Final Fantasy Tactics remaster frames class struggle in Ivalice

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, first released in 1997 and now available in a newly remastered guise, retains a politically charged story centred on Ramza, an idealistic nobleman navigating the medieval-inspired realm of Ivalice. What begins as familiar fantasy quickly complicates into a knotty political matrix: peasant revolutionaries clash with gilded monarchists and Machiavellian plots plunge the kingdom into chaos, prompting Ramza’s ideological awakening.

The review argues there is a strong case that Tactics tells a better story than Final Fantasy VII and suggests the game feels more timely as real-world attention shifts from climate crisis to the rise of fascism. The remastered version preserves the plot and adds full voice acting for its Shakespearean dialogue, delivered in what the review calls delightfully hammy performances.

Gameplay still centres on malleable turn-based combat: characters have changeable “jobs” that can be remixed (one example given is creating a “gun-toting mage”), and skirmishes occur on exquisite diorama levels that produce what the reviewer describes as a “symphonic take on chess.” Battles are also described as poetic, underscored by a foe’s line, “I’ve been dealt a hand.

I simply play it,” which highlights the sense that each character is swept up in events larger than themselves.

Key Topics

Culture, Final Fantasy Tactics, Ivalice, Ramza, Yasumi Matsuno, Turn-based Combat