Released in 2006 Final Fantasy XII was one of the most technically impressive games of its time. Fans easily forgave the developers for the not too high and unstable frame rate, because the PlayStation 2 was working at the limit of its capabilities. It would seem that in 2018 it would be possible to achieve 60 fps on not very powerful PCs in such old game- not a problem at all, but the studio responsible for the porting, Virtuos Games (it participated in the creation of HD versions, and) was unpleasantly surprised by the quality of the optimization. As Eurogamer employees found out, the remaster of Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age can please only owners of the most modern systems with high performance indicators.
Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age was released on PlayStation 4 back in July last year, and appeared on PC only on February 1 of this year. On the PlayStation 4 Pro, the game runs at 1440p at 30 fps, while the standard model is completely limited to 1080p. The PC version supports native 4K resolution at 60 fps, so it had every chance of being the best out there - but the optimization was disappointing.
As with Final Fantasy X, all graphical components of Final Fantasy XII (animations, effects, etc.) were originally designed for 30 fps. The developers had to rework them to make the game run at a higher frequency without harming individual components. They coped with this non-trivial task quite well: neither the animation speed, nor the synchronization of lip movements with speech, nor the work of the gameplay mechanics cause serious complaints. Controls have become more precise and smooth, which, according to the author of the article, David Bierton, has transformed the gameplay.
Due to the use of depth of field and other post-processing effects, there is little difference in graphics between the PlayStation 4 Pro and PC versions. Despite this, the computer version, according to journalists, is superior to the console version. Shadows are a bit sharper, and ambient occlusion is now rendered at full resolution, increasing the radius and accuracy of the effect.
One way or another, the PC version is inferior in some ways. In some scenes, detail has decreased: some surfaces have lost the textures and bump-map layer present on the PlayStation 4. However, the journalist does not rule out that this is a bug that will be fixed.
But the most unpleasant problems of the remaster are the high system requirements(especially for owners AMD video cards) and a menu that is convenient to use only on the PlayStation 2. To configure the graphics in accordance with your configuration, you will need patience: at first the game allows you to select only basic parameters (resolution, frame rate and overall graphics quality), and the rest are available only through the “ A new game» in the main menu. You can select settings, then return to the main menu and load a save, but few people will find this option convenient. It is not possible to change settings during the game.
60 fps is the only real important advantage PC versions, but achieving this value is difficult. Journalists tested the game on NVIDIA GeForce Titan X, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, but did not achieve stable 60 fps in 4K (and the “red” video card was inferior in results).
As the resource staff found out, the main culprit of low performance is the ambient occlusion effect. Owners of a video card of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti and GTX 1080 level who want to achieve the declared frame rate of 4K will have to reduce the resolution of this effect by half. In addition, it is recommended to lower MSAA anti-aliasing from eight to four times (image quality will not suffer much) and select medium shadow quality. However, on systems with AMD graphics adapters like Radeon RX Vega 64, this will not be enough - you will have to completely abandon ambient occlusion and, possibly, MSAA.
The ambient occlusion effect on PC has more a high resolution and a wider range of application. Improved shading is especially noticeable on Vaan's arms and hair
At 1440p it's easier to get the game to run at 60fps. Even owners of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 can do this by lowering MSAA to 4x (shadow quality can be left high). On the AMD Radeon RX 580, however, it will not be enough to even disable ambient occlusion - you need an AMD Radeon RX Vega 56. However, frame rate drops will be observed on systems with any video card.
For those who are ready to be content with 1080p and 60 fps with small jumps, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 580 (high quality shadows and MSAA 4x) will be enough. By lowering the shadow quality to medium and MSAA to 2x, you can get a fixed 60 fps with console image quality.
“The graphics settings and overall performance on PC are by no means ideal, but otherwise the redesign job was done excellently,”— Birton wrote. — Serious problems does not occur during the game at 60 fps. Thanks to its higher frame rate, the PC version outperforms all others. But to appreciate it, you'll need a fairly powerful graphics card."
Last week Eurogamer also benchmarked the PC version, which also turned out to be visually impressive but poorly optimized.
OLEG ZAITSEVEleven years ago, a JRPG was released on PS2 with a huge, well-developed world, very beautiful graphics (by the standards of a rapidly aging platform), an atypical plot for the genre, full of intrigue and conspiracies, and an abundance of fresh ideas. It was called , but it was not destined to change Japanese role-playing games, which were already mired in a creative crisis. All her achievements went unnoticed even by herself, because since then she has not released a single decent single number Final Fantasy. And it so happened that in 2017, perhaps, one of the most unusual JRPGs of the year again became with the subtitle.
The last one is worthy
In the world of Ivalice, familiar to fans and, big empire Arcadia attacks small neighbors. The usual premise for a Japanese game is adjacent to the usual hero - the teenager Vaan, whose homeland, the kingdom of Dalmasca, was occupied by foreigners. The older brother of a simple boy from the street died during the fighting, so the guy was left an orphan and now works part-time in a merchant’s shop. He has not come to terms with the loss and is trying in every possible way to take revenge on the powerful “enemy”. Under the slogan “rob the loot,” he even enters the local palace in order to steal something that should not belong to foreigners. And there he suddenly encounters the air pirate Balthier, his charming companion Fran and Princess Ashelia - the true heir to the throne of Dalmasca, who was considered dead.It soon becomes clear that Vaan, whom we control while exploring settlements, is, of course, not at all main character this story. In general, a large JRPG probably couldn’t do without “school kids,” so the tomboy and his girlfriend Penelo will be in the squad until the end. However, at the center of the story is Ashelia, who seeks to punish the aggressor and sit on the throne, simultaneously finding out that the world is not as simple as she would like. clearly makes it clear who is who when Ashe once again pulls back the commoner Vaan, who decided to express his not particularly important opinion during the dialogue between her highness and some high-ranking NPC. And there are also plenty of situations when much more mature companions roll their eyes when they hear yet another stupidity from the lips of a young man. In other words, a simple boy, by the will of fate, drawn into a battle between those in power, is assigned an appropriate role.
The script is one of the main advantages of the original, which did not undergo any changes in the “remaster”. This is an unusually “adult” adventure for a JRPG, in which the characters try not to fall into pathos, there are, in fact, noticeably more than two active parties, and the conventional “villains” are difficult to paint over with just black paint. Towards the end, the game slows down a bit - after all, it was completed in a hurry and without the participation of one of the key people. However, it couldn't do any damage. She is not as touching as (probably the second main Final Fantasy in the history of the series), and does not squeeze tears out of you, like a holey and stupid movie, so those who like to smear snot on clichéd one-dimensional dummies have nothing to do in Ivalice.
However, no branded elements at all Final Fantasy the next issue was not left. There are a lot of monsters here that, thanks to their comical design, would organically fit into the world of a “children’s”, but are not always appropriate in. Here knights in elaborate armor fly on massive air warships, and on funny overgrown chickens (those chocobo) ride. In general, the country of origin can be easily guessed from almost any frame. But Ivalice really resembles the habitat of people and representatives of many other intelligent races. It boasts a level of sophistication unmatched by most of its competitors, and conceals great amount secrets; Having run to the final strictly along the story “path”, you will not see many side quests, optional “bosses” and excellent items. For obvious reasons, the maps consisted of interconnected patches of modest size. In the “remaster” everything remains the same, but it’s a pity: if you dared to do a full-fledged remake, it would easily be out of your reach “ open world» .
Another feature that has not undergone significant changes is combat. They take place in real time with a pause, and all commands to three fighters (two if you called a magical creature to help, or four if the designers attached a plot “guest” to you, and three more of your obligatory companions are always in reserve) are given through cumbersome menu. Reminds me of or, if your party members have their AI turned off. Actually, this is the developers’ find: so that the player does not die of boredom, looking for the same commands in hundreds of skirmishes, they added a gambit system.
In essence, we program the behavior of our students, indicating the necessary commands, the conditions for their execution and their priority. For example, in every fight you will definitely have to heal someone - what's interesting about that? It's best to order your regular healer to "cure" when someone in the squad has "HP"<60». Но если кто-то вдруг рухнул без чувств, тогда нужно бросать все и срочно «raise». Это не значит, что играет сама в себя: нештатные ситуации никто не отменял, предусмотреть абсолютно все невозможно, да и новые гамбиты нужно покупать в магазине. Зато скучной рутины в сражениях намного меньше, чем в других JRPG. Здесь вы побеждаете не потому, что способны тысячу раз выбрать нужный пункт меню, а потому, что правильно спланировали ход боя. На фоне таких возможностей боевая система выглядит как неудачная шутка.
License to Hero
This is a very brief description of some of the merits, giving a rough idea of why the story of Ashelia and her friends is still not outdated, has no analogues among Japanese developments and is generally worthy of attention even now. Of course, there is a certain amount of archaism in it - after all, old age. Why the same archaism is still found in the latest JRPGs, it seems, is another question that the relevant publishers should think about.
At one time, a reissue was published in Japan called International Zodiac Job System(the newest one is based on it), where they greatly changed the gameplay and added several new interesting things. The key innovation was the reworking of the role-playing system. Characters not only grow in levels, but also separately accumulate “license points”, which are spent on purchasing new skills, spells, bonuses and even... permissions to equip items on a special board.
All other old and new fixes come down to various minor adjustments to balance, options (you can change the voice acting from English to Japanese and choose an updated version instead of the wonderful original music) and performance. It’s a pity that she didn’t fork out for a full-scale renovation, as she did in the case of, since a modest facelift does not hide the age of models, locations, etc. However, compared to modern Japanese role-playing games, it is still competitive - the source material was very good. This is more likely not praise for the authors of the “remaster”, but a boulder against all other JRPGs.
Final Fantasy XII made such a significant contribution to reinventing the fundamentals of the JRPG that it is difficult to classify it as a representative of the genre and even more difficult as a representative of the series. It merges the concepts of "world map" and "battle scene" into a more coherent whole.
The focus here is on guild hunts - a huge variety of side quests that can keep keen players engaged for hours - and a gambit system that manages real-time combat, which has grown out of the random turn-based battles of RPGs of yesteryear.
Gambits allow you to program the behavior of all your characters, so you no longer have to choose teams for each individual fighter. Many action-oriented RPGs (Star Ocean and the Tales series) have similar features, but Final Fantasy XII allows much more freedom in customizing specific actions.
The simplest gambits tell all characters to attack the same monster as the party leader or simply hit the enemy with the lowest health. If someone from the squad's health drops to a certain level, he can be automatically cured, and the like.
The idea is that you create a mechanism that needs constant tweaking and adjustment until you find a combination of commands that is perfect for the current unit and the enemies it faces. And, in general, this is how it works in all JRPGs: you look for the most effective ways to eliminate baddies, wisely managing the available resources, only without the sparkling effects that mark the beginning and end of combat in JRPGs from the moment of their inception.
It's not just the gambit system that makes Final Fantasy XII stand out. It is also very different from other parts of the series in terms of plot and game world. It's undoubtedly the most stylish and mature Final Fantasy yet, and the only game that captures its spirit is the spin-off Final Fantasy Tactics.
Both games were helmed by the brilliant game designer Yasumi Matsuno, although he was destined to leave the FFXII team midway through development. Matsuno seemed to admire tales of tragic wars and Shakespearean drama, and this mood is perfectly woven with the music of Hitoshi Sakimoto, whose orchestral compositions seem more expressive than Uematsu's overly synthetic new age/prog rock of previous games.
However, there is some inconsistency in the fact that Matsuno was working on a more "popular" project - before, his games seemed a little more believable, since sales did not seem to be a priority goal, but Final Fantasy is a series in which characters are created with an eye on the ardent fans.
Not to say that his previous games were completely devoid of flashy fan appeals - did anyone even wear pants in Vagrant Story? – but, having gotten used to his authentic presentation, you feel disheartened, wondering how much time Vaan spent on his perfect hairstyle or who could take a princess seriously in such a provocative outfit as Ashe’s?
In FF Tactics Advance, representatives of the Viera race were adorable, like Peter Rabbit from the books of Beatrix Potter, if you gave him a bow and arrows. Here, the dark-skinned and fair-haired Fran is covered with a metal belt, and the camera happily selects good angles, showing her from behind. So, the game presents the brightest - although not necessarily the best - aspects of both worlds.
The Final Fantasy series has always divided its fans into opposing camps like no other, but FFXII infuriated most of them - for which, as you might guess, Matsuda was largely to blame. It is completely different not only from its predecessors, but also from the RPGs of its time in general, and its frankness attracts as many people as it offends. The plot and characters are very good at the beginning, but quickly fade and are completely lost against the backdrop of endless dungeons at the end of the game.
The threads of history unravel before they even have time to emerge, if they led anywhere at all. However, the lack of emphasis on storytelling can serve as an excellent alternative to the plot-heavy Final Fantasy X, or indeed any linear sequence of cutscenes from the PSOne.
As a major compromise between old school and new school, after defeating a boss, characters stand in a circle, striking striking poses to the classic victory tune. This concession serves as a reminder of how stupid the RPG conventions of yesteryear were, while at the same time letting players know that they can still enjoy them.
Of course, the legacy of the genre does not end there. Our selection.
Final Fantasy XII is, without exaggeration, a unique game. Nothing like this came out either before or after it; due to its peculiarities, it turned out to be insufficiently mainstream both when it was first released ten years ago, and now, when its expanded re-release The Zodiac Age was released. I have already talked about why Final Fantasy XII is a great and outstanding game in another post, and here I will try not to repeat myself. I would like to pay much more attention to what makes it so unusual, and what kind of approach it requires.
To avoid any complaints, I will attach a standard description of the game, but in the briefest form. is a JRPG where you control a team of three heroes as they travel through a vast and detailed world. Characters gain experience and license points in battle, which are used to unlock abilities on special skill boards, increase characteristics, and the ability to wear various equipment. In the reissue there are 12 such boards, each corresponding to a specific profession. Each of the six characters available to choose from has two license boards open to them.
The plot of the game tells about the attempts of the princess of the kingdom of Dalmasca, captured by a powerful empire, to restore the independence of her homeland. But not only.
Protagonist Confusion
One of the key complaints of fans of the Final Fantasy series about the twelfth part was Vaan, a commoner boy, for whom the game essentially begins and who, for this reason, many call the protagonist. Of course, this is not so: Vaan is used by the game as a POV character, through his eyes we look at the life of ordinary people, at the essence of the conflict in the world of the game, at other heroes who will soon take a central role in the narrative. An ordinary street kid is the starting point, and the key characters in the story are a gallant air pirate running into the sky for freedom and a princess who has lost her throne and dreams of taking revenge on the empire that took away everything from her. These three characters have a lot of growing up to do: unlike most JRPGs where characters like to act recklessly,
Final Fantasy XII is about personal responsibility, and this theme runs through the game.
Games and Thrones
It’s quite strange to remember this now, when “Game of Thrones” has become one of the most discussed topics in the world, but at the release of Final Fantasy XII they were criticized largely for the fact that instead of the sugary pranks of a boy and a girl typical of the previous parts, “politics” was at the center of the narrative. . In reality, there is not much real politics in the game; this word obviously meant the intrigues and intrigues that the local aristocrats plotted against each other. But the most important thing here is something else:
Each character, from heroes to their opponents, is constrained by some kind of obligations and circumstances.
Each action has a clear motivation, prerequisites and consequences. The number of opposing sides here is many times greater than the standard two. There is no division into good and bad, and in the finale, for once, it is not the fate of the world that is decided.
Although Final Fantasy XII talks about a conflict that is local by the standards of its world, it does so in an exemplary manner, and should be recommended first and foremost to a Game of Thrones fan. Fans of typical JRPGs did not accept it for this reason - it is too Western in spirit, too mature and smart.
Not a single extra word
This may sound like a lot, but Final Fantasy XII is better written and directed than almost every other game out there, and if the Japanese developers had studied it as an example of drama, the world would be a much better place.
There is nothing superfluous here; It’s not just that every scene has meaning, every line has a meaning.
Many players who are accustomed to being told the same thing for half a game (as in Final Fantasy XIII, for example) will probably be taken aback here and won’t figure out what’s what. But the creators of FFXII directly stated that they believe in the intelligence of the players and therefore make the scenes as rich as possible so that attentive people can discern all the abundance of meanings. And, undoubtedly, you need to be prepared for this - for the fact that for each dialogue here you can write an essay explaining why each character said this or that phrase and what motivated them at that moment.
And the inability of the general public to perceive anything more subtle than anime cliches smeared across the face lies the key reason for the relatively low popularity of Final Fantasy XII. People who are accustomed to excessive hypertrophy of images do not accept much more subtly drawn characters, do not see depth in their remarks, and even look for the protagonist in the wrong place. But in vain!
The pirate Balthier's charisma would be enough for two Jack Sparrows; he steals every scene he appears in, and his wit would make the protagonist of any other JRPG jealous.
How can you easily tell if someone you're talking to doesn't understand anything about Final Fantasy XII? The most obvious marker is the common comparison with “Star Wars” - despite the fact that these works have practically nothing in common.
Ups and downs
Final Fantasy XII went through a very long and difficult development process, at the end of which the game's writer, director and producer Yasumi Matsuno was forced to leave Square Enix. After his departure, the company was interested in releasing the game as quickly as possible, and much of the planned but unfinished content was discarded. Because of this, the first and second halves of the game are noticeably contrasting. At first, literally every five minutes the game crams you with plot scenes and dialogues, and towards the end there are very few of them left - literally a living wage.
You have to be prepared for this: at the beginning you will find hours of chatter, at the end - hours of dungeons.
Down with routine!
Final Fantasy XII has a gambit system that allows you to program all members of the battle team to take certain actions in specified circumstances. The game is often reproached for the fact that if the gambits are set up correctly, it supposedly goes away on its own, but this nonsense is very easy to refute: who sets up the gambits? Player. This means that it was the player who made the decision to act this way in this situation, and the fact that he did not manually click through all the menu items, that he did not manually give out all these orders, does not change this.
Those who criticize the gambit system are on the side of justifying the routine that is present in every game of the genre - routine that Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age cuts to a minimum.
There is no JRPG where there would be no repetitive combat and where within the battles you would not have to repeat the same commands. Turn-based JRPGs (of which Final Fantasy XII is inherently one) do not test the player's response in the same way that action games, for example, do; in them, battles consist of alternating command selection, which can almost always be automated. This is what the gambit system allows you to do, and The Zodiac Age also allows you to speed up the gameplay four times.
Every JRPG needs these two features, but only The Zodiac Age has them.
At one time, Final Fantasy XII was not accepted by many: it was too progressive for a game of such a conservative genre. It not only introduced a hitherto unsurpassed gambit system, but also took another qualitative step forward - it combined combat and movement across locations, traditionally separated in JRPGs. It perfectly captured the essence of Final Fantasy in an almost open-world setting, and it showed how combat could be dynamic without losing the tactical depth that subsequent Final Fantasy titles couldn't handle.
For a game with game design from 15 years ago, it looks amazing now. At the same time, of course, the same Final Fantasy XIV, which was released in 2013 and since then has been regularly improved over the course of four years and is much more convenient to play.
Final Fantasy XII is undoubtedly worth recommending to modern gamers, but it will have to make some allowances for its age. In FFXII you have to run around a lot, there is no convenient side quest log, and the world here is not open in the usual sense: it is divided into medium-sized clearings, separated by loading screens. Considering how the JRPG genre has degenerated since FFXII's release, many current gamers will likely be unfamiliar with it, and may find it difficult to accept many of the genre's tenets that the game retains. These include the battles themselves through commands in the menu, and the fact that the characters obediently wait for their next move each time, and the atypical pumping system, and much more.
But what betrays FFXII's age most of all is the number of secrets it's crammed with. Modern games, as a rule, try to show the player all their content, but in FFXII a good half of the game is optional - and it is very difficult to get to a significant part of the side effects on your own, without hints. For those who like to find secrets on their own, Final Fantasy XII will be a paradise: you can dig for hundreds of hours and not get to the bottom of everything that is hidden in it. For the rest, it makes sense to use the guide and not rush through the story headlong: interesting challenges can be found at almost any level.
There is no guarantee that you will like Final Fantasy XII. She is both Japanese in her roots and very un-Japanese in spirit; both progressive in mechanics and player capabilities, and archaic in game design. But the totality of such contradictions makes it incomparable and unique; There have never been such expensive, rich in content, polished to the last detail, and at the same time bold and experimental games in the genre before and probably never will be. And therefore, I recommend that everyone at least try Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, the ultimate version of the game, released on a modern platform.
Many of the greatest hits from the PlayStation 2 could have been re-released for the PS3, but it didn’t work out. The Final Fantasy XII Remaster is just such a listen. Fortunately, there is no question of pure tracing paper from the original.
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Almost all Final Fantasy fans know exactly which part of the famous saga is their favorite and why. Someone doted on the seventh. Others praise 10 for its turn-based combat, interesting story, and being one of the best-looking PlayStation 2 video games.
But both of them will agree on one thing: in the entire series with “popularity” Final Fantasy XII only “nine” can argue. And it’s not that these are bad games, it’s just that the stars aligned. Let's figure out why.
The story of Final Fantasy XII's misadventures began ten years ago. The PlayStation 2 was at the peak of its popularity, and the next generation of consoles was just beginning to gain momentum. At that moment, Endgame fans received one of the most unusual numbered parts in the entire history of the series.
It differed from its predecessors in literally everything: plot, combat, characters, central line. In FF XII, for example, love was not touched upon, although there was plenty of dirty political intrigue. However, the main blow to the conservatives came from the combat system: the authors simply abandoned ATB, or a completely turn-based scheme. The battles were reminiscent of a hybrid of MMORPG combat with classic computer role-playing game fights. And all this - in real time and on the original maps. Random did not hide mobs in the fog of war and did not load a separate location - unheard of audacity for those who viewed the entire series through the prism of tradition.
However, the flurry of negativity did not prevent Final Fantasy XII from going down in history as one of the most significant (in terms of the number of innovations) parts of the franchise. Journalists applauded the courage of the authors, gamers studied the unknown animal with interest, and fans sprayed poison on the forums at every opportunity - initial popularity was guaranteed. FF XII didn't work out with only one thing. Its expanded version, International, although called “international,” was not released outside the East Asian region. And there were enough changes.
2007 returned
What is the value of International being included in the remaster? The fact is that in the nineties and zeros, console games could not be “pumped up” by rolling a couple of patches and more DLC on top of the original image. It was for this case that extended versions existed. They came out some time after the release, when the game had already acquired a fan base ready to pay for a second time.
Such re-releases sometimes seriously adjusted the balance, adding new modes, mechanics and bosses. A similar story happened with Final Fantasy XII. International included so many updates that it would be more accurate to call it the only true version, and the original batch of discs - a beta version.
In addition to the new modes (more on them below), this version of FF XII included a twelve class system. Each of them was tied to their own zodiac sign and made it possible to subtly distribute roles in the party. For example, “white magicians” (Aries) healed allies and gave them positive statuses, and spearmen had almost no magic, but were damn good in battle.
And this update is really important because it brings some order to the original chaos of FF XII. In the original, it was possible to get a selection of identical heroes as output, and the cost of a mistake in leveling was negated by the very ability to remake everything literally “on the fly.” The zodiac system cuts off such “cheating”. You'll have to use your brain to avoid getting into a puddle, and that's great.
However, for one step towards hardcore in International, there were at least two concessions for not too assiduous gamers. Firstly, they added autosave, which can really save a lot of nerve cells. Save points in the original FF XII were rare, and mistakes were never undone. After an accidental failure, I sometimes had to re-run an indecently long location from the very beginning.
The second simplification is the ability to speed up the game. It sounds strange, but in fact it saves a lot of time and is ultimately beneficial. I pressed one button and the headache disappeared. Although, of course, conservatives will grumble.
Another equally important group of updates is new modes. In addition to trials (Trial Mode), which allow you to compete in a duel with enemies, two variations of NewGame+ have appeared in International. The first, Strong Mode, raises the characters' level to 90. Weak Mode, on the contrary, lowers party members from heaven to sinful earth, fixing their level at the minimum acceptable levels.
And that is not all. The updated Final Fantasy XII has plenty of other, albeit smaller, changes. They concern a wide variety of aspects of gameplay: from support for the 16:9 aspect ratio to the ability to control guest characters. Overall, it turned out great. And by 2017, this diversity finally came to PlayStation 4 and became available to everyone who speaks the language of Shakespeare.
That's all?
At first it may seem that Square Enix I just transferred the International content to the current platform and left it at that. There is no doubt that most of the innovations will be new only to Western gamers, because their Japanese comrades have already tried everything out a long time ago.
But that's not all. In addition to implementing autosave and the zodiac system, where a character can now choose as many as two classes, the developers have significantly corrected the technical part. We added support for high resolutions, brought the videos up to date, updated the sound (7.1 - check), did not forget about the trophy system and two sound packages to choose from: Japanese and English.
The game itself runs smoothly, loads quickly and is pleasing to the eye, despite the far from the most technologically advanced engine. Another question is why play this in 2017, when there is, albeit not ideal, but visually modern Final Fantasy XV ?
Because this is still a truly innovative release of Final Fantasy. FF XII does not hesitate to break the mold for all fans of the genre. Did you want ATB and a bunch of random battles “from the void”? Will not work. Enemies here are initially visible on the map. Want a strong love story? She doesn't exist. The storyline of this role-playing game bears little resemblance to the typical Final Fantasy one. It would fit much better into the description of some serious Western fantasy like Game of Thrones. Less bloody, of course, but the comparison suggests itself.