Developing the Final Fantasy Tactics remaster was challenging as the original code no longer exists

One of the things announced during this summer's not-E3 was a remaster of Final Fantasy Tactics, something that had been rumoured extensively beforehand. But making this remaster has apparently been more difficult than anyone could have imagined.

In an interview on Square Enix's official website with director Kazutoyo Maehiro, it was revealed that the original code no longer exists:

"There were a number of major challenges, but all of them stemmed from the fact that the master data and source code from the original game no longer existed."

The reason this was not saved is that "keeping that kind of data wasn't a normal thing to do at the time [1997]," he continues. In addition, the practice in those days was to make a Japanese version and then overwrite that game with Western editions:

"In those days, we didn't have the sort of robust resource-management tools that exist today, and on top of that, the production workflow for the game was such that the Japanese version was produced first, and then we would create localised versions by overwriting the data with that of other languages, including English."

He explains that since there was no online support or anything like that, it wasn't needed, and "once you'd made the game, that was it", continuing:

"I think it's fair to say that developing this game without any master data or source code was the biggest challenge."

Fixing this therefore required "sheer force", he concludes, explaining that the team had to review the different versions available and play them to try figure out how they worked.

On September 30, we'll see how well they succeeded. That's when Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles will be released on PC, PlayStation, Switch 2, and Xbox.