The remastered editions of old hits are for commercial operations companies that focus a lot on the nostalgia factor, while for many fans they can prove to be an opportunity to relive certain emotions, or to try them for the first time in case they had not been able or wanted to play. a title at the time of its release. In the case of Final Fantasy XII, there is also the opportunity to rediscover a product that is too underrated. As we wrote in previous articles and also in the special relating to the history and anecdotes related to its development, the twelfth chapter of the Square Enix series was critically acclaimed but little considered by historical fans of the saga when it was released in 2006 on PlayStation 2. Too different from those who preceded him, already distant from the traditional formula, but also different from those who followed him, from the new approach more aimed at action and "modern" for the times. Who today are perhaps more mature to appreciate a work that is proposed to us on the basis of the International Zodiac Job System edition, unpublished in the West, and therefore full of news and options, including support for trophies, sharing functionality, auto-save and low loading times.
The consequences of the war
In Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, the world of Ivalice is in turmoil. The story begins in fact in the city of Rabanastre, the multiethnic capital of the kingdom of Dalmasca, where the wedding of Princess Ashe and Prince Rasler are being celebrated: when the invasion of the Archadia empire begins, the prince is killed, the king is treacherously assassinated, apparently by the captain of the guards, after signing the surrender, and Ashe disappears into thin air. Two years later, Rabanastre has changed: hunger and poverty reign everywhere, and many orphans like the game's protagonist, Vaan, are forced to pickpockets to survive. But like all young people in the world, he too has not lost hope and dreams, together with his longtime friend Penelo, of becoming a pirate to sail the skies aboard an airship of his own. One day, due to a series of fortuitous coincidences, the two friends meet two real professional thieves, the charming Balthier and the seductive Fran, with whom at a certain point they have to face a long and difficult journey that will lead them to live a risky and dangerous adventure for the future of their world. The story of Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is therefore quite complex, capable as it is of mixing imaginative arguments with others current and "serious", like the drama of the war, the consequences on the civilian population, but also political intrigues, supernatural beings and conspiracies in a script that, despite losing a few hits at a certain point, manages to interest the player.
PlayStation 4 Trophies
The game offers 41 trophies divided into 26 bronze, 10 silver, 4 gold and 1 platinum. To get them, you have to fulfill requests such as defeating particular bosses, completing the bestiary, unlocking all the characters' abilities or passing a certain number of encounters in the Challenge mode, up to the Platinum that is obtained by taking all the others.
The art of combat
Abandoned the "fixed" camera and random turn-based combat, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age almost completely detaches itself from the previous episodes and from those that followed it by marrying a game mechanics very similar to those of an MMORPG. The general approach is unique, with the player who can explore the macro-areas into which each visitable location is divided, with enemies clearly visible on the screen and therefore sometimes avoidable. The title uses a fairly complex real-time combat system called Active Dimension Battle, built around a series of situations and tactics configurable through the Gambit. If this system is active, the three members of the party chosen to fight attack the enemies automatically (otherwise the gamer can directly choose which actions to make them perform through the classic drop-down menu), and a colored line will connect the character to his target, with the type of spell or attack he is about to use identified by sight. Gambit management is therefore one of the most important aspects of the game, since the fate of the battles, especially the most difficult ones, depend on the "correct" configuration of the principles that govern the reactions of the various characters during the fight. The Gambit consists of a series of parameters that the player acquires in different ways during the adventure and that he can then set by establishing real behavioral priorities for each individual character according to the events. To a particular condition, an action follows, for which a sort of command string can be set in which, for example, a character is asked that if an "ally has 30% HP", then he must cure him with a "Great Potion. "or a healing spell. In the same way it can be established that if the "Enemy who attacks the leader", is in turn hit with an "attack", and so on, to create multiple combinations.
But in order to act in a certain way and use weapons, spells and items, or even to be able to invoke the Esper (which this time can be used directly, like the guests in the party), the protagonists must obviously improve their statistics. In this episode you increase your level by accumulating experience points, but this time the increase is not linked only to the parameters of the six heroes, but also to their License Points. These, obtained in battle, are then spent on a sort of chessboard where to unlock from time to time the possibility of equipping certain objects or accessories, to wield certain weapons, special techniques (Apotheosis) and to cast very specific spells. Since as previously written, this remaster edition of Final Fantasy XII is based on the version known as the International Zodiac Job System, which we never arrived, there are twelve license boards, each corresponding to a zodiac sign and a profession, from the Archer to the Black or White Wizard, from the Knight to the Samurai, and so on. The new zodiacal chessboards allow you to build characters according to very specific dynamics, personalizing every single element of the party to the maximum to make it unique compared to the others. All for the benefit of a certain balance of playability to which some changes made by the developers contribute to make the experience less frustrating than it once was. In this sense, the possibility of moving quickly within the scenarios, even during the fighting, by pressing the L1 backbone, has been added, choice that we liked since in this way you can cut the dead times without losing at the same time the parts of the plot and the most difficult fights, and an intermediate automatic saving system between the different maps, in such a way as to simplify navigation and avoid restarting the player from a save point too far away in case of premature death. To further embellish the offer there is a Challenge mode that offers the most prepared fans the opportunity to face up to one hundred battles in succession by testing their skills in organizing and managing the party properly.
Return to Ivalice
Moving on to analyze the technological part, in judging it must be taken into account that the title is a remastered edition, and not a real remake, of a game originally released on PlayStation 2. For this reason we should not and should not expect miracles of any kind in terms of graphics, even if, let's say it right away, perhaps Square Enix could do a little more to improve it. In short, the title, although aesthetically pleasing, cannot compete with current productions, despite having aged in an acceptable way. On balance, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age takes up a product that at the time amazed by the vast settings inspired, by the same admission of Hideo Minaba, the game's artistic director, medieval Mediterranean architecture and some elements of Arab culture. Panoramas that today, at higher resolution and with a light make-up, are still pleasant to look at, despite the fact that they betray a polygonal count that is certainly not stratospheric. Thanks to 1080p and the use of more defined, albeit flat, textures, the image is in fact brighter and sharper, pleasing to the eye, also thanks to the style adopted by the developers to recreate the world of Ivalice. characterized by pastel colors with warm tones, as well as a good lighting system and a discreet use of antialising. Better still, characters and enemies, who all in all, also thanks to the aforementioned inspired artistic direction, manage to take us into a vast and multifaceted universe. Everything, to the eye, seems to run at 30 frames per second, with a good fluidity and without particular problems. As for the audio sector, we have a soundtrack redone starting from the original songs re-performed by the composer Hitoshi Sakimoto with a live orchestra, for an excellent result that enhances our way of seeing even more every single track. It is however possible to choose between the original songs and those rearranged in 7.1 surround. In the same way it is possible to select at will the good dubbing in Japanese or the equally good one in English.
Comment
Resources4Gaming.com8.5
Readers (99)8.8
Your voteFinal Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is a product that from a technological point of view clearly demonstrates its origins two generations of consoles ago, and for this reason it is not deserving of a slightly higher rating. Yet the general impact with it remains the same positive, above all thanks to the setting and a well-layered and in some respects improved playability, which in some elements proves to be "current". The innovations introduced by the Japanese version and the technical adaptations implemented for the PlayStation 4 version make it the best version ever, not recommended only for those who cannot digest a technical sector that is not in line with the current large productions. For others, however, The Zodiac Age represents the perfect opportunity to discover or rediscover the world of Final Fantasy XII and an excellent role-playing game in general.
PRO
- Class system that was not present in the European version of the original title
- Different and interesting additions to the game system
- Plot from current themes
- The gameplay, within the JRPG landscape, has aged well ...
- ... a little less the technical sector, which instead feels the weight of the years
- In some situations, the game still maintains extremely slow and tedious moments
