Background
Final Fantasy XII was a game that got away from me, much like X-2; I never played or owned it when it was first released back on the PlayStation 2. The timing was bad; I had a PlayStation 3, and my PS3 console isn't one of the ones with that fancy physical emotion engine chip with backwards compatibility.
While I don't own FFXII on PC; I was pleased to see that it was on Xbox Games Pass; so I've played through the tile on the Xbox. I knew nothing about FFXII before starting, nothing of its story, visuals, or setting. I went in fresh; as though it was an entirely new game.
I have to say that initially, I was disappointed. While Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age holds your hand a little bit; it did very little to explain the combat mechanics in any reasonable depth. Once I started to understand these, the game took on a completely new depth and surface.
While my research indicates to me that there are many changes between the original release and the Zodiac Age version; it looks as though all the improvements were for the better; allowing even greater flexibility in combat.
Let's move on to discuss individual elements of the game in greater detail...
Story
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age pits kingdom against kingdom; with a war long past leaving scars on the citizens of each region. This backstory is difficult to follow at first, as in the first hour of the game, timelines jump around without little warning, and you're not quite sure who is going to be the main character; or indeed, even where you are.
Before too long, the game settles into a rhythym; and the pacing of the story is really good. There's things happening throughout the game; with twists, turns, and side-quests not leading you too far from the game's constant tug toward its central plot line.
Sure, there's plenty of stuff that you can do that isn't related to the main story; but the adjacent elements each serve to add additional context to the narrative and the world - it helps you understand the motivations of the citizens of different regions; or sort out differences between them, enriching the understanding and immersion you feel in the tale of two kingdoms torn apart by what feels like a perpetual war.
As the story progresses; it gets full of intrigue and thankfully, doesn't stray too far from the reality of the world it is set within - everything feels like it is in place; without any dramatic upheavals to the world; only to its characters, like any good story should.
Characters
You get a satisfying number of playable characters to use throughout the game - Vaan, Penelo, Basch, Balthier, Fran, and Ashe; and with the Zodiac Age features, you can make anyone do anything - and rebuild the characters from scratch if you want to do so.
Character models are ... adequate for the era of release, but woefully inadequate for 2022; with voice acting often outshining the emotive properties the character models and in-game animation engine is capable of. It is; however passable; and the cast is quality.
While Vaan is probably intended as the protagonist, the voice acting and motivations of Balthier (and his inclusion of the line, ,ever persistent, "Well, I am the leading man"...) makes him one of the strongest characters in the game, alongside the motivations of Ashe; which I cannot speak of in too much depth for fear of spoilers.
Combat
Combat in Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is completely different to every Final Fantasy game that came before it. It is a 3D environment; with real time combat. You don't have random encounters. You see enemies on the 3D map which you explore, and you fight those enemies in those environments.
You can choose to ignore enemies if you prefer, but they'll chase you around the place. Sometimes that is the best thing to do.
You control up to three characters at once, with a guest welcome in your party for story sequences from time to time; as a result, you can build a balanced party that works a little like MMO mechanics; and in combination with the Gambit system (setting up behaviours for your characters i combat) you can create complimentary parties that are killing machines for whatever scenario you may find yourself in.
You can even configure three different types of gambit set ups for each character; which means you can move from grinding levels to progressing through newer areas with tougher foes; or hunting for loot from monsters.
It has a great MMO vibe to the combat system, and the loop of killing things, getting their loot, and wandering onward is very rewarding. Combined with the option to speed up combat (saving a lot of time in the progress) - you're able to go do more in the world in a shorter timeframe than what you could do in the original release of the game.
Character progression is completed through the Licence Board, as well as gaining XP through combat. Like the Sphere grid system of FFX, characters gain both "Experience", as well as Licence points, which allows them to specialise in their job.
What you get is the ability to advance your character in the direction you wish, and with the Zodiac Age expansion, you can dual class, leading to more of that MMO flavour in combat. Very little of this is explained as you go, however; so you're left to figure out a lot of this on your own.
Once you do, it is so very satisfying to go and smash monsters to pieces based on your earlier choices.
Sightseeing
There's plenty of extra stuff to do in the world of Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, and it feels like the biggest one of these is Hunts, where you go off in search of powerful variations of monsters for loot. These are like bounties and it feels a little bit like Monster Hunter, except you don't need to kill the same mark thousands of times over in order to get that one piece of loot to upgrade your armour.
There's also plenty of map to explore, with an enormous game world linked together via a series of pathways, cities, tunnels, caves, mines, and other geographical barriers. There's additional espers (summons) you can go off in search of; but I did very little of this, electing to stick mostly to the main track of the game as I was drawn on by its plot.
Music
This is one of the most joyful elements of Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age; with the soundtrack being a playful, looping, engaging piece that encourages exploration. It is not particularly emotive like that found in FF7 Remake; but it makes you want to keep playing; in conjunction with the gameplay loop - it is great.
Played on the Xbox Series X, the positional audio in concert with the music makes the game very immersive on a surround sound set-up, and while I couldn't name a track in particular that is great; they're all good - unobtrusive, gentle; and perfectly fit the mood of the visuals of the game.
Visuals
There's a distinct lack of pre-rendered sequences in FFXII, with a lot more of the story progressing through in-engine cut scenes and dialogue, which serves two purposes - one, it allowed the game to probably be longer (As less disc space is taken up by FMVs) and two; it allowed for a greater consistency of the story telling.
Textures in the real time engine are pretty low quality; owing to their PS2 era heritage, but it has polished up well enough on the Series X to not be something to complain about - the combat and environments move along at an acceptable enough pace for you to not get stuck looking at a blurry wall texture like in FF7 Remake which often moves at a glacial pace.
The other elements of the visuals are of course the monsters you'll encounter in combat; and these are well rendered; and monster design is fairly distinct from one another. A common RPG trait of introducing weaker breeds of monsters and re-using the same models with different skins later in the game is definitely something that happens in Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age; but its fine, again, probably due to constraints in disc-budget back in the day.
There's a few vistas that are utterly stunning in both FMV and real time; particularly a certain tower placed at the edge of a waterfall - it looks amazing, and given the scope of environments on offer in FFXII, you never feel like you're looking at the same place twice - unless of course you are, with many segments of the game requiring you to backtrack through areas you've already traversed through.
You can always use fast travel or airships to move from place to place more efficiently, though.
Overall...
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is such a refreshing take on the Final Fantasy universe that it didn't even feel like a Final Fantasy game. There's enough of a mature, darker, serious narrative here on offer that if you titles hte game literally anything else, you wouldn't know it was Final Fantasy until you saw a Moogle or Chocobbo; (or were familiar with the item and spell names that the series uses very consistently).
I highly recommend giving this game a shot; it is another excellent entry point into the series; and something I thoroughly enjoyed for the 50 or so hours I explored its edges. What an excellent game!