Just to pin a sort of date to me finishing this game, this is the last of the mainline Final Fantasy games I had to finish, I've played all of them and are waiting for Final Fantasy 16.

On that note, this was THE Final Fantasy I was almost sure I was gonna hate. My first exposure to the game was watching a friend play like the first hour or so of it, in this my only thoughts were, "okay so it plays like FFXI and the setting seems very steampunk." (Mind you this was years ago when the only FF games I had under my belt were, 4, 6, 7, 11) So at the time the game didn't seem too interesting due to me playing FFXI at that time and the setting didn't look interesting to me.

Fast forward to now where I've played the whole series and this game was the last one and I gotta say it sounds weird, but I'm glad I waited until last for this one, I don't think I would have enjoyed it without the other entrees opening my mind to how different the series had become over time.

I guess let's start with the graphics...I usually don't put too much stock into how a game looks as long as it's playable and the graphics don't get in the way, but this game is beautiful! Everywhere I went, I loved how open and expansive each place seemed. Villages had many people and activities and you aren't forced to interact with them most of the time. The lands between the town are amazingly big and open, teeming with enemies that you can see and kinda act like they do things outside just being exp fodder, like some cast Protect or Shell as they walk around despite no danger.
The character's look amazing as well, it's honestly just a beautiful as a whole.

Next is the music, which honestly, it's hard to say much about, it's really good music, but feels weird it has a boss theme, but no battle theme at all. The music is very fitting while you are playing, but I can't see too many people remembering much of it outside the game. Also, odd note, but I really love the sound FX for casting magic and cure.

Now to my favorite part...the gameplay, I LOVE that the combat is seamless and out in the open, it feels like you can fight anything at any time, however you like, and by that, I mean the License System which acts pretty much as a job system of the past games, allowing you to learn magic, skills, set up different equipment and upgrades and so on. The License Board adds that extra incentive to fight battles, it's not just a grind to get levels up which is still a thing, but now you get points to spend on the License Board and build the team you want.
Along with this is a kinda odd system known as the Gambit System, if you've familiar with FFXI and have done macros for your skills then it's like that, for those not familiar with that, it's a sort of auto command that let's your party members follow a string of commands based on certain things being met, for example: "If ally's HP 30% or less then Cast Cura" so the character will cast Cura anytime an Ally has 30% or less of their health, it's a really good way of making the AI very useful and allows the player to customize how they like and reward for learning how the system works. I really feel other JRPGs needs this (especially the FF7 Remake).

And lastly is probably the somewhat weaker part of the game...story. No, the story is not bad at all, it's actually a very interesting one that I won't spoil, but I'll say the story didn't push me forward at all honestly, it was the gameplay, the story is just window dressing, though I'll say I do like all the characters in the story and it's pretty well voice acted...I think the story feels too much like a story you'd read just to read and not one you'd be emotionally invested in. I do gotta say I like Vaan though, I know he got a lot of flak as a character, but he's pretty decent.

So, I'm pretty happy my last Final Fantasy of the mainline games was good as it was, I can definitely recommend this game to anyone who just likes the idea of a classic feeling JRPG in a 3D setting with a really good world to explore.

When this game was first released I just didn't like the look of it. Not exactly sure if it was the graphics or the world in general but it just didn't look interesting. However I added it to my backlog and figured I'd give it a chance eventually assuming it would be a pleasant surprise seeing as it has mostly glowing reviews. I must just be a fundamentally different type of person to most gamers because after finally playing this game I found it to be uninspired, bland, and a total waste of an interesting world.

I feel like what makes FF games so good is the character development, and not just that but interplay between characters. Seeing the bonds that form between party members as their faults and flaws begin to show instantly adheres you to characters. I felt this was an element that was totally lacking in this game. In my opinion FF12 totally failed it's characters in almost every way and with better writing there could have been some really good stuff here instead of carboard cutout characters and vague evil baddies who all wear similar helmets so it's hard to tell them apart.

We never really get to see what is driving any of the characters besides the initial information given at the start of the game. We hardly ever see any backstory as to how a character became who they are-- for example Fran's backstory choosing to leave her people is like 20+ hours into the game and is barely referenced before or after. How did she wind up with Balthier? We never find out. Everything is just surface level. I feel like this game is essentially a really interesting novel but where 9 out of every 10 pages has been torn out, but making sure to leave in all the main story beats. It's hollow, missing all the world building, character development, and backstory of everything important. So many questions unanswered.

This issue with characterization is made worse by the license system where you can assign any job to any character. This just makes the characters feel more like malleable putty with no personality. Characters like Auron from FFX for example are defined by their skillset, he's a man of few words, a walker not a talker, and he carries a massive sword and plays the big bruiser role. It all fits. This is elementary stuff man, I don't get how they dropped the ball so badly in this department.

Another thing is that no one except Balthier really has any personality, they are all just drab and uninspired. There is no optimistic happy go lucky character, there is no silent bad ass, no obnoxious overly confident character, no den mother figure, just a bunch of vaguely neutral characters who never seem to show much emotion or personality at all.

The combat is fine and fun to tinker around with at first, but once you get to a certain point you have essentially automated the gameplay. The decision to make a combat system where the end goal is automation is an odd one, because once achieved you don't even have to play the game, you just run from one mob to the next and watch them die. Excluding bosses I don't think I had to touch my controller more than a couple of times in the last 10 hours of gameplay when in combat... Fun, fun.

This is the first FF game that I have actively disliked and that was really disappointing to me. Had high hopes for this one.

O jogo envelheceu extremamente bem, é de se surpreender que o jogo original foi lançado em 2006, a historia é basicamente um Star Wars. Senti que a progressão do meio pro fim do jogo da uma desandada, em algumas áreas os inimigos são muito difíceis e em outras muito fáceis, o sistema de batalha baseada em gambits é bem diferente e infelizmente esqueceram desse sistema nos jogos posteriores, seria bem legal ver esse sistema de uma forma melhorada. A cutscene final fecha o jogo com chave de ouro, eda o toque que precisava pra você ter a certeza que toda a jornada valeu a pena.

Finished fy first Final Fantasy, XII. Don’t regret playing it, but kinda regret not playing IX, XIII, VIII, X, VI, or even VII first.

What I liked:
+ Characters (none of them are that interesting by themselves but they fit in the story very well)
+ Story
+ Story writing (also the English VA is superior (with the exception of Vaan))
+ Cinematography and cinematics
+ Most locations (nothing mind-blowing tho)
+ Gambit system (cool idea)
+ Speedmode (saved me dozens of hours)
+ Moogles

What I disliked:
- NPCs 😴
- Side quests 😴
- Gambit system (flawed, irritating realization)
- ”Crafting” system
- Espers and quickenings (obscure, boring, and useless)
- Dungeons
- Lack of QoL (maps, quests, and inventory are atrocious)
- Speedmode (is very fiddly because the original wasn’t designed to be played this way y’know)
- MAPS

Everything else is whatever.

P.S. Vaan is cool and not “useless” or “boring”.

A huge game that I’m not yet willing to put the full time into doing all the side activities as they’re pretty daunting. However, having completed the main story I very much enjoyed my time with FF12. The combat, whilst different, was personally enjoyable. Ashe, Balthier, Larsa, Cid and Fran were all really cool and interesting characters that I enjoyed learning more about. Basche’s story was also very touching, especially in the final act of the game.

I wish there were moments where the game took itself a bit less seriously (thank you Balthier for the levity you bring). Overall though, I felt the heart put into the game. As much as people might call it Star Wars, I think that’s just diminishing the effort that went into every aspect. I can’t deny similarities but by the end I was satisfied that this is its own story.

I feel similar towards this as I do to 5, and much like that game, I can see myself replaying this and trying something different.

Frustratingly good. For every great idea this game has, it has another terrible one to bring it back down. A troubled development process and shipping unfinished seem to be the story all the games in this series share, but you can truly feel the passion the developers had for this game and Ivalice in general.

As a disclaimer, I played this game with the "Final Fantasy XII TZA: Classic Mode" mod, which restores practically everything from the original PS2 release while keeping all of the quality of life from The Zodiac Age, which I highly recommend playing personally.

Before commenting anything about the game itself, Square Enix did an excellent job remastering this game; it's one of the best-looking PS2-era games already, and it looks even better in The Zodiac Age. The fast forward functions are a godsend, as are the improved loading times. These combined can save about 20 hours that you spend walking or loading on the PS2 version. Combined with the existence of the Classic Mode mod, this is the definitive way to play the game on PC, regardless of whether you prefer the original balancing or job system.

This game has some of the best English localization of any game I've played and is combined with fantastic voice acting. Unfortunately, the audio is quite low quality, and it isn't improved in the remaster, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the great dialogue. Gone are the typical tropey anime writing you tend to see in a lot of other JRPGs to be replaced by classical Victorian-era vernacular, and it's spectacular.

However, even with the great writing, the plot points were stretched too thin in the middle of the game to make the game feel grander than it is. To pinpoint an exact part of the game where the story falls apart, it would be after the final Mt. Bur-Omisace visit halfway through the game, where you're asked to walk across the map with very little plot or cutscenes outside of some minor character exposition. The game never comes back from the lowered focus on the story until the very end, after the point of no return, where I felt the game forgot its own tone it set. The characters ended up being too one-note and underdeveloped, with most of them existing for the sake of driving someone else's character arc, though I still enjoyed their dialogue between each other, and liked Ashe, Balthier, and Basch, who feel like the closest to main protagonists.

Nevertheless, I found the intro and credits sequence to be excellent, while the middle of the game had a lot of low points. The music being great is just a Final Fantasy standard, and the ambient tracks were the star of the show for this game. However, I felt like the lack of combat music for normal fights took a lot of intensity out of the game, though I did get why they did it to make the game feel more seamless.

The worst part of the game is how slow it is to play. This game has an excessive amount of walking in it, to the point of having a step counter in the menu. While it isn't a true open world, it's made up of many interconnected zones that have a loading screen in between, which is perfectly fine except for the fact that you walk incredibly slowly and there's no run button outside of Chocobo's in a select few locations. It would also be more bearable if most of the environments weren't just long hallways, deserts, or flatlands. The remedy for this run button is the 2x/4x speed, but I find that more of a band-aid fix than a substitute because it just feels like your time is being wasted exploring the same environments at a snail's pace. The combat also feels incredibly slow. In the beginning, when you do not have many skills, there isn't much you can do other than watch the combat animations and fill the ATB bar, which takes forever even with max battle speed in the settings. 2x with max battle speed on Active Mode is what I recommend for most of the battles in the game outside of boss fights since you do not need to perform many actions if you have your gambits set up properly.

As for the combat itself, it's very unique, but I can see why no game really replicates it. The most apt description I can give of it is that it is very similar to a tab-target game with a long global cooldown like FFXI or FFXIV. Where it differs is in your control of your party members and how you can automate nearly everything in the game with the gambit system, which makes the game feel more akin to a tower defense game where you set your parameters beforehand and then watch your strategy play out. I found the combat most enjoyable when fighting the bosses because you had to adjust your gambits for all of them because usually a simple attack and heal when low setup wouldn't suffice, so you have to find their weaknesses and vulnerabilities to status effects. Though, by the end of the game, I did feel like it did get too easy with you being able to easily stack every status buff before battles with the amount of gambit slots you get, and there was little need to adjust my setup, which is the whole gameplay loop. I also found fighting the normal enemies very boring, as they usually don't pose any challenges, so it's mostly just watching the battle animations play out, so I would recommend fast-forwarding on those parts.

This is a game that lives or dies based on its balancing. The Zodiac Age ends up being too easy, especially when you get two jobs, and that leads the game to play itself with no effort or grinding, while I found the original PS2 version to be much better balanced and offer proper challenges to bosses. It's even arguable that this is the most challenging Final Fantasy game if you don't grind, though that's not much of a high bar, and the game's balancing is easily broken by the end of the game once you get a proper gambit setup going and have access to a majority of the skills.

The other main difference between the PS2 release and The Zodiac Age is the addition of jobs. In the PS2 version, every character shares the same license board (this game's version of a skill tree), but they all start with slightly different skills matching their default armor and weapons. By the end of the game, all the characters have access to nearly all the same weapons, skills, and armor, which some may dislike, but I ended up preferring it since you can completely change your characters on the fly without them having any set roles or having them specialize in different areas. For example, I had Penelo be a mage with high evasion and mystic armor that focused on using white magic with her gambits, while I had Basch be a tank with an axe that focused on buffing himself and drawing aggro away from the rest of the team. Nothing stops you from switching them around if needed, which means you are very adaptable and aren't reliant on any character specifically. On the contrary, The Zodiac Age went with a more conventional job system where you pick two of the twelve classes for your character to specialize in; these jobs would have smaller, more focused license boards that only allow you to use certain weapons and magick compared to the adaptability of the original. The job system seems like it was in the original vision of the game, but due to time constraints they couldn't implement it properly it. Even so, I'm not a fan of the way it's implemented, as it seems the game is balanced completely around everyone having access to anything. The Classic Mode mod also restores the summoning animations for Espers, which adds some flavor to them if they are a bit too long and the summons themselves are not really worth using. The Quickenings also have some of the best animations in the series but also have the same issues as the summon system.

In retrospect, it honestly is impressive how expansive this game is, however oversized it may be. There are so many locations, and the dungeons are so diverse. If you enjoyed the gameplay loop, this game has the highest quantity of side content, with the main focus being hunts. These operate similarly to the Monster Hunter games, where you have to find some kind of enemy to slay in the overworld with information given to you by a bill. These hunts have some of the most challenging boss fights in the game and can give you some of the best items in the game, though by the end I did start feeling like they got way too tedious with the amount of backtracking you have to do for some of them as well as having to go back and forth to people to turn the hunt in. You can definitely see the MMO elements that remained in the game from when it was planned to be one. This is even confirmed by the producer in an old IGN interview where they said: "Back in 2000, when Final Fantasy X, XI, and XII were originally announced as being in the planning stages, X was announced as an offline game while XI onwards would be online games. Obviously, in the process of developing Final Fantasy XII, that changed—it is, of course, an offline game that we have now."

This game is a strange game to recommend because there are a lot of parts that have merit, but at the same time, I can fully understand how people may say the game is boring or a waste of your time. I would say it's only worth playing if you want a slower, more grounded Final Fantasy with a world you can fully engross yourself in, full of things to explore. A game about where the characters aren't the main focus, even lacking a true main protagonist entirely. Instead, it's a return to form for the older games that had a focus on mechanics and role-playing over a finely woven narrative. Final Fantasy XII dares to be different, and that is something I can respect.

almost a perfect game, really, if not for the unfortunate pacing issues in the last third... going from political intrigue and breaking out of prisons and into palaces and all kinds of fun shit to dungeon and ruin diving was a mistake, but mistakes happen

gameplay ruled, characters ruled

hot take: vaan and penelo are actually good characters, they never get in the way of the story but are there to support the main characters when it matters and then back the fuck away when it matters! as usual the internet is full of shit and probably illiterate! D:

vayne going full cyborg god freak at the end was probably the biggest hiccup, it really came out of nowhere, but if i let every weird nonsensical thing ruin a work for me i'd hate most things and that's boring

gambits, bring em back! also gimme an if block!

oh and also: the best remaster they've done, unless you count the pixel remasters, which are full on remakes in unity, so i don't, and it's a real fucking shame they didn't put this much effort and polish into their other remasters... maybe one day

I've played this game for the first time since it was brand new, way back in 2006. So I'm actually considering it a first playthrough, as I had no recollection of the story.

However, I did have memories of one thing: the locations, which is one of the aspects Final Fantasy XII shines. We go through the familiar tropes: ruins, caverns, deserts, big-ass towers, fortresses... but each location and town feels full of life, organic, thanks to some really clever design choices like weather and the rare games: upon revisit, you'll find it's now raining, you may encounter a unique, much stronger monster you didn't encounter before. Makes the world feels living and pulsing (and turns the game into absolute RNG hell for completionists out there. I'm glad that's not me!).

That being said, dungeons can be needlessly large, and I recall getting fatigued playing the original release. Absolutely not the case with the remaster: thanks to a lovely fast forward feature, you can play the game at twice or even four times the speed, blazing through the terrain.

The art direction may be my favorite in the series, it's incredible how cohesive and fully realized it all is, but it might not be a fair comparison, as this game takes place in Ivalice, and it's hardly the first game to do so - the same kind of praise and observation goes for the world building.

And, while there's no doubt in my mind that this soundtrack is inferior to the Nobuo Uematsu's compositions of previous games, it's still strong, and each song matches perfectly with the mood and area, giving the game a grand feel and flair that kept impressing me until the end.

Then the most controversial aspect of the game: the story. It goes for a far, far different approach than any other FF - you could say most of the series is about the impact the characters have on the world, while FFXII is about the impact the world has on the characters. In a sense, the true main character here is Ivalice itself, as you spend dozens of hours with this party, while simultaneously barely spending time with them. There's little banter or interaction between them.

In a franchise that is very much character-centric in its stories like Final Fantasy, this game sticks out like a sore thumb - I didn't even mention Gabranth, a complete non-entity who the game pretends was a huge deal during the final hour or so.

At the same time, Basch, Balthier and Ashe feel realized (Ashe in particular felt strong), and Fran is okay in what the character sets out to do. It's truly unbelieavable how out of place both Vaan and Penelo feel however. While everyone else has clear motivations and goals, there's one scene where Balthier asks Vaan "what is it you want?", and Vaan legit answers "I don't know" - that's the writers talking to us, I think.

There is an attempt to make Vaan a mirror/foil to Ashe, but it comes across as very "last minute rewrite". Penelo, they don't even fucking try. Vaan tags along because he's bored, Penelo tags along because Vaan is going. It even feel uncomfortable watching the rest of the cast babysitting both of them and acting as if it's normal that they're journeying together.

This is particularly annoying because it's painfully easy to see how, with a couple of fairly easy and insignifcant rewrites, they could have Larsa and Vossler replacing them. Just genderswap Vossler to keep the 50/50 men-to-women ratio, and done you now have much better party.

So Vaan and Penelo are this ever-present shadow of "whyyy" hovering over the plot, but the story as a whole gets my thumbs up. I was pleasantly surprised by Vayne who, while not amazing by any means, fulfills well the role of "villain lurking in the background manipulating things" - faaaaar better than FFX's Seymour, who I always thought to be lame. Dialogue is strong and well-written, but ocasionally too flowery, getting in the way of comprehension. They do manage to convey solid scenes with very few words though, which I find commendable.

It ultimately sits on the tier of stories I personally enjoy, but have too obvious flaws for me to say are "good", being similar to FF13 in that regard actually. If Gabranth was more fleshed out and fully realized, if the Bahamut was properly setup and foreshadowed, if Vaan and Penelo didn't feel like such an afterthought, if the party actually interacted with each other... But alas, that is not the case.

I don't have much to say about the gameplay, just that I love the gameplay loop, the gambits, the whole thing, and the addition of jobs makes everything so much better. Apparently, the devs originally intended for the game to have jobs since the original, but they felt that having both that and gambits would be too overwhelming, and decided to make one License Board for the whole party - a decision they regretted immediately upon hearing player feedback.

A remaster that improves upon the original in every possible way so successfully that it makes the original almost redundant outside of a passing curiosity.

There are still some issues here and there - I like the overall story and feel but the characters feel a touch underbaked, and normal encounters can end up playing themselves in a way where it's almost more interesting to run around them - but then I'm drawn back in by the various hunts and tactics needed for fights against way more powerful enemies and one of the series' most overlooked soundtracks.

My first game of 2023, and possibly the most disappointing game of the year for me. I was really expecting to like this game for the setting, the characters, the gambit control system, etc., and yet in every single area I felt this game was a let down. The plot of this game feels incredibly bland and unfocused. The grand adventure the party goes on remains within a short distance from the starting city, and always feels like the party is just reacting to the latest event without any agency. While I did like quite a few of the party members, some of them are pretty horrible, and none worse than main character Vaan. I like the idea of the main character being just some kid who is swept up in something bigger than him, but where Vaan really fails is his characterization, and in particular his voice acting. Vaan's voice actor is probably the worst voice actor I've ever heard in a major game production, and is a major part of why his character does not work at all for me. The combat system here reminds me a lot of Xenoblade Chronicles, whose own biggest flaw for me was its combat system. The MMO-style of half turn-based, half action combat feels very chaotic, and it's much harder to achieve the more strategic feeling of purely turn based games. I did find the gambit system interesting, as macro systems are a feature I wish more RPGs would have. However, while it's a good first attempt, it isn't quite powerful enough for my liking; I found myself regularly needing to tweak certain gambits or disabling them for certain areas. Boolean operators would've been a great addition, although I can see why that would've made things too complicated. All this being said, I wouldn't say there was nothing I liked. I really enjoyed the character of Balthier, even if he didn't get as much development as I would've liked. The re-imagining of the famous summons as great warships was also a neat idea, and lent itself to some well-made cinematics. Some of the villains were interesting, although the final villain remained underdeveloped and too little seen. Overall, a big disappointment, and a dramatic drop off in quality from the Final Fantasy games that came before. Even something like FFVIII, as weird and uneven as it was, still had some cool ideas and set pieces. This game just felt flat and drab the entire way through.

great story and, at times misunderstood why vaan deserves to be the protagonist.

Some of if not the best world building in a Final Fantasy game and along with the gambits system some of the most fun to be had in a "turn based" RPG gameplay-wise.

All in all an amazing and impeccable experience.

Played it on the ps2 originally when i was very young and absolutely loved it, got it again on pc with the zodiac age upgrade and fell in love even more with it

After nearly twenty years of playing this game, I finished the post-game of Final Fantasy XII! Both the vanilla superbosses and the Trial Mode The Zodiac Age added in. I left a review on the PS2 game’s page but figured I’ll add my thoughts on The Zodiac Age version.

The big sell here is the job system and it’s pretty cool! I like the dual-classing upgraded they added in this edition of FF12, but character being so focused creates a lot of small inconveniences. Only the Time Mage has Float, a very important spell if you are going through a place with traps. I had to keep my Fran out through most dungeons because I didn’t have a lot of Float Motes and mines were abound. You can unlock some extra abilities on everyone’s License Grids with Quickenings and Espers but there should have been more options available for late game conveniences. I was missing the absolute freedom of everyone sharing vanilla FF12’s maximalist License Grid.

While The Zodiac Age took away a lot of original’s need-guide BS like the whole thing with the Zodiac Spear, a lot of spells are stuck in normal-looking treasures that you can easily miss then go through the whole game never having that spell. It’s two steps-forward, one step back with this game.

The 2x and 4x speed settings were a great edition. Got a lot of use of them beating Hell Wyrm and Yiazmat. On the other hand, TZA could have improved the gambit system more. While the multiple gambit sets are a nice addition, I wished for more gambit types and additional complexity.

Overall, the speedup option and cool job system make this the definitive version of a game that I, despite my criticism, think it is pretty good and still love a lot. Maybe I don’t think it’s as good as I used to, but still something that is worth playing. A lot of my problems are things that became more obvious in the sidequest/post-game parts of Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age so someone playing a casual playthrough probably wouldn’t butt heads with those annoyances.

Normally, I wasn't planning on playing Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, but it went up for sale and I couldn't pass on it. In the end, I'm glad I decided to play this game because otherwise I'd miss out on a very interesting experience.
Final Fantasy XII's story, while not as exciting as in most of the other Final Fantasy games, is still well-written for the most part.
The gameplay on the other hand, is amazing; it's innovative because it makes you feel like playing an offline MMO game instead of a typical turn based JRPG. The gambit system is basically programming an AI, it's genius and I love it. The license boards add extra layers of character customization, giving you the opportunity to build each character differently. Overall, the combat system is extremely fun, the customization is fantastic and the mechanics work perfectly.
The characters are good too; some of them are a bit underwhelming but most of them are fine and few of them are truly great.
The visuals hold up well and the CGI cutscenes are stunning, and the music is very good as well.
Also, the world in Final Fantasy XII is probably one of the best in the series.
Now, although Final Fantasy XII does many things well, it also has some noticeable flaws; the story for example, is not engaging at times, it feels a bit disjointed.
Lastly, many dungeons get tiring after a while because of their lenght.

Pros:
+ Decent story
+ Addictive gameplay
+ Unique mechanics
+ Nice characters

Cons:
- Inconsistent narrative
- Overwhelming dungeon design

Narrative: 6/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Content: 9/10
Characters: 7/10
Music: 8/10
Graphics/Audio: ?/10

Final Rating: 8/10
- Great -
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is a unique, rewarding and enjoyable RPG.
If you're a fan of J/RPGs but you haven't played the original version of Final Fantasy XII before, you should give Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age a try.

Do I recommend it?:
Yes, even to those who don't play JRPGs at all.

Been sitting on this one for years, but finally played it. I'm glad I did, because while I don't have fond memories of the original, I really enjoyed my time with Zodiac Age. The secret to enjoying this game is removing Vaan from your party and pretending that nearly anyone else is the main character.

Joking aside, this game has a strong cast of characters, both heroes and villains. Sometimes the story falls a little flat and does a disservice to these characters, but overall it's a solid piece of storytelling.

The music is incredible with a good number of memorable themes. I feel the imperial theme is one of the strongest reasons people compare this game to Star Wars.

Combat is excellent and you're rewarded for how much work you put in. You can completely ignore the gambit system if you want, but I found it fun tweaking the system to get the best performance out of it. I did have a problem with the sheer amount of status effects the enemies loved to throw at the party, and the final area was more frustrating than enjoyable, but they made some great improvements over the original and this is well worth playing.