The land of Ivalice was birthed with Final Fantasy Tactics in 1997 in Japan and a year later for North Americans. It became an instant PS1 classic and a land many remember fondly.
Counting Final Fantasy Tactics – but not the PSP re-release – there are eight games that take place in Ivalice: the original Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Final Fantasy XII, FF XII: Revenant Wings, Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift, Crystal Defenders, and Tactics S. While Final Fantasy XIV has 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.
10 The 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 be Final Fantasy XII, followed by its sequel Revenant Wings. After that, the two Final Fantasy Tactics Advance games are somewhere close in proximity since the races are all still alive. For this same reason, it’s believed Final Fantasy Tactics S and Crystal Defenders take place around here, too. Final Fantasy Tactics takes place way in the future with the extinction & crumbling of Ivalice and Vagrant Story would be set even further than that.
9 The Canceled Ivalice
Game studio Grin was working on an Ivalice game codenamed Fortress. It was going to be a darker tale with action combat in an open-world around the PS3 and Xbox 360 era.
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 of content left on Unseen64.
8 Final Fantasy Tactics S
Final Fantasy Tactics S may 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 S had similar gameplay to the Tactics Advance games 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.
7 Final Fantasy Tactics Cut Content
There is quite a bit of cut content still locked away in Final 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 listen Final Fantasy Tactics‘ cut music here.
6 Final Fantasy Tactics Redesigns
There is other hidden stuff about Final Fantasy Tactics one 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.
5 The Square Enix Merger
Square and Enix, after being longtime rivals in the RPG market, merged officially in 2003. Final Fantasy X-2 and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance were released, and in-turn developed, before this merger occurred.
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 Advance reflected the company’s name post-merger.
4 Final Fantasy Tactics A2 Cut Content
Although released on the Nintendo DS, Final Fantasy Tactics A2 began 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.
3 Final Fantasy XII Early Concepts
Final Fantasy XII’s concept 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.
2 Final Fantasy XII Manga
On the subject of artwork, Final Fantasy XII got 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, the Final Fantasy XII manga never released outside of Japan on top of ultimately being canceled.
1 Vagrant Story’s Co-Op
Yasumi Matsuno, Vagrant Story‘s director, talked about the game in a related piece titled Vagrant 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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