Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

 Switch
User Score
8.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 153 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 114 out of 153
  2. Mixed: 25 out of 153
  3. Negative: 14 out of 153
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  1. Balrock1230
    May 29, 2019
    7
    It was the first time I played this game and I think it is good. It is a HD remaster, so smoother visuals which are sufficient. The story and the characters remembering me a lot of Star Wars what is also good.
    I also enjoyed the Gambit system to create your own AI behavior for each of your party members. You can do it directly in a fight, if you need to change your tactics for an end    It was the first time I played this game and I think it is good. It is a HD remaster, so smoother visuals which are sufficient. The story and the characters remembering me a lot of Star Wars what is also good.
    I also enjoyed the Gambit system to create your own AI behavior for each of your party members. You can do it directly in a fight, if you need to change your tactics for an end boss.
    What bugged me the most was the old gameplay and mission mechanics. There is no mission markers and you need to dig deep into the menu to know where you can find your next bounty.
    I caught myself rewatching cutscenes to understand where is my next story mission as the map you have shows only the current dungeon you are into and you can't really zoom out.
    If this old mechanics don't bother you, you will get an enjoyable approx. 70 hour Star Wars like story.    … Expand
  2. PsxMeUP
    May 23, 2022
    5
    Not the worst FF game, but far from being the best.

    Pros: - Great music. - Great CGI sequences. - Good character designs, especially Fran. - Somewhat open world, though still on rails, like you would expect from a JRPG. - Grinding can be fun. Cons: - Loot and gear: The license system is needlessly convoluted. For example, you have to buy a license in order to wear a specific    Not the worst FF game, but far from being the best.

    Pros:
    - Great music.
    - Great CGI sequences.
    - Good character designs, especially Fran.
    - Somewhat open world, though still on rails, like you would expect from a JRPG.
    - Grinding can be fun.

    Cons:
    - Loot and gear: The license system is needlessly convoluted. For example, you have to buy a license in order to wear a specific ring... Wouldn't it be easier to assign a level to each item, and once you reach that level (characters have levels) you gain access to said item? For those who like grinding, you will have all the licenses before even reaching the game's halfway point, making the whole license board point system pointless. You will simply wait to find the items you're entitled to wear. Additionally, there's a way to "craft" items by selling specific items/ingredients and getting new one-time items available in a bazaar. Again, convoluted. Just create a normal crafting system.

    - Fighting: Regular enemies are merely pests. There's loads of them, and most are dealt with without you even knowing it, since your characters can be programmed to act automatically. Summons are useless. They're basically characters you call on that come help one member of your team for a while, while the rest of the team sits and waits. I rarely used them.

    - Graphics: It's a JRPG, so no organic level designs, just corridors with fancy wallpapers - sometimes mountains, sometimes forests.

    - Story: It's basically Star Wars, but what's worse, they slapped on the Ivalice / FF Tactics franchise to its name to this game, in essence cheapening the Ivalice/FFT franchise since this game has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with FFT or Ivalice. It's a clear attempt to give the game more substance, which proves that the game's creators felt FF12 was lacking in substance. FFT was never hightech, so this new "spin" into the Ivalice ethos only adds confusion and messes with future games.

    Overall, it's ok if you like to grind and have a lot of time to waste, but it has a lot of missed potential. Not sure why Square created this game.    … Expand
  3. ADrunkenRabbit
    Jul 11, 2020
    5
    Story: Pretty good but starts off very meandering but once you have a full party and the plot gets moving it's better.

    Characters: Alright, but Vaan is a bad MC and Penelo is kinda just there. Really it's just Basch, Balthier, Fran, and Ashe that are interesting and none are incredibly so. Combat: Simultaneously one of it's stronger and weaker points. When slightly underleveled    Story: Pretty good but starts off very meandering but once you have a full party and the plot gets moving it's better.

    Characters: Alright, but Vaan is a bad MC and Penelo is kinda just there. Really it's just Basch, Balthier, Fran, and Ashe that are interesting and none are incredibly so.

    Combat: Simultaneously one of it's stronger and weaker points. When slightly underleveled against a boss the combat system really shines and it feels great. The gambit system lets the fights move fluidly but there's enough challenge that you still are engaged and thinking about tactics. But for 95% of the game you will not be fighting bosses you will be steam rolling everything at 4x speed. Also I HATE summons in this game, mechanically they are a pain to use and there's very little spectacle to them anymore or the fights in general, they're very dull to look at. Physical characters are super boring (not exactly unexpected in FF games to be fair) and most techniques are kinda bad.

    Graphics: The art direction took a while to get used to (and I prefer the animu styling of FFX over this) but it's very good looking for a ps2 game. And I like that it looks like a Star Wars prequel. Bosses look pretty great though the average monsters look pretty dated by modern standards. Most of the areas look pretty great like the Sandsea and Mosphorron Highlands and the Salikawood but some are very dull like the Golmore Jungles

    Map: This map is so annoying and I wish this game came out a generation later because I hate it but not because of the scenery (which is often great) but because of the layout. It's got enough dull sprawl to match the emptiest open world game but without a shred of organic feeling to it. The outside areas are filled with visible and invisible walls and are very restrictive feeling.For so much of this game you are looking at walls or cliffs. Maps that could be great like the Sandsea are instead just you walking in semicircles 800 trillion times. Very few are actually both intriguing visually and fun to explore and almost all of them are north of Rabanastre (so about 2/3rds of the way through the game). Dungeon's are mostly good tho.

    Camera: Terrible, it is about 3 feet behind you and you take up a full fifth of the screen at any given moment (thank god the characters are slender or it'd be even worse).    … Expand
  4. HeyitsMauri
    May 25, 2019
    7
    it runs like complete trash on the switch, buy it anywhere else but here. would not recommend.
  5. 777Faron
    Sep 4, 2022
    6
    It's a bit like Xenoblade except more boring in every aspect. Rather buy Xenoblade 3, which is one of the best rpgs of all time.
  6. shado474
    Sep 18, 2019
    5
    I normally like that kind of RPG but the battle style is an awkward hybrid between turn-based and action, which ends up being worse than each separately. There is a lot of grinding necessary to beat the bosses in the game and progress, which adds lengthy stretches into the game. Luckily the fast-forward option accelerates exploration and backtracking a bit. Oh, and the debuffs... I don'tI normally like that kind of RPG but the battle style is an awkward hybrid between turn-based and action, which ends up being worse than each separately. There is a lot of grinding necessary to beat the bosses in the game and progress, which adds lengthy stretches into the game. Luckily the fast-forward option accelerates exploration and backtracking a bit. Oh, and the debuffs... I don't mind some of them but this game is literally a debuff party whenever you get into a fight at some point in the game, it is really irritating, especially when regular enemies just send your entire party to sleep! Despite everything, I really tried to like the game. The story is complex and the music is generally good. It is just the gameplay that ruined it for me.… Expand
  7. Pasifull
    Jul 29, 2021
    6
    Serviceable and occasioanally addictive RPG. All aspects just too shallow. Combat, characters, licence board, plot, gambit system, side activities; all needed more depth to be really engaging. Final product is like eating a whole pack of rice cakes. Not terrible, and enough calories to make it (just about) worth your while, but nothing to remember.
  8. Ajite
    Nov 4, 2019
    7
    It is a very peculiar entry in the Final Fantasy main series. The fighting system is inspired by the MMORPG Final Fantasy 11. It has a gambit system which looks like MACRO in MMORPG. It allows you to make your characters do actions when some criteria are matched. E.g: Use Firaga if monster weak to fire.

    It seemed to be an innovation at first, but it made the game too easy. In the last    It is a very peculiar entry in the Final Fantasy main series. The fighting system is inspired by the MMORPG Final Fantasy 11. It has a gambit system which looks like MACRO in MMORPG. It allows you to make your characters do actions when some criteria are matched. E.g: Use Firaga if monster weak to fire.

    It seemed to be an innovation at first, but it made the game too easy. In the last dungeon, I had nothing to do. I just had to walk with my characters while they were annihilating enemies. Even the last boss did not require any input from my side.

    The job system is great but some combination seemed overpowered.

    Story-wise, it was not bad but it was definitely not as epic as previous entries in the series. The main protagonist has absolutely no charisma, hopefully characters like Balthier and Bash make up for it.

    It runs well on the switch in both handled and dock mode and it’s nice to be able to play with the orchestra soundtrack.

    If you are a fan of the Final Fantasy genre, I would still recommend it. It has a lot of side quests and optional content but it is definitely not a must to have.    … Expand
  9. Cesar77
    Jul 23, 2020
    7
    Good story,unique combat gameplay that makes you strategize using the Gambit system. Good buy
  10. Narwhale73
    Jan 18, 2022
    6
    The game is alright and the story is somewhat interesting. However, the stroy is also difficult to follow and the controls/gameplay is to weird for me to keep using.

    It's by no means a bad game however. The controls just personally weren't working for me as stated above.

Awards & Rankings

18
#18 Best Switch Game of 2019
49
#49 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2019
25
#25 Most Shared Switch Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
85

Generally favorable reviews - based on 30 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 30
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 30
  3. Negative: 0 out of 30
  1. Cubed3
    Aug 26, 2019
    60
    On a scale of best to worst Final Fantasy titles, XII sits somewhere in the middle. It exists in a bland limbo of mediocrity. The best qualities lie in its art direction, music and animation. Being able to play with a high speed mode truly illustrates just how slow and tedious the combat actually is and by circumventing it entirely, a huge portion of the experience is compromised but also the overall product is made more enjoyable.
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  2. Vooks
    Jun 17, 2019
    80
    Final Fantasy XII is a solid entry in the main series that has definitely been improved by updates made with the remaster. Elements of the game that were quite a shake-up at the time stand out much less given where the series has gone over the last decade. If you missed it the first time, this is the best version I could recommend thanks to the portability and all of the most up to date additions and improvements. More importantly, the game is fun. After countless hours of turn-based battles, it was a pleasant change. If you missed it the first time, it’s time to fix that mistake and grab Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age.
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  3. Pure Nintendo
    May 29, 2019
    80
    All of this comes together for a mostly engaging strategic experience that is just long enough to not wear out its welcome. You’re not going to sink hundreds of hours into it like you did with Breath of Wild and Xenoblade Chronicles 2, but that’s a good thing in this case. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac age chugs along at a decent speed (albeit sometimes slowed by long, repetitive environments and the micromanagement of the gambit system), with story elements dropped in just often enough to keep you intrigued.
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