If a lot of that description sounds acquainted to fashionable politics and tradition, Matsuno would agree. The conclusion of his publish reads: “Now in 2025—a time when inequality and division are nonetheless deeply rooted in our society—I provide this story as soon as once more.”
We Can Rebuild It
The Ivalice Chronicles might preserve the look of the unique recreation, but it surely’s a re-creation builders needed to full from the bottom up. The grasp information recordsdata and the supply code don’t exist anymore; it didn’t turn out to be frequent follow in recreation improvement to carry on to these sources till later, that means its staff needed to rebuild these core items. Maehiro says the staff listed out the methods the primary recreation felt “just a little clunky or much less intuitive,” then reconstructed these components with enchancment in thoughts. A part of that features tweaks to the way in which battles play out, like a transparent fight timeline for gamers to see whose flip is subsequent.
The director says that the staff thought-about other ways to modernize Closing Fantasy Ways, together with following within the footsteps of Sq. Enix’s huge, multiyear remake of the unique Closing Fantasy VII. “It was an possibility on the desk that we thought-about—to provide [Final Fantasy Tactics] a full remake, as we did for FFVII,” he says. It’s one option to successfully revive an outdated recreation, he says, and it made sense to reinvent FFVII because it exists right now. As soon as a single recreation with an bold plot, the expertise has been damaged out into three particular person titles to do the unique story service. Its blocky, PS1-era solid has been reworked into high-fidelity characters roaming an unlimited world. The primary recreation, Closing Fantasy VII Remake, for instance, takes place fully in Midgar—a metropolis gamers the place spent solely a few hours within the unique.
For The Ivalice Chronicles, nevertheless, Maehiro vetoed that concept. A part of the attract of the unique he says, was “the very charming pixel model art work, in addition to the 3D isometric maps you’re on for battles. I felt these have been issues that gave Closing Fantasy Ways its identification.” Maehiro didn’t need to lose that.
Different variations of Closing Fantasy Ways have been ported over or made for older consoles. That features Closing Fantasy Ways: Conflict of the Lions, a 2007 title made particularly for the PlayStation Moveable. Notably, it added new jobs and additional playable characters, equivalent to Balthier from Closing Fantasy XII. As a result of these options weren’t a part of the unique recreation, Maehiro and his staff opted to depart them out.
“Our firstly objective right here actually was to recreate the unique recreation,” Maehiro says. That being mentioned, he is aware of followers need options launched in Conflict of the Lions. Maehiro says that whereas he “can’t make any guarantees,” there’s a chance the staff will discover including extra content material if the sport does properly.
Greater than that, Maehiro says, it may result in extra video games down the road. “If [The Ivalice Chronicles] have been to turn out to be successful,” he says, “I do really feel that that will then result in discussions round probably bringing out sequels, for instance, or newer tactical RPGs.”
