Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (PS4)

Soldato
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Couldn't find a thread on this yet.

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is the HD remaster of the PS2 title Final Fantasy XII, set to release in 2017 on the PS4.

Looks pretty fab to me - I played the original for a few hours and couldn't get on with it (despite being a huge Final Fantasy fan). I'm ready to give it another fair shot as I've heard lots of positive reviews over the years.

I think the UK version was pretty borked in comparison to the US and Japanese versions too, so to get a definitive version is pretty great.

Square Enix are, in my opinion, really pulling it out of the bag lately. XV looks and plays superbly, the recent Steam/iOS/PS4 re-releases are great nostalgia fests, Final Fantasy VII Remake needs no description, and now this? I appreciate they're fundamentally cash cows but I am hyped for the next couple of years to see what SE deliver (or don't, as we may see).


Copied from the US PlayStation Blog;

Updated Graphics

We’re thrilled to give players a chance to return to Ivalice in Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age, so we’ve updated the visuals to full HD resolution, including the environments, characters, and movie scenes to make sure they look their best on PlayStation 4.

Newly recorded soundtrack

Final Fantasy XII’s soundtrack features some of the most beloved songs in the series’ history, and this was a perfect opportunity to revisit its epic score. We’ve re-recorded FFXII’s background music using the current generation of sound production, now in true 7.1 surround. For the purists out there, you have the option to switch between the new and original versions of the score at any time.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/06/06/final-fantasy-xii-the-zodiac-age-launches-on-ps4-in-2017/

What do you think? I'm not keen on the name, could've left it just Final Fantasy XII - HD Remaster, a la Final Fantasy X.
 
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Soldato
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I can't remember completing this on PS2 so will no doubt investigate it when it's a bit cheaper.

Reminds me that I need to pick up the X/X2 re-master.
 
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One thing I do remember, this game came out AFTER the PS3 when the PS3 was backwards compatible with PS2 games. Yet the game had performance issues according to many review sites, I never saw any though.
 
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I hope they've toned down the auto-battle system with the remaster, that thing made it overly tempting to let the game play itself during battles as it made your team absolutely unbeatable in the later portions of the game... though it was slightly fun watching the final boss fight as a 40+ minute cinematic sequence.

I'll definitely pick it up as I quite like having the majority of my Final Fantasy collection on my PS4.

malachi said:
One thing I do remember, this game came out AFTER the PS3 when the PS3 was backwards compatible with PS2 games. Yet the game had performance issues according to many review sites, I never saw any though.
Can't say I recall experiencing any performance issues either.
 
Soldato
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One thing I do remember, this game came out AFTER the PS3 when the PS3 was backwards compatible with PS2 games. Yet the game had performance issues according to many review sites, I never saw any though.
Came out a bit earlier than the PS3, actually.

But anyways, this was back when people weren't as stressed about framerates. So it might have had issues and we were just too insensitive to notice them.

I know this game will come out for PC at some point, but I dont think I'm gonna be able to wait. Been wanting to play this again for a long time, especially the Zodiac version which the US never got(where I lived at the time).
 
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I think I'm one of the few who enjoyed this when it came up - but I'm worried that was only because I hated FFX so much. So anything after that was going to seem good to me.

I since tried to revisit FFX with the HD Remaster and it was even worse than I remember so i'll tentatively give this a go.
I'm all for them doing it though....I don't mind any HD releases of games I can't remember much about or didn't really play.

I'd prefer just getting FF8/9 onto the PS4 though like they did with 7.
 
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This got a lot of stick at the time because of the apparent bombardment of status effects. I didn't even notice as FF fights require constant amounts of status removals anyway.

I played it on a rubbish TV but enjoyed it so will probably buy it and play again.
 
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I think I'm one of the few who enjoyed this when it came up - but I'm worried that was only because I hated FFX so much. So anything after that was going to seem good to me.

As a general rule of thumb I think if you loved X then you typically didn't gel with XII - and vice versa.

This is a shame as X, for me, is borderline perfect.
 
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As a general rule of thumb I think if you loved X then you typically didn't gel with XII - and vice versa.

This is a shame as X, for me, is borderline perfect.

Yeah seems to be the case a lot of the time. I don't know anybody who like either game to be honest - most of my mates gave up on 8 when they had to play as one of gamings lamest ever protagonists...haha

I only played it at launch so it'll have been a decade so it should be fresh in that sense as I remember nothing about it. That's bad in a way as it means it aren't memorable but I also won't be going in with bad memories. :p
 
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As a general rule of thumb I think if you loved X then you typically didn't gel with XII - and vice versa.
Not a good rule of thumb at all. Some people feel this way, but it's like saying if you dont like shooters, you'll love RPG's. Plenty of people like both just fine.

FFXII was a bit misunderstood when it first released. It was fairly unique by FF standards and wasn't what people were expecting at all. It would probably have been better received if it was named something different. Either way, it's a game lots of people grew to love and is considered one of the better FF's by many nowadays.
 
Soldato
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Not a good rule of thumb at all. Some people feel this way, but it's like saying if you dont like shooters, you'll love RPG's. Plenty of people like both just fine.

FFXII was a bit misunderstood when it first released. It was fairly unique by FF standards and wasn't what people were expecting at all. It would probably have been better received if it was named something different. Either way, it's a game lots of people grew to love and is considered one of the better FF's by many nowadays.

You're pulling a straw-man fallacy on me - I never suggested it was anything like your analogy at all. I even said it was a "general" rule of thumb, something I have noted through the years of talking to friends and online folk whom are fans of the series. I concede that it won't apply to everyone, as I mentioned, it's a general rule that I have found to be true.

You've even said it yourself that XII was misunderstood - it stands to reason that it's because it's so vastly different to the big (non online) Final Fantasy that happened to precede it - i.e. X.

With that being said I'm hoping I do fall for this game this time round.
 
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I wish Enix would stop remaking crap FF's like 12 and remake the most beautiful game ever made in Final Fantasy 9..The art style, music, character interaction is stunning.
 
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