Final Fantasy Tactics dev explains why the remaster is missing the port extras

Everyone has their favorite Final Fantasy game. For me it's FF7 Rebirth, with FF14 coming in at a very, very close second. The beauty of the series is that, despite oftentimes being wildly different in terms of style, there's no 'bad' games. Some naturally stand a little taller than the others, however, and Final Fantasy Tactics is one of them, and Square Enix is bringing it back with a brand new remaster, set to release on Steam. It's even going to launch with some new additions, arguably making it the definitive version of the game. There's just one problem, though: the War of the Lions extras won't be included.

Final Fantasy Tactics has had a lot of love from Square Enix over the years. Back in 1997 the studio released the original FFT for the PS1, and it very quickly became a fan-favorite amongst players of the series. Set in the world of Ivalice, it turns one of the best RPG series into a turn-based strategy game. If you've played Tactics Ogre or Fire Emblem, you'll be instantly familiar with the gameplay.

Then, in 2007, Square Enix released Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions for the PSP. This is an updated version of the original FFT that includes plenty of extras. You can meet two new characters, Luso from Final Fantasy Tactics A2 and Balthier from Final Fantasy 12, and there's also the new Onion Knight and Dark Knight jobs, alongside extra story battles, side quests, and events.

The new remaster, called Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles, will focus on being a recreation of the 1997 PS1 original, and not The War of the Lions. In a new interview on the Square Enix website, The Ivalice Chronicles' director Kazutoyo Maehiro explains why the development team went with recreating the original over the enhanced PSP port.

"​​I and other members of this development team were not directly involved in the War of the Lions, but I do believe that the content in that game did fully meet expectations for players at that time," Maehiro says. "However, as we looked back on everything nearly 30 years later, during the creation of this game, we asked ourselves what our team - those who created the original Final Fantasy Tactics - could do to bring this game to a new generation of players.

"It was through considering this question that we came to the conclusion that the most appropriate path for us was to pay respect to the original game's experience and recreate that in the best form possible.

"We did, of course consider, the addition of new jobs, abilities, and characters - including the jobs featured in War of the Lions. However, the original version of Final Fantasy Tactics is a very complete game both from a game design and story perspective. If we were to make major changes, it would only be a loss for not only fans of the original game, but also those new to the title.

"With this in mind, our first step in reviving Final Fantasy Tactics in the present was to adhere to the original and put a spotlight on the original game's characters and jobs, as well as the original gameplay experience," Maehiro says in closing. "The development team were passionate when it came to bringing an experience as close to the original as we could, and as a result we have recreated and used the original VFX and SFX - something I hope fans of the original in particular will enjoy as they play."

Even without The War of the Lions' extras, The Ivalice Chronicles still includes two versions of FFT. There's the classic version, which is faithful to the 1997 original, albeit with new features like an autosave. Then there's the modern version, which comes with voice-acted dialogue, updated UI, and graphical improvements.

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