Final Fantasy 6 Tactics is an incredible fan-made mash-up of two of the best games in the series
All aboard the Phantom Hype Train.
Today in things I wish Square Enix was working on instead of terrible blockchain games and yet more Final Fantasy 7 mobile games: a remake of Final Fantasy 6 that uses the 3D positional combat of Final Fantasy Tactics.
Luckily, while Squeenix might be preoccupied with lesser concerns, modders Connor and Chelsea Dunn (or at least, one of them under the YouTube channel of that name) have taken it upon themselves to port Final Fantasy 6 into the Final Fantasy Tactics engine, thus finally uniting two of the series’ absolute GOATs in one perfect-looking creation.
The first looks at the Final Fantasy 6: Tactics mod show off impressive Tactics-style sprites and menus for familiar faces like Locke and Terra, as well as new skills for the party members and custom stages co-created by level designer ArmoredKori based on Final Fantasy 6 environments. One battle shows the party mounted on chocobos, while glimpses of an encounter against joke boss Ultros (one of four in FF6) and a fight before the party boards the Phantom Train are also seen. Sorry, no Train Suplexes yet.
Perhaps most impressive is the soundtrack, which reimagines Nobuo Uematsu’s SNES-powered tunes for Final Fantasy 6 in the style of Tactics’ later PlayStation-enabled orchestration. (Tactics’ OST was handled by Ogre Battle composers Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata in place of Uematsu.)
“The original tactics game has been hacked to high heaven,” the Dunns explained in a response to one comment underneath the two YouTube videos showing off the mod, adding that several of the sprites were handled by other developers who will be credited in course. “New maps, sprites, spell effects, damage formulas and story editing have all worked out pretty thoroughly. It takes plenty time, but quite a bit can be accomplished.”
Having been working on Final Fantasy 6: Tactics since at least mid-April, the account added that they expect to spend at least a couple more months working on the project before it covers Final Fantasy 6’s story up to the final dungeon of its first world, the World of Balance’s Floating Continent. The plan is for the mod to eventually be released via the Final Fantasy Hacktics community.
Given that Square Enix's own staff are desperate for a proper remake of Final Fantasy 6, rather than just a pixel remaster, hopefully the task of paying respect to one of the greats won't be left up to to dedicated fans forever.