There's a reason some games should just lay dorment from its times and not get remastered without significant changes to gameplay.

This game felt frustratingly difficult (and i only was playing on 'normal' difficulty). The difficulty swings between fights is CRAZY. If you aren't grinding, enemies are suddenly 4-5 levels higher than you, doing crazy damage and your positioning and random AI decisions determine wins and losses.

The jobs system makes it very difficult to afford cool upgrades without staying in outdated jobs for longer than is fun. You can only spec two different sets on a character at any time so time invested in other jobs won't be used later on. I just don't think its a compelling experience from a gameplay perspective.

And probably the worst offender - knowing what the hell will happen when you do ANYTHING. The camera is so wonky, the terrain gameplay means spells you think will hit a character won't, trying to use the archer class is just unfun. So much wrong there

The brightside: The voice acting, narrative and retro graphics are GREAT. But not enough to keep me going with such frustrating combat experiences

Would highly recommend Fire Emblem Three Houses or Triangle Strategy as much better experiences for a similar narrative / battlefield strategy game

There are two Square Soft games that had significant impact on me as a teen, Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy: Tactics. I bought imported copies of the soundtracks for both back in thr 90s from The Silver Snail, which was at the time a massive comic book store in Toronto, the best place for all things from comics to D&D figurines, and a ton of Japanese import stuff. It’s not surprising that they remain my two favourite Square Soft soundtracks (even if there are other fantastic and iconic soundtracks for other games in their library). But these two soundtracks remain dear to me because the games shaped exploded my world. Yes, I had previously played other Square games, and other JRPGs, but Chrono and Tactics redefined what I thought was possible in a JRPG in terms of character and story. I didn’t come to Ogre Battle until after Tactics, even though I was aware of it, so Final Fantasy Tactics was my first taste of this kind of turned based strategy, and it was my obsession for a good while as a teen.

It’s wonderful to revisit Ivalice and I’m really impressed with the way Squenix remastered the game. It’s a super clean update with fantastic voice work, and really should stand as the gold standard of how they port and remaster their games. No 2D-HD bullshit, no quick and lazy texture upscale application, visuals and fonts updated for contemporary screens while maintaining fidelity to the original. It’s a really gorgeous package, complete with the original version sans VO if you just want to take a trip down memory lane. This is about all I’d accept for a remaster of Chrono Trigger something with update visuals that allow for widescreen presentation but that don’t change the spirit of the sprites and background art. Something that pays homage to the original (and hopefully also includes the original like this package does).

I had a lovely time taking a stroll down memory lane, but Tactics is more than a nostalgia trip. It’s a fundamentally excellent game with compelling battles, and a job system that is the stuff of my dreams. I honestly think there is nothing more fun than levelling up different jobs and trying out all their skills. It’s single-handedly the reason I initially played Final Fantasy XIV and still the main thing I love about it. And I probably wouldn’t have formed that particular preference if not for Final Fantasy Tactics as a formative part of my teen years. This type of game might not be for everyone, but if you love a good turn based strategy game, it’s one of the best.

And even though I rolled credits on the game, there’s still a ton I could do, if I so desired. There’s monster breeding, monster poaching, further levelling, and of course Midnight’s Deep, the ten level dungeon with rare items and equipment and the game’s toughest challenges. I’m not sure I’ll delve into that now, but it does leave something for when I’m craving a bit more Final Fantasy Tactics.

Pros: The Depth of character customization

The story is decently well-written and surprisingly mature

Did an incredible amount right for its time

New visuals are clean, especially the UI

Mostly convenient auto-battling

Distinct class identities and fun-to-use abilities

Well-defined tactical gameplay that still holds up nearly thirty years later

Despite what I'm about to say in the cons, you can see the love poured into this game and why so many have made it part of their identities

Cons: The depth of the character customization

Visuals are good but for a game first leaked nearly 5 years ago, most of us expected much more from a remake. This should have been 2dhd quality.

Exp/JP grind is not well optimized

All the "broken" builds require tens of extra hours of grinding

The new easy mode is not easy enough

The final boss has two big problems, 1) a final boss should not be 10x harder than everything else in the game(thus requiring excessive grinding) and 2) It just hits you with a half dozen status effects per character and that difficult to mitigate without the aforementioned excessive grinding

The grinding loop is also more boring than other rpgs as you basically need to either spam the same fights over and over or do a cheese strat that still takes forever

Overall a pretty good game that I wish they balanced better for the modern age

8.5/10

It's not hard to see that this game was made nearly 30 years ago. Everything about it makes that very apparent. no matter how much it gets polished and despite the addition of voice acting, it looks and plays like a very old game. For good and for ill.

It does nothing to explain itself to you. Under the hood are tons of intricate systems, some of them inexplicably arbitrary and meaningless but nonetheless tiresome, even for a strategy rpg. None of it is introduced or demonstrated. You can read the in game appendix or you can stumble around blind. and stumble you will. Each time you want to kick the story down the timeline just a bit, be prepared to grind, research, prepare. This might be fun for someone, but I constantly felt like I was stepping on a land mine then backing up to recover an be prepared to try again with new knowledge. This could have been fun but it falls just this side of tedious and annoying.

And yet, despite the chore that is playing this game, the story shines, the characters are well written, the dialogue is thoughtful, the voice acting is excellent. I can't help but wish this were a comic instead of a game at times, but I find myself doing to work that will carry me through the story just a bit further.

It's more than obvious why this game is beloved. but like many beloved games, prepare yourself for a hard road.

I did not recall that I had played the original version of this game until I made it through a few of the first cutscenes and my memories of the game were triggered. I am, however, quite positive that I never actually beat it.

I didn't actually beat it this time, either, though I doubt I made it far into the game the last time. This time, I did make it all the way to the final boss. After failing to come close to defeating the final boss, I watched a video of the battle. That video made it clear that I wasn't remotely close to being able to beat a boss with tens of thousands of hit points who has companions that can pull off a near TPK in one action. Given the difficulty of the game to that point, I wasn't too shocked to find the final boss virtually unbeatable without utilizing very specific builds.

Having had a chance to view the closing cutscene, I think I'm done with the game. I did very much enjoy it but I don't feel like playing through the stages required to achieve the levels/jobs/items/abilities to actually win it, at least from what I can tell watching that final battle. It was a fun 61 hours but that was enough for me.

I'm glad they remastered this game. I liked it when it came even if it no doubt frustrated the hell out of me.