Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles
A party of knights and mages crosses 3D battlefields filled with 2D sprite characters, and each skirmish turns on who reaches whom first. The Ivalice Chronicles is a turn-based tactical RPG built around that puzzle, with a war story told from the ground level and Ramza Beoulve at its centre.
It is the 2025 edition of the 1997 PlayStation game Final Fantasy Tactics, rebuilt for PC and current consoles with improved graphics and a set of modern conveniences.
Top 3 Reasons to Play
- A war story about who writes the record - The plot is political rather than heroic: it asks who gets to rule and who gets to write the history that follows. Yasumi Matsuno, credited for the original script and scenario, returned for this edition. Also back are the sound novels that the original release cut outside Japan; they are earned as rewards and read from the Brave Story menu.
- A roster that is not limited to people - Ramza's party can grow to 50 units, and not all of them need to be human. Chocobos and other creatures can be tamed and taken into battle, and tamed monsters can produce eggs that count toward the roster as well.
- Quality-of-life options in the Enhanced version - Holding a button speeds up battle animations, the movement phase can be redone, and random encounters on the world map can be declined. Players can also store up to three sets of jobs, gear and abilities for quick swaps between stages, and autosaves and manual saves live in separate tabs.
Story and Lore
Defeat in the Fifty Years' War against Ordallia is barely a year old when the king dies and a two-year-old inherits the crown. Whoever becomes regent rules in practice, and two decorated war leaders want the post: Duke Goltanna, who fights under the Black Lion, and Duke Larg, the White Lion. The royal crest is a two-headed lion, and each duke's standard takes one of its heads, which gives the coming conflict its name, the War of the Lions.
Beneath the dynastic quarrel sits an older layer of belief. The Church of Glabados heads the dominant faith in the kingdom, follows the teachings of Saint Ajora and has designs of its own on how the war ends. Church legend tells of the Zodiac Braves and twelve Zodiac Stones, relics of a material called auracite that can make a person's desires real. Demons known as the Lucavi are tied to those stones, and the later chapters turn on what they want.
The telling itself is part of the lore. The narrative is framed as a historical reconstruction by a later scholar of the Durai family, drawn from papers written by his ancestor Orran, and its stated aim is to restore an unrecorded figure to a history the Church edited.
Gameplay and Mechanics
Battles run square by square on 3D maps. Every unit has a Charge Time gauge that fills at a rate set by its speed, and the unit acts once the gauge reaches 100. Spells with a chant resolve after a delay, which gives a target time to walk out of range. Terrain shapes plans too: Square Enix describes the geomancer as a job that can use the environment against enemies.
Experience raises a unit's base level, while Job Points raise the level of whatever job it is currently performing and pay for that job's abilities.
Two stats, Bravery and Faith, run from 0 to 100 and matter most to players who like to optimise.
- Bravery sets how often reaction abilities trigger and scales damage from knight swords, katanas and bare hands. Let it fall into single digits and the unit turns into a chicken and may desert.
- Faith scales spell damage and the odds that spell effects land, for casters and targets alike, which is why front-line fighters tend to do better with a low value. Above 95, a unit may leave the party.
Zodiac signs add one more layer. The pairing between an attacker's sign and a target's sign changes how effective attacks are, and since patch 1.5.0 the status screen displays a unit's sign and its compatibility.
The Enhanced version offers three difficulty settings that can be switched whenever the party is out of battle. Squire suits a story-first run, Knight is the standard setting, which the director described as balanced slightly below the original game's challenge, and Tactician is the one for tougher fights. The story is identical on all three.
Away from the main plot, taverns hand out errands from Chapter 2 onward: a unit is dispatched, and after a number of in-game days the team reports back to that city's tavern with the results. None of the errands can be missed. Poaching opens in Chapter 3, when the Thief's Poach support ability lets a unit that lands the final blow on a monster convert the carcass into an item, either a common one or a rarer variant. Once a campaign is cleared, New Game+ (added in version 1.5.0) carries unit levels and item data into a fresh run.
Characters and Factions
Ramza Beoulve is a knight apprentice at the Royal Military Akademy in Gariland, from a family that has produced military commanders for generations. Delita Heiral grew up in Eagrose, the Beoulve demesne, in a farming family. After the Black Death took his parents, Lord Barbaneth took in Delita and his sister, and at Barbaneth's request the Akademy admitted him despite his birth.
- Alma Beoulve: Ramza's younger full sister, who attends the Eagrose Preparatory Akademy and shares a mother with him rather than with their elder brothers Dycedarg and Zalbaag.
- Princess Ovelia Atkascha: one of the proposed heirs to the throne, adopted by the late King Ondoria III yet born to his predecessor Denamda IV.
- Agrias Oaks: a Lionsguard knight sent to Orbonne Monastery to protect Ovelia while tension between the dukes builds.
- Mustadio Bunansa: a machinist who carries a Zodiac Stone that a trading company wants for the power inside it.
- Count Cidolfus Orlandeau: nicknamed the Thunder God, he commands the Order of the Southern Sky and never lost a battle in the Fifty Years' War.
Power at the top belongs to two dukes. Goltanna rules Zeltennia and descends from Denamda II, the king behind the long war with Ordallia; Larg, liege lord of Gallionne, is the queen's brother and carries a reputation as the most powerful man in Ivalice. Below them, Argath Thadalfus is a knight apprentice in Marquis Elmdore's household whose family was ruined by that war, and his drive to restore the name leaves little room for other people. Orran Durai, a mage in the Southern Sky, was taken into House Orlandeau as a boy and later adopted by Baron Durai on the count's recommendation.
- Order of the Northern Sky: the knightly order commanded by House Beoulve, where Ramza and Delita start out.
- Order of the Southern Sky: Orlandeau's command, which fought Ordallia beside the Northern Sky and backs Goltanna against Larg.
- Corpse Brigade: common-born soldiers who turned on the nobility over their treatment after the war, led by Wiegraf Folles.
- Church of Glabados: keeper of Saint Ajora's legacy, with the Knights Templar as its military arm under Folmarv Tengille.
In the English voice cast, Joe Pitts voices Ramza, with Gregg Lowe as Delita, Hannah Melbourn as Agrias and Timothy Watson as Orlandeau.
Editions
Each edition contains two playable versions of the game. The Enhanced version rebuilds the presentation: its visuals were re-tuned for modern monitors (the original rendered at 256 × 240 for CRT screens), the interface is new, and the script was reworked for performance, and battle dialogue that earlier releases cut has been added. The Classic version keeps the original look and gameplay, swaps in the War of the Lions translation and adds auto save.
- Standard Edition.
- Deluxe Edition: adds the Akademy Blade (a small speed boost), Akademy Beret (blocks the Charmed status), Akademy Tunic (grants Shell), Ring of Aptitude (raises JP earned), ten Phoenix Downs and black and red equipment colours for Ramza. An internet connection is needed to receive the items, which are claimed from the Options menu once a new game has begun; a few can also be found through normal play.
- Collector's Edition: a physical box that was offered through the Square Enix Store, containing the game, an art box, an Akademy-outfit Ramza figure, Outlying Church pop-up art, acrylic Zodiac Stone magnets, Chocobo mini plushies and art sheets.