Many fans were initially excited when Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles was first announced during Sony’s State of Play. It had been years since Square Enix released a proper FF Tactics game, so a remaster of the original is what fans wanted. Originally, fans thought this was going to include content from War of the Lions on PSP, but that’s not the case.
Despite having new voice acting and keeping the PSP port’s gorgeous cutscenes, this Final Fantasy Tactics remaster won’t have the extra content from War of the Lions. It’s an unfortunate move, and one that’s becoming frequent with recent remasters and remakes.
A lengthy Square Enix interview confirmed that The Ivalice Chronicles will launch without the extra PSP content that made this port superior. This means that the Dark Knight and Onion Knight classes won’t be available in the remaster. It also means that Cloud from FF7 is the only unique guest character, with Luso from FF Tactics A2 and Balthier from FF12 removed.
Kazutoyo Maehiro, the Director of the Final Fantasy Tactics remaster, attempted to defend this decision. Maehiro says that the PS1 original is a complete experience in itself, so the extra content from the PSP port isn’t needed. While the original game is pretty good in its own right, the fact that this remaster includes the PSP port’s cutscenes shows that they could have kept that content.
Sadly, this isn’t the only remaster that has cut content from a better release.
Everyone is still mad at Atlus for not including the female protagonist as an option in Persona 3 Reload. While the game did eventually get FES content as DLC, the lack of P3P’s female protagonist still rubs a lot of people the wrong way. Some mods were made to add this character to the PC version of the game, but it should have been an official addition.
Going back to Square Enix, this Final Fantasy Tactics remaster isn’t their first re-release fumble. Many fans will remember how messy the modern ports of Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross were at launch, with odd visuals and bad framerate, respectively. Tactics Ogre: Reborn also had issues, removing some battle options and adding random battle cards that added some random battle effects.
At the least, fans can take some solace in the fact that War of the Lions is still available on mobile devices. That’s basically the entire PSP game, so fans who want that extra content can still get it. We just wish this port was readily available on a console title.
Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles will be a good game on release, but it could have been a lot better. Maybe there’s a reason why Final Fantasy isn’t so hot right now.
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