Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age Footage

[Colonel Angus]

Square Enix released new footage of Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age at the Taipei Game Show. We finally get to see the game in full 1080, new character models, new menus, hear the updated music, and the turbo mode.

Unfortunately, there is no word on a release date yet. The game will be available sometime in 2017 on the PS4.

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[Mirage]

it's hard to make out the quality in those videos. the bitrate is pretty low

[Fox]

Yeah the thumbnails looked a lot better than the actual videos
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Karifean]

I find it funny that Mateus' super attack didn't even one-shot a standard creep ^^

[Formalhaut]

I find it funny that Mateus' super attack didn't even one-shot a standard creep ^^

That's the espers for you. I really struggled trying to find a use for them.

[Quindiana Jones]

Well, fuck, I guess I'm getting a PS4, then.

[Formalhaut]

The main thing I want to know is whether or not they've removed spell restrictions. So you can cast three high-tier spells without it clogging up the system?

[Karifean]

Videos so far seem to imply that is the case, yes.

[Fox]

I definitely read that as one of the improvements last year

[Skyblade]

So Baknamy are no longer going to be OP as heck by just casting Sandstorm and keeping you from doing anything during the ten minutes it takes for all the animations to play out?

Seriously, you couldn't even use a frickin' Potion. Auto-attacks? Oh, those went through fine, and they'd happily beat you up the whole time, but you had no ability to heal through so much of the Necrohol just due to the sheer spam fest of particle-effect heavy abilities clogging the system.

[Formalhaut]

Videos so far seem to imply that is the case, yes.


I definitely read that as one of the improvements last year


So Baknamy are no longer going to be OP as heck by just casting Sandstorm and keeping you from doing anything during the ten minutes it takes for all the animations to play out?

Seriously, you couldn't even use a frickin' Potion. Auto-attacks? Oh, those went through fine, and they'd happily beat you up the whole time, but you had no ability to heal through so much of the Necrohol just due to the sheer spam fest of particle-effect heavy abilities clogging the system.

Oh thank God, yes. I might actually use magic more often. The 'clogging' that takes place on the PS2 meant that by and large, high-scale magic was just inferior to builds that relied on spamming attacks and chaining combos. Of course, the job system will kinda force you to use a mage build at some point, but the hardware upgrade will be a great help. Now you can quickly cast that curaga without fearing it was sent to the back of the queue.

[Fynn]

Pretty sure there's enough fighter jobs that you'll never be "forced" to use magic.

[Formalhaut]

Having a team of six fighters is... a challenge, to say the least.

But you get what I mean though. Fine, drop the "forced", but there's still a very good likelihood that magic is going to be involved. The hardware update means magic will be more useful.

[Karifean]

Having a team of six fighters is... a challenge, to say the least.

How about three, then? :P

Also the Black Mage was probably the most powerful damage dealer in IZJS, so *shrug* =P

[Freya]

Looks pretty :D

[maybee]

They did all that fixing up and improving but Vaan's abs still look like nightmare fuel ??

[Mirage]

I guess this means it wasn't just a case of poor graphics. Vaan's abs are actually like that.

[Fynn]

Stylistic choice. They've never bothered me, tbh.

[Colonel Angus]

I find it funny that Mateus' super attack didn't even one-shot a standard creep ^^

That's the espers for you. I really struggled trying to find a use for them.
There really isn't one. They look cool, but 100% of all battles are winnable w/o them.

[Fynn]

They're controllable this time around, though

[Skyblade]

I find it funny that Mateus' super attack didn't even one-shot a standard creep ^^

That's the espers for you. I really struggled trying to find a use for them.
There really isn't one. They look cool, but 100% of all battles are winnable w/o them.

Not only are they winnable without the Espers, I really can't think of a SINGLE major fight that the Espers make easier. Okay, if you can trigger their nuke (which is laughably difficult for some of them), they may let you end a generic mob battle immediately. But on any complex fight or boss, they just make the game harder and less fun.


They're controllable this time around, though

Including the super attacks?

[Fynn]

Yep. They are fully controllable. Same goes for guest characters. This has the downside of Larsa no longer being the free hi-potion kid, but on the other hand you get to fully control guests

[Formalhaut]

I guess this means it wasn't just a case of poor graphics. Vaan's abs are actually like that.


Stylistic choice. They've never bothered me, tbh.

If by style you mean 'emaciated'. Going to have to disagree with you: I think I ended up using Vaan the least out of all the party members because of those strange abdominals.

Espers are only worth it if you're just levelled enough for an area (or under-levelled), and you're facing a boss that loves to use status ailments. Espers are immune to most ailments. I remember Belias being useful against the Elder Wyrm. And Vossler. Other than that, I never used Belias ever again. The problem is longevity, really. They're situational, and become obsolete rather quickly. And you have to sacrifice a party member.

Being able to control them might help, though.

[Fynn]

They never made him look emaciated, more as if they were painted on. And since all the character models were made to be a detailed representation of Akihiko Yoshida's brushwork, I can certainly get behind that stylistic choice.

[Formalhaut]

If everyone's abs looked like that in the game, I wouldn't mind. But as far as my memory allows, he's the only one with these 'painted' abs.

[Fynn]

He's the only main characters with bare abs, though. Basch barely counts since it's just a keyhole-type thing. But what a sexy thing that is with the potholder and stuff

http://xii.venusgospel.net/basch_checkers_03.jpg


Now that I look at it, those abs look just as painted on as Vaan's

[Formalhaut]

http://i.imgur.com/qUds6.jpg
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The problem with Vaan's abs is primarily how... dark, they look. They look sunken in, or the colour inverted or something.

[Fynn]

That's because the crotch-light is off throughout most of the game

http://cdn.gamer-network.net/2014/usgamer/FF-XXII-Box.jpg

[Formalhaut]

I suppose his holy groin does provide good amounts of uplighting.

[Fynn]

Actually, now that I look at them side by side, basch's abs actually bother me more. It's like he just shaped parts of his skin with a grill or something to make himself look ripped even though he doesn't have that much muscle.

[Formalhaut]

Basch's abs have the problem that they 'pop out' too much, making them look stuck on and grill-shaped.

[Crop]

Yes all the abs look crap. The game looks good.

Now where the hell is my release date? I need to book time off work.

[Karifean]

FTR there's one Esper that's actually definitely worth a damn, but not in a good way. Zodiark's super attack (which you can now activate at will) deals fixed 60k AoE damage and thus utterly wrecks some encounters. You can spam it since Mist Gauges are rechargeable with Elixirs, and items, summonings and super attacks all have no charge time. It's a pretty boring strat - and you better get used to seeing that (still unskippable?) cutscene a lot - but its effectiveness can't be denied. It's one simple way to get through the dreaded Pirates trial that's for sure...

[Formalhaut]

ITT: Me and Fynn obsess over abs. :flirt:

One question that is probably stupid, but I'll ask it anyway: is it straight IZJS remastering, or are they going to add one or things here or there?

[Fynn]

More things, including a super turbo mode and map overlay

And tbh, abs are super overrated. I honestly think just a regular flat belly is more visually appealing than abs, but I guess I'm in the minority. Maybe that's why Vaan's abs don't annoy me - I just don't care about abs in general :monster:

[Formalhaut]

More things, including a super turbo mode and map overlay

And tbh, abs are super overrated. I honestly think just a regular flat belly is more visually appealing than abs, but I guess I'm in the minority. Maybe that's why Vaan's abs don't annoy me - I just don't care about abs in general :monster:

(Agreed about abs)

I'm really looking forward to turbo mode. The Sandseas are such dull places. Being able to whizz through them is going to be so appealing.

[Colonel Angus]

I've got to try out the IZJS version & REALLY like the turbo mode. There are a lot of places where turning that on really helps.

[Yar]

*sigh*

Stop with all this footage of a game we already have. Just announce a release date and get back to work.

[Mr. Carnelian]

More things, including a super turbo mode and map overlay

And tbh, abs are super overrated. I honestly think just a regular flat belly is more visually appealing than abs, but I guess I'm in the minority. Maybe that's why Vaan's abs don't annoy me - I just don't care about abs in general :monster:

(Agreed about abs)

I'm really looking forward to turbo mode. The Sandseas are such dull places. Being able to whizz through them is going to be so appealing.
(Disagrees about abs)

(Agrees about Sandseas)

It's like they read my mind with the super turbo mode. My biggest problem with this game was the absolute grind-fest necessary to complete it. Now I can whizz through the grinding at super-speed!

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[Jinx]

will they add a story this time

[Formalhaut]

Honestly, I enjoyed the story but I do think the game could stand to include a cutscene or two, if only just to remind you what's going on. There are some stretches where you go without any substantial development. I think I got to the Paramina Rift and asked, "wait, why am I still going to Mt. Bur-Omisace?"

[Quindiana Jones]

Most of that is simply that it's a big bastard world and, if you're anything like me, you get distracted by THE THINGS.

Has anyone ever just straight blitzed through it for the story? How well paced is it then?

[Fynn]

I don't be think it's feasible to do that because of the grinding.


I still enjoy the hell out of this story and wish more FFs went this direction.

[krissy]

i remember having a copy of the ff12 cutscenes/dialogue movie
it was about 6 hours long
but the quality was terrible
so im looking forward to this for that reason as well

[Colonel Angus]

Yeah, that was up on the Youtube for a while. I didn't watch through it, as I had seen it while playing & the ideal of watching through something for 6 hrs. seemed like too much @ the time.

[Mirage]

i remember having a copy of the ff12 cutscenes/dialogue movie
it was about 6 hours long
but the quality was terrible
so im looking forward to this for that reason as well
You can get that already now if someone just records from their emulator.

[maybee]

i remember having a copy of the ff12 cutscenes/dialogue movie
it was about 6 hours long
but the quality was terrible
so im looking forward to this for that reason as well

Fuck! How long did that take to download ??

[krissy]

it was like 2 gigs so not that bad
so that tell yous about the quality


if someone just records from their emulator.

i mean i guess
but i still think the hd remake will look better than this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq7iLLFlerg

lol randomly clicked, "the senate will not stand for this!!"

this is soooo star wars
so funny to see the little bits of star wars in it

[Mirage]

krissy that's because even if that video is captured in "1080p", they haven't super-sampled the video to take into account the deinterlacing interference. That's practically a 1080i feed deinterlaced and encoded as 1080p, causing it to seem like it is in half horizontal resolution. They should have had the game rendered in 2160i and had that deinterlaced and encoded as 1080p.

In fact, they could have pushed it even higher to give a full supersampling effect in place of antialiasing.

[krissy]

oh cool. i dunno crap about sizing, i've been playing with ffmpeg recently and it's way above my level of comfort. if someone ends up doing it that way i'll definitely rip it one day and rewatch before the ps4 version comes out!