Despite calling it sharing both a writer and a game world with two of my favorite games of the 00s (Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII), I never encountered Final Fantasy Tactics until 10 years after its original release. The game wasn’t officially released in Europe (where I live) until 2007. Despite this, I took to the game immediately and have held it close to my heart ever since.
Saying that, though, I’ve never actually completed it, something I thought about earlier this year. After I wrote that article, Square Enix announced a remake of Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles.
Check Out Part 1 of This Editorial Series
With it just being released, it feels like an appropriate time to revisit the previous version of FFT and talk about why I broke my own personal rules and pre-ordered the remake.
Prior to the announcement, I’d identified Final Fantasy Tactics as one of the 3 games from my youth that I really needed to get around to completing. The remaster knocked that idea down immediately.
One of my main rules is not to pre-order games until reviews are out, something which has kept me safe from things like the Cyberpunk debacle, yet I put down my money for the pre-order of FFT. What made me so excited?
To me, the remake looks beautiful
When we look at the idea of the games we love being revisited and improved, everyone has their own idea of what should be done. As more and more information about The Ivalice Chronicles came out, it became clear that the decisions Square Enix had made were surprisingly close to my unrealistic expectations, especially in the three aspects most important to me.
The Script
In a move that I wouldn’t have believed possible, due to their falling out during the making of Final Fantasy XII, Square Enix managed to patch up their relationship with Yasumi Matsuno, the original writer of FFT, and get him to handle the rewrite and translation. Matsumo has used the original PS1 script as his basis, not the PSP version, which I know wasn’t popular with anyone, but to me, I’m happy with a clean updated script which is true to the vision of the original author.
The Menu System
This could almost have been taken as a given, based on how gaming has moved on since the 90s, but the new in-battle menu system looks clear and understandable, with turn order and upcoming actions easily identifiable. While it looks like there will be general overall improvements, these are the aspects I’d have focused on
The Difficulty
The original FFT was HARD. Now I know the way people play games has changed since the 90s and games have got easier overall, but I was still expecting the gameplay in the remake to remain the same; however, The Ivalice Chronicles will introduce 3 difficulties: Squire, Knight, and Tactician.
The new levels of difficulty
Squire is for people who want to just progress the story, Knight will be for people like me who want a bit of a challenge, and Tactician will be for people who want to keep the brutal difficulty of the original in place.
That’s not to say other improvements aren’t welcome too. Being a retro gamer, I’d happily play through the whole thing with the graphics from the PS1 original, but still, the improved graphics look cosy and charming to me.
Everything Led to This
I appreciate the ability to save the game at any point, and I appreciate that every line is now voice-acted and the audio logs from the Japanese original have finally been translated to English and included, which should add extra depth to characters. However, I would be remiss if I pretended these weren’t added bonuses to me, and the clearer, easier to progress through game, being all I needed.
I ended up ordering the Switch version, even though I’m displeased that the physical release is just a code in a box. As I mentioned, FFT is a portable game to be fired up for periods of 10 or 20 minutes, with the story progression to be savoured away from noise.
Out of all the available formats, I think this is best suited to my modded Switch Lite, a device which I cherish. My hopes are that this will be my modern Game of the Year when RH polls the writing staff over Christmas, but even if it isn’t, this remake might be the motivation I need to finally beat the game.
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