Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles

• Genre: Strategy
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 100+ Hours
• Too Short/Long: It honestly didn't really feel too long, but there are things I did and some choices I made that I would have done differently to cut that playtime down a bit.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: It's okay. Sometimes even pretty good, but due to the nature of the game, there are some tracks you will just hear far more than others and it feels a bit repetitive.
• Why I played: Final Fantasy Tactics miiight have been the first Final Fantasy game I actually played. At least it's the first one I remember playing. I never finished it though, and The Ivalice Chronicles gave me a good reason to revisit it.
• Jank: It's mostly polished, as they've "cleaned up" the game in certain aspects. I think a little bit of jank remains in game design that shows it's age, but it mostly holds up well so it's not very distracting.
• Difficulty: There are times when this game is damn difficult. It keeps things balanced pretty well and does a good job of making everything a challenge. Making it feel... tactical. You can't just steamroll the entire battlefield and call it a day. You can't just go back to old levels and grind with your eyes closed - and grinding doesn't really make your character more powerful necessarily, it just gives them more options(which in turn can make your build stronger, but a character rarely outclasses enemies, generally speaking)
• Something I liked: I kind of already address it just above - but I really appreciate the effort that went into keeping the game balanced. While at times frustrating, it is also probably what kept me engaged.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm very pleased. It definitely remains one of the best Final Fantasy spin-offs, and I can see why some people say it's their favorite of all. It kind of makes me want to play other games that take place in Ivalice.
• Recommend to others: I would definitely recommend it. Sooner to strategy fans than Final Fantasy. While it does have a number of the Final Fantasy mainstays, it's generally pretty different in feel. Sure there are chocobos, you can summon shiva and ifrit, class changes and a story about gathering crystals, but the tone and style are very different from most Final Fantasy games. Except maybe 16, and probably 12 considering the setting - but 12 is the one I've played the least of(only about an hour).

As I mentioned Final Fantasy Tactics is likely the first Final Fantasy I played, probably not long after it's release considering I know I also played and finished FF7 in 1998. Though, I was borrowing it from a friend and didn't get it myself until after playing several more Final Fantasy games and just didn't get super far into it. Maybe I finished Chapter 1 previously, but as soon as I hit Chapter 2 this playthrough, I started seeing things that seemed wholly unfamiliar.

I got a lot of strategy games back in the day, but honestly I don't know if I beat very many at all. I think I just liked the plethora of characters they would have - especially if they let you use monsters on your team. Nothing has changed in that respect, I've always wanted to have or be the monsters.

Which is maybe the most disappointing aspect of Final Fantasy Tactics. It lets you recruit and even has a sort of breeding mechanic for monsters, but they are terribly underwhelming. Your own monsters can't really improve. There are certain later ones you can probably make decent use of just because of their power - but the lack of utility and ability to have any progression with them is a turn-off. You're also quite limited in party size compared to a lot of tactical strategy games. When you can only have a max of 5 and Ramza is mandatory for all story battles - it just seems unwise to take up such a valuable slot, even if it's with a dragon.

While the script is a little altered for the addition of voice overs, I think it largely remains in tact and it remains some very solid writing, especially for games at the time, though I shouldn't be surprised because many of my favorite games are from it and the surrounding years, it's just a pleasant surprise when something holds up so well. I also appreciate that there is additional dialog in battles where you bring relevant characters. I'm not sure I prefer it to just automatically including them in the story scenes when relevant, but it does make it seem like an extra effort was put forth, but yet another reason to lean away from monsters and even generic unit.

One could argue that some of these aspects give them game replayability. You can see new lines of dialog by bringing different characters(maybe), or you can try beating levels with different types of units, but all in all the game is going to remain largely the same. Though it does make we wish I used characters I would have liked to have seen more dialog from more.

Overall though it was a pretty great game.