Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles marks the latest remake of the 1997 game Final Fantasy Tactics. With polished graphics, gameplay enhancements, and voice acting, this 2025 release is likely to be hailed the definitive way to play Tactics – and not only because it’s the game’s first foray into modern consoles and PC. This means gamers old and new can experience Ramza Beoulve’s story. Fans of Final Fantasy VII, however, are treated again to something special: a secret, special subplot involving Cloud and Aerith.
First released on PlayStation in June 1997 (or January 1998 for North American audiences), Final Fantasy Tactics marked the very first game that Final Fantasy VII characters would cameo in. Players who had just experienced Cloud’s story were shocked to find him a recruitable character in the world of Ivalice. Tactics suggests that Cloud, still reeling from Aeris’s tragic death and possibly lost in Lifestream in during the events of Final Fantasy VII, had been transported to Ramza’s world. In Ivalice, he meets another Aeris – a girl who looks identical to the woman he loved and lost.
Tactics was rereleased in 2007 as Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions for the PlayStation Portable (PSP), this time with a new translation. To learn more or read how the scripts compare, check out an article I wrote awhile back detailing Cloud and Aeris’s story in Tactics.
It’s the War of the Lions version of the script that serves as the basis for the 2025 Ivalice Chronicle’s voice acted localization. To watch all their scenes with English voices, check out this YouTube video below.
There is one little difference worth noting, however.
2007 War of the Lions
Cloud: I’ve lost something… something very important.
2025 Ivalice Chronicles
Cloud: I’ve lost someone… someone important.
Of course, in both cases, contextually the “something” or “someone” important is Aerith. His entire field trip into Ivalice is centered around his grief for her passing.
The Japanese version of the original line calls back to Cait Sith’s ominous prophecy in Final Fantasy VII – that Cloud would find what he was looking for, but lose what he cherished most (that which was very important to him.) The phrase 大切なもの is recycled for Tactics, and もの is a term that can be translated as “something” or “someone” depending on context.
This ambiguity led some fans (specifically those that dislike the Clerith pairing) to speculate that Cloud, in Tactics, is not referring to Aerith as the very important thing he lost – but rather his sense of self, or some other object.
However, it seems that the Japanese version of 2025 Tactics also revised the line.
Instead of saying 大切なもの, Cloud now says he lost a 大切な人 – with 人 explicitly meaning a person. While still a silly argument within the context of Cloud’s Tactic’s plotline, the revised line diminishes any room for argument. Cloud lost an important someone – as he notes to Ramza immediately after seeing Ivalice’s Aerith.
The voice acted lines also allow us to hear Cloud utter a variation of his famous line upon Aerith’s death – notably absent in Rebirth.
Hearing Cloud articulate the pain of his fingers tingling and eyes burning, then beg Sephiroth to stop is enough to crack hearts. This is mended, just a little, perhaps, by Cloud finally expressing his desire to Ramza to go to the Promised Land – the place he believes Aerith is.
Cloud: I have to get there — to the Promised Land.
After all, as Cloud says in Final Fantasy VII’s ending:
Cloud: I think I’m beginning to understand. An answer from the Planet… the Promised Land… I think I can meet her… there.
Earth & Sky: A Cloud x Aeris Love Story 
It’s interesting to note also that a new line of dialogue was added for Cloud in the Remaster where he says: “Whatever fate has in store for me, I’m not gonna let it get in my way. And I’m guessing it’s the same for my other self.” Since the version of him in Tactics is categorized as a “copy” of Cloud (from the FFVII world) he’s basically saying the Cloud of FFVII won’t let fate get in his way either. Curious!
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