Square Enix has published a new interview with Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles director Kazutoyo Maehiro talking about how the team reimagined one of the greatest tactical RPGs ever made. Of course some changes have been made and Mr. Maehiro was asked why the team focussed on the original Final Fantasy Tactics, rather than the more recent War of the Lions version which launched in 2007 on the PSP. You can read about how the team settled on the original in the excerpt from the interview down below.
Why did you decide to focus on updating the original FINAL FANTASY TACTICS rather than the War of the Lions version?
I and other members of this development team were not directly involved in the War of the Lions, but I do believe that the content in that game did fully meet expectations for players at that time.
However, as we looked back on everything nearly 30 years later, during the creation of this game, we asked ourselves what our team – those who created the original FINAL FANTASY TACTICS – could do to bring this game to a new generation of players.
It was through considering this question that we came to the conclusion that the most appropriate path for us was to pay respect to the original game’s experience and recreate that in the best form possible.
Did you consider adding elements from FINAL FANTASY TACTICS: THE WAR OF THE LIONS like Balthier, Luso and the Onion Knight and Dark Knight jobs?
We did of course consider the addition of new jobs, abilities, and characters – including the jobs featured in War of the Lions. However, the original version of FINAL FANTASY TACTICS is a very complete game both from a game design and story perspective. If we were to make major changes, it would only be a loss for not only fans of the original game, but also those new to the title.
With this in mind, our first step in reviving FINAL FANTASY TACTICS in the present was to adhere to the original and put a spotlight on the original game’s characters and jobs, as well as the original gameplay experience.
The development team were passionate when it came to bringing an experience as close to the original as we could, and as a result we have recreated and used the original VFX and SFX – something I hope fans of the original in particular will enjoy as they play.
Why didn’t my first comment show up? This site is so strange.
This is very disappointing. No longer a day one for me. Will get used on eBay. WotL added so much more cool content, this is a step backwards. Severely cut my hype levels with this announcment.
I’ve had a look on my end and I can’t see it. It must have disappeared into the ether. Sorry! Yeah, it can be odd at times.
I’m so happy about this! I couldn’t stand WOTL. Felt like a completely game.
Dont care, just use this game to decide if tactics games should come back or not (they should)
Yeah because new content for an old game remaster shouldn’t be made a thing. I hate this so much. It could be an optional check box in the settings, come on!
Really disappointing
With wotl you couldn’t steal genji gear and let’s be real dark knight was OP i could use one dark knight and no other allys and win any battle and onion knight sucked not having balthier will suck for sure but again he is OP we already have thunder god Cid who clears end game floors solo
An excellent and most considerate approach to the game. Will most likely buy.
“Huge controversy!”
“MASSIVE Letdown”
“Random thing we rooted out isn’t included therefore BAD!”
“GET DISAPPOINTED!!”
I’m so monumentally sick of the Internet.
Then their wallet won’t include my money either, too bad, so sad.
I can definitely live without Balthier and Luso. I always thought it was cheesy for a game with such a well grounded story to fill out the roster with out-of-place stray content from other games. Of course they started the cheese before WOTL by including Cloud. I would much rather all of these fan service characters be replaced by additional characters native to the setting. But the Dark Knight class will be missed.
Isn’t tactics part of the ivalice world though? So if anything balthier belongs there far more than cloud.
Looks like the PSP version is the one to stick with.
“we wanted to make it better so we took all the cool new stuff out and just went with the old version bc we can’t get our ego off without giving a middle finger to the players.”
These studio heads sure know literally nothing.
Went from near the top of my list to now on the “if I eventually somehow run out of games to play” list.
(I’m about 486 from finishing everything I own now. More games come out than I can play each year. You do the math)
Bummer they would take steps backwards while pretending to move forward.
If the game was complete, we wouldn’t have gotten war of the lions!!
It was complete. They just re-released it and added new things for the people who complain.
I am actually playing the new version right now. I played the old version when it was out. The old version needed more, but if they listen to the people who will be in the market for this game they will probably fix at least some of the bogus things from the original game. Either version deserves inclusion in a best ever in catagory discussion. The only thing I really think must be considered…the need for “more” is the only true downside of either version…if “more” were to be added, the result could be as perfect as game as there will ever be.
Good luck, have fun all :)
-ibnfrey