FFXII: The Zodiac Age changes and additions: what's new in this Ivalice remaster?

Looks like Genji glove / Yagyu Darkblade will be the go-to for Yiazmat... anyone got any tips for superboss-melting builds?
I think Breakers with a class that let's wear Mystic robes will still be great.

Job combos open up A LOT though now that any Job could take a sub-Job for either the Genji Gloves or for Adrenaline.

Mystic Robes (via SAM or mages) opens up things a lot for Ninjas but maybe here the crippled Machinists since what little hope guns have will benefit a lot from gun ammo elements that match your Mystic robe element (e.g. dark ammo + dark robes). Kinda useless for a lot of the game cuz of so many undead though sadly.
 
latest interview with one of the developers essentially shrugged this off as something they weren't really interested in pursuing.

definitely not something i'd hold out on happening in a year or so

Square-Enix didn't even port the original FFX / X-2 Remaster entirely by themselves/

Virtuos handled the porting duties for the PC version as well as the PS4 release, so SE doesn't need to be interested if they aren't going to port it themselves.

Virtuos is also involved with FFXII Zodiac Age.

http://www.virtuosgames.com/en/final-fantasy-xii-zodiac-age-announced-ps4

So the odds of a PC release are much more likely then you may realize.
 
Thank you for sharing the link - I had been wondering which combinations would be best, as it was all was a bit overwhelming, ha.

Only glanced at the gamefaqs thread, but I think I'll be going with

Breaker/Hunter
White Mage/Machinist
Samurai/Monk
Knight/Time Mage
Red Mage/Black Mage
Archer/Uhlan
 
My first thought was I hope they change the method for obtaining the Zodiac Spear.

They did.

The job system makes this a Day One for me.

This game was already like an offline FFXI for me. Jobs and sub jobs are icing on the cake.
 
Looking forward to playing it on Steam in a year or two. Seemed like the most interesting of the PS2 Final Fantasies.
 
Only glanced at the gamefaqs thread, but I think I'll be going with

Breaker/Hunter
White Mage/Machinist
Samurai/Monk
Knight/Time Mage
Red Mage/Black Mage
Archer/Uhlan

There's a "canon"/lore-based setup on GameFAQs that I'll probably roll with. Seems pretty well optimized and uses every job:

Vaan - Shikari/Foebreaker
Penelo - Monk/Black Mage
Balthier - Machinist/Uhlan
Fran - Archer/Red Battlemage
Ashe - Time Battlemage/White Mage
Basch - Knight/Bushi

No clue where to allocate Espers, though.
 
My first thought was I hope they change the method for obtaining the Zodiac Spear.

They did.

The job system makes this a Day One for me.

Yeah this fix existed in the IZJS release on the PS2.

The Zodiac Spear treasure data sharing the same drop rates with four other chests was only an issue with the original FFXII release.

A majority of these things fixed existed in IZJS.

Outside of the visual and audio differences, I'd say the most significant thing that Zodiac Age brings to the table is being able to dual class your characters.
 
There's a "canon"/lore-based setup on GameFAQs that I'll probably roll with. Seems pretty well optimized and uses every job:

Vaan - Shikari/Foebreaker
Penelo - Monk/Black Mage
Balthier - Machinist/Uhlan
Fran - Archer/Red Battlemage
Ashe - Time Battlemage/White Mage
Basch - Knight/Bushi

No clue where to allocate Espers, though.

Be mindful that some class specific abilities are gated to certain Espers on each individual license board, same applies for Quickenings / Mist Knacks.

Refer to this - https://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/939426-final-fantasy-xii-international-zodiac-job-system/faqs/49782

I usually make Vaan a Monk since his stats are ideal for that role.

As you can see Famfrit and Chaos Espers are locked behind two major abilities for Monk.

The problem is Espers are tied to the character themselves. So if you have Two Monks in this case (Say Ashe and Vaan for example)

If Vaan has Famfrit he can access White Magic 10. Ashe as a Monk cannot get access to that ability.

This makes choosing your Espers crucial in IZJS because there are specific abilities that are ideal to have but with Espers locking some of them means you need to evenly divide your Esper selection among the six and their classes for the optimal ability choice.
 
This is going to paralyze me pretty badly, especially since you can't switch jobs freely like in FFT and FFV. I'll make sure to look up what things like Uhlan, Shikari, etc... are all about beforehand.

Planning is half the fun. My friend and I intended on going through the original IZJS on the PS2 and had planned out which jobs and which summons (for the additional license unlocks) for each character to maximize our utility. ... Should be much easier this time though since you can get every job.
 
Very much looking forward to this. Only non-MMO mainline FF I haven't played and Ivalice is my favorite setting in the FF games.
 
How's the story? Kinda iffy as I don't like mmos (I know this isn't an mmo, but the style)

It's not the typical save the world story. Then again because of this game was somewhat panned by folks who wanted some kind of ultimate conclusion to the events of the game. Basically FFXII is about two large nations at war Arcadia and Rozarria, and very small country Dalmasca caught in the crossfire.

The Archadian Empire has been aggressively expanding it's borders for more territory to claim, and Dalmasca is / was the next region of territory to claim. The story is mainly political about the last remaining remnants of Dalmascan supporters / military raising a resistance group underground to garner support with neighboring countries to maintain Dalmascan independance.

It's not about conquering some ancient evil that will destroy the world. Basically Dalmasca is very small in the scope of a much larger world called Ivalice. It's much different to previous FF games in that it's is more on smaller scale events with one small country between two larger territories in conflict.

If you played Xenoblade then you'll have a general ideal of the flow and exploration. The combat in FFXII uses the ATB gauge system of older FF games with movement positioning in real time. You enter a command and each action has a queue for it's execution. More powerful moves have a longer queue. as opposed to waiting for your turn gauge to fill up to perform any action like the previous FFs that also used the ATB system. In the case for FFXII basic attacks come out almost immediately with no charge up time and stronger more powerful spells have a longer delayed charge. This gives battles a more tactical feel as you can't just use your most powerful spells with impunity as you must be conscious of the delay in choosing the move and charge to it's execution.

There is also a fully programmable AI system that allows you modify conditions for your party members to do actions, (Entirely optional of course, however managing three characters all at once can be very tedious so the Gambit system allows some micromanagement)

The system can be is simple as "Enemy attack party member = Target Attacking enemy with Basic Attack" or complex to something like
"Enemy Weak to Fire = Use Oil", "Enemy Oil Status = Cast Fire"

There is also stuff like "Enemy HP > 80% = Steal" So you can immediately start a fight by attempting to steal an item and your characters will stop stealing once either the Enemy's HP is below 80% in this case or they no longer have an item to steal.

The game is rather smart like this. You can program up to 12 actions and each one can link into each other (Like my Fire Spell / Oil Status example)
 
There's a "canon"/lore-based setup on GameFAQs that I'll probably roll with. Seems pretty well optimized and uses every job:

Vaan - Shikari/Foebreaker
Penelo - Monk/Black Mage
Balthier - Machinist/Uhlan
Fran - Archer/Red Battlemage
Ashe - Time Battlemage/White Mage
Basch - Knight/Bushi

No clue where to allocate Espers, though.
Yeah I'm trying to balance a min-max approach with a canon approach. Yours is pretty close to mine but I'm not sure Vaan's sub yet; crossbows and guns are the only weapon animations I like on Penelo; and, I hate the size of bows in the game and Fran looks awesome with one-handers/shield so I'll probably make her a Breaker (and also sub Red Mage because of the whole viera = red mage thing from FFTA or whatever) and then Ashe my Knight/Basch my Samurai. I tend to always go with swords for Ashe just because for story reasons I figure she should be able to use two-handed swords haha.

That said, Samurai/Shikari sounds pretty cool and I was looking at how Basch has better one-hand combo animation speeds than Fran but Fran has awesome Monk (Whale Whisker) speeds (and looks cool with a polearm too) so not to sure yet.

A video like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pJn96BXo8Y

Kinda highlights how much faster Basch seems to attack with Scorpion Tail than Fran though... 0.5s vs 0.68 doesn't sound like much but when you watch Fran's and Basch's, Basch looks like a beast. Likewise, Fran's pole (Monk) animation speed is pretty awesome (or Balthier and Basch in general with most of the sword or mace types).

So on one hand, I wanna try choose canon (or headcanon lol) fitting Jobs, but I also want to pick the best looking animations and best performing animations. I mean, it sort of creates its own canon -- in a practical sense -- the characters would probably choose Jobs or weapons they excel at. I may not do that for every weapon type but at least for Masamune, Yagyu Darkblade, Whale Whisker, Scorpion Tail, may go with their best performing character. Or at least for Basch and Balthier since those 0.5 combos would be sad to waste... At least one of them should be a sort of 0.5 speed 'Genji combo God' haha.

As for Espers, I remember I put in a lot of effort in the original choosing which esper best 'fit' each character but I can't remember my choices and my PS2/memcards are packed away in a different city q_q Probably will remember most of them when the time comes to choose though.
 
By covering them? I hope?

No. They are rendered this time instead of just being a texture. However, while they don't look bad, you still have to ask yourself why he would walk around dressed like that. But I guess if you can deal with Fran, then Vaan isn't that big of a deal.
 
I've become a lot more excited for this since they added secondary jobs. I'd still prefer to freely switch but this works well enough,
 
A lot of NPCs in Rabanastre dressed like that too.

Well yeah. Rabanastre and by extension Dalmasca IS in a desert. I'd say that's a pretty good reason why the folks in living there are dressed the way they are.

Which brings us to the problem. We frequently go into ice cold places. When you walk through places like the freezing mountains it's kinda iffy. But like I said before It's not that big of a deal, especially if Fran gets away with her "gear". I'm kinda biased because I think FFA2 Vaan is best Vaan.
 
Which brings us to the problem. We frequently go into ice cold places. When you walk through places like the freezing mountains it's kinda iffy. But like I said before It's not that big of a deal, especially if Fran gets away with her "gear". I'm kinda biased because I think FFA2 Vaan is best Vaan.
Kinda an aside, but ever since the original Tales of Destiny where you had to wear Fur Cloaks to counter the 'freeze' effect in the snowy areas (mind you, it was just a stat and effect, and no actual graphical change), I've always wished my RPG characters would appear differently in different climates :(

Best I can do is something like Witcher 3 wearing Bear armor in Skellige or Cat armor in the city haha.
 
Vaan is just a more ornate version of this
240


Shame all the jobs don't have their specific attires
 
You know what, Vaan for all his questionable aesthetic, always had some of the coolest weapon attack animations. Dagger or sword and board, ninja or samurai blades, even all the ranged weapons. Even his spear animation was one of the most practical -- looked like the Bangaa Hunter.

Most of the characters were sort of hit or miss [subjectively] because there were usually a bit more stylish (just natural that you like or dislike some out of personal preference), but Vaan just sort of looked good with every weapon because they were pretty standard and practical stances.
 
not to mention it's only $50 (aka $40 with GCU/Prime).

Also this. And there is still the remastered soundtrack and new ones!


I did a PS4 vs PS2 graphics comparison, for those interested. Also shows a short bit of the load time difference between sequences: https://youtu.be/-j0jORQDBYE

Since you already have played it, can I ask something? How are the CGs looking like? Full HD or upscalled like the FF X and KHs remasters?
 
It's not the typical save the world story. Then again because of this game was somewhat panned by folks who wanted some kind of ultimate conclusion to the events of the game. Basically FFXII is about two large nations at war Arcadia and Rozarria, and very small country Dalmasca caught in the crossfire.

The Archadian Empire has been aggressively expanding it's borders for more territory to claim, and Dalmasca is / was the next region of territory to claim. The story is mainly political about the last remaining remnants of Dalmascan supporters / military raising a resistance group underground to garner support with neighboring countries to maintain Dalmascan independance.

It's not about conquering some ancient evil that will destroy the world. Basically Dalmasca is very small in the scope of a much larger world called Ivalice. It's much different to previous FF games in that it's is more on smaller scale events with one small country between two larger territories in conflict.

If you played Xenoblade then you'll have a general ideal of the flow and exploration. The combat in FFXII uses the ATB gauge system of older FF games with movement positioning in real time. You enter a command and each action has a queue for it's execution. More powerful moves have a longer queue. as opposed to waiting for your turn gauge to fill up to perform any action like the previous FFs that also used the ATB system. In the case for FFXII basic attacks come out almost immediately with no charge up time and stronger more powerful spells have a longer delayed charge. This gives battles a more tactical feel as you can't just use your most powerful spells with impunity as you must be conscious of the delay in choosing the move and charge to it's execution.

There is also a fully programmable AI system that allows you modify conditions for your party members to do actions, (Entirely optional of course, however managing three characters all at once can be very tedious so the Gambit system allows some micromanagement)

The system can be is simple as "Enemy attack party member = Target Attacking enemy with Basic Attack" or complex to something like
"Enemy Weak to Fire = Use Oil", "Enemy Oil Status = Cast Fire"

There is also stuff like "Enemy HP > 80% = Steal" So you can immediately start a fight by attempting to steal an item and your characters will stop stealing once either the Enemy's HP is below 80% in this case or they no longer have an item to steal.

The game is rather smart like this. You can program up to 12 actions and each one can link into each other (Like my Fire Spell / Oil Status example)

Nice. I'll buy it then! Thanks bruh
 
You know what, Vaan for all his questionable aesthetic, always had some of the coolest weapon attack animations. Dagger or sword and board, ninja or samurai blades, even all the ranged weapons. Even his spear animation was one of the most practical -- looked like the Bangaa Hunter.

Most of the characters were sort of hit or miss [subjectively] because there were usually a bit more stylish (just natural that you like or dislike some out of personal preference), but Vaan just sort of looked good with every weapon because they were pretty standard and practical stances.

You are right on about attack animations.

My primary job selection is solely based on how I want my characters to look like. I always have Vaan use Spears, Ashe with Samurai swords, Penelo with poles, and Balthier with ninja swords.
 
I mean it looks better but not "buy again for $60" better. Looks a bit like an emulated game.

I'd love to see a comparison between the emulated FFXII which holds up very well, and this remaster tbh.

Anywho, do we have any stats regarding resolution/framerate on regular/pro?
 
The removal of spell buffering and damage limits will certainly make some things a bit easier huh

Excited nonetheless, only one more week
 
There's a "canon"/lore-based setup on GameFAQs that I'll probably roll with. Seems pretty well optimized and uses every job:

Vaan - Shikari/Foebreaker
Penelo - Monk/Black Mage
Balthier - Machinist/Uhlan
Fran - Archer/Red Battlemage
Ashe - Time Battlemage/White Mage
Basch - Knight/Bushi

No clue where to allocate Espers, though.

I'm going with a minmax setup with a lore job as their 2nd.

Balthier as a WM/Machinist for example.
 
It's not the typical save the world story. Then again because of this game was somewhat panned by folks who wanted some kind of ultimate conclusion to the events of the game. Basically FFXII is about two large nations at war Arcadia and Rozarria, and very small country Dalmasca caught in the crossfire.

The Archadian Empire has been aggressively expanding it's borders for more territory to claim, and Dalmasca is / was the next region of territory to claim. The story is mainly political about the last remaining remnants of Dalmascan supporters / military raising a resistance group underground to garner support with neighboring countries to maintain Dalmascan independance.

It's not about conquering some ancient evil that will destroy the world. Basically Dalmasca is very small in the scope of a much larger world called Ivalice. It's much different to previous FF games in that it's is more on smaller scale events with one small country between two larger territories in conflict.

If you played Xenoblade then you'll have a general ideal of the flow and exploration. The combat in FFXII uses the ATB gauge system of older FF games with movement positioning in real time. You enter a command and each action has a queue for it's execution. More powerful moves have a longer queue. as opposed to waiting for your turn gauge to fill up to perform any action like the previous FFs that also used the ATB system. In the case for FFXII basic attacks come out almost immediately with no charge up time and stronger more powerful spells have a longer delayed charge. This gives battles a more tactical feel as you can't just use your most powerful spells with impunity as you must be conscious of the delay in choosing the move and charge to it's execution.

There is also a fully programmable AI system that allows you modify conditions for your party members to do actions, (Entirely optional of course, however managing three characters all at once can be very tedious so the Gambit system allows some micromanagement)

The system can be is simple as "Enemy attack party member = Target Attacking enemy with Basic Attack" or complex to something like
"Enemy Weak to Fire = Use Oil", "Enemy Oil Status = Cast Fire"

There is also stuff like "Enemy HP > 80% = Steal" So you can immediately start a fight by attempting to steal an item and your characters will stop stealing once either the Enemy's HP is below 80% in this case or they no longer have an item to steal.

The game is rather smart like this. You can program up to 12 actions and each one can link into each other (Like my Fire Spell / Oil Status example)

If it weren't for the mature themes and very high fantasy concepts, FFXII could actually be a pretty cool and clever way for young players to learn about programming. It would be interesting if SE could reuse the Gambit system in a more casual-friendly type of game.
 
If it weren't for the mature themes and very high fantasy concepts, FFXII could actually be a pretty cool and clever way for young players to learn about programming. It would be interesting if SE could reuse the Gambit system in a more casual-friendly type of game.

I agree with this, the fact we deal with conditions all the time to set our allies actions is a great way to start understanding programming. It's really clever.
 
There was nothing wrong with Vaan's abs. People just get fixed on dumb shit. SE still chose to "fix" them though. Now instead of a sixpack or whatever he had before, he now has a threepack. It looks unbeliavebly stupid, and where I never noticed or thought about his abs before, now I constantly notice the lack of anatomical correctness, and it's very gtating.

Thanks internet!
 
There's a "canon"/lore-based setup on GameFAQs that I'll probably roll with. Seems pretty well optimized and uses every job:

Vaan - Shikari/Foebreaker
Penelo - Monk/Black Mage
Balthier - Machinist/Uhlan
Fran - Archer/Red Battlemage
Ashe - Time Battlemage/White Mage
Basch - Knight/Bushi

No clue where to allocate Espers, though.

Balthier is the worst with guns and Fran the worst with bows because of their animation speeds, unless that's fixed with this release.

I'd love to see a comparison between the emulated FFXII which holds up very well, and this remaster tbh.

Anywho, do we have any stats regarding resolution/framerate on regular/pro?

1080p/30 - PS4
4K/30 - PS4 Pro (their wording on this suggests 1080p displays won't have downsampling, but we'll see)

Menus are 60fps
 
There was nothing wrong with Vaan's abs. People just get fixed on dumb shit. SE still chose to "fix" them though. Now instead of a sixpack or whatever he had before, he now has a threepack. It looks unbeliavebly stupid, and where I never noticed or thought about his abs before, now I constantly notice the lack of anatomical correctness, and it's very gtating.

Thanks internet!

The abs was a bad texture work. They look fine on its own but add that to Vaan's costume design and it just looks too out of place.
 
Balthier is the worst with guns and Fran the worst with bows because of their animation speeds, unless that's fixed with this release.



1080p/30 - PS4
4K/30 - PS4 Pro (their wording on this suggests 1080p displays won't have downsampling, but we'll see)

Menus are 60fps

Nice! I'm gonna move the couch way close to the telly then.

The girlfriend will hate it but dammit I have to save Ivalice.
 
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