| FINAL FANTASY TACTICS - The Ivalice Chronicles | |||
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| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Review Overview
What is Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles?
FINAL FANTASY TACTICS - The Ivalice Chronicles is the remaster of the 1997 tactical role-playing game of the same name. The Ivalice Chronicles retains the original’s isometric, grid-based battle system, and one of its standout features is its job system, which allows characters to adopt various classes such as Knight, Black Mage, and Thief, and more, each with different abilities and progression paths. The remaster introduces two modes: Classic and Enhanced. The former is a faithful recreation of the original experience with HD rendering of the classic visuals, while the latter is, true to its name, an enhanced version featuring fully-voiced dialogue, a tweaked script, and a slew of quality-of-life improvements.
In Ivalice, during a period of political turmoil following the death of the king, two warring factions—the Black Lion led by Prince Goltana and the White Lion led by Prince Larg—vie for control of the kingdom, as the heir to the throne is still an infant. This led to the Lion War. Players follow Ramza Beoulve, a young noble who becomes entangled in the conflict and uncovers deeper conspiracies involving the Glabados Church and magical artifacts known as the Zodiac Stones.
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles’s gameplay and story.
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles features:
⚫︎ Tactical Strategy Battles
⚫︎ An Intriguing Story
⚫︎ Charming Graphics
⚫︎ The Choice Between Enhanced and Classic
⚫︎ Customizable Job System
⚫︎ Full Voice Acting
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 Xbox |
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 Switch 2 |
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| $49.99 | ||||||||
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Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 A Fascinating and Classic Story Emotional Voice Acting Flexible Job System Engaging Combat |
Some Sound Issues Could Use A Few More QoL Improvements |
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Overall Score - 94/100
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles is a well-done modern remake for a compelling story that has withstood the test of time, complete with an extraordinary cast of characters, and engaging gameplay. It’s no wonder it has been hailed as one of the most interesting Final Fantasy games to date, and its modern reimagining wholly improves on everything, making the game even more stellar than it already is. There could be a few more tweaks, but one thing’s for sure—the game is already superb.
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Story - 10/10
Final Fantasy Tactics’ story is intriguing, compelling, and most of all, relatable—the injustices of Ramza’s world are not far from what is experienced in our own, and those similarities make the heart grow fonder of it. There are plenty of memorable characters, and Ramza himself is a captivating protagonist, whose growth throughout the story is awe-inspiring. The twists and turns of the story as Ramza maneuvers his broken world really tugs at the heartstrings, surely a story that will set in your mind even after you put the game down. It’s an experience that stays.
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Gameplay - 9/10
Its expansive and engaging gameplay is one of the things that make Final Fantasy Tactics stand out. It is essentially the foundation of all tactical RPGs out there, and The Ivalice Chronicles takes it up a notch and adds a modern flair to it. Customization options are a dime a dozen, allowing for all sorts of different combinations to make your units more fit to your style or to what is needed. It could have benefitted from a few more quality of life features such as a dialogue log, but it’s not painfully frustrating.
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Visuals - 9/10
Playing the Enhanced version, the clean pixel-style of graphics are charming and easy on the eyes. It’s not incredibly detailed, but it doesn’t have to be—it adds to its nostalgic charm. Of course, not to be beat by the Classic version as well, whose HD-remastered sprites offer a glimpse into the past, fully rendered for the modern day. The animated cutscenes are also incredibly well-done, and it ran smooth like butter on the PlayStation 5.
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Audio - 9/10
Its music score all scream classic Final Fantasy, and are simply pleasant to the ears. Sound design in battles is well-done, with crisp and immersive sound effects. The full-voice acting really gives the characters more depth, and they’re all done phenomenally. Although, there are some times where the audio would stutter all of a sudden while idle in the PlayStation version, and though it’s not game-breaking, it was a bit annoying especially because it happened more than just once.
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Value for Money - 10/10
For $50, you’ve got the whole package—a riveting story, memorable characters, a stellar soundtrack, fun gameplay mechanics, and it even has immense replayability in the form of the countless combinations players can do with the job system.
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Review: A Classic At Its Best Form
The Final Fantasy series is a franchise close to my heart. My favorite Final Fantasy of all time is IX, and I’ve played everything following the 9th main line installment at least once in my life (except the PSP ones, but I digress). Due to several reasons, I’ve never been able to step into the world of Final Fantasy Tactics…until now.
Even without playing the game all those years ago, I am at least knowledgeable about how loved the game was (is) and that it still continues to inspire gamers all over the world, old and new. As they said in their special stage event at the recently concluded Tokyo Game Show 2025, it’s an experience that both veterans and newbies alike will thoroughly enjoy. And holy heck, they were right.
It’s no wonder that while it’s not one of the mainstream numbered Final Fantasies, it’s evident as to why this game has such a stellar reputation, and has cemented its mark into dozens of gamers around the world.
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles is set in the land of Ivalice during a period of political turmoil. Two of the most powerful factions in the kingdom, the Black Lion and the White Lion, aimed for the throne, thus launching the world into the War of the Lions. Players take on the role of protagonist Ramza Beoulve, the third son of the esteemed military family House Beoulve, whose worldview is shattered and disillusioned when he discovers the horrific truth of the world he lives in—lies told right in front of his very eyes, betrayals amok, and conspiracies coming to fruition.
With a new outlook on life and a burning sense of justice, he takes on the monumental task of attempting to end the dark machinations that run behind the scenes—once and for all. However, this admirable quest of his also leads him to open up wounds of the past, particularly with his childhood friend and brother-in-arms, Delita Heiral, who he encounters in his journey.
No-Frills Tactics and Strategy
Final Fantasy Tactics employs tactical combat where players must strategically position their units on a tiled 3D battlefield and battle groups of enemies. Simple in theory, but it gets harder as you go on through the story. It’s not simply just running up to the opponent and smacking them clean in the face with a sword—you’d need to take note of the range of your characters, the terrain, the elevation levels, even things such as hidden traps underneath. Taking advantage of these strengths and using them against the weaknesses of the enemies is the key to victory.
Units are not locked to one singular class, and that’s actually one of my most favorite parts of the game. The fully customizable and flexible job system is superbly fun to play around with. Outside of combat, your recruited characters can be freely assigned to any of the classic job classes in Final Fantasy, such as the Knight, the White Mage, the Black Mage, Thief, Archer, and more, provided that the unit has learned the job from leveling up other basic jobs.
And even when they’re given one Job, there is practically no limit to what your units can do—if you want a sword-wielding Black Mage, or a beefed up Knight with White Mage skills, by all means, go ahead (after, of course, unlocking the prerequisite abilities, that is). Skills and abilities can be mixed and matched to match the playstyle you want for that character. It’s just a matter of grinding up the job points needed or picking them up from battle, which can be quite tedious—but hey, it’s all worth it.
In all honesty, tactical RPGs are hardly my forte, but Final Fantasy Tactics was strangely right up my alley. While veterans will surely have a field day with the gameplay, newbies or casual gamers may find themselves just as entranced and engaged with the combat portion of the game as well.
Thank God for The Upgrades
Among the other things that should be praised about the game and its gameplay is the quality of life updates, such as the fast-forward button, the option for a bird’s eye view when moving units in combat, a cleaner UI, and autosave. Given that the original was a release all the way back in 1997 and most of these things weren’t readily available features, slapping them on the modern rerelease was a good decision.
Battles in tactical RPGs aren’t completed as easily as they do in various turn-based games or action-RPG games—since they’re strategic, they require careful planning and meticulous preparation sometimes, especially for bosses. Having autosave on and the option to fast-forward scenes is a godsend. The game has no option to undo—really nailing in the "your actions have consequences" there—so replaying battles becomes much easier with these added improvements.
However, one minor gripe I have with it is that there’s no live dialogue log during cutscenes and battles, and for a game which is mainly narrative-driven, every detail counts no matter how minute it may seem. Sometimes, the slip of a finger can accidentally skip over some important dialogue, and you’re helpless to stop it because—well, it just ended.
Immensely Compelling Story
Don’t let its rather cute style of pixel art that looks like it comes from a farming sim—Final Fantasy Tactics’ main story is a tale as old as time itself, and even after three decades since the original’s release, it’s no wonder that it holds true. It’s compelling, and daresay relatable with today’s society. It tackles politics, social stratification, the blending of church and state in national affairs, corruption of the upper echelons of society—all very familiar topics, ones that have been seen throughout history time and time again, until the present.
I suppose that’s what makes it so emotional and heart-wrenching is that their world is an eerie mirror to ours, pulling on the heartstrings for how…real it seems. We tend to like things that are relatable, because it hits you right in the feels. As you journey on with Ramza and his ragtag crew, finding answers to his queries and to try and fix the errors of the world, you’ll find yourself realizing a lot more than you think. A timely release, indeed.
Granted, politics and power struggles sound cliche on the surface as the centerpoint of a game’s plot, but hear me out—Final Fantasy Tactics makes it work. So much so that it’ll capture your attention from the very beginning of the story. Whereas most games have Chapter 1 or the Prologue as some sort of light-hearted introduction chapter, this game said "Nope!" and practically throws you into the middle of it all like a mother bird kicking off their children so that they can deal with learning how to fly by themselves.
It makes you want to stay through up until the end, to search for those answers yourself and to see how everything plays out. It’s linear, yes, but sometimes, we just have to play games that want to tell us a story—and Final Fantasy Tactics does the storytelling immensely well. In terms of storytelling, it’s also an added plus that the English script feels so elegant and novel-like, the wordings so much unlike what we would be used to in our modern world. But that’s an extra charm to it—it adds to the whole fantasy genre of things, making you feel like you’re reading an interactive novel.
With that said, their worldbuilding is so well-done that sometimes, it feels like you’ve bitten more than we can chew, more information than your brain can process at one time (I’m guilty). Don’t worry, The Ivalice Chronicles has got you covered! I personally appreciated the added "State of the Realm" portion in the Chronicles menu. It was first seen in Final Fantasy XVI (whose story was also quite compelling), and I loved that they added it into FF Tactics as well. No more confusion, just more lore, all wrapped up in one neat package for your perusal.
Memorable, Well-Written Characters
Adding to that, what drives a story forward is its characters, and Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles made sure to stuff each and every main story character into your brain with how unforgettable they are. They’re in no way flat or uninteresting—they’re complex, they’re emotional, they’re real, and you can either love them to bits or hate them with every fiber of your being. They have motivations deeply ingrained into their stories, their lives, and even if some end up leaning towards the darker side of things, you can’t exactly fault them for being such—they have reasons for it.
It’s rather difficult to talk about the characters in depth without spoiling, but it is clear that each of the characters, no matter how minor they seemed, had detail and care put into them.
Phenomenal Japanese Voice Acting
I’d like to preface this section of the review that my playthrough was entirely done in Japanese voices, and I have yet to switch on over to the English dub. With that said, the voice acting here is fantastic. From the main characters like Ramza, Delita, Wiegraf, to even minor characters like Milleuda and Tietra—heck, even your non-main party members are all voiced in various ways. It makes the whole thing feel so much more alive and immersive to the story.
In connection to the story, everything just feels more full and fascinating with how the characters deliver their lines. Shinnosuke Tachibana really nails it in his portrayal of Ramza, and Kouki Uchiyama’s Delita is very much on par. Hiroyuki Yoshino as Argath is also immensely horrifying (in the best way possible—you’ll get it once you play and hear those lines). I personally had to set my controller down and sit back for a moment at a particular turning point in the story, just…stunned from all that. Their emotions were gushing out like waterfalls, lending themselves to the overall experience. And mind you, I was having these reflective moments as early as Chapter 1.
Is Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Worth It?
Worth Every Dollar, Every Penny
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles is worth every single penny and second you put into it. From its fascinating narrative to the twists and turns of it all, to the gameplay and the expansive job system, there’s a lot to like about the game.
Whether or not you’re entirely new to the game (as I was) or a nostalgia-seeking veteran who wants to relive their childhood days, Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles is a wonderful game to play, so much so that this would further make its mark on the new generation of gamers, just as it did almost thirty years ago.
| Steam |
PSN |
Xbox |
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| Switch 2 |
Switch
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| $49.99 | ||||||||
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Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles FAQ
Who is the protagonist of Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles?
The protagonist of the story is Ramza Beoulve, the third son of House Beoulve, who undergoes trials and tribulations on his journey to right the wrongs of his world.
Is there a demo for Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles?
No, there is no demo for the game on any of its platforms.
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Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Product Information
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| Title | Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles |
|---|---|
| Release Date | September 30, 2025 |
| Developer | Square Enix Creative Studio III |
| Publisher | Square Enix |
| Supported Platforms | Steam, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S |
| Genre | Tactical RPG, Adventure |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | ESRB T |
| Official Website | Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Official Website |
