Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

Genre: Action-RPG / JRPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Final Fantasy XII is an Action-RPG originally released in 2006 on the PlayStation 2, making this the last game in the main Final Fantasy series for that platform. After the universally-praised Final Fantasy X was followed by the unusual direct sequel Final Fantasy X-2 and the MMO Final Fantasy XI (the shift in genre this time being so great that many skip over XI when talking about mainline Final Fantasy games), Final Fantasy XII once again took the series in some really unusual directions that were a bit better received, although still somewhat divisive. This release of the game, The Zodiac Age, updates the graphics and soundtrack, makes significant changes to one of the core gameplay systems, the license board, and adds a new “Trial Mode” for those looking for a challenge in battle.

With this game coming out so late in the PS2’s life, the presentation here has arguably had the least of a makeover out of all of the Final Fantasy games released on the Switch. Final Fantasy XII looked very impressive back in the day, and it still looks pretty good now, in part thanks to improved textures. That being said, the character models can still be a bit low-poly by today’s standards, and less important characters like random townsfolk don’t have anywhere near the same level of detail as the main cast. Still, while the game has some rough edges it overall looks very good.

The soundtrack this time around isn’t quite as memorable as some of the better soundtracks in the Final Fantasy series, but still overall has a lot of quality music. This version of the game gives players the option to listen to the original soundtrack, remastered music, or “OST” versions of the songs… though I have to be honest, I had trouble determining the difference between the three. Much as with the graphics, the fidelity here being higher in the original release makes the improvements in this re-release more subtle. If there’s any change that really separates this release from the original, it’s actually in the gameplay, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

Where Final Fantasy X had a few rough edges in its voice acting (I’m lookin’ at you, Tidus), there’s little to complain about in that department in Final Fantasy XII, with quality voice acting and a good story that, while technically set in the same world of Ivalice as the games Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story, was completely original and self-contained, although it carries over those games’ focus on stories with Game of Thrones-esque political intrigue and backstabbing. Where most Final Fantasy games cast you as a plucky group of heroes looking to save the world, in this game the characters you’re playing are a group of people in a small country that has been conquered by a larger nation, and who are working to try to liberate their country again. It’s a solid plot with some memorable characters, though the way the game takes the focus away from “good versus evil” themes of the series past and focuses on a more complex tale delighted some but wasn’t for everyone.

When it comes to the gameplay, Final Fantasy XII was noteworthy for making some pretty big experimental changes to the series, the first and most apparent being the game’s battle system, which now is a hybrid of turn-based and real-time, with characters able to freely move around in real time, but with their attacks still limited by a filling meter determining when they’re ready to act. This system is paired with a “Gambit” system, essentially a series of user-friendly scripts players can assign to characters to make for less micromanagement during battle, telling the healer, for example “if an ally is low in health, heal them, otherwise attack enemies”. I’d argue that this system feels a bit awkward, both giving players more control over battle than prior purely menu-based systems while at the same time emphasizing options to automate the fighting. It works, but it can be frustrating and even a bit tedious at times, although this version of the game thankfully includes the option to speed up the action, so if you’re in for a long, tedious battle, you can opt to set up gambits and just have the AI automatically do its thing without taking too long.

The other controversial system here is the character progression system, the License Board, which requires that your characters not only earn “job points” for everything they want to use (even armor and weapons), but separately acquire them as well. Maybe your healer has learned how to use a cure spell, but if you haven’t also bought it, it’s unavailable, and that new weapon you bought will be useless unless you’ve unlocked your character’s ability to use it. In theory this is an interesting concept, but in practice it can be frustrating and tedious.

In the original release of the game, the License Board was shared by all of the characters, but this release has players assigning jobs to characters, apparently in an attempt to encourage specialization. While there are definitely people who are fans of this alternate take on the License Board, it would have been nice if the original way of doing things was optional as well – as much as everyone being able to learn healing magic makes the party healer a bit less special, it’s still nice to be able to have the freedom to shape your party in that way if you choose to.

Overall, I think Final Fantasy XII is a solid Action-RPG that has aged well, with great characters and story and a solid presentation. And the improvements to the graphics and sound here, while more subtle than the improvements to prior games, are nevertheless welcome. That said, both the real-time style of gameplay and the License Board style of character progression remain controversial, and can make for a fair amount of tedium, and it’s debatable whether or not the changes made to the License Board are an improvement, but overall this is still an excellent game.

tl;dr – Final Fantasy XII takes the series gameplay into more Action-RPG territory with its real-time battles. The presentation here is fantastic, though the upgrades over the original release are more subtle this time around. The story is also still superb, with great voice acting, memorable characters, and a Game of Thrones-esque plot of political intrigue focusing on a group of resistance fighters looking to free their nation from a conquering enemy. That said, the gameplay here is still pretty divisive, with game systems that make for a fair amount of tedious gameplay. Overall this is still a very good game, but not without its flaws.

Grade: B+

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