The original Final Fantasy Tactics was a sleeper hit as it was in the shadow of Final Fantasy 7 and the coming Final Fantasy 8. It helped redefine what a tactical RPG should look like and function, and will be getting a complete remaster later this year. However, the original game could have looked a lot different if not for art director Hiroshi Minagawa insisting it run at 60fps.
Having already put his stamp on Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together--the game many fans consider FFT's tonal predecessor--he wanted to improve the visuals even with the technical constraints of its era.
"At first, we wanted something closer to Tactics Ogre in terms of map size and character count. But no matter what we tried, the framerate dropped to 30fps," he said, while talking to the Japanese gaming site, Denfaminicogamer (translated via Automaton Media). He mentioned how he became obsessed with sticking to 60fps, especially after seeing Tobal No.1 playing incredibly smooth at 60fps.
Minagawa continued, saying he wanted to try to understand why the PlayStation's specs don't allow for that many polygons, but keep it at 60. Working backwards from there, the team took into account things like the size of the map and a design that avoids rounded corners as much as possible. Also, taking Tactics Ogre's party size from 10 and lowering it to five for FFT.
"Having 10-character parties like in Tactics Ogre felt like too much. Final Fantasy games at the time had parties of four or five, so we figured FFT should be an extension of that. And that just so happened to align perfectly with Minagawa’s framerate concerns," FFT director Yasumi Matsuno added. "[Final Fantasy Tactics] was a game that could only have been made at that time, on that hardware. Even if we tried to recreate it today, there's no way it would turn out the same."
Turn-based games such as FFT and Tactics Ogre are usually focused more on the gameplay and customization aspects of your party and less on the actual visual graphics.
Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles will be released on September 30 for PS5 and Nintendo Switch.
Source
Having already put his stamp on Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together--the game many fans consider FFT's tonal predecessor--he wanted to improve the visuals even with the technical constraints of its era.
"At first, we wanted something closer to Tactics Ogre in terms of map size and character count. But no matter what we tried, the framerate dropped to 30fps," he said, while talking to the Japanese gaming site, Denfaminicogamer (translated via Automaton Media). He mentioned how he became obsessed with sticking to 60fps, especially after seeing Tobal No.1 playing incredibly smooth at 60fps.
Minagawa continued, saying he wanted to try to understand why the PlayStation's specs don't allow for that many polygons, but keep it at 60. Working backwards from there, the team took into account things like the size of the map and a design that avoids rounded corners as much as possible. Also, taking Tactics Ogre's party size from 10 and lowering it to five for FFT.
"Having 10-character parties like in Tactics Ogre felt like too much. Final Fantasy games at the time had parties of four or five, so we figured FFT should be an extension of that. And that just so happened to align perfectly with Minagawa’s framerate concerns," FFT director Yasumi Matsuno added. "[Final Fantasy Tactics] was a game that could only have been made at that time, on that hardware. Even if we tried to recreate it today, there's no way it would turn out the same."
Turn-based games such as FFT and Tactics Ogre are usually focused more on the gameplay and customization aspects of your party and less on the actual visual graphics.
Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles will be released on September 30 for PS5 and Nintendo Switch.
Source