The hero at the center of Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is Ramza Beoulve. The son of a proud knight and scion of a noble bloodline, Ramza has all the makings of a grand hero, but that is not how history remembers him. Far from a gallant knight, he is remembered as a heretic who stood against the church. This erasure is by design. Ramza did embody all the virtues of a knight – he fought for the betterment of even those on the fringes of society and stood against corrupt powers – and in watching his story play out, it is hard not to think of the “heretics” of today’s politics.
It can feel gauche or out of place to do this, to tie the fictional fighting in Ivalice with the violence of the real world, but it’s not as if The Ivalice Chronicles’ creators are unaware of the fact that their beloved classic is releasing into a world of historic violence and ongoing political strife. In a much-cited statement made before the game’s release, Final Fantasy Tactics’ original director and scenario writer Yasumi Matsuno noted that, while he originally wrote the story during the time that Japan’s asset bubble-pop ushered in the Lost Decade, the remaster is also releasing into a world which is exceptionally charged and unstable.
“In 2025 – a time when inequality and division are deeply rooted in our society – I offer this story once again,” Matsuno said via social media. “The will to resist is in your hands.”
The world of Ivalice is rendered so vividly, it’s hard not to see Ramza’s tale as one applicable to the world it’s releasing into once again. As Delita Heiral, who began himself as a fellow knight, schemes his way through the war in order to both increase his own status and gain the power to end the conflict himself, Ramza proceeds with the earnest propulsion of a “traditional” RPG protagonist. History remembers Delita’s tale, honouring him as the commoner who rose to become king and unify the land, but a player’s journey through the Ivalice Chronicles reveals that it is Ramza’s honest chivalry – which time and time again leads him to speak out and confront those in power – which truly turns the tide of the war.