The men behind Final Fantasy XII

Character Designer Akihiko Yoshida is best-known for his distinctive work on Final Fantasy Tactics, which blended the no-nose style of classic Final Fantasy characters with a hyper-detailed look. Final Fantasy XII has given him his biggest chance yet to creatively stretch his wings, and here, he shares his thoughts about creatingthe characters and art for the storied series:

Can you guide us through your thought process as you create a new character?

Matsuno-san gave me a few pointers and I started on the roughs. We then work on the textures and models from the roughs. It's not something that is finished on paper, but the character is finally finished when expressions are made on the character models and the voice actors give them a voice.

Do you ever work using 3D modeling programs, or do you mostly stick with 2D drawings?

I was the chief on the environment besides working on the character designs so I did use some 3D modeling programs. Creating characters roughs and textures was all work done in 2D.

You've mentioned that Ashe's body is modeled after a French woman, but that you had to make her look a little more Japanese, otherwise capturing her expressions would be difficult. Can you explain exactly what you mean?

Some minor adjustments had to be made, but in the end I'm really happy with the small changes as they've really helped enhance Ashe's character.

Which character design is your favorite, and why?

My personal favorite is Balthier, mainly because he was inspired by an athlete that I was a fan of.

CATEGORIES
Latest in Final Fantasy
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"
Final Fantasy 14 producer Yoshi-P interview's the series' founding father Hironobu Sakaguchi
After 3 years of playing Final Fantasy 14 "almost every single day," series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi reckons the MMO "might be the game that I've played the most in my life"
Latest in Features
The Punisher holding two machine guns in the rain
Daredevil: Born Again - Learn the bullet-riddled comic book history of the Punisher before he officially joins the MCU
A woman in a underwater machine waving during the cinematic teaser for Subnautica 2.
Subnautica 2: Everything we know about the new underwater survival game
The AMD Ryzen 7 8700G being held above a motherboard by a reviewer
AMD's pro-consumer 9070 strategies are exactly why it's primed to dominate the CPU market in 2025
Assassin's Creed Shadows cinematic screenshot
Assassin's Creed Shadows' transmog looks set to combine the best of Odyssey and Vahalla to make changing my drip easier than ever
Split Fiction screenshot of Zoe and Mio in a fantasy world
Split Fiction feels like a Mass Effect-meets-Fable platformer and I'm obsessed with it after just one hour
Monster Hunter Wilds characters share a meal
Oh no, Monster Hunter Wilds is so good that I'm already counting the days until its inevitable Master Rank expansion