So I'm about to finish up Final Fantasy 12 the Zodiac Age on my Switch so I thought it would be a good time to write a review. Final Fantasy 12 is a role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix. The game was originally released in 2006 for the PlayStation 2 and later remastered for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. This franchise has been one of my favorites and I continue to play though the games even though I'm a little behind on the releases.
The game is set in the fictional world of Ivalice, where the player takes on the role of Vaan, a young orphan who dreams of becoming a sky pirate. The game follows Vaan and his friends as they become embroiled in a plot to overthrow the Archadian Empire. The story is entertaining, but It's nothing like FFX X which is one of my all time favorites followed by FFX VII. The best part of this game is the battle system. The game uses a real-time battle system, with players able to move their characters around the battlefield freely. My biggest pet peeve with other FFX games is the wasted time on the battle cut scenes.
The game also introduced the Gambit system, which allows players to program their characters with sets of actions to take in certain situations. This system allows players to automate certain tasks and focus on more strategic decisions in battle. It would be overwhelming to have to control all the character in this battle format.
I have to give it to the game developers I enjoyed the open-world design, which allows for a great deal of exploration and discovery. The game features large, interconnected areas, and you are free to explore them in any order. This sense of freedom was a departure from previous Final Fantasy games, which often followed a more linear path.
My only real criticisms are the game's pacing is slow, with long stretches of gameplay without significant story developments. I also thought Vaan was a slightly weak leading character. I still liked using Vaan and opted to exclude Penelo as one of my mainly used characters.
I'm really enjoying the game and would recommend it. I have about 50 hours into the game and I'm working through all the side quest before finishing the last chapter. I don't think I'll be playing it though a second time as I want to try to play through some of the more recent releases.
