Blame yourself or Kazutoyo Maehiro — Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles

Hey, hey, hey! It's not every day one of your all-time favourite games gets a remake, and it's definitely not every day when that remake more or less replaces the original entirely. So, I got to play Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles early, and in a year PACKED with amazing games, this 27 year old game remains one of the most compelling and addictive experience I've had all year. It's just... so good.

Despite my lead time, I'm not done with the game (I'm working on completing another title I'm set to review). So, I thought I'd do something a little different. I reached out to my followers on Bluesky, FunFactor listeners, and a few other great communities for AMA-style questions, and y'all delivered. In this review-by-committee, I spill tea about the remastered graphics and difficulty tweaks, the script, and much-needed quality-of-life improvements, and all the ways the remaster surprised me and did more justice to one of my favourite games than I expected.

I'll have a full review at some point, but I can already tell you that, after several hours, I'm blown away by the care and attention this title received—especially since I haven't been too happy with some of Square Enix's remasters over the year. This is far closer in scope and quality to their brilliant Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake than Tactics Ogre: Reborn.

Buckle up, 'cause this is a big one.

Graphics and Visuals

Yep. When you load up the game you'll be presented with two options:

1. "Enhanced" mode, which is the fully remastered version with new graphics, voice acting, an updated script, and a TON of welcome QOL upgrades.
2. "Classic" mode, which is the PlayStation original with untouched pixel art graphics and the War of the Lions script.

It's not a toggle, though, like some other remasters. They're two distinct versions of the game and don't share save files.

"Classic" mode looks pretty nice, but there are exactly zero features for stuff like scanlines, CRT filters, etc. Hope you like your pixels sharp and jaggy.

Unfortunately, no. You can play the "Enhanced" version with the new graphics, voice acting, and all the QoL additions, or you can play the "Classic" version with its graphics intact and the War of the Lions script. There's no way to pick and choose features between the "Enhanced" and the "Classic." The only visual option you have is turning off the depth of field in "Enhanced" mode.

THAT SAID.

Y'all know I'm a big CRT and pixel art junkie, and I've been very critical of Square Enix's approach to upscaling sprites and backgrounds in remasters like Tactics Ogre, Chrono Cross, and Final Fantasy IX. I was originally dismayed that The Ivalice Chronicles took the same approach, but playing the game... I actually think it looks great. In addition to the upscaled textures/sprites, they've added some other graphical techniques that mimic watercolour paintings (like a soft, textured overlay, reminiscent of heavy canvas, and the nice soft bokeh effect that enhances the diorama aesthetic). The overall effect was a lot more pleasing than I'd expected. I was ready to blast the new graphics, and am surprised by how much I like them. Screenshots and compressed YouTube trailers don't do it justice. I agree with a lot of what Kotaku's Ethan Gach said about his time with the demo:

Which brings us to the real bread and butter of The Ivalice Chronicles: its graphics, writing, and voice acting. Here I was a bit surprised. Playing on PS5 merely feet away from a large display, the game looked better than I expected. Compared to the “smoothmaster” feel of some of the trailers online, the experience in person is more like looking at a watercolor. Some of the sprites and map textures do feel flattened in the move to HD, but it mostly works outside of the fonts which look too clean and crisp set against the game’s soft silhouettes and parchment paper dialogue boxes.

There are still hard pixel edges in the sprites and portraits, but they seem to understand that upscaling the sprites/tiles gives it a softer look, and instead of going for pixels and a CRT filter, they've leaned into that softness to produce something that feels intentional. It won't be for everyone, and it's not perfect or exactly to my tastes, but it's not the phoned-in upscale job they've used on many of their other remasters.

Difficulty and Quality of Life

Yes! Dorter's a sticking point for a lot of players–a point where the battles increase in difficulty significantly and act as a gate to ensure you really understand how the game works. That said, there are three difficulty modes: Knight, which mimics the original's difficulty level (though feels a bit easier when I compare it to the base game), Tactician, which offers more challenge, and Squire, which amounts to a story mode. You can change difficulty at any time with no penalty.

As mentioned above, I do think the default difficulty (Knight) is a bit easier than the OG game during the beginning. I'm not far enough to speak definitively about the end game, but I see no reason to think it's not going to be just as breakable as the PlayStation version. Some skill costs have been increased, so you might have to work a bit harder to get there, but it's possible.

I haven't played a lot of Tactician, so I can't say for sure, but it seems like it's more just rebalancing to make enemies hit harder and take less damage. Someone else might be able to give more details, though.

I haven't played much of the "Classic" mode outside of doing some comparisons of the early game, so I can't say for sure, but my understanding is that it's just the PlayStation original with the War of the Lions script injected, so there's probably no difference in difficulty, etc.

Yup! Fast forward is available in combat and significantly speeds up battles, especially while you're waiting for several enemies to move and act before you get your next turn. (More of the graphics above!)

Anyone who played the OG Final Fantasy Tactics remembers the Wiegraf battle. Occurring as you leave a town, it's easy to get into a situation where you've saved in the period between arriving in the town and triggering the fight when you're not strong enough–effectively soft locking you out of being able to complete the game.

The new QoL additions, like being able to return to the map after being defeated in a battle, and the option to lower the difficulty mode should be enough to ensure players no longer get soft locked at Wiegraf.

That being said, the review guide provided by Square Enix has a whole section on advice for the Wiegraf fight, so still expect a challenge.

Also, they pronounce it "wee-graph," which fucks me up.

Yup. It's toggleable during cut scenes. There's also a fast-forward function that lets you quickly scrub through cut scenes you've already watched. I couldn't figure out how to outright skip scenes, but I swear I did it the first time or two I played, so I think that's a me problem.

Good news and bad news.

Good news: Random battles on the map are now optional. You can still be hit by them when travelling through a map node, but you get the choice to initiate or just skip it. You can also manually initiate a battle at any (applicable) map node, so no more wandering the map trying to trigger battles, and no more accidentally getting blown out by a field of Red Chocobos.

Bad news: Outside of a skill you can earn early on and a piece of equipment, there are no JP boosters (or boosters of any other kind). Grinding will still be a big part of the game, I fear.

General Questions

Honestly, all the QoL features add up to make an already great game feel so much better. For instance: An aerial tactical view in combat and the ability to undo character movement reduce a ton of the frustration in the original when you couldn't quite tell if you were moving to the correct tile. Autosaves, character class/equipment load outs, being able to back out of any battle and return the map, a new job tree to help you plan out your character builds, etc. They're all much needed improvements that don't take away from the game's core challenge.

Nope, the dreadful original PlayStation localization is not included in any way. You can play the "Classic" mode with the original graphics and the War of the Lions translation (which I've always wanted to do, since I like it more than you seem to) or the "Enhanced" mode with an updated version of the War of the Lions script.

RIP Sweegy Woods. You were too good for this world.

The RNG was never bad.

Dude could definitely get it.

Dude could definitely get it.

He's been replaced by Ketchupio.

As far as I can tell, they're only available via the deluxe edition, and aren't available to purchase in game. I haven't completed the game, so maybe you can get them later. That said, the review guide provided to me by Square Enix was touting them as useful early-game items because they can't break, which suggests to me they're unique.

Not even Square Enix has the power to nerf TG Cid.

My experience with the original goes back to before its North American launch when a friend brought home a bootlegged Japanese copy of the game from Thailand. We played a ton of it, and he actually managed to beat the whole game despite not knowing any Japanese. I played the PlayStation version to death when it finally came out in English, and have replayed it several times, including War of the Lions on PSP.

Is it good? See below.

This is far and away the best version of the game—even if you don't care for the graphics in the remastered version. From all the QoL features listed above to the terrific voice acting and top-tier script, it's the definitive way to play the game.

It's particularly good for newcomers due to many of the rough edges and unnecessary friction points being addressed (no soft locks at Wiegraf, etc.), and the new script polishes up what remains one of the best and most accessible SRPGs ever made. So much more is explained via tutorials, appendices, etc. that new players will have a far easier time understanding what's going on and how to play the game than newcomers to the OG release.

War of the Lions was great for introducing a new script, but the additional content wasn't great, and the slowdown, which is still present in the phone version, I believe, really hampered the experience, and so I always preferred the OG. This version will replace both of those, unless...

I haven't been able to figure this out yet, but I'm SUPER curious. One of the coolest things about the Trials of Mana remake several years ago was that the officially translated version was a properly patched ROM file playable on original SNES hardware. I'd love to being able to play the "Classic" mode version on PlayStation hardware–it would possibly become my definitive version of the game. I'll likely try to play through "Classic" mode after I wrap up with "Enhanced" mode to compare the two versions more closely.

A great question to wrap things up. I've played a lot of games that followed Final Fantasy Tactics over the years since its release—from the Game Boy Advance spinoffs to Jeanne d'Arc, Disgaea, Tactics Ogre (Well, this one inspired FFT, but, you know), Wild Arms XF, a bunch of Fire Emblems and Advance Wars titles, Triangle Strategy, and on and on. Those all run the gamut from being very similar to Final Fantasy Tactics to being quite different, but nothing's ever come close to topping Final Fantasy Tactics. Creator Yasumi Matsuno's approach to story telling and plot just work so well to me, character designer Akihiko Yoshida's designs are timeless, and composer Hitoshi Sakimoto's score is absolutely perfect.

But, even when those three things combine to make something like Tactics Ogre and its various remakes, there isn't quite that same magic spark, and I think the fact Matsuno has felt compelled to make dramatic changes to Tactics Ogre with each remaster, while Final Fantasy Tactics is more or less exactly the same, says a lot. It's just on that knife's edge balance of complex and approachable, and I've been chasing that high ever since.

The closest I've come is Vagrant Story, which I played for the first time earlier this year, and it's a brilliant experience despite all its flaws. It's been interesting to play through Final Fantasy Tactics after Vagrant Story and to see how many elements are retained between the two games, despite major differences to their genre. (I also have a pet theory that Vagrant Story was originally a turn-based game with grid-based movement, but that's a tale for another day.)

Phew! Needless to say, I'm really impressed with Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, and so relieved that Square Enix and director Kazutoyo Maehiro understood the care this game deserved.

Got more questions? Want more specific impressions? Get on down to the comments section, and I'll keep answering questions as long as you're asking 'em.

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