The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
‘Final’ fantastic
‘The Zodiac Age’ a more perfect vision of original
Most games don’t age well. What looks bleedingedge today could be nothing but an eyesore tomorrow. After just of a couple of years, what was innovative gameplay when it came out can seem dated and cumbersome.
“Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age” has managed to avoid these pitfalls. Square Enix has remastered this chapter of the long-running Japanese roleplaying game series and improved it in the process. For a game released in 2006 at the tail end of the PlayStation 2 lifespan, “Final Fantasy XII” holds up remarkably well.
It’s the bridge where one phase of the franchise ends and a new one begins. It also reflects a time when online RPGs such as “World of Warcraft” started reshaping the genre, and this franchise still had more of its fantasy elements.
Instead of focusing on one hero, “Final Fantasy XII” has an ensemble cast of six heroes, who join together to free the desert nation of Dalmasca from the Archadian Empire. Vaan, Balthier, Fran, Basch, Penelo and Ashe come from different walks of life.
Basch and Ashe are part of the Resistance, fighting the Empire. Vaan and Penelo are street kids who get caught up in the political intrigue, while Balthier and Fran are sky pirates who apparently have a soft spot for kids and profit.
The overall plot echoes “Star Wars,” with Balthier the swarthy rogue and Fran his furry sidekick. Meanwhile, Vaan has ties to Basch. The boy’s brother died while defending Dalmasca under Basch, a Dalmascan knight. Despite those similarities, “Final Fantasy XII” forges its own path with several surprising twists along the way.
The basic narrative building blocks are fine, but where the developers make strides is in the way they have remastered the game. They took the project as an opportunity to fix the many flaws.
The re-orchestrated score has a grander tone with bolder sound. The music is now lively, instead of flat. The developers added a minimap that helps guide players through the expansive world. And to reduce travel and grinding time, they added the option to double the speed as characters walk across the terrain and battle monsters. These quality-of-life upgrades make a huge game more bearable.
Bigger improvements come in the Zodiac character-progression system (reflected in the title). The game still gives players freedom to mold each of the heroes, but forces them to make a choice about how they’ll do it. They can choose only two classes per character, and each class is represented by a sign of the zodiac.
There’s a strategic importance in how players pick each class, which has a ripple effect throughout the campaign, impacting how much players will enjoy the 120-plus hours involved.
Molded into the license board system, where players pick their upgrades, there’s also the opportunity to pick which esper is tied to a character. (Espers are powerful summoned creatures that can turn the tide of battle.) In this iteration, they are fully controllable.
Despite the improvements, the game does have irksome flaws. Healing heroes after a battle is a slog, without an option to do it in the party menu. And amassing money is also annoying, with the extra step of selling loot.
Still, it’s the refinements that stand out — and create a better experience. What’s fascinating about “Final Fantasy XII” is its place in the series. With the benefit of time, it’s easy to see how this chapter is an evolutionary link between the turnbased RPG of yesteryear and the current action-oriented entries of today.
The once-derided gambit system is actually forwardthinking. It portended AIcontrolled allies, which have become the norm. But what’s great about “Final Fantasy XII” is that it has struck a happy medium between old and new combat systems.