Feels like spring (next day was heavy rain though).
The return of birds is another sign spring is now gearing up. Clocks got turned yet again and the amount of sunshine increases by the day. Feels nice walking outside now (excluding the occasional street dust in my eyes).
But in the evenings I’ve now been playing Final Fantasy XII Zodiac Age. I’ve actually played the original version of it 15 years ago on my PlayStation 2 and back then I considered it to be the best Final Fantasy I’ve played so far (the others being VII, VIII and IX). So I thought maybe this remaster with game play tweaks, improved graphics, faster loading times etc. makes it worth revisiting.
Well, after around 30 hours, I can say it is a very well done remaster. However I notice I don’t have the same enthusiasm like I did the previous time, as I’m completely rushing through the main story, skipping all possible side quests and not paying any attention to the world built into the game. I totally love the new feature of speeding up game play in battles and walking around.
The story focusing on political scheming in a Shakespearean manner is a bit hard to follow, but voice acting for sky pirates Balthier and Fran are still as good as I remembered.
Han Solo and Chew … I mean, revisiting Balthier and Fran back in sky pirating business in Final Fantasy XII.
So yeah, while the remaster can’t hide the fact this is an old generation game, it does hold its ground quite well (especially thanks to its unique battle system that allows setting up automation how characters should react in different situations). I’m having doubts though will I still consider it to be the best Final Fantasy game I’ve played after finishing it some day.