Final Fantasy XII - The Zodiac Age

Oh, a shiny, modern remaster of what may be my favourite game in the Final Fantasy series, I'm sure this will be a completely unbiased and objective review!  I may be a little late, but hey, better late than never.

Okay, in all seriousness, I will try to restrain myself as much as possible, and give a decent review of my impressions of the game. Although I must warn you, I wasn't lying when I said it may be my favourite in the series.

A quick warning, there may be some light spoilers, nothing serious though.

Okay, so to start, a basic overview of the plot. The Kingdom of Dalmasca is conquered by the Archadian empire, you play as a small band of heroes who embark on a quest to liberate their homeland. At first glance it does not appear to be that original, this is well-trod ground for storytelling; however, I will say that it retells this old story well, and gives its own spin on the idea. For the most part the story delves into themes of revenge and justice, leading the characters to re-examine the paths they've chosen to walk up until this point.

Of course, that is not to say that the story is perfect, but I will say that any complaints I have are minor at best. More supernatural elements due show-up later on, and with them come questions of free will and destiny; which may turn away people who came for the more political aspects of the first half. Still, I found these elements to be well executed, and to blend well with the earlier themes.

The characters themselves are well-rounded and three-dimensional, these are not just archetypes, they are people. The heroes are not just shining beacons of virtue, but people, with their own vices and foibles. Likewise the villains are people, with their own motivations for the things that they do. In fact, the main villain's goal could be considered noble, although his methods are disgusting. Which is an example of how the game succeeds with its characterisation, it manages to explain why the villain does what he does with justifying it, humanising him without lionising him.

There is however, a character whose major influence on the plot seems to end fairly early on, and even a couple of characters who seem to have no personal stake in the main plot. However, even these characters get some degree of development, and exploration of their backstories, thus preventing them from becoming blank wastes of space.

Now onto the meat of this game, the changes from the original.

First off we have the Zodiac Job System, the biggest mechanical change from the original Final Fantasy XII . Those who are aware the international version of the PS2 game will know of this, but it has had some extra changes since then. Essentially, when a character first joins your party you must assign them a “class”, such as knight, which they must then stick with until the end of the game; although you do have the option of giving each character a second class later on. This means that you can not have all characters learn every ability, as you could in the original, and forces you to think more strategically about the composition of your party.

For the most part this works well, giving a little extra variety to each party member, and making each of them useful. It also lends an extra layer of depth to the combat, as you consider you initial choices, and later decide which whom you may need in any given situation. Tweaks to the system mean it is almost impossible to screw yourself over. For example it used to be impossible to hit an enemy with a physical attack from anything other that a gun or a bow, now however they can now be hit by long weapons such as spears or poles. This means that you can still fight flying enemies, even if you didn't pick the archer, or mechanist jobs classes.

This job system does mean that you can't have every character in the party learn the same spell, curaja for example, possibly making battles more difficult since you potentially only have one healer on the field at a time. Although, the game has been rebalanced with these changes in mind.

The gambit system remains, allowing you to program each of party members to react automatically once certain conditions are met. For example, I could program Penelo to use a cure spell on another party member once their health dips beneath fifty percent. So it's entirely possible to program your characters to react without input in any situation, for the hands-off approach. However, for those looking to be a little more involved, it is also possible to switch gambits off entirely and control everyone manually. Of course, you can also go for something in the middle.

The graphics have also been greatly improved, although obviously, not to the standard of an actual Playstation 4 game. The improvements mostly come in the form of textures, which I am given to believe were compressed in the original, to fit them onto the DVD. Here they are uncompressed, and they look substantially better, giving extra detail to both characters and backgrounds. You can now clearly see the cracks in stone walls, or the folds in your character's clothes. But like I said, they can't compete with the graphics of your average PS4 title.

The sound however, is a different matter. Like the visuals the original game's score suffered from being compressed, but the improved version has a full orchestral soundtrack. However, this does change the songs more than you would expected, with some instruments having more impact than before, and others less so. This means the same songs can sound remarkably different, so it becomes a matter of taste over which version you prefer. Although, the game allows you to choose either the new soundtrack or the original, so you're covered either way.

The dialogue also benefits from the improvement in audio quality, with the characters' voices sound clearer and sharper; compared to the original, where most of the cast sounded like they were coming down with a cold. Speaking of the dialogue, the game allows you to choose between the English voice acting, and the Japanese voice acting, if you're interested. Personally, I found it interesting to compare the two.

Overall, I still really enjoy this game, and would heartily recommend it to anyone looking for a good JRPG, or an RPG in general.

Until next time,

PhoenixAct.