When I saw that Square Enix was re-releasing Final Fantasy
XII it took be back to 2005-2006. As a kid, I wasn’t invested into games, but I’ve
many family members that were. Watching them made my interest level rise. One was
Final Fantasy XII on the PS2.
I knew what a Final Fantasy entails, a group of heroes
trying to save to world from destruction with in-depth turn-based combat. In Final Fantasy XII Square Enix moved away
from those properties and implemented a new battle system with a world devastated
by war. Back then the only thing that wowed me was the beautiful, massive world
of Ivalice.
Now that I’m older and can understand systems, I can
experience Final Fantasy XII in a new
and improved way.
First thing I noticed when booting up the game was the
music. Hitoshi Sakimoto and Hayato Matsuo were the original composers. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age allows
you to play the original soundtrack or change it to orchestrated version. I
wish more remasters would get this treatment. Hearing the original soundtrack
is great but gets a little old, composing an orchestrated version creates a
dramatic feel that most games can benefit from.
The soundtrack is great, it creates this sense of adventure
that enhances the overall gameplay. Part of that is the music, but a lot of it
is the visual improvements made for The
Zodiac Age. The graphics and visuals are not as a remember, but being a
2006 game, it isn’t surprising. The world is beautiful and that hasn’t changed.
What did was the character models during in-game cut-scenes, especially when
the cinematic cut-scenes look amazing even for 2017 standards. It’s a little
jarring when the cut-scenes transition from cinematic to in-game.
The world is massive, too massive in my option – part of
that is how slow the traveling is. You walk at a slow pace giving the player
more time to look around, but a game at this pace wares out the player. Square
Enix understood the pace of the game and found a solution to it. The Zodiac Age
has a fast-forward multiplier of 2x or 4x, which makes the game much more
enjoyable. Without this feature, I don’t think I would be playing or talking
about Final Fantasy XII.
Combat is different from any in its series. It’s mostly
automatic but can be controlled manually with the original “Gambit” system.
This system is awesome, every party member can be set to automatically execute
an action – for example, you can set a healer to use Cure on a party member
that is below 50%, or set all members to attack an enemy that is targeting a
member. I don’t have much to go off, because of the lock scenarios. Many
players say it feels like an MMO combat system, but to me it’s more of a sim
type system. What I’ve experience so far with the gambit system was fun and
very rewarding.
Another layer of the combat system is “The International Job
System” which is new to North American players. This job system is a wheel of
twelve jobs – each member in the party must choose one job (can’t be changed)
at first and will be able to add another job later in the game. Once a job is
picked, you can farther customize a member with the license gird. I don’t remember the
job system with the original game, but this seems streamline compared to the
old system.
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Final Fantasy XII always takes me back in time, remembering the
unusual combat and the gigantic open space. As a kid, I always wanted to play
Final Fantasy XII but never had the chance to, is was harder to play with every
pasting year. Now I can finally experience the world of Ivalice with The Zodiac Age.
With new additions like the fast-forward multiplier, the international job system,
and orchestrated soundtrack I can say this is the best way to play Final
Fantasy XII.
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