Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

[Flawless]

Yes!


Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age announced for PS4

Square Enix has announced Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age for PlayStation 4. It is due out in 2017.

The Zodiac Age is a high-definition remaster of Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System, which adds to the original Final Fantasy XII with reconstructed game design and additional systems, with further system improvements and current generation technology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2-bWotLKqo

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/D2-bWotLKqo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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[Cubfan]

Re: Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

Yes finally can't wait to play this on PS4!

[Flawless]

Re: Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

XII is great. Amazing world building, Star Wars vibe, the absolute pinnacle of localization and voice work for the series, tons of content, open exploration, flexible and deep systems.

Can't wait to play it again with all the gameplay improvements and additions from the International Zodiac Job System version that only came out in Japan.

[bcruise]

Re: Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

Yeah this is day one. IZJS would probably be enough for that - the remaster stuff is bonus. Game looks really good - it always did look better than the average PS2 game.

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[The JareBear]

Re: Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

I never played the original. Don't really even know that much about it. Video looks great, looking forward to picking this up

[jfsolo]

Re: Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

IMO, FF XII is criminally underrated by the fandom, it was critically very well received, but folks just didn't warm to it and the FF XIII craziness followed.

[Marino]

Re: Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

IMO, FF XII is criminally underrated by the fandom, it was critically very well received, but folks just didn't warm to it and the FF XIII craziness followed.

I think fans just didn't like that it went away from the turn-based style. I really enjoyed it once I got use to it. Between this, the FFVII remake, and World of Final Fantasy, I will be in FF heaven.

[The JareBear]

Re: Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

So kind of off topic but I saw that FFX/X-2 remaster was on sale on PSN. I never played either so I picked it up 2 days ago. I've already logged 16 hours. Once I start I can't put it down.

I never played XII either, so I will happil pick this up when it comes out

[JazzMan]

Re: Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

So kind of off topic but I saw that FFX/X-2 remaster was on sale on PSN. I never played either so I picked it up 2 days ago. I've already logged 16 hours. Once I start I can't put it down.

I never played XII either, so I will happil pick this up when it comes out

X is easily my favorite of the series. I've said it many times on OS lol

[The JareBear]

Re: Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

X is easily my favorite of the series. I've said it many times on OS lol

It's too bad I'm a decade late to the party. I'm loving it!

[Candyman5]

Re: Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

This unfortunately was one of the FF games I never got to play. I was turned off back in the day from the real time combat but so many people told ke the game is great.

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[Flawless]

Re: Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

This unfortunately was one of the FF games I never got to play. I was turned off back in the day from the real time combat but so many people told ke the game is great.

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The beauty of XII's combat system, is how much you can customize it. You can have it to where you're controlling every action in "real time" to literally having the game play itself with Gambits. The battle system is much closer to "turn-based" than anything else. It's certainly not action-based like Star Ocean or Tales. It falls somewhere between the Active ATB of IV-IX and KOTOR and CRPGs.

[bcruise]

Re: Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

The beauty of XII's combat system, is how much you can customize it. You can have it to where you're controlling every action in "real time" to literally having the game play itself with Gambits. The battle system is much closer to "turn-based" than anything else. It's certainly not action-based like Star Ocean or Tales. It falls somewhere between the Active ATB of IV-IX and KOTOR and CRPGs.

Yeah, that's about right. The Gambit system, unique as it was, was still rather limited through the early parts of the original game because you had to buy each Gambit piece as you ran across them in towns. Apparently in IZJS (as well as this remaster of it), all of them will be available near the beginning - though I'm not sure if they'll need to be bought at Rabanastre or not. Being able to automate stuff like potions, healing, etc. right from the start would allow you to focus on the more strategic parts of the combat easier.

As Flawless mentioned, it's very customizable. The game can be played real-time like an MMO, but there is also a "Wait Mode" where the on-screen action freezes while you're in menus, suddenly turning the game into something much more like a turn-based RPG, where you have all the the time you need to think about your approach. If you're (Jare) liking FF X, I'd definitely recommend giving that a shot when 12 comes out.

[Flawless]

Re: Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

Not much longer.


Job Combinations Guide and FAQ

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RPG Site: changes and additions: what's new in this Ivalice remaster?

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age launches worldwide on PlayStation 4 this July, and it's far more than just an upscaled rerelease. Not only does this new HD remaster have improvements on its own accord, but it is also based on the "International Zodiac Job System" (IZJS) edition of the PlayStation 2 game, which never saw an official release outside of Japan.

That means that Western players are going to find more than a few differences from the original PS2 version of FF12 once they play it on PS4. There's a veritable slew of changes, in fact, and we're gathering them on this page and updating as we learn more.

• New License Boards for character progression
  
  This is one of the most notable changes to the structure of the game from a gameplay perspective. Most notably, instead of a singular gigantic license board that all characters use to gain access to abilities and equipment, in IZJS each character must choose one of twelve license boards available.
  
  Each of these twelve boards is based on a different job: Archer, Black Mage, Bushi, Foebreaker, Knight, Machnist, Monk, Red Battlemage, Shikari, Time Battlemage, Uhlan, and White Mage. Many of these should be familiar to long-time FF fans as classic series classes.
  
  Each board has unique abilities and equipment that only the character on that board can use. Once a character selects a board, they are locked to it forever and unable to change. Selecting a board is done right near the start of the game.

• Second Job for Each Character
  
  Each character can eventually equip a secondary job in addition to the primary job. This can be done after defeating Belias and once a character unlocks the proper license node on their primary job board. With twelve jobs total, six characters, and two jobs per character, now every job can be represented in a single playthrough. Job selections are still permanent.

• Quadruple Game Speed Turbo
  
  By clicking L1, the game speed can be quadrupled (4x) in any live gameplay, be that combat or exploration. It's a simple one-button process, so you can toggle this on or off any time you like. This is obviously extremely useful for players grinding some levels, traversing a large area, gathering loot, or taking on the infamously long and difficult Yiazmat super boss. This does not affect music or cutscenes, so things won't sound like a garbled mess when running at high speed.

• Trial Mode
  
  Separate from the main game, a Trial Mode was added to IZJS - accessible from the main menu. Trial Mode consists of 100 stages where players are pitted against a group of enemies or boss creature.
  
  Characters are loaded from a main game save file into Trial Mode for use in combat, so you can keep returning to Trial Mode as you progress through the game with more powerful characters, getting a little deeper into this challenging mode each time.

Other Changes

• Quickenings no longer require MP and use their own gauge. Characters gain MPs through leveling up rather than by unlocking more Quickenings.
• Two versions of New Game Plus: one where characters start at level 90 (Strong Mode) and one where characters never level up (Weak Mode, unlocked after beating Trial Mode). Nothing is carried over into either of these files.
• The 9999 damage limit is removed.
• Some characters stats and item/equipment effects have been changed.
• Sixteen new gambit options.
• Some enemy stats are altered and there a couple new enemies.
• Treasure chests respawn by only moving one screen away (rather than three screens away).
• Some treasure chest contents have been slightly changed. Some magicks originally purchased in stores must now be found in chests.
• Some magicks have been recategorized. For example, Bravery is now a White Magick instead of a Green Magick.
• Some shop listings and Hunt rewards have been altered.

• Map Overlay View
  
  By clicking L3, the map of the area can be overlayed over the user interface, so players can follow their icon alongside the map as they explore zones without having to open and close the map menu repeatedly.

• Double Game Speed Turbo
  
  You can now choose to fast-forward battles at 2x speed rather than just 4x speed in situations where 4x might be a little too much. This is a toggle set in the menu and does not affect music or cutscenes.

Other Additions

• Improved Textures and Visuals
• Improved sound and voice quality, including 7.1ch surround support
• Various gameplay balance and polish changes
• No magic spell buffering due to effect limits on PS2 hardware - all spells are cast immediately when ready
• Auto-save feature which activates at every zone transition
• Improved load times
• A soundtrack toggle between the original OST and a remastered OST. There are also 8 new additional tracks added to the game.
• A voice language toggle to choose between Japanese and English voices at will.
• Ability to invert both the X and Y camera axes

[bcruise]

Re: Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

Preload is 50 1/2 GB. Eep.

Original was no more than 4.7, given it was on a single-layer DVD. That's quite an expansion in size.