Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is the 12th game in the mainline Final Fantasy series, originally for the PS2. This game is a remaster of the International Version of the original game which had tweaks to the combat system. The Zodiac Age remasters the game to HD resolution and a rearranged soundtrack. In addition to the 2x speed which was already helpful in exploration and grinding, you can now play the game at 4x speed.
The game encourages exploration with huge expansive areas. However, these are all segmented into small maps separated by a very short loading screen (which doubles up as an auto-save). The loading screens while annoying, are at least brief enough that it doesn't impact the gameplay too much. You can use these loading screens to your advantage such as running away from enemies who are chasing you and respawning treasure chests.
The minimap is fairly zoomed in so you're more than likely to pull up the full map and overlay it during gameplay. It's not the ideal situation since the overlay takes up so much screen estate and the minimap is still there in the top right corner. That being said, the minimap shows enemy and NPC locations so it tells different information compared to the overlay map. It gets distracting somewhat though and you fall into the trap of just following the arrow on the map instead of truly looking at the world and appreciating the detail that has gone into it.
For the first time in a mainline single-player Final Fantasy game, there is no separate screen for battles to take place. The game uses the Active Dimension Battle system with enemies roaming the environment. You select an action, and after a bar charges the character execute it. You can set the charge time to be slow or fast depending on your preference. As your party can consist of up to three characters plus a guest character and battles happening in real time, the Gambit System comes into play.
Instead of the developer scripting AI behavior, the freedom is given to the player instead. You are given a set of parameters to use in simple "If... Then..." statements, with the ability to purchase more parameters from in-game shops. For example, you can set your healer with the command "If Ally less than 50% health Then cast cure" which helps in automatically keeping your party members alive.
You can set priorities for each Gambit as well. However, if you do not set them up properly, you may cause weird behaviors for your characters in which they might do one action in an infinite loop. Eventually, your Gambits will allow your party to function without significant input from the player, which is very satisfying. Another change is that defeating enemies will not give money; instead a higher focus is on gaining items to sell for money. The game mechanics overall are inspired from MMOs, right down to the grinding and RNG.
The other significant portion of Final Fantasy XII is the License Board. In the game, you need License for everything a character can do. You want to equip a specific shield? You need to get the License. You want to learn Magick? You need to get the License. Defeating enemies gives you License Points, and using these points will give you the ability for that character. Tying into this is the revamped License Board mechanic. Instead of all the characters having the same huge License Board (which means at endgame, all the characters are similar to each other), you now have to pick one of twelve classes from the beginning with no option to change later on (although you will eventually be able to get a second class).
The plot is not your typical Final Fantasy story. Like the character designs, the story is a lot more serious and inspired by Western RPGs. You are first introduced to Vaan, a teenage boy who aspires to become a Sky Pirate and have his own ship. He is joined by his childhood friend Penelo. However, the focus on the pair quickly shifts away to the other four characters. The Sky Pirates Balthier and Fran join Vaan perchance, and then we have the traitor Basch and the Dalmascan Princess Ashe.
The game starts off with a quick narrative on how the small country of Dalmasca is sandwiched between two greater powers and is invaded for its resource. The Prince is killed and the Empire takes control over the country. Contrary to what was told to the public, Princess Ashe is still alive and this story tells of her journey to reclaim the throne and overthrow the Empire. There are plenty of political story elements which give the game a different flair. That being said, the gameplay to plot ratio is out of whack. You'll get sections where you get 10 minute cutscenes very frequently and then other parts of the game where you spend hours exploring a huge map with nary a scene to progress the story. As a result, it can be quite dull at times.
The cutscenes are split between pre-rendered and in-game rendered. Both look fantastic and aged very well. The plot wavers though towards the midpoint, where you end up having no clue what is happening because it gets very muddled. The ending was exciting and quite good, making the slog at times worthwhile. Balthier really ends up winning as the best character since he is the most charismatic out of all the characters and excellent voice acting to boot. Most of the characters in the game lack character development though and so when a scene requires the player to feel for them, it fails spectacularly.
There are a few quality of life annoyances that hamper the experience. The main one is that you need to be very close to treasure chests to open. This wouldn't be an issue except that the range of detection is high and opening one uses the same button as opening the battle menu which pauses the onscreen action. Next is the requirement to constantly change Gambits which get tedious, especially when you need dedicated setups for the optional bosses. It would have been nice if you could save predetermined sets.
Later bosses will tend to become completely immune to magic or physical attacks for minutes at a time, and near death, they will double their level. It's annoying when you are surviving and then just before they die, they gain a massive stat boost and you get a party wipe. Then there's the RNG. There is a chance for a chest to spawn and if it spawns, then a chance to get the strong unique weapon. It can be painful.
Not only does the game require completion of mundane activities in order to progress through the story, there are oftentimes vague directions on where you need to go. To add to this, there are obscure or annoying conditions to try and get particular monsters to spawn. Certain areas lack an area map and consist of identical locations, making it a confusing mess. The meat of the option content lies in Hunts where you have to first go to the Hunt Board at an inn, then to the person to report, then hunt the monster and then return to the person. It's a huge waste of time especially since fast travel is so limited and forcing you to trek vast distances. This is where the 4x speed is a boon.
There are plenty of bonus bosses to challenge. You wouldn't expect this for a combat system where it can play itself but it is very satisfying when you have a set of complicated Gambits against a superboss which works. Even more so if it requires minimum input from you. It's still tense though when your Gambits are not enough due to the way you prioritized certain actions and you need to change it on the fly or quickly input some manual commands.
Towards the end of the game, it starts to pit you against enemies that like to spam multiple status effects all at once, ones that are not able to be healed by magic and require items with additional abilities. High level enemies will gang up on you, quickly wiping out your party even though you're more than capable against one or two or three. These come off as cheap and annoying. The story only takes around 30 hours without doing any optional content, playing on 2x speed while doing a decent chunk of exploring. Add an additional 15-30 hours for doing all the optional content such as exploring every area, beating all optional bosses and completing a significant amount of the smaller sidequests.
If the main game is not enough, there is an additional Trial Mode which pits you against 100 waves of enemies. You can save every 10 levels and if you start on it late into the game (as you will have the same levels and abilities as the save file you use), then the first 60 waves are a breeze. Later ones are a lot more difficult and annoying, especially the bosses where you have to use specialized Gambit setups, making it tedious to keep changing it from one wave to the next as there is no time in between or regroup.
Overall, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age was a great game during its release, with significant changes to the series such as no separate battle screens, a more serious story and an inventive battle system. While not all elements have aged gracefully, it is still a fun game provided you aren't concerned with obtaining the best stats and equipment, as the RNG may prove frustrating.
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