Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles Review

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As soon as I heard that iconic opening music from *Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles*, I was right back in 1999, discovering the world of Ivalice for the first time with the PlayStation Greatest Hits version. This remaster is fantastic – it keeps everything I loved about the original while updating it for today. It’s easily one of my favorite remasters Square Enix has done lately! Whether you’re a longtime fan or completely new to the Zodiac Brave Story, you’re in for something special.

Final Fantasy Tactics follows Ramza Beoulve, a noble knight who was wrongly accused of heresy and erased from history. However, he secretly played a crucial role in the War of the Lions. Players experience Ramza’s journey from a young trainee, witnessing the events that led to his downfall, and his fight against powerful demons. Along the way, he’ll forge alliances, suffer losses, and grapple with difficult choices. This remaster preserves the original story, ensuring all the beloved moments remain as powerful as ever-and perhaps even more relevant given current world events.

The Ivalice Chronicles is a new version of Final Fantasy Tactics that, for the first time, features fully voiced characters. While it might not sound like a huge change, the voice acting adds a lot of emotional weight to the story, especially thanks to the talented cast. Joe Pitts perfectly captures Ramza’s genuine nature, and Gregg Lowe brilliantly portrays Delita’s coldness and transformation. Ben Allen also deserves credit for making Argath even more detestable!

The Ivalice Chronicles update isn’t just about voice acting. The game also boasts a redesigned interface and some new features to make it more enjoyable for today’s players. For example, you can now see the map while positioning your units, a significant improvement over previous versions where you had to guess. A turn order indicator is also displayed on screen. These changes don’t alter the fundamental gameplay, but they present crucial information more clearly, addressing issues players have experienced since the game first came out.

This remaster includes useful additions like faster battles and cutscenes, the ability to save character builds, and a classic top-down perspective. However, a few things could be improved. It would be great if the speed-up feature could be turned on or off with a single button press, instead of having to hold it down – sometimes it stops working mid-cutscene and needs to be reactivated. A simple option to skip cutscenes altogether would also be a welcome addition.

In my preview of Ivalice Chronicles at PAX West, I noted a drawback with the overhead camera angle: you can’t directly give commands from that view. Unlike *Tactics Ogre Reborn*, which lets you move units even with obstructions, the clear overhead view in Ivalice Chronicles doesn’t allow for battlefield movement. While it’s helpful to see the terrain in 3D, it’s a little frustrating that you have to switch back to the standard view just to move units or choose where they should go.

I think the biggest complaint people will have with this new release is how the graphics look. It’s a common problem with remasters from Square Enix, and honestly, most games that use pixel art. They seem to have taken the original character sprites and tried to add detail by basically splitting each pixel into smaller ones. It’s not the *worst* I’ve seen – thankfully, it doesn’t have that blurry, Vaseline-covered look some remasters get. Still, it would have been amazing if they’d just used the original, crisp sprites!

I found the textured, paper-like filter applied to the entire image much more distracting than the segmented look. I know it’s a filter because it disappears during army conversations. It would be great if we could simply turn this filter on or off. Ideally, there’d be a ‘classic mode’ option on the main menu for those who prefer the original Final Fantasy Tactics look. However, the game currently forces you to choose between two overall modes instead of offering more customization.

I played on the ‘Knight’ difficulty, which offers a challenge very close to the original game. All the famously difficult battles, like the one against Wiegraf, are still here and just as tough. Thankfully, the game now lets you retry battles or return to the world map at any time, so you won’t have to start your entire game over if you get stuck. You will have to restart the entire sequence of battles if you retry, losing any levels or items gained, but that’s a worthwhile trade-off to avoid being completely stuck. I frequently used the retry option to quickly test different strategies and team setups.

Now you can return to the world map whenever you want, and start battles from anywhere on it, making it much easier and quicker to level up and finish quests. You can still intentionally fight your own party members to gain experience, but enemies are smarter now – they’ll fight back even when hurt, unlike in the original game where they’d mostly try to avoid combat, which some players used to endlessly grind.

If you’re looking for a different level of challenge, or prefer to focus on the story without intense combat, the “Tactician” and “Squire” difficulty settings are great choices. I tested both, and besides enemies dealing more or less damage, their behavior also changes. Some battles on the “Tactician” difficulty will be really tough, so players who like to optimize their characters and master every game system will find it particularly rewarding.

The Ivalice Chronicles includes all the content from the original PlayStation 1 release, but unfortunately leaves out extras found in the PSP’s War of the Lions version. This means characters like Balthier (from *Final Fantasy XII*) and Luso (from *Final Fantasy Tactics A2*), multiplayer modes, and the Onion Knight job aren’t included. While the improvements are welcome, this isn’t a complete or definitive edition. On the bright side, it *does* include the Sound Novels, which are being localized for the first time!

Even if you don’t love the new features, this collection is still valuable because it includes the original game. Just be aware that the original version uses the script from the ‘War of the Lions’ edition, not the very first PlayStation release. I didn’t spend much time with the original version, but I’m glad it’s there. It’s great to see classic games preserved like this, especially those that are hard to find or play now, and hopefully this becomes more common. It would have been a bonus to share save files between the updated versions and the original, but probably not enough people would use that feature to justify the effort. Also, if you’re a trophy or achievement hunter, you won’t be able to earn any in the original game mode.

Replaying Final Fantasy Tactics recently reminded me why it’s one of the greatest strategy RPGs of all time. The story is still incredibly deep and engaging, the characters are well-developed, and the gameplay offers a lot of freedom. It’s a true classic that few games have matched in the last three decades, ever since we first experienced the world of Ivalice as Ramza Beoulve. The Ivalice Chronicles version improves the game by making it easier to understand and play, without changing what longtime fans love about it. Including the original game is a fantastic bonus. While I have a few minor suggestions for improvements, I can’t imagine playing Final Fantasy Tactics any other way. It remains one of Square Enix’s best and most beloved games.

9

We tested Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles on PlayStation 5. It’s also playable on PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

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2025-09-24 16:04