TL;DR - Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is a wonderful way to play this true classic of gaming, though some odd choices abound that will only matter for extant fans.
At Length - Recently I saw someone make the argument that while the medium of gaming is *capable* of having works that qualify as "true" pieces of art, perhaps considered "Capital A Pieces of Art," very few titles actually are because, as a multi-disciplinary medium, most games tend to lack in some areas. Basically, their argument was that you might find a game with great writing, but it would have horrible visuals, or a game with primo presentation but poor gameplay et cetera, and for a video game to be a true ART it would have to nail every element excellently.
Final Fantasy Tactics then, by that very high standard, is a true Piece of Art. It nails every single element of what a game should be receiving the highest of marks in Narrative, Gameplay, and definitely Presentation (especially once your realize Presentation includes the soundtrack, since, like many FF games, this game's OST is phenomenal).
It has one of the best conceived plots in all of video games, let alone the Final Fantasy series, and the actual dialogue and character writing that goes along with it is downright perfect. Since the War of the Lions retranslation (which the Ivalice Chronicles version is largely based upon) tackled the script with pseudo-Elizabethan English, the dialogue is poetically practical enough to be downright Shakespearean , which, with this version's excellent VO cast, comes to life like never before.
And, considering FFT's plot shares many of the same historical roots, it kind of wins a competition between it and Game of Thrones for "The best Pseudo-Historical Medieval Fantasy Based on the political machinations of the War of the Roses that evolves into a larger epic against a more existential threat" merely by actually having a decent enough ending that doesn't fumble the landing. George R. R. Martin WISHES he had the work ethic and skill of Yasumi Matsuno!
So FFT utterly NAILS the narrative aspect, and it's never been better handled than in this version.
But, it also works as one of the best Tactics games ever made, albeit for very small scale engagements and without getting overly complex. The gameplay systems in FFT, unlike much of what would come afterwards, are straight forward, but golden. This is the kind of perfect tactical simplicity that's preferable - in my opinion - for these kinds of games, and thankfully, unlike the later versions of Matsuno's *other* classic work, Tactics Ogre, this remaster doesn't do anything to screw with those fundamentals.
This game plays almost exactly like the original, with some very minor balance tweaks that are almost unnoticeable for the most part. The bigger additions to the core gameplay are mostly in adding some difficulty selections for both an easier and a harder campaign (and the harder "Tactician" difficulty really is no joke) as well as a few bonus "choose your own adventure" books that were apparently in the original JP version but which never got translated into more languages until now. There's also a New Game + mode here, but without using mods, you can't have 2nd runs adjust enemy levels to the player, so it's a bit of a missed opportunity.
As for the presentation? Well it's basically all an upscaled version of the original game with a filter to give some pseudo-pixel grain to the sprites which I think actually works quite well compared to other remastered games which smooth out classic pixel graphics too much on higher resolution monitors, along with a VASTLY improved UI. It's no HD-2D overhaul or FF7 Remake extravaganza, but frankly, I think the art style of FFT is practically perfect as is, somehow finding a balance between gritty low fantasy pulp art and adorable chibi cuteness, and while it might be neat to see a version that just redrew all the art and added more animation frames perhaps, too much messing around with what works might spoil this broth.
So yeah, FFT: The Ivalice Chronicles totally works up to the higher standards of what people might consider as true Art in the medium, and everyone who loves games SHOULD play this at least once.
But all that said, this is a weird release in that, it feels a bit incomplete as a "final version" of FFT, because while it does include a 2nd version of the game for those who want "the old school experience," it's a weird inauthentic mashup of the original PSX game with the WotL translation, which means most of the bonus content and characters of WotL gets lost while you also lose stuff like the old PSX era dialogue. I really don't know why they didn't just include the OG and WotL versions of FFT for those who want access to them. Having this odd crossbreed kind mish-mash just doesn't fit any demographic I can think of: if you don't care about those older versions, you'll never play this one, and if you do, then you know it's not complete.
This bizarre, compromised corporate committee element on what amounts to bonus content for this version aside, you REALLY should play this game. Even if you don't like Tactics games normally, make an exception for this one.
