The land of Ivalice was birthed withFinal Fantasy Tacticsin 1997 in Japan and a year later for North Americans. It became an instant PS1 classic and a land many remember fondly.
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CountingFinal Fantasy Tactics –but not the PSP re-release – there are eight games that take place in Ivalice: the originalFinal Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Final Fantasy XII, FF XII: Revenant Wings, Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift, Crystal Defenders,andTactics S. WhileFinal Fantasy XIVhas references to the Ivalice Alliance, and even a raid, it does not specifically take place in Ivalice. Notes aside, take a look into some of the finer details about these eight releases.
10The Timeline
There is a bit of secrecy between when these games take place. Based on some notes from Square Enix, and deduction from fans, the timeline seems as follows: The first game would beFinal Fantasy XII, followed by its sequelRevenant Wings. After that, the twoFinal Fantasy Tactics Advancegames are somewhere close in proximity since the races are all still alive. For this same reason, it’s believedFinal Fantasy Tactics SandCrystal Defenderstake place around here, too.Final Fantasy Tacticstakes place way in the future with the extinction & crumbling of Ivalice andVagrant Storywould be set even further than that.
9The Canceled Ivalice
Game studio Grin was working on an Ivalice game codenamedFortress. It was going to be a darker tale with action combat in an open-world around the PS3 and Xbox 360 era.
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Eventually the studio ran out of money and had troubles communicating with Square Enix, which led to this game being canceled along with Grin shutting down altogether. Check out every piece ofcontent left on Unseen64.
8Final Fantasy Tactics S
Final Fantasy Tactics Smay be a title that eludes fans. It was a mobile spin-off that was exclusive to Japan. It launched in 2013 and was shutdown a year later.Tactics Shad similar gameplay to theTactics Advancegames with returning classes and thirteen unique ones. These include Air Samurai, Musician, Mini Fighter, Dancer, Vampire, Mail Knight, Sky Pirate, Onion Knight, Oracle, Judgemaster, Piscodemon, Destroyer, and Druid.
7Final Fantasy Tactics Cut Content
There is quite a bit of cut content still locked away inFinal Fantasy Tactics. Warjilis Trade City is only used in a cutscene but it might have been used for a battle at one point since it is fully fleshed out map. There are also several cut commands, pieces of text, songs, and even jobs. One can even listenFinal Fantasy Tactics' cutmusic here.
6Final Fantasy Tactics Redesigns
There is other hidden stuff aboutFinal Fantasy Tacticsone can’t find besides digging in the game’s code. Meliadoul Tengille, Goffard Gaffgarion, and Isilud Tengille all have alternate colors for them in artwork. Bigger than that is Alma in a white mage costume with dark hair. This could suggest at one point she may have been a bigger party member.
5The Square Enix Merger
Square and Enix, after being longtime rivals in the RPG market, merged officially in 2003.Final Fantasy X-2andFinal Fantasy Tactics Advancewere released, and in-turn developed, before this merger occurred.
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In Japan, both games were released as Square titles. However, due to the fact that the Square Enix brand had already been established in the United States and Europe,Final Fantasy X-2&Final Fantasy Tactics Advancereflected the company’s name post-merger.
4Final Fantasy Tactics A2 Cut Content
Although released on the Nintendo DS,FinalFantasy Tactics A2began development on the Game Boy Advance. Interestingly, there’s evidence that the Transmuter job was cut from the Nu Mou. It sort of still appears in the game through items and abilities, albeit not as a proper job.
3Final Fantasy XII Early Concepts
Final Fantasy XII’sconcept art also shows evidence of changed content. Balthier’s first draft is noticeably nerdier while Basch looks prettier. Larger than those two, the ghost-like Occuria that appears in the game could have looked like the Nu Mou. This might actually be the case if this was their form before transcending into gods.
2Final Fantasy XII Manga
On the subject of artwork,Final Fantasy XIIgot a manga adaptation. There were five volumes that more or less followed the story of the game. Some things were altered to better fit the manga’s structure & pacing, along with adding in more backstory for the main cast through flashbacks. Unfortunately, theFinal Fantasy XIImanga never released outside of Japan on top of ultimately being canceled.
1Vagrant Story’s Co-Op
Yasumi Matsuno,Vagrant Story’s director, talked about the game in a related piece titledVagrant Story Preview Edition E3 2000 Exclusive Monster Edition. In it, Matsuno said that about half the story was cut out. A lengthy portion would have followed Ashley in his early years. In the main game, he would have been accompanied by AI partners that may have even featured co-op. Time and budget led to these elements being cut.
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