A Tactical Recall
Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles is an enhanced version of the original PlayStation tactical JRPG based on the Final Fantasy series with some new graphical tweaks among other things and even the option to play the game how it was with still original graphics if that is something you wanted to do. The original game was met with high praise due to its story, strategic gameplay which was new at the time to the Final Fantasy series and many praised it alongside it being a Final Fantasy game, living in the UK meant that the game was alienated to me and at the time Final Fantasy VII was all I knew, we have had the psp port of war of the lions and the Game Boy Advance and a DS game also but these again were a new concept for someone such as myself, Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles however has been lovingly recreated with developers old and new and with some of the creative minds from Creative Studio III working on it you can be sure the team behind Final Fantasy XIV and XVI had some input and it shows and now I can finally play it.
The game follows Ramza who is the third son of House Beoulve who finds himself during a conflict where two opposing factions are competing for the throne of the Kingdom of Ivalice, the game remains pretty faithful to the original but not to be confused with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.
To begin with there are two game modes, the first allows you to play Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles which is the new updated game with new UI, scripts and voice acting added to the game and trophy support, or you can opt for the game how it was originally which while it does have some QOL features its purpose only serves to tell the story as it was originally, in this mode trophies too also are completely disabled.
Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles can does have an overbearing amount of things to dig into although much of this can be likely ignored, firstly there is an encyclopedia which is used as a reference to locations and characters of the world but bigger than that is a feature known as State of the Realm and is something we saw also in Final Fantasy XVI which includes references and details about this story and as it ever evolves it shows key moments to where characters have moved within the narrative.
Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles takes place on an overworld map of Ivalice, of course that consists of points and moving to points can initiate a battle or it will be a town where you can re-outfit your companions and also serve as hubs for story progression and side quests.
By moving onto a field where enemies exist a battle can take place if you choose to initiate, it is never known what you might come up against as I have entered battles and come away severely on the brink of death and then sometimes I have managed to best all enemies on the field. Although you may be able to dispatch a few enemies it is worth noting the difficulty of Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles remains consistent for a few reasons. For the most part your roster of characters while can be big you are restricted to the amount of characters you can send out on a map once battles take place, while you may only be able to send 5 to 6 units out you may be up against an army of 10 or 11 enemies at a time; also counter in the fact one of your player characters can be permanently removed from the game should they fall in battle and then lose several turns after if they are not revived, then tactics for sure are required to best your enemy. Even if a few enemies are only present at a time on the map, some can be incredibly strong, such as the wild chocobos early on and if you find yourself in a bad spot a chocobo can easily knock a character out in no time at all. While a character may be able to hold out on their own it is very easy to get overwhelmed and the game makes you focus on sticking together. This is mitigated by the fact that battles can be escaped from.
With that being said tactics remains an important factor in order to get through the game. Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles features a robust job system where you can align jobs to your characters in order to use their respective spells and abilities. Using attack and spells on enemies allows you to gain EXP and JP, the latter JP refers to Job Points which are used to learn certain new abilities related to your job, spells can be exceptionally strong and can even interact with the environment, enemy stats and turn orders can be seen as well as the damage is expected to be inflicted so while QOL features are here the game is still on the more difficult side.
The job system requires certain pre-requisites before later jobs are unlocked such as getting existing jobs to a certain level, there is a grind associated that can be alleviated by using the fast forward feature during battles, once you do it unlocks some broken combinations, maybe not to the level that a game such as the Disgaea games can perform but experimenting with secondary and passive abilities can certainly unlock some powerful potential.
Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles graphically looks great, from the hand drawn intro and portraits along with fantastic voice acting, the character models themselves look a bit washed, the environments however look splendid and while it a definite improvement the game does miss some extra content which was in the PSP version War of the Lions release such as the Dark Knight and Onion Knight, a shame as these jobs could have really made the game that much more engaging but the jobs we have all are great and there is a diverse amount of jobs to tinker around with.
Overall I enjoyed my time with Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles and while I might not have a deep love for it as someone who did grow up with the series, I can see why the game has such a following and desire for it, the music is fantastic as you would expect, on thing I can say is I do have a deep love for as much of the music I had heard in my many hours playing FFXIV and hearing a lot of the tracks there a lot which has instilled more of my passion for the game. If you are a newcomer or a veteran Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles is a fantastic re-imagining of a game that will be beloved by many with many new fans added to the roster.
A PlayStation 5 Review was provided by Square Enix. This article is featured on OpenCritic
