Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age
[Update: A Square Enix producer has confirmed a North American and European 2017 release over at the PlayStation Blog. Don’t hold your breath for the Vita. You can also toggle between the original and re-recorded soundtrack at any time.]
Square is finally giving the remaster treatment to the only non-HD mainline game it didn’t re-release into the ground, Final Fantasy XII.
Naturally I am stoked; the 10-year-old RPG, which was directed by the guy who made Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story before Square got tired of him BEING WAY BETTER THAN THE REST OF THEM AT MAKING GAMES, might be my favorite in the series. (He resigned midway during Final Fantasy XII due to “illness,” which has always read like code for then-CEO Yoichi Wada forcing him to, say, create a teenage lead in Vaan, and other creative differences.)
According to Kotaku‘s translation of Famitsu, the remaster is called Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age and will be based on Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System, the version of the game frequently cited as the best (read: not the one most of us in America played).
“Besides revamped character models and cutscenes, the game will feature auto-save, shorter load times, and an improved turbo mode,” according to Kotaku’s translation. “The score has been re-recorded, but The Zodiac Age will also feature the original soundtrack.”
As of now the Final Fantasy XII remake is only announced for PS4 and only for release in Japan sometime in the year 2017, but we’ll probably be getting it as well.