final fantasy xii

FFXII: The Zodiac Age – still fun

More than that, players are realising just how well the gameplay of FFXII holds up. Zodiac Age may boast sharper visuals, better load times and other little tweaks that we’ll get to later, but the core of the exploration and battling remains as it is, because why would you ever need to change it? Gambits may feel like a means to let a game play itself, but FFXII always varied encounters enough to ensure that you could never leave things on autopilot for too long. Even if you’re automatically healing and curing all of the bad things, you still have to be wary of your remaining MP and wait at the mercy of those cooldown timers. At worst the gambits result in less busywork, and at best they allow for multiple situations to be addressed on the fly, as if you have a dozen more pairs of hands that are holding controllers and issuing additional commands. Licences remain as they were – earn points by defeating enemies and use them to buy the “licence” for a magic skill or piece of equipment. However, when you recruit a new character to the party, Zodiac Age now lets you choose from one of twelve licence boards for that character, all categorised into general roles or “jobs”. Do you want a heavy-hitter, someone skilled with bows, a healer? Zodiac Age has a board for everyone.

It allows for a lot of freedom in customisation, and this was a game that already seemed quite customisable before the job system. As I had never played the “International” version of the PS2 game, I went into things slightly blind, but my Knight, Uhlan and White Mage selections comfortably carried the primary team through the game’s opening moments. Whilst my progress through Zodiac Age has been fairly smooth, I am still curious about how much of a risk there is of choosing a bad selection of jobs at the beginning. However, you gain new additions to the party at a steady enough rate to allow for any holes to be filled, and one moment later in the game opens up even more customisation…

FFXII: The Zodiac Age – high speed

Weirdly, the addition of the job system might not even feel like the most important change in Zodiac Age, as the experience is transformed with a push of the left shoulder button. This activates High Speed Mode (a feature that I believe was in the PS2 release of International but was hindered by the console performance) – and yes, it literally increases the speed of the action, with animation cycles flying by, allies and enemies ambling around more briskly, and actions being played out much more swiftly. In most other JRPGs, this kind of feature would be pointless as it would be impossible to play at such speeds. However, when gambits are automating the battles, you can hurry through the safe moments and dial things back when you need to do more manual work in the menus. The other controller buttons still work as expected in High Speed mode, so you can still pause the action by bringing up the command list, fixing any issues that gambits have overlooked. Admittedly, this mode is best used in old areas that are deemed “safe”, but it still makes those return visits more bearable.

Also welcome is an autosave feature, which will save the game as you progress through each area. There are very rare moments where an autosave happens moments before failure and there’s no chance of rescuing your team (I think I had one save in a boss room where I was massively underlevelled), but most of the time the saves are in sensible places and can come as a huge relief when you’ve done lots of walking since the last save crystal.

FFXII: The Zodiac Age – the freshness

As for the game itself? It’s still Final Fantasy XII; still as good as the game I played in May 2016… still as good as the game originally released in 2006. The story can be a bit corny with some of its drama, and some people might not get on with the real-time/paused-time/gambit nature of combat, but it’s remarkable that the game still feels so fresh after more than a decade. There are still some dodgy character moments and dialogue lines, but it plays like a dream. Too often people roll their eyes at RPG battle systems – random encounters, fiddly menus, no satisfaction… the reasons keep coming. It’s a rare treat to be able to praise the battle system in something like this; a system which only feels so good because of all of the other supporting elements – the gambits, the licences, the jobs. I’ve enjoyed three mammoth JRPGs already this year (Nier, Persona and this) and I’m genuinely pleased to be able to recommend them all – for different reasons, of course – as it’s another reminder that 2017, just like FFXII, is something that keeps on giving.

FFXII: The Zodiac Age is out now for PS4.

Revisiting FFXII wasn’t really something I had been planning, if I’m honest. Squenix’s PS2 JRPG was a game I had owned for several years but never really played for more than a few hours. I had picked it up long after the sixth-generation had finished winding down, and only wanted to own it because I had heard so many good things about it. Apparently it was the best Final Fantasy game since VII, or something, but I have a taste for JRPGs that’s so narrow that revisiting FFXII – or even playing it for the first time – would be a challenge as I didn’t think I’d have the patience to get on with it. Sure enough, many attempts at playing the game left me struggling to keep up with the combination of realtime and paused-time combat, configurable Gambits, licence acquisition and so many other things. It didn’t take long for me to put it back on my shelf and consider revisiting FFXII when I could actually pay enough attention to enjoy it. Fast forward to 2016 and I’ve just completed it for the first time, and naturally I have a few thoughts about the game.

Revisiting FFXII and the Gambits

Revisiting FFXII was something I postponed for a while because I was so bemused by the gameplay mechanics. Take Gambits, for instance – they were introduced in FFXII and let you automate certain character actions based on given conditions. Rather than bog the player down in conditions and actions or threaten to automate the combat too much, they’re a nice way of streamlining combat and make keeping track of the real-time battles a lot more manageable. For example, you can set up a Gambit that makes a character automatically cast Cure when an ally’s health drops below a certain threshold, or if you have magic that removes a status ailment, you can set up a Gambit that makes a character use that magic when the status ailment is in effect on an ally. You’ll gain a few basic conditions for Gambits early on (setting up conditions where party members attack nearby foes automatically will be one of the first times you’ll touch the Gambit system), but you can buy more at stores and they’re so cheap that it’s often well worth doing. Eventually you get a really good Gambit setup (where elemental weakness are automatically exploited, status ailments are automatically removed, and so on) and the automation is so natural that it becomes surprising when a problem isn’t fixed immediately (e,g. when a new status ailment is introduced that you don’t have a Gambit for yet.) This makes Gambit management a pleasing process of adding and refining conditions as the game goes on.

Revisiting FFXII and the Licences

Revisiting FFXII also led to me getting to grips with the game’s other big feature: licences. At first I thought the licence board was horribly confusing and made no sense but on my latest playthrough it actually ended up being very rewarding. Winning battles in FFXII rewards you with experience – accumulated in the traditional sense to help characters level up – and licence points. These points are spent in a menu option known as the Licence Board, which sees players select squares on a chequered board to acquire licences for equipment, abilities or other bonuses and unlock further squares for acquisition. You can buy equipment and magic at shops around the game, but until a character has the licence for it, they can’t use it. As a result, you may come across powerful magic or equipment and then see how many squares need to be unlocked to reach the requisite licence – this way you can judge whether it’s worth picking up just yet. It’s a very rewarding system as you get the benefits of gaining access to a new perk *and* you get to see even better perks revealed and teased.

Revisiting FFXII and the grind

Of course, when revisiting FFXII I also had to bear in mind that this is still a Final Fantasy game and there will be times where you might stumble into a new area hopelessly under-levelled and have to retreat to somewhere that’s easy enough to be manageable but challenging enough to make the experience points worth getting. Even though the battle system is enjoyable enough to avoid feeling like a waste of time, it can sometimes be hard to gauge how levelled-up the game wants you to be at certain points. I believe there are certain licences and accessories that increase experience gains, so the game does offer to make the grind easier, but new areas and bosses can still be a shock to the system at first. The proximity and gambit driven combat at least make battles less of a nuisance than they were in earlier games, but if you’re revisiting FFXII you have to accept that you still need to do a bunch of battling in order to make progress. Personally the only thing that made the actual combat a bit of a chore was the absurd amount of status ailments to keep track of, but by the time they become a problem you’ve probably already bought the necessary magic and gambit conditions.

Revisiting FFXII and the world

Despite all the battling, revisiting FFXII wasn’t harmed by grinding too much because I still had fun exploring the world, going on adventures with my party, getting better gear and unlocking more powerful licences. The town locations are still enjoyable to explore and the dungeons can be intimidating but force you to make the most of your Gambits, actions and equipment. There weren’t really any characters who I thought were annoying or filled with emo angst (the main antagonist felt a bit too “pantomime villain” at times, but that’s to be expected), and any environmental puzzles that arose never outstayed their welcome (I spent too long trying to unlock the right path in the Sochen Cave but that was about it.) And the battling… well most of the time I only died because I hurried through areas, so any bad battles are due to my own impatience. In general, it’s a pretty solid JRPG. If you’re turned off by Final Fantasy games, just try and ignore the name – FFXII has enough unique ideas to be enjoyed irrespective of the series legacy. The only downside now is that you can only play it if you have the original disc, so start your petitions for a HD remake or PS2 classics release…