Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age - Review and Comparison

Final fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

Final fantasy the long running series is getting many remakes but still missing the Final Fantasy 7 remake. This will be the review of Final Fantasy 12 (PS4). Is this a port to next gen or just upscaled graphics? Is it a remake or just a re-release and remastered with updated graphics?

I played the original back in 2006 and played through it fairly fast on days after work and weekends for couple hour sit downs at a time and I think it took about a month to complete. It was fun but was really easy to manipulate for auto combat with the gambit system. Made it fairly easy to play and survive.

Ok so looking back and playing now, the first change you see is that there is a trial mode in the initial start menu. This is to play through a series of battles that progressively get harder using your current save game character levels.

The second options I found was the turbo mode in game. I pressed L1 and suddenly the game was running in fast forward. This is great and all but precision of gathering treasures was not easy. Also found group members dying by chasing rabbits or low-level monsters into high level monsters and getting killed before notice they were gone. This had one last fall back to me. It made the game hard to watch on a big tv. I found myself feeling strained almost dizzy. The good thing about this was once setup properly this mode made getting through longer maps faster and easier.

Last, I found the licensing board ‘International Zodiac Job System’ was remodeled. It changed the game balancing but now selections for each character and job. The original I believe was 1 board with multiple starting points for each class or character.

The other reviews I have read and release notes say there were balancing updates further through the game. Beyond that the changes found are listed below.

Other Changes:
• Quickening’s no longer require MP and use their own gauge. Characters gain MPs through leveling up rather than by unlocking more Quickening’s.
• Two versions of New Game Plus: one where characters start at level 90 (Strong Mode) and one where characters never level up (Weak Mode, unlocked after beating Trial Mode). Nothing is carried over into either of these files.
• The 9999-damage limit is removed.
• Some characters stats and item/equipment effects have been changed.
• A new set of ultimate weapons for each time, known as "FINAL FANTASY" weapons. These are given names based off the Hindu calendar in the localization.
• Sixteen new gambit options.
• Some enemy stats are altered and there a couple new enemies.
• Treasure chests respawn by only moving one screen away (rather than three screens away).
• Some treasure chest contents have been slightly changed. Some magics originally purchased in stores must now be found in chests.
• Some magics have been recategorized. For example, Bravery is now a White Magics instead of a Green Magics.
• Some shop listings and Hunt rewards have been altered.

So overall basically the game is the same with a system update. The big update is the graphics. At first playing the new PS4 release I didn’t notice any real difference. I put the PS2 version in my PS3 and played the opening and first couple hours of gameplay. It seemed really comparable for a brief minute. Then it hit me there was definitely a difference in the detail. I went back and watched the PS4 opening to the game and noticed the graphics differences. I was definitely better and a bit more detailed and upscaled.

<--PS2 and PS4 -->

So, what do we have here? The same game with upgraded soundtrack, graphics, character build, upgraded speed and a few basic upgrades and changes. At this point I have to say the game is worthwhile for sure to continue the Final Fantasy story whether it’s a first time through or a replay on next gen systems.

So, what’s the game story again? (as taken from Wiki)

Final Fantasy XII is set within the land of Ivalice during an age when "magic was commonplace" and "airships plied the skies, crowding out the heavens". At this time, magicite, a magic-rich mineral, is commonly used in magic spells and in powering airships (a popular form of transportation in Ivalice.) Ivalice is divided into three continents: Ordalia, Valendia, and Kerwon. Ordalia is located in the western part of Ivalice. The Rozarrian Empire makes its home in the vast inland plains of this continent as the eastern portion of it is largely desert and "jagd" (lawless regions so rich in Mist, the ethereal manifestation of magicite, that airships cannot function.) Valendia is the home of Imperial Archadia, where lush highlands dot the landscape. Central to the story is Dalmasca, a small kingdom between the two continents and empires. Located in the middle of the Galtean Peninsula of Ordalia, Dalmasca is surrounded by an expanse of desert. The temperate climate of Dalmasca differs from the cold environs of Kerwon to the south and the lush plains of Valendia and Ordalia. During this time, Ivalice is beset by the pending war between the forces of Rozarria and Archadia. Caught between the two powerful Empires, Dalmasca and a number of smaller nations have already been subjugated by Archadia two years before the game begins.

In Dalmasca's capital city of Rabanastre, Princess Ashe of Dalmasca and Prince Rasler of Nabradia have just wed, as the Archadian Empire invades the two countries. Rasler is killed in the war, the city of Nabudis is destroyed in a single explosion, and the Dalmascan King Raminas is assassinated moments after signing a treaty of surrender. Marquis Ondore announces that the assassin was Dalmascan captain Basch, who has been sentenced to death, and that Princess Ashe has committed suicide.
Two years later, Vaan, a Rabanastre street urchin, ignores his friend Penelo's objections and infiltrates the palace during a dinner celebrating the appointment of Archadian prince Vayne Solidor as consul. In the treasury he finds a piece of magicite, a powerful magical crystal. He is discovered by Balthier and Fran, a pair of sky pirates looking for the magicite. The three escape as Dalmascan Resistance forces assault the palace, and in the sewers they meet the Resistance leader, Amalia, before being captured by Archadian forces. Detained in the Nalbina dungeons, they meet Basch, who was imprisoned but not killed, and who states his twin brother Gabranth was the one to kill the king. The four escape together with the help of Penelo, and flee to the floating city of Bhujerba.
In Bhujerba, they meet Lamont, a curious boy who is Vayne's younger brother, Larsa, in disguise. Basch confronts the Marquis over his lies, but the party is captured and detained aboard the Archadian airship Leviathan, headed by Judge Ghis. On the Leviathan, the party is reunited with Amalia, who is revealed to be Princess Ashe. Ghis takes the magicite, which is revealed to be a royal Dalmascan artifact, "deifacted nethicite", from Vaan to send to Archadia. The party escapes the airship, but as Ashe had planned to use the magicite as proof that she was the princess, the group makes plans to collect another of the pieces of nethicite, the Dawn Shard. They do so, but are again captured by Ghis; when he tries to use the Dawn Shard in the Leviathan rather than the "manufacted" (artificially made) magicite it normally uses, his entire airship fleet is destroyed in a mirror of the destruction of Nabudis, and the party flees again.
The party encounters Larsa, who seeks a peace treaty between Dalmasca and the empire. Convinced, Ashe and the group go to Mt. Bur-Omisace to seek the Gran Kiltias Anastasis, Ivalice's religious leader, and beg his approval of her as queen of Dalmasca. There, they also meet Al-Cid Margrace, a member of the Rozarrian Empire ruling family, who is seeking to avert a war between Rozarria and Archadia and is in talks with Larsa. Their plans are curtailed when Anastasis is killed by Archadia, and soon afterwards the Archadian emperor Gramis dies and Vayne ascends the throne.
After retrieving the Sword of Kings, which can destroy nethicite, the party journeys to Archadia to retrieve Larsa, who has been taken. There they discover Doctor Cid, who created manufacted magicite, and who directs them to go to Giruvegan as it is the source of nethicite. In Giruvegan, only Ashe can enter the final area, where she encounters the makers of nethicite, the immortal Occuria, who "pull the strings of history"; they give her the Treaty Blade to cut new pieces of nethicite from the Sun-cryst, the source of all nethicite and its power. She learns that Venat, one of the Occuria, has defected to put the "reins of History back in the hands of Man", controlling Vayne and Cid, manipulating the former's goal to conquer Ivalice and become the new Dynast King, and leading the latter to create manufacted magicite to reduce the relative power of the Occuria. Archadia's expansion campaign was a front to capture the existing shards of nethicite.
Ashe and the party journey to Pharos tower, the location of the Sun-cryst, where she decides not to take her revenge by following the Occuria's wishes, but instead destroy the Sun-cryst. The party defeats Gabranth, who reveals that he killed King Raminas, and then the party also defeats Cid, before destroying the crystal. The group later learns from Al-Cid that the Dalmascan Resistance, led by Ondore, is about to fight Archadia in Rabanastre, but the Archadian forces now include the Sky Fortress Bahamut, powered by the Mist released by the destruction of the Sun-Cryst. They infiltrate the Bahamut, and find Larsa attempting to dissuade his brother Vayne from his plans for war to no avail. They defeat Vayne and Venat, and Ashe and Larsa announce the end of the conflict to the battlefield. Larsa becomes the Archadian emperor and Ashe the Queen of Dalmasca; Basch replaces his brother Gabranth as Larsa's protector; Vaan and Penelo fly an airship to meet Balthier and Fran for another adventure.