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amazon Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age reviews
Final Fantasy XII: The first decade of the twenty-first century saw the rise of two systems that made Sony’s mark, PlayStation and PlayStation 2, accompanied by the popularity of Final Fantasy.
At this time, the “early” games were very successful. They were praised by fans to the sky, typically: Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy IX, and Final Fantasy X/X -2… You can easily find articles comparing the attractiveness of the above Final Fantasy versions, and it is often difficult to “compare.”
However, it wasn’t until the mid-life of the PlayStation 2 that Final Fantasy 12 was released.
Although it also received many compliments and extremely high ratings from prestigious newspapers, it was not “worshipped” like previous games.
As for the writer himself, Final Fantasy XII always contains a unique charm that no previous version can change.
Therefore, the writer always wonders if I am too “easy” when feeling impressed with Final Fantasy XII or not?
In addition, up to the present time, the writer has one more question whether the “breakthrough” in the gameplay of Final Fantasy XII, if compared with current games, is too outdated and becomes obsolete boring?
After nearly eight years, the writer had the opportunity to re-experience the Final Fantasy XII game with a “new outfit” from Square Enix – Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age exclusively on PlayStation 4; the above questions seem to have an answer.
It can be said that Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age deserves to be considered the most “weird” Final Fantasy game in the products of the same name from Square Enix.
If you’ve played through Final Fantasy VII to X and then proceeded to “destroy” Final Fantasy XII, it will be easy for players to feel the difference coming from this version.
What Square Enix has done is to try to bring into Final Fantasy XII a completely new fighting style, causing players to change their concept of Final Fantasy when compared to the previous installments.
Somewhat makes some “old” fans of this series feel extremely uncomfortable, and many are willing to consider this as the “forsake children” of the traditional Final Fantasy game series.
However, for the writer, the battle mechanism of Final Fantasy XII still has a special “flavor” that, so far, no role-playing game (RPG) has successfully reproduced.
In more detail on combat mechanics, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age uses a combat system called Active Dimension Battle (ADB), which is also the only system used in this version of Final Fantasy XII, and Square Enix also used it as the basis for the fighting style of the Final Fantasy sequels, most notably Final Fantasy XV.
In this system, the player controls his character to face the opponent directly and give commands including attack, magic, or use items.
Instead of the characters just standing in one place and waiting for their turn to attack like in previous versions, in Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, players are allowed to move around the map, and issue commands roof freely.
Even to delay the opponent’s attack, the player can also let the character run away from the attack range.
To support this ADB mechanism, Square Enix also introduced Gambits functionality.
That is a brilliant mechanic that perfects the combat mechanics of Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age.
It would be extremely “confused” if the player had to issue commands to each character one by one to destroy one target and then repeat this action with another. “Catastrophic” if you let other characters automatically control without following any rules. Therefore, Gambits is like a solution to the above-mentioned difficult problem.
The Gambits function allows players to freely customize what actions a character will perform depending on certain circumstances. For example, ordering the character Ashe to use the healing skill (Cure) when there is an ally with less than 50% health or to protect the gunners in the squad, you can order tanking characters to switch targets when they attack the gunner. You can choose countless situations in the Gambits function, from “scanning” your allies’ health to the amount of health of the enemy and then the effects that supporters or opponents have… So you have complete control over the actions that the characters take. Moreover, the outcome of a battle of more than 70% is determined by the arrangement of Gambits.
With new situations, new formations, and even when facing bosses, players must constantly change the Gambits command for the entire squad. Once the Gambits have been completed, the player’s job is to control the character to walk and admire his “achievements.” For Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, sometimes you can let the characters automatically “training” without even touching the handle. However, to do this, it is necessary to spend a lot of effort to research and arrange the optimal Gambits command, not like the “automatic training” modes commonly found in today’s “cheap” online games. !
Basically, at the time of launch, Final Fantasy XII was a complete game. However, Square Enix and gamers also realized itself needed certain changes to make it “closer” to perfection.
The biggest change that the writer realized is the License system. For those who haven’t played Final Fantasy XII, the License system serves as the foundation for character development. Normally, each character will have a fairly “big” license to use License Points (LP) to unlock special abilities, including armor upgrades, new moves, increased strength, etc. In the old Final Fantasy XII version, the license for each character is relatively similar; players can unlock skills as they like for each character. You can let character A take on all the roles, including mage, support, and, if possible, block attacks for teammates. However, this makes character development in a certain direction extremely difficult and encounters many criticisms from gamers.
Therefore, Square Enix decided to change this entire system. Instead of a giant version for players to freely like before, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age narrows the scope of development; each character can only choose two certain careers (there are 12 occupations in total with the weapon) completely different temperaments and abilities) and the player can only upgrade the character within that profession. That said, but the number of upgrades is so diverse that the character development process does not become linear; players can be flexible in calculating individual gameplay and tactics.
In addition, besides other small changes such as changing skill names, rebalancing the power of game characters, or New Game+ mechanics, there are two new functions in Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age that the writer feels the need to be “honored.”
where can you get a Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age online
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age – PlayStation 4: Buy it now
Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age (Nintendo Switch): Buy it now
Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age – Xbox One & Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition – Xbox One: Buy it now
Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age Limited Steelbook Edition – PlayStation 4: Buy it now
The first is Trial Mode; this is a game mode outside of the main game. However, players can use the save they are using to join this mode. In Trial Mode, players will take turns to battle with 100 different monsters with increasing levels until the highest floor. Fighting in Trial Mode can bring players many valuable rewards in terms of materials products, which is also considered an ideal place to “plot” and find rare equipment. The challenges that Trial Mode brings can’t be taken lightly; even if you own a very strong squad with dozens of “terrible” equipment, don’t be too subjective because it may be “kill” anytime!
The second new function that the writer loves most in Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age can increase the game’s overall speed (Turbo Speed Mode). By pressing the L1 key, everything that happens in the game will be rewinded at twice the speed! Final Fantasy XII in particular and like Japanese role-playing games (JRPGs) in general mostly require a not-so-light process of “training” of the player to be able to make the character become “heavy.” But some games make this training torture when there is no support tool, but instead, the gamer has to handle it all. Thanks to the speed increase mechanism combined with the Gambits system, the player’s time and the “effort” are greatly reduced.
The graphics are also considered as one of the main upgrades appearing in Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age. Although there are only image resolution upgrades, a slight increase in lighting effects, and shadows, overall, the visuals of Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age overall do not come annoying level compared to today’s games. Even this “light” graphics upgrade also makes the difference between the CGI snippets and the actual image of the game somewhat shortened.
Not only the image but the sound array is also “retouched” completely. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age also supports a 7.1 surround sound system, along with high-quality voiceovers, supporting both English and Japanese languages. Not to mention, the music is also re-recorded with newer technology and quality. Players also have the right to change the selection of old and new music for the game.
The world of Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is set in the Ivalice universe, where there are always political disputes between the great kingdoms here.
Therefore, the plot of Final Fantasy XII also contains the colors of war, political conflicts, and complicated relationships between nations.
That can also be seen as a major difference between Final Fantasy XII and most other Final Fantasy versions that revolve around the theme of love or heroes saving the world.
The continent of Ivalice is built on a fairly large scale; although it is not free for players to “break” everywhere like other open-world games, it is still large enough to hide inside countless numbers. Secrets as well as dungeons somewhere waiting for players to explore.
Overall, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age deserves to be considered a good game. However, it still has shortcomings that the developer can easily improve to make the game more complete.
For a game so diverse in character development like Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, it is inevitable that you will miss the wrong skill upgrade or choose the incorrect function for the character. However, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age does not allow the player to experiment and start over through modes such as recovering used LP points. So, if you do something wrong, you only have two options: to continue the other is to start over.
The plot of Final Fantasy XII is agreed to be different from many other Final Fantasy versions, but its pacing is not very attractive. Although it contains surprising details, the narration hardly succeeds in stimulating players to go deeper into the story. Instead of creating knots or climax in the plotline, the developer chose to tell the story around and then “boom,” the ending happened quickly, and the writer did not feel impressed with each event. Not to mention, many breakthroughs in the plot and gameplay of Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age inevitably make those who have played Final Fantasy from the first to the 10th version feel Final Fantasy XII a bit… “lost.”
The main character cast includes six people with many different classes and ranks in society. But the role of the main character (Vaan) is quite faint; this guy’s personality is not clearly expressed. Making the writer feel that it is his companions who are the main characters in the whole thing plot of Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age.