After nearly two decades, Final Fantasy Tactics is getting the remaster fans have been pining for — with The Ivalice Chronicles adding full voice acting, a new script, a “classic” option, and more. Tactics is one of the most important strategy RPGs ever made, if not one of the most important games ever made, so the game no longer being lost to time is a big deal. And while the Tactics series saw two more pseudo sequels, Tactics Advance and A2, it arguably shares more in common with an entirely different game — Tactics Ogre Reborn. In fact, the link between these two games is so deep that I’d argue Tactics Ogre is the perfect setup for playing Final Fantasy Tactics, if you really want to understand the design ethos behind how one of the most ambitious Final Fantasy games came to be. It also just happens to be the tactical game to tide you over.
The “Ogre Battle” series was created by Yasumi Matsuno, the director and writer of Final Fantasy Tactics, with the first game, Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen, developed by Quest and released on Super Famicom in 1993.
