FINAL FANTASY XII THE ZODIAC AGE Reviews

I haven't finished the game but I def had fun with it. I didn't feel like pushing through just to end up ruining my overall good impression of the game. The story was okay. The setting was nice, very Star Wars-like. The cast was hit or miss. The systems were interesting and unusual. Especially, the licenses and gambits. The latter must be what makes this entry in the series so dividing - these are the rules you adjust for your characters for combat and the game basically plays itself (though you can completely ignore those). Quality of Life features and the port overall are good - there's animation speed-up and even infinite money and license points if you don't want grinding. What I didn't like was how the game handled side quests (not hunts) - some NPC gives you a task, and there are no notes or anything about it anywhere. You either have to remember everything or use an outside-of-game source to store information. That's the old JRPG approach I hope will never come back. All in all, though divisive, for me retroactively, this feels like one of the best Final Fantasies.

Loved the game so much it runs beautifully but they should also add the new game plus option similar to switch where you can keep your equipment on another playthrough

Never got around to this game when it released on the PS2. Enjoying this game quite a bit. Well done port, cheats are fun, and visually looks great. This has one of the best OST's for a FF game as well. Gambit system is a bit of rip off of DA origins, but works well enough. Highly recommend

This is the final fantasy game that got me hooked on the franchise since the ps2 days, everything about this game is just good, play it, you will not be disappointed

Good story, pretty boring combat 90% of the time however.

Amazing game on its own, and The Zodiac Age does a great job of modernizing it.

Final Fantasy XII has been my favorite game of all time ever since I first played it on the PS2 many years ago. It tells a genuinely epic story filled with many charming and compelling characters. The art design is astonishing. Everything from character design, monster design, architecture, magic particle effects, vehicles, NPCs, equipment, and everything in-between is beautiful and packed with incredible level of detail. The combat of the game can be simple if you're sticking to just experiencing the main story, or it can be incredibly complex and challenging if you choose to complete the side quests and Hunts, collect the 13 Espers, and take down the optional super-bosses. The volume of side content is greater than the amount of content in the main story, and in my opinion is the more fascinating and rewarding parts of the game. Every dungeon that you visit in the main story can be revisited for Hunts, Espers and/or side quests where you will unlock a whole new section of the dungeon with more challenging enemies and better treasure. The deeper you get into the game, the more intriguing and rewarding the experience of completing content becomes. This PC version of Zodiac Age includes numerous quality of life improvements over the PS2 original. A "Speed Up" function makes backtracking and farming a less time-consuming grind by speeding the game up at either 2x or 4x speed. It has higher graphic fidelity and PC graphics configuration options, English and Japanese audio option, and a very convenient addition of auto-saves. There are also a number of great PC mods available for the game on NexusMods to tweak a number of features like enemy difficulty, player strength, EXP and LP gain rates, weapons and magic, and much more. Having this game on PC is the ultimate version of the game for you whether you're playing it for the first time or doing your 6th playthrough. On a scale of 1 to 10 I give it a 12

Second time playing this game and it is still one of my top favourite Final Fantasy games.

I enjoyed most of my time with this game. I have to say though, out of all the Final Fantasy games I've played and finished so far (FF15, FF9 & FF8) this one felt like the biggest slog to me personally. Which is a shame because out of all the FF games I've looked at so far, FF12 was the one that interested me the most. I liked the story, even though it was a little difficult to follow at times, maybe I would have understood it better if I played FF Tactics since that's set in the same universe, I believe. But the things I didn't really like about it the most were the side quests involving monster hunting and how large the map areas were. I did the first dozen or so hunts but I became pretty bored with them after a while because all they end up being is just your typical go here to talk to NPC and then go there to hunt newly spawned monster and then return. The world is so massive and the use of teleport stones required in order to fast travel conveniently made doing these quests quite cumbersome and the back-tracking can become very dull fast. I loved the Gambit system essentially automates everything for you so you don't have to constantly pause the game to heal a character or cure an affliction because you can just add in commands that the characters will do that automatically. It reminded me of the Dragon Age: Origins tactics system. I didn't like how the game seems to force you to grind. I began to alternate all of the party members, levelling them up in increments of 5 before switching out as I casually made my way mapping out the enter new areas I came to, ensuring to battle pretty much all the enemies to try and mitigate any grinding, but I eventually came to a point (around level 35) where all of my characters were under-levelled by more than 10. It just became a pain, and I was forced to grind but could only be bothered to do it for 3 characters because I hate grinding, it's not fun nor challenging. Just a monotonous time waste. This is why I always make sure I kill every monster on the maps I go through in RPGs to try and avoid having to do that. If my characters aren't at an appropriate level after doing this, I consider the game to be flawed in this regard. I also hate it when party members only get EXP for being in the active party. Saying that though, I still enjoyed most of my time with it and played the majority of the game on my Steam Deck and it ran flawlessly at 30fps and the power limited which ensured I was able to play 2-3 hours before needing to charge.

Final Fantasy XII was made principally by the team that made Final Fantasy Tactics, and in the sense that this entry in the series was an effort to modernize the franchise with MMO-inspired real time combat, FFXII is a success. The gambit system, which is a bit overwhelming at first, is a very useful tool once you learn how it works. This Zodiac version of the game in particular gives you great flexibility in building your party and your approach to battling tough enemies. The freedom to explore the world, especially compared to FFX, combined with the flexible combat and character progression, makes this a game you can really sink your teeth into. It's a great RPG. It is not, however, all that great a Final Fantasy game. While I recommend Final Fantasy XII overall, story is where this game falls short, and for a Final Fantasy game this is a major disappointment. The characters are just not very memorable. Vaan is set up as the protagonist, but he and his friend Panelo are really just along for the ride. The plot really centers on Ashe and Basch, and while Bash is interesting, Ashe is just overall a dull character. Fran's sultry appearance makes for attractive character design, but she too is just there. She is a companion of Balthier, and there is a hint of interesting backstory concerning her and her village, but it doesn't amount to much. The plot has potential, but the writing is uninspired, in the end the plot is elementary level political intrigue. FFXII's story is a major disappointment, especially coming off of FFX, which takes place in an enticing setting and has very memorable characters. People make fun of Tidus for being kind of goofy and dumb, but he is certainly an engaging character, and he really helps to draw the player into the story of FFX in a way that none of the characters of XII even come close to doing. One thing that really drags the game down is that the lead-up to the denouement consists of two bland dungeons that are a slog to get through. The hunting clan, which is basically a series of optional boss fights, really picks up the slack when it comes to FFXII's endgame. In the end, Final Fantasy XII gets a tepid thumbs up.