After (appropriately) 12 years, Final Fantasy XII finally appears on PC. It’s either considered one of the best or one of the most divisive entries in the franchise, but one thing’s for sure – it’s definitely meant to be different. Oh, and absolutely for anyone who wanted Final Fantasy meets Star Wars. In fact, after a few chapters I could’ve sworn I was playing Knights of the Old Republic 3, not a Final Fantasy. I consider that a big compliment.
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The story, like the best JRPGs, does not get bogged down with telling you stupid names and gets to the point, at least, fairly fast. The Empire of Arcadia is trying to take over smaller countries including the main setting of Dalmasca, and after a disastrous series of circumstances Dalmasca falls to the Empire. Years later in the Empire-occupied capital of Rabanastre, ambitious thief Vaan dreams of a life of adventure – which he gets when a batch of sky pirates, including charming rogue Balthier and sexy rabbit girl Fran, get him caught up in a robbery. This turns into the rescue of a Princess and, eventually, a plot to overthrow the Empire.
If you thought that plot had echoes of Star Wars about it, it’s clearly deliberate – and I haven’t even mentioned the Darth Vader-like Judges. I now understand why people love Final Fantasy XII – it’s less of the cutesy straight fantasy the series usually goes in for, and… well, it’s just Star Wars, so of course people like it. Not the bollocks Final Fantasy XIII tried to make seem important – FF12 is all about a young orphan who dreams of adventure getting swept up in the biggest adventure of all, and that’s timeless. If only that orphan (Vaan) was a bit more likeable it’d be perfect. Fortunately the rest of the characters are cool and the world is interesting to explore.
It’s the combat system that usually gets the most flak, and while we can see why we don’t agree. The system is essentially Real-Time With Pause in the classic Baldur’s Gate style, although sadly without the ability to take over party members. You can issue commands to any teammate, which they’ll do, but you can’t tell them not to stay away from an area attack. With the clever use of Gambits (to issue AI commands) it is possible to reach a point where most fights can be automatic, which sounds boring.
Except… it’s not. You can be as hands-on, or hands-off, as you like, but it doesn’t matter that you’ve got a Black Mage set to target any enemies with a weakness to water with a Blizzard spell – what if you’d prefer not to waste the magic? Or maybe one enemy is more dangerous than another and you want to target them – or the opposite perhaps, where you want to clear the annoyances before taking on a boss? The combat is actually quite involving, and most importantly there are no stupid random encounters – you can see an enemy from a mile away, and if you think you don’t want to face them yet, you don’t have to. Hooray!
The combat is just one part of the gameplay which doesn’t altogether feel like classic Final Fantasy, in a good way. It keeps all the series elements but wraps them into something new and exciting, like a Resident Evil 7 or Doom 2016. In all honesty though, the game it most felt like was the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 3 we all want. There may not be any space travel, but the Star Wars-y plot and the wandering around interesting planets taking on sand people really made it feel like KOTOR – and the combat is similar too.
The challenge escalates neatly, and there is a ridiculous amount of things to do – and yet things never reach the “there’s a golf mini-game, just because” stage. Everything matters, from the Epic Hunts to exploration. The world feels tighter than most Final Fantasy games, and yet there’s still massive patches of it we didn’t get to explore. It’s one of the least grindy JRPGs I’ve ever played, since if you just stick to Hunts, main quests and a medium amount of exploration you’ll level yourself up in no time – and because most fights are over quickly they never feel like a chore. The genius addition of a “fast forward” function makes things even better. This is a huge epic RPG for people who don’t want their time wasted, something that is still rare even today.
Performance & Graphics
MINIMUM:
OS: Windows 7-64bit or later
Processor: Pentium G3260 @ 3.0GHz (2 cores)
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660 or AMD equivalent w/ 2GB VRAM
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 50 GB available space
Additional: Expected Framerate: 30 FPS
RECOMMENDED:
OS: Windows 7-64bit or later
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-4460 @ 3.2GHz (4 cores)
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 980 or AMD equivalent w/ 4GB VRAM
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 50 GB available space
Additional: Expected Framerate: 60 FPS. Screen resolution: 1920x1080. Depending on the monitor and PC graphics card environment and setup used, this title can expand its display resolution to 4K. However, please be aware that 4K resolutions are not officially supported.
Our system is an AMD FX-6300 Six-Core Processor, 16 Gb RAM, Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4Gb, and Windows 10 64-Bit, and we ran Final Fantasy XII in full settings and had generally no problems, including with the Fast Forward function. However, we did encounter the opening cutscene running too fast – this was solved by turning from Exclusive Fullscreen to Borderless Window, then switching off Vsync to be sure. Graphically despite running on PS2-era technology it’s been cleaned up pretty well, although it’ll never be mind-blowing anymore.
Additional Notes
One additional note has to be made on the Job System. This was totally revamped for The Zodiac Age remaster, and it’s wonderful. It’s essentially just a cute spin on classic RPG skill unlocks, where you use XP to unlock character upgrades, powers or abilities – except set out like a board game. You have to move along it, unlocking Licenses for powers and abilities as you go, based around a certain Job type such as Knight (sword and shields) or Black Mage (offensive spells). It actually makes basic RPG mechanics fun and involving, and is a great addition – and once you unlock the second Job board it becomes twice as involving.
FINAL FANTASY XII: THE ZODIAC AGE VERDICT
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is not only a great remaster, but a massive improvement to an already excellent game. The story is engrossing, the characters really grow on you, and it’s an epic RPG that both doesn’t feel the least bit grind-y and won’t waste your time. The Job System is just perfect and is a minigame in its own right. Finally, the big Star Wars influence makes FF12 feel like Knights of the Old Republic 3 – and that thought kept me going until the end. I can’t believe I had to wait 12 years for this game, but at least it was worth the wait.
TOP GAME MOMENT
Unlocking the second Job Board and feeling like you’ve got a load of new toys to play with. Oh yes, and the music’s fantastic too. Didn’t I mention that?
Good vs Bad
- Story and world is engrossing, and the characters are mostly great too
- Combat is to the point and entertaining for the most part
- Feels like Star Wars, in particular a Knights of the Old Republic 3
- An RPG that doesn’t waste your time or force you to grind? What a novelty!
- Revamped Job System makes a traditional RPG XP upgrade system fun.
- Vaan isn’t as cool as Luke Skywalker
- Sometimes the combat system feels a little too automated
