Revisit Ivalice With The Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age Spring Trailer
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, an HD remaster of the 11-year-old role-playing game, isn't out until July 11, 2017, but you can see the game in action right now via a new trailer released by publisher Square Enix.
The short video revisits some key moments from Final Fantasy XII's sprawling, politics-heavy storyline (although it's fairly light on spoilers in case you haven't played the game), and serves mainly as a showcase for The Zodiac Age's improved graphics, as well as the brand new (for western players) "Zodiac Job System."
Originally introduced as part of the Japan-only Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System rerelease, the Zodiac Job System forces players to assign "Jobs," or roles, to each character, dictating which weapons the characters can use and which skills they can learn. That's a big change from the normal version of Final Fantasy XII, in which all characters use the same "License Board" to learn skills and weapon abilities, making the characters infinitely customizable but also robbing them of unique identities. The Zodiac Job System also tweaks how the summonable creatures called Espers work and lets players take control of guest characters who fight alongside the main party.
Outside of levelling up and combat, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age contains a number of other features that improve the overall game experience. A fast-forward button is now a standard feature, which should make Final Fantasy XII's semi-automated combat less tedious. In addition, Final Fantasy XII introduces a new "Trial Mode," in which players can take their characters into a 100-stage battle against various groups of enemies in order to win loot and unlock a New Game+ feature.
Final Fantasy XII first came out on the PlayStation 2 back in 2006, and fused traditional Final Fantasy-style gameplay with combat inspired by massively multiplayer online role-playing games, especially Final Fantasy XI. The Zodiac Age isn't the only high-profile Final Fantasy remake on the way, either—Square Enix is currently hard at work on a completely revamped version of the PlayStation classic Final Fantasy VII, although when it comes to that project, fans have some concerns.