Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles review: "Fantastic tweaks elevate a classic while leaving its spirit intact – this seminal tactical RPG has never been better"

So much of modern gaming, and Final Fantasy in particular, wants to have its big blockbuster moment. It wants to walk the same halls as cinema or prestige TV series with massive fights, realistic CGI, and snappy dialogue. Final Fantasy 16, for example, so badly wanted to be like Game Of Thrones, but that’s not what Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles wants. Instead it embraces theater.

The original Final Fantasy Tactics first released on PS1 in 1997 and then received an upgrade in 2007 on PSP with Final Fantasy Tactics: War Of The Lions – with this newest version being based on that upgrade, but with further tweaks of its own to add to the mix. It all comes together to make Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles the best possible version of a rightly beloved entry in the legendary series.

A tactical RPG set in a medieval-like fantasy world, you play as Ramza Beoulve – a young knight in training with a strong sense of justice who is thrust into the middle of a dark plot between warring factions. Two nobles, Dukes Larg and Goltanna, vie for the throne while the common people suffer and a great evil lurks in the shadows. The story examines the unfairness between the classes and how the greed of a few leaves the majority of the populace destitute. There’s a simmering rage and fear that lies behind a lot of the major story beats that feels all too familiar given the way the state of the world has been feeling over the last few years. It may have been almost 30 years since FF Tactics, but its core messages are painfully relevant today.

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To be or not to be

The game also has a very theatrical approach to its story, with the script feeling almost Shakespearian with its use of ‘ye olde english’ text. It leans heavily into that medieval fantasy vibe to the point where the text can feel hard to follow at times as the language is so old fashioned. Frankly it can be really hard going as a newcomer.

I remember playing the original but bouncing off of it because so much of it went straight over my head, but The Ivalice Chronicles had me rapt from the beginning thanks to the addition of some phenomenal voice performances. Instead of it feeling like reading a Shakespearean text in school, the voice acting makes it feel like you’re watching it on stage. All that added tone and context brings wooden text to life and makes it easier to pick up on all the little unsaid nuances that only performers can. Hearing the stillness of a pause between lines is so much more potent than reading an ellipsis. The Ivalice Chronicles ran the danger of feeling like a dated relic, but the addition of voicework instead turns it into a revitalized classic.

Sure, it can feel a little slow in places as story beats leisurely play out on the same stages as the battles do, but once you embrace Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles for what it is that unhurried approach becomes a refreshing break to the urgency of most modern games.

You spend the game navigating a map of Ivalice, visiting areas to trigger new scenes and encounter battles. Fights work by placing individual units on a gridded field and then attacking whoever comes into your range. There are often more enemies on the field than allies so you can become overwhelmed if you’re not careful. You’ll need to be aware of the turn order on the left of the screen and watch to make sure things like your healing spells will hit before more damage does. Status effects can also complicate matters and certain main characters have really powerful moves that can obliterate your team, so making good use of buffs and debuffs is vital.

To do that you’ll need to teach your characters plenty of skills using Tactics’ unique approach to classes. The Job system lends itself to some amazing depth and customization options though it can be complicated at first glance. Your party members will all start out as Squires with a decent range of learnable skills, but once you start levelling up you’ll unlock other Jobs and then those will branch off into even more ones.

You earn Job points every time you do something in battle and you can use those to unlock abilities from the class you’re currently playing as, but you’ll also earn a few for the other Jobs you’ve chosen for your team. It’s in your best interest to mix and match Jobs so you can unlock abilities from each one to compliment the approach you’re after.

For example, you could have a powerful Black Mage casting powerful fire spells that also knows a White Mage’s healing magics, or level an archer to pick up its improved movement skills before switching to a hard-hitting Knight that can then move great distances. It takes a while to get used to, but once it clicks Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles becomes a playground of tactical possibilities, which is great as you’ll need a wide range of Jobs in battle to be successful.

Most of the time you can hack away at the unit closest to you, but often they’ll flee or use spells at a distance so you’ll need to make sure you have some long-ranged fighters such as Archers or magic users on your team. Summoners are particularly dangerous as their spells can cover huge areas and take down multiple characters at once which is utterly devastating if you don’t have a healer. Encounter a ninja with dual blades and you’ll get hit twice, potentially knocking a unit out in one turn so you’ll need to think about which buffs to use to counteract that. There are a surprising number of layers to each battle that you’ll need to consider.

Equipment is also massively important and can sometimes make or break a fight. In chapter two I became completely undone by a boss that kept casting immobilize and Doom, basically preventing my team from being able to do anything, sentencing them to death within two turns. No amount of level grinding can help you deal with that, so I had to run off to the shops to find something to counteract it. Most fights you can get through with a solid team, but others, like the one I encountered, will require some trial and error. There are some things that you can only learn through a humbling death, like which bracelet to use for immunity to Doom.

Stage play

The stages themselves are small, but still manage to fit in a surprising amount of terrain that can affect the flow of battle. Steep cliff sections that only certain units can scale, or deep water that makes crossing a river a dangerous affair as it means you risk not being able to perform an action. They may be tiny, but they’re often dense and will shape how you plan your assaults, and the confines of a small area further deepen that sensation of FF Tactics being like a piece of theater.

One of the only downsides is the number of units you can take into battle with you being capped out at around five spending on the fight. It’s fine when you’re in the thick of things and duking it out during the level, but it feels like a bit of a waste for the rest of the team members you leave on the sidelines. All those interesting class combinations and characters you’ve built up get put on the bench when the more unique story-focused heroes join your party. I’d love to have bigger squads on the field just so I can see how all of my favorites interact with each other. (Is it too much to ask for a new sequel if this does well, Square Enix?)

A lot of work has gone into making the game newcomer friendly. Alongside the phenomenal voice work, there’s a new lower difficulty mode for those that just want to enjoy the story and an autosave function that really helps when you just want to go back a few turns in a fight to fix a mistake. Purists might disagree with the changes as it does feel less punishing than the original, but that’s all good as the game also comes with an entirely separate classic version. It’s literally two separate editions of the game in one package, so if you like your retro RPGs to be as tough as you remember you can ignore all of the new stuff entirely and fully embrace your nostalgia. It’s the best of both worlds and something I’d love to see in more remasters and remakes.

The developers of Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles might be hesitant to call the game a true remaster because of its complicated history, but that’s definitely what it seems like to me, and it’s an absolute banger of one that. With lots of tweaks and additions that elevate the original experience as well as make it loads more approachable for newcomers, this seminal tactical RPG has never been better.

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