRPGs, I've found that the Final Fantasy series has never been that challenging, the stories never that interesting, and the characters never that well written. And I'm saying that as someone who loves VII, VIII, IX, and X. Suikoden does a better political story, Persona has a much more well written cast, mainline SMT and it's offshoots have a far grander sense of scale, difficulty and some even bring in meaningful player choice. Xeno-series has stronger Sci-fi elements and world building, and even Trails and Tales Of can do most of what I've said above with a nice anime flavor for those who like that sort of thing. What I'm saying is how good really was the Final Fantasy series and where does it belong among all these other stellar JRPG series?
@mookysam @ShogunRok Yeah Basch and Balthier had a big roll as well. They were my team every time! And will be again
I always had one character with Gambits off that i would manually control, and 2 with them on. Just for healing/buffs if the gambits werent quick enough
The combat should have aged well, it's essentially what was used (albeit tweaked) in the xenoblade games. My biggest problem is that everything else in the game is lacking. Never liked the plot or shoehorned character.
The last great FF for me was 9. The franchise changed drastically after that.
@Chris1975 Nah, that's Final Fantasy X and X-2.
This series hasnt been " great" anymore, since FF 9 and even that one is kinda iffy.
@carlos82 True , but at least the story in ffXII is pretty good.
I cant say the same for FFXV.
After 30 hours in i read that i openend a chest at the start that made it impossible to get the final weapon for a character. I was so mad i quit playing never started it up again. Still picking it up today after my nightshift ill just skip sleeping. 😋
@KitsuneNight You take that back Final Fantasy 9 was fantastic. Cool characters, great story, cool secrets i loved that game. 😐😑
@rjejr Final Fantasy 10 was a good game only Tidus should have been replaced i like my main characters gloomy somehow. 😀 😁 😂 🤣 Like Cloud or Squall i liked Beatrix from FF9 a lot to.
@Flaming_Kaiser
Better then FF 10 at least but that's not hard ;p
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