FINAL FANTASY XII THE ZODIAC AGE

This was already a fantastic remaster, full of the quality of life we've come to expect from SE's modernization efforts. (I'm ignoring Final Fantasy XV and Crisis Core: Reunion.) But pile onto that the active modding ecosystem, the advent of multiple randomizers, and widespread integration with other RPG communities through Archipelago, Flat2VR, and other broad-scope efforts, and you have not only one of the best Final Fantasy games currently available, but one of the best fantasy role-playing games ever, wholesale. This version of the game absolutely deserves to be bought at full-price. But if you get it on discount, make sure you toss some of the extra cash you save to the mod authors. They will make this game worth your while long after the initial purchase. :D

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ out of 5 Played about 220 hours of this game with full achievements completed. I alternated playing the game between my gaming PC, Steam Deck in handheld mode, and Steam Deck docked to my TV. The Pros: - Excellent epic story that is more focused on wars, countries, characters. similar to Star Wars. - Beautiful music. - The Zodiac Age comes with many enhancements like the speed control. - Gambits are very interesting. - The final battle was very cinematic - While the graphics might look dated, the cinematics are still gorgeous. - The good thing about the trophies/achievements is that they are not missable and do not need more than one playthrough. The Cons: - To achieve all the trophies need lots of work and time put into playing. - Impossible to finish the full game without a guide - The Great Crystal area is one of the most bizarre and confusing areas. I didn't like that at all. - The trials are extremely challenging. - Some of the optional bosses are unnecessarily buffed with HP. - Lots of RNG based trophies like the quickening one and some depend on magick/techs with 1-5% spawning rate. Note: after the last Nvidia update the game crashes when starting on Windows. The easiest way to fix it is to go to the DX cache folder and delete its contents. You need to do that everytime before playing the game. "C:\Users\Your Username\AppData\Local\NVIDIA\DXCache"

I was having a good time, but now the game won't launch anymore and even mods don't seem to be able to fix it. The game should be removed if its not getting supported.

completely unplayable crash after crash after crash none of the 20 fixes i tried fixes this pos

Fatal error bug has stopped me playing after about 3 hours

Not necessarily the best Final Fantasy game, but the one that resonates the most with me. Ivalice is a living, breathing world, and its denizens are the sort of heroes I'd love to spend a lifetime with. (Even Vaan and Penolo! A lot of folks unjustly hate them, but they're good kids!) Here's a free tip - if you're struggling with some of the hard optional Hunts and want to get your party to level 99, look up the infamous 'AFK jelly level up' technique on YouTube. It involves going into the Henne Mines with a specific set of Gambits for each character, and killing continuously-spawning jellies until your crew is all max level. Worked great for me, but I admit I had to babysit the fellas more than the ladies. (Vaan and Balthier kept getting themselves killed!) Anyway, FFXII is grand, and the perfect Steam Deck game. Give it a go if you like the idea of a MMO single player epic in the best FF setting ever.

One of the more critically acclaimed Final Fantasy games yet it doesn't really get talked about as much as VI thru X. I really enjoyed it though and think it offers a JRPG experience that's unique and worth playing. Like: - the combat (Gambit system which allows you to "program/automate" your actions) is unique and cool, I enjoyed this version of the departure from classic ATB system - locations feel full of life, tons of NPCs that you can talk to. "singleplayer MMO" is used a lot to describe this game and its really true. - side content is lots of fun to seek out, later game hunts and optional espers are challenging but push you to tailor your equipment/gambit strategy so they feel rewarding to beat - soundtrack is pretty good - overall graphic aesthetic/styling is cool, a mix of classic looking architecture and futuristic sci-fi tech/airships. - built in bestiary adding world building lore is sick, gives a nice incentive to seek out each region's monsters, and a nice little reward for grinding Neutral: - some of the side-quests are a bit convoluted and might be difficult to find organically on a first playthrough so there's some pressure to use walkthroughs to not miss content. but the hidden nature also adds to the depth of the world - the "remastering" isn't as good as it could be. Mainly the textures aren't upscaled very nicely so they still look blurry. can be fixed by mods but the base game should be better. Voice acting audio sounds like PS2 original, it's pretty crunchy. - Vaan is annoying but the other characters are cool. - Some story elements, mainly the unique terms and object names, are a bit confusing to follow. Dislike (nitpicks, I don't think this game has any dealbreakers): - the way the cursor behaves in combat is infuriating to me, the "memory" option doesn't remember per character, so if you enter the white magic for a character with only 2 spells learned, you lose the position when you then go to your white mage since the cursor will go all the way to the top. Playing in active mode becomes really difficult later in the game since navigating the menu for manual commands is painful. - gambit system while cool, is also very simple and the limitations make me wish for just a little more. for example being able to make it so you don't try stealing of an enemy doesn't have anything to steal. - random loot chests, and some really useful loot only being obtainable through them is tedious and annoying. - some of the best weapons in the game are locked behind rare enemy loot and hunt club or bazaar recipes. aware this is also true of almost every other final fantasy game but still kind of sucks seeing the weapon on the license board and then just never coming across the weapon.

Ass port, unplayable on windows 11 with up to date graphics drivers at the moment. Even after doing the shader cache fix, I was still crashing. How I personally got the game to run after 30 minutes of constant crashing without ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ with my shader cache 1. FF12 External File Loader + FF12 tkMalloc Fix 2. Rolled back my drivers to 581.57 specifically. I have not crashed once since. That said, once you get it to actually work, this is a wonderful game. I was relatively uninspired prior to playing it but I've really enjoyed it. The dynamic between Fran and Balthier specifically is very good, I'm glad they get so much screen time. The gameplay is hit or miss I feel. I enjoy it, but I also understand the criticism of it being uninteractive and boring. Once you get your gambits setup there really isn't much to change or do. Boss fights are kind of just draining a meter. The game is also somewhat unbearable without the built in speed modifiers. I can not imagine playing this game on 1x. If you can deal with a poop lazy port it's a pretty good game, but I could not validate purchasing this if it was full price.