Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

[JP]

What I consider to be one of, if not the, best games of all time is finally getting a remaster.

Criminally underrated in story, character and gameplay terms, it was years ahead of its time. The battle system remains the most intricate and interesting they have produced and the voice acting has never been matched in an FF game.

With this, XV and the remake of VII I might not see outside very much in the next few years.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XOKqSDqSNs

[Peter Griffin]

Fuck you I just came to post this article: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2016/06/06/e3-2016-final-fantasy-xii-the-zodiac-age-announced
When this came out I fucking hated it, Having played 7,8,9,10, and being a kid (relatively), I couldn't get used to the massive shift in the gameplay etc and binned it off after a few hours. Now that I'm older and wiser (:happysad:) I will definitely be giving this another go.

[Peter Griffin]

Also what of the 7 remake? I feel like nothing has been mentioned since e3 last year?

[JP]

The gameplay footage looks very interesting. Glad they're playing up with things.

12 is genuinely almost perfection, for me.

[RuneEdge]

Been waiting for this to be remastered for a long time. I bought this for the PS2 like a decade ago and played about 30 hours into it before losing the disc (15 hours of play but then legit 15 hours of grinding in one spot, clearing the license board :lol:). Then last year I bought a preowned copy of the game (still have my memory card of the save file from 10 years ago), but couldnt decide on whether to carry on playing or play something else.

I was on the verge of dusting off the ol' PS2, so the news of the remaster is kinda bittersweet. On one hand it looks great, but now I'll lose my old save file. And a part of me likes to keep old memory cards with 100% complete save files preserved on them.

[Atty]

Never got around to playing 12, so this is a must.


Also what of the 7 remake? I feel like nothing has been mentioned since e3 last year?

Everything I've heard since is fishy. They said it would be released in installments/chapters, with the whole game not being available right away. That worries me a fair bit and seems like it could be used to downscale the scope of it, which is something I don't want. I suspect this means it will be incredibly linear.

[Psycho666Soldier]

This should coincide perfectly with my ongoing "Play through all the Final Fantasies in Order" mission. I've always had love/hate affair with 12. I love the graphics, the locations, the hunts, and the presentation. I hate the license system, the gambits, how quickly the Quickenings can be attained and how it makes it feel repetitive. The battle system in it's raw form was a logical evolution, but the aforementioned features kept it from coming together in a way I could enjoy. I lost interest around Level 37, but I know that's when the game opens up a lot and becomes what makes the game so great. So this will be a perfect way to revisit it.

Any chance we see extra content of some sort?

[RuneEdge]

Everything I've heard since is fishy. They said it would be released in installments/chapters, with the whole game not being available right away. That worries me a fair bit and seems like it could be used to downscale the scope of it, which is something I don't want. I suspect this means it will be incredibly linear.
Most people are expecting it to be very much like the Final Fantasy 13 trilogy or the Fabula Nova Crystallis subseries, where you had the main title "Final Fantasy XIII", followed by "Final Fantasy XIII-2", then "Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII".
Funnily enough, FF12 here is also a part of a subseries called the "Ivalice Alliance", alongside the FF Tactics games and Vagrant Story.

[Atty]

It's connected to Vagrant Story?! Tell me more, tell me more! Did he have a car?

[JP]

I mentioned the voice acting earlier and that I thought it was incredible, well it turns out I'm not alone. The reasons for it standing out including how believable it is, dialects, translation and incredibly high level of performance, turns out all deliberate.

Great interview here with the translation team and actors.

http://www.usgamer.net/articles/a-voice-for-ivalice-the-localization-and-voice-acting-of-final-fantasy-xii/page-3

I've said it before, I'll say it again, how they went from the genre high standard of this to 13 boggles my mind.

[Peter Griffin]

I enjoyed 13 and 13-2. Lightning returns was an abomination though.

[JP]

I enjoyed 13...

Of everything you have ever said nothing has offended me more. :squint:

[Peter Griffin]

I guess I'm just not a gaming elitist JP ;)

[Atty]

The worst part of 13 was that I wanted to like it so much that I ended up platinuming it without realizing. I played it for 100 hours just hoping I would like it. I liked the stuff on that other world, but there was no story there and the main story wasn't good anyway.

I did sort of appreciate the nerve of a FF game to start with a former soldier and their black life mate hopping off a train and fighting a giant robot scorpion.

[RuneEdge]

I did sort of appreciate the nerve of a FF game to start with a former soldier and their black life mate hopping off a train and fighting a giant robot scorpion.

https://media.giphy.com/media/tLql6mMHC6wvK/giphy.gif

[Peter Griffin]

The worst part of 13 was that I wanted to like it so much that I ended up platinuming it without realizing. I played it for 100 hours just hoping I would like it. I liked the stuff on that other world, but there was no story there and the main story wasn't good anyway.

I did sort of appreciate the nerve of a FF game to start with a former soldier and their black life mate hopping off a train and fighting a giant robot scorpion.

I honestly don't remember too much about the start to 13, it's a shame there isn't a ps4 upgrade, Wouldn't mind playing it again.