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Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles | Review Thread

I look forward to playing. I got far and my memory card died and lost my save and I never went back.

Quick story on how I ended up with my current PS1 Final Fantasy Tactics copy that I still own. I originally bought it on release day years back. I couldn't get into it. Given I was a stupid teen, I didn't give it a chance so I returned it for another shit game. Then I changed my mind and went back to the store and wanted to do another return and they were like no dude enough returns, but I talked them into it and I got FFT back. I played it and got really far, but my memory card died. So out of frustration I ended up trading it on a game trading website for two Sega Saturn RPGs. Years later, FFT got pretty rare. And even in 2003 or 2004ish it was going for $80+ minimum on ebay. Which was a lot for a not ancient game back then. I didn't want to pay that so I kept looking on ebay for cheap ones and I finally found one for $20 but it was a shady looking listing that didn't have pictures of the actual item. It was just a stock photo. And I had used ebay for years at that point, listings like that are 90% of the time either fraudulent and you'd get ripped off or you'd get the greatest hits version. Otherwise they'd advertise it as black label to make more money.

I took my chances and bought the item and risked getting ripped off or getting a greatest hits. I was fully expecting a greatest hits version and dammit if a week later I didn't get a brand new factory sealed black label copy in the mail for $20. This is the copy I still own to this day.
 
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Avoided spoilers all these years. I suck and hate tactics games so I'll be going story bitch made mode to enjoy the story. :)

What's the word for switch 2? 4k 60fps docked?
 
Arsic said:
I suck and hate tactics games
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dont-dont-make-me-cut-you.gif
 
Mister Wolf said:
Would you guys say the story in this is better than Triangle Strategy story?
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Yes. And it's not even close. If you want to get a taste of Matsuno's writing, you could play Tactics Ogre Reborn. Or play FF12: Zodiac Age or Vagrant Story. All excellent games, with terrific writing and world building. FF12 managed to be one of the best FFs even though Square fucked up the development. That's how good he is.
 
Can't wait to hit this up. I'm busy with Yakuza series still but it's one of the 3 games I had pre-ordered for the year.
 
I will wait until people with some experience actually play the game and see whether they fucked up the difficulty balance too much. Praising the visuals is extremely suspicious.
 
I didn't think I was going to get this, in fact I was in some ways outright opposed to it as I've played through the campaign like a full 5 times on various systems/releases already. But as the day draws nearer... I find myself growing weaker.

I was initially turned off by the voice acting, but the more I listen to what has been released the more I like it. Kind of curious where they go with all the characters, at this point.

So yeah. Fine, I'll just have to admit it to myself.

Michael_Scott_im_in.gif
 
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Mister Wolf said:
Would you guys say the story in this is better than Triangle Strategy story?
Click to expand...
It is in my opinion on the same tier as FF7 as far as story goes (Squares mount rushmore ).

One thing I will caution, alot of the cool world building and background are done in the form of lore in the tavern that you gotta read up on.
 
I'll likely pick up at some point down the line, just to have on my Steam Deck.

Glad more people will get to experience a classic.
 
Since this looks like a pretty modest game graphically speaking, I presume the performance is the same across all platforms? I normally play multiplat titles on PC but for this one I like the idea of playing it on the switch 2 for portable mode
 
CrimsonTide said:
If im not into Xcom ish or RTS games but enjoy JRPG's and FF

Is this good yeah? Never did play it back in the day
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No, it is not like xcom. far better game IMO.
it is not gacha % accuracy like Xcom, more reasonable, direction and angle when you attack makes difference.
also had friendly fire, and your magic attack mostly damage Your friend if You are not careful. there are also charge time for some abilities like magic.
the game is well designed, and if You want it hard, You can make it hard by not grinding.
grinding is optional, but the enemy on world map is level scaling, story battle is not.
if You want normal mode, grind for ability You want, few battles will do. money is not hard to find.
if You want it easy You can make it easy by destroying anything like grinding.

the story, IMO, is the best than all final fantasy.
lot of people also comes here as cultist, because of that reason as well.

this game, is better than any final fantasy IMO.
i see lot of people literally playing FFT since they came decades ago, until this day.
even I saw people playing this few months ago since the trailer released.
 
IAmRei said:
No, it is not like xcom. far better game IMO.
it is not gacha % accuracy like Xcom, more reasonable, direction and angle when you attack makes difference.
also had friendly fire, and your magic attack mostly damage Your friend if You are not careful. there are also charge time for some abilities like magic.
the game is well designed, and if You want it hard, You can make it hard by not grinding.
grinding is optional, but the enemy on world map is level scaling, story battle is not.
if You want normal mode, grind for ability You want, few battles will do. money is not hard to find.
if You want it easy You can make it easy by destroying anything like grinding.

the story, IMO, is the best than all final fantasy.
lot of people also comes here as cultist, because of that reason as well.

this game, is better than any final fantasy IMO.
i see lot of people literally playing FFT since they came decades ago, until this day.
even I saw people playing this few months ago since the trailer released.
Click to expand...

X-COM > FFT > XCOM

FFT has % miss odds, archers in particular - and lots of abilities like spells where your target gets a turn and moves out of the target area. X-COM also does have friendly fire.

X-COM is also harder than FFT, by far. Just try to survive your first night fight, it's 10x worse than Wiegraf.

Speaking as someone who played FFT on PS1+PSP and loved it. X-COM is pretty goated, every bit as much as FFT.
 
Minsc said:
X-COM > FFT > XCOM

FFT has % miss odds, archers in particular - and lots of abilities like spells where your target gets a turn and moves out of the target area. X-COM also does have friendly fire.

X-COM is also harder than FFT, by far. Just try to survive your first night fight, it's 10x worse than Wiegraf.

Speaking as someone who played FFT on PS1+PSP and loved it. X-COM is pretty goated, every bit as much as FFT.
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calm down, he said was xcom
and i said many times, in my opinion, no need to be triggered.
 
The visuals are dated, there's no filtering your way around that, in some sense the dumb filters only make them look worse. And yes, iOS/Mobile was the peak of FFT with the redrawn sprites, very well done.

But it's not like we're playing this game for the visuals (or the VA, or the X-Ray mode). It's the gameplay, and story. Visuals even at release weren't groundbreaking, other than being able to rotate the gameboard in real time.
 
Too many good games my guys...yet I'm pretty sure at the end of the day this will still be my favorite one.

MGS Delta
Silent Hill F
FFTactics
Hades 2
Trails in the Sky 1st
Digimon
Ninja Gaiden 4
Bloodlines 2
Bryan Cranston Reaction GIF
 
Minsc said:
The visuals are dated, there's no filtering your way around that, in some sense the dumb filters only make them look worse. And yes, iOS/Mobile was the peak of FFT with the redrawn sprites, very well done.

But it's not like we're playing this game for the visuals (or the VA, or the X-Ray mode). It's the gameplay, and story. Visuals even at release weren't groundbreaking, other than being able to rotate the gameboard in real time.
Click to expand...
I mean… I'm not "playing it for the graphics" or claiming the visuals were groundbreaking. But I do have an appreciation for quality pixel art/sprites and I think that's a huge part of the charm & appeal of JRPGs from that era. And the iOS/Android upgrade was awesome.

I might just hold out until someone mods them into Ivalice Chronicles
 
DonkeyPunchJr said:
I mean… I'm not "playing it for the graphics" or claiming the visuals were groundbreaking. But I do have an appreciation for quality pixel art/sprites and I think that's a huge part of the charm & appeal of JRPGs from that era. And the iOS/Android upgrade was awesome.

I might just hold out until someone mods them into Ivalice Chronicles
Click to expand...

Fair enough! I intend to play the regular difficulty on my HDTV, so that may sting a little, and simultaneously the new, hard/challenge difficulty handheld, where on a tiny screen, the bad decisions for filtering may not be apparent at all (likewise the Switch 2 may not suffer much handheld).

I'm also hoping for mods on the PC, all kinds, graphics, additional NPCs, and more!
 
I'll still be picking this up for sure. I feel like this is a slap in the face that the game didn't include the War of the Lions content. They can do it for Star Ocean First Departure & The Second Story but not for this tho? UGH.

Losing the Black Knight, Onion Knight, Luso, Balthier and extra side story events is a massive L to me for sure. Square Enix covering for this saying this is the definitive version is quite annoying. The REAL reason the extra content is was excluded was because of the issues WOTL had, such as:

  • Slowdown (was actually fixed by modders)
  • Some Audio Distortion
  • Bugs
Therefore, they had to pull the original source code from the PSX version minus the actual newer script.

However, with the changes with this release with the full voice acting...I'll take it. Wondering if modders will put in extra content for the Steam release...
 
TonberrysKnife said:
I'll still be picking this up for sure. I feel like this is a slap in the face that the game didn't include the War of the Lions content. They can do it for Star Ocean First Departure & The Second Story but not for this tho? UGH.

Losing the Black Knight, Onion Knight, Luso, Balthier and extra side story events is a massive L to me for sure. Square Enix covering for this saying this is the definitive version is quite annoying. The REAL reason the extra content is was excluded was because of the issues WOTL had, such as:

  • Slowdown (was actually fixed by modders)
  • Some Audio Distortion
  • Bugs
Therefore, they had to pull the original source code from the PSX version minus the actual newer script.

However, with the changes with this release with the full voice acting...I'll take it. Wondering if modders will put in extra content for the Steam release...
Click to expand...

Don't really buy that given WOTL is on iOS/Android, no slowdown or audio bugs, with better pixel art than this release, and they did a lot more work to it, wrapping in new menus and touch interface.

It's already been said WOTL was cut because it isn't part of the game's original vision, and wasn't designed / created by the original creator, who took charge for this.
 
Arsic said:
Avoided spoilers all these years. I suck and hate tactics games so I'll be going story bitch made mode to enjoy the story. :)

What's the word for switch 2? 4k 60fps docked?
Click to expand...
I'm also pretty shit at tactics based RPGs. Can comfortably say that FFT was far, far more difficult than any FF I had, and have since played.
It is a fantastic story. No shame in choosing an easy difficulty for a genre you're not great at. Wish I had that back during the PS1 release of the game.

I got there in the end, but fuck me was it difficult. Coming from someone that can probably beat FFVII Ultimate Weapon boses with his eyes closed.
 
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Kacho said:
Click to expand...

I preloaded on my Switch. Deluxe edition for all the bells and whistles.

Funny how they mention newcomers when i use to rent this back in the 90's and this port will probably be best experience with the game.
DragoonKain said:
I look forward to playing. I got far and my memory card died and lost my save and I never went back.

Quick story on how I ended up with my current PS1 Final Fantasy Tactics copy that I still own. I originally bought it on release day years back. I couldn't get into it. Given I was a stupid teen, I didn't give it a chance so I returned it for another shit game. Then I changed my mind and went back to the store and wanted to do another return and they were like no dude enough returns, but I talked them into it and I got FFT back. I played it and got really far, but my memory card died. So out of frustration I ended up trading it on a game trading website for two Sega Saturn RPGs. Years later, FFT got pretty rare. And even in 2003 or 2004ish it was going for $80+ minimum on ebay. Which was a lot for a not ancient game back then. I didn't want to pay that so I kept looking on ebay for cheap ones and I finally found one for $20 but it was a shady looking listing that didn't have pictures of the actual item. It was just a stock photo. And I had used ebay for years at that point, listings like that are 90% of the time either fraudulent and you'd get ripped off or you'd get the greatest hits version. Otherwise they'd advertise it as black label to make more money.

I took my chances and bought the item and risked getting ripped off or getting a greatest hits. I was fully expecting a greatest hits version and dammit if a week later I didn't get a brand new factory sealed black label copy in the mail for $20. This is the copy I still own to this day.
Click to expand...
i wasn't into tactics at the time but i played Lunar, Valkyrie Profile, and all the Squaresoft RPGs besides tactics based. Front Mission 3 got me into the genre and Vandal Hearts. Back in the day you'd go play Tactics Arena Online on a computer if you wanted "tactics". Looking back I was so oblivious to the genre. I've played quite a few since then and it's a fantastic genre. At the time FF7 was huge. What stood out to me was how the cover of FFT looked. It looked like it was good. When I played it I would get my butt whooped. I had patience with the ATB system in FFVII, but gradually making those small moves for little exp pissed me off.

I'm wondering the rock circle grind will be worth it with this or does someone even need to do that? I'd imagine if you want to max out your characters, you'd try this.
 
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Omnipunctual Godot said:
Does anyone know if enemies will scale their levels to whatever yours is? I really hated that new "feature" in Tactics Ogre Reborn.
Click to expand...

The enemies scale, and can be a threat. However unlike in TOR, your party gets so OP and just straight up broken later in the game it's not even relevant.
 
Omnipunctual Godot said:
Does anyone know if enemies will scale their levels to whatever yours is? I really hated that new "feature" in Tactics Ogre Reborn.
Click to expand...
I would say the thing that made Reborn difficult was the new card system, at first it was fine but later on most bosses already have full deck cards which can destroy most your unit easily.
 
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Danjin44 said:
I said the thing made Reborn difficult was the new card system, at first it was fine but later most bosses already have full deck cards which can destroy most your unit easily.
Click to expand...
I didn't mind that nearly as much as Denham no longer being able to one-shot and tank virtually anyone, especially mobs. It dragged out pointless fights and made me start to dislike the game.
 
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Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles Nintendo Switch 2, Switch 1, Steam Deck, & PC Port Impressions | RPG Site

We test Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles on Nintendo Switch 2, Switch 1, Steam Deck, and ROG Ally going over features, performance, visuals, and more.
www.rpgsite.net www.rpgsite.net

Insightful portable comparisons.

I might just opt to get it on the Deck instead of the Switch since apparently it's quite lacking when docked for higher resolutions. Or neither and get it on PS5 because I'm indecisive 😵‍💫
 
near said:

Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles Nintendo Switch 2, Switch 1, Steam Deck, & PC Port Impressions | RPG Site

We test Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles on Nintendo Switch 2, Switch 1, Steam Deck, and ROG Ally going over features, performance, visuals, and more.
www.rpgsite.net www.rpgsite.net

Insightful portable comparisons.

I might just opt to get it on the Deck instead of the Switch since apparently it's quite lacking when docked for higher resolutions. Or neither and get it on PS5 because I'm indecisive 😵‍💫
Click to expand...

Nice, I'm not terribly surprised Switch performance isn't up to the other platforms, I think Octopath Traveler being 30fps on Switch 1 and 60fps on Deck pretty much moved me to Steam for these kind of SE releases.

The easy reason to pick PC over PS5/Switch is the mods, which probably will happen. Of course, you can always just buy the game three times, like most people will!
 
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I mostly likely buy the switch version and upgrade to switch 2, I do enjoy playing SRPGs on handheld.
 
Minsc said:
Nice, I'm not terribly surprised Switch performance isn't up to the other platforms, I think Octopath Traveler being 30fps on Switch 1 and 60fps on Deck pretty much moved me to Steam for these kind of SE releases.

The easy reason to pick PC over PS5/Switch is the mods, which probably will happen. Of course, you can always just buy the game three times, like most people will!
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Yeah, I think I'll just get it on Steam, can't really go wrong this way. I'll just cancel my Switch preorder tomorrow morning or something.
 
I'm a little surprised this is scoring higher than Tactics Ogre: Reborn, given this remake for one thing allegedly kept things the same, albeit with weaker sprites.
 
cartman414 said:
I'm a little surprised this is scoring higher than Tactics Ogre: Reborn, given this remake for one thing allegedly kept things the same, albeit with weaker sprites.
Click to expand...
General rule of thumb now seems to be the majority game reviewers will never be critical of these remasters or look beyond the surface level marketing given to them that's basically just "old is bad, new is good." How many of these reviewers actually compared the two versions side by side beyond just graphics and UI. The updated graphics look hideous too but are getting praise or no negative response so that's concerning.

Again, I'm waiting for actual impressions from experienced players instead of reviewers who have to chuck out a review for a deadline and then never play these games again.
 
cartman414 said:
I'm a little surprised this is scoring higher than Tactics Ogre: Reborn, given this remake for one thing allegedly kept things the same, albeit with weaker sprites.
Click to expand...

It's a much better game, as a whole. Not surprising.

Porcile said:
General rule of thumb now seems to be the majority game reviewers will never be critical of these remasters or look beyond the surface level marketing given to them that's basically just "old is bad, new is good." How many of these reviewers actually compared the two versions side by side beyond just graphics and UI. The updated graphics look hideous too but are getting praise or no negative response so that's concerning.

Again, I'm waiting for actual impressions from experienced players instead of reviewers who have to chuck out a review for a deadline and then never play these games again.
Click to expand...

That couchpotato YouTube video above seems to detail a lot, 20 hours in, and they look like they have a good grasp on the game and what to expect, already giving a decent comparison of the hard difficulty and what it's like against the previous version, seems promising to me.
 
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