The director behind the original Final Fantasy Tactics says he might have incorporated some elements from the PSP’s beloved War of the Lions port into the upcoming remaster if it were up to him, but certainly not all of them.
Earlier this week, Square Enix published an interview with the remaster’s director, Kazutoyo Maehiro. There are several highlights, though the one that’s grabbed the most attention is that The Ivalice Chronicles isn’t featuring any of the new content The War of the Lions introduced for Sony’s portable console – that means fewer cameo characters, such as Luso and Balthier, and that you can’t unlock the Onion 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,” Maehiro explained. “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.”
Everyone disliked that. So much so, word has reached the OG FFT director Yasumi Matsuno – who, for clarity, is working on the upcoming FFT remaster as a scenario writer and editor. He, rather diplomatically, had the following to say to one fan on Twitter who apologized for all the messages he’s been getting.
“If I were the director, I might have incorporated some elements from the PSP version. (Not all of them.) However, the director, Maehiro-san, stuck strongly to the original PS1 version. He is a passionate fan of the original.
“It is the director’s role to determine the final specifications. The director is also the one who takes responsibility. Therefore, I support his decision.”
As for the additional storyline introduced in War of the Lions, Matsuno says it is “undoubtedly different from my vision,” but “nevertheless, I do not mean to belittle it.”
Matsuno also speaks about the script for The Ivalice Chronicles that he worked on. The War of the Lions did its own writing overhaul – notably dropping the ‘ye olde’ English – and the upcoming Final Fantasy Tactics remaster isn’t using that, but it is still refreshing the old tome’s scribbles regardless.
On that, Matsuno says, while he hasn’t counted exactly, he reckons the main scenario’s volume in the Japanese version is “approximately +60% that of the original (PS1) version.
“This does not include system-related text, such as organization screens, chanting text, brave stories, sound novels, and movie parts,” he adds. “It is difficult to compare the total amount of text between the old and new versions, so we will not do so here.”
So there you have it. Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles doesn’t have much of The War of the Lions within it, but there’s plenty of Matsuno goodness new and old.
Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles releases September 30.
