It’s unclear exactly how big the audience is for an exceedingly faithful remaster of an RPG spin-off that came out over 25 years ago, even if it does have Final Fantasy in the name and is one of the best games ever made. But those who fell in love with Final Fantasy Tactics once they discovered it and have been obsessing about it ever since care very much about the upcoming Ivalice Chronicles remaster, especially what it will or won’t change about the original, and what it might mean for a potential sequel all these years later.
You can find my thoughts on what I played of Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles recently behind closed doors at PAX West 2025, but a recent barrage of interviews with the development team has provided some more clues about what fans can expect from the overhaul. The game isn’t out until September 30, but the director of the project has already been tipping his hand about some big questions I’ve had, including how the remaster approaches Final Fantasy Tactics‘ most broken characters.
Orlandeau Thunder God Cid will still be OP
Every Final Fantasy has a Cid, and Final Fantasy Tactics‘ is by far the most broken. He joins your party late into the game and comes with a full suite of magic sword abilities with no charge time that do incredible damage. He also arrives equipped with Excalibur, which auto-casts Haste on the user. He’s a wrecking ball that trivializes every fight, which is why I have a strict rule against ever using him.
If we remaster it, what do you think about whether it is better to weaken ” The Thunder God Cid”, who was accused of destroying the balance ?
— 松野泰己🐈⬛ (@YasumiMatsuno) June 1, 2023
It sounds like he will still be that way. “We haven’t made any changes to characters that were powerful,” director Kazutoyo Maehiro told Gamesradar. “And similarly, not just for the unique characters, but for jobs such as the arithmetician, we haven’t made any major changes.” While some classes like Archer have been buffed, the team wanted to avoid players experiencing any moments of “your favorite job got nerfed.”
FF7‘s Cloud won’t suck so much when you first get him
The Final Fantasy VII protagonist has an unusual cameo in Tactics, where he not only appears in the world but can be recruited and used in battle. I won’t get into the story details that explain Cloud’s arrival, but in the original game he’s kind of a pain to use, at least until you finish his side quest. That’s changing for The Ivalice Chronicles.
“We’ve made it so that his stats are adjusted a little bit. On top of that, he will come equipped with the Materia Blade when he joins your party initially,” Maehiro told Inverse. “So in terms of usability of him as a character, it will be much more approachable than it was in the original.” Players will also be able to recruit him earlier in the remaster, starting in chapter 4. It remains to be seen if the charging time and attack power on his Limit command will get the buffs they deserve.
The Wiegraf boss fight isn’t easier, but it won’t break your save file
Wiegraf is one of Final Fantasy Tactics‘ most tragic characters and most difficult enemies. Most first-time players are completely unprepared for the unique one-on-one fight with the ex-revolutionary that the game throws them into without warning about halfway through. Worse still, in the original game, the encounter happens inside a castle, wedged between two other encounters with no opportunity to go grind on the world map if you’re having trouble. Without a backup save, a playthrough can grind to a complete halt this way.
The Ivalice Chronicles doesn’t make Wiegraf easier, but it does offer a new option to back out of the fight if you’re having trouble. “We have the ability to retry battle, or when you’re doing consecutive battles, you can actually back out to the world map,” Maehiro told Inverse. “We have those types of features for accessibility and ease of play.” Players can also switch to the easy mode if they’re having too much trouble, or they can exploit one of the many strategies fans have come up with over the years to make easy work of Wiegraf and his OP holy sword attacks (including a glitch that’s still in the new version).
Genji armor stealing is back in a day-one patch due to popular demand
Another big fight in Final Fantasy Tactics is against Marquis Elmdore in the Limberry Castle. One of the things that’s unique about it is that Elmdore has a full set of Genji samurai gear that appears nowhere else in the game. Diligent players can spend the entire battle trying to steal it from him but it’s very difficult because, among other things, Elmdore has an ability that reduces the success rate below 20 percent unless you spend a lot of time debuffing him.
Stealing the armor was only possible in the U.S. version of the original game, not the Japanese version or the later War of the Lions port that was based on it. The option is coming back for The Ivalice Chronicles, though. “In interviews when the game was announced, we received a lot of feedback from fans both in Japan and overseas saying, ‘I wish we could steal Genji equipment,’” Maehiro told Famitsu. “Matsuno, the director of the original version, also mentioned the same thing, so we decided to make it possible to steal in the Enhanced Version. This will be reflected in a patch on the release date, so please connect online and apply the patch.”
The Time Mage’s all-powerful Teleport skill now costs 3,000 JP to unlock
This one cuts me to my core. Teleport is one of the best skills in the game, and you can have a character learn it very early as long as you grind for job points to unlock it in a couple of battles. It lets a character try to move anywhere on the battlefield, but the farther the square is from their current location, the lower the probability of success. On levels divided by castle walls or other difficult terrain, however, it makes it easy to dominate the battlefield.
In the original game, the skill only costs 600 JP. It’s a steal. Not so in the remaster. As pointed out by RPGFan, the skill now costs 3,000 JP to unlock. That’s going to be a whole lot of characters standing around attacking one another before a battle ends to grind for points. At least this way, finally obtaining the skill will feel a little less easy-mode.
Final Fantasy Tactics could still get (another) sequel
Final Fantasy Tactics is far from the only strategy RPG Square Enix has released, even in recent years. There were two spin-offs on Game Boy Advance back in the 2000s and more recently, the spiritual successor, Triangle Strategy, which is to Tactics what Octopath Traveler is to Final Fantasy VI. But for some fans, none of these games ever hit the way the original did and they’re still pining for some cosmic convergence that captures tactical-RPG lightning in a bottle a second time.
“Our first and foremost goal here really was to recreate the original game,” Maehiro told Wired. Though he can’t make any promises, there’s apparently a possibility The Ivalice Chronicles could get additional new content in a future update if the game sells well enough. “If [The Ivalice Chronicles] were to become a success,” he continued, “I do feel that that would then lead to discussions around potentially bringing out sequels, for example, or newer tactical RPGs.”
