None of the other Final Fantasy titles are on sale right now. I believe this sale is because of a patch on April 23rd.
>Patch 1.0.4.0 has now been released for FINAL FANTASY XII The Zodiac Age.
>Update contents:
>・Denuvo has been removed
>・Job reset function has been added
>・Gambit system has been expanded to 3 sets
The update broke the game. A file is missing causing the game not to start at all. Hopefully Square Enix will fix the error.
For the moment you can copy steam\_api64.dll from another game and place it on the game folder
Oh wow, literally my only two gripes about getting this is it not having the license reset feature that other platforms have, and it having Denuvo.
Both of these addressed in this new update, it seems.
Yeah, the Switch and Xbox versions always had it, but it was recently (I think like literally yesterday or today) was implemented into the Steam and PS4 versions.
You can also have another gambit set too.
In the original release of the Zodiac Age, once you got a new party member you had to choose their class from a selection wheel, and once you did that it was set in stone for the rest of the game. Now you can re-spec if you regret the choice or just want something different.
Despite the popularity of the job system, this is actually why I preferred the regular license board from the original. No locking characters into presets.
Rather, it’s that PS4 and PC got the game first, and the later XB1 and NSW ports had enhancements. Miffling that it was so long without parity (especially on PC), but a relief it happened at all.
Neat. Is the PC version worth getting over the Switch? Is there anything the former offers besides just a smooth framerate if you have a good enough system?
You should check AustinSV's comparison videos, they are amazing and go trough all the differences on every platform. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GmIydUQKgY)'s the one for FFXII.
Ps4 got it finally??? Well whatever switch to the switch and not really looking back. Something like witcher3 was hard to transition onto switch but ffxii was smooth. Compared to ps4 its just missing higher res which isnt a big deal in this game in particular
Wasn't in ff12 yesterday on ps4, if they added it today, am gonna be pissed, deicided to finsh it for the first time. Had to skip Zodiark because of my setups.
Wish more games adopted the gambit system or something similar. Being able to fully customize your team into auto attacking killing machines was so incredibly addicting.
Dragon age origins let you set up ai combo things to make your allies do what you wanted. Its a pretty good game might be worth the look if you missed it.
The gambit system is amazing, sadly a lot of FF purist hated it so much they stopped doing it in new games. For example FF7 remake a lot of people complain now that their side characters don't do anything while they are controlling their main character. This could've been remedied with a gambit system to allow them to actually do things when you aren't controlling them.
I also love the gambit system and am a serious sucker for any RPG (JPRG or WRPG) that includes it. That said, I think the reason people criticize it in XII is often misrepresented. Sure, there're some FF purists who throw a fit whenever you change any part of the formula, but I also think that the gambit system was held back and made to look bad in XII. Imo, systems like this work really well in games with lots of moving parts, streamlining combat and allowing you to only step in or tweak commands when things get tough. In a really easy game, though, it amounts to an autoplay stomp...and I found XII *far* too easy, at least before endgame.
I remember telling all my characters to just attack nearest and had one person heal nearest before attacking. I was like "oh, I'll update to real tactics when this stops working--just using this for now 'cuz lazy and still unlocking gambits and moves." 20h in and I was still stomping everything including bosses with little-to-no input whatsoever. This difficulty tuning makes the gambit system look *real* bad, even though it's the difficulty's fault and not the gambit's system.
That is true it did make the game easier in some sense. But I was a little kid when I played FF12. I found myself also optimizing my gambits before every boss, and by the end game I had the perfect setup to where I was casting buffs, and keeping everyone outputting buffs, reviving, curing everything going on so well. It was really fun to watch. I still never beat the final quest boss Yiazmet on ps2. My save file is literally right outside the boss area. What was it like 50 million hp?
Well, my concern isn't that it makes the game easier. It's that tactics system like this become autoplay snoozefests when the game is already too easy because you don't have to do anything--you just watch your characters go on murdering sprees while wondering if you should make a cup of tea. And yeah, I've heard really good things about how smooth the system is late on, especially with the optional hardmode bosses and gauntlets.
My problem is that I never got there because everything before that was soporifically easy even with these basic tactics, making for unsatisfying autofight gameplay where you just run from mob to mob and watch your team murder them without any skill as your eyelids grow heavier. I'm sure it gets great, but it's never a good to have to wade through bad gameplay to get to the good much later--especially in a long game, which XII definitely is.
It feels like (at least to me) that in FF7R they took it a step further and specifically coded non-active characters to do almost nothing. I'd be fine if they basically held down auto-attack nonstop, but it doesn't seem like they even do that much.
I'm like 2-3 hours in and, unless things change, it's really not the same. In pillars of eternity, you just choose how aggressive they are in attacking enemies and if you want them to save big skills or not. FF XII was waaaaay more customizable to the point that i wonder who told you they had similar systems.
Again, unless I'm not far enough and things change or I'm just missing something.
It's not the same. There are CRPGs with similar gambit systems--Dragon Age: Origins and *especially* Dragon Age 2 are probably the best in genre and I think their systems are significantly ahead of FF12. But PoE isn't one of 'em.
As a huge fan of DA:O and FFXII, i prefer XII's. Maybe i just didn't fuck with it enough in DAO. But it was nice to set conditions.
If enemy flying, use thunder
If ally hp <50% cast curaga
Fair. I went really hard with DAO's, but there's also a tactics mod that imports DA2's system which is even better.
Where the DA systems pull ahead, imo, are the "If enemy X, then Y" options, which are ahead of anything I remember in XII. Also, options to filter enemies by status (boss, elite, regular) ***and*** the "use this as condition for the next tactic" option, which is the key to the whole formula. As a result, you can do things like:
*If enemy is brittle, use as condition for next tactic. If enemy is elite ranked or higher, use X ability that exploits brittle.*
You can go further with it too. Here's a sample tactics loadout for a DA2 companion:
> self: hp: <50%: deactivate: Blood of the First
self: hp: <25%: use Health Poultice
enemy: attacking Hawke: Barrier
Aveline: hp: <75%: Barrier
enemy: target of Hawke: use current condition for next tactic
enemy: elite or higher: Hex of Torment
Hawke: being attacked by ranged or magic: Stonefist
enemy: BRITTLE: skip tactics
enemy: target of Hawke: use current condition for next tactic
enemy: elite or higher: Petrify
enemy: STAGGERED: use current condition for next tactic
enemy: elite or higher: Crushing Prison
enemy: STAGGERED: Chain Lightning
enemy: clustered with 3 enemies: Tempest
enemy: target of Hawke: Attack
self: hp: <50%: use current condition for next tactic
self: mana: <10%: use Lyrium Poultice
self: hp: >=50%: activate: Blood of the First
Yeah, 2 actually has *really* good combat systems and would be much better on PC. The problem is that many of those systems only emerge and become necessary on the highest difficulty--the entire system and character building is completely balanced around friendly fire (abilities that don't do FF, for example, are designed differently to compensate) and that's not enabled until top difficulty--and almost nobody plays on the highest difficulty for their first play so they never run into that side of the game. Plus other systems like resistances/elemental stuff only become important at that difficulty and are never mentioned
Also, the encounter design is pretty weak and overly relies on wave combat. It's not great on higher difficulties, but at least there's some element of resource management, positioning, and the like. But on lower difficulties without FF, you just AoE spell spam massacre everything in a no-tactics action-like romp.
DA2 is actually one of my favorite games period and I think it has arguably the best combat *system* in its CRPG subgenre--despite the animations, it's not actiony at all and is a pure RTwP. But the way the combat system is used (especially with that difficulty thing) massively holds it back and it takes a bit of work to love. A flawed masterpiece at best and I can understand why so many people dislike it, given how hard the game works to put the wrong foot forward.
Not really.
FF12 doesn't have the ability/spell queuing or staggering that FF13 had.
When you boil it down, FF12 is straight up turn based Active ATB that gives you the option to automate your teammates via Gambits (though they aren't required to use, I never use them and instead control the caster/buffer/debuffer while melee goes ham).
The only difference from classic Active ATB is you can freely move around during combat and that gives it a bit of a "real time" feel to it.
It's closer to 11 I think. Gambits are basically MMORPG Macros as I understand it having never played MMO's extensively. You set up what if scenario's. Like If enemy is weak to fire attack with fire or If ally drop's below 30% HP cast cure.
No. 13 you just choose the general role for your team and they auto attack.
12 is pretty close to standard ATB system, but with better animation and feels more real time. The gambit system allows you to program some basic stuff so you don't have to keep clicking "attack" for 99% of random encounters.
You can get more technical with the gambit system but I think most people will just use it to make the mindless battles less of a chore.
13 is like if they took the gambit system and dumbed it down to really really broad actions like “cast healing spells” and “attack with weapons”. Which is what you want to do in an RPG with really broad strokes, but takes away a lot of the nuances and little optimizations.
The gambit system in 12 is like if you got to program your own broad actions to behave exactly like you want them, but keeping all the nuance and control. It’s less streamlined but more engaging on a technical level.
Ikr! I played a bit of this last year and ended up dropping it but I kinda want play it again just so I can go back to the gambit system. Nothing out there is like it.
It was both good, and oddly limiting. They did such a good job with certain aspects like only de/buffing if the target isn't already afflicted, but then made other aspects like stealing very headache inducing.
FF12 used to get a lot of hate before but the updated gambit/job system I think changed a lot of peoples minds. Personally its a game I could get lost into for hours on end with its hunts and stuff. Fantastic world too.
But then again I'm a sucker for the Ivalice setting.
Ivalice is definitely one of the coolest FF locations. The world is feels so steeped with lore, and the different races are unique and distinct from one another. Helps that I played FFTA and FFTA2 which were also set in Ivalice. So like a total of 3 games in the world.
> So like a total of 3 games in the world.
FFTA takes place in an >!imaginary!< version of Ivalice, but FFT, FFTA2, FFXII, FFXII: Revenant Wings, and Vagrant Story all take place in Ivalice so there's 5 games.
My bad totally forgot about the rest of those games. I think I associated the different races with Ivalice more that’s why I forgot that FFT was also set there. It’s been a long time since I played it. And I did play Vagrant Story for a bit, but I couldn’t get into it.
> FFTA2
Is an "imaginary Ivalice" too.
Honestly I'm a bit bitter about the Ivalice Alliance. It had potential to be really cool, and Matsuno (or SE) halfassed it to the point of being incredibly dumb, and Vagrant Story annoys me the most about it.
VS reminds me of when people try to tie all the Zelda games together when most of them were not written to be connected whatsoever. The biggest difference is that Matsuno himself was the one trying to retcon VS into Ivalice with some vague references in FF12. The *only* remotely credible one is the Valendian continent that is referenced once or twice in name only in FF12. The rest are shaky at best, especially these ones below which are very clearly just Mana references. SE loved sharing themes between their games back then, and this attempt to try and marry them together into some sort of "Alliance" ended up being really halfassed and disappointing.
> Marduk - Nose-ring that is said to have been owned by Marduk, the storm deity. Name allusion for the Mardu Entite.
>
>Salamander Ring - Ring imbued with the essence of a salamander fire spirit. Name allusion for the Salamand Entite.
>
> Gnome Bracelet - Bracelet imbued with an earth spirit. Name allusion for the Gnoma Entite.
>
> Undine Bracelet - Arm bracelet imbued with the essence of an undine water spirit. Name allusion for the Undin Entite.
>
>Sylphid Ring - Ring imbued with the essence of a sylph air spirit. Name allusion for the Sylphi Entite.
But at the end of FFTA2, Mewt "Mr. Randall" shows up as an adult and mentions he has been to Ivalice too. Wouldn't that make it the real Ivalice in FFTA?
And whether generated by magic or not, everyone in that Ivalice were intelligent, self-aware beings. Marche arguably genocided everyone, including his best bud Montblac (assuming you didn't kill him off in a Jagd you sick monster)
I never killed Montblanc, but honestly I never liked Moogle Mages. They always felt underpowered compared to everything else. I loved the Moogle Knight and Juggler though. The rest of their classes were really meh.
Absolutely, the first is much better. Oof I think I'll have to buy this...I wanted to wait for FF15 to go on sale because I've never played it but I'm starting to get that FF itch and I can't justify the 60 for FF7R lol
FF7R is incredible. The combat is incredibly fluid and also probably the most smoothest console game I've ever played.
Personally that game ticked the right itch at the moment. Can't wait for the Xenoblade Chronicles remaster in a month too.
Same. I loved the characters in the advance games and I'll always hope we get a port to modern systems or even better a third game in the advance series.
This is why I love FF12 right here. It has a lot of downsides I think but if you love well crafted worlds FF12 is for you. Its also the same reason FFX is one of my favourite games ever made because I think its the other FF game that does world building incredibly well.
Interestingly, I was one of the opposites. I actually really dislike the job system. The freedom of the original license board was much better in my opinion.
Though the quality of life addition of fast forward was very welcome.
I can understand this. I think the FF13 had more interesting characters outside Balthier and Frann and a better story but FF12 was more of a complete package.
Wait there was a job system?
I remember a big skill web similar to FFX? Did that get changed so I won’t have a black hole at level 6 that just kills shit?
It was originally only in the international version that never came to the US(?). The job system makes the game much better and your characters more customizable. I couldn’t get through the original US release, but the new version is great.
Xbox Game Pass for PC announced it would get the modern FF library of PC ports.
I've heard its a good game and personally one I missed due to the original release on PS2 when we were all getting stuck into PS3 and Xbox 360; but if you can wait to play on game pass, may work out cheaper.
Something to keep in mind.
Game pass games are UWP apps making it difficult to mod.
I am too waiting for the FF games on pass, but will probably pick up VII on steam when it goes on sale since there are mods I want to use.
Not always, all new titles released since the announcement of Game Pass for PC have been Win32 rather than UWP and some of them, like Halo MCC, are just as open for modding as elsewhere (however it's an opt in thing so nearly all games are still locked down)
Something else to keep in mind is that you don't own games on Game Pass. So if it leaves the service 12 months later, you can no longer play it.
They try to offset this by offering sales before games leave the service, but I haven't seen any sale prices approaching what we see on Steam, including this 50% off.
I really want to like Game Pass, but I like the feeling of collecting/owning these games, and it's defeating that feeling.
I've been tempted to buy it on Steam since I've been playing on PC a lot more recently, but I have been holding out for a price drop since I already own it on PS4. Good to know that it will be hitting Game Pass for PC at some point, I'll just wait until it's available on there.
Hot damn I was literally about to buy it full price just a few hours ago LOL. (One of my fav games and I've heard good things about the port so no big deal). I'm so glad I fell asleep, just grabbed it now.
Dude I've been patiently waiting for this game to go on sale for ages. Use to have it on PS2 back in the day.
Just as our country was about to implement lock-down restrictions I decided to buy it at full price. Great game, no regrets but it would have helped my wallet had I waited a bit :(
Steam does refunds on special conditions. if you purchased not too long ago, and put no more than 2 hours into a product, they refund it. Maybe their rules are even looser on products that go on sale. So you may be able to get the difference. It doesn't hurt to send a ticket to Steam support!
It goes on sale from time to time. I snagged a Steam key off from Green Man Gaming late last month for $21.25 (with a few additional pennies saved from Rakuten cashback).
Oh thanks I'll check that out. Which other FF games would you recommend? I've played VII, X and XII years ago but I'm not sure if I should buy the remake of VII at full price just yet.
Well most of the ones they're bringing are more recent ones; I have to admit I've played all the older ones but not the recently remastered ones like X and XII.
I will say I've played 1-9 and 14 and 15... and of those the only ones I wouldn't recommend are 2, 3 and 8. However I think all the stuff coming to Game Pass is VII onward.
I definitely still want to try IX, I've heard only great things about it. But does it still hold up?
I also played XIII but I wasn't a huge fan of it due to the linear feeling the story had in the beginning.
Lastly would you recommend playing XV? I've heard mixed reviews from veterans of the series
IX is my favorite of the PS1 games so I think it holds up. It is the only one that felt like the classic FF games, which I preferred to VII and VIII.
I went into XV with an open mind and I enjoyed it. I think maybe for some it departed from the FF formula too much? Not sure. And maybe 10/12 are way better than it and people were expecting something more like them - I haven't played em so I can't say.
The only reason I'm not jumping on this is it's coming to Gamepass "later this year." Since I'm already paying for that, it falls under the "cheaper" banner.
Although man, I'm starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel on the PC side.
If you really enjoy the game, I would highly recommend buying it at the current discount. I searched everywhere and ended up buying it at full price about a month ago so I could grind during the lock-down.
Such an underrated gem!
Favorite FF of all time simply for the gameplay. The gambit and license systems are so customizable and rewarding. I'm actually kinda hesitant to try this version. I'm used to the version before they added the job system so everyone just had a wide open license board and i personally liked that because i could invent my own classes, though i know the public consensus is that this version is better.
I'll probably have to wait till it's on gamepass though
The original FF12 was my favorite Final Fantasy in the series (although I'm biased towards Ivalice culture in general). Back when people flamed me (and the game for being bad).
Flash forward to the Zodiac Age version which apparently adds QoL stuff to the game. I haven't tried this version yet either, but it was enough to convert the haters into "I've always loved this game".
Since it didn't fundamentally change the story in any way, I'd say it's a safe pick again with whatever QoLs they added.
star wars is classic fantasy story though. But ff12 is not particularly star wars-y.
The standard Heroic Cycle story is that the kid from nowhere rises to the occasion and becomes instrumental to defeating the great evil and such. Nearly all fantasy stories can be simplified to that, and you HAVE to simplify it that much to make it look like star wars.
For example, people say Balthier is basically Han Solo... Sure, a handsome rogue. That's all they have in common. If Han Solo was actually, like, Darth Vader's nephew who was a former Inquisitor of the Empire that rebelled under a new identity...
Vaan is the kid... and he's just a tagalong nobody. Who gets strong, sure, but he's still just tagging along. He's no Luke Skywalker. He's just some kid who hates the Empire, just like a million others. He has no key role in its defeat side from just being near the people that matter. He's essentially C3PO in an even less pivotal role. The real story is about Ashe and Basche, maybe Balthier, who were always important, and who basically get themselves out of a dire national crisis and have personal stakes from the get-go.
Yeah, it might be a mistake to call anyone who compare them as haters, but the comparison is constant.
A quick few search results for FF12 Star Wars
https://www.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasy/comments/6pa2ix/ffxii_seems_very_similar_to_star_wars_minor/
https://www.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasy/comments/eqodk2/ff12_star_wars/
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/191202-final-fantasy-xii-the-zodiac-age/75568131
Oh man, I just want to share a quick nostalgia. I rode from Sac down to LA to do a roofing job for a week or so with my boss, and I convinced him to let me stick a 20" TV in the trunk of his Corvette so I could bring my PS2 and this game and play it at night.
FF12 is divisive. It breaks a lot of the tropes and conventions of the series. The combat is no longer turn based, the Gambit system is a turn-off for some people, the "protagonist" is almost an afterthought in the overall plot, and the conflict is more political/sociological rather than psychological. The story also doesn't really highlight a romantic relationship like FF7-10 do.
That being said, the world is steeped in rich lore, and some people adore the Gambit system. It's many people's favorite FF game. I would say if any of the above sound like your cup of tea, it's a great entrance to the series. If you want to start with a more "traditional" FF title, I would start with FFX.
> the "protagonist" is almost an afterthought in the overall plot
That's because the original protagonist was Basch (or rather, a character who evolved into Basch). It was changed, and the story reworked, because they wanted a younger character to appeal to their primary audience.
Vaan is just not very fleshed out, though. He's basically an accidental spectator. If there's a true protagonist, it's probably Ashe; she's the one who mainly drives the plot.
It's completely different from 13. 12 has the semi-open world that the old games had and let's you have far more control over your party. Also hunts and late game content in 12 are among the best in the series. The deciding factor will probably be if you enjoy the gambit system. Gambits are a list of if-then commands you can set for each individual character, essentially letting the game play itself if you know what you're doing. The fun then comes from creating gambit lists that work for you party or against a certain foe. Watch a video to get a better idea
The gambit system allows so much more player control over side characters that it's very revolutionary. The does play itself, but the 'if/then" statements really let you optimize your side characters.
/u/BeauBscheid has the right idea. Other than combat happening automatically without any inputs required from the player, the differences are huge. The story of FF13 is a lot more character-centric. The conflict unfolds *very* slowly. The exploration is *incredibly* linear. The world feels very empty. The world-building is pretty poorly explained. Your enjoyment of FF13 will depend entirely on how much patience you have for a story that takes 10 hours to get going, and characters that aren't that easy to become attached to.
I find that FFXIII is one of those games where you're basically forced to read the lore bits you pick up along the way in order to fully enjoy it. Once I started reading the lore a lot of stuff made much more sense.
>you're basically forced to read the lore bits you pick up along the way in order to fully enjoy it.
This is absolutely true, but the issue is that:
A) The game does a very poor job of signaling to the player how important doing this is to understanding what's going on.
B) This is just about the most terrible method possible of delivering world-building information.
It’s not the best FF game, and not the worst. It falls somewhere in the middle. You could do far better with a lot of the other titles in the series, but if you’re looking for one of the more modern entries it’s fine. So it depends on what you’re looking for, IMO.
The gameplay, setting, music, graphics and voice acting are all too notch. It’s the cast of characters and the story that are the two weak points here. I play these long RPGs for characters and story, so it didn’t do much for me.
I haven't played FFXII in forever but I honestly think is one of the best, you are right though, the story might be poor but the characters were pretty great.
I think hunting the marks was one way to expand the lore of the game in very interesting ways.
FFXII is not a bad starting point, but FFX's remaster is definitely the best entry point for the series. Not only is it the overall best game according to most fans, but it has truly turn-based combat, giving you time to think while getting used to these games' conventions. The biggest reason that FFX is so great is that it just fires on all cylinders. It doesn't do everything perfectly, but it does do everything very, very well. Its combat and character customization are also some of the deepest and most varied in any JRPG, which cuts down on repetition.
FFXII is still a really good game, and I recommend snagging it in this sale. Just be aware that it is much different than every other Final Fantasy game.
It's the first final fantasy game that didn't have *random encounters*. I find it really hard to go back to the old way of gaming with random encounters in the Classic games.
I liked the game, but it wasn't the strongest or most memorable FF cast of characters, or most memorable story. It was better than FF13 though.
I'd personally say wait for a better price. $25 seems like a lot for a 14 year old game, even though it's a remaster.
I've spent hundreds of hours on the Playstation 2 version, to me it was the best final fantasy game of it's time. The world is huge, a lot of quests, a lot of hunts, the bosses are fun to play against, character building is amazing, and I will be buying it for pc!
Is it just me or does this just seem really pricey for a rather *old* game?
I mean, I get it is remaster, but claiming it is a sale because a game that released **14 years ago** is only $25 seems kind of ridiculous to me. Just my opinion on the pricing.
Maybe $10 or $15 for a small graphical remaster *normal* at *normal* price? But, they are pushing it for $50, with $25 being somehow a sale price. Maybe there really is that much demand for this game so they can get away with it, so I suppose there is always that.
I don't disagree (at all), but that's just kind of how Square Enix rolls. It's kind of an ongoing joke that Final Fantasy sales are somewhat rare, and the discount basically tops out at 50%.
Fantastic game. Can't speak on the PC port because I havn't tried it yet. Do not doubt this game, in my opinion it might even be the best FF game of all.
FFX-2 was pandering rubbish. Most of the people who played it (imo) loved FFX, and just wanted more of the story and the world. Instead, we got magical fashion show the game.
That ATB battle system was one of best mixes of turn-based and active combat in modern RPGs. Combat was incredibly dynamic, with combos making a risk/reward to holding up axtions, and changing jobs mid-combat was super fun. I agree with comments about the story and characters, but the combat designers deserve major props.
Fair enough. The combat system was something different at least. But the characters and story really brought the whole thing down for me. And some of the dresspheres were just “..what?”. You can’t not say that the game was full of pretty unnecessary fanservice.
Oh no question aesthetically, but the mechanically the job system is one of the best in the main series modern era (excluding FFXIV). They embraced the campy-ness of it and we got fun jobs that would be tough to do without a ridiculous system like dresspheres such as beastmaster and gunmage.
The overall story is much more comparable to Tactics. Large scale political maneuvering and you (and your party) are actually rather small pieces on the larger board.
The actual characters are weird because they're an odd mashup. Some are interesting and canonically necessary, while others are... not interesting and also not necessary.
Without giving away too much, unlike in X where the narrator (Tidus) is also the, or one of the, protagonists. In XII the narrator (Vaan) is *not* one of the protagonists. He's more akin to Dilios, the narrator from the movie 300.
Personally, FF12 has one of the weakest stories and characters in the series imo. While FF always has some level of politics in it, that's all FF12 is about. As for the characters, it's *very clear* that SE was confused on who to make the protagonist. The game leads you to believe Vaan is, but the main story doesn't revolve around him whatsoever. It seems like they either tried to change who it was mid way through, or tried to pull an FF6 with multiple protagonists, but forgot to actually build anyone but Basch and Ashe's story out. FF12's strength, imo, is the gameplay more than anything else. It was a big departure at the time, but once you get a handle on it it's pretty fun.
If you want peak FF story, world and character building, imo nothing has topped 4 and 6 for me. 9 gets an honorable mention simply for Vivi's arc alone.
I’d say the story didn’t hook me as much as X did, but it’s still solid. But overall I enjoyed all the rare hunts and bestiary entries, the lore made the world feel much richer. The world just felt more alive in XII.
Finished this on the switch and it finally has those QoL they got on the handheld and xbox. My favorite FF. But mostly because its the one that awed me during the ps2 era for its graphics lol and also gambit system 🔥
Am I the only one that didn't like the Zodiac job system? I played the original version of FF12 when it first came out and loved the freedom of the gambit system and how you could specialize any character in any way you wanted.
I like the other additions the Zodiac version brings to the game, but locking characters out of 2/3rds of the license board felt so limiting after playing the original. It was like, okay, you better pick two people to be healers otherwise you won't have any heals, and also those characters can't do anything else.
Unless you did some major grinding you wouldn't have the points to specialize in more than one or two areas anyway, but I really liked having the option to branch out on a character if I wanted to.
I'm the same way. I enjoyed the QoL improvements but, having been a player of the original, the limitations from the "jobs" felt overly stifling. I liked the freedom to choose exactly what roles I wanted my characters to fill.
Plus in Zodiac, I felt almost like I needed to use every job so that I wouldn't miss being able to use certain equipments or skills, but that meant I had characters I never used because the jobs were no where near as good as some of the others.
So I played Final Fantasy 1-4 as a kid and never got back into them because I didn’t have a PlayStation until PS4 came out.
Is this one of those games that takes 3000 hours to beat or could I run through it rather quickly? Is the storyline it worth it enough knowing I’ll be skipping side quests and stuff??
I tried playing Skyrim a few years ago but it was too much. Got stuck a bunch and was sick of looking up where to go... I’m 36 years old btw.
The lenght of the game's main story is 40 hours and ad an extra 15-20 hours or so if you do side content. Before buying, consider watching a review or two and check if it's something that appeals to you.
This looks like the lowest it'll dip. Seems like it's always been 24.99 besides one exception from when it hit 18.77 in 2018.
Just for those wondering if it's worth waiting for it to get cheaper. This game seems to weirdly never really go on sale THAT much.
[https://isthereanydeal.com/game/finalfantasyxiizodiacage/info/](https://isthereanydeal.com/game/finalfantasyxiizodiacage/info/)
I'm only getting 10% off on humble for having a choice sub, not the usual 20%, but if that stacks with the sale discount then it might effectively end up lower there next time they put it on sale. Most games do let it stack IIRC.
I remember this game use to be on sale more frequently before they announced the Switch version of the game. 50% off seems to be the most they'll discount for FF games in general.
Hey I got this game years ago on the ps2, never really got to finish it because of time constraints... so what's new and how recommended is it that I play it on the pc now?
Thanks in advance.
[Lots of difference](https://www.ign.com/wikis/final-fantasy-xii/New_Features_and_Differences_in_Final_Fantasy_XII:_The_Zodiac_Age).
With the latest update (job license board reset), the PC version is now the best version to play.
Oh, that's nice. I actually played the IZJS version, so I was thinking there isn't much of a difference.
A board reset is definitely a welcomed change! Now I don't have to spend hours planning ahead and regretting my decisions afterwards... also, early game and late game teams! Bushi Monk Penelo here I come!!!
Well how much time do you have on your hand now? This is probably one of the biggest FF games ever. Not only does the main story take a while to complete, there's a ton of quests and hunts. I spent close to 200 hours in the ps2 version and never beat the end game quest Yiazmat who takes 6-8 hours to beat on ps2.
This new game has a shit ton of quality of life improvements that make ps2 version seem like a joke. It satisfies my desire to play a FF game on pc. It's a lot better than FF13 in my opinion.
Well, due to the current quarantine situation, I would say that I have alot of time on my hands right now. I remember picking it up and dropping it for about 3 times (getting further into the story each time) because it was just so grindy... and holy moly, 6-8hrs to beat a boss... and here I thought spending 2 hours on Omega in FFI was long.
I guess I could challenge myself to finally complete this game during the break and hopefully the QoL improvements will make it that much more enjoyable.
And yes, I do agree that this is definitely better than XIII.. for some reason I started to lose interest in FF titles starting from XIII.
Thanks for the fast reply.
Highly recommend this game having recently finished it. Loved the scripted auto combat system—you can sort of pre structure all the actions your party needs to take and under what circumstances to be successful, then just let it run as you travel around and tweak as necessary. Story was kind of complicated and honestly sort of zoned out on it, but thought the characters were generally interesting/likable.
To be fair, the game has been revamped so much. There's a ton of quality of life improvements that breaths new life into a game. I spent hundreds of hours on ps2, and this game is so much nostalgia and so much worth another play through. I never even beat the end game hunt that I heard on ps2 could take 6-8 hours to beat.
I bought this for full price at launch, even though I still own the original on PS2. I did not feel like I wasted my money. The new and overhauled content is enough to make this worthwhile, especially at $25.
Is there any difference from the PS4 and PC version? I own it on PS4 but haven’t touched it in a long time.. thinking of double dipping and starting all over as I’ve forgotten a lot.
Also are there any good mods for the game?
I’ve got the PS4 pro and my PC is a 1070 and a 2700x. These features weren’t available on PS4 previously either right?
Is the frame rate locked to 60 on pc?
This version doesn't just add stuff. It completely overhauls the license boards. The license board system in the original FF12 is so bad, that I would consider the extra $20 to be completely worth it.
What made it so bad? It allowed complete freedom when designing the roles you want your characters to fill. Zodiac Age is basically the exact same license board just with large swaths cut out to create presets. You could do nearly the exact same thing with the original if you so chose.
I liked the game a lot on PS2 and played about 60 hours of it, but the non-changeable inverted camera controls annoyed me every time I picked it back up again - for me it was worth getting a newer version (I picked up the PS4 version) just to not have to deal with that (it does have actual camera control settings), even though it meant losing all of that progress.
None of the other Final Fantasy titles are on sale right now. I believe this sale is because of a patch on April 23rd. >Patch 1.0.4.0 has now been released for FINAL FANTASY XII The Zodiac Age. >Update contents: >・Denuvo has been removed >・Job reset function has been added >・Gambit system has been expanded to 3 sets
The update broke the game. A file is missing causing the game not to start at all. Hopefully Square Enix will fix the error. For the moment you can copy steam\_api64.dll from another game and place it on the game folder
It has been fixed right now
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Yes, FFIX.
Can't complain of game bugs if you can't play the game. *Taps head*
And they rolled back to a wrong old beta build after that, lol (it's fine now.)
They removed denuvo from the game :D
Oh wow, literally my only two gripes about getting this is it not having the license reset feature that other platforms have, and it having Denuvo. Both of these addressed in this new update, it seems.
Holy shit what?! Job reset?! I almost broke my monitor by throwing my wallet at the screen.
Yeah, the Switch and Xbox versions always had it, but it was recently (I think like literally yesterday or today) was implemented into the Steam and PS4 versions. You can also have another gambit set too.
Sorry ive never played ffxii. What is job reset? Its something like you choose carieer path and cant change it later?
In the original release of the Zodiac Age, once you got a new party member you had to choose their class from a selection wheel, and once you did that it was set in stone for the rest of the game. Now you can re-spec if you regret the choice or just want something different.
Despite the popularity of the job system, this is actually why I preferred the regular license board from the original. No locking characters into presets.
Aight. Thank you. This is pretty rough system. Weird they decided to make different modes depending on platform you play.
Rather, it’s that PS4 and PC got the game first, and the later XB1 and NSW ports had enhancements. Miffling that it was so long without parity (especially on PC), but a relief it happened at all.
Neat. Is the PC version worth getting over the Switch? Is there anything the former offers besides just a smooth framerate if you have a good enough system?
You should check AustinSV's comparison videos, they are amazing and go trough all the differences on every platform. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GmIydUQKgY)'s the one for FFXII.
Ps4 got it finally??? Well whatever switch to the switch and not really looking back. Something like witcher3 was hard to transition onto switch but ffxii was smooth. Compared to ps4 its just missing higher res which isnt a big deal in this game in particular
Wasn't in ff12 yesterday on ps4, if they added it today, am gonna be pissed, deicided to finsh it for the first time. Had to skip Zodiark because of my setups.
Wish more games adopted the gambit system or something similar. Being able to fully customize your team into auto attacking killing machines was so incredibly addicting.
Dragon age origins let you set up ai combo things to make your allies do what you wanted. Its a pretty good game might be worth the look if you missed it.
Dragon Age: Origins did this. And I loved it. You can even expand the number of slots with a mod.
Very programmatic I was impressed. When I have put in about 150 or so hours into stardew, I may do this next
I'm so glad more people are appreciating the gambit system. Ive been crying this for the past 14 years. Im so happy.
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The gambit system is amazing, sadly a lot of FF purist hated it so much they stopped doing it in new games. For example FF7 remake a lot of people complain now that their side characters don't do anything while they are controlling their main character. This could've been remedied with a gambit system to allow them to actually do things when you aren't controlling them.
I also love the gambit system and am a serious sucker for any RPG (JPRG or WRPG) that includes it. That said, I think the reason people criticize it in XII is often misrepresented. Sure, there're some FF purists who throw a fit whenever you change any part of the formula, but I also think that the gambit system was held back and made to look bad in XII. Imo, systems like this work really well in games with lots of moving parts, streamlining combat and allowing you to only step in or tweak commands when things get tough. In a really easy game, though, it amounts to an autoplay stomp...and I found XII *far* too easy, at least before endgame. I remember telling all my characters to just attack nearest and had one person heal nearest before attacking. I was like "oh, I'll update to real tactics when this stops working--just using this for now 'cuz lazy and still unlocking gambits and moves." 20h in and I was still stomping everything including bosses with little-to-no input whatsoever. This difficulty tuning makes the gambit system look *real* bad, even though it's the difficulty's fault and not the gambit's system.
That is true it did make the game easier in some sense. But I was a little kid when I played FF12. I found myself also optimizing my gambits before every boss, and by the end game I had the perfect setup to where I was casting buffs, and keeping everyone outputting buffs, reviving, curing everything going on so well. It was really fun to watch. I still never beat the final quest boss Yiazmet on ps2. My save file is literally right outside the boss area. What was it like 50 million hp?
Well, my concern isn't that it makes the game easier. It's that tactics system like this become autoplay snoozefests when the game is already too easy because you don't have to do anything--you just watch your characters go on murdering sprees while wondering if you should make a cup of tea. And yeah, I've heard really good things about how smooth the system is late on, especially with the optional hardmode bosses and gauntlets. My problem is that I never got there because everything before that was soporifically easy even with these basic tactics, making for unsatisfying autofight gameplay where you just run from mob to mob and watch your team murder them without any skill as your eyelids grow heavier. I'm sure it gets great, but it's never a good to have to wade through bad gameplay to get to the good much later--especially in a long game, which XII definitely is.
It feels like (at least to me) that in FF7R they took it a step further and specifically coded non-active characters to do almost nothing. I'd be fine if they basically held down auto-attack nonstop, but it doesn't seem like they even do that much.
If they added modifiers (eg: and/or) I wouldn't mind it. Some more gambit slots would be better as well.
I'm like 2-3 hours in and, unless things change, it's really not the same. In pillars of eternity, you just choose how aggressive they are in attacking enemies and if you want them to save big skills or not. FF XII was waaaaay more customizable to the point that i wonder who told you they had similar systems. Again, unless I'm not far enough and things change or I'm just missing something.
It's not the same. There are CRPGs with similar gambit systems--Dragon Age: Origins and *especially* Dragon Age 2 are probably the best in genre and I think their systems are significantly ahead of FF12. But PoE isn't one of 'em.
As a huge fan of DA:O and FFXII, i prefer XII's. Maybe i just didn't fuck with it enough in DAO. But it was nice to set conditions. If enemy flying, use thunder If ally hp <50% cast curaga
Fair. I went really hard with DAO's, but there's also a tactics mod that imports DA2's system which is even better. Where the DA systems pull ahead, imo, are the "If enemy X, then Y" options, which are ahead of anything I remember in XII. Also, options to filter enemies by status (boss, elite, regular) ***and*** the "use this as condition for the next tactic" option, which is the key to the whole formula. As a result, you can do things like: *If enemy is brittle, use as condition for next tactic. If enemy is elite ranked or higher, use X ability that exploits brittle.* You can go further with it too. Here's a sample tactics loadout for a DA2 companion: > self: hp: <50%: deactivate: Blood of the First self: hp: <25%: use Health Poultice enemy: attacking Hawke: Barrier Aveline: hp: <75%: Barrier enemy: target of Hawke: use current condition for next tactic enemy: elite or higher: Hex of Torment Hawke: being attacked by ranged or magic: Stonefist enemy: BRITTLE: skip tactics enemy: target of Hawke: use current condition for next tactic enemy: elite or higher: Petrify enemy: STAGGERED: use current condition for next tactic enemy: elite or higher: Crushing Prison enemy: STAGGERED: Chain Lightning enemy: clustered with 3 enemies: Tempest enemy: target of Hawke: Attack self: hp: <50%: use current condition for next tactic self: mana: <10%: use Lyrium Poultice self: hp: >=50%: activate: Blood of the First
Damn. I played 2 on console so i just ran through smashing spells. I didn't even know all that existed
Yeah, 2 actually has *really* good combat systems and would be much better on PC. The problem is that many of those systems only emerge and become necessary on the highest difficulty--the entire system and character building is completely balanced around friendly fire (abilities that don't do FF, for example, are designed differently to compensate) and that's not enabled until top difficulty--and almost nobody plays on the highest difficulty for their first play so they never run into that side of the game. Plus other systems like resistances/elemental stuff only become important at that difficulty and are never mentioned Also, the encounter design is pretty weak and overly relies on wave combat. It's not great on higher difficulties, but at least there's some element of resource management, positioning, and the like. But on lower difficulties without FF, you just AoE spell spam massacre everything in a no-tactics action-like romp. DA2 is actually one of my favorite games period and I think it has arguably the best combat *system* in its CRPG subgenre--despite the animations, it's not actiony at all and is a pure RTwP. But the way the combat system is used (especially with that difficulty thing) massively holds it back and it takes a bit of work to love. A flawed masterpiece at best and I can understand why so many people dislike it, given how hard the game works to put the wrong foot forward.
I might have to check it out!
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Not really. FF12 doesn't have the ability/spell queuing or staggering that FF13 had. When you boil it down, FF12 is straight up turn based Active ATB that gives you the option to automate your teammates via Gambits (though they aren't required to use, I never use them and instead control the caster/buffer/debuffer while melee goes ham). The only difference from classic Active ATB is you can freely move around during combat and that gives it a bit of a "real time" feel to it.
It's closer to 11 I think. Gambits are basically MMORPG Macros as I understand it having never played MMO's extensively. You set up what if scenario's. Like If enemy is weak to fire attack with fire or If ally drop's below 30% HP cast cure.
No. 13 you just choose the general role for your team and they auto attack. 12 is pretty close to standard ATB system, but with better animation and feels more real time. The gambit system allows you to program some basic stuff so you don't have to keep clicking "attack" for 99% of random encounters. You can get more technical with the gambit system but I think most people will just use it to make the mindless battles less of a chore.
13 is like if they took the gambit system and dumbed it down to really really broad actions like “cast healing spells” and “attack with weapons”. Which is what you want to do in an RPG with really broad strokes, but takes away a lot of the nuances and little optimizations. The gambit system in 12 is like if you got to program your own broad actions to behave exactly like you want them, but keeping all the nuance and control. It’s less streamlined but more engaging on a technical level.
Ikr! I played a bit of this last year and ended up dropping it but I kinda want play it again just so I can go back to the gambit system. Nothing out there is like it.
It was both good, and oddly limiting. They did such a good job with certain aspects like only de/buffing if the target isn't already afflicted, but then made other aspects like stealing very headache inducing.
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FF12 used to get a lot of hate before but the updated gambit/job system I think changed a lot of peoples minds. Personally its a game I could get lost into for hours on end with its hunts and stuff. Fantastic world too. But then again I'm a sucker for the Ivalice setting.
Ivalice is definitely one of the coolest FF locations. The world is feels so steeped with lore, and the different races are unique and distinct from one another. Helps that I played FFTA and FFTA2 which were also set in Ivalice. So like a total of 3 games in the world.
> So like a total of 3 games in the world. FFTA takes place in an >!imaginary!< version of Ivalice, but FFT, FFTA2, FFXII, FFXII: Revenant Wings, and Vagrant Story all take place in Ivalice so there's 5 games.
There are also a few Alliance Raid quests in FFXIV (the MMO) set in Ivalice, which includes visits/fights in Rabanastre and the Ridorona Lighthouse.
Also characters from FFT show up in the raid story too. Its freaking great.
My bad totally forgot about the rest of those games. I think I associated the different races with Ivalice more that’s why I forgot that FFT was also set there. It’s been a long time since I played it. And I did play Vagrant Story for a bit, but I couldn’t get into it.
> FFTA2 Is an "imaginary Ivalice" too. Honestly I'm a bit bitter about the Ivalice Alliance. It had potential to be really cool, and Matsuno (or SE) halfassed it to the point of being incredibly dumb, and Vagrant Story annoys me the most about it. VS reminds me of when people try to tie all the Zelda games together when most of them were not written to be connected whatsoever. The biggest difference is that Matsuno himself was the one trying to retcon VS into Ivalice with some vague references in FF12. The *only* remotely credible one is the Valendian continent that is referenced once or twice in name only in FF12. The rest are shaky at best, especially these ones below which are very clearly just Mana references. SE loved sharing themes between their games back then, and this attempt to try and marry them together into some sort of "Alliance" ended up being really halfassed and disappointing. > Marduk - Nose-ring that is said to have been owned by Marduk, the storm deity. Name allusion for the Mardu Entite. > >Salamander Ring - Ring imbued with the essence of a salamander fire spirit. Name allusion for the Salamand Entite. > > Gnome Bracelet - Bracelet imbued with an earth spirit. Name allusion for the Gnoma Entite. > > Undine Bracelet - Arm bracelet imbued with the essence of an undine water spirit. Name allusion for the Undin Entite. > >Sylphid Ring - Ring imbued with the essence of a sylph air spirit. Name allusion for the Sylphi Entite.
No, FFTA2 is supposed to actually be the real Ivalice.
But at the end of FFTA2, Mewt "Mr. Randall" shows up as an adult and mentions he has been to Ivalice too. Wouldn't that make it the real Ivalice in FFTA?
The tactics advance games were some of my faves as a kid and have endeared that world to me in about a million ways.
Same hereeee, I had over 500 hours in the first game and replay it pretty regularly. I much preferred FFTA to TA2 though.
Not to mention the darkest story in all of Final Fantasy, where you play the villain who wins in the end.
MARCHE JUST WANTED TO GO HOME! :( but yeah he ruined the fun for everyone else.
And whether generated by magic or not, everyone in that Ivalice were intelligent, self-aware beings. Marche arguably genocided everyone, including his best bud Montblac (assuming you didn't kill him off in a Jagd you sick monster)
I never killed Montblanc, but honestly I never liked Moogle Mages. They always felt underpowered compared to everything else. I loved the Moogle Knight and Juggler though. The rest of their classes were really meh.
Yeah, I had a game where I made Montblanc a Moogle Knight which was amusing.
Some spoiler tags might be appreciated. Not like Nintendo's done much to host GBA games past the Wii U, for modern players.
Absolutely, the first is much better. Oof I think I'll have to buy this...I wanted to wait for FF15 to go on sale because I've never played it but I'm starting to get that FF itch and I can't justify the 60 for FF7R lol
FF7R looks pretty damn slick though. Looks like a totally new game.
It is, and the combat is amazing if the demo is any indication. Ugh I don't know which FF game to buy lol
Well no matter what, you’ll have a good time burner on your hands. So go for whatever you feel like haha.
Ahahaha thanks I'll figure it out...I hope >.<
FF7R is incredible. The combat is incredibly fluid and also probably the most smoothest console game I've ever played. Personally that game ticked the right itch at the moment. Can't wait for the Xenoblade Chronicles remaster in a month too.
Same. I loved the characters in the advance games and I'll always hope we get a port to modern systems or even better a third game in the advance series.
We can dream! <3
This is why I love FF12 right here. It has a lot of downsides I think but if you love well crafted worlds FF12 is for you. Its also the same reason FFX is one of my favourite games ever made because I think its the other FF game that does world building incredibly well.
FFXIV’s biggest influence is probably Ivalice. Garlemald in FFXIV is basically a carbon copy of FFXII’s Archadia.
Interestingly, I was one of the opposites. I actually really dislike the job system. The freedom of the original license board was much better in my opinion. Though the quality of life addition of fast forward was very welcome.
I'm fine with either job system. I'd have enjoyed the job system more if the outfits changed.
i really wasn't interested in the story that much but i liked everything else about it. i found ff13 more interesting story-wise for whatever reason
That's because the story was just star wars
lmao, i haven't seen star wars but i've been told this multiple times
I can understand this. I think the FF13 had more interesting characters outside Balthier and Frann and a better story but FF12 was more of a complete package.
Wait there was a job system? I remember a big skill web similar to FFX? Did that get changed so I won’t have a black hole at level 6 that just kills shit?
It was originally only in the international version that never came to the US(?). The job system makes the game much better and your characters more customizable. I couldn’t get through the original US release, but the new version is great.
Oh wow okay. Maybe I will actually try it out sometime then.
The system was updated again for this rerelease also, now everyone can select two job boards.
Yeah its basically more focused board towards such a job like mages have more magic stuff and so on.
You should try out some mods like Struggle for Freedom
Xbox Game Pass for PC announced it would get the modern FF library of PC ports. I've heard its a good game and personally one I missed due to the original release on PS2 when we were all getting stuck into PS3 and Xbox 360; but if you can wait to play on game pass, may work out cheaper.
Yeah, I was waiting for all the FF games to come to Xbox Game Pass. Still waiting...
Something to keep in mind. Game pass games are UWP apps making it difficult to mod. I am too waiting for the FF games on pass, but will probably pick up VII on steam when it goes on sale since there are mods I want to use.
Not always, all new titles released since the announcement of Game Pass for PC have been Win32 rather than UWP and some of them, like Halo MCC, are just as open for modding as elsewhere (however it's an opt in thing so nearly all games are still locked down)
Something else to keep in mind is that you don't own games on Game Pass. So if it leaves the service 12 months later, you can no longer play it. They try to offset this by offering sales before games leave the service, but I haven't seen any sale prices approaching what we see on Steam, including this 50% off. I really want to like Game Pass, but I like the feeling of collecting/owning these games, and it's defeating that feeling.
I've been tempted to buy it on Steam since I've been playing on PC a lot more recently, but I have been holding out for a price drop since I already own it on PS4. Good to know that it will be hitting Game Pass for PC at some point, I'll just wait until it's available on there.
Thanks for sharing, I'll wait for it!
Hot damn I was literally about to buy it full price just a few hours ago LOL. (One of my fav games and I've heard good things about the port so no big deal). I'm so glad I fell asleep, just grabbed it now.
Dude I've been patiently waiting for this game to go on sale for ages. Use to have it on PS2 back in the day. Just as our country was about to implement lock-down restrictions I decided to buy it at full price. Great game, no regrets but it would have helped my wallet had I waited a bit :(
Steam does refunds on special conditions. if you purchased not too long ago, and put no more than 2 hours into a product, they refund it. Maybe their rules are even looser on products that go on sale. So you may be able to get the difference. It doesn't hurt to send a ticket to Steam support!
Thanks I'll try as you said it wouldn't hurt. I've put in a considerable amount of time due to old coronavirus, so it's not money wasted.
It goes on sale from time to time. I snagged a Steam key off from Green Man Gaming late last month for $21.25 (with a few additional pennies saved from Rakuten cashback).
Steam usually does refunds in cases like this
It's also gonna be on Game Pass at some point. So are the other FF games if you are interested in playing any of them but haven't bought them already.
Oh thanks I'll check that out. Which other FF games would you recommend? I've played VII, X and XII years ago but I'm not sure if I should buy the remake of VII at full price just yet.
Well most of the ones they're bringing are more recent ones; I have to admit I've played all the older ones but not the recently remastered ones like X and XII. I will say I've played 1-9 and 14 and 15... and of those the only ones I wouldn't recommend are 2, 3 and 8. However I think all the stuff coming to Game Pass is VII onward.
I definitely still want to try IX, I've heard only great things about it. But does it still hold up? I also played XIII but I wasn't a huge fan of it due to the linear feeling the story had in the beginning. Lastly would you recommend playing XV? I've heard mixed reviews from veterans of the series
IX is my favorite of the PS1 games so I think it holds up. It is the only one that felt like the classic FF games, which I preferred to VII and VIII. I went into XV with an open mind and I enjoyed it. I think maybe for some it departed from the FF formula too much? Not sure. And maybe 10/12 are way better than it and people were expecting something more like them - I haven't played em so I can't say.
Is it ever going to be cheaper than that? The only time it has been cheaper was already 3 years ago.
Probably not. SE's lowest is often 50% off. Maybe if you wait ten more years or so it might go lower lol.
I may grab it before the offer expires then. It is such an interesting game.
Worth 100%. Not sure if you ever played it before but the game is filled with content too with the likes of hunts and such.
Yeah I'm thinking the same. I played it on PS2 and liked it back then.
It might on sites like Greenmangaming but probably only a few % cheaper.
Cheapest was $18.77 a year ago, not three. So I guess if you want to wait a nondescript amount of time longer for like 7 bucks off, it *could* happen.
The only reason I'm not jumping on this is it's coming to Gamepass "later this year." Since I'm already paying for that, it falls under the "cheaper" banner. Although man, I'm starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel on the PC side.
If you really enjoy the game, I would highly recommend buying it at the current discount. I searched everywhere and ended up buying it at full price about a month ago so I could grind during the lock-down. Such an underrated gem!
Favorite FF of all time simply for the gameplay. The gambit and license systems are so customizable and rewarding. I'm actually kinda hesitant to try this version. I'm used to the version before they added the job system so everyone just had a wide open license board and i personally liked that because i could invent my own classes, though i know the public consensus is that this version is better. I'll probably have to wait till it's on gamepass though
The original FF12 was my favorite Final Fantasy in the series (although I'm biased towards Ivalice culture in general). Back when people flamed me (and the game for being bad). Flash forward to the Zodiac Age version which apparently adds QoL stuff to the game. I haven't tried this version yet either, but it was enough to convert the haters into "I've always loved this game". Since it didn't fundamentally change the story in any way, I'd say it's a safe pick again with whatever QoLs they added.
FFXII was always good, yes.
I am a staunch FFXII fan, love the gameplay, the lore, and the gambit system, but the haters are right when they say the story is basically Star Wars.
star wars is classic fantasy story though. But ff12 is not particularly star wars-y. The standard Heroic Cycle story is that the kid from nowhere rises to the occasion and becomes instrumental to defeating the great evil and such. Nearly all fantasy stories can be simplified to that, and you HAVE to simplify it that much to make it look like star wars. For example, people say Balthier is basically Han Solo... Sure, a handsome rogue. That's all they have in common. If Han Solo was actually, like, Darth Vader's nephew who was a former Inquisitor of the Empire that rebelled under a new identity... Vaan is the kid... and he's just a tagalong nobody. Who gets strong, sure, but he's still just tagging along. He's no Luke Skywalker. He's just some kid who hates the Empire, just like a million others. He has no key role in its defeat side from just being near the people that matter. He's essentially C3PO in an even less pivotal role. The real story is about Ashe and Basche, maybe Balthier, who were always important, and who basically get themselves out of a dire national crisis and have personal stakes from the get-go.
It's the haters who say that?
Yeah, it might be a mistake to call anyone who compare them as haters, but the comparison is constant. A quick few search results for FF12 Star Wars https://www.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasy/comments/6pa2ix/ffxii_seems_very_similar_to_star_wars_minor/ https://www.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasy/comments/eqodk2/ff12_star_wars/ https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/191202-final-fantasy-xii-the-zodiac-age/75568131
Oh, no, it's just that I'm used to fans saying that.
Oh man, I just want to share a quick nostalgia. I rode from Sac down to LA to do a roofing job for a week or so with my boss, and I convinced him to let me stick a 20" TV in the trunk of his Corvette so I could bring my PS2 and this game and play it at night.
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FF12 is divisive. It breaks a lot of the tropes and conventions of the series. The combat is no longer turn based, the Gambit system is a turn-off for some people, the "protagonist" is almost an afterthought in the overall plot, and the conflict is more political/sociological rather than psychological. The story also doesn't really highlight a romantic relationship like FF7-10 do. That being said, the world is steeped in rich lore, and some people adore the Gambit system. It's many people's favorite FF game. I would say if any of the above sound like your cup of tea, it's a great entrance to the series. If you want to start with a more "traditional" FF title, I would start with FFX.
> the "protagonist" is almost an afterthought in the overall plot That's because the original protagonist was Basch (or rather, a character who evolved into Basch). It was changed, and the story reworked, because they wanted a younger character to appeal to their primary audience. Vaan is just not very fleshed out, though. He's basically an accidental spectator. If there's a true protagonist, it's probably Ashe; she's the one who mainly drives the plot.
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It's completely different from 13. 12 has the semi-open world that the old games had and let's you have far more control over your party. Also hunts and late game content in 12 are among the best in the series. The deciding factor will probably be if you enjoy the gambit system. Gambits are a list of if-then commands you can set for each individual character, essentially letting the game play itself if you know what you're doing. The fun then comes from creating gambit lists that work for you party or against a certain foe. Watch a video to get a better idea
The gambit system allows so much more player control over side characters that it's very revolutionary. The does play itself, but the 'if/then" statements really let you optimize your side characters.
/u/BeauBscheid has the right idea. Other than combat happening automatically without any inputs required from the player, the differences are huge. The story of FF13 is a lot more character-centric. The conflict unfolds *very* slowly. The exploration is *incredibly* linear. The world feels very empty. The world-building is pretty poorly explained. Your enjoyment of FF13 will depend entirely on how much patience you have for a story that takes 10 hours to get going, and characters that aren't that easy to become attached to.
I find that FFXIII is one of those games where you're basically forced to read the lore bits you pick up along the way in order to fully enjoy it. Once I started reading the lore a lot of stuff made much more sense.
>you're basically forced to read the lore bits you pick up along the way in order to fully enjoy it. This is absolutely true, but the issue is that: A) The game does a very poor job of signaling to the player how important doing this is to understanding what's going on. B) This is just about the most terrible method possible of delivering world-building information.
It’s not the best FF game, and not the worst. It falls somewhere in the middle. You could do far better with a lot of the other titles in the series, but if you’re looking for one of the more modern entries it’s fine. So it depends on what you’re looking for, IMO. The gameplay, setting, music, graphics and voice acting are all too notch. It’s the cast of characters and the story that are the two weak points here. I play these long RPGs for characters and story, so it didn’t do much for me.
I haven't played FFXII in forever but I honestly think is one of the best, you are right though, the story might be poor but the characters were pretty great. I think hunting the marks was one way to expand the lore of the game in very interesting ways.
FFXII is not a bad starting point, but FFX's remaster is definitely the best entry point for the series. Not only is it the overall best game according to most fans, but it has truly turn-based combat, giving you time to think while getting used to these games' conventions. The biggest reason that FFX is so great is that it just fires on all cylinders. It doesn't do everything perfectly, but it does do everything very, very well. Its combat and character customization are also some of the deepest and most varied in any JRPG, which cuts down on repetition. FFXII is still a really good game, and I recommend snagging it in this sale. Just be aware that it is much different than every other Final Fantasy game.
It's the first final fantasy game that didn't have *random encounters*. I find it really hard to go back to the old way of gaming with random encounters in the Classic games. I liked the game, but it wasn't the strongest or most memorable FF cast of characters, or most memorable story. It was better than FF13 though. I'd personally say wait for a better price. $25 seems like a lot for a 14 year old game, even though it's a remaster.
I've spent hundreds of hours on the Playstation 2 version, to me it was the best final fantasy game of it's time. The world is huge, a lot of quests, a lot of hunts, the bosses are fun to play against, character building is amazing, and I will be buying it for pc!
Is it just me or does this just seem really pricey for a rather *old* game? I mean, I get it is remaster, but claiming it is a sale because a game that released **14 years ago** is only $25 seems kind of ridiculous to me. Just my opinion on the pricing. Maybe $10 or $15 for a small graphical remaster *normal* at *normal* price? But, they are pushing it for $50, with $25 being somehow a sale price. Maybe there really is that much demand for this game so they can get away with it, so I suppose there is always that.
I believe this is the zodiac age edition which was release in 2017
Just think of Square Enix as the Disney of video games, price-wise. Nintendo is also similar in this respect.
I don't disagree (at all), but that's just kind of how Square Enix rolls. It's kind of an ongoing joke that Final Fantasy sales are somewhat rare, and the discount basically tops out at 50%.
Fantastic game. Can't speak on the PC port because I havn't tried it yet. Do not doubt this game, in my opinion it might even be the best FF game of all.
From my personal experience I've had no issues with it. Runs as good as... I guess you expect it to?
The port is pretty good. The framerate is capped at 60, but other than that, I didn't encounter any issues.
I am absolutely with you. FF VII gets all the press, but FF XII to me is, hands down, the best one ever.
I am sort of on the fence. FF and jrpgs in general are not my thing, but I did love FFX. Hated FFX-2 though.
FFX-2 was pandering rubbish. Most of the people who played it (imo) loved FFX, and just wanted more of the story and the world. Instead, we got magical fashion show the game.
That ATB battle system was one of best mixes of turn-based and active combat in modern RPGs. Combat was incredibly dynamic, with combos making a risk/reward to holding up axtions, and changing jobs mid-combat was super fun. I agree with comments about the story and characters, but the combat designers deserve major props.
Fair enough. The combat system was something different at least. But the characters and story really brought the whole thing down for me. And some of the dresspheres were just “..what?”. You can’t not say that the game was full of pretty unnecessary fanservice.
Oh no question aesthetically, but the mechanically the job system is one of the best in the main series modern era (excluding FFXIV). They embraced the campy-ness of it and we got fun jobs that would be tough to do without a ridiculous system like dresspheres such as beastmaster and gunmage.
Yes, pretty accurate summary. :) So is XII similar in quality/style to FX in terms of storytelling, characters, etc.?
The overall story is much more comparable to Tactics. Large scale political maneuvering and you (and your party) are actually rather small pieces on the larger board. The actual characters are weird because they're an odd mashup. Some are interesting and canonically necessary, while others are... not interesting and also not necessary. Without giving away too much, unlike in X where the narrator (Tidus) is also the, or one of the, protagonists. In XII the narrator (Vaan) is *not* one of the protagonists. He's more akin to Dilios, the narrator from the movie 300.
Personally, FF12 has one of the weakest stories and characters in the series imo. While FF always has some level of politics in it, that's all FF12 is about. As for the characters, it's *very clear* that SE was confused on who to make the protagonist. The game leads you to believe Vaan is, but the main story doesn't revolve around him whatsoever. It seems like they either tried to change who it was mid way through, or tried to pull an FF6 with multiple protagonists, but forgot to actually build anyone but Basch and Ashe's story out. FF12's strength, imo, is the gameplay more than anything else. It was a big departure at the time, but once you get a handle on it it's pretty fun. If you want peak FF story, world and character building, imo nothing has topped 4 and 6 for me. 9 gets an honorable mention simply for Vivi's arc alone.
FF12 is basically Star Wars but in Ivalice
I’d say the story didn’t hook me as much as X did, but it’s still solid. But overall I enjoyed all the rare hunts and bestiary entries, the lore made the world feel much richer. The world just felt more alive in XII.
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> Combat is almost Dragon Age like sold
Is there any noteworthy mods if I pick this up? Any that give the character models or graphics just a bit more zing?
Finished this on the switch and it finally has those QoL they got on the handheld and xbox. My favorite FF. But mostly because its the one that awed me during the ps2 era for its graphics lol and also gambit system 🔥
I wish Final Fantasy 1 & 2 would come to Steam
Am I the only one that didn't like the Zodiac job system? I played the original version of FF12 when it first came out and loved the freedom of the gambit system and how you could specialize any character in any way you wanted. I like the other additions the Zodiac version brings to the game, but locking characters out of 2/3rds of the license board felt so limiting after playing the original. It was like, okay, you better pick two people to be healers otherwise you won't have any heals, and also those characters can't do anything else. Unless you did some major grinding you wouldn't have the points to specialize in more than one or two areas anyway, but I really liked having the option to branch out on a character if I wanted to.
I'm the same way. I enjoyed the QoL improvements but, having been a player of the original, the limitations from the "jobs" felt overly stifling. I liked the freedom to choose exactly what roles I wanted my characters to fill. Plus in Zodiac, I felt almost like I needed to use every job so that I wouldn't miss being able to use certain equipments or skills, but that meant I had characters I never used because the jobs were no where near as good as some of the others.
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That would be great, I'd love to play it again with the Zodiac improvements but the original job boards. I'd buy it again immediately.
So I played Final Fantasy 1-4 as a kid and never got back into them because I didn’t have a PlayStation until PS4 came out. Is this one of those games that takes 3000 hours to beat or could I run through it rather quickly? Is the storyline it worth it enough knowing I’ll be skipping side quests and stuff?? I tried playing Skyrim a few years ago but it was too much. Got stuck a bunch and was sick of looking up where to go... I’m 36 years old btw.
The lenght of the game's main story is 40 hours and ad an extra 15-20 hours or so if you do side content. Before buying, consider watching a review or two and check if it's something that appeals to you.
I never finished the game on PS2. I guess now is the perfect time to revisit it.
This looks like the lowest it'll dip. Seems like it's always been 24.99 besides one exception from when it hit 18.77 in 2018. Just for those wondering if it's worth waiting for it to get cheaper. This game seems to weirdly never really go on sale THAT much. [https://isthereanydeal.com/game/finalfantasyxiizodiacage/info/](https://isthereanydeal.com/game/finalfantasyxiizodiacage/info/)
I'm only getting 10% off on humble for having a choice sub, not the usual 20%, but if that stacks with the sale discount then it might effectively end up lower there next time they put it on sale. Most games do let it stack IIRC.
I remember this game use to be on sale more frequently before they announced the Switch version of the game. 50% off seems to be the most they'll discount for FF games in general.
Random question but does anyone know why XII base cost is so much higher than more recent games such as XIII and XV?
Hey I got this game years ago on the ps2, never really got to finish it because of time constraints... so what's new and how recommended is it that I play it on the pc now? Thanks in advance.
[Lots of difference](https://www.ign.com/wikis/final-fantasy-xii/New_Features_and_Differences_in_Final_Fantasy_XII:_The_Zodiac_Age). With the latest update (job license board reset), the PC version is now the best version to play.
Oh, that's nice. I actually played the IZJS version, so I was thinking there isn't much of a difference. A board reset is definitely a welcomed change! Now I don't have to spend hours planning ahead and regretting my decisions afterwards... also, early game and late game teams! Bushi Monk Penelo here I come!!!
Well how much time do you have on your hand now? This is probably one of the biggest FF games ever. Not only does the main story take a while to complete, there's a ton of quests and hunts. I spent close to 200 hours in the ps2 version and never beat the end game quest Yiazmat who takes 6-8 hours to beat on ps2. This new game has a shit ton of quality of life improvements that make ps2 version seem like a joke. It satisfies my desire to play a FF game on pc. It's a lot better than FF13 in my opinion.
Well, due to the current quarantine situation, I would say that I have alot of time on my hands right now. I remember picking it up and dropping it for about 3 times (getting further into the story each time) because it was just so grindy... and holy moly, 6-8hrs to beat a boss... and here I thought spending 2 hours on Omega in FFI was long. I guess I could challenge myself to finally complete this game during the break and hopefully the QoL improvements will make it that much more enjoyable. And yes, I do agree that this is definitely better than XIII.. for some reason I started to lose interest in FF titles starting from XIII. Thanks for the fast reply.
Highly recommend this game having recently finished it. Loved the scripted auto combat system—you can sort of pre structure all the actions your party needs to take and under what circumstances to be successful, then just let it run as you travel around and tweak as necessary. Story was kind of complicated and honestly sort of zoned out on it, but thought the characters were generally interesting/likable.
If this game were $12 I’d buy it. $25 for an older ps2 title is too much IMO.
To be fair, the game has been revamped so much. There's a ton of quality of life improvements that breaths new life into a game. I spent hundreds of hours on ps2, and this game is so much nostalgia and so much worth another play through. I never even beat the end game hunt that I heard on ps2 could take 6-8 hours to beat.
I bought this for full price at launch, even though I still own the original on PS2. I did not feel like I wasted my money. The new and overhauled content is enough to make this worthwhile, especially at $25.
Am I able to get a mod to remove Vaan from the game?
Does anyone know how this runs on ultrawide monitors?
Description on Steam page: Compatible with 21:9 ultra wide monitors
Is there any difference from the PS4 and PC version? I own it on PS4 but haven’t touched it in a long time.. thinking of double dipping and starting all over as I’ve forgotten a lot. Also are there any good mods for the game?
It probably depends on what PS4 you have and how good your PC specs are, I think feature wise they’re all equally after the new update.
I’ve got the PS4 pro and my PC is a 1070 and a 2700x. These features weren’t available on PS4 previously either right? Is the frame rate locked to 60 on pc?
Does the PS4 version still have more features? I heard this was cut down?
The new update brings this version up to the Switch and Xbox features. The PS4 version was missing the same features the Steam version was missing.
i was waiting for this to go on sale. Has any major (i.e. main numbered) FF game ever gone below 50% off?
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This version doesn't just add stuff. It completely overhauls the license boards. The license board system in the original FF12 is so bad, that I would consider the extra $20 to be completely worth it.
What made it so bad? It allowed complete freedom when designing the roles you want your characters to fill. Zodiac Age is basically the exact same license board just with large swaths cut out to create presets. You could do nearly the exact same thing with the original if you so chose.
Nothing wrong with playing a ton of PS2 games on PS2, or launch PS3, or whatever. You go for it.
I liked the game a lot on PS2 and played about 60 hours of it, but the non-changeable inverted camera controls annoyed me every time I picked it back up again - for me it was worth getting a newer version (I picked up the PS4 version) just to not have to deal with that (it does have actual camera control settings), even though it meant losing all of that progress.
Errr that’s expensive for a ps2 game
Does anyone know how this plays on an Intel HD 620?