Final Fantasy XII is one of the mainline games that I never got a chance to play. I didn’t own a PS2 when I was younger, but I watched my best friend play through a lot of FF XII . I remember being really impressed by the mature, political themes running through the story. I was also enchanted by the buildings and the people of Ivalice. When development of this game kicked off, it was spearheaded by Final Fantasy Tactics director Yasumi Matsuno. He and his team set out to do things differently, and you can tell. A seamless battle system reminiscent of MMORPGs eliminated pesky random encounters, and the gambit system made programming friendly AI feel like a groundbreaking innovation before games like Dragon Age made it cool.
When Square Enix revealed that it was remastering this forgotten gem I was so thrilled. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age will be headed to PS4 next year, and this is something we can all get excited about. Square Enix has been making all of our wishes come true lately, and I can’t tell you how happy I am that I can play Final Fantasy VII and X on my PS4. This won’t be a simple port and re-skin, though. There’s plenty of extra goodies to look forward to here.
Beautiful, Overhauled Visuals
Final Fantasy XII was already a stellar looking game, even on the PS2 (especially on the PS2 back in 2006). Art direction and design go a long way here, and I can’t wait to see how these character models are going to look in high-definition. Ivalice is a wonderful world, and probably my favorite Final Fantasy world of all. If you’ve ever had the great pleasure of falling in love with the architecture, creatures, and inhabitants from a game like FF XII, Final Fantasy Tactics, or even Vagrant Story , then you know exactly why we’re so excited to see this game world with new eyes.
Two Wonderful Soundtracks
That heading might be a little misleading, so let me clarify right away: the original soundtrack to Final Fantasy XII , which is fantastic, is getting remastered as well. Actually, it got re-recorded! Square Enix wanted to be able to take advantage of new 7.1 surround sound technology, so the re-recording was necessary. The score wasn’t composed by Nobuo Uematsu, but don’t let that put you off. It really is fantastic, and true purists will have the option to switch between the new and original versions at any time.
Zodiac Job System
This is going to change everything. The Zodiac Job System challenges players to to rethink how they structure their party and how they’ll approach every boss battle. In the old game, pretty much any character could access most magic or weapons because there was only one license board (the license board grants you the ability to use certain equipment and abilities). With the Zodiac Job System, each character will only be able to choose one of twelve classes, and then they’re locked in. Every class has its own license board with specific weapons and magic appropriate to that class. It adds senses of consequence and progression that weren’t present in the original North American version, and fans have been patching in the Zodiac Job System on their emulators for years.
I’m so glad Square Enix has decided to include this newer jobs system. This truly will be the definitive version of Final Fantasy XII, and I expect it to hold its own against some of the RPG juggernauts coming out around the same time.