It’s generally well known that a lot of developers from the 90s lost the source code for their games, but we rarely ever see it confirmed.
In an interview with the PS Blog, however, Final Fantasy Tactics director Kazutoyo Maehiro confirmed that Square Enix no longer has access to the original PS1 game’s master data, meaning it was forced to recreate upcoming rebuild The Ivalice Chronicles from scratch.
While it may seem reckless, he explained:
“This was simply the norm at the time. We didn’t have the kinds of effective resource management tools available today, and we developed games by essentially overwriting the previous code each time we fixed a bug or added a new language.”
Square Enix considered emulating the original release, which would have allowed it repurpose the original as it existed in 1997.
But it wanted make more granular changes and improvements, so the only option was to start all over again:
“Since the Classic version was intended to recreate the original game, we did have the option to implement using an emulator. However, this method wouldn’t have allowed us to make granular refinements even if the objective was to recreate the original game. After our analysis, we felt the best way to ensure the game met modern playability standards while staying true to the original was to rebuild it.”
As you may already know, The Ivalice Chronicles allows you to play a preserved version of the original PS1 experience in Classic mode, as well as a more contemporary Enhanced version.
So, the team recreated the Classic mode first then set to work on the Enhanced edition. It’s a really remarkable achievement, and clearly has taken an intense amount of work.
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With the game effectively rebuilt, the developer has been able to improve on it in a variety of ways, adding quality-of-life features like save states, but also major narrative refinements like new dialogue and voiceovers. The interface has been given a makeover as well.
The end result will hopefully culminate in the definitive way to play one of the greatest strategy RPGs ever made. It’s due out on 30th September across both PS5 and PS4, and we’re so glad Square Enix put in the effort to revive this all-time classic.
As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.