Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, a remaster of Square Enix’s acclaimed tactical RPG from 1997, is set to launch on September 30 across major platforms. Ahead of launch, Final Fantasy Tactics’ original director and scenario writer Yasumi Matsuno talked to Denfaminicogamer about the game’s withstanding relevance after all these years.
“We created this game nearly 30 years ago, during a time of serious economic and political turmoil,” Matsuno comments, citing the burst of Japan’s bubble economy and The Gulf War as some of the many issues of the time. “The post-bubble economy in Japan was rough in particular – many companies went bankrupt, and the Employment Ice Age started.” The Employment Ice Age refers to the period between 1994 and 2004 during which many Japanese people lost their jobs or/and were unable to find stable sources of income.
According to Matsuno, who was an economic journalist before starting to write games, it was this socioeconomic context that fueled the creation of Final Fantasy Tactics, a game “centered around class struggle and the divide between the haves and the have-nots.” At the time, Matsuno had hoped that things might get better down the line, but he comments that “Sadly, the world around us hasn’t changed, […] and in some ways, the 90s might have even been better.”
As Matsuno sees it, economic inequality is still rampant, with people as divided as ever. “Conflicts are still ongoing across the world, such as Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Hezbollah, and Syria,” he comments. In this sense, Final Fantasy Tactics still has a meaningful message to convey, both for newcomers and old-time fans of the title.
Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles releases on September 30 for Steam, PS5/PS4, Xbox Series X❘S, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.
.
