It is no exaggeration to say that Final Fantasy Tactics is one of the most successful spin-offs in the long history of Square Enix's IP.
The tactical RPG published in June 1997 (Japan)/January 1998 (North America) for the original PlayStation captivated critics and fans alike, and the Ivalice setting resonated so much that it was subsequently used in Vagrant Story and even in the mainline entry Final Fantasy XII. However, there weren't that many direct follow-ups except for 2003's Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance and 2007's Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift for the Nintendo DS.
The GeForce NOW leak from a few years ago reignited hopes of a remaster, but Square Enix remained silent on the topic until Game Director Yasumi Matsuno said there were no plans on the topic (and even if there were, he couldn't talk about them until an official announcement).
However, Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida has now provided new hope. Speaking with The Gamer, when asked about the likelihood of making a Final Fantasy Tactics game based in the setting of XVI, Yoshida said that's not really their plan. However, he mused that it is time to make a new Tactics game.
We have a lot of our staff who worked on previous games like Final Fantasy Tactics or Final Fantasy 12, so you’re going to have a lot of that Tactics feel because a lot of the same people are on the team. We’re very happy for you to suggest this because we’re all fans, but if we were going to make this, we wouldn’t want to do the same story that turns out to be a different story.
How would we even do the Eikon versus Eikon battles in that style? If you have the Eikons, how many squares is an Eikon going to be? You have more people out there as well, so what about the wait time in between? … But the series does lend itself well to that kind of storytelling, and we love Tactics as well. It’s probably about time that we do a new one.
Would you like Square Enix to keep the Ivalice setting for a new Final Fantasy Tactics? Let us know below.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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