Final Fantasy Challenge: Final Fantasy Tactics Part II. “My lord, you appear to me as a warrior in his prime.”

Copyright Square Enix

He really wasn’t kidding. Orlandeau shows up with all of Agrias’s skills, all of Gaffgarion’s skills and all of Meliadoul’s abilities and she doesn’t even join your team until well after Orlandeau joins. The game really does lose a lot of its challenge once Orlandeau starts smiting fools left and right. Hell, part of the issue I had with Zalera was because I had him as a dragoon to unlock samurai so he could get Shirhadori, just to make him even more invincible. Then he killed Ultima.

Setting all of that aside, Final Fantasy Tactics really was a beautiful game. I’ve mentioned before that I bounced off of it twice, and part of me kind of regrets not really finishing it until now. However, a lot of the quality of life improvements brought in from the Ivalice Chronicles are kind of why I got through it. Being able to see where I can put my soldiers on the field, being able to fast forward through the long spell animations and long conversations on a redo and being able to check where things are at each town really help get through some of the rougher patches of the game. That said, unlike, say Final Fantasy II, where the remaster basically makes it playable in general, the remaster here just kind of caters to my weaknesses. This game is phenomenal even without the quality of life improvements.

One thing that struck me every time I played was the sprite work and polygon work. The Ivalice Chronicles has a smoother look, designed for my 1080p flatscreen monitor, than it did for my best friend’s 13 inch 480p scanline TV that he played the original on in his bedroom. Most of the time, when these sprites get smoothed out, they look a lot worse (see also the terrible character sprites for the mobile versions of Final Fantasy V and VI), but the artists here really understood why the sprites were made in the first place. They understood how the sprites were originally made with scanlines in mind, used that to smooth them out and they look accurate. Nearly every screen, every diorama-inspired scene, had me just staring in awe at something. Either animation work, character designs or just something cool in the background that had tons of detail. Not just in cutscenes, either, but in battles. There’s this fight at the bottom of Orbonne, before you go into the Ruins of Mullonde at the end of the game, and you fight on these stacks of giant books against a bunch of wizards in a magic circle, rent apart by their spell. It looks so cool, really evoking the feel of fighting in a magic library. It also reminded me a bit of the fight in the Library of the Ancients in Final Fantasy V, with the enormous books. A little bit of the Great Gubal Library from Heavensward as well, but I do think that the Library dungeon was a shout out to both of these in the first place.

What really puts this game into S-tier along with XII, XIV and VI (and maybe XVI) is the same reason all of those wound up in S-tier. This story is so good. I always knew the story was well done, I mostly bounced off due to mechanical issues, but I never got past the gallows and I missed so much good stuff. The complicated politics is just a part, but the themes of power is what really kept me in. Ramza’s journey from naive squire to a true Gallant Knight, who is willing to save the country and the commonfolk regardless of what it costs him is wonderful. As he grows to understand what power is, and how it can be used, he uses it not for himself, but for the other people. Delita, of course, is also doing this, but he’s so far gone after Tietra’s death, he’s someone who winds up sacrificing his own happiness, even his actual love for Ovelia, for power. He spends his life miserable and lonely, and something of a hypocrite. He would die for Ovelia, but when she stabs him, he stabs her on reflex (yes, and Matsuno said they lived unhappy, but successful lives as monarchs after) proving he still sees himself first. Meanwhile, Ramza does get power, but he only uses it for other people. As such, he never sacrifices his happiness for power, instead going the other way around. He and Alma, and probably Orlandeau, Mustadio, Agrias, Beowulf, Reis, Worker 8, Meliadoul, Rapha, Marach and all of my dudes and their chocobos, got to live their lives free and happy. Away from the petty struggles of nobles, away from the machinations of demons and militant zealots. It’s a bittersweet tale, and I loved every second of it.

I will say, mechanically, it does only fall into A-Tier. I love that you can customize each guy in your warband. I’ve recently gotten into Warhammer and painting minis. While I don’t see myself building an army, I might do Kill Team. One thing I like about that is customizing my dudes, and that was something I loved here. I spent most of my 47 hour playtime (where I did Midlight’s Deep, the sidequest and all of the Errands in addition to beating the game) grinding side battles to make my party into cracked-out badasses. Ramza ended the game dual wielding an Excalibur from Midlight’s Deep and Save the Queen, with a Brave of 97 and a Shiriahdori, making him damn near invincible. That was cool. What wasn’t was that a lot of the fights are just kind of cheap.

I love the idea that the game is about outsmarting the enemy. You’re outmanned and outgunned in most story fights because you’re not a powerful badass, you’re an outlaw on the run. Even when you personally are an unkillable badass, you’re still out gunned. There’s also the idea that power isn’t good, and that smarts, caring for your people and selfsacrifice are important themes in the story, and having Ramza’s company constantly on the backfoot supports these themes, tying them directly into the gameplay. I love that shit. Unfortunately, it also means that sometimes you start a fight poisoned, or you have to fight Wiegraf in a duel, then he turns into a demon who can just spam cast Lich. Then you have to prevent Rapha from committing suicide by assassin when she’s really determined to do that. Riovannes was a nightmare. That second fight with Count Elmodre was a pain in the ass, with the assassins having auto-kill abilities with a 100% success chance, Elmdore’s parry being almost as high as Ramza’s and also they kept fucking casting Charm on Cid. That’s the worst guy to have charmed. I also gave him Shirihadori, so I couldn’t hit him. I didn’t even steal the Masamune from him.

Anyway, I get that it’s the point, but some of the fights really are just kind of bullshit. Plus, some of the mechanics, like spells charging up and stuff do knock the game a bit. I think I got Cherry Blossom on Cloud to work once, ever. Eventually, you adapt and start working within the confines of the game, understanding what it wants, focusing on positioning, equipping the right accessories for the story missions and so on. However, those are things that are hard to know going in. This is really a Guide Dang It sort of game with some of these fights. I love them, I loved the challenge, and I made it through, but it doesn’t mean they weren’t kind of bullshit.

However ultimately, this is one of the best game I’ve ever played. It used to be #1 on my list of Top Ten games I thought were brilliant masterpieces but didn’t like and now it’s going on my Top 20. At least. The Ivalice Chronicles completely changed my mind, and I should have been able to do this sooner.