Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

I've 100%'d Final Fantasy XII twice already. Once when I bought the steel case version on the PS2, and again on an emulator many years later. I recently bought it again on Steam and I still love it. It's a really great JRPG and is one of this era's best. The game has aged pretty well overall, and it still has many features that resemble Final Fantasy as a whole, although I guess this was the period where the series started to diverge greatly from the first 10 installments.
The environments are actually really beautiful and detailed, and are still quite immersive. The art is just fantastic, and it's actually a shock how many newer games, while looking technically superior, look kind of boring compared to the environments in FFXII.
I really like all the character designs. The game has aged really well despite the lower polygon count (even though these have been cleaned up over the PS2 version too). They kind of look like paintings in a way. Really nice style.
The cutscenes still look great. FF really had the best cutscenes in this era. Reminds me of Blizzard games – these games have all aged beautifully.
The enhanced graphics and 60 fps in this Steam release make the purchase well worth it over emulating the PS2 version. It looks and feels gorgeous.
The music is superb. While this was the first game not composed by Nobuo Uematsu, it is still enormously varied and each track is 9/10 or 10/10. It really gives the game a unique atmosphere and feel.
The job system is really fun and adds some replayability to a game you'll want to revisit from time to time. The boards are much better designed compared to the PS2 release, I feel. Each class is unique. You can try and pick jobs that feel canonically similar to what you see in the cutscenes, or be creative and go with anything you want. You can even respec your boards in the Clan Hall, so there is no punishment for picking something that appeals to you and changing it later.
The game also has some really addictive progression systems as a result. You really want to fill out your entire license boards for the jobs you picked, and find all the best weapons and armor.
The audio quality of the dialogue sounds compressed. I wish they still had the original audio files because I bet they sounded a lot better. They sound like the ones from the PS2 version sadly. They are compressed because there is so much voiced content in this game, it's crazy. I would have been thrilled to download 10 more gigs to get better audio files though. The voice acting is great, for the most part.
The story is less focused on characters and more on events, which is actually weird for a JRPG. This world does feel well-thought-out though, and you feel like you're on an adventure in a real world as you travel from region to region. There are lots of unique environments and lots of people to talk to, and they are all worth spending time talking to.
The combat system is still similar to past entries like FF6, but has an added feature where the game will input commands for you via a gambit system, similar to Dragon Age: Origins. I really love this system. Between speeding up time to 2x speed and the gambit system, you can reduce the tedium of grinding or just inputting the same commands over and over, which is frankly what you would often do in most battles in the past anyway. I like that the gambits unlock a lot earlier than in the PS2 version. They used to drip-feed them over the course of the game, but now you can just buy them outright when the gambit shop opens up.
I really like that you can chain all the enemies together to get loot bonuses. If your chain of killing the same enemy type is high enough, you will get some very unique weapons and armor. It actually feels bad to kill an enemy of a different type sometimes, which is how you know the system is working. It really does help feel like the game is being strung together better with this mechanic. It actually makes grinding for loot kind of fun.
I like that all waypoints and even clan marks are visible on your map. Really helps with having to find things. I would have appreciated a modern waypoint system, but this is minor.
Overall, I can't recommend this game enough. If you like modern Xenoblade Chronicles, you will love FFXII as I feel like Final Fantasy XII is actually the precursor to those games in terms of feel, mechanics, interconnected worlds, etc.

One of the better Final Fantasy games. Despite its age (the original game is from the PS2 era) the gameplay and story are absolutely worth your time. The Zodiac Job System is a bit intricated and takes time to get acquainted to, but once you understand how it works you will be able to have very potent characters in your party. You cannot go wrong either, because if you don't like how a character is set up you can always undo it and try again, without restarting your run.
This is one of my most favourite games to play on the Steam Deck, which will last for about 3 hours of continued game time without tinkering with options, at constant 60 FPS.
My vote: 9/10 + STEAM DECK RECOMMENDATION

I recently decided that, since I constantly want to replay each individual Final Fantasy game but never seem to think I have time, I’m going to dedicate 2025 to replaying all of the Final Fantasy games in one go. So, this is the first installment of my Final Fantasy retrospective.
I kicked this project off with the most logical game in the series to start with: Final Fantasy XII.
The first (and only) time I’ve played this one was fifteen-ish years ago on the original PS2 hardware. You might think that would make me a prime candidate to compare the Steam/Zodiac Age version with the OG release… but years of obliterating my braincells with mind-altering substances has left me with very few memories of my first playthrough. Seriously, I didn’t remember the second half of the game at all. Basically, this was like playing a brand-new game.
What I do remember from my time with it before was that I liked it. That still holds true after this playthrough. Sure, the story veers into ridiculousness by the end of the game and few of the characters hold a special place in my heart… Nothing has changed about that. But the world of Ivalice is fucking awesome, as always. And the Star-Wars-y tone of the story works better than one might expect. Most importantly, however, this game succeeds in what is arguably the most important aspect that any game can hope to succeed in: it’s a lot of fun to play.
Unlike the offline games that bookend this one (X and XIII), exploration is not only possible but encouraged. Instead of being linear like those others, this is as open-world as one could reasonably expect a Final Fantasy game from this generation to be. The maps are huge and they’re full of hidden areas, secret treasures, and elite monsters.
Thankfully, I still loved the battle system in this one. It’s much different than any other Final Fantasy. And even though this one could most easily be compared to the online games in the series, it’s not really like those, either. Autobattle is the focus of this one so, by the time the player opens up all of the options available to them, it’s more akin to an idle or automation game. The player sets the possible actions of the characters with things called “gambits” (essentially, “if-then” statements) and, if the player did it right, the party gets to work whooping everything’s ass without direct input from the player. Of course, if your gambits are poorly planned, the player gets to sit back and watch their party get their shit pushed in. This might not sound like a lot of fun when I explain it like that but I super-promise that it is.
The fact that it’s still fun is partly due to the quality-of-life improvements that have been made since the original release. (I guess I do remember some stuff about my first playthrough, after all...) The game now autosaves every time the player crosses over a threshold into a new zone. Plus, thanks to a fast-forward feature, the game now runs in double time, so backtracking isn’t as painful as it once was. (And there is an option in the settings to double that speed so that the game runs at quadruple time. I didn’t play like that because of my slow reaction time but the option is available for more sober players.)
Honestly, it was really cool to look back at this one because, while there have been some improvements made to bring it up to speed with modern games, a lot of the features in the game were there in the original version. The fast travel, map system, and hunts all feel right at home with the modern crop of RPGs. There are some features missing (like accessing the fast travel menu from anywhere or pinning the details of a hunt to the HUD) but it was a little unbelievable to see how close Square Enix was to making a game that was up to today’s standards in 2006. What I’m trying to say is that, in terms of gameplay, this game might hold up the best out of all the classic Final Fantasy games.
If you don’t mind that this is one of the weaker games in terms of story, then it is absolutely worth a playthrough. After playing it again, I’m still comfortable with this one falling into my top five favorite Final Fantasy games. Just know that what you’re getting with this one is totally unlike what you’ll get with other early games in the series. But, if you’re looking for another JRPG with modern sensibilities to play but haven’t played this one, give it a shot. You might be pleasantly surprised like I was.

This game was a massive part of my childhood and what I believe to be one of the most beautiful and realized final fantasy titles to date.
It's a gorgous piece of masterwork.
The increadible Airships, the watercolor artstyle, the massive beastiary, the beautiful armors, weapons, and the extreme diversity of the world and locations all wrap up into an increadible game.
There are mods to swap to the old license boards system from classic FF12 for even more freedom of choice for your party and characters.
If I had time to play this game to absolute completeion from the start I wish I could, but it's simply too massive.
Firstly I want to say this game is more of a WRPG than a JRPG which makes it so much different to other FF titles, and why it's one of my favorites of all time.
The Combat system is what I would compare to an MMO or RTS with a lot of customzability. Your character and party ai can be highly custimized with the Gambit system which I think is a complete marvel for a game released on the Ps2, and grinding gear through chaining monsters or rerolling loot chests is great. It's truly a classic hit of RPG level-up/gear up/get stronger accomplishment and immersion.
The Hunts system, puzzles, hidden areas and exploration makes this game a must try for any good RPG fan.
The OST is beyond wonderful, and I persoanally love the cast. Balthier and Fran are one of my favorite pairs of all time.

I remember playing this game on the PS2 and it was incredibly fun.
I HAD to purchase this masterpiece.
The nostalgia is STILL present in this version of the game and the ability to tweak gameplay speed was VERY helpful in my play-through.
In my opinion, one of the best Final Fantasy games TO THIS DAY.
Highly recommend!

A great mainline Final Fantasy game, only a couple steps away from being the absolute best in the series.
I was fairly apprehensive heading into the game, as the 'single player mmo' descriptor for this game didn't compel me much. To be brutally honest I was even dragging my feet at the opening hours of this game. The thing about a combat system like this is that, at its lowest level of engagement, it can feel exactly as critics and detractors describe it; watching characters auto attack with next to no input from the player. Even the systems, which its true depth blooms and graces the player in time, isn't properly explained upfront, giving the player information that they wouldn't be able to fully comprehend yet. The biggest example of which, being the introduction of this game's zodiac jobs, handing you the option to choose a job for Vaan upfront, with no real in depth explanation of what each job truly does outside of a vague description, and which weapon it primarily wields. I've seen people in forums online insulting players criticizing the lack of respeccing, when personally I think it's reasonable to have choice paralysis about a decision you don't even fully understand. (Even the developers recognized this, and have since added the option.)
As my playthrough continued, the cohesion of the core gameplay slowly undressed itself; revealing a body of deep systems with the gameplay loop served from the side content, acting as the connective tissue. First of all, I don't find the comparisons to mmos to be entirely founded. In truth, this is a RTWP (Real-time With Pause) combat system; similar to some western RPGs, especially those in Bioware's ilk, such as KOTOR or Dragon Age. This style of combat is closely tied with the Gambit system, which is essentially an AI command line for all your characters. The concept of this system is another example that people use to criticize the game for playing itself, when in reality, this system, paired with well tuned, fairly challenging content, can really open up a player to scenarios full of tactical depth. If you have to put in the time and effort to achieve gambits with clockwork like efficiency, then how is it any, or at least, that much less engaging of a combat system than some of the turn based systems of previous mainline games, and the real time combat of later entries?
This is all beautifully tied together, and showcased by this game's side content, especially this game's hunts. These hunts are bounty styled side mission, giving you a mini boss to kill, sometimes with certain specifications as to how to spawn the monster. This, along with with the other side bosses are truly impressive, and expansive bits of content; revealing expanded parts of dungeons you've already completed in the main storyline, and giving you truly challenging monsters to combat throughout the game's entire runtime. Most of the previous Final Fantasy games would save the most challenging content for the end. These type of encounters not only encourages, but sometimes necessitates strategic thinking, and to simultaneously engage with the gambit system, backed up with real time tactical decision making. Some of these encounters and expanded dungeons contain weapons and armor that are far ahead of where you are in the main story, and can be gained with good use of your Zodiac table. The job system in this game includes using your job points to unlock access to items, with mind to allocate your points wisely to unlock powerful items you found early. This kind of decision making is further deepened by unlocking a second job; this means you can synergize the two jobs between a character and dynamically allocate points in one job to open up different parts of the table of your other job.
The hunts and sidequests in this game takes all these potent systems, and ties them all neatly into a cohesive whole, providing a flavorful experience. The design team confidently carried this sole gameplay loop for the entire game, which is quite refreshing compared the four previous mainline Final Fantasy game, that was filled with a lot of mini games to extend playtime.
Unfortunately, all of these great aspects, mixed with the sheer expansiveness of the game world, comes at the cost of pacing. The story itself is steeped in political intrigue, and moments play out with subtlety and subtext, but...
In Final Fantasy X, emotionally impactful moments are left to be processed and digested whilst out in the world. This gives you time to build an attachment with each character, but also, the developers pace each moment with perfection due its linear structure.
In Final Fantasy XII, nuanced character interactions will play out, you'll be trying to decipher any bit of subtext that you can recognize, and then you'll be back in the game. Slowly replacing any space in your brain trying to comprehend the narrative with trying to understand the game's complexities. Big narrative beats are spread so far apart between gameplay sections that you're trying to remember what happened in the last story moment while you're heading into the next one.
I was heading into this game, ready for a lot of these characters to become some of my all time favorites. All of the cast (except Penelo) has potential to be the main character in a lesser JRPG. None of them receive enough focus as main characters. These characters are all still mostly okay, and the visual designs are great, but the moments of payoff are left with very little emotional punch.
Admittedly these are large criticisms to make, but don't let that stop you from experiencing the world itself. Ivalice is lavish, immersive, and detailed in a way never achieved before at the time. The exploration of this world, tied with the rich combat leads to a worthwhile experience, despite wonky storytelling, and is a Final Fantasy game that shouldn't be skipped.

An extremely good Final Fantasy game. The world is well made and contrary to many others I find the story interesting as well. Some may argue that the combat is boring when you have an efficient Gambit system, but I feel that just avoids tedious repetition, and it can always be turned off for those preferring to manually choose battle actions. In terms of difficulty the game is somewhat easier compared to many in the Final Fantasy series.