Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age Standard Edition - Nintendo Switch

Final Fantasy is a cool game for nostalgia. The game could have been made better but if your into Final Fantasy you won’t regret checking this one out. It goes on sale for 20$ during Black Friday if your a budget gamer like myself who doesn’t have all the time in the world to game and has patience. It would be worth it to snatch at sales price.

The Switch port of Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age is in decent shape. In handheld mode, the image is definitely blurrier than any other release, including the base Xbox One version. I have posted a comparison between the Switch Handheld version and the PC version (in 1080p), but keep in mind that it will always look crisper on the actual Switch screen than it will on a screenshot. The frame rate is limited to 30fps (which is true for all other versions except for PC/Xbox One X) but it seems to be stable. The Switch/Xbox One ports come with some new features that the PS4/PC versions do not have. They are: -Licencse Reset, which allows you to switch jobs at will (acquired less than an hour into the story) -Additional Gambit sets. Gambits allow you to manipulate party AI, and this new set feature allows you to create up to 3 different sets of Gambits and switch between them at will. -An improved New Game+ that lets you start at level 90 and carry over weapons, magic and gil With these new features, along with the portability of the Switch, it is hard not to recommend this as the definitive version. The blurriness is definitely notable to me, as I have played the PC version as well, but in this case the good heavily outweighs the bad. P.S. Oh, and the title screen appears to have some input lag not found in the PC version. If this is a bad first impression, worry not. I tested everything past the title screen

A beautiful update to an underrated final Fantasy game (briefly available at a price reasonable to those of us who still have the ps2 era game). For those unaware the Final Fantasy series is more like an anthology each numbered game is a new story with new characters and world. Therefore each game can be played with little to no prior experience with the series. Much of the game plays more like an MMO (with intricately programmable party members substituted for other players) than a traditional turn based Final Fantasy. Character customization has been expanded from the original game with a new character license board setup. Each character has a upgrade tree based around their job(class) that grants new job related skills, expands equipable armor and weapons, and stat boosts. This system has been expanded by allowing a secondary job (license board) for each of your party members. This allows you to assign a complimentary job and set of skills to your party members. The graphical update really shines through for me due to having played the original game extensively. Blurry character models and backgrounds are now crisp bringing new life to to the beautiful world of Ivalice and its characters. I can understand some who may not appreciate it as much especially if they have played newer square enix games (in particular Final Fantasy XV or even to a lesser extent the FF XIII trilogy) made initially for newer and more powerful machines from the ground up. This is after all a much older game that has merely received a lovely graphical update. Ultimately if you didn’t care for Final Fantasy XII originally I don’t think enough has changed to alter your opinion. However, if you ever had any fondness for the original game or are completely new to it and the idea of a character driven political thriller in a high concept fantasy world featuring an ensemble cast of playable characters (no chosen one heroes here) then I recommend giving it a chance and I hope it enchants and thrills you as much as it’s dedicated fans.

I heartily recommend this game to anyone who likes RPGs and is looking for a unique take on combat! It's a hybrid of turn-based and real-time elements unlike anything else I've played before. Even other Final Fantasy games don't resemble it! Without spoiling the specifics, I'll say that you get to program your party to perform certain actions under certain conditions, while also retaining the option to manually command them if necessary. Computer geeks will definitely appreciate the If-then style framework of the combat system. There's also a robust character job system that gets explained early on, and it stacks up well against any modern RPG. The story of the game is quite good, but it does have some faults (not going to spoil them) that thankfully don't ruin the overall experience, in my opinion. The most impressive thing it does is give you a real sense of the world and its socio-political turmoil. Towns are lively, and there's a lot of fun text to read from the people while you're exploring. As for the characters, you've got a fairly interesting cast, I'd have to say. They adhere to many classical archetypes, but most of them have cool visual designs and intriguing personalities. All of this is helped by the nicely voice-acted cutscenes this game has. Graphically speaking, this is a PS2-era game remastered for the Switch, so it's not going to be a visual juggernaut in the technical sense. I enjoyed taking in the sights, though! Beautiful artwork goes a long way, and this game has it in spades. Now, let's get to the music! The soundtrack does a great job of fitting the atmosphere of the places you're exploring and fighting in. There's a solid balance between "gritty medieval society" tracks and "upbeat fantasy adventure" tracks. On top of that, this game lets you freely swap between the original PS2 version's soundtrack, the remastered soundtrack, and the original CD soundtrack at any time! To conclude, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is a worthy buy for any RPG lover, even one who has never played a Final Fantasy game before.

Square Enix did a great job on this port and to be able to take this on the go makes it awesome! If you are a fan of the series then it's definitely a good buy, but just be aware that the gameplay is a bit more "MMORPG"ish compared to the previous iterations but without the online.

Great remaster of a great game. This installment in the franchise was a bit of an outlier when it came out; it has a different battle system and progression. But it has aged really well and in my opinion is one of the top three or four Final Fantasy games.

It's a good game. The combat system's unique and feels like a very mini-RTS in terms of how it functions and flows. Although, I wish there was more customization in how your party AI can function in certain situations. Story is kinda eh (though I haven't finished it yet, I'm like halfway through): but so far it seems like a basic globe-trotting adventure to find the power to face an evil, all-encompassing empire. Voice-acting is hit-or-miss too. Don't think they redid any of it from the original release; some characters are good, some are bad and some are flat and in need of help. Music's good though, but not as memorable as other series' entries in my opinion. All in all, it's a good game, but not for everyone for reasons as stated above. Want more reasons, find another review alone, can't scratch my brain for criticisms here.

One of my favorite FF games growing up. Pretty sophisticated story in my opinion, but plenty of things to do in the large world.