Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: PS4, PS5, Switch 2, PC
Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles – Review
For most people, the Final Fantasy series brings to mind characters like Cloud Strife and Sephiroth. The darker, more mature tone of modern Final Fantasy games has been so dominant that it’s easy to forget the series’ more light-hearted roots. Spin-off title Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles harkens back to what the series was like three decades ago. How well does this remastered version of the beloved 1997 PS1 Classic hold up in 2025?
Story
The story of The Ivalice Chronicles is that of a bitter struggle for power between two former childhood friends: noble-born Ramza Beoulve and commoner Delita Heiral. The kingdom of Ivalice is still recovering from the brutal Fifty Years’ War, with rival noble factions vying for the throne. History has recorded Delita as a war hero, while Ramza is instead remembered as a traitor and a criminal. As the story unfolds -through the lens of a historian, no less- we learn that the truth is quite different, with Ramza playing a far greater and different role than remembered. As the fighting escalates around him, Ramza gradually awakens to the injustices of the system he was born into, abandoning his noble privileges to fight for what he feels is right. The narrative is full of twists, betrayals and moral ambiguity, blending the high fantasy elements the series is known for with political tragedy. Ramza in particular is a surprisingly complex protagonist, torn between loyalty to his heritage and his sense of justice.
Graphics
Unlike prior remakes like Live a Live and Dragon Quest III, Square Enix opted not to use their distinct HD-2D art style for The Ivalice Chronicles. The visuals were still overhauled, but instead in a much more subtle way, resulting in an updated, smoothed version of the pixel art from three decades ago. The game preserves the isometric diorama-like look of the original. Maps are small but detailed, and character sprites retain their charm, while monsters and special effects have been sharpened. Lighting in particular is fantastic here, with sunbeams beautifully beaming through windows, adding warm flair to the scenes. The Ivalice Chronicles benefits from a bump in resolution as well, although 2D character portraits haven’t entirely survived their upscale unscathed, showing some artifacting and jagged edges. If you’re a purist and don’t care about these fancy enhancements, you can instead play the game in Classic Mode, reverting to the old school pixels of yesteryear. Regardless of which visual mode you choose, The Ivalice Chronicles runs smooth as butter, and we didn’t run into any technical issues during our time with the game.
Sound
Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata’s iconic soundtrack has been left virtually untouched for this new version of The Ivalice Chronicles, with no new arrangements. That’s not a bad thing, however, given that this is one of the best soundtracks in RPG history. Where The Ivalice Chronicles’ soundscape differs from the original release is the addition of full voice acting, both in English and in Japanese. We sampled both, and there is no clear winner here, with the “right” language choice being a matter of personal preference. We’d say the Japanese performances are more intense compared to the subdued English voices. Either way, the addition of voices adds life to the game’s world. Sound effects are crisp and impactful, with UI and menu sounds retaining their classic charm.
Gameplay
The core of The Ivalice Chronicles’ gameplay is formed by turn-based tactical battles, played on isometric grid maps. Players take control of small parties of 4-6 units and face off against 8-10 enemies, making every unit decision matter. Positioning is important, with elevation, terrain and even which direction a unit faces at the end of a turn affecting the outcome of a battle, since back and side attacks do more damage. Before combat starts, there is a pre-battle phase where you choose which units to deploy and position them directly on the map. In this same setup phase, units can also change jobs, swap gear and learn new abilities. Your squad is formed by the named characters that play an important role in the story, supplemented with generic units. Permadeath is an element here: if you don’t revive a fallen unit within three turns, they are removed from your roster. This makes for a level of tension when it comes to named characters, but the impact of this is less palpable for generic units, who inevitably feel more expendable.
If turn-based battles are The Ivalice Chronicles’ heart, then the game’s backbone is its robust job system. Every one of your units belongs to a specific job class, including Knights, Monks, Black Mages, Thieves, and Samurai, to name a few. Over time, units will gain Job Points, which can be used to unlock new abilities. Abilities can subsequently be mixed and matched across jobs, so you might field a Ninja/Monk hybrid or a Knight who also casts White Magic. This opens up all sorts of combinations, encouraging you to experiment with different strategies. Combined with the three available difficulty levels, The Ivalice Chronicles is a highly replayable title, far outlasting the 50-ish hours that a single playthrough will take most players. Even so, a run provides quite the hefty challenge, with many of the narrative maps acting throwing serious difficulty spikes at you. Taking on The Ivalice Chronicles isn’t for the faint of heart, and you’ll often find yourself needing to grind to avoid ending up underlevelled against late-game opponents.
Square Enix’ remasters are typically either dramatic overhauls, like Romancing SaGa 2 and Trials of Mana, or they try to preserve the experience of the original release, like Chrono Cross and SaGa Frontier 2. The Ivalice Chronicles firmly falls in the latter category, with the game receiving a handful of modern QoL enhancements but otherwise retaining the game’s original essence. Those enhancements include things like move resets before finalizing your turn, autosaves and instant battle retries, with the biggest enhancement perhaps being a new top-down camera view, which gives you a much clearer overview of the battle. The fast-forward option we’ve come to know and love from previous Square Enix remasters makes its return here. Given that The Ivalice Chronicles remains a grind-heavy game, this is a welcome inclusion. Anyone looking for an even more authentic experience can opt to play the game in Classic Mode instead, which removes the newer QoL features. The 2025 release of The Ivalice Chronicles falls just short of being the game’s definitive version, with the PSP-exclusive War of the Lions content being omitted. Even then though, this is a fantastic version of an excellent game.
Conclusion
Three decades on, The Ivalice Chronicles reaffirms its reputation as a stone-cold classic. The area where the game mostly shows its age -being grindy- has mostly been alleviated by the implementation of the new fast-forward QoL enhancement. There are a handful of things we could’ve wished for, like crisper character portraits and the inclusion of the PSP-exclusive content, but as a whole, this remaster provides a fantastic way to bring an essential RPG to a modern audience.
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