Final Fantasy XII is a game I slept on for far too long and am so glad I finally got around to knocking it out. It really shook up the formula once again and almost every thing was a hit with only a few misses.

The main strength of this game is the world of Ivalice. The world is beautifully crafted with different races, beautiful cities, rich history, power hungry empires, many wars, and political intrigue. Like every other Final Fantasy game for me, the story had me excited and engaged from beginning to end. While still fantasy and over the top, this one felt more grounded than most of the series due to much of the plot being about war and politics. I loved the cast of characters in this game with Ashe and Balthier being the obvious stand outs. I also loved Larsa. Larsa is far and away my favorite Final Fantasy character of all time that wasn’t either a main villian or main party character.

I’ve said this in pretty much ever Final Fantasy review and this game is no different, the music is sublime and the art was outstanding for the time of release.

I wanted to rate this game as a five star and wouldn’t question anyone who does but there were two obvious flaws for me. First is this game is painfully easy. Once you get enough levels and gambits the game can quite literally play itself even being able to defeat almost every boss by itself. I only had a game over once and it’s because I fought the T Rex in the first level thinking I could kill it being as it was in the first level. Other than that I breezed through everything. My only other problem and admittedly this isn’t a huge deal to me but the job classes felt to similar and I was hoping for more of a variety than there actually was.

Another absolute home run in the series that I would recommend to any RPG fan.

I wish someone told me Final Fantasy XII was actually a Xenoblade in disguise, because I would have played this shit years ago. Adding to that are some of the clear inspirations taken from Star Wars (despite some apparent insistence to the contrary) and you have an RPG experience that's hitting all the right buttons for me. I genuinely thought people were memeing about the Star Wars thing but some of the scenes and characterizations are so on the nose you can't help but laugh. Yes, I know a sizeable part of that likely comes instead from The Hidden Fortress (itself one of the biggest inspirations for George Lucas's epic) but when your story culminates with you attacking a Death Star, you lose a bit of plausible deniability.

In terms of the actual game, while Final Fantasy XII obviously existed before Xenoblade, my previous experience with that series more than prepared me to enjoy the more automated style of combat employed here. I can understand how this might have put people off back in 2006 but I can't help but think of Marty McFly going "Guess you guys aren't ready for that yet, but your kids are going to love it." It's aged remarkably well, with a fast, free-flowing combat system and a ton of flexibility and customization available to build your party to your liking. And while the gambit system has largely been superseded in later years by developers simply becoming more proficient at designing better AI companions, I can appreciate how wild it is that a game from this era gave you so much specific control over how your party operates. Seriously, this came out the same year as Persona 3, a game with notoriously awful automated party members. Ahead of its time.

If I could point to any major criticisms of this game, it would be:

1) The license system goes a bit overboard in terms of things you need to unlock; would have preferred they scaled back some of the armor and accessory slots because you don't need 30 of those.

2) Later story beats felt a bit too spaced out or lacking the impact I think they were intended to have, as the game gets a little too bogged down with chasing one MacGuffin after another.

3) I hate to echo complaints people have been making for almost two decades now but Vaan was a pretty weak main protagonist and it didn't surprise me at all to learn he wasn't originally intended to be one. I loved the party overall and thought they had great chemistry together but it is held back when certain characters feel more like they're along for the ride than possessing agency in the story's events.

Beyond that, I truly enjoyed my time with Final Fantasy XII. There likely would have been more quibbles with a few gameplay design choices but this remaster does a fantastic job at mitigating many of those, making for an overall smooth experience. Great game and I wish more people would have sung its praises because it probably deserves a bigger seat at the Final Fantasy table than it's been given over the years.

What’s better than a game where you walk around and press one button? A game where you walk around and press no buttons!

I played this game back in 2006 when it first released and I really enjoyed it, then a power outage happened while I was saving and it was my only save file. I never had only one save file ever again and that’s a pretty big impact on me. I bring this up because this game is a massive time investment and I was very much not willing to get back into the mix, 60 hours down the drain. Zodiac age completely and absolutely fixes this. The game comes with a 2x/4x speed up mode that completely trivializes all the leveling and walkin around you have to do. Very much like the speed up mode on emulators, it makes the game accessible in a way it previously was not. I was able to beat this game in around 30 hours because of this feature.

Now I will actually talk about the game itself, like I said at the start. You essentially just setup menus and actions before you start combat and let the game play itself. It feels like a miracle that this game is fun. But the environment, story, characters, leveling system, license board, gambits, hunts all combine together to make this very enjoyable experience.


It was very cathartic to come back to this game and beat it. That’s all I got to say. Good times

Depois de me martelarem muito que esse jogo era extremamente focado em política e que isso destacava (e deixava ele melhor) ele dos outros, qual a minha surpresa ao ver que Final Fantasy XII é exatamente Final Fantasy como sempre gostei e diria até em uma de suas melhores formas.

Acho que o descontentamento e a consequente constatação de mentiras sobre o quão cedo ou tarde o Vaan foi considerado a ser o protagonista do jogo vem justamente do fato de ser difícil de digerir que nem sempre somos o protagonista de toda história. Certamente somos o protagonista da NOSSA, mas nem sempre do que acontece a nossa volta.

Para o Vaan, salvar seu país e assegurar seu futuro é uma jornada de conhecimento ao lado de pessoas mais fortes, mais experientes e maduras que ele. Não tem o mesmo peso que tem para Ashe, e tá tudo bem. Balthier tenta nos lembrar toda vez que nós sempre somos protagonistas, mesmo que os outros não vejam assim.

Não me importaria se esse jogo focasse muito mais na parte politica que ele apresenta, mas eu gosto de como ele é familiar e confortável pra quem já está inserido no paradigma da série.

No mais, achei que esse ia ser o único Final Fantasy que não ia chorar no final e desabei igual então eu acho que sou uma tonta completa.

Often summed up as "Anime Star Wars", FF12 is a bit of a controversial entry - the Gambit system, effectively giving you 100% control over your party, was maligned as complex, and the story is a lot more political and slightly more abstract than other games in the series.

I played FF12 because i really enjoyed Matsuno's work on the Bozja storyline of FF14, and although i took a break between beginning it and actually finishing it, it didn't disappoint. FF12's main story is effectively a subversion of Chosen One plotlines, although anything more would definitely need a spoiler warning. To a degree, the story somewhat subverts the idea of a Evil Empire and Good Kingdom - but again, you'd have to play for it not to be more of a spoiler.

FF12 suffers slightly from the lack of real character development - only Balthier, Ashe and Basch get any real development, and Vaan gets less - with the other 2 basically along for the ride. I don't particularly think this is too much of a sore spot, but also it'd have ended up more interesting to me if, say, there was more chances for the party to feel like a party.

The soundtrack is phenomenal and atmospheric, and most of the graphics still hold up despite the age of many of them - oh, and you're definitely going to want to toggle on English VA - it's completely exceptional and very widely liked.

After nearly twenty years of playing this game, I finished the post-game of Final Fantasy XII! Both the vanilla superbosses and the Trial Mode The Zodiac Age added in. I left a review on the PS2 game’s page but figured I’ll add my thoughts on The Zodiac Age version.

The big sell here is the job system and it’s pretty cool! I like the dual-classing upgraded they added in this edition of FF12, but character being so focused creates a lot of small inconveniences. Only the Time Mage has Float, a very important spell if you are going through a place with traps. I had to keep my Fran out through most dungeons because I didn’t have a lot of Float Motes and mines were abound. You can unlock some extra abilities on everyone’s License Grids with Quickenings and Espers but there should have been more options available for late game conveniences. I was missing the absolute freedom of everyone sharing vanilla FF12’s maximalist License Grid.

While The Zodiac Age took away a lot of original’s need-guide BS like the whole thing with the Zodiac Spear, a lot of spells are stuck in normal-looking treasures that you can easily miss then go through the whole game never having that spell. It’s two steps-forward, one step back with this game.

The 2x and 4x speed settings were a great edition. Got a lot of use of them beating Hell Wyrm and Yiazmat. On the other hand, TZA could have improved the gambit system more. While the multiple gambit sets are a nice addition, I wished for more gambit types and additional complexity.

Overall, the speedup option and cool job system make this the definitive version of a game that I, despite my criticism, think it is pretty good and still love a lot. Maybe I don’t think it’s as good as I used to, but still something that is worth playing. A lot of my problems are things that became more obvious in the sidequest/post-game parts of Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age so someone playing a casual playthrough probably wouldn’t butt heads with those annoyances.

Normally, I wasn't planning on playing Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, but it went up for sale and I couldn't pass on it. In the end, I'm glad I decided to play this game because otherwise I'd miss out on a very interesting experience.
Final Fantasy XII's story, while not as exciting as in most of the other Final Fantasy games, is still well-written for the most part.
The gameplay on the other hand, is amazing; it's innovative because it makes you feel like playing an offline MMO game instead of a typical turn based JRPG. The gambit system is basically programming an AI, it's genius and I love it. The license boards add extra layers of character customization, giving you the opportunity to build each character differently. Overall, the combat system is extremely fun, the customization is fantastic and the mechanics work perfectly.
The characters are good too; some of them are a bit underwhelming but most of them are fine and few of them are truly great.
The visuals hold up well and the CGI cutscenes are stunning, and the music is very good as well.
Also, the world in Final Fantasy XII is probably one of the best in the series.
Now, although Final Fantasy XII does many things well, it also has some noticeable flaws; the story for example, is not engaging at times, it feels a bit disjointed.
Lastly, many dungeons get tiring after a while because of their lenght.

Pros:
+ Decent story
+ Addictive gameplay
+ Unique mechanics
+ Nice characters

Cons:
- Inconsistent narrative
- Overwhelming dungeon design

Narrative: 6/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Content: 9/10
Characters: 7/10
Music: 8/10
Graphics/Audio: ?/10

Final Rating: 8/10
- Great -
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is a unique, rewarding and enjoyable RPG.
If you're a fan of J/RPGs but you haven't played the original version of Final Fantasy XII before, you should give Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age a try.

Do I recommend it?:
Yes, even to those who don't play JRPGs at all.

Been sitting on this one for years, but finally played it. I'm glad I did, because while I don't have fond memories of the original, I really enjoyed my time with Zodiac Age. The secret to enjoying this game is removing Vaan from your party and pretending that nearly anyone else is the main character.

Joking aside, this game has a strong cast of characters, both heroes and villains. Sometimes the story falls a little flat and does a disservice to these characters, but overall it's a solid piece of storytelling.

The music is incredible with a good number of memorable themes. I feel the imperial theme is one of the strongest reasons people compare this game to Star Wars.

Combat is excellent and you're rewarded for how much work you put in. You can completely ignore the gambit system if you want, but I found it fun tweaking the system to get the best performance out of it. I did have a problem with the sheer amount of status effects the enemies loved to throw at the party, and the final area was more frustrating than enjoyable, but they made some great improvements over the original and this is well worth playing.

"I am simply myself. No more and no less. And I want only to be free."

É impressionante como Final Fantasy consegue se reinventar a cada título, todos com mecânicas e execuções completamente diferentes. O desse caso, um RPG imperial com exploração em um semi mundo aberto em 2006, é audacioso, e único.
Com sua temática politica onde o império controla as cidades, no totalitarismo, seguido de uma guerra fria e direta entre seus países, exerce um lado muito diferente a série, muito disso advindo de Star Wars, é impressionante o quanto esse jogo se inspira nos filmes, não só na presença do império, como visualmente nas naves e seus embates, como até em seus personagens, Balthier carrega uma função muito similar ao Han Solo. Me impressiona sua execução de diálogos ter muito dessa vibe Shakespeariana, muito se parece uma peça teatral, e sua narrativa, que apesar de passar por suas quedas de ritmo, segue uma execução diferente, de mais foco na realização pessoal textual de cada personagem do que uma temática geral. Mas sim, há presença de temas, o principal sendo a aceitação do luto, e claro, a liberdade das amarras do império. Eu sempre fico fascinado com o World Building da série, todos os jogos me prendem no mundo de forma a ficar curioso com o que irá acontecer com seus personagens.

Seus personagens contribuem positivamente para tal, a Ashe tem conflitos muito bons de como tratar de sua inimizade aos reinos, se devera ter ódio e vingança ou não, o Balthier carrega sendo o mais carismático (e um dos melhores da série), Basch com seu tema de lealdade, e a Fran com um dos subtextos da obra, que é esse valor do natural em comparação ao manufaturado, além de eu amar a parceria dela com o Balthier. E sobre o Vaan? É um caso peculiar, eu gosto desse crescimento dele de perceber que mentia em seus propósitos para se enturmar a situação, e como cada vez mais ele se parece com um pirata, mas sim, ele apenas serve como uma visão de fora do conflito para identificação do jogador, e a Penelo é basicamente o mesmo, só que mais falha. E junto de tudo isso, a interação de todos como um grupo é ótima, tanto no humor quanto no plot, gosto como se trabalha vários núcleos menores e também um maior de todos juntos.

Uma crítica muito específica quanto ao jogo é a utilização das cutscenes em CG, no FF10 há utilizações tão boas, e nesse jogo me incomoda como elas só são usadas para expressar a grandiosidade dos lugares, naves e outros, e pouco usada em momentos chaves da história, muitos momentos teriam mais impacto se usado corretamente.

Sua história unicamente não é o suficiente para carregar toda a experiencia, e por isso temos um dos maiores brilhos do jogo, sua jogabilidade. Seu maior destaque, o sistema de gambits, é prazeroso planejar suas situações com "if's" nas batalhas, quase como uma programação de computador, e aos que dizem que automatiza o combate de maneira tediosa, eu discordo, o jogo balanceia o suficiente para sua estratégia não ser inteiramente nos gambits mas sim intervir sempre em momentos chave, principalmente em boss battles. Você montar sua estratégia contra o inimigo, e ver ela funcionando ao seu controle é muito bom, e sempre que necessário, ligar e desligar gambits e agir por você mesmo. Minha única crítica vai ao sistema de Esper, fica mais como uma opção "for fun", porque não há situação que seja mais útil do que jogar normalmente, o mesmo quase pode ser dito dos Awakenings, mas eles tem seus momentos de utilidade, além de terem lindas animações. É irônico o quando poder acelerar nesse port do PC coincide para uma melhor experiência, por conta dos mundos enormes e a automação do combate.

Embora a narrativa seja pouco cativante, com uma progressão que te deixa apatíco e se questionando se o jogo esta mesmo avançando em algo por falta de um melhor direcionamento narrativo e o jogo careça de um(a) protagonista mais presente e que englobe os temas e coloque seu arco na frente da narrativa de forma mais tematica e acessivel, mas ainda assim as coisas ainda são estranhamente bem escritas e bem dirigidas com picos onde voce ve bastante alma naquela historia, e principalmente nesse mundo que exala personalidade, me fazendo ficar até emotivo no final, apesar de eu não chorar como eu esperaria de um Final Fantasy. entretanto, tudo em relação a sistemas do jogo é divino, tornando o combate em basicamente um jogo de estrategia em tempo real com uma profundidade de possibilidade que eu nem me atrevo a tentar destrinchar, em questões sistemicas de um RPG ele deve ser o mais profundo que eu joguei, e sem falar de outras partes do jogo que fazem voce se questionar se isso era realmente possivel no ps2, e em um final fantasy singleplayer ele tem de longe as melhores dungeons em um nivel que eu nunca esperei que a franquia tivesse, ele ao seu proprio modo é um dos jogos mais unicos e especiais que eu já joguei, apesar de sim faltar a alma que eu esperaria de um dos melhores Final Fantasy, mas é sem duvidas o melhor Star Wars.

Almost 3 months of gaming. A few other games were played in the meantime, a bit of Helldiving, a trip to Gotham, but Ivalice had this firm grip that I don't regret spending 80+ hours on. It's a hell of a game from start to finish. The gambit system is great to get the hang of, automating your party makes you feel real big brained. FF12's general structure is great and TZA's second license board gives you a lot to experiment with.

Of its flaws, the game can drag dependent on your means of progressing the content. Those hunts in tandem with story content sure took me awhile. Some characters also fall short in the writing department, Penelo being the go-to example. FF12: The Zodiac Age is an easy recommendation, but buckle in cuz it's a long one.

This game completely blew me away. I had never heard anything about it beforehand, so I had no real expectations going into it, but wow, this game is nothing short of a masterpiece. In this review, I’m going to give my thoughts on why I believe this.

First up, I want to talk about the highlight of this game, which would definitely be the world. Ff12 is set in Ivalice, and this country/nation or whatever you want to call it is nothing short of breathtaking. The area design in this game is truly impressive, and the art style complements these designs perfectly, making this entire game gorgeous, especially considering this was originally a PS2 game. Nearly every area is a treat to look at, and I get excited whenever I arrive at a new location. Not only is the world beautiful, but it also feels HUGE. I’ll be bringing this up a lot, but the fact that this was all on the PS2 astonishes me because some of these areas are just massive in size, and it really makes you feel like you’re on an adventure and aren’t just going through virtual rooms. I also find it extremely cool that if you want to go from one side of the map to another, you can totally do that because every single thing is connected in this game, making it feel so much more alive. Ff12 has such an expansive and beautiful world that’s so easy to fall in love with.

As for the plot, I think it is very strong, especially in the first half. I think the political aspects of this game are done very well, and while not as unique or innovative as some of the other Final Fantasy plots, I think it is a much neater and tighter story than what you’ll see in Ff7, for example. While that may not be for everyone, I thought it was a very nice change of pace for once. I absolutely love this narrative; the characters and plot are always moving forward, and it just really helps you feel a sense of adventure and urgency as well. And while I do believe the story is a lot weaker in the second half I still think it accomplishes what it set out to. They also managed to wrap it all up in a very satisfying way despite the final act itself feeling a bit rushed.

Moving on to the characters, I’m slightly mixed on them because while I think they’re all very enjoyable characters who all get their moments to shine, I did feel as if they were a little underutilized throughout the game. Compared to games like Ff9, for example, it didn’t really feel as if the cast is really present outside of cutscenes, you can literally go hours of gameplay without a single one of your party speaking which kinda sucks because in cutscenes they are extremely entertaining, Ashe, Balthier, Vaan, and Fran are all extremely likable, and my only big complaint is that we didn’t get enough of them.

Next, I want to talk about the level design and the actual combat in the game because, unlike previous turn-based Ff games, Ff12 changes things up and transitions into a more active turn-based, NPC-controlling system. I’m not gonna get into specifics about how this works exactly. If you want to know, play the game, but all you need to know is that this system is a blast. The combat is so satisfying and rewarding, and it also requires skill, proper planning, and sometimes even quick reactions to win some of the more difficult fights in-game. There’s also this board thing, which basically lets you pick out the different abilities, stats, and weapons you get in-game, and I absolutely love this. It’s so much fun filling out my character’s boards and altering what and what not I want them to learn. Apparently, some people preferred the OG version where it’s more of a free for all, but I honestly prefer this version where you only get two boards for each character. This makes it so that I have to be more careful and calculating with what I want my characters to learn. As for the level design, well, it’s not that great. A lot of the levels are just essentially just big rooms with no puzzles or anything, and even when there are puzzles, they’re not necessarily all that special. I do, however, believe the gameplay and pretty visuals make up for the lack in actual level design.

Finally, I want to talk about some of the more technical stuff, i.e., the music, voice acting, the FMVs, and any other things like that. First up, I’m gonna cover the music, and god, this OST is incredible. I don’t know much about music, but from what I hear, this OST has tons of woodwind instruments, which gives the entire game such a joyful and cheery atmosphere. I absolutely adore this soundtrack, with some of my favorites being Respite, Discarded Power, and Cerobi Steppe. Now let me talk about the English voice acting real quick, and omg, people weren’t kidding when they said this is one of the greatest localizations in JRPG history because holy shit, this voice cast gives it their 100%. The variety in accents immersed me into the game so more more. By far the best way to experience the game, and I say that as someone who plays the vast majority of his JRPGs in Japanese. Theres also speed up options in this game which makes breezing through monsters and areas you’ve already gone through so much more manageable. And finally the FMVs are as sick as ever. I won’t spoil anything, but the last hour of the game is FMV heaven, holy shit.

All in all, Ff12 is one of the greatest games I’ve ever played, and it is now my favorite Final Fantasy game, surpassing 7. I will be buying the game off Amazon, and I intend to replay it on my PS2 since it’s literally leaving PS+ the day I’m writing this review.

I’ve always been interested in FF12 aesthetically and it has been on my list for quite some time - now that it’s leaving PS Plus I had enough motivation to prioritize it and see it through fully to completion. I enjoyed my time with it greatly for the most part and am glad I finally played it.

Many people will talk about 12’s gameplay as if it’s a black sheep in the series, but having played other entries before and after, and both MMOs, I actually think it’s the gameplay is extremely fitting for where Final Fantasy was at when it released. It truly feels like a single-player evolved version of Final Fantasy 11 but with a stronger cast, less required busywork, and a solid trust system. If you approach this game with that understanding, I think it’s quite enjoyable and has considerable depth. A lot of what became Final Fantasy 14 (particularly ARR and later) also shows through in this game, which makes sense considering the large overlap in the development teams.

The gambit system is daunting at first, but quickly makes sense when you consider it as an assisted gameplay function. The easiest one to understand is attacking: this game would be quite tedious if you had to hit attack constantly, so you can set a gambit to hit attack every time your cooldown ends. You might want to automatically resurrect a character when they die. Automatically heal when you are below 30% of your HP. From this perspective, thinking of it less like “programming a character entirely” and more like “what do I want it to do by default with me still interjecting regularly” makes it easier to build a gambit system for yourself. The system is limited, but can be used effectively to avoid overly needing to micromanage your team while letting them do a considerable range of actions. Coming from more recent Final Fantasy entries, I actually appreciated the very wide range of status effects and vulnerabilities, which felt much more like earlier entries in the series in a good way. The gambit system can also be used to deal with many of these status effects automatically, and ultimately, these statuses can be used to break the game which is always a fun learning moment in any FF.

The plot is mostly fine: you’re a team of sky pirates and orphans helping a princess in exile get her kingdom back with her retainer. That focus is pretty clear from near the start of the game. The playable and non-playable characters have interesting connections and, other than Penelo who makes hanging around Vaan her entire personality (but makes a great healer!), everyone else seems to have an interesting backgrounds and driving factors. I found Vaan a little grating at times, and Ashe a little more passive and opinionless than I’d have liked, but overall was interested in the overarching narrative. Without spoiling much, the villains are layered and often sympathetic in some ways, which I think some people found dampening but after reflecting I found it kind of interesting. It sort of feels like not a ton gets resolved at the end but I think enough does that the basic plot feels complete and the main objectives feel satisfied, which honestly doesn’t even happen in most modern games now.

I previously attempted finishing this game on the Switch version, and remember struggling due to a lack of money and gear. Part of that is due to the importance of stealing in this game - if you’re not getting loot constantly and completing hunts, you aren’t making the most of your time in Ivalice. Loot is the primary way to make money early in the game, and selling loot earns you gil for buying new gear. Having a character set to Steal automatically for any full health enemy meant I had a very regular stream of loot incoming, so I never was stressed for money. Hunts also give good rewards, and eventually offer you the opportunity to get a specific set of accessories that ROCKET how much money you earn. At that point you can basically buy anything you want at any time.

While I never played the original, the Zodiac Age changes make this game much better than I would have imagined the original being. There is a 4X speed mode, which I used more than I expected to get through some of the grinding in the game. Without it I easily would have spent well over 100 hours playing, and probably wouldn’t have looked for some of the rarer gear as much. The licence board is very well done, and lets you try a lot of combinations of jobs and espers to build a set of 6 characters that work the way you like. These licences also lock different armor and weapons behind jobs, and because characters can have two jobs, you can make combinations of gears and abilities as well. The loot system in the newer version uses a lot of chests with random chances at providing different gear, which is fine for the most part, but also means some fairly critical skills are behind random chest spawns. This isn’t common enough to truly bug me, but felt a little odd.

I think this would only impact you if you went for a full 100% playthrough, as do most of the more tedious parts of the game. Someone who is mostly just hitting plot beats with light side content I think can have a satisfying journey - because of all the side content I did I felt exceptionally overleveled for the final boss, so it’s not necessary to overly grind to finish the game.

I had one main gripe with the game - the licence board is buggy and sometimes crashes when you open it. A few times I opened it directly after beating an Esper with the goal of getting the licence on my board, and the game crashed before I could auto save. This has apparently been an issue for years in the final update of the game and it should have been fixed by now. Smaller gripes are the plot being kind of whatever at times, and a little bit of tedium in some of the side content.

Generally, I think the game is fun and would recommend it. A solid JRPG with complex gameplay and layered decision making, wrapped in an MMO-like casing.

O jogo envelheceu extremamente bem, é de se surpreender que o jogo original foi lançado em 2006, a historia é basicamente um Star Wars. Senti que a progressão do meio pro fim do jogo da uma desandada, em algumas áreas os inimigos são muito difíceis e em outras muito fáceis, o sistema de batalha baseada em gambits é bem diferente e infelizmente esqueceram desse sistema nos jogos posteriores, seria bem legal ver esse sistema de uma forma melhorada. A cutscene final fecha o jogo com chave de ouro, eda o toque que precisava pra você ter a certeza que toda a jornada valeu a pena.

Finished fy first Final Fantasy, XII. Don’t regret playing it, but kinda regret not playing IX, XIII, VIII, X, VI, or even VII first.

What I liked:
+ Characters (none of them are that interesting by themselves but they fit in the story very well)
+ Story
+ Story writing (also the English VA is superior (with the exception of Vaan))
+ Cinematography and cinematics
+ Most locations (nothing mind-blowing tho)
+ Gambit system (cool idea)
+ Speedmode (saved me dozens of hours)
+ Moogles

What I disliked:
- NPCs 😴
- Side quests 😴
- Gambit system (flawed, irritating realization)
- ”Crafting” system
- Espers and quickenings (obscure, boring, and useless)
- Dungeons
- Lack of QoL (maps, quests, and inventory are atrocious)
- Speedmode (is very fiddly because the original wasn’t designed to be played this way y’know)
- MAPS

Everything else is whatever.

P.S. Vaan is cool and not “useless” or “boring”.

A huge game that I’m not yet willing to put the full time into doing all the side activities as they’re pretty daunting. However, having completed the main story I very much enjoyed my time with FF12. The combat, whilst different, was personally enjoyable. Ashe, Balthier, Larsa, Cid and Fran were all really cool and interesting characters that I enjoyed learning more about. Basche’s story was also very touching, especially in the final act of the game.

I wish there were moments where the game took itself a bit less seriously (thank you Balthier for the levity you bring). Overall though, I felt the heart put into the game. As much as people might call it Star Wars, I think that’s just diminishing the effort that went into every aspect. I can’t deny similarities but by the end I was satisfied that this is its own story.

I feel similar towards this as I do to 5, and much like that game, I can see myself replaying this and trying something different.

great story and, at times misunderstood why vaan deserves to be the protagonist.

Some of if not the best world building in a Final Fantasy game and along with the gambits system some of the most fun to be had in a "turn based" RPG gameplay-wise.

All in all an amazing and impeccable experience.

Played it on the ps2 originally when i was very young and absolutely loved it, got it again on pc with the zodiac age upgrade and fell in love even more with it

I'm not normally one for JRPGs - this is the first Final Fantasy game I've seriously played that didn't charge me a subscription fee - so it was surprising to see how far I took this one, stopping just short of the final two optional superbosses. One of the first things that caught my attention was the realisation that unlike a lot of video games, I wasn't playing the story of a single protagonist, but rather, a much broader story of a moment in Ivalician history, presented through the trials and agencies of the six characters that make up the party. The game opens with a lengthy montage of military invasion, multiple royal deaths, betrayal and schemes. It's a lot, and there's a certain passion one needs to have for excessive fantasy worldbuilding to immediately get much out of it (I loved it, obviously)

With all of that swirling around, we sensibly draw back to Vaan and Penelo, passionate and principled, but powerless in the face of an imperial occupation of their home. From there, we have a stable grounding from which we can expand back out, capturing pirates and princesses, floating fortresses and resistances, until we're out of the footnotes and into the annals of history. An excellent balance is struck between the immensity of Ivalice's inter-imperial politics and the individual, personal story that acts as the immediate, played narrative. It all connects and coheres, without needing to hold back on introducing characters and locations. Even if it does, at times, feel like the events that are happening on screen are filling space between things that are actually important, and two of the three women in the party have very little to do or say about anything important, it's a remarkable progression that suits the game well

That progression, as with most RPGs, is at the heart of the game, but not in the way I expected. Here, the typically time-consuming and dull number scaling of experience points happens without input - you don't need input, because all of the interesting decisions are on the license boards, where you specialise your characters and find that satisfying synergy that makes building characters so entertaining. Since you (mostly) can't miss any license board upgrades, you're always building your characters up from a sensible baseline, and simple completion of the story has plenty of room for building inefficiently. It takes off a lot of the pressure that normally comes with such decision-making, and creates a wonderful, intrinsic incentive to pursue side content and see how well you do. Not only that, but the gear that you get from pursuing that side content, delving deeper into each of the story's dungeons, is often the best and most interesting in the game.

Which is where we come to my first big issue with this game, and a broader issue I find I have with the genre. As I've discovered in wiki-diving, there's a lot of gear that you'll simply never get, because it only has a slim chance to be obtained from an enemy you only have one chance to fight, or it has a slim chance of appearing in a room you have no reason to walk into more than once. I couldn't tell you what rare items I obtained, because I couldn't tell you if they were rare or not. From my perspective, I just opened a box. Any perceived rarity has nothing to do with what I actually experienced. I earned the gear, certainly, but who's to say what I never even knew I missed out on?

The same philosophy applies to the game's approach to much of its optional content, however. I did my best to take the game as it was, but if your curiosity is peaked by the promise of a new fight or area, there's a good chance you'll have to look up what you're supposed to do to actually get it. For example; there's an optional boss fight in a locked room hidden behind a puzzle, which you can open by getting a key by trading an item (that you got from an unrelated sidequest) to an NPC you've never heard of, who you can't see, in a corner an area that is nowhere near the locked door and you have no reason to revisit, much less thoroughly examine every corner.

I think the intent is that players learn about these things through methods other than just, like, playing the game. Maybe there was a time when hearing about a legendary sword at the peak of the Great Crystal was something significant, and being fortunate enough to find it was a story worth telling. Unfortunately, whether or not it's a fair criticism to put on the game, what that looks like now is just skimming any one of a number of guides available online. There's simply no other way to engage with, frankly, sizeable chunks of the game, even if you do want to take it at its terms. It's a frequent occurrence, and unsatisfying every time.

This method of obfuscation seems to me a very deeply held part of the genre. The nature of Final Fantasy XII is that it's always throwing you at new enemies, new problems to solve with your party of heroes, all without telling you exactly what you're in for. It's something of a double-edged sword; the downside is that every new problem is met with a brief period of experimentation, where you find out what exactly it is you're not allowed to do. So much of the challenge in the game centers on this; the more you delve into the game's Espers and Hunts, the more you encounter enemies who refuse to be Slowed, or Sheared, or affected by most any of the tools at your disposals. Some bosses enter lengthy phases of invulnerability, where you're left more or less standing around and waiting for them to finish. Of course, they have no trouble including enemies who cast spells that simply kills your entire active party as soon as you start the fight. It's often exasperating, and I can't help but wonder if there isn't - in a completely different game, mind - a better approach they could have considered.

The developers do need to do something to force players to change their strategies, though, otherwise we'd just find something that works and stick to that the entire game, which would be a tremendous waste. Developing a strategy in this game is an exercise in flexibility and improvisation, aided by the wonderful specialization of license boards and the frankly brilliant Gambit system. They're so pitch-perfect for this style of gameplay that I'm surprised to not have seen them elsewhere. All of the non-decisions of picking targets to attack, juggling obvious elemental advantages and healing are taken care of, leaving you to focus on the edge cases and complexity that actually make combat interesting. Between that and the generous, welcoming progression systems, it really does feel like developing a party of competent heroes, who have a place in a story of such scale.

There's other things to talk about, like how it's easily one of the most gorgeous games of that entire console generation, or the refreshing and inspired Ivalician aesthetic, or the wonderful blocking in the cutscenes, or how they really didn't have to make all the men in the game as hot as they did, or how fucking ICONIC Fran is, etc. I really wasn't expecting to find so much to love. It's mired in an often frustrating philosophy of obscurity that permeates every minute of actually playing the game, but without the pointless busywork of random battles and grinding, the worst moments are over quickly, and the moments of triumph feel like a direct result of careful planning, quick thinking and versatility.

almost a perfect game, really, if not for the unfortunate pacing issues in the last third... going from political intrigue and breaking out of prisons and into palaces and all kinds of fun shit to dungeon and ruin diving was a mistake, but mistakes happen

gameplay ruled, characters ruled

hot take: vaan and penelo are actually good characters, they never get in the way of the story but are there to support the main characters when it matters and then back the fuck away when it matters! as usual the internet is full of shit and probably illiterate! D:

vayne going full cyborg god freak at the end was probably the biggest hiccup, it really came out of nowhere, but if i let every weird nonsensical thing ruin a work for me i'd hate most things and that's boring

gambits, bring em back! also gimme an if block!

oh and also: the best remaster they've done, unless you count the pixel remasters, which are full on remakes in unity, so i don't, and it's a real fucking shame they didn't put this much effort and polish into their other remasters... maybe one day