While we were at Pax West 2025, we got the opportunity to check out a snippet of Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles. This is a remaster that aims to keep the original experience as intact as possible, but with some nice additional features.
Starting Ivalice Chronicles
Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles begins with a narrator discussing two opposing forces. One seeking to help the world and one seeking to destroy it. The interesting thing is that the villain of the story is Ramza in the narration. Ramza is the main character and the focal point of the story in Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles.
The first part of the game I got to try is essentially the tutorial of the game. Ramza is guarding a princess named Ovelia. Soon, a brigade of soldiers come looking to kidnap Ovelia, and you are hired to protect her from being kidnapped. As you take control of Ramza and learn how to attack and use skills, the rest of the units on the battlefield are automated.
Combat
Combat in Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles hasn’t changed since the original’s inception. That said, it doesn’t need to. Combat is on a large grid, and each unit takes up a space. Your unit’s attack range is based on the weapon they have equipped and the class they are assigned to. You can also have skills that have a different range based on the specific skill you can use. You can place certain units on auto if you need to, or take control of all units when it is their turn.
It is important to know the range and movement of the enemy soldiers. They can move and use skills on their turn, and it is generally smarter for you to get the first hit. If you don’t have the range to get a first attack, then put yourself just outside of their range so you don’t get attacked by them first. If they come close but not close enough to attack you, then you just put yourself in a good position to try and get behind them or to the side of them.
If you initiate an attack from their side or back, they are less likely to parry it. They will also be more likely to get hit by a high roll of your weapon. If you have mages or characters that can do some AoE damage, then funneling them into a location is smart. Manipulate your enemy based on where you put your troops and understanding the enemy’s range.
Back To The Beginning
The tutorial battle ends with Princess Ovelia getting kidnapped by someone Ramza recognizes as a friend of his, Delita. That is when the narrative goes back in time to Ramza and Delita working as soldiers in training. They are fighting a mercenary group, and you have the first real fight of the game. This fight has you protecting the city from these mercenaries. Once you win this fight, the demo ends. However, that wasn’t the end of my time playing the game.
Square Enix let us pick up a save spot further in the game, which takes us right back to the current setting of running after Delita, who has kidnapped the princess. We learn a new vital truth, though. The old soldier we were traveling with, named Gaffgarion, is actually a conspirator with the brother of Ovelia and orchestrated a kidnapping that got foiled by Delita kidnapping the princess. Now Ramza has to choose to protect Ovelia or turn her over to Gaffgarion. He decided to stay on the side of the princess. Now, combat takes a new approach, we have guest characters.
These guest characters are Delita and Ovelia. Delita will do automatic movements and attacks, and he will be focused on defeating enemy soldiers that are nearby him. Ovelia is a guest character who will focus on running away and even buffing herself with spells to make her faster and harder to hit. Gaffgarion and his men will generally shoeline themselves at the princess to take her out. I planned to get my tanky characters in front of Ovelia and move my healer in between my front line and Delita.
This was a pretty solid strategy, especially since I got a summoner in my team that was my ace. They could use summons to attack a large range of tiles, dealing out significant damage to all in their range. As the soldiers were focused on Ramza and Agrias, my mages were able to do some major damage to the enemies funneling towards my tanks. Delita only needed a single heal from my white mage but he took down all the soldiers coming after him.
A New Voice
Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles has added voices to these characters in the world. The cutscenes all have dramatic voice lines, and they are solidly acted. The part I wasn’t expecting, though, is that there is dialogue in battle that gets voiced too. I was expecting only the actual cutscenes in the story to get voiced, so color me green and call me a pickle. I loved these voiced lines, and they add a lot of drama to this already dramatic narrative. I am so excited to hear more of this amazing story get voiced. This is probably my most excited part about revisiting the game when it comes out on September 30th, 2025.
Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles launches on September 30th, 2025, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
