The men behind Final Fantasy XII

Executive Producer Akitoshi Kawazu got his start years ago, working on the earliest games in the Final Fantasy series before striking out with the low-profile Saga games. Roped back in to finish development of Final Fantasy XII, he notes "I believe that the series will keep on evolving even if I wasn't the one working on them... There are different creators for every Final Fantasy. Each idea is unique to each creator. I don't think that being true to the original inspiration is too important."

The game seems to have two strong lead characters, Vaan and Ashe. Is it hard to balance the story with two characters?

Although it seems that Vaan and Ashe are the two main characters, we've actually developed Final Fantasy XII to focus more on the overarching storyline. In essence we havesix main characters whose roles are to complete the puzzle pieces that comprise the grand storyline.

Final Fantasy XII is perhaps the most ambitious of the series when it comes to the scale and variety of the visuals. How much was the aging PS2 hardware limiting in terms of what you wanted to achieve?

There are always restrictions, no matter if it is a new or old hardware. We always try to make the best product within those limitations.

What do you think is the most successful aspect of the game? Are you disappointed with any areas now that it's finished?

I'm just proud of how well this entire package came together. I think that balance is more important than having a certain aspect of the game stand out. When creating a game ([this] may not only be for games but for creating anything), a creator is never 100% happy and we're always looking for the next step for making things better.

CATEGORIES
Latest in Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail screenshot showing the Warrior of Light, a man with lengthy swept-back brown hair, blue eyes, and facial hair stubble, smiling slightly
As Final Fantasy 14 fans gear up for patch 7.2, Yoshi-P teases that the update will be the MMO's largest ever
Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail Futures Unwritten Ultimate raid
As Final Fantasy 14 raiders tear through the MMO's hardest duty with no healers and then no tanks, the community can only see this going one way: "Now it's time to clear without DPS"
Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail cinematic screenshot showing Alphinaud Leveilleur, an Elezen boy with short white hair
Final Fantasy 14's funniest speedrunning beef continues as runner who lost a world record to its original champ in just 1 day returns, beats record, is promptly dethroned again
Final Fantasy 7
Sony finally managed to pry Final Fantasy 7 away from Nintendo thanks to a "schmoozer" of a former employee who hung out with Square Enix executives at his parties, according to one former PlayStation boss
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Edition
Square Enix kills Final Fantasy game's mobile version after being unable to "completely fix" a bug stopping fans from accessing their additional paid content
Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster
Final Fantasy creator says the original JRPG's programmer was "like a god" to him: "I still strongly feel that the core program itself is the ‘life’ of a game"
Latest in Features
Kai fighting spiders in Avowed
From Skyrim to Baldur's Gate 3, spiders are universally horrible – but Avowed finds a way to make them worse than ever
A decorated purple car speeding head-on down a road in Toyko Xtreme Racer
Tokyo Xtreme Racer is a novel throwback to classic PS2 racing games like Midnight Club, and I can't get enough of it
Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda in Wicked
Wicked: For Good release date, cast, story, and everything else you need to know about Wicked Part 2
Invincible
Invincible season 4 release date speculation, story, cast, and more
Key art for Assassin's Creed Rogue Remastered showing Shay Patrick Cormac in a black and red outfit that's a cross between Assassin and Templar armor, with his ship The Morrigan behind him
Assassin's Creed Shadows can wait – I spent 40 hours mopping up the map in the one game in the series everyone skipped
Avowed screenshot showing a corpse-like figure's face with glowing purple mushroom/spore growths
I thought I was going evil in Avowed, but one quest changed everything I thought I knew about morality in this RPG