A year ago, I posted my FFXII review here, mentioning I've beaten it once and elaborating at how much I love it. Coincidentally, I posted it on the same time frame the Remastered version came out this year. I casually looked over my phone in the PSN store and scoffed at how I can't possible be convinced to play it again. However, it's a huge deal. I was in love with FFXII when I was 13 and I couldn't possibly fathom the weight of the game in terms of writing more than gameplay. This year I'm replaying it casually and lo and behold I am addicted again. I can't stop playing it and I am in love with it all over again.
If you'd like to see my review for the original game, refer to the one I wrote a year ago about it. However, I'm writing an impression and differences in the remastered version. Obviously, I had forgotten a huge chunk from the story and was glad to play it for the second time. FFXII is a heavy game and they definitely changed a lot here. What I am mostly surprised at is how it was definitely ahead of its time during its release. The world of Ivalice certainly has its charm, allowing for a lot of content and variety in it, with FFXII along with FF Tactics to shine through it. Ashe's story of finding her lineage never seemed so grand with the fixed voice acting and updated graphics, not to mention the re orchestrated soundtrack.
Though the intention of The Zodiac Age may have partly been to draw newer fans to the series, if it rocks their boat, it definitely drew loyal fans back to Ivalice. For me, one notable feature, the fast forward feature, was the one that helped me stay faithfully to the game. Though I may not be as dedicated to it as I was back then, it definitely helped me traverse dungeons and go through cities without worrying one bit. If you played the original, then you can agree with me at how slow paced Final Fantasy XII was even if you had your gambits on and knew what you were doing, fights were very slow paced, as slow as Final Fantasy XI was. What used to take me 10 hours of preparation took me 2 hours. You wanted to grind a few levels to kill a mark? Sure, just go to the high level skeletons in a jungle and in 20 minutes you would gain 5 levels for all your characters. Wanted to pick up new equipment? No problem, you'll be out of there in no time back exploring through endless dungeons. In 40 hours I already collected the espers I needed and was right before the final boss and I don't remember every thing about the game.
The second most notable feature in The Zodiac Age are depicted in the pictures above, are the new job systems. Though ironically unfavorable to me, I did get a bit engaged with how my characters get an identity through the new job systems. Each character unlocks a job early game and gets their subclass in the other half of the game. That allows each character to have a hybrid build, or you can focus on reinforcing their initial class. Meaning, your black mage can also have a red mage subclass to have more magic potency and cast arcana spells. Very nice of a concept and allows characters to kick ass early game. HOWEVER, later on I realized how detrimental it can get for some characters, as you are unable to respec your characters if you messed up with your choices. In my game, 3 characters had successful builds and the others just messed up. This is where the old method of the license board comes in. Each character in the original version starts extremely slow and are also very weak early game but they can be extremely strong late game, meaning they will have the same spells and can carry the same weapons and in the end, you can focus on the stats you want, which is less of a punishment because the old license board was huge from what I recall. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it for the ride, but realistically speaking I doubt it would allow me to kill all hidden bosses at my own leisure.
The last notable feature of The Zodiac Age is Trial Mode, which I have yet to try when I've built my characters enough. The game puts you through 100 stages of different battle scenarios where the system is designed for you to adapt to each stage and change your gambits according to the situations.
From what I also read is that The Zodiac Age balance out the difficulty of the game and I noticed that with a lot of dungeons and espers I've fought. Call me a masochist, but I enjoyed how brutal the original was, sporting an optional boss with over 20 million HP and after killing it, I felt a sense of accomplishment I rarely felt with any other RPG save a few like Star Ocean. Rest assured, though because the remastered version hopefully won't let you grind for hours to fight the final boss or a few optional bosses.
Though there are other additions like hundreds of other treasure chests and different sidequests that I have yet to explore, Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age proves itself to be a formidable entry in the series that puts other entries to shame in its writing. I loved it back then and I am super glad I bought the remastered version. You can find it on the PSN store and hopefully soon on Steam. I've been Ahmed Jadaa, see you on my next review.
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