Summary
- Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles offers Classic & Enhanced modes for a new and old look.
- The remaster adds pencil-shaded cutscenes and voiced dialogue, enhancing the PSP version.
- New features include turn order display, numbered icons, and an auto-battle option.
Final Fantasy Tactics was released for the PS1 in 1998 in North America. It wasn’t as big of a hit initially as Final Fantasy 7, but it soon developed a cult fan base. It was later ported to the PSP as Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions in 2007, which added some new features like cutscenes and characters. That version ended up on mobile devices later.
The hit will return soon via Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles. What will be included in the package? Details are light now, but it's still worth running through the most important confirmed details so far. Hopefully, it will launch on September 30, 2025, as planned.
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6 Square Enix’s Creative Studio 3 Is Working On It
The MMO Team Is On The Case
Creative Studio 3 is the branch at Square Enix that originally handled Final Fantasy 11 and then Final Fantasy 14. Those were their two big claims to fame as the MMO team. Then they got their hands on FF16, which was mostly met with praise.
Usually, when a port happens, Square Enix will get a third-party developer like Matrix Software, who remade FF3 and FF4 for the DS. Square Enix putting an internal A-Team like Creative Studio 3 could mean there are bigger things for Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles hiding in the shadows. This could be practice for a new Ivalice game, but it's probably best to hold off on rumors and speculation for now.
5 A New Look Or An Old Look
From Smoothed Models To Sprites
Most of Square Enix’s most recent remasters and remakes have used the HD-2D style that they helped popularize with Octopath Traveler. Instead of redoing the sprites from the PS1 game to look like cleaner pixelated figures, they instead smoothed out characters and backgrounds. From a distance, it looks like what fans remember, but up close it is noticeable.
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The cool thing about Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is that players can change between the original PS1 design, called Classic, and the remastered version called Enhanced. How players can switch hasn’t been directly confirmed. However, during the trailer, eagle-eyed fans can spot “L1 Change Display” on the toolbar. This might either change the camera angle or swap between Classic and Enhanced modes, but that’s just a guess.
4 The Pencil-Shaded Cutscenes From The PSP Version Are Returning
And Voices!
One of the biggest additions to the PSP version was the cutscenes. In the original game, there was a big intro CG cutscene and then a final one. The PSP port added more cutscenes and changed the design to make them look more like colored-pencil drawings in motion, which is an astounding art style. That would have been a cool style to use for Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, but the remastered work looks good regardless.
Based on the trailer, it appears as though the PSP cutscenes are returning. Will they be straight PSP ports, or enhanced versions? Will more cutscenes be added that weren’t there previously? It's not clear yet. In the PSP port, these cutscenes were the only examples of voiced dialogue, but now it seems like characters will also be voiced in non-cutscenes. This is a huge change for the better in Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles.
3 There Is A Turn Order Displayed
Along With Numbered Icons
Tactical RPGs were not a big genre on the PS1, even though they existed as far back as the NES. With Final Fantasy Tactics, it seemed like more studios were willing to test out the genre. Now, there are too many to choose from, which is both a blessing and a curse. Thanks to the remaster, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles will be catching up with the times and adding more common features.
Avid fans will notice that in the trailer, a turn order is displayed on the left side of the screen during battle sequences. Players can see if characters are currently preparing a skill or spell, which is useful for planning strategies. Also, every character and enemy will have a number on their model and also on the turn display, aiding players in establishing the order even more.
2 There Is Auto-Battle
Replacing The Mobile AI Option
Another modern battle function in RPGs, or at least remasters, is the auto-battle function. Another recent remaster, Lunar Remastered Collection, also included an auto-battle option, for example. Fans can see the option when characters choose attacks in Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles’ trailer.
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This is a new feature for Final Fantasy Tactics’ PS1 base version, but not the overall series. The mobile versions of the game had an AI option that let characters act on their own. Is auto-battle just going to be a re-skinned version of the AI system, or will there be bigger adjustments at play?
1 The Job Tree
Plan Recruitments Better
One of the best reasons to play the original game was the Job system, which was the first game in North America that allowed players to do this. FF3 and FF5 were the originators, but Western fans had to wait a long time to play those games officially in English.
Every random or story character could transform into various Jobs, ranging from a White Mage to a Dragoon. To shift Jobs, players had to master others, and there wasn’t a clear way to do this in any version. Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles’ trailer gave a brief glimpse at a Job tree that displayed branching paths for classes, which looks like a nice quality-of-life feature. Hopefully, new Jobs will be added too.
- Released
- September 30, 2025
- ESRB
- Teen / Fantasy Violence, Blood, Mild Suggestive Themes, Mild Language, Drug Reference
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
- Franchise
- Final Fantasy
- Number of Players
- Single-player
- PC Release Date
- September 30, 2025
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
- September 30, 2025
- PS5 Release Date
- September 30, 2025
- Nintendo Switch Release Date
- September 30, 2025
- Nintendo Switch 2 Release Date
- September 30, 2025
- Genre(s)
- Tactical, RPG, Strategy
