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Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles offers a challenging, immersive, and spirited reinvention of the 1997 original. A slick user experience and numerous quality-of-life improvements allow the timeless turn-based tactical combat and gripping high-fantasy narrative to take centre stage. Exceptional voice acting and powerful dialogue add additional layers of depth and atmosphere.
Releasing on September 30 for PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, these improvements endow the latest iteration of Final Fantasy Tactics with broad appeal. This is accommodated by the ‘classic’ and ‘enhanced’ game modes. The former offers a purist recreation of 2007’s Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions for the PSP, complete with modern graphics, while the latter boasts a wide range of modern conveniences.
Blood is the price of progress
Final Fantasy Tactics’ granular, turn-based combat has never felt smoother or better presented. ‘Enhanced’ mode, which I strongly recommend, boasts a wide range of quality-of-life improvements, including a robust autosave feature, adjustable game difficulty, the ability to speed up battles, and the option for a bird’s eye tactical view.
These innovations ensure that the diamond that is Final Fantasy Tactics’ combat is polished to a mirror shine. The rock-solid fundamentals of the 1997 original remain unchanged, and with good reason.
In Final Fantasy Tactics, you take turns ordering a squad of characters around a grid, fighting a small team of opponents. Once per turn, you may move and take a single action. Your list of actions is drawn from whichever one of the game’s numerous jobs your character has equipped, as well as one secondary job assigned through a slick customisation menu.
Your characters can be deeply customised, however, thanks to the job points system. Perform actions in combat and you’ll acquire job points. Spend these to unlock new abilities that you can equip via the secondary job, as well as additional slots for reactions and extra buffs.
However, there’s a twist. Should a character fall in battle and fail to be resurrected in time, they will die permanently. This adds a powerful weight to every decision made on the battlefield, asking you what (or whom) you’re willing to sacrifice to achieve your goals.
This system combines the artful unit placement and sticky permadeath of XCOM: Enemy Unknown with the deep character customisation of the likes of Bravely Default. This confluence gives Final Fantasy Tactics’s combat system a timeless appeal, born of systems that have stood the test of time.
Churls, milksops, and blackguards
This sense of timelessness is echoed throughout Final Fantasy Tactics’ storytelling. The anachronistic, Shakespearean quality of the 1997 original’s fierce dialogue is reinforced by stellar voice acting in ‘enhanced’ mode (though purists may still enjoy the game without it in ‘classic’ mode, should they choose).
Joe Pitts’ performance as the idealistic, blue-blooded protagonist Ramza is particularly impressive, as is Hannah Melbourn’s portrayal of the righteous and gallant Lady Agrias. That said, every vocal performance, including incidental voice lines for nameless soldiers, is steeped in theatrical gravitas worthy of Final Fantasy Tactics’ operatic high-fantasy tale.
Our tale centres on the relationship between two young men: Ramza and Delita. The former, a highborn, must reconcile the expectations of his well-placed noble family against his moral scruples and desire to do good in the world. Conversely, Delita, Ramza’s childhood friend, is lowborn, seeking to make the most of his position while, similarly, staying true to his own principles.
This conflict plays out against an intense geopolitical backdrop, where nations, dukes, and clergy scheme against one another to take power, while the economically gutted, post-war nation of Ivalice continues to suffer due to widespread deprivation and poverty.
18 years later, Final Fantasy Tactics’ main storyline retains its political bite. Themes of economic collapse, abuse of power, and ruthless geopolitical conflict remain pertinent as ever amid the political turmoil of 2025, perhaps even more so than they were in 1997.
What’s more, the entire tale is couched in flowery, anachronistic language. Much to my relief, the developers at Square Enix’s Creative Business Unit III opted to preserve what some might regard as purple prose. The flowery, pseudo-medieval language gives Final Fantasy Tactics a distinctive voice.
This allows Final Fantasy Tactics’ emotionally charged dialogue to gather additional momentum. In a fraught scene towards the end of chapter one, Delita, responding to accusations that he’d gone too far in pursuit of his principles, responds: “If you feel wronged, blame yourself or the Father.” The heartbreaking dispassion of Gregg Lowe’s performance in just this single line elevated the scene to new heights – it gave me chills.
A marriage of convenience
Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles manages to skillfully negotiate its past and present, offering the most accessible iteration of Final Fantasy Tactics yet to grace a screen.
However, by opting to stay true to the original formula, Creative Business Unit III has limited the game’s capacity and scope. For instance, while the central combat system is granular, deep, and rewarding, the pacing of the 1997 original necessitates a grindy experience, where players must take on numerous optional battles to keep their squad strong enough to stand a chance in story missions.
Even on the easiest game mode available in “enhanced” mode asks you to go out of your way to level up your soldiers and their respective jobs. Those who adore the 1997 original will likely see this as a feature, rather than a problem. Those looking for additional excuses to engage with Final Fantasy Tactics’ thoughtful, if rather aged, systems will find plenty.
However, the intense and demanding nature of Final Fantasy Tactics may well induce burnout in those less familiar or comfortable with this more anachronistic approach to pacing.
Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles is a very specific beast. It unreservedly and unapologetically offers a very specific set of experiences which, while expertly reconstructed, are far from universal in their appeal.
That said, if you are a fan of the original or even remotely curious about what this titan of the RPG landscape has to offer, then Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles is well worth a look. While the title’s ironclad commitment to its earlier iterations offers an unerringly distinctive experience, those seeking to venture into the land of Ivalice will have to reckon with the pitfalls of the past as well as its glories.
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