LTTP: Final Fantasy XII (The Zodiac Age)

[Phendrift]

So after years of waiting I'm finally digging into this game. I stopped two years ago at the demon wall, got confused when I tried to pick it back up again because there's two demon walls and you're supposed to run from the first one at that point in the game, and I kept trying to fight it.

Finally this week, I decided it was time. I've beat every single player FF from 6-15 (and 4) and loved most of them. On top of that, beat the Xenoblade games earlier this year (which I've heard comparisons with them and FF12) and loved those too. I don't know why I put it off for so long, maybe it's because I heard it was different and formed an opinion that it was a less important, inessential black sheep? I don't know. But this week I finally thought - there was NO reason for me to continue to put off a pretty well recieved mainline game in one of my favorite franchises any longer.

Finally wrapped up the story just now, and my thoughts? I really really liked it overall. But before I get into the specifics I will say - I cannot imagine liking it as much if I had played the OG, the 4x speed and autosave is an absolute game changer. If you bounced off this the OG and those features sound appealing, give it another shot!

Anyways, here are some thoughts on each aspect of the game!

Battle System

I enjoyed it! I don't get the "the game plays itself" complaints. Because, while that's *technically* true, I consider the battle system to be setting up your gambits and the license system. It was addicting to save up LP, go to the board, unlock a shit ton of abilities and armor, gambit the team, and just watch them plow enemies.

By the end of the main story, I really only needed Attack and healing gambit and occasionally intervened with manual Phoenix Down if my healer died because I had farmed a lot of LP and was pretty powerful, but I can easily see how they can make you get a full use out of the system and it makes me want to go back and do the harder hunts and espers! All in all, the battle system was a nice change of pace for me. I don't have many qualms with it.

World Design

Level design wise, this is where XIII blows the rest of the series out of the water imo. If they took this world design style and slapped it on XVI I would have zero complaints. I LOVE the wide linear approach, the world feels so lived in. It makes room for exploration, which 10, 13 and 7R kind of faltered at. Yet it's not overly bland and boring open like XV. The towns are lively and bustling, probably the best towns by far in the series. I feel Xenoblade pretty much took XII and ran with it, and it is by far the superior modern day JRPG structure.

As for the artistic aspect, I felt the beginning of the game was a bit too rife with grassy plains, caverns, and desert areas that felt samey. However, toward the middle and end it really shined. Eyrut Village The Salikawood, Giruvegan/Great Crystal, Balfonheim, Pharos were all gorgeous and the environments became way more varied.

Story / Characters

Overall I found it middle of the road for FF, it had its moments but I guess I can see why some complain about it. I will say I've heard there's a moment where it turns to shit, I couldn't really figure out what that was. Was it when Venat is revealed to have been pulling the strings and the story became less political? Is there anything out there on what it was planned to be originally? Since I heard there were changes in development.

Character-wise, I actually really liked the group dynamic. I don't even hate Vaan. I just wished it was fleshed out more. I disagree that Vaan and Penelo were pointless - they added to the dynamic by being young kids thrust into something way bigger than them. Lots of cutscenes you'd have Ashe and Basch or Baltier discussing something serious, and Vaan and Penelo playing happily in the background. It was an interesting dynamic contrasting that innocence with the overarching serious politics, I wish they explored it more because it wasn't as fleshed out as it could've been.

All in all, I did find myself attached to the group and interested to see where they ended up in the epilogue cutscene, so I suppose they succeeded there

Music

It's pretty pleasant I suppose, but I do feel it is one of the weaker FF soundtracks. It lacks the instrumental/genre variety of Uematsu's works. Also not a lot of timeless melodies that'll stick with me like almost every other FF. It's a lot of orchestration that kind of blends together.

But even one of the lower tier FF OSTs is still better than 80% of other games, I love the Boss Theme and Esper fight theme, as well as some of the more melancholy dungeon/wood themes.

To Wrap Up

I really really liked this game. The standout by far is the world - level design wise, by how lively it feels and the level of exploration allowed. The story and characters aren't among my favorites but I still liked them a decent bit. Music was good but not among the series best, and the battle system was addicting and a nice change of pace.

 

[Darkstorne]

I'm so glad you liked it! My fave game in the series as of Zodiac Age (I adore job systems in this series).

Have you played FF Tactics: War of the Lions, and/or Vagrant Story? Your appreciation of XII's story, and the ending especially, will skyrocket if you have played them and you study the time periods and consequences of XII's events on the world. Ashe inadvertently fulfilling the goal of Venat/Vayne/Cid is likely the catalyst that causes the cataclysm event roughly 100 years later. There's so much room and potential for further exploration of Ivalice's history and future.

As a HUGE fan of Vagrant Story I even adored the soundtrack (same composer), and picked up on the nod to one of Vagrant Story's key boss fights in XII (won't spoil that if you haven't played it).

And yes, the Vaan hate is massively overblown. Saying "Vaan has no relevance to the plot" is literally equally as ignorant as saying "Tidus' laugh sounds hilariously fake though!" It's emphatically and objectively not true for multiple reasons.

EDIT: And I agree with you 100000% about XII's level design being a fantastic template. That's also one of the things I appreciated about Dragon Age Inquisition actually. Allows for a huge variety of environments, with lots of exploration opportunities, but without sacrificing game world scale like a full open world would.

EDIT EDIT: Because I can't stop gushing and talking about this game. Regarding Vaan, I've always wondered if one of the reasons people hate him so much is because he isn't the group leader like most FF main characters are. He's relevant to the plot and the world, but Ashe/Basch are more like the leaders with the super involved plot developments. Vaan is the player foil to watch that plot unfold up close and personal, but it just didn't work for a lot of players it seems.

And for anyone else tempted to jump into this game, there's an amazing mod community at the Nexus if you're on PC, adding ultrawide cutscene support, custom FOV, camera zoom, free camera tools, triple the number of gambits for each character etc:

 

[Deleted member 56266]

Best atmosphere out of any FF game IMO. Top 3 in the series for me. But I love Ivalice so there's bias lol

 

[angelgrievous]

I need to get back to it. I got pretty far in but stopped and now it's been so long. I'll probably just start a new game.

 

[Quinton]

I'm honestly not sure what moment people claim the story "turns to shit" either. Certainly, there are some underwhelming aspects that bubble up toward the forefront as time goes on, but there's nothing singularly damning. Nothing I can think of, anyway.

A lot of folks find the entire endgame sequence mediocre at best. I wouldn't say I love it. It could have been so much more. But it's fine?

 

[Shift Breaker]

I went from not liking the original to putting TZA as one of my favourites in the series, probably second after VIII. Slowly going through the series again with the remasters and I can't wait to get back to it.

 

[Phendrift]

I'm so glad you liked it! My fave game in the series as of Zodiac Age (I adore job systems in this series).

Have you played FF Tactics: War of the Lions, and/or Vagrant Story? Your appreciation of XII's story, and the ending especially, will skyrocket if you have played them and you study the time periods and consequences of XII's events on the world. Ashe inadvertently fulfilling the goal of Venat/Vayne/Cid is likely the catalyst that causes the cataclysm event roughly 100 years later. There's so much room and potential for further exploration of Ivalice's history and future.

As a HUGE fan of Vagrant Story I even adored the soundtrack (same composer), and picked up on the nod to one of Vagrant Story's key boss fights in XII (won't spoil that if you haven't played it).

And yes, the Vaan hate is massively overblown. Saying "Vaan has no relevance to the plot" is literally equally as ignorant as saying "Tidus' laugh sounds hilariously fake though!" It's emphatically and objectively not true for multiple reasons.

EDIT: And I agree with you 100000% about XII's level design being a fantastic template. That's also one of the things I appreciated about Dragon Age Inquisition actually. Allows for a huge variety of environments, with lots of exploration opportunities, but without sacrificing game world scale like a full open world would.

EDIT EDIT: Because I can't stop gushing and talking about this game. Regarding Vaan, I've always wondered if one of the reasons people hate him so much is because he isn't the group leader like most FF main characters are. He's relevant to the plot and the world, but Ashe/Basch are more like the leaders with the super involved plot developments. Vaan is the player foil to watch that plot unfold up close and personal, but it just didn't work for a lot of players it seems.

And for anyone else tempted to jump into this game, there's an amazing mod community at the Nexus if you're on PC, adding ultrawide cutscene support, custom FOV, camera zoom, free camera tools, triple the number of gambits for each character etc:

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I haven't played those! I would like to get around to FFT eventually though

And yeah Vaan definitely isn't the MC, I found it interesting that apparently it was Basch originally, imo he doesn't get a lot of screentime compared to Ashe or Balthier except during confrontations with Gabranth

 

[Phendrift]

I'm honestly not sure what moment people claim the story "turns to shit" either. Certainly, there are some underwhelming aspects that bubble up toward the forefront as time goes on, but there's nothing singularly damning. Nothing I can think of, anyway.

A lot of folks find the entire endgame sequence mediocre at best. I wouldn't say I love it. It could have been so much more. But it's fine?

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endgame was definitely kinda weird yeah, pretty cutscenes though. I wonder if the dungeon was originally longer, though Pharos definitely felt like a final dungeon

 

[Techno]

And for anyone else tempted to jump into this game, there's an amazing mod community at the Nexus if you're on PC, adding ultrawide cutscene support, custom FOV, camera zoom, free camera tools, triple the number of gambits for each character etc:

Click to shrink...

Nice, that looks awesome. Will check those out.

 

[Apathy]

I'm like half way through it myself but I dislike the combat. The zodiac board restrictions were cause the original by the end of the game everyone felt the same, so the boards were made to have the characters feel different, but aside from the white magic used, characters doing have enough variation to them in the boards. First time playing through so I decided to try out all the jobs so my team doesn't have a repeat job, and I just go through 99% of fights not doing anything but regular attacks because you don't need to.

Taking away control from the player during fights and saying "just use gambits" is dumb. This is the game that really started the push away from turn based gameplay and I really really dislike it.

Story wise, so far I'm liking it, vaan sucks, balthier should have been the MC.i will say that this game more so than any other, loves to throw names of people or places at you as if you already know who they are talking about. FFT did the same but FFT either goes on to show you the person or at the very least had a compendium to check.

 

[skeezx]

i used to think the battle system was genius but all these years later i kind of find myself siding with the "it plays itself" crowd. speed up option in Zodiac Age brought to light how rote it can really be, in the gist of it all

in a perfect world they would've iterated the gambit system in other FF sequels but as it stands now it's an odd little relic that feels a bit half baked

 

[DiipuSurotu]

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Love how Yoshida forgot to draw Balthier

 

[Antrax]

I enjoyed this earlier this year when I played it for the first time.

My two main issues were the plot (mostly aimless; you quest for a magic sword, then quest for another magic sword, and finally fly straight to the final boss who conveniently decided to meet you at your home base) and the bosses. To me, a good engaging boss will start at like a 5/10 difficulty (based on reasonable behavior) and smoothly ramp up. But in XII, the bosses are piss-easy for the first 90% of the HP and then hulk out in the last 10%, often with no real in-universe reason why ("why did this thing suddenly become immune to things it wasn't immune to 5 seconds ago?")

But overall I had fun

 

[The Bear]

About the plot: it just loses all steam at some point, and turns into "we must find magical stones and swords that can cut them" with not much else going on. It doesn't help that the game has some very lengthy secions with pacing issues (going to Rathwall's tomb and trek to Archades comes to mind). It feels like they forgot to write around 1/3 of the game.

It didn't help that the most interesting characters (Larsa) just gets kinda sidelined in the second half of the game iirc?

That said, I really liked Zodiac Age - 2X and 4X speeds were a revelation. Just that inclusion has made 12 into one of my favorites in the series.

 

[Firemind]

I just find the characters boring tbh

I don't mind Vaan but he shouldn't have been the main protagonist.

Balthier doesn't have someone to bounce off to.

Ashe is just a miserable person.

 

[PAFenix]

endgame was definitely kinda weird yeah, pretty cutscenes though. I wonder if the dungeon was originally longer, though Pharos definitely felt like a final dungeon

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Oof. The last time I played, I was tired of going through the final dungeon. I wouldn't know how I'd react if it were LONGER.

 

[Linus815]

absolutely snoozefest of a plot. It has some interesting moments in the beginning but it's largely really whatever at best. It's such a shame too because the setting and some of the lore is great. The dungeons as you get near the end of the game get ridiculously long and dull. Honestly Pharos almost made me quit the game even though I knew I was close to the end.

Balthier, Ashe, Basch , Fran were great. Loved them a lot. Vaan was alright, if somewhat useless beyond the first few hours. And then there's Penelo who I honestly feel like is only there to fill a quota or something. She is so inconsequential.

The best part of the game is definitely the license boards and the battle system. But even there, it basically *needs* the speed up to be enjoyable, otherwise its a snoozefest. Gambits should really be just give to you by default. Building your characters is really fun, the job system is awesome. And once you set up some good gambits, its so satisfying to just watch your party wreck shit.

 

[PIMPBYBLUD]

I just find the characters boring tbh

I don't mind Vaan but he shouldn't have been the main protagonist.

Balthier doesn't have someone to bounce off to.

Ashe is just a miserable person.

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I think the original pitch was to have Balthier as the main but some stupid reason they changed it.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

I think the original pitch was to have Balthier as the main but some stupid reason they changed it.

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No, the original main was Basch, not Balthier

 

[diablogg]

I get kind of jealous of the people that rave about FF12. To me, it always felt like a worse version of the FF11 MMO, if FF12 could be played co-op with a person controlling each char, I'd be super in for that experience. FF11 ruined FF12 for me. As the game stands it really kills my enjoyment of the combat, also found the gambit system to be pretty tedious.

 

[Cassius Bright]

It's such a weird game. So much of it is amazing and so much of it is atrocious. I find I have much warmer feelings towards it these days than I did when it first came out (the original that is) but I doubt I'll ever truly love it.

 

[Chocobo Blade]

Also tried it recently and I can't say I had nearly as good a time with it. First mainline FF I just dropped halfway through. It actually started really promising, the setting was interesting and characters seemed alright, but it just sort of fizzled out. I don't know at which point people say it goes to shit but I started losing interest when it turned into a macguffin hunt with a really long stretch of barely any story after that. The characters also didn't help since they barely interact with each other or have much party dynamics to speak of. Vaan and Penelo suffer especially because of this since they also have little connection to the plot. I've heard the defence that they're point of view characters but they hardly provide any meaningful perspective by just... being there. I also have to admit I found the political side of the story pretty disappointing. I kept hearing about it and came in expecting FF Game of Thrones but it just felt kinda barebones, at least at that point.

I also didn't enjoy the combat at all tbh. Not sure if I'd say it "plays itself" but I just didn't find the gambits very satisfying or interesting. The level design also was really boring to me. Just a lot of empty zones that brought to mind early 2000s MMOs and overly long, boring dungeons. The Job system was cool but I found having to unlock the licenses to use equipment pretty annoying.

I'd like to go back to it and finish it one day, but it's more because of my sentiment for the series the game's own value. So far I feel like XII beat me instead.

 

[Ayirek]

Yeah XII is pretty fantastic. It's my favorite full-3D single player entry in the series. I should play through it again soon.

 

[Mudo]

Nice write up OP :)
I know I'm in a vast minority, but 12 is one of my favorite in the series along with 6 and 7. And yeah Zodiac Age - especially the 4X speed boost and job changes - make it a much better experience overall.

Now you've got me wanting to start a new game on my XSX lol

 

[Hambulance]

I really like XII, wish summons weren't 90% underwhelming tho.

Also has the best Gilgamesh.

 

[PJTierney]

One of my all-time favourites.

Played the hell out of the PS2 version back in the day, then Platinum for The Zodiac Age on PS4, and finally another 100% completion on Xbox Series X 🙂

The world-building is supreme, as is the localised voiceover talent. With the remaster touch-ups it holds up very well in [current year].

Battle system has a ton of depth, soundtrack is something else, and there's some decent challenges to take on.

The License Grid was a bit of an uninspiring grind but other than that and the well-documented issues with the final act, spot-on.

(Oh, and you can manipulate the RNG if you want to go really deep into the game's workings 😏)

 

[scare_crow]

The 2x and 4x options make the game actually playable, in my opinion. Played it a couple years ago and had a great time.

 

[B-Dubs]

I'm honestly not sure what moment people claim the story "turns to shit" either. Certainly, there are some underwhelming aspects that bubble up toward the forefront as time goes on, but there's nothing singularly damning. Nothing I can think of, anyway.

A lot of folks find the entire endgame sequence mediocre at best. I wouldn't say I love it. It could have been so much more. But it's fine?

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Honestly, for me, it's the pacing of the story. The story itself is perfectly fine, it just feel like it's paced like "Everything happens, nothing really happens, then everything happens."

It's just not spread through the story evenly enough and it feels like you get story deserts, where one character's arc is largely done but then they get sidelined because they're done too soon and someone else's arc needs doing. Vaan's arc is super guilty of this. All his stuff happens in the first third, then it gets resolved at the very end of the story. Balthier is the opposite, where his arc doesn't start until the last third then it rushes the whole thing because there isn't enough time to get it in. Asche is probably the only one who's arc has decent pacing.

EDIT: Keep in mind, that this is pretty much my ONLY complaint about these games. Other than the pacing of the story they're amazing.

 

[Jetsun Mila]

My favorite in the series. Played the Zodiac Age version not too long ago and loved it as much as I did back then. What this game excels at is the way the story is told, from the cutscene direction to the voice acting to the character animations, it's perfect and one of the very few RPGs where I want to see more cutscenes.

Another aspect I absolutely love and that more RPGs should use is that you get items that let you unlock new sections in previously visited areas. This adds massively to the open feel of the game despite most maps actually being wide linear, and it's a great reason to go back to previous areas. It also helps that this game has some of the best dungeons, with each having a unique game mechanic.

What I would change is making the standard attack way less powerful and a shortcut system for spells and techs. And I'm glad you got the speed up options because the standard running speed was too slow, the original should've had a sprint button.

 

[Phendrift]

I really like XII, wish summons weren't 90% underwhelming tho.

Also has the best Gilgamesh.

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Summons were weird. I pulled one out and did it's big attack during a boss battle and it… barely did anything. Felt like I was doing something wrong lol. From that point on I just did quickening chains, had the same level of spectacle anyway

 

[Dis]

Finally played it and finished the story a few months ago after starting on ps2 years back and never getting that far in......honestly was left with pretty much a feeling of disappointment. I've heard people love the game for a good while so wanted to finish the story to at least see what I missed on ps2......played the entire game on x2 or x4 speed because of how slow it was to move around and battle without that.

Didn't really ever struggle at all in combat for 99% of the game and whenever I did it was because I wasn't paying much attention. The combat system for me basically did play itself or was incredible simple to set up to win the majority of fights without ever needing to edit or change my gambits much from a basic set up I set early on.

I did have a good laugh to myself and my wife when I saw the final boss because of how ridiculously over the top he looked but once that was done I was just left disappointed. It had some good moments and honestly the parts right near the end story wise got me interested a lot more than most up to that point but by the time that happened it was basically the end of the game coming fast so I was left just wishing that stuff got more time to explore for me.

Also only used one single summon, one time and that was the one that had to be summoned for one part of the story. I should have tried doing more just to see how they were.

 

[evrythngwastakn]

I can't fathom how people can control or process it at 4x speed but 2x is nice

 

[Hecht]

Honestly, for me, it's the pacing of the story. The story itself is perfectly fine, it just feel like it's paced like "Everything happens, nothing really happens, then everything happens."

It's just not spread through the story evenly enough and it feels like you get story deserts, where one character's arc is largely done but then they get sidelined because they're done too soon and someone else's arc needs doing. Vaan's arc is super guilty of this. All his stuff happens in the first third, then it gets resolved at the very end of the story. Balthier is the opposite, where his arc doesn't start until the last third then it rushes the whole thing because there isn't enough time to get it in. Asche is probably the only one who's arc has decent pacing.

EDIT: Keep in mind, that this is pretty much my ONLY complaint about these games. Other than the pacing of the story they're amazing.

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Yeah it's this. The section of the game from like…Eruyt to Archades is kinda meh (I'm estimating the story beats here, it's been a while). Then it ramps up a bit and then you have Sky Fortress.

Spoiler

I really wish the Occuria just…didn't exist. The Vayne/Venat partnership was such a really weird combo of motivations to me

Since the battle system is mentioned, it's a shame that a lot of the more interesting fights are confined to the hunts. There are a few interesting bosses along the main path, but so many of them can simply be brute-forced.

All that said, it's one of my favorite FF games.

 

[Quinton]

Honestly, for me, it's the pacing of the story. The story itself is perfectly fine, it just feel like it's paced like "Everything happens, nothing really happens, then everything happens."

It's just not spread through the story evenly enough and it feels like you get story deserts, where one character's arc is largely done but then they get sidelined because they're done too soon and someone else's arc needs doing. Vaan's arc is super guilty of this. All his stuff happens in the first third, then it gets resolved at the very end of the story. Balthier is the opposite, where his arc doesn't start until the last third then it rushes the whole thing because there isn't enough time to get it in. Asche is probably the only one who's arc has decent pacing.

EDIT: Keep in mind, that this is pretty much my ONLY complaint about these games. Other than the pacing of the story they're amazing.

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That's a very good point. The pacing is... something, haha. When you hit the "everything happens" phase, it feels like the writing and cinematography seem to fall under the impression that the plot's been nonstop from square one. Feels wonky!

 

[Antrax]

but I started losing interest when it turned into a macguffin hunt with a really long stretch of barely any story after that.

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Honestly this wouldn't have been so bad if they just mixed them up (Ex. Oblivion). But Ashe has to go fetch not one, but two, giant swords from the gods and I honestly just laughed at the silliness of that. Does she stuff both of them in her mini-mini-mini-skirt? Lol

 

[PJTierney]

I enjoyed it! I don't get the "the game plays itself" complaints. Because, while that's *technically* true, I consider the battle system to be setting up your gambits and the license system. It was addicting to save up LP, go to the board, unlock a shit ton of abilities and armor, gambit the team, and just watch them plow enemies.

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Agreed; I like how the system emphasised preparation over reaction, while still allowing for on-the-fly changes if battles get particularly intense. Some of the later Hunts and Trials can't be pre-optimised, so there's still an element of adaptation there, especially if somebody is using the high-risk Reverse strategy.

Level design wise, this is where XIII blows the rest of the series out of the water imo. If they took this world design style and slapped it on XVI I would have zero complaints. I LOVE the wide linear approach, the world feels so lived in. It makes room for exploration, which 10, 13 and 7R kind of faltered at. Yet it's not overly bland and boring open like XV. The towns are lively and bustling, probably the best towns by far in the series. I feel Xenoblade pretty much took XII and ran with it, and it is by far the superior modern day JRPG structure.

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This was the game's strongest aspect for me, it felt like a "real" world. I liked how all of the zones and areas connected to each other too and you didn't have a world map, it made the trips to each major area feel like a true journey. The enemies and battles taking place within the same scenes as regular traversal contributed to this a great deal too.

Overall I found it middle of the road for FF, it had its moments but I guess I can see why some complain about it. I will say I've heard there's a moment where it turns to shit, I couldn't really figure out what that was. Was it when Venat is revealed to have been pulling the strings and the story became less political? Is there anything out there on what it was planned to be originally? Since I heard there were changes in development.

Character-wise, I actually really liked the group dynamic. I don't even hate Vaan. I just wished it was fleshed out more. I disagree that Vaan and Penelo were pointless - they added to the dynamic by being young kids thrust into something way bigger than them. Lots of cutscenes you'd have Ashe and Basch or Baltier discussing something serious, and Vaan and Penelo playing happily in the background. It was an interesting dynamic contrasting that innocence with the overarching serious politics, I wish they explored it more because it wasn't as fleshed out as it could've been.

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The plot does devolve into a string of fetch quests after a certain point which is a shame, but the over-arching conflict and political nature of the setting were appealing enough to go through with it regardless.

Vaan and Penelo being the audience's eyes on the action makes sense, though it's well-publicised that they were later additions than the rest of the cast. It does bring forth a bit of ludonarrative dissonance however as they really shouldn't be strong enough to take on an army or most of the monsters you come across. Balthier is great of course and it's interesting to see Ashe start to get consumed by the lust for power.

It's pretty pleasant I suppose, but I do feel it is one of the weaker FF soundtracks. It lacks the instrumental/genre variety of Uematsu's works. Also not a lot of timeless melodies that'll stick with me like almost every other FF. It's a lot of orchestration that kind of blends together.

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I disagree but it's a very subjective thing anyways. It's good background music to have on Spotify though. The Zodiac Age's tracks are stronger than the original's, that's for sure.

I really like XII, wish summons weren't 90% underwhelming tho.

Also has the best Gilgamesh.

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They are rather underwhelming, as are the Quickenings. Neither are really essential for battle either though that can be said for most games in the series.

Yes, yes it does. If you look closely, the swords he uses in the fights are essentially poor imitations of weapons from the previous games.

The 2x and 4x options make the game actually playable, in my opinion. Played it a couple years ago and had a great time.

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A 2x/4x option is practically a must for JRPGs these days, and the lack of one is why I'm hesitant to visit Final Fantasy X again.

I can't fathom how people can control or process it at 4x speed but 2x is nice

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Gambits do most of the work in all fairness. 4x is great for when you're backtracking or are overlevelled vs the local enemies.

Since the battle system is mentioned, it's a shame that a lot of the more interesting fights are confined to the hunts. There are a few interesting bosses along the main path, but so many of them can simply be brute-forced.

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That being said, the later Hunts have a rather annoying habit of putting up invincibility palings to break up the action. Whenever one of those appeared it highlighted how week the enemy battle logic was and felt like a way to artificially lengthen fights. If an enemy had an invincibility shield, why wouldn't they use it all the time? 😁

 

[supercommodore]

For me, it's a top 3 FF along with 7 and 9.

World design, art style, music and combat are all amazing. The story is decent and is made much better by high quality voice acting.

Main complaint is that Zodiac Age is too easy and needs more difficulty options besides new game minus.

 

[Deleted member 81119]

XII is a top tier FF for me. Whilst the story is a bit bland, the world is amazing and the Zodiac job system makes your character set ups interesting. I like it to a similar degree as FFV.

 

[Tuorom]

The best introduction in this game was the combo of an explorable world and hunts. It is a really fun experience to set out looking for these mini bosses and see them in areas you've passed or catching them in the rain or something. It added on to my favourite part of the experience of 12 which was how expansive it felt.

On the bad side of that expansiveness, dear lord some of those later dungeons were fucking ridiculous in their length. It would take somewhere around 4 hours to do some of them. That's insane.

OP give FF1 and 2 a try, they are still fun if you're a FF fan.