Finally got around to playing the Zodiac Age version of Final Fantasy XII earlier this year, only to find out that aside from the ability to speed up time and the easier chest respawning it wasn’t really much of an improvement over the original. The new job boards are actually a step backward, as now you’re forced to specialize (with no re-spec option). Yeah it was easy to be a ‘master of all’ and have samey characters in the original, but you didn’t have to; it was a choice and you could’ve just as easily specialized them instead. Regardless, I made it up to the Stillshrine in this version and then just kind of burned out.
Another game played a bit earlier was Pier Solar and the Great Architects, which I picked up during some sale or other for no good reason. For the most part it’s a pretty average JRPG experience with the only really notable things about it being the ability to set the encounter rate at will (extremely helpful) and the rather disconcertingly DeviantArtish character design. I can’t say much about the storyline since I’ve only gotten up to the point where the juggler-guy joins your party, but it’s very odd that no one seems to notice the budding-archaeologist girl is an elf.