Final Fantasy Tactics is a classic PlayStation title from the latter half of the '90s, which, 30 years down the line, is getting a remaster, with expanded gameplay and content fit for modern systems and standards.
During Gamescom 2025, we had the chance to sit down with game director Kazutoyo Maheiro and co-director Ayako Yokoyama, who shared a lot of valuable insight regarding Final Fantasy Tactics -The Ivalice Chronicles. They told us about the game's development, the reasons behind remaking such an old title now, as well as what newcomers and veterans alike can expect from the title.
Here's the full interview.
Note: Parts of this interview have been edited to remove common speech repetitions and allow for better text clarity. Third-person translations were also put in first person for better reading.
Why did you decide to make a Tactics remaster now, nearly 20 years later? What was the decision behind remastering the title instead of doing a fully fledged remake?
Kazutoyo Maheiro (director, Creative Studio 3): Actually, I had the chance a couple of years ago to play the original version of Final Fantasy Tactics. And in playing the original version again, even though the game is nearly 30 years old, he still realized that it has an excellent story and really good game design, and it is still something that resonates with players.
So, after I had played, I thought, man, I really would like to bring this story to a lot of new players, and that was kind of the starting point of the development for The Ivalice Chronicles.
As to your second question, I felt that the original Final Fantasy Tactics was already a very complete game, and I really wanted to bring that game to a new generation. And I think that if we went too far in that direction of the full remake, it would kind of degrade that part of Final Fantasy Tactics. You know, it already has that great story, it already has that great background music and everything like that, so we wanted to make sure that we were keeping that intact when we provided it.
As we look into this remaster launching at the end of September, I was curious about how the team is looking to define success for this title and what the possibility of a brand-new FF Tactics would be, depending on the success of the series.
Ayako Yokoyama (co-director, Creative Studio 3): I think with strategy RPGs in general, maybe there's a bit of a difficulty curve. They can be difficult games, and, well, we wanted people to be able to play through the entire game. So I think we were trying to bring it to as many people, including those who might be a bit averse to the strategy RPG genre.
And as I was mentioning, we did want to bring this to as many people as we could, and so we were trying, not just for strategy RPG fans, but just people in general, we wanted to kind of expand on who was able to experience Final Fantasy Tactics. So we're hoping that we're able to really provide this game and allow for many, many more people to play it.
Maheiro: And I think we've seen some really, really good reception for this title, and I know that there are a lot of people who know about the original, but they actually never had a chance to play it before. What we would consider a success [would be] if we provided that game to those people who haven't had a chance to play it, and then see their reaction, [and] that they really enjoyed it.
We know there are a ton of fans of the original, and I am fairly aware that they are looking for a sequel or a continuation. I think that kind of depends on how The Ivalice Chronicles performs and what the reception is from players. So it's kind of seeing what happens once it does release, and then [that could be] something we can consider.
You both talked fondly about keeping to the original and faithful story and presentation of the game, all the way down to the art style and how the game is presented. But you have added new things with the remaster, such as voice acting, UI improvements, light changes, etc. I was curious if the team also looked at implementing other changes that might not have made their way into the final product, and if so, why?
Maehiro: I think overall, when we think about our goal of bringing Final Fantasy Tactics to the modern generation of players in 2025, and the things that we added to give them the best experience possible, I feel like we managed to get everything in that we really wanted.
I think another way to put it is, when we were thinking about what we wanted to add, we managed to make sure that we weren't adding anything that was unnecessary.
Yokoyama: So again, the Final Fantasy Tactics story is quite amazing, and I think to help people enjoy that to the fullest, we made a lot of updates to the Chronicle.
And you might be familiar with Active Time Lore from Final Fantasy XVI, and we had actually thought about including something similar in The Ivalice Chronicles. But there were a couple of challenges surrounding that, and a lot of it has to do with the game's flags of progress.
Between the enhanced version, which we were updating and making a lot of new additions and adjustments to, and the classic version, the way those flags were was different. And [since] we basically had to recreate the engine for the enhanced version, it was really difficult for us to kind of set up all those flags, and as a result, it just became too hard to include the Active Time Lore, just because of the way that was set up.
So that was one thing that we did want to put in, but we weren't able to
When you were originally looking at designing the remaster of this game, was there any inclination or any thought to turn the 2D sprites into more 3D-scale worlds and environments? The team obviously decided on keeping the 2D to preserve the originality. I'm curious if there was ever a discussion or thought regarding that 3D art style.
Maehiro: I think from the start of the development of the project, we never really thought that we wanted to make those full 3D models or anything like that. And honestly, if you think about Final Fantasy Tactics, those cute pixelated characters and those 3D isometric backgrounds really are kind of like the heart and soul of the game.
Looking at the reception to Final Fantasy Tactics remaster and the vast library of tactical RPGs and older games that Square Enix has, I was wondering if there was an ideal older game or title that both of you might want to see get the Final Fantasy Tactics treatment in the future and what would be your personal favorite project to work on.
Yokoyama: Vagrant Story. I'm aware of how many fans there are for that. So many people leave comments and say, like, we'd really like to see a Vagrant Story remake, or something like that. And Maehiro-san actually worked on the original development of it. So it's a very memorable project for him as well. But I really wonder and want to see what it would be like if we made this now with the latest graphics.
Maehiro: Illusion of Gaia. For me, as a player, just playing that game was extremely fun. So that's why I would like to recreate that.
Working on a project like this, with a game and a story that is very beloved by fans, how pressured did you feel working on this title [while trying] to make it as faithful to the original and not stray from the course too much by adding things?
Maehiro: I think the pressure that I felt was a lot different from that you might feel if you're creating a brand-new game. Obviously, there are a lot of fans of the original, and one of the things we definitely don't want to do is disappoint those fans. But at the same time, we want to make sure that new fans are also enjoying it. So it was a challenge for us to make sure that we are able to both appease the original fans and the new fans as well, but bring that experience to them.
Yokoyama: I didn't work on the original 28 years ago, unlike Maehiro-san. Within the team, however, there are a lot of people who worked on the original game, who still love it, so coming from that perspective, we wanted to make sure no one was disappointed with what we were doing.
Rather than adding in all of these new features and changing things, it was more of a focus on making the game easy to play and making it approachable for people. We wanted as many people to play it as we could. So there were things that we added in, like difficulty settings. So you have the Squire setting, the Knight setting, and the Tactician setting, those three different difficulties.
It allows the person who's playing to basically select the experience they want and gives them the freedom to do so. And then that kind of ties back into the whole being approachable, being easy to play.
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