Square Enix establishes Ivalice Alliance
by Ludwig Kietzmann 
{ Dec 13th 2006 at 12:40PM }
Easily mistaken for a vicious brand of shampoo and very often catapulted into turmoil by wars and magical beasts, the fictional kingdom of Ivalice has been the setting for a handful of Square Enix titles, almost all of them well-received by critics and fans alike. Just recently, Final Fantasy XII followed the adventures of some Though you're already familiar with Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (slated for the DS), you may not have heard of the other two games revealed in the latest issue of Japan's Shonen Jump. The pages first mention Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War, a PSP remake of the original PSOne Tactics game. Some new cutscenes and a slight graphical upgrade are likely to be included, though we certainly wouldn't mind a better localization as well -- that's assuming the game makes it stateside. Secondly, there's (deep breath) Final Fantasy Tactics A2: The Sealed Black Book. According to the translation note on Jeux France, it hasn't yet been specified whether it'll wind up on the DS or, as the horrific machine translation puts it, the "Game Servant Boy Advance." The latter choice, of course, will result in the game working on both platforms. Snap to it, servant boy!
Another magazine, Gamelabo, reportedly mentions that Square Enix also has two more unannounced Xbox 360 games in the pipeline.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
White Rose Duelist @ Dec 13th 2006 12:55PM
FFTA2 pleases my DS in advance.
FFT:tLW would add yet another game to the list of reasons I might want a PSP if I didn't have the original game.
LunarDuality @ Dec 13th 2006 12:59PM
The latter choice will also ensure that the resolution is downgraded, there are no touch screen features, and the game only runs on one of the DS's screens.
Personally, I hope it lands on the DS.
frodo @ Dec 13th 2006 1:26PM
Now THIS is a franchise I can get behind. Hopefully they give it better treatment than the ff7 atrocities.
eric @ Dec 13th 2006 1:39PM
I refuse to get excited about FFTA2, after how FFTA turned out.
Either use the FFT system, or name it another series.
Zach @ Dec 13th 2006 2:02PM
I'm excited for FFTA2. My DS is in need of some more Final Fantasy goodness (I'm planning on picking up Final Fantasy 3 soon) and a good strategy game should fit the bill. I'm not interested in the FFT for PSP simply because I don't own one and don't plan on buying one.
Musashi9X @ Dec 13th 2006 2:17PM
I am looking forward to Final Fantasy Tactics A2, but part of me is wary since Yasumi Matsuno no longer works for SquareEnix and his presence was part of what made the Ivalice games great. Time will tell, I guess.
Breserk @ Dec 13th 2006 2:54PM
Game servant boy advanced? Haha! There is a god.
vince @ Dec 13th 2006 2:52PM
i agree wholeheartedly with #4. FFTA was a patehetic excuse for a FFT game. i must reiterate: Either use the FFT system or name it another series.
White Rose Duelist @ Dec 13th 2006 3:12PM
What about FFTA upsets you so much? I agree that it's not quite as good as FFT, but I still think it's an excellent game. And certainly FFTA bears more resemblance to FFT than FF12 does to FF1-10.
vince @ Dec 13th 2006 3:23PM
FFTA was FFT dumbed down to the point of retardation.
Musashi9X @ Dec 13th 2006 4:04PM
And FFT was a severly dumbed down version of Tactics Ogre with some stuff thrown in from FFV. That doesn't seem to make it a bad game.
White Rose Duelist @ Dec 13th 2006 3:58PM
Apparently, so have reasoned arguments.
vince @ Dec 13th 2006 4:10PM
since when did FFT have "tactics ogre" written across the top?
Musashi9X @ Dec 13th 2006 4:23PM
Oh, so we're going to play the "If it has the name it has to be the same" game, then? Okay then. Throw in Ocarina of Time, Mario 64, Resident Evil 4, because they all deviate or simplify elements from previous games in the series. Or maybe the entire FF series after I. They must all be horrible.
Tactics Ogre is more of a predecessor to FFT than any of the previous games in the series I mentioned, not to mention having most of the same development staff, but hey, we're playing the name game here.
Dr. Slump @ Dec 13th 2006 4:31PM
I am a huge fan of FFT - It's one of my favorite games ever. FFTA was a big disappointment. About halfway through, I was bored. By the end, I never wanted to look at it again. I immediately sold it on eBay. The main areas in which it's lacking are story and variety. The story is practically nonexistent, and there aren't enough different classes or enemies to keep things interesting for 50+ hours. That said, I do have some hope for FFTA2. We'll have to wait and see.
phantoccine @ Dec 13th 2006 6:40PM
I don't know, FFTA kept me occupied for 50 something hours and I loved it. I never care too much for stories in a videogame anyway. Then again, it was the first SRPG I've ever played. Too bad about the FFT remake on PSP, because I don't plan on buying one. I am very excited for the DS one though...hopefully it is on DS and not game servant boy advance.
Crazylink @ Dec 13th 2006 5:31PM
I really liked FFTA for the GBA. Some of my friends still play it.
Aex @ Dec 13th 2006 6:34PM
@Musashi9x
I don't think you are understanding. Final Fantasy Tactics was great. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance was ass. By using the FFT name, one would expect it to be as good as the original, even if it was different. Unfortunately it was complete ass. Now if RE4 varied from the RE style and completely sucked ass people would be jumping on it as well. When working off an established name, one expects the next game in the series to be as good or better, but when there is a huge degredation in quality, we get disappointed. If RE5 sucked, you would hear people saying the same thing we are saying about FFTA.
All that said, I'm not looking forward to FFTA2. FFTA was dong, the job system was dong, the weapon system was dong, the story was dong. After coming from a well thought out mature storyline they go to a never ending lion in the closet type story and it just sucked. On the other hand, I am looking forward to picking up a renewed version of FFT for my psp even tho I have the original.
Alex Gilson @ Dec 13th 2006 6:48PM
I think some fans of the original immediately decided FFTA sucked because it wasn't exactly like the original FFT, similar to the reaction of Chrono Cross. I do think the quality gap between FFT and FFTA is greater than then CT and CC but old FFT fans (like myself, initially) didn't really give the gba sequal a fair shake.
justchris @ Dec 13th 2006 8:55PM
I gave FFTA a fair shake, I played and beat the game, maxed out every job with at least one character (as I did with the original FFT) and basically allowed it to consume my life for a couple weeks.
The main, #1 reason that FFTA was a huge, huge disappointment after FFT was that it removed the one feature that separated FFT from nearly every other SRPG. The CT system. That was revolutionary, because it meant that you had to manage when each character took their action. 90% of all other SRPGs it's, player's characters go first, then opposing team's characters go. Don't get me wrong, I love Tactics Ogre, Advance Wars, Fire Emblem, and pretty much every game Nippon Ichi has ever developed, but that doesn't mean I don't recognize the inherent flaw in that system.
The CT system, on the other hand, is the ultimate balance point between RTS & TBS. I prefer TBS to RTS, cause I like to have time to think my moves through (I enjoy RTS, too), but the realism of RTS is lost with most of these games. With the CT system, you actually had to plan your moves several steps ahead, because you weren't necessarily going to get to take 2 actions in a row.
Other problems with FFTA: FFT had one of the greatest stories of any game I've ever played. The ending was wonderful. FFTA had one of the worst stories of any game I've ever played. The characters had more personality and spoke more, but the justification for their actions were specious and flimsy at best, and downright idiotic at worst.
The judge system was a great idea, and started out wonderful, but then screwed itself about halfway through the game to the point of being useless.
The territory/clan system was very badly done.
The job/skill balance was totally off. Most of the movement & support skills were pretty much ruined.
The game was also stupid easy.
-------------------------------------------------------
Anyway, FFTA2 is a chance for them to fix it. I'm not going to automatically forgive them for FFTA, but if 2 is a better game I'll buy it. FFT remake on the PSP is only worth buying if they add multiplayer to it, even if it's only adhoc. That's really the only thing the game was missing, I thought the localization was fine...most of the time, anyway. Unless you don't already own the original FFT, then you should definitely buy it.
Alex Gilson @ Dec 13th 2006 9:43PM
I loved the original tactics but I don't think qualifying tactics advance as stupidly easy is fair. If you've played fft for more then a few times you can probably solo levels after awhile and not just with calculator. While the ffta class system was a bit more boring, it wasn't completely broken like fft.
The ct system was revolutionary for tactics based games, but other parts of the game made it almost a moot point. Was ffta stupid in letting you manipulate enemy levels and crush things with ease? Sure. But its not as if fft was that hard after awhile.
The quality of the story of ffta just isn't that good. Sounded like it could be a decent idea but it just didn't work. Even with FFT's somewhat weak translation the story still stands out as one of the best parts of the game and I hope (fingers crossed) the next ffta game decides to take after FFT.
Warforged @ Dec 16th 2006 5:29AM
Alex Gibson, thank you for not being a fantard. I salute you for keeping things extremely logical and openly pointing out both the merits and flaws of the game.
Personally, I didn't like FFTA that much, but a mediocre FFT is an FFT all the same. I'm amped for FFTA2, if only because they'll probably fix some of the flaws in FFTA, and I'm thrilled about Lion's War because it means that my worthless PSP will have something to play besides Valkyrie Profile and MP3s.
Nonentity @ Dec 14th 2006 5:03PM
Am I the only one that was excited about that last blurb?
"Another magazine, Gamelabo, reportedly mentions that Square Enix also has two more unannounced Xbox 360 games in the pipeline."
That makes me happy.
BIGmog @ Dec 15th 2006 3:29AM
Ivalice died when Matsuno left Square. (still a mystery) Rumor has it he's working on a Wii title.