The idea of game developers getting an opportunity to go back to a title from their past and use modern technology to achieve something closer to their original vision is an inspiring endeavor. Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles represents such an enterprise, and not only does it improve upon a classic formula and experience, but it also showcases the love and dedication that a team had for the story and art they helped to create almost three decades prior.

Final Fantasy Tactics follows the exploits of Ramza Beoulve, a young knight from a powerful noble family. Caught up in what becomes The War of the Lions, where two sides want their chosen representative to sit the throne of Ivalice, Ramza sees the lines between friend, family, and foe constantly blurred. One such character is Delita Heiral, who experiences his own personal tragedy that fuels a drive for revenge and power, and these two men end up as two of the most important characters in the conflict. The overarching narrative and its various character moments are filled with drama and emotion, and the newly added voice acting makes every dialogue and battle cry all the more memorable. Final Fantasy Tactics has always had a story for the ages, and The Ivalice Chronicles telling of it, with a refreshed script and talented voice cast, ensure that this is the best way to experience it.

Anyone who has played the original PlayStation version of Final Fantasy Tactics will immediately recognize the glow up to the menus, world map, and overall presentation. Moving between menus, exploring the world, and basically everything related to the job class system is easier to navigate and more fluid. Tactical games by their nature involve so much moving of a cursor between different options, tiles, and characters, and so when that process is smoother, you feel less bogged down in the mechanics and small details (as much as veterans might enjoy that element). I never felt annoyed to have to backtrack on the world map or re-open character menus over and over to re-check stats, equipment, and job progression, and this is a testament to the snappiness of The Ivalice Chronicles version.

As moving and mature as the story is, the gameplay is where The Ivalice Chronicles showcases how timeless the original experience is. For the most part, the essence of the 1997 release (in Japan) is untouched and instead polished to a glimmering shine. You take turns moving characters around diorama-like environments like city streets, forest clearings, and castle halls, with the objective usually being to defeat a single enemy combatant or rout the opposing squad entirely. Every battle plays out differently, with scripted ones bringing different job classes onto the field, and even the random encounters between cities on the world map typically offering different monsters to fight. You often have to deal with the terrain, buildings, and elevation as much as your foes, but the competent enemy AI and their level scaling make for thrilling battles, and of course, some grinding along the way.

And frankly, seeing the numbers go up is one of the most enjoyable parts of Final Fantasy Tactics. While it may be missing some of the job classes that were included in The War of the Lions release on PSP, The Ivalice Chronicles retains that magic of watching your job class pool grow as you earn more job points in battle, become more proficient, and unlock new abilities, giving you the opportunity to customize your squad. Usually bringing four or five allies, including Ramza, you’re able to combine a primary job with a secondary one to have two sets of abilities at your disposal, in addition to a basic attack, a reaction ability, a support ability, and a movement ability. Some of these are better than others, such as Movement +3 vs Movement +1, but others can be unlocked early on and stay relevant for dozens of battles, like the Chemist job’s Throw Item. I spent hours and hours experimenting with different classes and combinations and endeavoring to unlock all of the jobs, including the hilarious Mime class that simply mimics the actions of other party members. Eventually I settled on an endgame party involving a couple of the recruitable special characters, my girl Agrias obviously, and a few from my starting retinue of Chemists and Squires.

Three elements of The Ivalice Chronicles release genuinely stand out in terms of combat improvements. The first is the fast-forward mechanic, which you can activate by holding down a button to breeze through not only the motions of battle, but cutscenes in and out of combat as well. When it came time for some late-game experience and job point grinding, the ability to fast-forward through what can be a fairly tedious process was incredible, encouraging me to play around the job system even more and try out some combos I hadn’t used when playing the two previous versions of Final Fantasy Tactics. For the second element, you can save mid-battle, which is helpful when the outcome is uncertain and you’re knee-deep in 50-50 propositions or hoping for the best with abilities and skills that aren’t guaranteed to connect. Finally, you can move your character to a spot on the battlefield, gauge how effective their next action is going to be, and then undo that move if the plan isn't the best one. In the original game, you would be stuck in the spot you moved to, even if after getting there you learned that such a move was fruitless or less effective than another alternative.

Spending some hours with the original Final Fantasy Tactics, included in this updated release, gave me even more appreciation for The Ivalice Chronicles than my memories alone would have allowed. By comparison, the battles can be slow and plagued by a fair bit of dumb AI logic. The Ivalice Chronicles has three difficulty options to choose from, another addition. The medium setting offers a challenging but fairly balanced experience, provided you can navigate some pronounced difficulty spikes. Even the simple inclusion of an overhead camera makes battlefield strategizing all the easier. While playing the classic version, I came to really miss the voice acting too, especially considering the fuzziness of the dialogue text font as it's displayed on a modern screen. The Switch screen fairs a bit better in this regard, but the visual enhancement of The Ivalice Chronicles genuinely helps with overall readability to a massive extent.

Whether playing on Switch or Switch 2, The Ivalice Chronicles turns in a respectable level of performance. Both systems run the game at 60 frames-per-second in either docked or handheld mode. If you’re playing on the original Switch, you’ll be working with 720p when docked and 540p in handheld mode. Over on Switch 2, these numbers get bumped up to 1080p docked and 720p handheld. It is worth noting that between a depth-of-field effect and a parchment-like, dithered overlay, aliased edges are surprisingly few and far between. This is of course assuming you’re playing the remastered version. If you swap to the classic version you’ll be looking at a crispy 240p regardless of platform and configuration.

If you recognize Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles as a labor of love, and the result of a desire to perfect an already formidable RPG, this release is a major achievement. It's not definitive, but there's no question that it's the best way to experience a seminal title in the tactics genre. Certainly, it could have opted for more graphically impressive visuals, but it opts for faithful over brave--classic over contemporary. And I'm good with that. The job class system remains a standout, and the plot–as heavy as it is–stands as one for the ages. There is no better time to hop on a Chocobo, and delve into an RPG of and for history. One of the most replayable Square Enix games has never been more worthy of the title.