In all fairness, I should admit up front that Final Fantasy as a franchise fulfilled about 60% of my childhood escapism. The fantastical worlds and epic story-lines enthralled me for up to a hundred hours per game, and it was an opportunity to truly lose myself in a virtual world.

While acclaimed when it came out in on the PlayStation 2 in 2006, Final Fantasy XII always felt like something of an anomaly. Square Enix, mindful that turn-based RPGs were beginning to feel like relics, made FFXII different to its predecessors in some fundamental ways, a change that left a section...

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is an HD remake of Final Fantasy XII which first introduced the Zodiac Job System, a 12-job character progression system.

Overall, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is an impressive remake for the entry. Instead of taking the easy way out with an HD upscale, Square Enix gave the title the extra polish and features it needed to be a great title. If you missed this the first time, don't miss out again.

Now here's an interesting beast. It's been just over ten years since Final Fantasy XII first made landfall. That's not much, especially when one considers the series' numbered entries have only just reached XV .

Final Fantasy XII is the Game of Thrones of the series. Never before have you seen political maneuvering like this in a FF game. With the game starting as your whole nation becomes a puppet state of an empire interested in war with the nation behind yours, you are quite literally the underdog in...

Improved textures; Autosaves; Speeding grinding up; Gambits; The map overlay

You either love or hate the new license board; Poor voice acting / dialogue; Trial mode save handling is unintuitive

Final Fantasy XII has always been a bit of an oddball within the long-running series. Its real-time combat smacks of an MMO, like FFXI and FFXIV , but it's still a single-player adventure centered around a core party of characters.

Fast-forward function saves time; improves pacing; Unique departures for the series; like Gambits and a politically driven story; still feel fresh today; Individual License Boards give party members personality; shake up gameplay; FFXII was always meant to be played in HD

Grinding for gil can still get tedious, Junk seriously needs a "sell all" button, Gambits are a little simplistic, Hemming and hawing for hours over which permanent Jobs to assign your party members; Seriously: hours

Final Fantasy XII's relatable roleplaying adventure has aged remarkably well, and The Zodiac Age remaster improves it further in meaningful ways. The storytelling, visual design, and gameplay feel just as fresh and interesting as they did over a decade ago, and the various new enhancements and...

Concept: Remaster Final Fantasy XII and make it easier for fans new and old to experience what the game does best Graphics: Improved visuals and performance make this game look even better than you remember Sound: Excellent voice performances help the characters come alive, and the grand soundtrack...

Final Fantasy XII is a remaster done right keeping the source material largely intact but also adding some welcome new features.