Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

Mechanics

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age for PC and PS4 introduces completely new elements to the franchise. The game is played from a third-person view; controlling the character chosen, the player explores large 3D locations (open structure oftentimes). The player's team comprises up to 6 figures, but only three reside on the map simultaneously. The game does not utilize the systems of random encounters and fights taking place on separate arenas, for what Final Fantasy has been popular. In this game, the player attacks enemies that reside directly on the world map. Combat is real-time here, but the game brings active pausing, which makes it possible to choose (pop-up menu) and give orders to the character without having to hurry.

What is unique about the game, is the system of gambits – those are items one uses to program the AI of characters; gambits stand behind the characters' behaviours in particular kinds of situations. The manner in which the character's skills are developed is equally interesting. Each character has a chessboard-like chart for licenses - those can be bought for the experience gained. Licenses allow to use particular abilities and spells, but also parts of equipment, such as weapons, armors, items, etc. As a result, the player can shape both the combat style and the character's role in battle to their liking. Characters can buy abilities from one of 12 license boards available. Each of these boards contains abilities representing classic Final Fantasy character classes, such as white or black mage, monk or samurai.

Game modes

Apart from a standard campaign, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age for PC and PS4 offers additional modes. In New Game Plus, the player starts over, retaining their experience and equipment. In New Game Minus on the other hand, the player does not gain any experience. The Challenge mode gives an opportunity to hunt creatures on over a hundred different maps.

Technical aspects

The original Final Fantasy XII is one of the best-looking games for PlayStation 2, but also one of the more interesting Final Fantasy games in terms of design. The game world designers were inspired by art and architecture of Mediterranean countries, offering an interesting mixture of influences from different cultures and historical periods. The character models, extensive locations and animations are of the highest-quality here. The creators refreshed the visuals, improving 3D models, but they also improved the quality of text, as part of high resolution settings. Loadings were shortened and minor drawbacks were eliminated, as well as were the problems which had resulted from hardware-related limitations.

The creators of this remastered edition recorded the entire soundtrack from scratch, as created by Hitoshi Sakimoto (behind music in games such as Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, Odin Sphere, Dragon's Crown or the Valkyria Chronicles series). The soundtrack present here uses 7.1 surround sound.