Final Fantasy Tactics – The Invalice Chronicles Review

Final Fantasy Tactics – The Invalice Chronicles is absolutely brilliant. Just go play it. You don’t need to know anything about the final fantasy series, you don’t need to have played the original 1997 release or the later PSP version – all you need is enough time and space to allow yourself to be absorbed for hours. Don’t worry about spoilers in this review, I won’t be referring to anything that is not already mentioned in official media releases, and all images are from the first couple of hours only.

To cover the basics – “Final Fantasy Tactics – The Invalice Chronicles” is a mouthful of a title- probably the only significant criticism I have – and I’m going to drop the subtitle for the rest of the review. It is also a top-down tactical turn-based RPG. The different perspective was important to me – I am much more familiar with post-FF7 releases, and I think it’s worth being prepared that perspective and graphics Final Fantasy Tactics are reflective of its 1997 release and its focus on tactical strategy over flashy pre-rendered cutscenes and intricate real-time action animations.

It is also a remaster of the original 1997 release on the PlayStation – the game presents you with a choice from the beginning, to play the Original release or the ‘Enhanced’ edition. Almost all my time has been with the Enhanced edition given how much I prefer the improved graphics and the voice-acted story, along with the gameplay tweaks you would expect for a modern release of a turn-based strategy RPG compared to the original. For those of you looking for a modern retelling of the identical story, the Original edition includes the “renowned” (or infamous) translation too. I tried to get into the Original edition in order to appreciate it as it was originally intended for release – but 28 years is a long time, and as beautiful as Final Fantasy Tactics is and was, the ‘Enhanced’ edition felt superior and smoother, without taking away from the spirit of the game.

The stories of Final Fantasy games have always struck me as ridiculous, with typically grandiose themes that lean heavily on beautified political tropes, characters that often feel more like characterisations than complex individuals to me. Whilst Final Fantasy Tactics is not too dissimilar in how it represents the characters themselves – somehow the pixel art softened the edges of the story for me. The more humble and warm art style with subtle animation flourishes, coupled with the new addition of high-quality voice acting, made the story feel closer and more personal, even as the stakes build and the drama enters the realm of fantasy.

When I was a teenager it made sense that I could identify with the emo-drama of Squall in FF7 – but somehow Tactics had me relating to naïve knights and bitter frenemies despite my being late 30’s and heavily distracted by not-sleeping-when-they-should-be children. The personal stories and relationships play out on a background of political intrigue in a kingdom struggling to resolve who will take the throne following the death of the King. If you come to the series looking for global stakes – you won’t be disappointed. But Tactics story certainly feels a bit more historically grounded than I remember and expected.

The art style is cute and the sound design crunchy yet hopeful in a way that I had almost forgotten was common in the 90’s. I don’t think people will be blown away by the pixel art or intricate environments, they are not incredibly complex, and we have been blessed with amazing pixel art particularly in Indie releases. But art manages to balance signalling a characters’ personality and traits with the utility and messaging you need when making tactical decisions with job/class-based units. Overall, I noticed the shift in visual focus away from realistic fidelity back to pixel art helped me pay more attention to gameplay and intricate team building without realising. So much so that I was surprised when I entered a new beautiful environment or noticed a small subtle character animation that was perfectly timed for a story-beat and realised my imagination had been filling the gaps… just like the way it used to!

Speaking of the gameplay – I loved it. It is just simple enough to be accessible, and just complicated enough to offer enough depth that it will drive some people crazy. Your team of characters gain levels like typical RPGs. The key difference is characters have personal levels along with ‘jobs’ that need to levelled separately – and the strategy is in finding the best balance of job combinations and learned job skills to achieve each battle’s objective. You want to load your team with knights and beat enemies into submission? A bit basic but definitely doable. You want to build a team worthy of taking on the Elite 4, with casters, DPS, a tank and a support? Easy! Or do you want to build a team that wipes each map in just a few turns? ….with loads of grinding and careful planning, your investment will pay off spectacularly. I’m not sure how but despite my being incredibly time poor with a young family the Final Fantasy Tactics is so well tuned it rewards my time and patience with each battle and story beat.

If turn-based battlers are not your vibe then you may find Final Fantasy Tactics a bit of a hard sell unless you are playing on ‘Squire’ mode in order to enjoy the story and blend of art with narrative. I would still recommend giving it a try, even if only to experience how impossible it is seems that Square (Enix) managed to fit so much bloody game into this in 1997, so much that it holds up so well in 2025. There is enough jargon in the narrative that for some it will be too much like ‘Game of Thrones’, and it is heavy with political fantasy intrigue. But don’t worry, none of that gets in the way – there is a beautiful ‘fast forward’ mechanic if you just want to hit people and gain levels in the Enhanced edition. I think most gamers who managed to spend 3-4 hours with it will know very quickly if it is a game for them – and even if it’s not your vibe, I think you will have gained an appreciation of what an accomplishment Final Fantasy Tactics must have been in 1997, and still is now.

Final Thoughts?

I don’t have any criticisms for Final Fantasy Tactics – The Invalice Chronicles except the title. Sure, there are games with better stories, or pixel art, or strategic depth; or games with deeper and richer worlds to explore. But the longer I played Tactics the more I kept asking myself how they had managed to fit so much game into a small package. The balance of story, the intricate levelling system, the quaint pixel art and music, with the new addition of rich voice acting – all of it brought Final Fantasy Tactics to life for me in a way that I was not expecting (and I had high expectations). I reckon this Tactics remaster is one of the few games I’ll come back to each year just to refill my cup and remind myself how good this kind of gaming can be.