Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is Creative Studio III’s attempt at bringing an all time classic to modern devices. Final Fantasy Tactics, back during its original release in the 90’s would be the pioneer to revolutionize Strategy Tiled based RPGs and place them on the map. While being far from the first, the genre of moving characters on tiles manually to reach their target was very niche, and often dismissed as a less than appealing form of gameplay. However, with good writing, fantastic usage of a class system, and incredible art direction, Final Fantasy Tactics paved the way for the genre to become one of the most celebrated and cherished games ever made. This Game truly has it all. People often try to suggest games like Dragon Age, or The Last of us as games that push the video game story narrative to their fullest in the gaming industry. However, I state the claim that people who say this have never experienced what the world of Ivalice has to offer them. Long term plotting behind the scenes, Complete utter betrayal, Nobles using people, and general exploitation of the less fortunate are just some of the common themes found throughout the game’s story. A Perfect comparison would be more along the lines of Game of Thrones, or the novel itself, George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire. Final Fantasy Tactics Itself, is a modern world masterpiece not just in storytelling, but also when pursuing the tinkerer’s dream of character builds and grinding. Please refer to our previous review on the source material as my opinion of the original game’s quality, as I strongly recommend reading it before this review. (PUT FINGAL’S FFT Review link HERE BRANDON)
So what needs to be asked is, how well does this modern iteration of the fabled legendary game hold on it’s own? These are large shoes to fill, if not, the largest. Join us in this Niche Gamer review as we explore the aftermath of the Fifty years war once more.
To those, such as myself, who have played the original, and War of the Lion’s Version on the PSP, will quickly realise a rather sizable amount of disappointment in a multitude of categories. Primarily, the biggest behemoth in the room will be the extensive amount of cut content that didn’t make it in from the PSP edition of the game. The dark knight class, Onion Knight class, as well as several optional joinable heroes such as Luso and Balthier are nowhere to be found present in this version of the game. The disappointment doesn’t stop there. All features that would involve multiplayer as well were given zero effort to find new life in this port. Granted, the game is primarily best for its solo experience, the removal of these features took out alot of value and unique experiences one could once have. If you consider the fact that Final Fantasy Tactics is now more portable than ever with the steam deck, and both nintendo switch 1 and 2 being as they are, the removal of multiplayer features feel more obtuse then they should. With the removal of these features, that also means the removal of the vast, and rather sizable amount of loot you could get from them, which also do not appear in this version of the game.
The Removal, or lack of effort to include them from the PSP update continues with also the exclusion of various story segments that were added. Some scenes which actually breathed life into various characters that needed to be fleshed out a bit more. This would also even include an extended story sequence involving optional characters such as Beowulf and his lover Reis, introducing an entirely new antagonist involving the both of them from their past. However, In The Ivalice Chronicles, that’s not to say they didn’t add more story and dialogue segments of their own. One particular addition is that certain choices you make will actually change the dialogue of certain events. Early on, a decision can be made, and, without spoiling it, will have a certain important character react far differently than if you were to make the other decision.
While the Ivalice Chronicles did certainly cut probably more content then any other game remade, the only real effort that was made was to add presentation value. Such things like voice acting, a refined UI, tweaks to various options, and Quality of life features to further smoothen the experience for players new and old. While a lot of these quality of life features are welcomed, some of them actually felt as if they caused more harm to the game’s health then they did good. One particular case of this is being able to completely opt out of random encounters. This, at face value can be seen as a boon indefensibly, but due to how effective it is, causes the Errand feature to feel rather redundant. While the Errand system itself felt very easily exploitable through the means of save consuming and avoiding random encounters entirely, this was their chance to make it work more tangibly. All you have to do is move Ramza around the map a certain amount of days to have your men return, and since random encounters can be ignored, there’s really no point to have the process at all. You literally just drag ramza around a map and get free rewards. A perfect solution to this was actually present all along in one of Square Enix’s other titles, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 1 and 2, where full battles must be completed instead to fulfill the errand requirements. Fast forwarding battle however, certainly is a fantastic addition through and through. Final Fantasy Tactics is a grind-heavy game and being able to speed up enemy and friendly turns will save players of all kinds a lot of time. However, hearing the sounds and voices sped up during it is rather jarring and feels disengaging.
Where This version of the game certainly does succeed however, are still the very new features they did promise. The voice acting is utterly phenomenal and adds a lot more life into battles with the random banter that not only human characters say, monsters as well. The sound of slaying a chocobo is utterly hilarious. Their death cry will remain on your mind and always fulfill you with a good laugh. During my time playing the game, any time I would slay one, it would follow with my wife in the background behind me laughing hysterically. The performances done by Ramza, Agrias, Mustadio and Argath especially deserve an accolade for their brilliant portrayals of their respective characters. Some cases, such as the voice behind Gaffgarion however, not bad, didn’t fit the character as much as I would hope. I expected something far more scruffy, where if the voices were in japanese, felt much more fitting for him.
While a lot of content was cut gameplay wise, nothing was given in return. No new classes were added, no new playable characters, nothing, nada, zilch. Yet for some reason, they decided to include the reworked dialogue from the PSP version, so it’s not like they had an excuse to not keep the content as they clearly were able to take at least that from it. The only content that’s new which was added can only be earned from pre-ordering the game or getting the digital deluxe edition, and even then its mostly early level equipment that won’t maintain their usefulness half way into the first chapter at best. This was especially upsetting as being a physical collector, who even went and bought the 300$ collector’s edition still didn’t get access to the digital deluxe version content, causing me to have to buy both for the complete new content experience. Some classes and JP values were reworked, which is possibly the biggest stretch of new content that can be made in the Ivalice Chronicle’s Defense. The Archer skill, Aim, is now much more consistent and useful, though not much else has been re-tuned. Rapha and Marach have been sort of buffed, but their improved kit’s still won’t make you think much differently of their viability.
Why did they decide to make Teleport cost 3000 Jp? The skill itself, even at its best use in certain areas, still fails in comparison to instead using Ignore Elevation from the Dragoon/lancer class, a far less expensive ability. This only suggests that the people involved are out of touch with the game, and meddled in areas that weren’t needed. This is further reinforced with the newly added difficulty system. The addition of making the game easier comes with no trade off, a recurring pox on the gaming industry. However the newly added tactician difficulty does add some fresh new challenges, such as the nerfing of the arithmetician class. However there is no reward to pursuing this difficulty, rendering it completely unnecessary other than for self imposing challenge fans.
Final Fantasy: The Ivalice Chronicles, While still being Final Fantasy Tactics as it’s one true saving grace, is not the release it deserved. Cut content galore with nothing meaningful to fulfill their absence is a major and inexcusable strike against the game. Nothing was added to fill this massive void other than presentational features and QoL. If you want a more fuller, intact version of the game, you are better off just playing the mobile version still available on the app store of your smartphone for less than half the price. Dark knight, Onion knight, Balthier, and Luso are still very much recruitible in them. The only stipulation is that the multiplayer features aren’t, however, they at least made the effort to include all the content and rewards to appear in the fur shop later on in the story. Final Fantasy Tactics is a legendary game, and possibly, if not the greatest SRPG to ever exist on the face of our realm. It’s sad to say, but it deserved way better than this. There is talk of a potential sequel that may happen upon this port’s success, but if Creative Studio III is behind it, then pray, I worry about its direction. Don’t blame me, blame Creative Studio III’s direction or god.
Final Score: 5
Console: Nintendo Switch 2
Pros:
It’s still Final Fantasy Tactics, a 10/10 game Fantastic Voice acting
Cons:
Next to none in terms of gameplay content was added
Extensive/Enormous cut content From PSP Update
Poor QoL implementation in certain areas
Over Bloated JP costs in some cases
Errand system poorly implemented with new QoL
Greedy/anti-consumer practice locking new content behind digital version
Lazy Difficulty system
