Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles Preview | PAX West 2025

Roger Reichardt
Sep 4
2 min read

I’m a huge RPG and tactical fan, so it goes without saying that Final Fantasy Tactics is one of my all-time favorites. At PAX West, I had the opportunity to play Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, and it lived up to my expectations. With its fantastic gameplay, engaging story, and amazing voice acting, my only regret is that I couldn’t play more.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles opens with a beautifully animated scene: soldiers riding through a forest on chocobos as the credits roll. I could have just skipped this, but it captivated me in such a way that few opening segments do. The art, a hand-sketched animated style, paired with epic music, set the stage for the grand adventure I was about to embark on.

Characters in medieval garb face off on a stone bridge by a tower. Green terrain surrounds them, creating a tense, strategic scene.

The game began with a short story-driven scene, where the riders from the intro storm a tower. My job was to protect the small outpost and Princess Ovelia inside said tower. This battle was pretty straightforward, especially since I had a lot of overpowered NPCs on my team. Thus, I made short work of the enemies. This led to another short battle, getting me familiar with the tactical aspect of the game.

After that battle, I was instructed by the Square Enix team to load a save file. I knew this was where the real battle was about to begin. I chose my team wisely: a black and white mage, plus an archer. Since a few NPCs joined my team as well, I wasn’t too concerned with the lack of a sword-wielding character, as most of the NPCs filled that role. In this battle, I cornered Ovelia’s kidnapper on a bridge. Quite a bit of the story unfolded here, and I don’t want to spoil it, but the voice acting brought to life the drama playing out on the screen.

Isometric game scene with characters on rooftops and a bridge. A small stream runs through the village. Bright colors, tactical setting.

This battle required me to place my team strategically, and true to the game’s genre, gaining the high ground early on was a primary goal of mine. The objective in this battle was to defeat the enemy and make sure Ovelia didn’t die. I positioned my white mage right below the bridge, away from any of the action, but close enough to cast healing spells if Ovelia needed help. I sent my black mage after the opposing army’s most powerful character. I made short work of him; he learned quickly that running away didn’t help when facing a fire caster. The battle was easily won, but a lot of fun. It felt like things could have gone south really fast if I hadn’t properly planned.

After that battle, another short narrative-driven segment played out, and again, I can’t stress this enough: the voice acting was superb and truly brought the game to life. My demo ended when the story segment finished, but the experience left a lasting impression. I’m already looking forward to diving deeper into the game. Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles releases on September 30th on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch 2, Switch, and PC.