New Final Fantasy Tactics Portable Games Revealed

Square Enix has gone into an all-out portable frenzy. Barely did they surprise us with the announcement of Dragon Quest IX for Nintendo DS yesterday (instead of PS3 or Wii, as expected), and today we learn about the existence of two new titles set in the Final Fantasy Tactics franchise, equally portable as well. Only this time, one of them is set to launch on Sony's PlayStation Portable platform, and the other one... it remains to be seen. Some kind of Nintendo device anyway (DS or GBA).

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War (for PSP) and Final Fantasy Tactics A2: The Sealed Grimoire (GBA / DS?) are the two games in question, revealed through the Japaneze magazine Jump - and a couple of scans from it, also appearing on the NeoGAF forums. The new FFTs will be part of a new sub-series of portable games, called "Ivalice Alliance", set to begin with the release of Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (on DS). Square Enix is therefore continuing to exploit the Ivalice universe created by Yasumi Matsuno, even after he parted ways with the company, in a dubious context.

All that's known about Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War is that it will be a porting of the classic PlayStation game, enhanced with cel-shaded cinematics for telling the story, and some new jobs - including "Onion Knight". The third game in the Ivalice Alliance series is shrouded in even more mystery, and basically the only thing we know about it is the title, Final Fantasy Tactics A2: The Sealed Grimoire ("A2" as in "Advance 2").

Considering that Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings is expected to be released late next year, it's quite unlikely for these new FFTs to come out before 2008.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)