Square Enix Announces FINAL FANTASY TACTICS - The Ivalice Chronicles

[T0@st]

One of the greatest games in the entire FINAL FANTASY series is back! FINAL FANTASY TACTICS - The Ivalice Chronicles releases September 30th for PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. This enhanced version has been created by a team composed of both original team members and new developers, and features everything that made the 1997 PlayStation original so acclaimed. That includes the epic story, the satisfyingly strategic battles and the flexible job system—but it also adds new content and features that make the game even more fun to play. We'll go into those new additions shortly, but first, for those new to the game…

What is FINAL FANTASY TACTICS - The Ivalice Chronicles?
FINAL FANTASY TACTICS - The Ivalice Chronicles is a tactical RPG that tells the true history of a troubled land. Following the death of the king, a mere boy of two ascends the throne. That means whoever is named regent essentially rules the land. Two dukes vie for the position—Goltanna the Black Lion and Larg the White Lion. These powerful figures are destined to clash, and the resulting conflict would become known as the War of the Lions.




Amid this backdrop appears Ramza, third son of House Beoulve, and Delita, a commoner raised among nobles. As the pair attempt to chart a course through this tumultuous age, a mighty current draws them ever closer to the abyss.

It's a powerful tale full of drama, emotion, love and betrayal—and regarded as one of the best in the entire FINAL FANTASY series! Of course, the story's only part of the experience—there are also the battles. And what battles they are.

Tactical turn-based battles
You control Ramza and his forces in tactical turn-based encounters across a wide range of battlefields: forests, valleys, swamps, castles and more. Success or failure rests on how you can take advantage of the terrain, unit abilities and your ability to anticipate your opponent's moves. As you play through the story, you'll encounter all kinds of different scenarios, each requiring different tactical considerations to overcome. It's a real treat for armchair commanders—and combined with the wildly flexible job system, the strategic options are near endless!



Jobs and customization
Each unit in your growing party can be assigned a job. In classic FINAL FANTASY style, these jobs define the roles and abilities they have access to in combat. You can throw out magic spells with a black mage, introduce foes to the tip of a spear with dragoon, bring forth classic FINAL FANTASY espers with the summoner (including the mighty moogle!), get sneaky with the nimble thief, control proceedings with time mage, and many more.

There are more than 20 jobs available and hundreds of abilities to master as your characters level up and advance these jobs. You can even equip the characters skills from other jobs into ability slots for a dizzying number of different party compositions—and a lot of fun finding your perfect setups for each battle.



What's new in FINAL FANTASY TACTICS - The Ivalice Chronicles?
FINAL FANTASY TACTICS - The Ivalice Chronicles has numerous enhancements that make this masterpiece even masterpiece-ier. For example:

• A brand-new user interface - the game's UI has been completely overhauled to make the game even more approachable and intuitive. It's now quicker and easier to control your units, see turn order and more.
• Updated visuals - the game's graphics have been reworked to look great on HD displays. The vibrant 3D battlegrounds and detailed pixel art have never looked so good!
• Voice acting - The story now features full voice acting in English and Japanese from a talented cast, including Joe Pitts (Ramza), Gregg Lowe (Delita), Hannah Melbourn (Agrias), Timothy Watson (Cidolfus), Harry McEntire (Mustadio), Ben Starr (Dycedarg), and cameos by Cody Christian (Cloud Strife from FINAL FANTASY VII remake series) and Briana White (Aerith Gainsborough from FINAL FANTASY VII remake series).
• Tactical View - this new feature makes it easier to get the lay of the land and plan your actions across the battlefield.
• Battle speed - Speed up battles to fly through them faster. It's great if you want to blow through easy fights or quickly practice with different team compositions!
• New difficulty levels - Do you want to really test your tactics, or are you in it more for the story? New difficulty levels let you adjust the game to your playstyle!

The Classic Version is included too!
All these new features are great, but what if you want the original FINAL FANTASY TACTICS experience? Those who wish to enjoy FINAL FANTASY TACTICS as they remember it can play the classic version, which unites the graphics and gameplay of the original 1997 version with the renowned War of the Lions translation.



This version stays true to the original in almost every aspect, but includes some handy features such as auto save. Play like it's 1997 all over again!



Pre-order, Deluxe Edition, and Collector's Box details can be found here.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[lexluthermiester]

There will be a great many people happy about this! Looks faithful to the original too!

 

[cfenton]

There will be a great many people happy about this! Looks faithful to the original too!

I thought it looked interesting until I saw the price. $50 is way too much for such minimal work. I could see that price if they re-made all the art to look more modern, but it looks like upscaling and smoothing to me. Voice acting could be good, but I bet that script is pretty rough like most RPGs of the era.

 

[Hilux SSRG]

I will get this on Steam, cannot wait. The music is so good and the story and mechanics!

 

[lexluthermiester]

I thought it looked interesting until I saw the price. $50 is way too much for such minimal work.

That's your choice of course, but consider that the X86/X64 arch is very different from the MIPPS arch(PS1) that the first game was compiled on. The code is anything but the same. For them to get it looking so close to the OG Tactics shows that they put in a ton of effort reworking and recompiling the engine for modern platforms, and that presumes they used the original engine as a template They might have written a new one from scrach, which is anything but lazy. For all complaints I have about SquareEnix as of late, this is not one of them. This looks like they put in the right kind of effort and got the game right.

Also consider, that BITD, the original FF Tactics was also $50 retail, and before you say that isn't right, I was working at Software Etc at that time and remember the price VERY well. That was in 1997 money. Times have changed.