Still Brilliant PS2 RPG Final Fantasy XII Is 15 Years Old Today

Love that all the names rhyme
Ashe and Basch
Vaan and Fran
Penelo and Benelo

Fantastic game.

Sadly, it was also the last time I'd be interested in a numbered entry in this series.

I'm playing zodiac age, great game

I tried. I really did. At release on PS2 and again with the PS4 remaster. Every single thing about it was boring. Story, characters, combat, quests, visuals...just can’t enjoy it at all. A shame as FF is my second favourite franchise ever.

My favourite FF game. Why they haven't brought back the brilliant gambit system I'll never know.

Is it weird that FFXII is my favorite FF game? I've played many of the other FF games, but FFXII is the only one I love to bits.

@Ralizah I do like XIV and sort of XV but I can totally see why people would drop off after XII. Not everyone likes MMOs and XV is an absolute mess.

Easily one of the best looking PS2 games.

This is probably my favorite FF since 9.... but the snes/ps1 games are so much better imho. Heck, I enjoyed the FF1 twist more than the stories of the “newer” titles. Give me back the engaging stories where I save the world from a demigod...I don’t need the flashy fights.

@nessisonett XV lost me in the demo included with Type-0 HD when it kept air-dropping baddies on me. Super annoying.

The combat just sucks in general. And the lack of playable female characters in the game is jarring.

It doesn't help that, to get the whole story, you apparently have to play a bunch of DLC episodes in a specific order and... watch a movie?

It's cheap, so I might pick it up one day when there's nothing I'm actively looking forward to.

Hated it when it first released. Played it a few years later and loved it. Duno why I hated it 😂

Remaster is great. Due another play through

Definitely one of my all-time favorites in the series, and way too overhated.

@Ralizah Yeah, I played a couple of the DLCs and they were honestly pretty good. The game’s a mess, the story goes ironically off the rails after you get on a train but the core gameplay of just wandering around doing sidequests was oddly engaging. The combat isn’t great but I didn’t think it was outright bad either, the warp strikes help keep it just engaging enough to not feel like it was as automatic as XII. I haven’t played through the story since it enabled switching between party members, it should be a lot better since that!

The artwork for this game is always so stunning. I'm glad ffxiv followed suit. And ffxvi is looking just as gorgeous

I got the plat in this last week. Great game. I hated it in 2007 but loved it in 2019. I think it was too ahead of its time on ps2 but feels right now that western rpgs and mmos have become so much more popular since when this first came out.

Played and beat Zodiac Age a few weeks ago. Great game with some fantastic cutscenes and voice acting. The added speed boost makes grinding fast, enjoyable, and basically non existent.

Question: what level should my characters be so the final bosses are not difficult? Is level 52 sufficient?

I need to go back and give it another shot. The combat is really MMO to me, which feels better on mouse+keyboard compared to controller.

After loving 7, 8 and 9 (and 6 retrospectively) and being meh on 10 I found 12 a strange one. I loved the style, the world, liked the battle system and the hunt side quest but I was always expecting something else to click. I don't really know what but felt like it was missing something. I have Zodiac Age but have never played it, maybe I should give it another go. Strangely, I really enjoyed 15, the scene at the end with the friends probably erased all the bad 🤣

@Boldfoxrd @SuperSilverback I've seen a lot of people say the same, which is really interesting!

I think it was just a very different kind of Final Fantasy back in 2006, and that was enough to put a lot of people off. I actually think it's held up extremely well!

Stunning new art! My favorite in the series, along with another “secretly best of the series”: FFV!

@Ralizah I recommend giving XV a try - It really is a great game. Hands down my favorite JRPG this gen: it’s very unique and ambitious and, most of all, it has a lot of heart.

I'll keep a look out for the PS2 version, it sounds like a fun time.

I was thinking of picking this up as OPM rated it as their number one FF game, and was beginning to get an itch to play a FF game. Watching a few reviews at the mo but probably will take the plunge.

This and VIII are my favourite Final Fantasy entries by a country mile, with the gambit system being my favourite combat system in any RPG of this style. Haven’t played this since release, might have to give The Zodiac Age a go.

Awful game, ruined Final Fantasy as far as I'm concerned.

Great game. Do I smell a Final Fantasy XII Remake

@rash unlikely I think. If they remake another one, 8 or 10 probably more likely as far as mainstream popularity is concerned.
although 9 with it's cartoon styled characters could look amazing on a cheaper budget.
That one's my favourite though, and if they turned that into another x masher I would not be impressed.

Finally played through Zodiac Age last year and I mostly enjoyed it although it did seem to overstay it's welcome a bit. 6 will forever be my favorite. The story, characters and setting are so good. And that soundtrack is absolutely fantastic.

@Jimmer-jammer I gotta admit XII reminds me of VIII in places with enemies like the t rexes 😀

@ShogunRok I think it was the Gambit system that put me off. I was used to picking commands for each character on the older games, so when Gambit came along I was like "I can't control each character individually? This is awful" Now I'm like this is so much handier

And I know you technically can command each character individually, it's just a real effort

This game is good, but it boils my blood the fact that Square Enix didn't release a 60fps patch for the PS4 pro (they did it on xbox), I mean, is a PS2 game.