Ultimate Fantasy Techniques: The Ivalice Chronicles is sort of the definitive technique to play what is well essentially the most influential ways sport ever made. Sq.’s stone-cold PS1 traditional, Ultimate Fantasy Techniques, has been reborn in all its isometric glory, that includes totally voiced dialogue and a stunning graphical Enhanced improve, in addition to the choice to play this timeless story of political machinations in its splendidly pixelated 1997 Basic type.
Sadly, the choice to axe content material launched in 2007’s Ultimate Fantasy Techniques: The Warfare of the Lions PSP re-imagining is a bitter draught to swallow, even when it does enable the developer to stay true to the unique imaginative and prescient of the sport.
Ultimate Fantasy Techniques: The Ivalice Chronicles introduces us, as soon as once more, to the colourful world of Ramza Beoulve, the third son of a noble home of incomparable lineage, and his childhood companion, Delita.
A commoner who grows to resent the privilege the the Aristocracy enjoys, Delita will rise to develop into a central a part of the violent class battle and civil warfare that wracks the dominion of Ivalice in a legendary battle referred to as the Warfare of the Lions, and Ramza, together with him.
The sport’s narrative is framed from an fascinating perspective; offered as a retelling of forgotten historical past, Delita is remembered because the hero of the age, with Ramza’s involvement being obscured for initially unknown political causes. Gamers expertise the turn-based motion from Ramza’s standpoint, and the various twists and turns of this story play out throughout 4 chapters and dozens of hours of tactical gameplay.
Fight is the place the overwhelming majority of this time will probably be spent, and it is nearly as immaculate because the style will get. Battlefields are made up of sq. tiles representing varied terrain varieties that should be negotiated to return to grips with the enemy. Items take turns to behave, in a position to transfer, make an motion reminiscent of assault or use an merchandise, then resolve which path to face, in any order the participant likes.
Ramza shouldn’t be alone on this quest; Ultimate Fantasy Techniques’ strong job system permits for a formidable quantity of customisation, and gamers can create generic characters to fulfil all kinds of direct fight and assist roles. Basic sequence archetypes, reminiscent of White Mages, Summoners, and Dragoons, characterize these, alongside extra obscure courses reminiscent of Geomancer, Orator, and Arithmetician.
Named characters will struggle alongside Ramza because the story progresses, typically becoming a member of the get together completely, and most of the time, will boast distinctive courses all their very own, reminiscent of Machinist or Holy Knight. A personality’s job class grants sure statistical benefits and determines the abilities that can be utilized and realized.
Along with incomes conventional expertise and levelling as much as enhance base parameters like HP and MP, utilizing a job’s distinctive talents earns job factors, which might, in flip, be used to unlock new and highly effective abilities.
Unlocking a talent is everlasting and can be utilized throughout jobs. The actual magic of the sport lies to find synergies between the 20 jobs out there, with essentially the most superior requiring a severe dedication to mastering all kinds of jobs with a single unit.
The dominion of Ivalice is made up of cities, castles, monasteries, and extra distant areas, represented by nodes on an ever-expanding world map. Because the story progresses, new locales will develop into out there, with others being briefly and typically completely closed off. Nodes might be revisited to grind for XP and job factors, they usually sometimes provide surprising random encounters.
Outfitters in main settlements will achieve new and highly effective gear at periodic factors, and equipping and tinkering with a personality’s varied jobs type one other central pillar of gameplay, alongside participating in fight and consuming prolonged narrative cutscenes.
Ultimate Fantasy Techniques’ well-written story has at all times been a big draw, and stays so. Whereas fairly sophisticated, with a dizzying array of characters and factions launched, mercifully, there’s a strong Chronicle mechanic that can assist you to preserve the varied key gamers in perspective.
An in depth Encyclopaedia and Occasion library means you will not confuse your Duke Larg’s along with your Duke Goltanna’s, or Ramza’s sadly named half-bothers, the Lords Dycedarg and Zalbaag. Additional, the State of the Realm display will replace after momentous occasions, exhibiting the place the varied factions are located and what territory their respective forces are at present occupying, in relation to Ramza’s personal.
The choice to forgo the extra content material launched within the Warfare of the Lions PSP iteration is considerably troublesome to get previous, particularly in case your sense of nostalgia is tied up with that iteration of the sport. Which means that the beautiful cell-shaded cutscenes, further jobs reminiscent of Darkish Knight and Onion Knight, multiplayer elements, and further facet content material (such because the inclusion of Ultimate Fantasy XII’s main man, Balthier, as a recruitable character) are usually not included. Ultimate Fantasy VII protagonist Cloud Strife can nonetheless be a part of your get together, supplied you soar by means of the requisite hoops.
Oddly sufficient, the Warfare of the Lions’ famously florid, Shakespearean script was retained, used as the idea for the dialogue in The Ivalice Chronicles, however was reworked to accommodate the totally voice acted textual content within the Enhanced model. Basic retains the flowery language of the PSP iteration, however practically three many years later, the unique video games’ graphics are fairly jarring, and Trophies are disabled on this mode.
Ultimate Fantasy Techniques might be extraordinarily difficult at occasions and requires fairly a little bit of grinding to maneuver ahead, a minimum of on customary problem. In The Ivalice Chronicles, the default setting is now referred to as “Knight”, with a better “Squire” and masochistic “Tactician” launched, for gamers who desire a breezier or tougher fight expertise, respectively.
There’s a small however much-appreciated set of recent conveniences launched in The Ivalice Chronicles that completely elevates the expertise past earlier iterations. The flexibility to hurry up fight is important, because the tempo of battle can in any other case really feel maddeningly gradual at occasions.
Equally, the overhauled UI makes predicting the result of actions rather more possible, and an autosave perform prevents pointless frustration and lack of progress if a struggle goes the improper means. Additional, a fight timeline clearly exhibits which characters’ turns are arising subsequent, important for correct tactical planning.
