FFXII: TZA Impressions

[Karifean]

Glad you enjoyed the game~ not sure how many of the ultimate weapons are really worth making; I like to take the Zodiac Spear + Escutcheon reward from the hunt club and make the Tournesol and Mithuna, but other than that I usually find myself not doing a whole lot with the rest. Highly recommend picking up both Ribbons though, they're so handy.

Ah right, did you fight the Archaeoaevis in the Zertinan Caverns yet? Also remember that you don't *need* to unlock the extra pages on all entries if you don't want to. More than anything, hope you enjoy the final bits of challenge the game throws at you~ and do keep us updated on your progress, I love reading these posts =P

[Crop]

Yeah when I played through I definitely noticed how easier it was compared to the original on the PS2. With the original there were still a few hunts I wasn't able to do, but I managed to clear pretty much everything on TZA.

The only thing I didn't do was the trial mode. I was going to save it until last but by the time I had done everything else and finished the game, I just felt burnt out on it, so I'll probably go back to it another time.

Still a phenomenal remaster, and one of the best games I played last year.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

So I definitely decided to try out the airship side quest thing and was exploring the ship from rabinastre to Nalbina because I’d never road those before. Apparently there was an invisible chest with some crazy game breaking invisible bow inside. I definitely did not know that existed.

[Karifean]

So Wolf, when'll you be finishing this up? ^^

[Wolf Kanno]

I actually beat the game awhile ago. Though the list of things to do is being left for another day. I'm currently plaything through Dark Souls 2 at the moment.

As I mentioned in my previous post, barring the weaker difficulty, TZA is an excellent game overall, and I love most of the changes made from the vanilla version since I feel it adds more focus. I still stand by my assessment that XII was truly ahead of it's time in terms of world building and layout as playing this game not long after FFXV shows the differences in both games approach to the idea of a large and consistent world build, and I frankly feel FFXII was more original (though it's still aping DQVIII's design) and the sidequests were largely better handled than most open world titles. XII still does Mark Hunts right, making them feel more like an integrated part of the world and adding a heavier story component to them than either it's successors, not to mention the game actually gives you better monsters to fight that have more gimmicks and new abilities to factor in instead of the lazy design of making you fight end-game trash mobs early like in XIII and XV.

I'm taking a break from the game though. All I have left that's kind of exciting is Trial Mode, but I'm frankly burnt out on XII, especially since I pumped in over 110 hours into the game, making it the second longest time I spent on a game for my PS4, only behind Persona 5. I mean all I have left is Trial Mode and going for the Platinum Trophy, but I was frankly ready to take a break from it, so I'll come back to it another time, probably when I get the burr in me to fight Yiazmat and try one of those uber strategies to kill him in like twenty minutes or so.

[Slothy]

Haven't played it yet but the pc release dropped on Thursday. Hoping to get to it soon. Thought I'd mention the release though in case anyone else was hoping for a pc port.

[Sefie1999AD]

I've now played the Zodiac Age Steam version until the Lhusu Mines. So far, it's been awesome. The 2x and 4x speed boosts really help with backtracking, grinding and farming, especially when the game has so much of them. I've also enjoyed the new job system so far.

As for the port, I haven't had any issues with it yet. On the contrary, the game performs at a constant 60 FPS at a 1080p resolution with maxed graphics, and I can reach a constant 60 FPS at 4k too if I lower Ambient Occlusion and Anti-Aliasing a bit (I have a GTX 1070). The game has plenty of graphics options available, it looks fantastic, the remastered soundtrack has brought life to some tracks that I thought were rather bland before, and the mouse+keyboard support is also a welcome feature, even though I play with a controller.

[Slothy]

I'm not quite that far yet but I'm also enjoying the new creatures and the pc graphics options and such. Christ this game looks gorgeous and it's buttery smooth. I know I shouldn't be impressed with how smooth a pc port of a 12 year old game is, but you never know with some of these hd re-releases.

Then again it's not like it's made by konami or something. I probably didn't need to worry.

[Fynn]

I was gifted this and tested it out and it works really well! Can’t wait to sink my teeth into it once my gaming schedule loosens up a bit

[Slothy]

You know, I haven't played the game in years but the lhusu mines are still burned into my memory apparently.

[ReloadPsi]

I'm enjoying it. I was never one FF12's biggest detractors in the first place, but this version is a huge improvement on a game that I initially thought felt a bit flat.

[Fynn]

It’s pretty perfect tbh

[theundeadhero]

This game has been what I needed to fill some free time this week. I picked it up Monday and just finished Mt. Bur-omgsauce last night. The story is something I've always enjoyed, and being able to fast forward the combat to get to it is nice. Only having two jobs is kinda rough, though. I'm not too far from maxing people's license boards, which means there's gonna be a lot of wasting LP. I guess maybe I'll get some use out of cat ear hoods this time around, though.

[Mr. Carnelian]

It’s pretty perfect tbh

TZA made a very good game almost perfect. I can't really think of a single improvement I'd have made, which is quite rare.

[Slothy]

Gonna have to agree. Loving this game even more than the first time.