Final Fantasy 12's remaster delivers 60fps on Xbox One X – but is there a catch?

Released towards the tail-end of PS2’s lifespan, Final Fantasy 12 is a masterpiece in JRPG design that holds up beautifully in its modern day remasters for current-gen hardware. We’ve seen PC, PS4 and Pro releases of FF12: The Zodiac Age – each delivering higher resolutions and improved effects. But now there are two new updated releases of the Square classic with even more to offer. FF12 is now available on Switch while enticingly, the Xbox One X version offers the first chance to play this iconic game at 60 frames per second on a console. Portable FF12 or full frame-rate – which offers the best way to play? And how do the existing PS4 versions compare?

Of course, this isn’t the first Final Fantasy remaster to arrive on Switch and Xbox in the wake of a well established PS4 remaster. Virtuos Studios’ Final Fantasy 10 remaster arrived a couple of weeks back – and it’s well worth a look. It’s still pegged to 30fps on all platforms, but it’s rendering at 1080p on Xbox One and the docked Switch (dropping to native 720p in portable mode) while Xbox One X runs at full 4K. Texture quality, texture filtering and ambient occlusion vary across systems, but it’s a solid, consistent effort overall. However, last week’s Final Fantasy 12 releases switch things up considerably, sometimes surprisingly so.

Before digging into the technical specifics, it’s worth pointing out that Virtuos hasn’t just changed up the game in terms of visuals – there are gameplay improvements too. The freshly minted Switch and Xbox releases allow users to reassign jobs mid-game, and even unload three gambit presets per character, while players also get to keep your items in a New Game+ playthrough.

All of the Zodiac Age enhancements we enjoyed on PS4 – including the upgraded texture filtering and treatment to the original assets – also make the grade for the new versions. The lighting upgrades and reflections stay in place too and the game includes the 2x and 4x fast-forward options as usual. Also, there are two language tracks and three versions of the soundtrack. Think of the new launches as enhanced Zodiac Age releases – as the moment, the PS4 version hasn’t received any of the new updates.

Based on what I’ve played so far, it’s likely that the Switch version will be my platform of choice for revisiting this classic. It’s by no means the most technically advanced rendition, using dynamic resolution scaling around an 864p target while docked, dropping to 576p in mobile play. However, the image is still clean and well presented owing to its post-process anti-aliasing and the prospect of playing this game on the go makes it the best choice for me personally.