Ramblings of a Gamer: Final Fantasy XII: Zodiac Age

I played the original FFXII way back in the day, and I didn't love it. The graphics were great, but Vaan annoyed the crap out of me, no one really stood out, the game battle mechanics were meh, and--a personal pet peeve--Ifrit and Shiva and my other favorite summons had been relegated to airships in favor of a new crop of espers.

When Zodiac Age came out, I decided to give it a second shot--and it fell into my queue because my game TBP list is greater than my free time.

But, at last, I found a moment, and I'm once again exploring Ivalice. And I still have mixed opinions.

Vaan is still grating, though he doesn't seem as bad after he finally understands Basch didn't kill his brother. I didn't find much use for him in my original go-around, but this time, with the job system, I've been using him in battle a lot. As a shikari, so far he's fairly well-rounded when it comes to health/speed/strength, though I'm struggling with what I want his second job to be. The gambit system still lets me set the controller down and walk to the kitchen for the average fight, but I've wandered into a few places that demanded my attention.

I've only acquired the first two storyline espers, Belias and Mateus. I've used Belias a bit, but usually not for long. I haven't had a chance to check out Mateus. In my last playthrough, I didn't find them very useful, but maybe with the job system limiting what each character learns, having an esper in my pocket will come in handy. However, they use the same gauge as the quickenings, which I can chain together for heavy damage, so I don't know what might be the better option at this point.

I started my replay with the goal of paying attention to the things I'd forgotten/glossed over in my previous playthrough, and sadly, that includes the plot of the game. I remembered the basics, but I think somewhere around the middle, the political powerplays lost me. Of course, part of that may have been the hinky sound quality where the vocals drop to whisper levels--which still occasionally proves a problem in this version.

Aside from that, the conversations often feel lackluster, and we get a lot of backstory in dialogue info dumps, which sometimes makes it hard to follow--especially if real life interrupts. I'm keeping up so far, but I have found myself tuning out during some of the longer scenes.

I'm not far into the game at the moment, so I'll reserve my final opinion for now. Overall, I'm enjoying it more, but some of the issues I had before weren't really resolved in this version.