A faithful update to one of the PS2's greatest games!

I love almost everything about FF XII, from its story to its rich world to its combat system. FF XII is a masterpiece of the RPG genre, which is surprising considering its troubled development cycle. FF XII has the perfect difficulty curve. It starts off ridiculously easy and simple so as to ease in even a first-time RPG player, but its difficulty eventually ramps up at a satisfying pace, and its combat is wonderfully deep, with the gambit system and license boards providing a plethora of short-term and long-term options that should sate even the most ardest tactician, while also being manageable by casual players. This was, in fact, the first RPG that I ever played back in 2006, and I had no clue what I was doing, but FF XII guided me along. 12 years later, as a seasoned RPG player, the gameplay is not too easy for me.

The updates in this version make a great game even better. The new job system lets you have even more options for play, and the technical improvements are quite welcome. Aside from now being able to play the game in HD with revamped music, you can also speed up the gameplay which is great for when you want to run through the wilderness at super speed. A newly-added Easy mode and Hard mode cater to either extreme of gamers. There is also the ability to have Japanese voices with English subtitles if that's your thing, although the English voice acting is perfectly fine (Vaan, just like Tidus from FF X, can be a little annoying, but he's meant to be and it's not too bad. There's no dreaded "laugh scene" in this game).

I cannot reccommend this game highly enough. Of course, it does show its age a little, and it has its flaws just like any other game, but you owe it to yourself to play through this at least once.