Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (2017)

Just played for 4 or 5 hours, this game is a lot of fun. I haven’t been gaming almost at all since early January, so I didn’t expect to get so sucked in.

Combat is as weird as I imagined, but it makes it very “playable,” like I can just sit here and play for a long time without getting tired. The strategy of gambits is pretty cool now that I have unlocked several slots per character.

Story is good so far, they’ve definitely got me hooked with that and the generally high production value. Balthier is carrying a lot of the personality, solid character.

Super long time spent in linear dungeon stuff early on, but I’m enjoying those parts at least. Hope it opens up though, the world is so interesting.

The first time I played this game was on PS2.

A world open to explore, where the combat system is completely different from the previous titles and I loved, I have never been a fan of random combats.

One of the things I loved about this title, besides the design of the various maps, the story surrounding the game was the cast, the voices chosen for each character in my opinion are quite good.

The system of licenses that the game presents, depending on the job that the player chooses, gives you some strategy against to the more powerful enemies, where the gambits give a great help where the characters become more autonomous and dynamic in the battles.

The speed mode that they introduced in this game is undoubtedly one of the fetures that I really liked because on some occasions I had to level up the characters a bit a little to proceed in the story. And in my opinion this process can become VERY boring to do.

The extra content that the game presents after some time can become repetitive, but challenging at the same time.

But without a doubt it is a title to play for those who are curious.

Holy crap, you guys. I did it. I beat Final Fantasy XII! It’s been on my bucket list since it came out and despite numerous attempts throughout the years on PS2, I could never make much progress. But last night right on queue I took down the final boss.

That feeling, right there - that’s why RPGs are my favorite. Despite how slogging they might get and how they turn into an obsession near the middle and it gets even more intense towards the end, there’s no better feeling than clearing one.

So what’s next?

Well, when I was in Australia a few weeks ago, I managed to snag a release that was only coming out in EU and AUS - and that game is Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization. Trying to finish before Link’s Awakening will be a challenge though!

September sure is a busy month on top of it. Planescape Torment is another Switch release I can’t wait to get my hands on - a title that I simply don’t sit on the PC enough to play, that will be right at home on the Switch.

Can’t help but think the Switch will end up being my favorite console one of these days. So many great things to come!

Just got to the Third Ascent. I'm running with Vaan, Balthier, and Ashe, and I finally think I have the gambits absolutely dialed down for boss battles. My only concern is if Black Magic will be required anywhere. Fran is pretty under-leveled because this game never seemed to make that much use out of Black Magic. Ended up dual-classing Ashe with White/Black Magic so just in case it's needed, I can bring in Penelope Cruz to take care of healing, while still keeping Balthier as a tank. Vaan is also a Red Battlemage so he can do a bit of Magic damage as well to help out.

One of my favorite RPGs of all time was Xenoblade Chronicles, and the best part to me was the boss rush at the end - I remember there being like 13 damn battles, all very difficult, leading up the triumphant ending. This is turning out to be very similar and I'm really feeling it!

Haven't played in weeks, but...

I didn't get all that far in the PS2 version of 12 way back, so I ended up getting the Collectors Edition for PS4 on sale last year. Still didn't get to it, then it came to Switch and I picked that up instead because of the updated features. (Gave the PS4 disc to a friend, at least!)

I just....I don't understand the love for this game.

I got 46 hours in and put it down. I have friends who love this game. I WANTED to. But there's still no story almost 50 hours in? It took over 30 to finally leave the goddamn desert, but I managed to overlook that (and all of the backtracking) and keep going. But EVERY SINGLE time you finish a dungeon/area, it's just Ashe saying the same thing over and over about taking her country back, and the rest of the party is almost completely blurred out in the background of the cutscene while she gains maybe one more little tidbit of information. How is that a story..? It's not! The only time anything actually contributes to the story is when you occasionally see what the judges are up to, but that's not remotely enough to carry it.

I kept pushing ahead thinking it would get better but after almost two full days of my life down the drain, I gave up and started up some other games.

A battle system that I don't like will kill a game for me (hello, 3 hours of Last Remnant being enough to make me never want to go near it again). I honestly don't love 12's, but it wasn't even a factor in how much I have no interest in ever picking this game back up.

Currently on the Pharos - Second Ascent in this amazing game. I'm strongly considering going back and finally completing some hunts. Only did a couple as the system of finding the quest giver was getting pretty tedius. Speed mode makes it pretty hard to say no to, and my team is already pretty over-leveled.

Can't believe I'm on the cusp of beating this bucket list game for me - my favorite Final Fantasy game next to VII, and by far my favorite battle system, possibly ever.

Had a kind of "oh shit" moment - I've been using a table of contents from a reference guide to track my progress in this behemoth of a game. I was under the impression I was getting close to the end. Then, I reached it - only to learn that the walkthrough was only about 75% complete, and there is essentially another 12-15 hours in the game. Woops! This game is just PACKED with stuff to do!

Despite that, I'm still really enjoying myself. I don't think I can play a turn-based Final Fantasy for a while, as this battle system is just right up my alley. I'm a huge fan of the MMORPG style of battle which lots seem to refer to as an "action RPG", but personally I think describing the battle system as "MMO-like" is more accurate. Same can be said for Xenoblade Chronicles.

Anyway, the gambit system is super cool and very addicting. Sometimes I can spend 20 minutes in the menu just tweaking gambits, so I can crank the speed up to 4x and just blast through entire sections, with all my teammates working together in perfect synchronicity. Bless you, Square Enix, for making this excellent game.