Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles' new voice acting makes it feel like a whole new game

Final Fantasy Tactics is good. Some even say it's great, magnificent, spectacular, or go as far as to say “genre-defining”. I find my own opinion sitting comfortably towards the latter end of that spectrum, but for a long time, it hasn't been the easiest title for new players to try out or veterans to revisit. Among Square Enix's extensive backlog of masterpieces, a remaster for Tactics is one that has been most clamored for, and at long last, they are delivering with Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles. During PAX West, we had the opportunity to sit down for an hour-long demo, checking out the very start of the game and one of the pivotal encounters of the story. Brief though it may have been, I'm even more excited to get my hands on the final game than I was going into the demo.

The Ivalice Chronicles adopts a brand new UI that looks wonderful and goes a long way in making one of the biggest hurdles of combat – the relationship between charge times of skills and turn order – almost a non-issue altogether. Alongside simply looking generally clean and perfectly incorporated into the aesthetic of the existing game and world, the element that I appreciate the most is the inclusion of a turn-order bar on the side of the screen, not to dissimilar to the one found in Final Fantasy X. Whenever you highlight an action you may potentially want a character to take on their turn, you will see where that will place them in the turn order. For a standard attack, move, or waiting character turn, while it is nice to know when they will act next, this bar is especially helpful when it comes to spells, summons, and other abilities that work on a casting/charge time.

The new UI removes any mystery surrounding when that attack will go off, what enemies may possibly move out of the way, or act before the ability goes off. To this day, figuring out the formula for accurately predicting the charge times and what character will go next eludes me. No more crossing my fingers that the dastardly boss I'm targeting with my Firaga spell will wander into a cluster of my allies, causing them all to get hit by the massive fireball, too. It's remarkable how the addition of a single bar on the side of the screen can make a game so much more approachable and user-friendly.

One new feature that Ivalice Chronicles has is the ability to view the map from a straight-down birds-eye view, similar to what was done in 2022's Tactics Ogre remaster. However, disappointingly, you aren't able to move your units in this view, meaning that while it may give a good lay of the land, unhindered by buildings or terrain heights blocking the view of the battlefield, you will still have to contend with those when moving your troops around. If I had one hope for the game before release, it's that the team adds in the ability to command units from this unobstructed view (and to let you toggle between the view instead of pressing and holding a button, which is how it was handled in the demo).

While not impacting the direct moment-to-moment gameplay, I may argue that the inclusion of spoken lines of dialogue has done more for Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles than anything else. Though my time with the game was relatively brief, I can't understate just how much gravitas and emotion even those few lines I heard add to this game. Tender moments such as the final words of Ramza's father to his sons or even the frustrated quips of the thieves the ackademy recruits are sent to deal with all hit so much more here. More than anything else, I think I'm most excited to hear memorable lines spoken for the first time.

For Ben Starr fans (and honestly, who isn't at this point, the man is a damn treasure), had I not known who he voiced prior to playing the demo, I would not have placed him. His delivery is decidedly more subtle here, and knowing what's to come, I can't wait to hear his delivery.

As much as I love the new voiced dialogue, what left me most baffled – and that I hadn't given much thought to or really put together – was that this new remaster lacks a redone soundtrack. For a company that has given fans some of the most epic redone and rerecorded soundtracks like the beautiful orchestral Dragon Quest III HD-2D tracks, Romancing SaGa's redone works, and of course, the Final Fantasy VII Remake project's OSTs that I will happily blare at max volume any chance I get, Final Fantasy Tactics has oddly not received the same treatment. What exists is still lovely, and the remastered version sounds uncompressed, but this is Square Enix we are talking about. Where are my orchestral performances of tracks like “Under the Stars” or “Trisection”? It feels weird to me.

It isn't long now before fans of TRPGs can once again visit the lands of Ivalice and fight through the dramatic battles of the Zodiac Brave Story. I may not have been able to try out the original version of Final Fantasy Tactics that is also included in this release, but what I played of the refined and modernized version left me even more eager to play it than I was going in. I can't wait to re-experience this timeless tale and hear it for the first time.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles releases on September 30, 2025, for Nintendo Switch, Switch2, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series S/X, and Steam.