Final Fantasy reboot set for Sept 30 release
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Gamers playing the Final Fantasy VI video game at the Nintendo booth during the Gamescom video games trade fair in Cologne, Germany, on Aug 21.
PHOTO: AFP
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Back after three decades with what its creators say is a “still relevant” political message, the remake of beloved strategy game Final Fantasy Tactics is set for release on Sept 30.
Originally appearing on the very first PlayStation console in 1997 and selling several million copies, the game brought a tactical dimension to the turn-based combat of the mainline Final Fantasy series.
Players direct a band of characters across chessboard-style battlefields as they progress through a plot founded on class struggle.
Although set in a fantasy mediaeval universe, Tactics was conceived as a jab at the economic crisis weighing on Japan and its population at the time.
Today, “inequality and division are still deeply rooted in our society”, creator Yasumi Matsuno, who oversaw work on the remake, said in a message to fans posted on social media in June.
“It’s pretty unbelievable to see that this game is still relevant,” the rebooted game’s director Kazutoyo Maehiro – a member of the original 1990s development team – said at the Gamescom trade fair in August.
“I don’t think there’s another game in this series that incorporates political issues so well into the story,” he added.
The original Final Fantasy Tactics source code was no longer available when it came time to start the remake, subtitled The Ivalice Chronicles.
Without the code, developers had to rebuild the title “based on printouts of the original game’s specification documents” – a slow grind that got started almost 10 years ago, Mr Kazutoyo Maehiro said.
Co-director Ayako Yokoyama said the creators had adapted the experience to today’s audiences, speeding up some finicky aspects of the game’s combat and offering graduated difficulty levels.
The plot and script were also tweaked to allow for dubbing of the whole game in both English and Japanese.
With the remake, Tactics fans will finally have access on current PCs and consoles to a game that publisher Square Enix did not release in Europe until it was almost 10 years old – and then only on Sony’s portable PSP.
The difficulty of securing a copy back then only added to the legendary aura of the game.
And if the remake performs well, the team would be keen on producing a follow-up.
“Personally, I’d love to create another game in the Ivalice universe” depicted in the game, Mr Kazutoyo Maehiro said. AFP
