Square Enix beleaguered the children with a new developer discussion around Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles and the gamers are all over it. Repeated theme includes those of the director Kazutoyo Maehiro and co-director Ayako Yokoyama who opened up about telling the progress of the game. The initial FF Twitter account gave a little video clip of the two authors talking together along with the followers who started a huge discourse such as from the very things they love to the very things they want to be changed.
The tweet brought up a very simple question: “One team that has a perfect balance or an all-powerful chakra realignment?” This immediately turned the talk towards the players and they started discussing the composition of their teams along with the strategies they were using. The real excitement was hidden in the replies since the game fans not only expressed their devotion to the tactical RPG but also shared their frustrations due to lack of some features.
Player Dan, to the very beginning, raised the inquiry that was in everyone’s mind—”Amazing game. Any plans for NG+ or an expansion?” This seems to be the kinds of requests that gets repeated, as a lot of gamers end up talking about the importance of extra content, sometimes even more than what is being offered now. One particular gamer dubbed Kefkaroth Sephka was wishing that there would be patches for bonus DLC or at least engineered drop rates for rare items. By this, he meant that the players are enjoying the game but they would still want it to be a little more user-friendly.
In the midst of complaints, there are players who are completely enthralling about the game. Jesse8bit popularity beamed through by his comment saying, “I am SO hooked on this game! I’ve been spending hours fiddling with my team’s roles and I even made a spreadsheet, lol! That’s the level of my love for this game! Well done FF Tactics team!!!” Such a high level of engagement clearly indicates that a lot of the game’s character creator still catching up with the audience even fifty years after the original release.
On top of that, there also came the class balance argument that got a bit heated. AureusCrush was fed up with the idea and responded, “Three wizards for support and two tanks? That does not sound like balance; rather it is CHAKRA ALIGNMENT!” Meanwhile, many gamers were going on announcing their best overpowered character setups. ItsMe claimed, “You just need monks until Cid comes; then he can do most of the work by himself,” while Girlan Ávila was super short and said “Ramza Monk OP lol.” Roger described his favorite one by saying, “When no other special units have joined yet, I like to have Knights, Monks, Samurai, and Ninjas.”
However, the most controversial topic of discussion was the in-game content, more precisely what was missing – this time – in Final Fantasy Tactics. At least one lengthy debate was held where several users were arguing back and forth the reasons why the developers chose the original PlayStation version as the base for this release instead of the later PSP version, which had already included the content like Dark Knight and Onion Knight classes.
Font Master Flex initiated the debate by challenging the decision and Bruno, one of the other users, supported the development team’s viewpoint saying that they are just sticking to the original vision. Bruno claimed it is an original remaster—it is that classic game that is being remastered and “It isn’t still ‘the game’, that’s a different game.” He continued saying that the original creators are itching to work on their original vision and that the maintenance of added content by the other teams is not a case with the experienced ones.
The conversation flowed very deep with people discussing even the rendered cutscenes to the very characters that come in the game like Balthier and Cloud. TehVidya proposed that “Community will work it out once they can break the drm,” hinting that modders might eventually add the missing content that players want. Ramza Behoulve was along the same lines when he said, “Just wait till they do away with Denuvo and it will be fixed faster than you think. It is okay that they gave us a version as close to the original with QoL and voices. The other part can be done by modders.”
Localization requests popped up too with large number of users demanding translations in Portuguese, Spanish, Korean, and Italian. Persomn summed it up with a mere “Please translate to 🇧🇷 🇵🇹 🇪🇸 🇰🇷 🇮🇹” while RuffusFênix was more straightforward with “Just add pt br subs.” This is a sign showing the worldwide demand of the game and the fact that language barriers still are a problem for some of the players.
Some players made certain technical requests. Retrofrito reported a strange visual bug: “In the game, sometimes we come across dark-skinned generic human characters but if they are persuaded to join the team, they lose the dark skin. Can you fix this bug? Thank you.” The gamers’ level of detail when providing feedback is really impressive as it indicates they are paying very close attention to every aspect of the game.
Then, there are the usual nonsensical comments that always show up in any gaming online chat. One user somehow confused the Final Fantasy with Kingdom Hearts and wrote: “My most favorite final fantasy is the one with Sora and mickey. I love it when mickey says ‘its final fantasy time’ which as a child gave me chills.” On the other hand, Ramza Behoulve was making somewhat of a request for another Ivalice game: “Vagrant Story next please.”
The developer interview is an eye-opener, as it literally takes the audience through the complete procedure and design philosophy behind the making of Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles. Although the entire video is still not available (it has been revealed on YouTube, the link is in the tweet), the public’s order shows that this is not just a superficial promotional piece but rather a deep dive that serious fans of the series will treasure.
It is clear from the whole discussion that the classic Final Fantasy Tactics game is still super hot even many years after its release. Gamers are still very much interested in team compositions, still discussing game balance, and still dreaming about new content. The mere fact that Square Enix is releasing new developer materials signals that they are conscious of the continued interest in this classic title. It is still mysterious whether they would grant the community’s requests for new game plus, expanded localization, or additional content, but the debate is certainly ongoing.
Tactical RPGs were greatly revolutionized by the introduction of Final Fantasy Tactics, but the game still keeps its status as the most beloved by the players’ hearts. The community of players includes the ones who use spreadsheets for strategizing and the ones who simply want to break the game with overpowered monks. With the same developers working on bringing back the classic titles, it might turn out to be essential to pay attention to this kind of players’ feedback. Else, the satisfaction of both long-time fans and new players might not be possible at all.
So, whether you are one of those who are for the perfectly balanced squads or one of those who would realign every one’s chakra to make them unstoppable killing machines, do not forget that it is still Final Fantasy Tactics that while few other games can match it, will offer such deep strategic experiences. It is, by all accounts, the same thing “developers” have been working for “players” despite some still asking for the content of the later versions. Who knows, the developers may include some of these features requested in future updates or the modding community may take things into their own hands. Either way, the discussion surrounding this classic game is not going to let up anytime soon, especially among PlayStation and Xbox fans.
