Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles: Which difficulty setting is right for you?

Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles features three difficulty settings, which you can change anytime you’re not in battle. This is a fantastic choice, because as we learned in our interview with Kazutoyo Maehiro, one of the big criticisms of the original FFT was that it was entirely too difficult. Honestly, I can see where they’re coming from, even though I only play on the Tactician difficulty.

As a long-time player of the original Final Fantasy Tactics, there are so many fights that were brutal if you didn’t have the right setup for them. Whether it was random encounters, or specific boss fights like trying to rescue Rapha, I can think of a handful of battles that just felt unfair. As you dive into this incredible remake, here’s what I think of the difficulty options.

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Which difficulty should you pick in Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles?

When you first boot up Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles, you can pick between one of three difficulties: Squire, Knight, and Tactician. You can also change this at any time by going into the settings; provided you aren’t in the middle of a battle at least. Here are the descriptors of each difficulty setting:

There's no wrong answer; pick what's best for you (Image via Square Enix)

• Squire: Squire mode features easier battles, allowing you to concentrate on the story.
• Knight: Knight mode is carefully balanced to allow you to experience the thrill of battle.
• Tactician: Tactician mode offers a greater challenge, with more demanding battles.

Squire difficulty is for the player who is new to tactical RPGs, or for people that found Final Fantasy Tactics to be entirely too difficult. There’s no judgment, and nothing wrong with that. If you just want to enjoy this incredible story of political and religious strife, just pick it up and put it on Squire. The enemies are less aggressive, and you’ll still get to experience everything.

If you thought that perhaps FFT was just a shade too difficult, and you struggled in fights where you had to protect characters like Mustadio, I recommend Knight difficulty. It’s a nice middle ground, a decent blend of challenge, but not quite so brutal. However, if you want the True Final Fantasy Tactics experience, play on Tactician difficulty.

I cannot tell you how many times I restarted this map because of unfortunate RNG (Image via Square Enix)

Personally, I have played the entire game on Tactician, even when I figured I should bump it down to make level/job grinding easier. It’s the same difficulty you experienced on the PlayStation, without a doubt. One thing I noticed that felt new and exciting, was the early game.

It seemed like every single time an enemy could counter, 9 out of 10 times they would. It was incredibly vexing, but also forced me to change how I approached even the most basic of random battle. It evened out in the middle-late game, but in the early game, it was crushing to watch every single enemy hit with Counter, or Counter Tackle.

If you want to have to focus and really put in effort in Final Fantasy Tactics, and potentially reset a fight eight or nine times because Rapha ran right into the line of fire of the Ultima spell, then you want Tactician. I think most players will probably be right at home on Knight, though. Tactician’s for the long-time fans that remember how hard the original game was, and want that feeling back.

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Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles launches on September 30, 2025, and is truly a masterpiece. You can learn more about the revived genre-defining tactical RPG in our in-depth review.