Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles Nintendo Switch 2, Switch 1, Steam Deck, & PC Port Impressions
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles launches next week worldwide for consoles and PC platforms. Ahead of its release, I've been playing the Steam, Switch, and Switch 2 versions of Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles to see how the game scales across Nintendo's hybrid consoles, PC port features, ROG Ally impressions, and also my Steam Deck recommended settings. If you haven't already done so, read our full review of Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles.
I will also have a longer comparison going over Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, Final Fantasy Tactics (The PS1 original), and how both compare with Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles across consoles and PC. Today's feature focuses on the Steam, Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2 Edition versions of Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles.
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Nintendo Switch 2 upgrade impressions
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles on Switch can be upgraded to the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition for free on the eShop. Since it is a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, save data and DLC is compatible between the Switch and Switch 2 native releases. As for visuals and performance, Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles on Switch 2 is capped at 60fps, but the visuals are a bit lacking when docked. I expected 1440p or 4K support docked given it looks crisp when playing handheld with its 60fps target. Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles looks a bit soft on my 1440p display across its menus and fonts. The gameplay itself looks fine, but it doesn't look like it is a native 1440p or higher resolution docked.
As of this writing, Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Nintendo Switch 2 Edition looks great handheld though, but I hope the minor performance issues when moving the cursor on the world map can be addressed. Beyond that, it is disappointing that Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Nintendo Switch 2 Edition doesn't actually do much beyond higher resolution support. There are no mouse controls or touch support here. Since Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles is also on PC from day one with mouse support, I was hoping to see it included for Nintendo Switch 2.
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Switch port impressions
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles on Nintendo Switch 1 is a very good handheld experience, but it looks subpar docked when played on a 1440p display. The resolution is noticeably lower than when playing the Nintendo Switch 2 version, but it delivers a polished handheld experience with only minor performance issues on the world map. In fact, the performance issues on the world map are not as prevalent on Switch 1 compared to Switch 2. This was quite surprising to see. If you were considering the Switch 1 version for portable play, it is good on the Switch OLED, but the load times are a bit longer than other systems.
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles PC port features and graphics options
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles on PC has support for both controllers and keyboard & mouse input, but the latter is only fully available for the enhanced Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles and not the classic Final Fantasy Tactics. When it comes to the display and graphics options, you can only adjust display mode (fullscreen, borderless, and windowed), resolution (720p to 4K), toggle v-sync, adjust brightness, and limit mouse cursor to window. There are no detailed graphics or display options beyond that. As of this writing, Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles is capped to 60fps on PC. While not really surprising, it is worth noting if you play at refresh rates not divisible by 60 which might cause scrolling issues.
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Steam Deck recommended settings and impressions
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles is marked Steam Deck Playable by Valve and not Verified. This is because Valve says some in-game text might be difficult to read. I disagree with this because none of the text here is as bad as some of the UI text in Elden Ring which Valve marked as Steam Deck Verified. Aside from that, Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles is a 16:9 game so you will have black bars on the Steam Deck's 16:10 display, but it has no other issues, and can actually scale above the Switch and Switch 2 versions both visually and with its input options that I will cover below.
When playing on the go, Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles has no issues maintaining 60fps with fast loading across the board. In fact, I was able to force 1440p resolution when playing docked on my monitor and still get a stable 60fps in the few hours I tested connected to my monitor. If you play at native 4K, you will see some drops outside gameplay in specific menus and during the animations for guest party members.
The only settings I recommend using on Steam Deck are enabling the right trackpad as mouse so you get precision movement instead of using the analog stick for cursor movement. This also means you can use the touchscreen to select where you want to target. This really elevates the handheld experience from being great to fantastic as far as I'm concerned. If you play on the Steam Deck OLED, remember to cap the device refresh rate to 60hz so you don't run into any scrolling or jitter issues when the game runs at 60fps on the 90hz display.
One thing I did notice is that, just like Dragon Quest Builders on Steam Deck, I had Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles launch with HDR enabled, but there isn't any in-game option for this so it looked washed out. I disabled HDR for the game using the launch option (DXVK_HDR=0 %command%) to prevent this from happening. It didn't happen for the first few days I played, but randomly happened a day later.
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles ROG Ally impressions
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles on ROG Ally, as you'd expect, has no issues. It runs at a stable 60fps with fast loading even on the 15W performance mode. If you play at 10W, it has some slowdown though. I recommend sticking to 1080p and using the 15W mode for the best portable experience on ROG Ally right now.
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles load times compared across Switch, Switch 2, Steam Deck, and PC
To test Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles' load times, I had a few different things I wanted to cover beyond the usual load time testing I do. Since it has both the Enhanced and Classic options, I wanted to test loading them, loading a battle, and also loading a story scene. For this, I had Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles installed to the internal SSD on Steam Deck and ROG Ally, Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles Nintendo Switch 2 Edition installed to the internal storage on Switch 2, and Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles installed on the SD card on my Switch OLED.
| Device | Dash to title | Version | Save | Story | Battle |
| Switch | 9-10 | 5-6 | 2 | 4-5 | 5-6 |
| Switch 2 | 7-8 | 4 | 1-2 | 4 | 4-5 |
| Steam Deck | 12 | 3-4 | 1-2 | 4 | 4 |
| ROG Ally | 7 | 3 | 1-2 | 3 | 4 |
Note: All the load times above are in seconds. Dash to title is loading from the dashboard to the game's title screen. Version represents loading a specific game version from the title screen. Save represents loading into a specific save file. Story represents loading a story scene. Battle represents loading a battle until you have control of the cursor.
The Switch 2 and ROG Ally boot the game up the fastest, but there isn't really much difference across the board here. Even the Switch version only feels a bit slow when it comes to loading the specific game versions compared to Switch 2. I was not able to test the Switch version on Switch 2 without the upgrade pack.
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles visuals compared across Switch, Switch 2, and PC
Given the aesthetic in Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles, the Switch 2 version when played at 1440p at least isn't too bad, but I wish the game was crisp on my monitor. Thankfully, it delivers a solid handheld experience on the Switch 2 screen. The same goes for the Switch version on the Switch OLED model. As for PC, Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles is not a heavy game to run at all, and it plays and looks as it should on PC handhelds delivering crisp visuals both docked and handheld without any performance issues even at higher resolution.
The area where the lower resolution is very noticeable is for the menus, portraits, and fonts in the UI. I've included a comparison featuring images taken via my capture device for docked and using the system capture for handheld compared with the Steam screenshot functionality. I've then taken a specific section of the same battle to showcase the differences. Make sure to load the image below full screen.
Which is the best portable version of Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles
Right now, the only advantage the Steam Deck OLED offers for playing Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles on the go is better battery life than the Switch 2 version and no performance issues in the world map with an obviously higher quality display. Since these minor performance issues are not during the actual stages at least in the opening hours I retested across all devices, I would say the Switch 2 version is a fantastic portable experience, but it feels a bit lacking when playing docked on a 1440p or 4K display compared to the Steam Deck version docked.
If you want to play Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles both on the go and on your TV, the Steam Deck delivers a better experience since it can render the game at higher resolutions than Switch 2 docked without performance issues. As for portable play, every version I've tested is good. Even the Nintendo Switch version on Switch OLED and the ROG Ally deliver great portable versions of Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles.
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles launches on September 30 for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Steam).