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[sublimit]

Inside FINAL FANTASY XII THE ZODIAC AGE takes a look at some of the secrets and anecdotes from the development of the game, featuring interviews with Takashi Katano (Director) & Hiroaki Kato (Producer)

 

[Komatsu]

Matsuno's swan song at Square, unfortunately compromised by his early departure. A game that has only grown in regard and stature as its successors were all lacking - in all ways possible.

 

[Myths]

Matsuno + Yoshida ... if only
Edit: Yes, I should give praise to Minaba too. After all, he was the genius behind my favorite FF as an artist: FFV.

 

[Bolivar687]

I need to pick this back up. I was looking forward to it so much but hit a rough patch and wasnt able to enjoy it.

 

[Nymphae]

I just bought this for PS4 last week, had an urge to play a FF game and I haven't revisited this since it launched. I enjoyed it at the time but I can't remember a lot about it.

I love that they added some ways to speed up the grind.

 

[Fuz]

Mediocre, overrated game with a pretty good art style and embarassing writing.

 

[Soltype]

Mediocre, overrated game with a pretty good art style and embarassing writing.

I can't knock your take on the gameplay, but how was the writing "embarrassing"?

 

[Fuz]

I can't knock your take on the gameplay, but how was the writing "embarrassing"?

Mmmm hard to go by memory but...
Characters are absolutely flat, devoid of any personality, underwritten and try too much to be cool (Balthier being the worst offender). They also have no meaningful development at all. Story makes no sense (hey, we have a HUGE FUCKING ARMY OF GIANT FLYING SHIPS ARMED TO THE TEETH but the most important thing is finding some stone that it's basically a single nuke). I don't remember much, but I spent my whole playthrough thinking "THIS SHIT MAKES NO SENSE" over and over.

As I said, I liked the artstyle (it's really great!), the world building and the exploration was great. Combat was ok-ish, but I'm not fond of RT (full or partial) in Final Fantasy games.

 

[UltimaKilo]

Mmmm hard to go by memory but...
Characters are absolutely flat, devoid of any personality, underwritten and try too much to be cool (Balthier being the worst offender). They also have no meaningful development at all. Story makes no sense (hey, we have a HUGE FUCKING ARMY OF GIANT FLYING SHIPS ARMED TO THE TEETH but the most important thing is finding some stone that it's basically a single nuke). I don't remember much, but I spent my whole playthrough thinking "THIS SHIT MAKES NO SENSE" over and over.

As I said, I liked the artstyle (it's really great!), the world building and the exploration was great. Combat was ok-ish, but I'm not fond of RT (full or partial) in Final Fantasy games.

The story was definitely the weakest of the FF up to that point and the music was OK. The MMO battle system was also questionable. However, the open world was great and the graphics fantastic.

 

[Northeastmonk]

The game had a lot of uplifting elements to it, given that its also a PS2 title. It had likable character interactions, romanticizing loyalty to an empire, and going on an adventure. I would put it above quite a few Final Fantasy titles in terms of overall enjoyment. The year was what 2006? Magicite was a cool name and the Judges looked awesome. It flowed together pretty well. I enjoyed it way more than I do the Star Ocean franchise. The characters in XII were so much better than XIII and XV's in my opinion. It was a feel good JRPG.

I wouldn't dog it on that considering how many lackluster JRPG's there's been. Lost Odyssey was good and a few here and there. Final Fantasy XII was a remarkable game so late on the PS2's life cycle. I also tend to pick out a handful of things and I don't analyze everything. Final Fantasy X had a good battle system, enemies, and graphics. I disliked the plot and the dialogue was laughable. I'd say XII did an excellent job on delivering a somewhat mature JRPG. You'd have to look at Tactics or Tactics Ogre for that caliber of game IMO.

 

[Naked Lunch]

Probably my favorite Final Fantasy and JRPG period. I look at this game as the 3rd in the series after FF Tactics, Vagrant Story, and then FFXII - these 3 are the pinnacle of the genre. The games have so many similarities. Having the same director and composer of all three games helps. For example, FFXII's Vossler and Ring Wyrm bosses are 100% striaght from Vagrant Story. I love FFXII's characters to death - and its one of the only jrpgs I can think of that I can replay over and over.