Following comments made at the Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy concert in Pittsburgh, PA about a potential Final Fantasy XII remake/remaster, Producer and Music Director Arnie Roth went on Facebook to clarify that he made a mistake:
Dear friends,
In response to comments posted by fans, I want to rectify a statement made from the stage Saturday night at our Distant Worlds: music from Final Fantasy concert in Pittsburgh.
Following conversations with composer Hitoshi Sakimoto regarding new concert arrangements of music from Final Fantasy XII, regrettably, the term ‘remake’ was used in error during one of the announcements that took place from the stage during the concert.
We sincerely regret any confusion this has caused.
Based on this clarification, and as we already assumed, a remake in the vein of Final Fantasy VII isn’t in the works, though there’s a chance we could be getting a Final Fantasy XII remaster like we did with Final Fantasy X and X-2. Back in early 2014, Square Enix claimed no plans for a FFXII remaster, but added that it might happen with enough fan requests.
[Source: Distant Worlds (Facebook) via Eurogamer]
We have a list of changes made to the game’s International: Zodiac Job System version, upon which a remaster will quite likely be based. See more detail on this game in the original article.
Final fantasy XII International
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Double Speed Option
With the touch of a button, you can run and fight at twice the speed. That's a player-friendly quality of life update right there. There's also a New Game + and New Game -, the latter of which allows you to play without the characters gaining experience. Hard core modes for hard core players.
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Job Classes
The name "Zodiac Job System" isn't just another case of a Japanese game having a word salad title. It's a direct reference to the biggest change from vanilla Final Fantasy XII.
(Screenshot from a PC emulation using an English patch. FFXII International: Zodiac Job System is officially only in Japanese. The re-release added English voices, but not text.)
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Job Classes (continued)
These job class choices are permanent -- you pick when you get the character, there can only be a max of one character per job class, and there is no going back. Each job has its own custom license board with unique abilities and progression possibilities. This leads to...
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Better License Boards
In regular FFXII, you could see what was right next to an opened space on the license board, but in ZJS, you can see what every space on the board will become, meaning you can plan further in advance where you'd like to take your character development.
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Control Guest Characters
New to this version, you can control guest characters -- even make them your leader if you want to. You can edit their gambits, so they're not acting in their own pre-programmed ways, but doing what you would do. Oh, speaking of Gambits...
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New Gambits, and All Unlocked Quick
All Gambits become available for purchase at once, fairly early in the story, whereas they came much more gradually in vanilla XII. As well, there are 16 new gambits to make your team more customized than before.
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Control summons
You can take control of summoned monsters now.
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Final Fantasy XII International: Zodiac Job System
The original PS2 box art.
This game was only released in Japan. Other Square Enix remasters have used the updated versions every time there's been one to draw from, so I predict this time will be no different.
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Your Own Adventure
With added Gambits and the job system, your playthrough is much more your own than in the regular edition of the game. Want Fran to shoot guns? Sure. Think Vaan is more suited to a White Mage than a Knight? Go for it.
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Dat Job System
I asked a game shop to give me a poster with this picture, but FFXII Int: ZJS was still new at the time, so they wouldn't give it up. This is just here because I like the image.
