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Final Fantasy XII - Does it still hold up?

Vesper

Vesper

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Oct 28, 2017
1,672
Whether you played the original release of Final Fantasy XII back in 2006 or played the remaster recently, I wanted to hear some thoughts on the game, its systems, and its world design, specifically in regards to how it feels to play compared to games released today. From the sprawling, largely empty zones (a strangely specific property of 2006 game design it seems), to the unique yet very hands off battle system, it just seems to me like FF XII is something most people see as greater than the sum of its parts for sure. I often see people speak with disdain towards the game's story or battle system, yet still see large amounts of praise for the game today. (One thing is for sure though - the music of FF XII will always be amazing!). If FFXII were released today in 2018 as FF XVI, how would it be received? Is it (mostly) loved for its grand, realistic take on Final Fantasy that people look back on nostalgically? Or is it loved because the game is just that good and holds up today just as well as any other modern game?
 

Deleted member 35509

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To me it's really ahead of its time in a lot of ways and it will literally be a dream come true to be able to have a portable copy when it releases on the Switch.
 
SirNinja

SirNinja

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Nov 17, 2017
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Interestingly, The Zodiac Age seems to have been received much better overall than the original 2006 game, from both people playing it for the first time and those who decided to revisit it. Gambits make the battle system highly customizable, and the Zodiac job system helps ensure each character stays functionally unique. It's aged quite well IMO.

Hero Protagonist said:
it will literally be a dream come true to be able to have a portable copy when it releases on the Switch.
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This too!
 
Korigama

Korigama

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Oct 25, 2017
20,482
It remains one of the best games in the genre, with The Zodiac Age having made it that much better.
 

Deleted member 12447

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For a moment I thought they said final Fantasy 13 and I was about to come in here spewing fire. However it says 12 and 12 is an excellent game that was truly ahead of its time. It's the Game of Thrones of Final Fantasy
 
SolVanderlyn

SolVanderlyn

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Oct 28, 2017
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Until about halfway through, I think it's even better now than it's ever been.

The quality drop at the halfway point is egregious. Everyone knows the exact point it drops off a cliff. Replaying the HD edition and I just totally burned out at the same exact spot I did when the game first came out, despite how much better the IZJS edition is.

The areas in the second half are gorgeous, at least. And there is some good plot in there, when it's there. But the first is top tier FF material.
 
SirKai

SirKai

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Dec 28, 2017
7,365
Washington
Aters said:
A decade later and FFXII is still ahead of its time.
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I also disagree with those that complain about the second half of the game. The cut-scenes are more sparse and some of the dungeons are tedious but the towns are still visually stunning and highly inspired, the story developments are supremely well done and satisfying, and it has an excellent ending. FFXII is the best FF there is, period.
 
chandoog

chandoog

Member
Oct 27, 2017
20,071
Aters said:
A decade later and FFXII is still ahead of its time.
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Pretty much spot on. A lot of unjust "the game plays itself" comments when the game came out, however it was very ahead of it's time in terms of the excellent gambit system.

Also, the localization and voice direction is still the best in the franchise even after 2 generation of consoles.
 
LonestarZues

LonestarZues

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Oct 27, 2017
15,977
SolVanderlyn said:
Until about halfway through, I think it's even better now than it's ever been.

The quality drop at the halfway point is egregious. Everyone knows the exact point it drops off a cliff. Replaying the HD edition and I just totally burned out at the same exact spot I did when the game first came out, despite how much better the IZJS edition is.

The areas in the second half are gorgeous, at least. And there is some good plot in there, when it's there. But the first is top tier FF material.
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I agree. The first half had me thinking it s going to end up as my favorite FF, but the 2nd half was nowhere near as good. Still enjoyed the game overall though.
 
Dark_Castle

Dark_Castle

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Oct 27, 2017
7,147
Yes. Exploration wise it isn't as good as say Xenoblade games, but its gameplay mechanics is still quite unique and the quality of cutscenes, voice acting and setting made the game quite immersive story wise, even if the plot does fall off mid way through and people don't like Vaan and Penelo for their irrelevancy to the narrative, even though i think they're fine. Graphics still holds up decently in the remaster, and game has a lot of content too, and remaster also fixes many balancing issues with original plus massive qol features like high speed toggle.

FFXII remains the last truly great, single player Final Fantasy, not just mainline, but as a whole.
 
Patazord

Patazord

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Dec 14, 2017
1,013
I tried 3 time to complete FF12 but gave up each time, once at release, then a few years later then with the remaster which i stopped near the end, this game just bore me to death, the gameplay is one of the worst thing i've seen in a rpg, the combat is build around making the combat automated and you will beat almost every content in it with just auto physical attack, ability in this are just trash and underpowered, let's not talk about the summon, they are 100% useless, the gameplay overall is just mindless.
The story started really strong, even with the characters but after a while the game just drop of a cliff, even most characters in the main party will barely have any lines of dialogue. Of course FF12 have his fans but for me it's the worst Final Fantasy, it's one of these game where you just don't get the love behind it.
 
flyover

flyover

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Oct 26, 2017
834
SolVanderlyn said:
The quality drop at the halfway point is egregious. Everyone knows the exact point it drops off a cliff.
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Maybe my memory is bad (or I'm overly forgiving), but I don't. What point is it? I thought a few of the late dungeons were tedious, but enjoyed most everything else. I was just curious where others feel it falls apart.
 
Zukuu

Zukuu

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Oct 30, 2017
6,809
It didn't even hold up when it was released. They chased the MMO market and came up with an utterly boring auto-play MMO gameplay style which just doesn't hold up for 40 hours... the story was utterly boring as well, since it wasn't character focused AT ALL. Throw in to the auto-gameplay terrible, forgettable characters like Vaan and Penelope and you got yourself an endless stream of boringness that literally puts you to sleep.
 
ethomaz

ethomaz

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Oct 25, 2017
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Santa Albertina
Zukuu said:
It didn't even hold up when it was released. They chased the MMO market and came up with an utterly boring auto-play MMO gameplay style which just doesn't hold up for 40 hours... the story was utterly boring as well, since it wasn't character focused AT ALL. Throw in to the auto-gameplay terrible, forgettable characters like Vaan and Penelope and you got yourself an endless stream of boringness that literally puts you to sleep.
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I remember it being high praised at release as one of the best FF ever created.

IMO I can't really choose between it and FFVI as GOAT FF.
 
Kain

Kain

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Oct 27, 2017
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Oh yes. That battle system and exploration are still top notch
 

Deleted member 1698

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The involved story, interesting characters and sense of exploration is still every bit as good as it was back with the original PS2 release.

So yeah, still plays like watching a youtube video of an early MMO where the writers really phoned it in.
 
aett

aett

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,027
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It's fantastic. My biggest complaints, which are fairly minor, are that you basically need a guide to complete a lot of content - so much stuff hidden away, not to mention the occasional item you shouldn't sell, or rare drops to find, or invisible chests, and so on. And I've found it's best to work out your job placements before you start the game, because the way you unlock espers on your characters affects some of the licenses they can get.

Also: keep an extra save file or two at the prison early on in the game and try not to assign any jobs until then. You can skip a lot of the slower beginning stuff and jump in with more characters if you feel like replaying it.
 
Unknownlight

Unknownlight

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Nov 2, 2017
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I sure hope it does. I never got around to playing it so I was planning on getting the Switch version when it comes out.
 
kenta

kenta

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Oct 25, 2017
856
I loved it at release and didn't touch it again until Zodiac Age, then played through that wondering the same thing.

Ultimately I walked away feeling reassured that the core of the game was still super satisfying (I loved the Gambit system both times I played) but feeling that the story was confusing for the first half of the game and shallow/cliche for the second. It was really hard to understand the alliances and intrigue, partly because it was difficult to process the dang language -- the localization seems great but man those characters talk way too fast with words that are way too big for most of it to sink in. But then at some point the entire story just turns into "we control our own destinies!" and at that point I didn't even care.

So yeah, make more games with Gambit systems and I will devour them. But it would be nice if the story was worthwhile as well
 
kurahador

kurahador

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Oct 28, 2017
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All Ivalice games for me felt like it was beyond their time. Such intricate setting.
I wish the games sold better.
 
chrisypoo

chrisypoo

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Oct 27, 2017
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XII is the third best Final Fantasy game of all time, so I'd say it's held up pretty well. It's still incredibly addictive, and it's still surprisingly aesthetically pleasing today.
 
Brakke

Brakke

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Oct 27, 2017
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I never played the original but I just adored The Zodiac Age. Battle and Gambit systems were rad.

Great podcast game.
 
Rad

Rad

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Oct 26, 2017
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Zodiac Age on PC is one of the greatest JRPGs of all time. I say PC because with modding you can fix the balance issues (and the awful Vaan design :P).
 
pleaseinsertdisctwo

pleaseinsertdisctwo

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Oct 31, 2017
14,991
When I beat the game I felt empty. Characters were dull (I can't believe Vaan referred to the party members as "friends"), story was poorly paced and very very very uninteresting, and while the combat offers a lot of customization options I wouldn't say it's actually fun. And also it's disheartening thinking about how good the first 10 hours are and then the game just completely stops being interesting.
 
Rad

Rad

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Oct 26, 2017
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theofficefan99 said:
When I beat the game I felt empty. Characters were dull (I can't believe Vaan referred to the party members as "friends"), story was poorly paced and very very very uninteresting, and while the combat offers a lot of customization options I wouldn't say it's actually fun. And also it's disheartening thinking about how good the first 10 hours are and then the game just completely stops being interesting.
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I actually think the first few hours are the worst part of the game. After Raithwall's Tomb the game gets awesome because that's when the game opens up.
 
Bradford

Bradford

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Aug 12, 2018
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The Zodiac Age is fantastic. The localization in general for 12's script is legendarily good. Having played in both English and Japanese, the English is a significant step up from the original. The systems work and are fun to tinker with (in either version, though I vastly prefer Zodiac Age/IZJS). Fran, Basch, Ashe, and Balthier are all-time great FF characters, and the pacing isn't too bad either.

It's worth playing for sure. Having played all the FF games up to 14 in the past year and a half (some on revisit, some for the first time), XII is in the better half of the series for sure.
 
GasProblem

GasProblem

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Nov 18, 2017
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I forgot almost everything about it besides getting the Zodiac Spear and grinding the shit out of some werewolve looking type things to get a powerful Katana early.

I'm ready for the Switch release to go all out, get all the powerful weapons and do everything. Looking forward to it.
 

Deleted member 8593

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Zodiac Age might be the best game in the series, period. People get mad salty about all these small things (Vaan and Penelo in particular) but it has such a brilliant combination of systems in a world that actually feels deeper than a puddle. Not to mention that the presentation and English VA is leaps and bounds ahead of every other Final Fantasy.
 
Azem

Azem

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Oct 25, 2017
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Such freedom in how you built and equipped your characters. People spurned it, leading to it being gutted and replaced with some lesser creature that merely wears Final Fantasy XII's skin. I'll never forgive the brutal murder of FFXII, nor will I ever praise Zodiac above it.
 
Joyful

Joyful

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Oct 25, 2017
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In comparison to other FF games its not one i would consider great
its better than ff13 ofc though
Once you figure it out, the battle system basically plays itself.
you just run around holding the control stick in big empty fields
ofc if u want to u can turn all off and do stuff manually, if you hate yourself
I havent played the zodiac age version though
 
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