{"id":49424,"date":"2025-06-25T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=49424"},"modified":"2025-06-25T18:49:41","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T09:49:41","slug":"final-fantasy-tactics-political-messaging-is-just-as-relevant-now-as-it-was-30-years-ago-director-says-sadly-the-world-has-not-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-tactics-political-messaging-is-just-as-relevant-now-as-it-was-30-years-ago-director-says-sadly-the-world-has-not-changed\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Fantasy Tactics\u2019 political messaging is just as relevant now as it was 30 years ago, director says. \u201cSadly, the world has not changed\u201d\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles<\/strong>, a remaster of Square Enix\u2019s acclaimed tactical RPG from 1997, is set to launch on September 30 across major platforms. Ahead of launch, Final Fantasy Tactics\u2019 original director and scenario writer Yasumi Matsuno talked to <a href=\"https:\/\/news.denfaminicogamer.jp\/interview\/250617t\/3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Denfaminicogamer<\/a> about the game\u2019s withstanding relevance after all these years.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe created this game nearly 30 years ago, during a time of serious economic and political turmoil,\u201d Matsuno comments, citing the burst of Japan\u2019s bubble economy and The Gulf War as some of the many issues of the time. \u201cThe post-bubble economy in Japan was rough in particular \u2013 many companies went bankrupt, and the Employment Ice Age started.\u201d\u00a0The 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1606\" height=\"900\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1606px) 100vw, 1606px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250625-49424-001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-49426\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250625-49424-001.jpg 1606w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250625-49424-001-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250625-49424-001-768x430.jpg 768w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250625-49424-001-1536x861.jpg 1536w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>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 \u201ccentered around class struggle and the divide between the haves and the have-nots.\u201d At the time, Matsuno had hoped that things might get better down the line, but he comments that \u201cSadly, the world around us hasn\u2019t changed, [&#8230;] and in some ways, the 90s might have even been better.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Matsuno sees it, economic inequality is still rampant, with people as divided as ever. \u201cConflicts are still ongoing across the world, such as Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Hezbollah, and Syria,\u201d 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.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles releases on September 30 for Steam, PS5\/PS4, Xbox Series X\u2758S, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Final Fantasy Tactics original director and scenario writer Yasumi Matsuno thinks the world might have even been better in the 1990s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":49425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-49424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Final Fantasy Tactics\u2019 political messaging is just as relevant now as it was 30 years ago, director says. \u201cSadly, the world has not changed\u201d\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Final Fantasy Tactics original director and scenario writer Yasumi Matsuno thinks the world might have even been better in the 1990s.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-tactics-political-messaging-is-just-as-relevant-now-as-it-was-30-years-ago-director-says-sadly-the-world-has-not-changed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Final Fantasy Tactics\u2019 political messaging is just as relevant now as it was 30 years ago, director says. \u201cSadly, the world has not changed\u201d\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Final Fantasy Tactics original director and scenario writer Yasumi Matsuno thinks the world might have even been better in the 1990s.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-tactics-political-messaging-is-just-as-relevant-now-as-it-was-30-years-ago-director-says-sadly-the-world-has-not-changed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-25T13:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250625-49424-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1532\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"857\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Final Fantasy Tactics\u2019 political messaging is just as relevant now as it was 30 years ago, director says. \u201cSadly, the world has not changed\u201d\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Final Fantasy Tactics original director and scenario writer Yasumi Matsuno thinks the world might have even been better in the 1990s.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-tactics-political-messaging-is-just-as-relevant-now-as-it-was-30-years-ago-director-says-sadly-the-world-has-not-changed\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Final Fantasy Tactics\u2019 political messaging is just as relevant now as it was 30 years ago, director says. \u201cSadly, the world has not changed\u201d\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Final Fantasy Tactics original director and scenario writer Yasumi Matsuno thinks the world might have even been better in the 1990s.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-tactics-political-messaging-is-just-as-relevant-now-as-it-was-30-years-ago-director-says-sadly-the-world-has-not-changed\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2025-06-25T13:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1532,"height":857,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250625-49424-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Amber V","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Amber V","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-tactics-political-messaging-is-just-as-relevant-now-as-it-was-30-years-ago-director-says-sadly-the-world-has-not-changed\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-tactics-political-messaging-is-just-as-relevant-now-as-it-was-30-years-ago-director-says-sadly-the-world-has-not-changed\/"},"author":{"name":"Amber V","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9"},"headline":"Final Fantasy Tactics\u2019 political messaging is just as relevant now as it was 30 years ago, director says. \u201cSadly, the world has not changed\u201d\u00a0","datePublished":"2025-06-25T13:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-tactics-political-messaging-is-just-as-relevant-now-as-it-was-30-years-ago-director-says-sadly-the-world-has-not-changed\/"},"wordCount":323,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-tactics-political-messaging-is-just-as-relevant-now-as-it-was-30-years-ago-director-says-sadly-the-world-has-not-changed\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250625-49424-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-tactics-political-messaging-is-just-as-relevant-now-as-it-was-30-years-ago-director-says-sadly-the-world-has-not-changed\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-tactics-political-messaging-is-just-as-relevant-now-as-it-was-30-years-ago-director-says-sadly-the-world-has-not-changed\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-tactics-political-messaging-is-just-as-relevant-now-as-it-was-30-years-ago-director-says-sadly-the-world-has-not-changed\/","name":"Final Fantasy Tactics\u2019 political messaging is just as relevant now as it was 30 years ago, director says. \u201cSadly, the world has not changed\u201d\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-tactics-political-messaging-is-just-as-relevant-now-as-it-was-30-years-ago-director-says-sadly-the-world-has-not-changed\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-tactics-political-messaging-is-just-as-relevant-now-as-it-was-30-years-ago-director-says-sadly-the-world-has-not-changed\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250625-49424-header.jpg","datePublished":"2025-06-25T13:00:00+00:00","description":"Final Fantasy Tactics original director and scenario writer Yasumi Matsuno thinks the world might have even been better in the 1990s.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-tactics-political-messaging-is-just-as-relevant-now-as-it-was-30-years-ago-director-says-sadly-the-world-has-not-changed\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-tactics-political-messaging-is-just-as-relevant-now-as-it-was-30-years-ago-director-says-sadly-the-world-has-not-changed\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-tactics-political-messaging-is-just-as-relevant-now-as-it-was-30-years-ago-director-says-sadly-the-world-has-not-changed\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250625-49424-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250625-49424-header.jpg","width":1532,"height":857,"caption":"Final Fantasy Tactics The Ivalice Chronicles"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-tactics-political-messaging-is-just-as-relevant-now-as-it-was-30-years-ago-director-says-sadly-the-world-has-not-changed\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Final Fantasy Tactics\u2019 political messaging is just as relevant now as it was 30 years ago, director says. \u201cSadly, the world has not changed\u201d\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9","name":"Amber V","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","caption":"Amber V"},"description":"Editor-in-Chief since October 2023. She grew up playing Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein with her dad, and is now enamored with obscure Japanese video games and internet culture. Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49424"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49427,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49424\/revisions\/49427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}