The original director of Final Fantasy Tactics, Yasumi Matsuno, explored the idea of integrating branching paths in the game, which would allow players to recruit certain characters who otherwise remain unavailable. Be warned, this article contains spoilers regarding some characters’ destinies in Final Fantasy Tactics.
Final Fantasy Tactics empowers players to assemble their own squad through a recruitment system. Players can visit local barracks or invite specific characters to join their party after key story events. While only four or five members can participate in battles at once during most missions, players can ultimately build a significant force by the time the game concludes. Interestingly, there were plans for additional characters in the recent remake, titled Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles.
Enhancements in the Remake
After 28 years, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles aims to clarify the game’s conclusion and potentially paves the way for future installments.
Possible Future Developments
The director of Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles expressed openness to revisiting the Game Boy Advance sequels, contingent on the remaster’s success, yet he remarked that the current player base for strategy RPGs seems to be relatively “small.”
Character Adjustments
During development, the creators contemplated making a well-known character less powerful as they level up, reasoning that aging typically results in decreased strength: “His strength actually becomes lower.”
Recruitment Ideas
As players progress through the narrative, they encounter characters that feel like they could augment their squad. Yasumi Matsuno mentioned during a Twitter post (translated via machine translation) that he contemplated allowing players to recruit these characters in the remaster. A fan suggested that having access to Izlude’s Nightblade class would be fantastic, to which Matsuno responded, “When I was tasked with remastering this game, I proposed that we consider branching out so players could recruit characters like Miluda and Izlude.”
However, Matsuno clarified that implementing such changes would necessitate altering the game’s fundamental structure, making it unfeasible. He further noted that a larger budget might have allowed for this feature but speculated that if they were to pursue that direction, it would be better to create an entirely new game. He also highlighted the stance of The Ivalice Chronicles director, Kazutoyo Maehiro, who was committed to remastering the original version, which contributed to this decision not being realized. This also explains why The War of the Lions content didn’t make it into this remaster.
Additionally, a dedicated Final Fantasy Tactics player has been grinding away to demonstrate, once and for all, that “Chocobos can believe in monster Jesus” and will “leave your party to go find God” if their Faith stat becomes excessively high.