The reconstruction of the Final Fantasy Tactics remake was necessary after the source code was overwritten.

Square Enix has announced that they faced a significant setback with the Final Fantasy Tactics remake, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, as the original game's source code was lost. As a result, the development team had to reconstruct the game from zero.

Detailed in a post on the PlayStation blog on July 21, with insights from VGC, Kazutoyo Maehiro—once an events planner for Tactics and the current director of the remake—disclosed the challenges faced due to historical practices that involved overwriting code. As a result, the source code was not preserved due to limited game preservation methods at that time.

Maehiro stated, “This was simply the norm at the time. We didn’t have the kinds of effective resource management tools available today, and we developed games by essentially overwriting the previous code each time we fixed a bug or added a new language.”

The ambition for The Ivalice Chronicles is to stay true to the 1997 Final Fantasy Tactics, offering both a Classic version and an Enhanced version at the time of launch. Initially, Square Enix considered emulation for accuracy in the Classic version; however, this approach lacked the precision for necessary updates.

"After our analysis, we felt the best way to ensure the game met modern playability standards while staying true to the original was to rebuild it," noted Maehiro.

The fully rebuilt Classic version now underpins the Enhanced version, enabling detailed improvements alongside various enhancements. Players can anticipate the release of Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles on September 30, 2025.