When asked what my favorite PS1 Final Fantasy is, I always respond “Tactics.” I’ll be told it doesn’t count, or accused of being contrarian, but it’s true.
(All screenshots captured from Steam Deck OLED)
Even in its clunky, awkwardly translated original iteration, Tactics was a masterpiece. The art and music was incredible and even when the story didn’t totally make sense due to the localization, it still felt dense and thematically rich.
The Ivalice Chronicles isn’t the first time Square Enix has revisited Tactics, but it’s the best (only) way to play it (legally) on modern platforms. Despite the temptation of a Switch physical copy, I bought the game on Steam (shoutout to GMG and their $39, no tax, Steam keys). I’ve played it on both my desktop PC and my OLED Steam Deck, and Deck is definitely the way to go.
Ivalice Chronicles includes a pretty robust remaster with widescreen, voice acting, etc. but also an approximation of the original game (for the sickos). The remaster has that splotchy blur look that emulators and remasters have been doing for ages, and it does not scale well to a large 4K monitor a foot away from my face.
On the Deck OLED screen however, the effect is far less off-putting. The HUD sometimes feels excessive, but otherwise I think the remaster looks quite nice. There’s an easy mode for newcomers, an original mode (with some quality of life tweaks) for old heads, and a hard mode (another treat for the freaks). You can switch between the difficulties as you wish, and break the game at your discretion.
As a teenager, when I should have been out playing sports or partying, I was maxing out job classes on cornered monsters in Mandalia Plains. In its original iteration, Tactics was a punishing game, but you could play like an opportunistic scumbag and be the winner writing the history (thematically appropriate). You can still do that in the remaster. While I’m sure a million min/max guides exist, blindly engaging and experimenting with the mechanics is the far more satisfying route. It’s possible to build up some uniquely overpowered characters with the right amount of experimentation and grinding of job skills.
Tactics is a game that can be finished in roughly 30-40 hours, but you can easily spend three times that exploring the classes and systems (and a few more hours reading all the in-game ancillary materials to get the full story). Who knows how far I will go with this version? The release of The Ivalice Chronicles kinda snuck up on me, but already it’s consuming my life just like it did when I was a teenager.
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