Final Fantasy Hacktics

So I'm sure some of us know about the upcoming iOS version of War of the Lions, but there hasn't been much info revealed since the game was announced almost a year ago at E3 (nothing besides announcements of delays anyway). All we've known is that it was slated for release "this spring." Now we've finally gotten an update:

FFT: WOTL iPhone Release Date (http://www.facebook.com/note.php?created&&note_id=10150190079621301&id=167831379364). 

The big takeaways:
- The game is now slated for a late June to mid July release (they're aiming for June).
- The iPad version might be a little delayed though because they are making a high-res version for it. Here's an example of two touched up portraits:
(http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-
ash4/224723_10150240554609365_167831379364_8771707_1654536_n.jpg)

Frankly, I don't see the iPhone/iPod Touch version can't also have higher res visuals that would take advantage of the Retina Display. They did it for both versions of the FFIII port.

omggg the portraits looks amazing.

Now we have to learn how we can import our hacks to the iphone :3

I recall hearing this. Did that FFIII port ever get released? And if so, will we see an FFIII Port to the PSP as well?

The menus and everything from what I saw looked to be pretty cleverly designed, this may yet be a success especially if it doesn't have the slow down of the PSP version. Also it's good that they're so quickly remaking an Ivalice Alliance game, it hints that will be one of the ten IP's that SquareEnix will focus upon.

OH NO, Square-Enix is clearly spying on us as they have stolen our brilliant idea of making our portraits/avatars high-res. Next they will make the portraits start blinking and then we will be in real trouble.

FFIII for iPhone is definitely out.

I am excited that they are continuing with this port. I just wish they would include the sound novels like we are attempting to do in Complete.

No but seriously those portraits are gorgeous.

PS: Frankly I think we should start comment profusely asking for the Sound Novels to be included, I know I'm obsessed. However I can't figure out how to comment on the thread. I want to write this:

"Long time fan of the game.

I was really disappointed that the Sound Novels were cut from the WotL rerelease in the US once again.  It is one of the only pieces of FFT content not to be included in the US version of the game and it has been my dream to see these included in an official release. So I'm hoping they make it in this time, it would be a very unique addition to the game."

June!? But I want it NOW!!! ;A; (Though I don't have an iPhone OR an iPad. OTL)

I was reading some stuff I found on my blog and there was a news report in German. I translated it via Google and it said that it wasn't coming out. I fumed. *sobbu* But this just proves that it's coming out. c:

But anyway, I would love to see the rest of the hi-res portraits! They look so awesome! ;A; Upload more when you get 'em!

In the meantime, I will sulk in the corner, crying about how I don't have the necessary products to play it with. T_T

I agree Cheetah, the Sound Novels contain some pretty interesting parts of Ivalician History, especially Wyuvle (Oielvert), M-Fiction is also an interesting one because it is the game's only other real mention of Hero King Mesa who led Humes out of the Cataclysm, even if it is supposedly false, it also contains mention of the Palamecian Empire.

I can't figure out how to comment on the page either. It'd be nice if the sound novels were included, but I doubt it. I'd like to see high-res artwork for all versions of the game, but that's probably because I don't have an iPad (and don't plan to buy one any time soon either).

FFIII came out for iOS in March. It's pretty much the only game I've been playing on my iPhone for the past few weeks. It looks great on the iPhone 4's Retina Display.

Part of the problem with making the iPhone version hi-res though, is that only the iPhone 4 has the Retina Display; anything older probably wouldn't be able to handle the hi-res version of the game. What I think they should do is release two versions for the iPhone, a hi-res version for the devices that can handle it, and a standard-res for everything else.

True, but using FFIII as an example, it can be played on older iOS devices since the minimum for it is iOS 3.0, but it takes advantage of the Retina Display. Going by that, I don't think there needs to be two separate iPhone versions to allow the game to be high-res. It should be able to detect which device you have and if it's an iPhone 4/4th Gen iPod Touch, it'll run at a higher resolution.

FFT WotL Update (http://www.facebook.com/notes/square-enix-dlg/iphone-final-fantasy-tactics-the-war-of-the-lions-update/10150230251056301)

Well, it's been slightly delayed again. It's slated for release later this month. It will be supported on the 3GS and newer devices.

The bad news is the multiplayer's been stripped out of the game. The game being on iOS devices would have made it more accessible. And I was looking forward to being able to fight against other people. Hopefully the co-op missions will be made accessible in the single player mode. And the new equipment was only available through multiplayer, so I'm wondering what they'll do about that.

On the other hand, the game will have retina display support, so at least one of my hopes were fulfilled. And best of all, the slowdown problem has been solved :D

Indeed, it sounds as if this will be the definitive version of WotL, a shame they had to cut the multiplayer (which may be, as we guessed long ago have been the actual reason for the slowdown), but its a small loss, I am wondering how they will do the Rendevous then.

I doubt they actually do it, but since it'll be on the App Store, there's a chance they can add in the multiplayer in the future. Even better if it could connect via Game Center, since it'd make it easier to arrange a game with a friend.

It'll be available on the App Store this Thursday (1800JPY/ 15.99USD/ 12.99EURO)

Release Info (http://www.facebook.com/notes/square-enix-dlg/final-fantasy-tactics-the-war-of-the-lions-product-information/10150255684381301)

Also, there's a gameplay video. The one thing that stands out is the camera is now completely dynamic. Fair warning though, it's an early build of the game so there's no sound on the spell effects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVWlGsh9rCY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVWlGsh9rCY)

Whoa, very nice. Everyone here who can should totally get this.

The gameplay is simply amazing! <3 If I ever get an iPod Touch or an iPad, this will totally be on it! ^w^ But until then, I still cry in my corner. ;w;

Quote from: RedWorld on August 01, 2011, 01:01:57 pm
The gameplay is simply amazing! <3 If I ever get an iPod Touch or an iPad, this will totally be on it! ^w^ But until then, I still cry in my corner. ;w;

I couldn't express my feelings better

That is alot of money to plop down for this game again. I'm totally stoked that they brought it over and I should support it. I'm not sure about the slow down either, it is still looking like an issue.

screw the slow down, this game looks great. The graphics look prettier :O
Love the Graphics
Ignore this, "slow down"

Yeah, I just watched it again and there was some slowdown, though it wasn't nearly as bad as the PSP version. Keep in mind though that the video was from a pre-release build of the game, so here's hoping the final release runs perfectly.

Well I have played through the first few battles now.

Good News:
1) No skills slowdown!
2) It's FFT

Bad News:
1) The interface is clunky beyond all get out. There is a little "Okay" button in the lower right that is used for everything. It beeps every time you click it, even when just stepping through dialog. Would have been much nicer to just click on screen for more things. Maybe there are some options in there for that but I haven't gotten it working smoothly yet.
2) The interface layout is pretty atrocious as well. It is rather difficult to play. It might get better with time though and I think the team is pretty devoted to improvements.
3) I have it on my iPhone 4 and I'm not seeing the sexy new improved portraits.
4) So skills aren't slowed, but game play is far from smooth. Running in events look particularly clunky, and the game stutters slightly at times. This is all through the eyes of a long time FFT player though so I'm apt to notice all these small things.

I can answer #3. It's not the iPad version. xD That version will be out near the fall or hopefully next month.

But good news for me! My friend is sending me an iPod Touch so maybe there is some hope yet for this amazingly awesome FFT fan! ;3;

Don't get it for the touch. It won't run well.

iPhone4 Gameplay:


Touch gameplay...

Quote from: RedWorld on August 04, 2011, 02:06:52 pm
But good news for me! My friend is sending me an iPod Touch so maybe there is some hope yet for this amazingly awesome FFT fan! ;3;

Man! I envy you... :|

I'm gonna force my girlfriend to buy this (she's the one with a Touch 4G). Been meaning to scratch my FFT itch for a long while, and this looks awesome! Hopefully we can also find a way to hack in our sprites and patches to this version (in time, of course, and given how lazy Squeenix developers are, I bet they didn't much around with the code too much).

Quote from: Joseph Strife on August 04, 2011, 03:15:56 pm
Man! I envy you... :|

I'm sorry I have such a good friend! ;A; He just has 35943341 iPods and he just let me have one! <3

Anyway, I will admit that the gameplay for the Touch is quite laggy, but at least the sound sync with the moves! x.x

Quote from: RedWorld on August 04, 2011, 04:02:16 pm
I'm sorry I have such a good friend! ;A; He just has 35943341 iPods and he just let me have one! <3

I must know that friend of yours!  :lol:

Anyways, let's see square comes up next, hoping for the futures updates on this.

Quote from: Joseph Strife on August 04, 2011, 04:06:10 pm
I must know that friend of yours!  :lol:

Anyways, let's see square comes up next, hoping for the futures updates on this.

Haha! Well, he's from the FFT Realm if you've ever been there~

And yes! But I can't wait for the HD portraits~! <333

I thought they said they were going to be supporting the retina display, which I took to mean that the HD Portraits would be on the iPhone 4 version as well.

Is there any way to import the high-res portraits into the PSX version?

no, the resolution is 256x240... doubling the size they would end up taking 64x96, which would be huge on the screen

Quote from: Xifanie on August 04, 2011, 06:54:33 pm
no, the resolution is 256x240... doubling the size they would end up taking 64x96, which would be huge on the screen

We cannot import the high-res portraits, the game still lags...
This new release fails

Quote from: Cheetah on August 04, 2011, 06:19:35 pm
I thought they said they were going to be supporting the retina display, which I took to mean that the HD Portraits would be on the iPhone 4 version as well.

That's what I was thinking as well. Honestly, the game doesn't look like it supports the Retina Display at all. The entire game looks a bit blurry, which would be explained if it wasn't running at native res on an iPhone 4.

Considering:
- The inconsistent performance. From stuttering/lagging everywhere, even on the various menu screens to running almost too fast during event cutscenes.

- The fact that they seemed to have lied about Retina Display support, since none of the graphics look sharper or improved

- The fact that it was delayed for almost a year and still somehow has performance issues that weren't there in the PSX or even the PSP version of the game

I can't recommend this to anyone at the moment. Hopefully, they'll address it in a future update, but until then, I'll stick with my "gotten through other means" version. Until then, I refuse to pay for another version of FFT that can't perform well.

When did you hi res your avatar Dominic?

I felt the need to support this release, but yes it is certainly disappointing at this point. Where can we give feedback for improvements?

That is because the one that is suppose to have the hi-res portraits and what not is being specially made for the iPad... they didn't say it was going to be for the iPhone. Which is why I'm not wasting $15 when I can:

A) just play it on epsxe...
B) play it on the psp
C) hell play it on my wii (which emulates it ok)

Quote from: Cheetah on August 04, 2011, 08:30:22 pm
When did you hi res your avatar Dominic?

I felt the need to support this release, but yes it is certainly disappointing at this point. Where can we give feedback for improvements?

Technically, I didn't :). I ran it through one of the filters in Paint.NET (I think) some time last year. One of these days, I'll sit down and actually hi-res it. Though I'll admit I'm not sure how to go about doing it besides making the original portrait less pixelated...

Anyway, I really want to buy it, but knowing me, I'll just get frustrated with it, especially since it costs $16. As for feedback, you can leave a review for it on the App Store under the Reviews section for the game.

I was umming and erring whether to buy the game (currently have it on my PSP) but I think I might wait until they do an update. It's a shame that they have had so long to sort out the game and yet it's still sub standard. I am also surprised the game has sold millions and yet there has never been a sequel for it. Whats all of-that about?

I think Square Enix fews the FFT Advanced games as sequels.

It is great to support the release of all things FFT, but I have to say there are lots and lots of kinks to be worked out yet. It is totally playable, it just isn't what it should be.

Quote from: Dominic NY18 on August 04, 2011, 10:33:53 pm
Technically, I didn't :). I ran it through one of the filters in Paint.NET (I think) some time last year. One of these days, I'll sit down and actually hi-res it. Though I'll admit I'm not sure how to go about doing it besides making the original portrait less pixelated...

Anyway, I really want to buy it, but knowing me, I'll just get frustrated with it, especially since it costs $16. As for feedback, you can leave a review for it on the App Store under the Reviews section for the game.

So sorry for being off topic, but what was the filter called?

Thanks so much for all your feedback on the iOS version of FFT. I've been on the fence about getting it and after hearing your gripes on here, they just confirm my suspicions related to choppy framerate and poor interface.

I really don't understand how Square-Enix screwed this up as far as the interface is concerned. I'm guessing they didn't feel like throwing a lot of money at the port to do things like make the text larger, make larger UI selections (in an attempt to eliminate the UI bar at the bottom of the screen), etc. I almost feel like they slapped fans in the face by saying, "We appreciate and understand the fact that Final Fantasy fans love the Final Fantasy Tactics franchise. And, yet, while we feel it's not necessary to make a new UI that caters to mobile touch screens, we still feel the game deserves to have one of the highest prices for a game on the iTunes store. But we know you fanboys will pay that price regardless, so dig in!"

At first, I didn't have a problem shelling out $16 for an awesome, classic game such as FFT. But given the amount of bugs, slowdown, etc. I keep hearing about, I'm just appalled that Square-Enix have big enough cajones to charge this much for the game.

I'm going to hold out for the iPad version. This game seems much better suited for a larger screen, especially if S-E refuses to make a special mobile UI for this game.

Oh, and for the record... Some of you may remember my thread on ripping FFT sound effects, so you know how much I pay attention to the game sounds. I'm also pretty shocked at the fact that some sound effects sound weird, different, cut off, etc. from the original FFT. New players to the game won't know or care about it, but for an old-time FFT player, this is inexcusable.

I realize that getting FFT to a mobile platform is a HUGE undertaking (for God's sake, the game is 456mb!). But, I firmly believe that if you're to re-release a game that will be so highly publicized and scrutinized, you'd better make sure it's up to the fan's standards and plays just as well as the original.

Anyway, sorry for the long-winded post. Just had to share my two cents. Thanks again for saving me $16 (for now). Here's to hoping the iPad version will be better.

I don't understand why FFH would speculate over the slowdown when as much as the community does with digging around the mechanics of FFT:WotL and FFT:PSX's ISOs, they do not see how it is intentionally programmed in the game.

Mando was texting me the other day saying "herp derp itz nut coded" but I would assume a place with this much experience with computers and the game itself could provide a detailed, fan-friendly explanation to the community the reasoning behind it.

:/

I don't know much about computers myself, but I did inquire on this very topic some time ago. Apparently it is "hard-coded" and I am not sure what that means, but the only time I have heard that term is when they discuss the AI.

Hard-coded usually means that it has to be a certain way because of hardware limitations, kind of like the FFT roster is hardcoded to only accept X amount of units. Hopefully that clears it up some- I'm terrible at explaining this. >_>

Hard-coded has a very broad and inconsistent definition. It shouldn't be used; heck I never heard that one before.
Other definitions are:
- Stuff that you can't yet edit
- Stuff troublesome to edit

Another possible definition:

Something that bypasses the "regular" behavior and does something unique to suit its needs.


But yeah "hard coded" stuff isn't impossible to change, just generally more difficult than normal.

So yeah, there was a recent update  (two actually). The second one added Retina Display support.

I think this screenshot speaks for itself:


Game still doesn't run like it should though...

Wow, I like this, gives a fresh feeling to it. Though our HD portraits are still better, heh.

I believe their HD portraits were just run through a filter. Your hand done ones are at least generally better Kage. I still would like these all ripped so we could use them as avatars.