No wonder it took so long to rerelease Final Fantasy Tactics—the source code was lost: 'Keeping that kind of data wasn't a normal thing to do at the time'

I played Final Fantasy Tactics in an emulator on my phone. It was not ideal. (Perfect for Advance Wars, though.) Later this year, me and you and everyone else will be able to play it in a proper remastered version when Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles comes out on PC and consoles. But it wasn't as easy as pressing the big red button that says "smooth graphics filter".

As director Kazutoyo Maehiro told Square Enix in a recent interview, "There were a number of major challenges, but all of them stemmed from the fact that the master data and source code from the original game no longer existed. This isn't to say that they were mishandled or poorly managed or anything like that—keeping that kind of data wasn't a normal thing to do at the time."

Maehiro went on to explain that, back in the day, the original data would be overwritten each time a game was localized in a new language. For this rerelease they had to rebuild Final Fantasy Tactics from scratch. "We analyzed a number of existing versions of the game and reconstructed the programming of the original," Maehiro said, "but there were also times where we played the original game and worked it out by feel alone…"

That hard work will pay off in an updated version with a new UI, full voice-acting, added dialogue by original writer and director Yasumi Matsuno, autosaves, adjustable battle speed, and a host of other changes. If you want something closer to the original experience, it'll come with a classic mode that lets you play with the old school graphics and many of the other changes and additions revoked.

"Among fans of the original game," Maehiro said, "there will be those who believe that the game doesn't need a lot of embellishment. To be honest, I've felt this way about a number of remastered titles in the past. So, there was no doubt in our minds that alongside the enhanced version, which is more in-line with the current era and more accessible to newcomers, we should also include a classic version that is based on the original build of the game."

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles will be out on September 30 via Steam.