Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles, the revamped version of Square Enix’s 1997 TRPG classic, is set to release on September 30, 2025. In anticipation of the release, Square Enix is offering everyone who pre-orders a bonus item pack which includes a white equipment alternative for Ramza, and for those who are willing to spend a few more bucks on the Deluxe Edition of the game, the devs have prepared two more alternative color schemes amongst other goodies.
In a recent interview with Denfaminicogamer, art director Hiroshi Minagawa (who also worked on the original FF Tactics) and producer Shoichi Matsuzawa revealed that the process of implementing these alternate colors for Ramza was not as easy as one may think – however, the devs managed to pull it off thanks to an old coloring technique used in the original version of the game.
“At first, we thought we could implement [the color variations] much easier, but we encountered some big problems that came with the original framework of the game. We were forced to change all of the colors of Ramza’s animations, especially during the event scenes, but our art team somehow managed to make it all work out in the end,” said Matsuzawa. Apparently, the tricky part of changing the colors came with the graphics technique they opted for using – and it was only a matter of chance that they decided to stick with the one that was originally used in the 1997 game.
“In modern 3D CG games, a fairly common way to change colors as parameters is by using shaders. However, when it comes to porting a game with pixel graphics [in a modern environment], the pixel data is usually created with the full spectrum of colors in mind, as modern hardware’s color restrictions aren’t that rigorous compared to the ones back in the day. So, if you were to change the way something is colored, it would usually mean that the data just gets multiplied,” Minagawa explained. In other words, in favor of using a full spectrum of colors, the developers would have to give up on customizable colors for characters – as it would just end up increasing unnecessary data, making the game slower to load. However, classic pixel graphics games had a much more economic solution for this problem.
“Back in the day, developers used separate sets of color data called “palettes,” which were made so that even if you changed the colors, the data wouldn’t increase in size. Since the Classic version uses this exact system, we’ve implemented it so that it works the same way in the Enhanced version as well – the colors will change just by switching the palette,” Minagawa revealed.
While many modern-day developers prefer remaking classic pixel games in full color, as it gives them more freedom to enhance the richness of the graphics, The Ivalice Chronicles’ devs’ determination to stick to the original game’s system may have proven to be a good decision in the long run. Minagawa joked: “I’m glad we didn’t try making rich full-color graphics this time, because we wouldn’t have been able to use the palette if that had been the case – it was a close call, (laughs).”
Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles releases on September 30 for PC (Steam), PS5/PS4, Xbox Series X❘S, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2.
