In a sea of high-quality titles (and low-quality ones) and constant Steam and GOG sales, it seems as if fighting the backlog is a Sisyphean task. Especially if you are employed, with family obligations (so-called life), playing older games after a hard day for many takes a backseat to modern live service gacha and extraction and hero shooters.
We offer an alternative: go back to the golden age of JRPGs and relax when everyone falls asleep with a game you played a long time ago or wanted to play but never finished. Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age PC port is the definitive version of one of the best PlayStation 2 JRPGs. The graphics and technology are, of course, outdated, but the charm and art direction are immortal - plus, your decrepit laptop will run the game happily. If the names Sakaguchi and Amano mean anything to you, you don't need much persuading. The rest of the team that created the original game, as well as the Zodiac Age remaster, are equally famous in JRPG circles.
Recently, after about 70 hours of playing, which lasted for three months with all my life commitments and other games, I finally finished the game. I return from the hill with wisdom and commandments - play this game, and finish it! The gambit system works like a single-player MMO, which is what it was intended for - you still control the entire party, but with gambits, which are a kind of programming mini-game, you actually delegate decisions in battles to the AI. Manual controls still take priority, but for 99% of fights and decisions, the gambit system takes care of clicking and scrolling for every Potion and Phoenix Down. Throughout all 70 hours, I enjoyed arranging gambits almost more than the fights themselves. A classic case of spending an hour optimizing a 5-second action. But it's fun, trust me.
As for the story, it's a JRPG and a Final Fantasy. A ragtag man from the favela, after a hundred level ups, finally kills God. However, FFXII also has a lot of political intrigue and moral dilemmas. The theme itself is perhaps the most mature JRPG up to that point. If you don't forget the complete story lost in . You either love the art direction or you hate it, which also applies to the soundtrack and music in the game.
Personally, XII is not at the level of VII, IX or X in terms of sound, but it is not far off either. At least as far as voice acting is concerned, XII is near the top - at least compared to releases that had voice acting at all. I highly recommend the game if you're at all a fan of a good JRPG, even if you're not nostalgic for Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age. The game is good enough on its own.
