The developers talk about the remakes of these two classic handheld games.
Duncan HeaneySQUARE ENIX Content Communications Manager
Two of the best games of the PlayStation Portable era are back – each enhanced and fleshed out!
Crisis Core –Final Fantasy VII- Reunion and Tactics Ogre: Reborn are not just remakes, they are new experiences with enhanced features, additional features, and more.
Take Crisis Core, the prequel to the original Final Fantasy VII, as an example. Its visuals have been luxuriously upgraded, and the battle system has also been significantly revised, making it smoother and more enjoyable to play.
“Tactics Ogre: Reborn” is an enhanced version of the classic “Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together”, refurbished visual and sound performance, coupled with the strengthening of the combat and customization system, to create a more intuitive and simple but more strategic depth Play experience, and even add new content! Its original is a treasure in the strategy RPG genre, and it will naturally shine even more after being strengthened!
But what does it take to bring these once-handheld-exclusive games to modern platforms? With both games coming out in 2022, we’ve gathered a few developers involved to take a look!
The guests participating in this discussion are as follows:
· “Crisis Core –Final Fantasy VII- Reunion” producer Kitase Yoshino
《Crisis Core –Final Fantasy VII– Reunion》producer Mariko Sato
· “Tactics Ogre: Reborn” producer Hiroaki Kato
· Tactics Ogre: Reborn Director Naoji Katano
· Tactics Ogre Reborn lead game designer Naoyuki Takahashi
Crisis Core –Final Fantasy VII- and Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together are two of the most critically acclaimed games on the PSP, and players have been looking forward to their return in new and enhanced looks. What is the reason for choosing to realize this wish at this time?
Tactics Ogre: Reborn Producer Hiroaki Kato:Personally, I’ve always wanted to have the opportunity to get involved in the development of Tactics Ogre again, especially if feedback from players who played the PSP version could be incorporated into the port design of the game, that would be even better. .
The turning point came when I was in charge of Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age! After enhancing elements of the original, including visual and sound performance, adding new voice recordings, and improving combat design and ease of play, I thought: “Maybe I can use the knowledge gained this time to create a new Tactics Ogre !”
That’s when I decided to make this game!
“Crisis Core –Final Fantasy VII- Reunion” Producer Kitase Yoshino:If a game’s original hardware is discontinued, it’s certainly not easy to play it again, and Crisis Core is an example of that.
Of course, it’s possible to play the game at its original specifications using cloud technology, but the truth is that after Final Fantasy VII Remake launched, fans have higher expectations for graphics performance.
So I think it’s really worth remastering the game for current-gen platforms to meet those expectations.
It’s certainly a rare reunion for those of you who were involved in the development of the original. You must have fond memories of that time, right?
“Crisis Core –Final Fantasy VII- Reunion” Producer Kitase Yoshino:I was the executive director during the development of the original Crisis Core… We didn’t have enough game designers at the time, so I joined the creative team along the way!
At the time I was in charge of a few parts that were based on the original Final Fantasy VII, like the level design in Shinra Yashiki, and the clash scene between Cloud and Sephiroth in the Nibelheim reactor. It’s really nostalgic during work (laughs)!
Tactics Ogre: Reborn Director Naoji Katano:At the time, I was the technical director of Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, so I was thinking more of a technical level. The most memorable moment for me was when the prototypes of the “Tactics Ogre” and “World Tarot” were completed.
From a technical point of view, these features were the most challenging part, as they allowed you to reverse the progress of the battle and the game itself, which I remember feeling fresh at the time!
Kato:The PSP version uses live orchestral performances to record the three songs embedded in the game: the title song, the overture, and the opening song. I still remember being overwhelmed by the moving performance of the live orchestra when listening to these three songs that were recorded and sent to us!
“Tactics Ogre: Reborn” also uses live orchestral music from beginning to end, and I hope you can experience the same soul-stirring feeling as many years ago.
《Crisis Core –Final Fantasy VII– Reunion》 Producer Mariko Sato:I wasn’t involved in the development of the original Crisis Core, but I did play it after it was released.
I vaguely remember that Zack was only a short-lived character in Final Fantasy VII at the time, but his story touched me so much that even I was surprised!
Tactics Ogre Reborn lead game designer Naoyuki Takahashi:I’ve played Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together on the PSP and it’s pretty solid, especially the story choices and combat weights.
I remember being surprised and delighted that even near the end of the game, there was still unit (character) training and endgame content to play!
Both of these remasters add a slew of enhancements and new features. What is the basis for deciding which new features to add?
Takahashi:First, after all the members of the Tactics Ogre: Reborn development team played the original together, make a list of strengths and improvements. Based on this list, we discuss further and decide what features to include in the new version.
Kato:Yes, I replayed the PSP version with all the extras, so this is the game I’ve played the most time with (laughs)!
Fortunately, one of the charms of this game is that it is durable, and it will never get boring no matter how many times you play it. Based on this, along with items to check and new elements to incorporate, playability testing is always a fresh and enjoyable experience.
Takahashi: The list of revisions and new functions is settled as the development progresses, and if it is found that new elements should be added, it will be brought up for discussion.
Katano:Some feedback from players on the PSP version is also the basis for our decision to adopt, including adding levels to units (characters) instead of classes, and redesigning the AI.
Of course, not everything can go according to plan. Some elements are finalized during the development process. For example, the major replacement of sound effects is completed by the sound department in the later stage of the project.
Sato:For the remake of Crisis Core, we talked to creative director Tetsuya Nomura about the direction we wanted to take. Development studio Tose also presented their proposals for enhancements, from which we chose which items to adopt.
What was the biggest challenge in adding these new features?
Sato: There are many challenges, but visual adjustment is one of the most difficult. We originally considered porting the graphics intact, but after the first port of the original to a larger screen, a number of issues arose.
In the end we decided to create a similar graphics to Final Fantasy VII REMAKE, however, just swapping out the 3D model had some failures, so we spent many days tinkering and tweaking.
Kitase:The PSP uses the same graphics technology as the PS2 generation, and it has been three generations apart by now! “Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- Reunion” has reached the graphics quality close to “Final Fantasy VII REMAKE”, the whole look is completely new, and it is more exciting to play!
Sato:We also felt that the combat system of the original Crisis Core was a little too difficult to learn in places, especially compared to some recent action combat games.
We’ve re-examined all the parts of the original that players found difficult to use, and we’ve worked hard to improve them. We’ve also spent a lot of time tweaking and polishing to ensure that the game is more playable, but still retains the essence of the original.
In retrospect, we really did a “massive” fine-tuning of the game (laughs)!
Presumably Tactics Ogre: Reborn faced just as many challenges?
Katano:Probably the biggest challenge was designing a UI (user interface) that was compatible with both the mouse and the controller. We thought about the possibility of mouse operation from the beginning, and also planned to incorporate elements such as icons to support it.
However, due to the lack of a “workable” solution that could use a mouse without sacrificing the convenience of a controller, we had to iteratively fix and improve until the end of development!
There are also some technical issues as the original was released on an older platform. For example, the data stored in the PSP version is based on a CLUT (color look-up table) – basically a complex mechanism that technically combines multiple elements to determine color.
Maintaining this mechanism limits our ability to work at higher resolutions, because that means some data must be rendered in full color. It is “extremely” difficult to reconstruct the data to meet this requirement!
Tactics Ogre and Crisis Core were originally handheld games. How is development different from making console games?
Sato:I can only share from personal experience, the specifications of the current generation platform are much improved than in the past, which makes all aspects of characterization – not only limited to graphics, possible.
That makes one unconsciously want to push the limits of development and add anything imaginable.
Mobile-specific games are convenient and people can play anywhere, but the specs that developers can adopt are limited. As a result, the boundary can only be drawn at a certain point in the development process, and there is no need to repeatedly think “I want to execute this, I want to join that…”.
Developing games for consoles is very different from developing games for handhelds!
Katano:There’s really a big difference between developing a game for the PSP or other mobile devices and developing a game for the PS5. Two of the main differences are viewing the screen resolution and size of the game.
For example, Tactics Ogre looks like a pixel art game, so it’s very affected by the screen resolution. We had to consider how we could take advantage of the best qualities of pixel art while keeping up with today’s high-resolution screen standards.
In the UI design, we also spent a lot of time. If the game is purely made for mobile devices, the UI can be designed to be larger because the screen size is fixed and smaller than a TV screen. On modern platforms, however, people view images on a variety of screen sizes, so many different monitors must be prepared for UI design and inspection.
There are also technical considerations. For example, when making Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together on the PSP, it took a lot of work to improve the loading speed of UMD. And for the PS5 and PS4 versions of the game, the platform seems to have solved this for us – thank you so much (laughs)!
Crisis Core and Tactics Ogre are both fan favorites, will that affect the development process?
Sato:Indeed, the project team realized from the beginning that this was a very popular work. We see many fans post Crisis Core-related posts every year on the game’s launch anniversary.
It does feel a little bit of pressure because of this, but the whole team is really committed to development, and now we can’t wait to show you the results! Thank you so much for all the encouragement from our fans that keeps us motivated to actively develop this new version.
By the way, the way everyone in the team shouted “Gongaga!” after the game was released made me very happy, because everyone really worked hard (laughs).
Kato:With Tactics Ogre: Reborn, we want to give fans an experience better than they remember. On the one hand, it focuses on retaining the nostalgic sense of the game, on the other hand, it integrates the current generation technology and production style to create a fun and unburdened gameplay.
Takahashi:Throughout the development process, we’ve considered things that might get fans excited, such as how combat is structured. We made the charismatic foes in the story just as strong in the gameplay.
Katano:While this core concept of providing entertainment to players remains the same, we carefully considered each new element with original director and writer Yasushi Matsuno to ensure that the enhancements were directed in the direction of Tactics Ogre’s worldview.
Lastly, is there anything else you want to say to those who are buying Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- Reunion or Tactics Ogre: Reborn?
Sato:“Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII Reunion” after the remake, not only allows the original PSP players to relive their nostalgic memories, but also enjoy some fresh experiences that are different from the past. I really recommend trying it.
The game also lets you experience the original Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and the upcoming Final Fantasy VII Rebirth in even greater depth!
Kato:Players who have played Tactics Ogre before may be impressed by the remastered fully voiced cutscenes and live recorded music. Plus, all the enhancements make the game even easier to play, allowing you to enjoy our carefully crafted world of Varieria.
Players who are about to try this game for the first time, I hope you will be as deeply fascinated by the game’s world and story as the original players. Enjoy free and flexible character development and strategic battles, and experience the fun of thinking twice and winning!
Takahashi:I think “Tactics Ogre: Reborn” has a completely different experience from the PSP version, adding voice and a new storyline, I hope you will like it!
Katano:I would like to add that the PSP version is only available in Japanese within Japan and only in English outside of Japan, while Tactics Ogre: Reborn supports English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese, with a voiceover switchable between English and Japanese. I believe that more people will be able to experience this game together. I hope everyone can grasp this release and have fun!
A big thank you to all the developers who participated in this interview and shared with us their thoughts and experiences when it comes to reimagining these classic handheld games.
Now you know, “Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- Reunion” and “Tactics Ogre: Reborn” are not just simple remakes, they retain the essence of the original, while bringing exciting new game experience, it is rare The latest creation!
Tactics Ogre: Reborn is coming to PS5 and PS4 on November 11, 2022.
※The launch date of game content may be adjusted according to different regions/countries.
※The above contents are subject to change without notice.
source:PlayStation.Blog