You would think that Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles’ quality-of-life changes and graphical upgrades would classify it as a remake or remaster. However, the decision to exclude either term from the title was an intentional one by the dev team at Square Enix, as neither the Enhanced nor Classic version fit the bill in their opinion.
In an interview with 4Gamer, game director Kazutoyo Maehiro says that the main reason the devs went for the “Ivalice Chronicles” subtitle rather than naming the game “Final Fantasy Tactics Remastered” was that several of the original game’s core developers, including himself, director and writer Yasumi Matsuno, and artist and designer Hiroshi Minagawa, returned to work on the 2025 title. Instead of approaching it as a remaster, the developers wanted to “create a new Final Fantasy Tactics game in 2025 based on the original.”
Since a remake involves rebuilding the systems and graphics from scratch, The Ivalice Chronicles wouldn’t fall under this category, as it improves upon the graphics of the original. However, Maehiro argues that its Enhanced version cannot be classified as a mere remaster either. For reference, the new mode includes several additions such as full English and Japanese voice acting, new difficulty modes, and an updated user interface.
Maehiro admits that of the two versions included in The Ivalice Chronicles, the Classic version seems to be the closest to what is conventionally considered a remaster. Even so, the Classic version includes the translations used in the War of the Lions PSP version and new helpful features such as an autosave feature and several bug fixes.
Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles releases on September 30 for PC (Steam), PS5/PS4, Xbox Series X❘S, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2.
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