It’s often mentioned how Final Fantasy VII put the original PlayStation on the map and ushered in a new era for not just RPGs, but for video games as a whole. That same year, Squaresoft released another instant classic, and now fans have a fresh opportunity to experience its timeless journey in Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles.
Whether you want to call it a remaster or a remake, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is a from-the-ground-up rebuild of the cult-classic, which redefined strategy-RPGs and opened the floodgates for all manner of Final Fantasy spin-offs. The original is presented here mostly untouched as a Classic Mode, with only some modest changes, as the development team had to rebuild the game from scratch without the original source code. The true main event, meanwhile, is the Enhanced edition, which brings the game to life like never before and further modernizes the experience.
Final Fantasy Tactics is a sprawling, nigh-Shakespearean epic of political intrigue and magical corruption—hailing from a time before George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire novels became the hit HBO show Game of Thrones and married fantasy to politics in the eyes of the average media consumer. The saga of Ramza Beoulve holds up incredibly well and resonates all the stronger today, thanks to several new aspects of this rebuilt edition.
The Enhanced edition includes full voice acting and, as such, has been entirely re-localized to suit the cadence of actual speech. Between the clarified text and commendable performances, the story comes alive like never before. Granted, the new script is just as Shakespearean as the War of the Lions edition on PSP, which turned some fans off; however, just like watching an actual performance of the Bard’s works, seeing it performed enhances understanding.
“Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles‘ Enhanced Mode has polished the iconic systems of the original to a dazzling shine.”
The other new aspect that aids in making Final Fantasy Tactics‘ story more enjoyable than ever is the Chronicle menu, a collection of supplementary material available outside of battles and cutscenes. Inspired by Final Fantasy XVI‘s Thousand Tomes menu, this in-game encyclopedia updates alongside the story, giving primers for each character in the vast ensemble, as well as recaps of key events that show the movement of characters and the geopolitical impacts of their actions. As rich as the story is, the action is limited, and these visual aids help contextualize how the chess pieces are moving.
Thankfully, this is a much more efficient resource than Final Fantasy XIII‘s infamous Datalogs. The Chronicle even streamlines and builds upon FFXVI‘s model. It’s not necessarily required to use this library to follow the story, but it certainly enriches the experience and would surely be an asset for players who step away from the game for a spell and lose track of the tense web of intrigue.
Of course, one comes for the story and stays for the gameplay, and Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles‘ Enhanced Mode has polished the iconic systems of the original to a dazzling shine. The iconic isometric style is preserved, nearly echoing the literal dioramas later used by original producer Hironobu Sakaguchi in Fantasian Neo Dimension. Their diverse locales—from downtrodden streets to glittering castle walls, from lush waterfalls to barren deserts—set a compelling stage for both the drama and the heated tactical battles.
The character sprites have always been remarkably expressive, and the new resolution truly shows off their flexibility. At times, if I looked too close, some sprites and landscapes looked just a touch blurry, where they should be sharper; yet, compared to the low resolution of the PS1 and PSP versions, it’s a big improvement. Over these scenes are decidedly modern UIs, which wipe away some charm from the original menus for the sake of conveying more information. It’s worth the slightest degree of chronological dissonance between 30-year-old sprite graphics and cutting-edge menus to have the whole experience in modern resolution.
New to the Enhanced edition are a fast-forward function, a scrolling turn-order bar, and a “Tactical” view that helps clarify the scope of the battlefield. The latter is a handy tool, triggered by holding the R2 button down to pivot the camera to an overhead, grid-based view—it’s more of a measuring stick than an actual tool for inputting commands. Still, it helps alleviate one of the original game’s most significant flaws. The camera angle remains obstinate in some circumstances, such as instances with tall walls, but with some slightly different viewpoints, it’s allowed to feel like a charming quirk, not a fatal flaw.
Fast-forwarding in combat is a blessing, as Final Fantasy Tactics‘ claws are just as sharp as they’ve ever been. The game has always been notoriously challenging, if not outright grindy, but The Ivalice Chronicles takes the pressure off without compromising on difficulty. Whipping through animations or in-battle dialogue alone saves plenty of time, and therefore makes it much less of a drag if you’re driven to reset a fight.
“The effort Square Enix put into The Ivalice Chronicles is truly a cut above most of their other re-releases.”
And even on the standard, middle difficulty, you’re going to have to reset some fights. With the revival system making permanent unit lose a very real possibility, you’ll be faced with the choice of giving up that beloved, well-trained unit or restarting the battle from scratch multiple times through the story. One particularly infamous battle in Chapter 3 is every bit of a campaign-stalling gate as it once was. (Seriously, keep multiple save files.)
Mercifully, The Ivalice Chronicles also makes it easier to find a random battle in which to train. Previously, players had to move Ramza around the map for the chance to trigger a random encounter; now, they can be instigated at-will from any unsettled or natural location. Like the fast-forward, this simple change took away a lot of the headaches from the original, since you can choose a preferred location and random encounters still scale to the party’s level.
This all means that some of the inherent balancing issues are, yes, still present. Like the original, Final Fantasy Tactics starts throwing special characters at Ramza’s party in the latter half of the game, especially if completing the optional side quests. After cultivating a savvy team to accompany Ramza into battle, I found myself once again debating whether or not to put the story on hold in the home stretch to train up these unique heroes, or to press on with the average joes I’d already painstakingly trained to get past chapter 3’s infamous boss. However, The Ivalice Chronicles made these mini, self-prescribed “training arcs” so much more streamlined than they used to be.
(On that note, longtime fans will definitely want to bring some of these special characters into certain battles. One old flaw of the game has been addressed, in that unique allies like Mustadio and Agrias have been given new in-battle dialogue in appropriate situations, instead of being rendered mute and opinionless once joining the roster. It was definitely worthwhile bringing a certain overpowered ally to a showdown with a silver-haired villain, for example, IYKYK.)
The foundation of Final Fantasy Tactics‘ battles is the character development system, and this iconic rendition of the series’ Job system remains one of the very best. Jobs have been slightly rebalanced in terms of their requirements and the cost and application of their abilities. Unlocking new options and experimenting with combinations is just as fun as ever, and expedited with the introduction of battle sets, which allow saving loadouts for each character.
The effort Square Enix put into The Ivalice Chronicles is truly a cut above most of their other re-releases. In fact, I think my biggest qualm with this remaster is that they didn’t put this much care into other remasters, like the current ports of Tactics‘ PS1 brethren. Final Fantasy VIII, in particular, deserved and demanded this same level of restoration, having suffered the same fate, but instead its remaster shipped out with token fanfare and NPCs that were flattened into backgrounds like Looney Tunes characters hit by steamrollers.
By comparison, Final Fantasy Tactics has been deliberately and lovingly restored in such a way that the original spirit is preserved and improved. I would have been happy to pay a small fee to have either the PS1 or PSP versions simply emulated and playable on modern consoles, even if the insufferable slowdown was still rampant. Instead, The Ivalice Chronicles has been raised to today’s standards and still isn’t a full-priced purchase.
Short of keeping the (admittedly superfluous) classes and guests from the PSP version, this iteration has basically everything I would’ve dared to request. If I unequivocally recommended it in its prior, flawed incarnations, I can’t help but wholeheartedly endorse it now, when it’s never been easier to enjoy and appreciate.
