Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles hands-on and interview – politics in gaming

PS1 classic Final Fantasy Tactics is remastered for modern formats, as GameCentral talks to the creators about the possibility of a sequel and their love of XCOM.

We don’t want to make you feel old, but the original PlayStation 1 version of Final Fantasy Tactics is now over 28 years old. There’re very few games of that age that can be played today in their original form, without them seeming hopelessly outdated, and yet, ironically, Final Fantasy Tactics is just as accessible and playable now as it’s always been.

That doesn’t mean this remaster is pointless though, as there’s certainly a few nips and tucks to be made, but what’s remarkable about The Ivalice Chronicles is not so much the improvements but the fact that so little of substance has needed to be changed.

We played around 30 minutes at Gamescom last month and despite having not touched the game in years fell right back into its turn-based spell. After all, the basics are very simply: just move your character to wherever you want, on the isometric map, and initiate either a melee attack or a magical ability. Like all strategy games the mechanical simplicity hides a deep well of tactical choices, although in Final Fantasy Tactics the story is just as important as the gameplay.

Whether The Ivalice Chronicles counts as a remaster or a remake is debatable, especially as the original source code has been lost, but with games like Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion, Square Enix has done more than most to blur the line between the two concepts.

The visuals have been given a glow-up but they’re still the same super cute 2D sprites, moving over a simple 3D backdrop. Meanwhile, although it now has voice-acting, the story is still the same super serious meditation on class inequality and injustice. It’s a peculiar mixture but, as we discuss in our interview with director Kazutoyo Maehiro and co-director Ayako Yokoyama, it’s a story that’s just as relevant today as it’s ever been.

In the last few months, the development team has expressed dismay that the issues the game was dealing with 30 years are only more prevalent today. Which also proves what nonsense it is, to suggest that games shouldn’t discuss politics, given such a highly regarded title was doing so nearly three decades ago.

We played two scenarios in our hands-on and happily breezed through them both. It’s still not the most fast-paced of strategy games but given how important the story is, with a lot of dialogue taking place during battles, that fits the tone perfectly. Although adding a new fast forward button is probably a very wise decision.

A new lower (and harder) difficulty level also seems a sensible addition, as does including the original version of the game – using the localised script from the PSP version – as an option, if you’d rather just play that.

It all seems as perfect a remaster as you could hope for and if it’s a success it’s clear from our interview that the team is very keen to create a sequel, if they can prove there’s an audience for it.

Formats: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC
Price: £49.99
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Creative Business Unit III
Release Date: 30th September 2025
Age Rating: 12

GC: I was interested in your comments recently, about how you’ve been upset that the issues the original game dealt with have not been addressed in the intervening 30 years. But it’s also disappointing to me that, in that time, so few other games have dealt with similarly serious subject matter.

KM: I think games in general are just different from movies or books; in the case of a game, you have the player, the player is controlling the main character and then through that they progress the story, they meet allies, they confront these things head-on, rather than you being a viewer. And because that’s how games are, it makes it difficult for political tales to be told in-game.

And I think that when we write scenarios for games like this, we face a lot of different challenges, but I still think that the fact that the player is the one that is playing through this makes it extremely difficult to create that political story within a game.

And I think one of the reasons for that is that you are the player, you are controlling it, and you have to defeat the evil within that game. But I think that [Yasumi] Matsuno-san, who wrote the original script for Final Fantasy Tactics, did a really good job of interweaving in all of those political elements into the standard RPG game, where you are going through and defeating the enemies.

GC: It seems worrying that so much speculative fiction from decades ago seems to be coming true at the moment. These stories that were meant as warnings or diatribes… their lessons have not been learnt.

KM: For The Ivalice Chronicles… this is almost 30 years since the original game came out, but what we did is we took that original story – and we already thought it was a very complete story – and then using that as a base we had Matsuno-san, who wrote the original script, make adjustments and additions.

But also, when you think about the content and the game and the story, there haven’t been any really big changes. I think the biggest change that we did, is we added voiceovers to this game. In that, we needed to make adjustments to the writing, so that it fit voice-acting.

We still have a lot of those themes that you’re mentioning, with things like society issues, things about politics – we still keep those in there and I think they are relatable today, that people can play the game and still understand them in the same way that they did with the original.

GC: It’s interesting that so little has been changed about the graphics and gameplay, was there ever any thought that this could be some grand reinvention of the game?

AY: So I think for the original game, and bringing it to modern audience, it’s already a great base, it already has a great story, so we really didn’t want to change that much.

So, I think what we really focused on is trying to make it an easy to play experience, a more approachable experience, for the modern audience. That’s where a lot of the improvements in the game are, trying to make it the most approachable version of the game.

I think the situation has changed over the last 30 years, people have a lot less time to play games. So I think we’re trying to accommodate that as well, make as little frustration as possible for people to be able to play through this game from beginning to end. So we added different features, like the fast forward feature, which allows you to speed up battles and different scenes.

We’ve added difficulty modes, so people can play through with a story focus with not too much difficulty in terms of the battles. It really allows the player to play through, but at the same time we did add in the Knight difficulty, which is kind of the middle road, and then Tactician at the bottom. So there’s different ways that people can choose the type of gameplay experience they want and make it the most approachable for them.

GC: It’s so interesting, the dissonance between the cute visual style of the graphics and the serious story. There were a lot of games like that, at the time, but I’m curious what the game would look like, if budget and technology were not issues. Would you make it look like an anime, photorealistic, or something else?

KM: I think at the end of the day we’re creating a video game, so we really have to place a lot of importance on the gameplay itself.

And I think that using those real visuals could be an important aspect in making it very realistic like that, but I think at the same time, for Tactics, there are parts that don’t really mesh with that visual style.

But if we’re just thinking hypothetically and knowing that Matsuno-san’s a really big fan of movies, if we were going to make a choice, I would think that we would lean toward that photorealistic style, if we were to make a different story in a similar game.

But I think, since this is a Final Fantasy game we have our story and then we also have our cuter characters and I really think that for Final Fantasy Tactics, the game, that visual style does work for pretty well.

GC: I’m imagining a character that looks like Aragon or something jumping up and going ‘Yippee!’ when he levels up.

KM: [laughs]

GC: I’m a big fan of strategy games, so I’m always upset when they don’t sell on consoles. I think one of the many problems is that they’re a bit like fighting games, in that there’s no obvious way to evolve the genre. Do you feel that’s necessarily a problem?

KM: I think from a game design perspective, I think with the current style of the strategy RPG, it is kind of hard to move the genre forward.

I also think it’s kind of a fact that… Final Fantasy Tactics did come out 30 yeas ago but it was such a complete game, such a complete package for a strategy RPG, I think that might be one of the reasons why people have not tried to deviate too far from that type of a gameplay style.

And I think with that being said, technology is advancing, there’s still a lot of things that are being developed. I still think there is the opportunity for people to think of new ideas and really evolve the overall genre.

AY: And I think for the strategy RPG genre in general, it can be a difficult genre for people to get into. There might be people who aren’t very good at that type of game, but I think when it comes to Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles we have those cuter visuals and I think it really looks great within that context. And so it really can draw in people who might be a little bit hesitant to play because of the difficulty, but from a visual perspective it’s something that they can be interested in and I think that can really help to bring people into the genre so they can play.

GC: Do you play Western style strategy games? I’m a big fan of XCOM in particular, which has a strategy meta game that makes it more a of a non-linear title. Have you considered something like that for any of your games? Do you have any plans for a sequel, or a similar title, after this remaster?

KM: I’m a very, very big fan of Western strategy RPGs. And XCOM is one of my favourites!

GC: You’ve got excellent taste!

KM: [laughs] And I think that I’m a really big fan of both strategy and tactical games; I think from a strategy side I’m very interested in Age Of Empires too but I think all these games encompass into that overall strategy game genre.

And I think overall there maybe are less strategy RPG titles now, but we have seen some new titles come out recently, like Unicorn Overlord.

GC: Yes, that was very good.

KM: And I think for strategy RPGs… I’m a fan myself and I really do think a market still exists, so there are still plenty of opportunities for challenging ourselves to make strategy RPGs.

And I think for The Ivalice Chronicles in particular, if this does well and people are really, really excited about it, and we do see the sales, then we can potentially a second or a third continuing the series.

And we’re really hoping that we could have the opportunity to dive deeper into that story, continue that really deep and engaging story.

GC: I hope so too!

Both: [laughs]

KM: [in English] Thank you!

AY: Thank you!

GC: Thank you very much for your time.

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