At first glance, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, first released in 1997 and now available in newly remastered guise, does little to separate itself from other boilerplate fantasy fiction. There is a hero, Ramza – an idealistic nobleman with luscious blond hair who cavorts about the medieval-inspired realm of Ivalice in search of high adventure. But quickly, and with narrative elegance, the picture complicates: peasant revolutionaries duke it out with gilded monarchists; machiavellian plots plunge the kingdom into chaos. Ramza must navigate this knotty political matrix, all while experiencing his own ideological awakening.

There is a strong case to be made that Final Fantasy Tactics tells a better story than the landmark Final Fantasy VII (which saw Cloud Strife and a ragtag bunch of eco-terrorist pals taking on the shady megacorporation Shinra). And with our real-world political focus shifting from the looming threat of the climate crisis to the more pressing rise of fascism (though the two are inextricably linked), one can make the argument that Tactics is now also the more timely game.

In this remastered version, the plot still sparkles. Shakespearean dialogue is now fully voice-acted with delightfully hammy performances: you can practically feel the spittle on your face as one of the game’s royalist rotters delivers an incandescent tirade against the common folk.

Within this terrific political tapestry, you engage in the real meat of the game: turn-based combat of rare malleability. Each of your party – Ramza, lowborn Delita, and many more – has their own “job” (essentially, a character class), and these can be changed and subsequently remixed with few limitations (want to create a gun-toting mage? No problem!). This level of customisation, coupled with the exquisite diorama levels where the skirmishes take place, results in a symphonic take on chess.

These battles aren’t just riotous fun; they are also poetic. “I’ve been dealt a hand. I simply play it,” says one foe during a dramatic showdown at a cascading waterfall. The line speaks to the tragedy that gradually surfaces as you play through these square-gridded encounters – the sense that every character has been thrust into a maelstrom of events bigger than themselves. Heroes, villains, and everyone in between are but pawns on the battlefield, hurtling towards their own prefigured date with destiny.

The Ivalice Chronicles is not interested in narrative flexibility; its plot does not bend to the whims of the player like other RPGs. The story’s framing – recounted as a historical account in the distant future – makes this abundantly clear. As such, the game is less about fantasy and fairytales than history itself. Forget easy resolutions: here, events simply produce yet more events; trauma begets trauma. It is one battle after another for Ramza and his comrades.

This might sound doom-laden, and, in truth, it frequently is. Yet there is no mistaking the moral principles that suffuse writer Yasumi Matsuno’s stirring story of inequality, division, and pig-headed elites who seek to consolidate their already mighty power. Matsuno, who studied foreign policy before becoming an economic reporter, has described Final Fantasy Tactics as a work of “class struggle”. Now, in the time of No Kings protests in the US, the erosion of political rights in the UK, and the further enriching of the world’s hyperwealthy, the game feels even more resonant.

Ramza offers a model for resistance, and also a commentary on the struggle of opposition in such turbulent times. He is principled, uncompromising and always seeks to do right – and his reward is to be deemed a heretic by the most powerful institutions of his time.