Thread 718983313

I want to play Final Fantasy XII, but what version is the absolute best?
The original PS2, the Zodiac Job PS2, or Zodiac Age?

>>718983313 (OP)
>I want to play Final Fantasy XII
you really don't, game sucks desu
play ff7r, it's the same formula but infinity better

>>718983502
But I think I'd like it, a beautiful, expansive sci-fi world is right up my alley

Ps2 version vanilla or Zodiac Age PC with mods

>>718983313 (OP)
Just get Zodiac Age, and if there's anything specifically you want to change, you can mod.

>>718983313 (OP)
Zodiac age

>>718983313 (OP)
Zodiac remaster
>>718983502
Don't believe Ondores lies

>>718983574
>sci-fi
That's a large stretch, there's almost nothing sci-fi about the game. As for your >>718983313 (OP) question, either is fine I guess. The later ports and releases adds a lot of nice QoL changes with some very minor gameplay changes.

>>718983313 (OP)
Zodiac Job PS2 so you don't have to waste 50 gigs on the bloated ass remaster.

>>718983313 (OP)
Vanilla:
>no gamespeed toggle
>endgame gear is weaker
>four digit damage cap
>no classes
>different enemy balancing
>different item placement
>certain spells can only target one enemy/ally
>no trial mode

Vanilla and IZJS:
>no smudged visuals
>spell priority and delay to limit how many particle effects the PS2 has to render simultaneously

Zodiac Age:
>same build of the game as IZJS
>smudged visuals
>one extra class per character compared to IZJS
>more widely available
>comes with a rearranged OST

>>718984532
>>one extra class per character compared to IZJS
They eventually changed that in the later release of the remaster. Now you can pick and choose jobs whenever. Not sure if there was an update for the older release of the remaster. Square really didn't know what they wanted this game to be.

>>718984719
Oh yeah wasn't that because Square liked the pun of class switching when they ported Zodiac Age to Switch?

>>718984532
>Zodiac Age

Wait there's a 3rd version!?

Did they change how you get that one spear when sneaking into the undead city super early with the chest puzzle?

>>718987189
Zodiac Age the official english release of IZJS but they ran the graphics through a filter or something and it looks really weird if you've played the PS2 releases.

>>718983313 (OP)
I'd strongly advise against vanilla PS2 version. It's a very, very slow game-- there's a reason why they added the ability to speed it up in the remaster.

>>718987437
>what is haste & slow

IM CAPTAIN BASCH OF DALMASCA

>>718987189
they axed the zodiac chestening you can just always get it now
also you can farm it infinitely from trial mode really easily
there's kind of a silly metagame you can do of farming op gear from trial mode way earlier than you should ever have it

>>718983313 (OP)
definitely zodiac age. so many quality of life improvements. the speed up function makes the game so much more playable when you got your gambits set up right.
doesn't really matter what platform you play it on, they all run well, but there's a nude mod for fran on pc, so that gives it an edge imo.

>>718987725
reks should have been the MC,& his sidekick moogles gunner

>>718987437
>there's a reason why they added the ability to speed it up in the remaster
That zoom zooms are allergic TB gameplay?

>>718984532
you forgot the most important thing, the original doesn't shower you in gambits so it's a LOT slower at the beginning. you can safely argue that this makes the game more difficult but it's mostly just something that makes it infinitely more boring.
playing in slow motion is also quite bland.

also ZA on PC can erase the smudged visuals with mods so that's a non-issue, since it's 60fps on PC that's the way to play it. it has a decent amount of mods too

also should mention that ZA isn't the same build as IZJS, it has some changes

The latest release is the one to get, OP. The rare Square remaster where they didn't totally botch it.

>>718989023
It's meh on consoles with the ugly visual changes and 30fps with drops

>>718989023
Oh before I forget

https://beforeiplay.com/index.php?title=Final_Fantasy_XII

There is nuance to a lot of the mechanics and because it all happens at once it can be easy to miss some of this.

>>718989182
>minmax your blind playthrough
FUCK OFF

The class system completely fucks the balance of FF12. The game is designed around having a significant amount of your LP go into actually crawling across the license board, and the compact job boards make it easy to get your first 3-4 tiers of equipment licenses and then immediately start speccing into stat bonuses. By the time you are walking into the tomb of raithwall, the first serious dungeon in the game, you will probably have more bonus HP than natural HP, a +50% boost to your base attack or magika, and 30-40% ATB haste. Furthermore, the game gives you access to a ton of utility spells far earlier than you need. By the time base FF12 is finally able to access bubble in order to get characters over the 2000 HP barrier and compete with enemy scaling around the uplands and survive an unlucky double aeroga, the Zodiac versions not only have had access to these buffs since bhujerba but doesnt even need them because it will be bringing already 3000-4000 HP characters without bubble and no enemy is remotely threatening. The only real challenge of the original Zodiac version is that you fill out the entire LP board hilariously early and then stop scaling entirely for the latter half of the game and into superbosses where you rely on buffed superweapons, but luckily this is 'fixed' by the recent HD remake where you now have all of the benefits of the job board plus a second job board to not only help you get OP fast but to stay ahead of the curve for the entire game, and then still reap the benefits of buffed superweapons despite having a full and varied spectrum of licenses

>>718983313 (OP)
it's a solid 7,5 game

best FF protagonists
>>718983313 (OP)
>The original PS2
this. case closed.

>>718983313 (OP)
>>718989861
>the princess is not the love interest but actually just a married woman out to gut the people that killed her husband
>the quirky chungus main character is not the thirsting simp moving mountains to attain princess pussy but actually has a childhood girlfriend from the get go and is just there because of happenstance and connections to his brother
In hindsight, that shit was pretty cool for FF standards.
My boy Larsa carried the entirety of the plot on his back though.

>>718983313 (OP)
>wanting to play a single player mmo
Yikes...

>>718989996
I wanted Ashe x basch

>>718990115
Basch x Larsa is what you get. Gotta keep the emperor loose.

dont ever pay any attention to zodiac posters, you will waste your time. just search torrent for
>Final_Fantasy_XII_USA_PS2_DVD
emulate or play on PS2 or even a jailbroken PS3 (yes it works)
https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/PS2_Classics_Emulator_Compatibility_List

>>718983313 (OP)
I played the game on release back in the stone ages, and I played the international zodiac job one on ps2 before it was translated so it was all in japanese
then I played the one on steam when it came out, I say play the steam version if you can because it's the best imo
having 2 classes to choose from is kino and has a lot of thinking involved
plus you can mod it easily

>>718989996
larsa was way too sexy for her own good, best girl and it's not even close

>>718990376
there's a mod for tza that makes it functionally identical to ps2 just with drastically faster loads so there's no reason to play ps2 ver and yes i know you're a third worlder and this post will make you irrationally angry so i'm just going to preempt your reply by saying cope & seethe

>>718990115
Do they interact at all during this game

>>718989112
It runs fine on my fucking Switch 1 so maybe kys

>>718990573
>make the secondary protagonist to the story a 12 year old boy left to fend all for himself...
>... make him look like this at the camera upon introduction.
I know doujin bait when I see it.

>>718990509
zodiac posters have to be the most stubborn retarded cunts in jrpg history.
the truth is that remasters are usually judged by the technical performance so, since TZA runs well guys assumed it was fine. add to that a certain degree of steamie fanboyism these fags have been misleading gamers for years. but TZA is simply broken because of the jobs and TZA fags have been doubling down because they can't accept they ruined FF XII for themselves with the wrong version.
if someone is genuinely interested (no TZA fags allowed) i can actually go into further detail. but my advice is just play vanilla.
>>718990650
nigger will you ever STFU

>>718989217
retarded anti-meta faggot detected

>>718990707
Did TZA kill your dog?

>>718990707
Basically the whole internet says the zodiac version is a huge improvement so I don't believe you

>>718990707
SNNNNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

>>718990784
>Did TZA kill your dog?
why is it so hard to admit you are wrong. OP clearly asked people who know and have played both. im providing that information to help new comers and in your infinite fanboyism you insult me.
>>718990796
also literally everyone then goes to complain how FF XII is boring and easy and it plays by itself. that should be a clue they made the wrong decision.

>>718990796
basically the whole internet agrees that the johnson and johnson vaccination is safer than getting covid while unvaccinated. go get yourself boosted.

>>718990952
Go be American elsewhere, please.

>>718989776
Even in the original you will have all relevant passive bonuses unlocked with all characters shortly after Raithwall. They actually increased the LP requirements for most licenses in the later versions.

Getting all HP, damage and speed improvements is a litte and the licenses between them is about 1000 LP. Just crossing the Ogir-Yena Sandsea with its millions of weak mobs once will give you more than 100 LP alone.

And then in theory you can buy the accs with double LP gain after Raithwall...

>>718983502
it's not competing for my top spot in the series, but it was still pretty good. the end game fights were great.

The license board is just an infinitely shittier sphere grid, and putting jobs on top of that makes it even worse

>>718991045
Appeal to ethos doesnt work on anonymous imageboards. Ply your trade on a place like twitter or myspace where the userbase actually cares about the content of another users character.

>>718991045
NTA but imagine believing in 2025 that mRNA therapy is safe

>>718983313 (OP)
Bash was the coolest FF character. Up there with Auron

alright spoonfeeding time. I suggest guys who are actually interested in playing this game to download the vanilla and go blind and ignore the following because it's slightly spoilery.

every FF XII hater has been repeating for years, yes even before TZA, this talking point how all your roster of characters has the same license board and that roles are no more. that is intentionally misleading. while technically yes they have the same board, during the duration of the story, you are not able or supposed to fill it out. however you have the freedom to chose how you evolve its player. it's a big board, saying you have the same board means no roles is the same as a path of exile player saying the game has no classes because of the same passive tree. but of course that's a retarded take because it's all about the direction you take. this is exactly the point of the board in XII albeit in a more primitive and limited manner. obviously that board doesn't provide for the endless hours POE can, but it's mainly intended to work for the duration of the story. now, when you get to the post end content and obviously yiazmat, the meta is clearly dictated by end game weapons, end game items and the characters built in stats. so once again you have roles because you want the absolute best from every character.

I haven't read a single post in this thread, but FFXII is best FF. The early game is where it's at. Comfy farming with Penelo Pre-Palace, and the the big opening of the map post-Raithwall. These two sections make the game and learning how to milk them is a big part of why I love XII.

Few things will infuriate me more than this game haing models for all the races of the TA Ivalice setting yet zero fucking party members of any of them except a Viera. Lazy bullshit of the highest order.

>>718991732
>but FFXII is best FF
it's the best written FF
it's the FF where all characters matter
it's best OST
it's best challenge
also back in the day, it was the most technically insane FF running on a PS2

>>718991914
Penelo doesn't matter.

>>718992083
Technically she does. Without her input, Larsa would not decide to actually stand up against his brother, which is what kickstarts the plot's second and third act into motion.

>>718991914
>it's the best written FF
>it's the FF where all characters matter
>it's best OST

assuming you're playing TZA, your builds really don't matter all that much. due to the second job, you become OP absurdly fast and with bubble, you'll be at 9000+ HP very early on.

the game is pretty fucking bad, but a lot of the hunts are pretty cool and a few make you genuinely want to bang your head in frustrations at times (but this is good as everything outside of hunts is piss easy in TZA.) at least you can 2x/4x speed through stuff, that's grand.

>>718990925
FF12 is boring regardless and people have been saying that it plays itself way back on the original PS2 release already.

>>718992083
She matters to my dick.

>>718992083
she gets kidnapped

>>718992150
>people have been saying that it plays itself

>plays itself because it's broken and pointlessly easy
>plays itself because you program the battle with gambits

if you are above room temp IQ you should be able to tell which is which.

>>718992165
she's 16
>inb4 UUUUOOOOOOOOOOO

One of the worst FF games so the best version is another FF game.

>>718992290
>she's 16
out of 10!

>>718991914
>it's the best written FF
Maybe the dialogue is well written, I honestly can't remember, but it has the most boring plot in any of the FF games.

>>718992290
So legal anywhere in the world that matters?

>>718992428
The plot if very string-alongy, but when it's well written, that doesn't matter as much. You can also blame the mismanaged development for not letting them flesh out anything between Bur-Omisace and Archades.

>>718992083
Neither does Vaan
Or Basch
Or Fran
Or Balthier

now im going to tell you why Vaan is best boy:
Because it's an OPEN WORLD GAME. ff xii devs were insanely ahead of their time to have an MC that's not directly bound by the main story progression. Of course Vaan has the visions of his brother etc but mainly he is a guy that wasn't to be a pirate. Going for sidequests is literally part of his character.

Meanwhile going on side quests became a meme in modern games because you can't a hero that has an urgent quest and you are off helping old ladies find their lost frying pan.

yes design wise reks is better.

I can remember the main story points of every Final Fantasy game except this one.

All I remember is it was a lot of politics and going from here to there to get some maguffin. I even stopped playing entirely for weeks before I came back to finish it.

>>718992685
Vaan is the representative of the common man affected by the war and lost his brother to the betrayal that sent things spiraling.
Basch is effectively the only witness to the thing that quickstarted the whole plot.
Balthier is the son of the man behind said plot.
Fran is... I guess a good plot device for the Mist stuff, but yeah, just moral support for Balthier.

>>718992697
That kind of falls apart when you remember that the rest of the party exists who do in fact have a vested interest in the main story, and you are with them the entire game. It's not like Vaan wanders off and does his own thing while Ashe and Basch are doing boring politics stuff

>>718992697
Ivalice Alliance did the best they could with the hand SE's execs gave them. I will always defend Vaan despite not personally liking him.

>>718992779
The actual plot is mostly done by Larsa in the background, that's why.
What you do as Ashe's party is basically going around collecting Pokemon to do what the Occuria want you to do, then undoing that because it turns out they didn't actually want you to do that.

>>718992779
>a lot of politics
that's another meme. it literally has like a council type meeting two times and weeb fags started sperging politics
>>718992815
>That kind of falls apart
no it doesn't. literally they all need each other. and all need Vaan as a cover.

>>718992697
>>718992831
Posted the wrong pic.

>>718992809
None of that ever matters though.
Vaan is important in one scene where he basically just shakes his head at Ashe when she's considering genocide
Basch does absolutely nothing once you rescue him. His relevance to the plot falls off a cliff
Balthier pilots the ship and that's his entire role, despite his claims to the contrary. The reveal that Cid is his father doesn't actually matter or change anything

>>718992885
this is what i meant here>>718992697

>>718992873
>no it doesn't. literally they all need each other. and all need Vaan as a cover.
That's a copout. No one needs Vaan except for maybe Penelo

>>718992890
It matters because it gives the characters the motivations and reasons to continue to pursue the goals in the storyline, anon.
They don't talk about it every step of the way because it's a given that you'd know and understand those things, with the exception of Balthier, who you would assume is motivated by adventure/greed/ego but turns out to have ulterior motives.
They are solving an immediate crysis and all have a stake in the matter, that's the angle that was taken.

>>718992885
That's a lot of paragraphs for a very simple character concept
>He is Ashe's conscience who chose forgiveness over revenge
There I summed up that entire pseud post

>>718992885
dont care story is boring and the MC gets constantly laughed at/mocked in every cutscene

>>718992697
why didnt they just make a pirate adventure game then

>>718993023
Having a motivation means nothing if the characters never actually do anything and barely matter to the actual story.
FFIX has a cast that half doesn't matter, and they all still have motivations. Amarant has a motivation for why he tags along, but he's still a nothing character because he doesn't actually do anything

>>718993156
they did

>>718992890
>His relevance to the plot falls off a cliff
yeah other than the tiny little detail of him being left to rot as a traitor, he is not relevant to the plot of taking his life back.

WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU FAGS

>>718992697
I love doing sidequests and minigames in big epic games because wasting time fishing or whatever is all the sweeter knowing the big evil scary demon is still wrecking shit up

>>718993502
You'd almost think /v/ doesn't play games

>>718992602
>voice is pure sex
>she's also stunning
goddamn

>>718993502
What plot relevant things does he do anon. Don't reiterate his motivation, tell me what he does during the game.

>>718993609
>Don't reiterate his motivation
do you know how retarded you sound

Vaan insists upon himself

>>718993775
I'm still waiting to hear what Basch actually does

>>718993608
I didn't know "Icelandic" was an accent until this game/her.

And to the rest of of you Vaan cucks derailing this thread, keep it principled. Remember, Vaan is a vector to
>picrel

>>718984532
if you are going to play it first time you dont need toggle anyway and classes are just a restriction and feel like an afterthought

>>718993867
He insists?!

>>718993898
I never understand how people get to the "Basch is the mc" thing. Guy is introduced as if he's going to be a central character for like 30 minutes but very quickly turns into a Kimahri for the rest of the game.

>>718993898
it's a jrpg you stubborn retard. he fights.

>>718994116
>I never understand how people get to the "Basch is the mc" thing
you mean the guy that's accused of killing the king?
well, he is accused of killing the king

>>718994116
Probably for the same reasons I'm getting shit on by the dummies in this thread. He seems like he should be very important to the plot, but he isn't. He just falls to the wayside, so does Gabranth. And if anything that's worse, because he's a character with a good setup that's completely squandered. At least Khimari never wasted a good backstory

>>718993913
>I didn't know "Icelandic" was an accent until this game/her.
https://youtu.be/75WFTHpOw8Y

>>718992953
>No one needs Vaan except for maybe Penelo
>>718993898
>I'm still waiting to hear what Basch actually does

guys ask me how i know you are trolling

>>718994272
Because you don't have an actual response that disproves the point so it's easier to pretend the premise is invalid

>>718994326
what on earth is wrong with you

>>718989861
>The original PS2
Objectively worst version

>>718994237
>Japanese face
>that accent
What lucky motherfucker knocked her up?

>>718994504
>Objectively worst version
TZA fags have been awfully quiet since this truth bomb dropped. >>718991379

>>718994527
her husband