Technologies

Final Fantasy Tactics: Ivalice Chronicles Director Says ‘That’ Boss Fight Still Wrecks Him

You’re not the only one who struggled against Wiegraf.

Last week was the first time I picked up Final Fantasy Tactics since finishing it back in 1998. One infamous boss battle scarred me so badly that I never went back — and given its reputation among fans, I know I’m not alone. So when I had the chance to talk with Kazutoyo Maehiro, part of the original dev team and now director of the upcoming remaster, Final Fantasy Tactics: Ivalice Chronicles, I jumped at it. I needed to know why they made that one fight so brutal.

My question for Maehiro: «Back then — 28 years ago — what was the original team even thinking with this fight?»

He laughed, as did the Square Enix PR team and interpreter in the room, clearly familiar with this question. Though it isn’t his favorite or the hardest fight — that honor goes to the Zeirchele Falls battle, a plot turning point that frustrated countless players with its early difficulty spike — the infamous fight I asked about looms far larger in players’ memories.

Arriving late in Chapter 3, the battle unfolds as two back-to-back encounters that form a brutal marathon. First up is a one-on-one duel between Ramza, the player’s protagonist, and Wiegraf, a recurring antagonist. Without careful preparation, this fight alone can feel impossible. After defeating him, players immediately battle Belias, the demon possessing Wiegraf, alongside his summoned monsters. For many, this moment is where their Tactics playthrough ended.

«At the time, having a battle that’s difficult for the sake of being difficult wasn’t necessarily seen as the correct thing to do,» Maehiro said through his interpreter. «In a way, it wasn’t necessary that we were trying to intentionally make it that difficult. It’s more so that it ended up being that way. And in retrospect, when I look back, I do think that the decision to make that battle as difficult as it was was the correct one.»

The new Final Fantasy Tactics: Ivalice Chronicles is a remaster of the original PlayStation game, which launched in 1998 in the US (1997 in Japan) following the blockbuster Final Fantasy VII. Unlike the main series, Tactics embraced the tactical RPG format popularized by Sega’s Shining Force and Nintendo’s Fire Emblem, requiring players to think carefully about unit positioning, abilities and turn order. Mistakes could wipe out your party quickly, a design choice that cemented the game as both beloved and intimidating.

The remaster lightly updates the game’s visuals, including its iconic character sprites and polygonal environments, while focusing on enriching other elements, such as adding fully voiced dialogue. Even minor enemies get voice lines, adding cinematic flair. The accents feel a bit theatrical, as if they’re voicing scenes from Game of Thrones, but they suit the game’s dark narrative of betrayal and political intrigue. Ramza’s journey through a war-torn kingdom was mature storytelling that I didn’t fully appreciate at 19 years old, but it resonates much more strongly now.

The most striking upgrades are «quality of life» improvements. Battles and dialogue can now be sped up with a fast-forward button — a godsend for a game known for its slow pace. My time with the preview was short, as it only included the first few battles of the game. It ended at the Dorter Trade City fight, the game’s first truly challenging battle, introducing new enemy types and set on a map filled with structures of varying heights.

Dorter Trade City is a pivotal introduction to a key element of the game’s combat. The vertical position of a character can be both beneficial and harmful: They can easily attack enemies farther away from a higher vantage point, but at that height, an enemy attack pushing them over the edge could mean instant death. A key disadvantage for players in the original and the remaster is that the computer-controlled opponents know all the pros and cons of certain heights, while the player has to learn on the fly. What I played in my preview felt true to the original game, especially that familiar crushing feeling of losing a battle due to misplayed moves.

Maehiro emphasized that players struggling with battles like these in the new Ivalice Chronicles now have options. Difficulty can be lowered and fights can be restarted instantly or abandoned entirely, making the game more accessible without losing its core challenge.

As mentioned earlier, Maehiro was on the original FF Tactics team as an evnt planner, responsible for directing scripted events such as character movement and animations during story sequences. At the time, he was a new developer, and now, years later, he can look back at his younger self — full of hunger and determination.

ç»I would feel very disappointed if I were to let down my past original team members,» he said. «In that sense, I really couldn’t let this project fail, and I felt some pressure from that as well. Looking through the archival material that exists in the past as well, it helped me reflect on my time over the past 28 years as a game designer. Having been able to come back to Final Fantasy Tactics after all that does make my chest swell with pride.»

Since the original Final Fantasy Tactics, Maehiro has worked on major Square Enix projects, including Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy XII and the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, eventually becoming creative director for 2023’s Final Fantasy XVI. But his connection to Tactics remains personal, especially when it comes to character jobs, a system that defined its depth and replayability, enabling players to customize their units with a dizzying array of options.

With over 20 jobs players assign to their characters, ranging from staples like Knight and Archer to unconventional picks like Calculator and Time Mage, Maehiro has his favorites. For efficiency, he prefers the Ninja, who can dual-wield weapons and throw items for big damage. For pure fun, though, he loves the Orator (originally called Mediator), a talking-based magic class capable of recruiting enemies, boosting allies or intimidating foes. It’s a fitting choice for a designer whose career has been built on strategy and storytelling.

Will I play Ivalice Chronicles and return to the game that left a mark on me almost three decades ago? Yes, but I’m going to make use of every QoL feature available to avoid spending days trying to defeat Wiegraf. I’m no longer a college kid wasting time to avoid studying; I’m an adult now, wasting time between writing assignments.

Final Fantasy Tactics: Ivalice Chronicles comes out on Sept. 30 for $50 on the Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, PC, PS4, PS5 and Xbox Series X and S.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, Feb. 21

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 21.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s the long Saturday version, and some of the clues are stumpers. I was really thrown by 10-Across. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: «Jersey Shore» channel
Answer: MTV

4A clue: «___ Knows» (rhyming ad slogan)
Answer: LOWES

6A clue: Second-best-selling female musician of all time, behind Taylor Swift
Answer: MADONNA

8A clue: Whiskey grain
Answer: RYE

9A clue: Dreaded workday: Abbr.
Answer: MON

10A clue: Backfiring blunder, in modern lingo
Answer: SELFOWN

12A clue: Lengthy sheet for a complicated board game, perhaps
Answer: RULES

13A clue: Subtle «Yes»
Answer: NOD

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: In which high schoolers might role-play as ambassadors
Answer: MODELUN

2D clue: This clue number
Answer: TWO

3D clue: Paid via app, perhaps
Answer: VENMOED

4D clue: Coat of paint
Answer: LAYER

5D clue: Falls in winter, say
Answer: SNOWS

6D clue: Married title
Answer: MRS

7D clue: ___ Arbor, Mich.
Answer: ANN

11D clue: Woman in Progressive ads
Answer: FLO

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Feb. 21, #516

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 21, No. 516.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a tough one. I actually thought the purple category, usually the most difficult, was the easiest of the four. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Old Line State.

Green group hint: Hoops legend.

Blue group hint: Robert Redford movie.

Purple group hint: Vroom-vroom.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Maryland teams.

Green group: Shaquille O’Neal nicknames.

Blue group: Associated with «The Natural.»

Purple group: Sports that have a driver.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is Maryland teams. The four answers are Midshipmen, Orioles, Ravens and Terrapins.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is Shaquille O’Neal nicknames. The four answers are Big Aristotle, Diesel, Shaq and Superman.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is associated with «The Natural.» The four answers are baseball, Hobbs, Knights and Wonderboy.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is sports that have a driver. The four answers are bobsled, F1, golf and water polo.

Technologies

Wisconsin Reverses Decision to Ban VPNs in Age-Verification Bill

The law would have required websites to block VPN users from accessing «harmful material.»

Following a wave of criticism, Wisconsin lawmakers have decided not to include a ban on VPN services in their age-verification law, making its way through the state legislature.

Wisconsin Senate Bill 130 (and its sister Assembly Bill 105), introduced in March 2025, aims to prohibit businesses from «publishing or distributing material harmful to minors» unless there is a reasonable «method to verify the age of individuals attempting to access the website.»

One provision would have required businesses to bar people from accessing their sites via «a virtual private network system or virtual private network provider.»

A VPN lets you access the internet via an encrypted connection, enabling you to bypass firewalls and unblock geographically restricted websites and streaming content. While using a VPN, your IP address and physical location are masked, and your internet service provider doesn’t know which websites you visit.

Wisconsin state Sen. Van Wanggaard moved to delete that provision in the legislation, thereby releasing VPNs from any liability. The state assembly agreed to remove the VPN ban, and the bill now awaits Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers’s signature.

Rindala Alajaji, associate director of state affairs at the digital freedom nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, says Wisconsin’s U-turn is «great news.»

«This shows the power of public advocacy and pushback,» Alajaji says. «Politicians heard the VPN users who shared their worries and fears, and the experts who explained how the ban wouldn’t work.»

Earlier this week, the EFF had written an open letter arguing that the draft laws did not «meaningfully advance the goal of keeping young people safe online.» The EFF said that blocking VPNs would harm many groups that rely on that software for private and secure internet connections, including «businesses, universities, journalists and ordinary citizens,» and that «many law enforcement professionals, veterans and small business owners rely on VPNs to safely use the internet.»

VPNs can also help you get around age-verification laws — for instance, if you live in a state or country that requires age verification to access certain material, you can use a VPN to make it look like you live elsewhere, thereby gaining access to that material. As age-restriction laws increase around the US, VPN use has also increased. However, many people are using free VPNs, which are fertile ground for cybercriminals.

In its letter to Wisconsin lawmakers prior to the reversal, the EFF argued that it is «unworkable» to require websites to block VPN users from accessing adult content. The EFF said such sites cannot «reliably determine» where a VPN customer lives — it could be any US state or even other countries.

«As a result, covered websites would face an impossible choice: either block all VPN users everywhere, disrupting access for millions of people nationwide, or cease offering services in Wisconsin altogether,» the EFF wrote.

Wisconsin is not the only state to consider VPN bans to prevent access to adult material. Last year, Michigan introduced the Anticorruption of Public Morals Act, which would ban all use of VPNs. If passed, it would force ISPs to detect and block VPN usage and also ban the sale of VPNs in the state. Fines could reach $500,000.