I am eagerly awaiting this weeks release of Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, the PSP port of Yasumi Matsuno’s PS1 strategy RPG staple. Having looked forward to this release since word first came of the revisit, I thought I would relate my experience with another Matsuno masterpiece, Final Fantasy Tactics.
Final Fantasy Tactics was the brain child of Yasumi Matsuno, mastermind behind the Ogre games to which Tactics owes much of its style, substance and core gameplay mechanics. Matsuno left Tactics Ogre developer Quest in 1995 to join Square and his first task was creating the world of Ivalice and developing Final Fantasy Tactics using the skills he honed on the Tactics Ogre games.
Released in January of 1998, Final Fantasy Tactics came to North America only three months after Final Fantasy VII, just as that game was catching on like wildfire. For this reason Final Fantasy Tactics never gained the exposure or rabid following it should have at the time, but since its original release, Final Fantasy Tactics has achieved cult status and is counted among the best of the original PlayStation library.