Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles Review

Talking about Final Fantasy Tactics in terms of its place in history is easy. The foundational spin-off blended the Final Fantasy aesthetic with a tactical combat system. With Ogre Battle creator Yatsumi Matsuno at the helm and the likes of Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, FFVI director Hiroyuki Ito, and dozens more well-known names at Square Enix collaborating, Final Fantasy Tactics easily became a cornerstone for all future tactical RPGs to lean on.

Booting it up in 2025, through the freshly remastered Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles, is still a fascinating experience. Nostalgia isn't the main draw for me personally, as I only played Tactics for the first time a few years ago. But in the modern day, Final Fantasy Tactics' time capsule feels ageless. While it still has a few creaks and cracks here and there, revisiting Tactics has made me resolute in the belief that this is, simply, a must-play.

The Ivalice Chronicles offers two modes of play. One is, effectively, a port of the original game with a few updates (including the script) of the PSP's great War of the Lions version. The other is the "enhanced" version, which I spent the bulk of my time playing, with remastered graphics and a new script. No major story beats have changed in Square Enix's remaster of this script though, so this is the same story as before, with some new but welcome refreshes.

The story, as it always has, follows Ramza Beoulve, an aspiring knight in the academy, and his lowborn companion Delita. Unbeknownst to either of them, shadowy machinations are playing out behind the scenes, moving pieces on the board of Ivalice in dueling vies for power. Soon, Ramza is forced to confront his place in the world; his nobility has granted him power at the expense of others' prosperity. He makes for an ever-compelling lead, as he grapples with whether he can truly be a force for good when he was born into aristocracy.

The ensuing tale, as Ramza endures loss, pain, and sorrow in his fight for a better world, is still marvelous. While some of the final story pivots into full-on fantasy don't hit quite as hard, there are few other games with as strong a first chapter as Final Fantasy Tactics. Each battle uncovers newer, darker secrets about the machinations of those in power. Early storylines about the struggles of those kept under the thumb of others in power, of strife, and the oppression laid down by the nobility, resonate clearly to this day. The updated script retains all the drama and amplifies it, even adding a little extra in-battle dialogue to drive moments home. The Ivalice Chronicles also adds new voice acting, which elevates already potent scenes to marvelous heights. Ramza and Delita are obvious standouts, but I also loved the voice work for characters like Milleuda, Argath, and Barich, who all shine in their respective spotlight moments.

Because Final Fantasy Tactics is such a seminal work of its genre, its turn-based strategy is familiar if you've ever dabbled in this style of game. Each unit falls under a specific Job, and over time, mastering those Jobs allows you to permanently unlock abilities and talents, morphing each fighter into a singular soldier. One Squire I picked up early on was particularly apt at holding the line and defending my weaker mages and archers, so he quickly became my Knight. Another became an MVP in the second chapter, clearing groups of enemies in one fell cast of Fira. Ramza, of course, became a double-punching Ninja/Monk; I've played many tactics games, and whenever given the chance, I will always make the protagonist a bare-knuckle fighter.

One of my favorite parts of Final Fantasy Tactics, preserved so well here, is the map design itself. Each battle map spins like a diorama, set against a gradient void. While there are a few flat, sprawling fields, Tactics quickly introduces new elements to force the player to alter their approach. There were still several times I would have trouble lining up units, squares, and spells in particularly dense or vertical maps, even with the overhead camera.

Water can turn a bridge into a chokepoint, and giant walls create barriers where Dragoons can excel. In an early battle in Dorter, many players learn a lesson about how advantageous height can be, as one Archer will easily pick apart your entire squad if left unattended.

Several quality-of-life updates make The Ivalice Chronicles more approachable for newcomers, though. It was easier than ever to map out my job progression, look for specific items to buy, or even restart a battle if the first few turns went poorly. The new UI also makes it easy to glance and see who's moving next, or where a spell's delay will put its caster in the turn order. The menus can feel cumbersome at times though; it took a while to build up the muscle memory for getting to the Job screen, learning new abilities, then making sure they were part of my arsenal before a fight.

A broad swathe of combat maps and content to chew through are available, especially once the side stories start popping up later in the game. Final Fantasy Tactics carries a hefty hour count, but there's enough here to merit some time and care, and easily more than a dozen restarts. Multiple fights test your teambuilding, strategy, and individual tactics. These walls are intimidating, for sure, but they make for incredibly memorable fights I still love replaying. 

For The Ivalice Chronicles, Square Enix took a similar approach to what it did for Tactics Ogre Reborn: a smoothed, updated adaptation of the original pixel art. Lovers of crunchy pixels will probably want to play the original version here, which means missing out on the new script. For my own playthrough, I definitely noticed a few places where the smoothing and remastering blended out some of the character of certain areas. However, I still enjoyed the overall look of the game, especially when it came to character sprites and some of the larger monsters fought as the story progressed.

The strange concessions made for the remaster ripple out a bit, too. Long-time fans might have been hoping for an absolutely definitive edition, and this is mostly that. On the plus side, having multiple graphics options and script variations is great, and a good chunk of the bonus content – including one iconic protagonist –– is still present. But as someone hoping for a completely definitive version with all content, including the Dark Knight class and a certain sky pirate from Final Fantasy XII, I was a little disappointed to see those left on the cutting room floor.

One major upside is that Square Enix has included the sound novels, the first official localization of them to ever be released. These side stories, played out like an adventure game, are a great addition, and they're fascinating to finally tear through for the first time.

There are so, so many games coming out every year, and no real ruling body for determining a "gaming canon" of any sort. So in lieu of that, I'll just say Final Fantasy Tactics was, and remains, an essential work. It's the type of game that, played with fresh eyes nowadays, would surprise newcomers with how engrossing its Job system is, how expressive the character sprites and music are, how gorgeous the dioramic battle maps can be, and just how moving its story can be. Time has passed, but Tactics never got old.