Final Fantasy Hacktics

Hi everyone,

In the past month, Matsuno has been relating some of his memories about FFT's development on Twitter, and these designs and ideas came up. These are too interesting not to share, so I'll try the best I can to translate the information he posted.

Divine Knights

(http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc443/ricojeh/770522919_zps9f93305c.jpg) (http://s1212.photobucket.com/user/ricojeh/media/770522919_zps9f93305c.jpg.html)

This is the style concept for the divine knights by Yoshida, which each of the related characters conformed to in the final stages of development. Apparently, Matsuno conceived of 12 knights for the story, but only half could be used because of time and resources. They were:

アルフレド（29♀）
メリアドール（19♀）
ヴォルマルフ（24♂）
ローファル（35♂）
イズルード（17♂）
クレティアン（20♂）
ゴラグロス（28♂）
ギュスダヴ（33♂）
バロミディス（23♂）
バルク（46♂）
カルデュイノ（30♂）
リュネット（28♂）

or

Alfredo or Alfreda (29♀）
Meliadoul（19♀）
Vormav（24♂）
Rofel（35♂）
Izlude（17♂）
Kletian（20♂）
Golagros（28♂）
Gustav（33♂）
Balomides（23♂）
Balk（46♂）
Karduino（30♂）
Lunette（28♂）

While some were dropped, their names lived on in minor characters.

Unknowns

Both of these are a mystery to me at the moment, as there isn't much information provided about either design. The first is related to Alma and white mages, while the latter is a scrapped idea (so old, Matsuno couldn't remember the setting).

(http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc443/ricojeh/773699687_zps74533851.jpg) (http://s1212.photobucket.com/user/ricojeh/media/773699687_zps74533851.jpg.html)

Tweet:
ボツキャラ2（これで本当に最後）。ラムザ妹と転生していたア○○○が別キャラだった頃のアルマ。記憶を失った白魔道士ッコとしてPTに加わる設定だった（はず）。ラムザ妹は妹として存在しており、デザインは製品版と同じ。

(http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc443/ricojeh/771096209_zps9c99cb6b.jpg) (http://s1212.photobucket.com/user/ricojeh/media/771096209_zps9c99cb6b.jpg.html)

Tweet:
誰からもリクエストなかったけど、折角掘り起こしたので...。完全なるボツキャラ。今となってはどんな設定だったのかすら覚えていない...。


I'll post again if more stuff is revealed.

Ah, that last one explains that weird unknown formation sprite.

These are very cool, we should get sprites of those guys :)

Someone should sprite some of those and link him a video with them in it, I'm sure he'd find it cool. :o

Thanks a lot for sharing Delmonte!

I'd love to work on the third sprite.  Probably start with Reis as a base for the arms.  Could be tedious with the long sleeves, but would look great if it were finished.  Also would be useful to anyone try to make a sprite like FFX Yuna.

This is super epic stuff, I just ran into it while googling FFT references and was happy to see we had a thread already. I have been obsessed with that third character ever since I saw the formation screen sprite. Would love to see it complete.

Oh we need to absolutely come up with sprites for these character then show it to them. In fact it can be a summer project.

There is already a 1 framer for that third one in FFTEVGRP, it would just have to be finished.

Some notes:

-Wiegraf and Beowulf aren't included on that list, meaning they probably weren't intended to be Templars originally.

-Vormav, Meliadoul, and Izlude are roughly the same age in this, meaning they were probably all brothers/sisters originally.

-Alfreda is a saint, venerated in the Roman Catholic Church, as a virgin, and recluse, died c. 795. She was a daughter of King Offa of Mercia.

-Lunette refers to a half-moon shaped hole, used often in architecture, or in religion, it's a name for something used as a Eucharistic host.

-Balomides is likely taken from Palamides, a Knight of the Round Table from Arthurian lore. Most Knights of the Round Table are referenced in Matsuno's later game, Vagrant Story, as gemstones.

-Karduino is a tough one. Many ancient Italian nobles had the name Arduino, so it could have been taken from that.

-The picture of the brown skinned girl is what Teta's formation screen sprite is used for.

-Rofel is OOOOOOOLD.

Eternal, at least as far as I know, not all of those names where even used in FFT. Meaning they could've still been
Weigraf and Beowulf, only under different names. The Temple Knight Beowulf is also not from FFT, so that is not a surprise
and was likely added in later when they did the rest of the "bonus material"

The second image looks like a concept that would only come out of Lijj.

Quote from: Xifanie on May 31, 2013, 10:16:23 am
Someone should sprite some of those and link him a video with them in it, I'm sure he'd find it cool. :o

Thanks a lot for sharing Delmonte!

Does Matsuno know about us? I wonder what his reaction would be... I say we send him a care package =)

Quote from: Mobius on May 31, 2013, 03:42:53 pm
The second image looks like a concept that would only come out of Lijj.

I can kinda see that.. but the cape, I'd never do the cape like that hahaha (total lies). Just not the hood.
Those are some neat concepts (except the shrine knight [blasted hula-hoop belts]). I've never seen that blue formation sprite before.. I like that character.

I'm surprised you'd never seen this before Lijj, maybe I could post a thread for all the Ports and Formation sprites in the updated japanese version of FFTEVGRP. There is probably many people who have not seen this, if you haven't either

If only we could play the FFT Beta, and see everything they had planned and thought out, implemented and then deleted, removed and replaced for the FFT we have now. This old shit looks fucking awesome.

fucking <3 those maps!
Is that the front of Orbonne?
Check out the Bridge in Zirekile!

Maps 1,7,9 and 10 are something I would be willing to contribute work towards.
Maybe we can get Kokojo to help remake some of them :3
I'm fairly decent at map editing, it could be a team effort.
I could see the grass area one with the house being not
to difficult to recreate.


Also, dat Chocobo XD

Another also, is that snow in picture 11? Very Nice

EDIT: Your video doesn't exist Jumza :P

The bridge looks safer in Zirekile. but kinda clunky so I can see why they'd change that.
In that last screenshot it looks like puddles of water with clouds reflecting out, like a mirror effect going on maybe. I could see that looking pretty nice. It may be snow, but it looks quite blue.

It seems as though they had originally planned to include chocobo riders in randoms or story battles too. I agree with Elric, we need to re-create the old outside of Orbonne map, and that first castle map.

Oh yeah I did mess up the link for that video, oops. Here you go, it's a video of all the stuff happening in those screenshots.



I want the green summoner things to fly into the air like that! And I prefer the old design for the wizards :P

The spell effects almost look SNES-ish. I'm not surprised that early FFT's looks were far more influenced by Tactics Ogre than what was released.