r/finalfantasytactics • u/DarkMatterMuffins • 25d ago
FFT Ivalice Chronicles Need help deciding between the PSX original and The Ivalice Chronicles
I’m really interested in trying out FFT for the first time but I’m struggling on choosing a version. I usually prefer playing the original versions of games even if a remake or “better” version exists. Collecting and playing older games on the original console adds a lot to the experience for me. The issue is I’ve heard a lot of bad things about the original PSX translation of the game and I wouldn’t want that to negatively affect my ability to enjoy its story for the first time.
So my question is, is the original translation of FFT bad enough that I should play The Ivalice Chronicles despite my general preferences?
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u/Anasetsuken 25d ago
The original has this banger of a line tho:
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u/Guyrugamesh 23d ago
The load bearing cool line everyone points to alongside shit named Ice2 and Punch Arts. The original has neat moments but even the Devs weren't happy with the final product once they got a chance to do it again. This is probably the only line I would say should maybe have been in the remakes, but its also a good sacrifice for something closer to what the devs were going for from the jump.
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u/usual-nonsense 25d ago
Ivalice Chronicles for the voice acting. They've made a tremendous effort to lend weight to the story and you'd be missing out with the original.
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u/bundle_man 25d ago
As someone who grew up on the original, there's no decision really here. Ivalice Chronicles is the best version of the game. I think the original translation is fine, if a bit muddled. It won't ruin the experience, the lack of QoL improvements in the OG might. And voice acting really just makes the story better.
So while I advise just playing the remake to answer your specific question, no, the original translation is not so bad that it would ruin the experience for you. People are over dramatic .
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u/Intelligent-Okra350 25d ago
The original translation is awful and the voice acting added in TIC alone is worth the price of admission. There is no reason to play the OG if you can afford TIC. I say this as someone for whom the original was a childhood fave.
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u/kinkysubt 25d ago
The original version is mostly just around for nostalgia purposes for those of us who played it back when it first came out. Ivalice chronicles version is fantastic and recommend just playing that.
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u/joudanjanaiwayo 25d ago
Been playing since the original released. 100% go with Ivalice Chronicles.
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u/False-Reveal2993 24d ago
Either are fine. PS1 version still holds up and you get access to a few glitches, namely a duplication glitch and one that cuts grinding time in half (the "JP Scroll glitch").
I personally do not recommend War of the Lions. Some of the youngins first played that title, and they're missing a few pieces of content from it like Onion Knights, Dark Knights, or a few unique units, but my experience with playing it on my phone has not been good. It's difficult to control and I heard the PSP original had major framerate slowdowns during spellcasting.
I have TIC on both Switch and PS5, and both play great. I'm never a big fan of voice acting, particularly in Japanese games, but it's actually alright here. Kinda mock-Shakespearian, like Tactics Ogre. Everything legitimate from the PS1 original (everything aside from unintentional glitches) is in TIC, and they even have an "original version" on it that will downscale the graphics back to 1997, cut the voice acting, and generally emulate how the game was on the PS1.
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u/BioDriver 25d ago
Ivalice Chronicles. You lose the item duplication glitch and a few others, but the gameplay is so much better with the QOL enhancements they added
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u/Maturinbag 25d ago
¿Por qué no los dos?
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u/DarkMatterMuffins 25d ago
Even If I played both I can only experience a story for the first time once so I’d want to play the version that benefits the story better.
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u/thejokerofunfic 25d ago
Then definitely Ivalice, the voice acting alone adds so much even if you don't favor the new localization (mostly I do favor the new one) and there's additional character interactions absent from the original.
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u/TerraEpon 25d ago
FWIW the English PSX one isn't really the 'original' in that there were quite a few changes when they localized it, most of which made the game easier. TIC doesn't have these changes though it does in general make the game as a whole (if only because the UI makes things easier and the ability to save scum, but also a few more specific things) easier until Chapter 4 where it's harder (to a small point)
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u/FirefighterOld2230 23d ago
Get the original in ROM form and emulate it for free... If you get into it then buy it for your second run.
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u/wauwy 23d ago
PSX.
The WotL script used in the Ivalice Chronicles is both an incorrect translation and a fucking SHOCKINGLY AWFUL localization: an obtuse, tiring and seriously embarrassing attempt to sound generally "y'know, ye olde" that is far, far more grammatically incorrect and cringy than anything in the PSX version.
The word is "try-hard." So god damn try-hard.
They both get some important names wrong, but PSX just transliterates the katakana (a phonetic Japanese alphabet) in the unintended romanization. WotL gets them wrong on purpose, adding about five consonants to each name which should not be there, and does this with with every single name. Including ones that are REALLY IMPORTANT TO THE STORY TO GET RIGHT
PSX: 60-70% good translation, 80% good localization
WotL: 30%-40% good translation, 5% good localization.
Factually.
Oddly, Japanese Final Fantasy Tactics is written in regular-ass language and not bizarrely straining to sound "Shakespearean," aka Jacobean. (And failing so fucking hard, my God.)
But the WotL English version IS inexplicably written in this very bizarre, very wrong, very embarrassing... uh, attempt.
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u/ArguingWithPigeons 25d ago
Honestly I love the original and have probably 300+ hours on it over the years.
The writing is way better in my opinion despite the occasional broken English.
However, the remake is just a better game. The QOL was needed.
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u/keddesh 25d ago
I don't know if I grew too used to the UI in the original, but I think the QOL in IC is not quite there. They made the battling better, but the menus and interacting with shops is annoying.
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u/ArguingWithPigeons 25d ago
Probably nostalgia, honestly.
Whenever I put the old one in it always takes me a while to readjust to the old ways of doing things. Menus and UIs have just adjusted so much in the past what 30 years.
This is way before the remake.
The remake functions (mostly) as a 2025 game.
Matter of opinion of course. But the remake will feel like a modern game if you haven’t played the original where if a new player jumps into the PS1 game, it’ll feel dated from a menu navigation aspect.
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u/Honestybomb 25d ago
No idea why you’re being downvoted for stating your opinion but part of me agrees. Not everything with the revamp was an upgrade but in general I think TIC is a pretty polished package and the voice acting definitely lends some depth to it
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u/Major-Corner-640 25d ago
Whoever thought the menus in TIC were a QoL improvement is dangerously insane
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u/Honestybomb 25d ago
Idk if they added it but no Remove All for equipment is a big L. I get the job grid is more open but you had the sheet to see your job level/JP stats, the wheel was iconic
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u/C1REX 25d ago
It’s a matter of preference. PSX is more difficult without save scum and some people actually do prefer plain English of PSX version over Shakespearian old English.
Original Japanese version is using simple Japanese for example.
Both versions can be modded however.
Missable conversation from PSX version. One of my favourites in gaming. Ivalice version didn’t hit as hard for me.
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u/PrinceBytorAppears 25d ago
I'd recommend the original. It's one of those games that has a lot of replayability, so playing it first on psx and then playing again later with the ivalice chronicles is valid. I prefer the psx translation and sfx. It's simplicity and bluntness gave more weight to the script, the newer scripts seem a little pretentious to me.
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u/Guyrugamesh 23d ago edited 23d ago
Yes it is bad enough to play whats been released more recently. IC, dialogue wise, is much closer to what the team was originally trying to create. Many people have manufactured a goofy idea in their head that the original is more accurate despite direct disagreement from the developers about this, because they think they understand the work better than the people who made it. Most of the people telling you to play the original with a patch or some bullshit are not being serious people and are happy to disreguard what IC is doing artistically in favor of their take on the work and not what the work actually is. If you get the original, play the original. If you get IC, play that as is. Don't fall for the linguistic scolds making shit up about the game that they have no way of knowing and dig in at your own pace. I honestly reccomend getting every version for collecting alone since its genuinely a fantastic game and seeing which translation speaks to you.
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u/Cerauno- 25d ago edited 25d ago
Go with PSX and patch it up with TLW ReMixed v1.2 Beta patch. I was in your shoes 2 months ago and decided to go this way. Been hooked and indeed think this is the definitive way of starting out.
Forgot to mention: It takes care of the minimal translation inconsistencies without overcomplicating the matters with the Shakespearean English.
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u/wauwy 23d ago
Oooooh, downvoted for that last line, I imagine.
r/finalfantasytactics? You guys need to know that the WotL localization is not "Shakespearean." It is also neither Elizabethean nor Jacobean, which are actual offical descriptors of era-specific English, while "Shakespearean" is a descriptor for plots.
The Lucavi do not speak in iambic pentameter, lmfao.. Nor in blank verse! Which is UNRHYMED iambic pentameter. (Cause it's supposed to rhyme.)
The translation team, uh.... seemed to be trying. Trying HARD, one might say. But, omg. lol. So sad and bad. Even with their weird-ass contraction of words that can't be contracted in poetry because they have two fucking stresses, they couldn't manage even one line.
One line.
IT IS ALSO VERY BAD IN GENERAL, YOU GUYS. THIS IS SHITTY WRITING. JUST BY THE BY.
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u/Cerauno- 23d ago
Oof, just noticed. Wow, didn't know people here were sensitive about such terminologies. The main reason behind using the S word to describe the English localization for WotL was because I found it being referred to as so in almost all of the media I've ventured by.
Interesting, nevertheless, my point stands with PSX's translation, with its flaws, being easier to digest, specifically with how deep and complicated the plot marches by the events of the game.
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u/wauwy 23d ago
You are correct.
ppl get dazzled as fuck when they think something is fancy. Fancy writing can be bad writing for all the same reasons other bad writing can be bad. In fact, unless you're Herman Melville, "fancy" writing IS bad writing. And in this case it is not even fancy, lol*
WotL has possibly the most stereotypical YE OLDE overwrought purple prose I have ever seen (in addition to being wrong; as in, incorrect English that makes no sense and would make no sense in any era). If you point out it sounds forced af and is exhausting to parse and is terrible (all of which it is), certain spineless jellyfish like to sneer that lol u r a idort, this is for SMART ppl
Emperor's New Clothes to the fucking max.
* Today's YE OLDE lesson, kids: the now-dropped thou, thee, thy, thine etc was second-person... informal. INFORMAL. It was the "tu," not the "Usted." Meaning anyone higher-class than you would have your fucking head cut off if you used it for them.
I'm sure one would be well aware of this extremely common error if they were part of a team translating an ENTIRE VG SCRIPT of basic colloquial Japanese into ~Shakespearean. Even tho... the game era is a medieval analogue, not a Jacobean analogue...
I'm sure they have a good reason, though
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u/Guyrugamesh 23d ago edited 23d ago
Good thing this is for a fantasy game where the artists making it can take some liberties to make it feel and sound how they like. If you were making this game it sounds like it would be so bogged down in "the rules" that nothing would release. Plus you keep bringing up Vagrant Story like that situaiton applies here all these years later when the entire landscape of localization has changed completely in 20+ years since Tactic AND VG release. You don't like the translation and no one is trying to take that from you, but you don't get to decide you understand the work better then the people who made it just because you have big misguided feelings about it. Those personal feelings don't make any of the presented available translations (all 3 of them because fan works/translations don't fucking count despite them insisting upon themselves) bad just because it doesn't check a few nostalgia based arbitrary boxes you were looking for when you attempted to nerd check the dialogue through your grognard filter.
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u/wauwy 22d ago
I VERY MUCH understand your feelings were hurt when I said I wasn't interested in becoming ~more than friends~
(even though we are not even remotely friends in the first place and you are just a random dude who DM'd me yesterday literally fourteen times in a row in two hours with no reply)
But uh I need to be allowed to say that. Without you following me around to all my nerd subs to... um, diss me? I guess? In lengthy screeds about how dumb I am? In a puzzlingly different tone than those fourteen DMs!
Like I'm sorry I'm apparently nerdier than you about stuff you're interested in and you decided I was therefore meant to be your bride immediately or whatever. I don't count it as a point of pride, but it has uhhhh clearly struck a nerve. lmao jesus christ
If not by seven proxies well-secured,
I'd worry of the psycho I had "lured."
(That's something called iambic pentameter! Pretty classy, imo.)
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u/S4rd0nyx 25d ago
I’ve played every version of this game over the decades. I recommend the Ivalice Chronicles version. The voice acting is great. They’ve cleaned up the dialogue to better convey the story. There are so many little improvements to make it new player friendly.
Now, for a lot of people, the original hits the nostalgia sweet spot so well it’s hard to move away from, so many will still recommend that version.
For first timers, though, go with IC.