Square Enix’s upcoming remaster of Final Fantasy Tactics will deliver the fun and charm of the 1997 original, according to director Yasumi Matsuno.
During a recent interview with JP Games, Final Fantasy Tactics director Yasumi Matsuno was asked to shed light on the story adjustments mentioned in the trailer for the upcoming remaster. In response, he mentioned that the concept behind the development for a new version was just to deliver the fun and charm of the original in an updated format. As per him, the main focus of the updates to the script was to alter it from something that the audience reads to something that the audience listens to.
Matsuno likened it to the difference between a novel and a play, where there’s a difference between text that you follow with your eyes and text that you hear with your ears. He said that the former needs to be easier to read while the latter leaves room for the performer and seeks to show off their talents to the greatest extent, sometimes at the expense of readability and aesthetic beauty.
According to the director, the result of this difference is that the development team has made tweaks to almost the entire script. As such, it has shifted to a “listening-first” approach in order to support the new voice acting implementation. He mentioned that he’s grown older since he first wrote the script for the 1997 PS1 classic, and his perceptions have changed accordingly. As a result, he said that there may well be minor changes to how certain lines are phrased. He jokingly apologized in advance to Final Fantasy Tactics fans if, instead of an improvement in his writing technique, his sense of perception has grown dull with age.
Final Fantasy Tactics- The Ivalice Chronicles is set for release on September 30, 2025 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows.
