There’s an avalanche of news for Final Fantasy XV, but people ought to remember that Square Enix has remaster projects going on too. The first of these, Final Fantasy VII, will surely bring the game into the current console generation. But that’s not the only game getting a revamp. Over at the Tokyo Game Show this past weekend, Square Enix let us have a peek inside how Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is shaping up by showcasing new gameplay footage.
Final Fantasy XII is one of those in-between phases of the series. Final Fantasy XI was an MMORPG, while Final Fantasy XIII had it’s own trilogy of character-driven games. Square Enix felt like experimenting with the base formula during this era, and Final Fantasy XII did some things differently as a result of that. Instead of random encounters, enemy units appeared in the overworld and could be avoided if you felt like it. The fights happened in real-time, and players juggled different types of actions during these segments. The story of Final Fantasy XII involves a street urchin named Vann who finds a magical crystal in the treasury of a royal palace. Some sky pirates show up wanting the same thing, and the group gets swept into an epic adventure together from then on. There’s ancient magical swords, political intrigue, and epic fights with powerful boss enemies all wrapped together into one experience. The Zodiac Age will include the International Zodiac Job System that was introduced in the 2007 version released in Japan. It expands the single job license board from the original Final Fantasy XII into twelve different ones based on Zodiac signs. Other features were added, including a New Game+ and New Game- (where you don’t gain experience), and a Trial Mode where you go monster hunting for cash and item rewards. This is all on top of the HD graphics and added in Playstation trophies you’ve come to expect from a remastered video game.
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age arrives for PS4 in 2017. To learn more about the game, check out their website, Twitter, and Facebook.
