Last week was my first time since the game ended in 1998. A notorious boss fight left me so sad that I never looked back – and had a reputation among fans, I knew I wasn’t alone. So when I had the opportunity to talk to Kazutoyo Maehiro, a member of the original development team, now the director of the upcoming Remaster, Final Fantasy Tactics: Ivalice ChroniclesI jumped up. I need to know why they make a fight so cruel.
My question to Maehiro is: “At that time – 28 years ago – what did the original team even think about in this battle?”
He smiled, and the Square Enix PR team and interpreters in the room were familiar with the issue. Although it wasn’t his favorite or the toughest fight – Honor entered the Zeirchele Falls Battle, a plot twist that frustrated the early difficulties of countless players – my infamous battle in the players’ memories asked about the difference in looms is much larger.
Arriving in Chapter 3, the battle unfolds with two back-to-back encounters that constitute a brutal marathon. First is a one-on-one duel between the player’s protagonist Ramza and the recurring opponent Wiegraf. If you don’t prepare carefully, you can run this battle alone. After defeating him, the player immediately defeated Belias with his summoned monster. For many, this moment is where their tactics end.
“At the time, a battle that was difficult to do out of difficulties wasn’t necessarily the right thing,” Mehiro said through his interpreter. “In a sense, there was no need for us to make it difficult on purpose. It was even more so, making it eventually that way. Looking back, when I looked back, I did think the decision to make this battle so difficult was right.”
The new Final Fantasy Tactics: Ivalice Chronicles is a remake of the original PlayStation game that was launched in the United States in 1998 (in Japan in 1997), and has since Final Fantasy VII. Unlike the main series, the tactics are in the tactical RPG format, made by Sega’s shining power and Nintendo’s firerequiring players to carefully consider unit positioning, ability and turn orders. Mistakes can quickly eliminate your party, a design choice that solidifies the game as much as it is a beloved and intimidating design.
Remaster gently updates the game’s visuals, including its iconic character sprites and polygonal environments, while focusing on enriching other elements, such as adding a fully sounding dialogue. Even small enemies will add voice lines and add movie style. These accents are a bit dramatic, as if they played the scene in Game of Thrones, but they fit into the game’s dark narrative of betrayal and political intrigue. Ramza’s journey in a war-filled kingdom is mature storytelling that I didn’t fully appreciate when I was 19, but now resonates more intensely.
The most eye-catching upgrade is the improvement of “quality of life”. Fighting and dialogue can now be accelerated with fast forward buttons – a game known for its slow pace. I’ve had a short time in the preview as it only includes the first few battles of the game. It ends with the battle of Dorter Trade City, the first truly challenging battle in the game, introducing new enemy types and setting on maps filled with structures of different heights.
Dorter Trade City is a key introduction to the key elements of game combat. The vertical position of the characters is both beneficial and harmful: they can easily attack enemies, while the enemies are away from higher vantage points, but at that height, the enemy’s attack pushes it to the edge can mean instant death. A key disadvantage for original and remastered players is that computer-controlled opponents know all the pros and cons of certain heights, and players must learn instantly. What I played in the preview was faithful to the original game, especially the familiar frustration of losing the battle due to the loss of action.
Maehiro stressed that players struggling with such battles in the new Ivalice Chronicles now have a choice. It can reduce difficulties, and fights can be restarted immediately or given up altogether, making the game more accessible without losing its core challenges.
Photo of one of the new cutscenes in Ivalice Chronicles.
As mentioned earlier, Maehiro is the original FF tactical team of the EVNT program, responsible for directing script events such as character movements and animations in story sequences. At the time, he was a new developer, and now, a few years later, he can look back on his young self-full – full of hunger and determination.
ç “If I put down my original team members from the past, I would be very disappointed,” he said. “In that sense, I really couldn’t make this project fail, and I felt stressed. Looking through archival material that existed in the past, it helped me reflect on the time of game designers in the past 28 years. After being able to go back to the ultimate fantasy strategy, it really put my chest in pride.”
Since the original Final Fantasy Tactics, Maehiro has worked on major Square Enix projects including Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy XII and MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV: Realm Reborn: Ultimately becoming the creative director of Final Fantasy XVI in 2023. But his connection to strategy remains personal, especially when it comes to character work, the system defines its depth and replayability, allowing players to customize their units with dazzling options.
In Ivalice Chronicles, subpoenas still look great.
With over 20 working players assigned to their roles, from staples like Knight and Archer to unconventional draft picks like calculator and Times mage, Maehiro has his favorites. To improve efficiency, he prefers ninjas, who can double-volatile weapons and throw items to cause significant damage. For pure pleasure, though, he likes the Orator (originally known as the Mediator), a magic lesson based on speech that is able to recruit enemies, promote allies or scary enemies. This is a suitable choice for a designer whose career is based on strategy and storytelling.
Will I play Ivalice Chronicles and go back to the game that left my mark nearly thirty years ago? Yes, but I will take advantage of all the available QOL features to avoid spending days trying to beat Wiegraf. I am no longer a college student wasting time avoiding studying. I am an adult now and waste my time between writing assignments.
Final Fantasy Tactics: Ivalice Chronicles will be released on September 30 for $50 on the Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, PC, PS, PS4, PS5 and Xbox Series X and S.
