Screenshots of Final Fantasy XII during its prototype phase.
Critics have theorized the combat was changed midway through development to be more "MMO", but it wasn't true.
Katano had said "[...] I was shown the dev docs. It had the Gambit battles and the seamless open world."
Critics have theorized the combat was changed midway through development to be more "MMO", but it wasn't true.
Katano had said "[...] I was shown the dev docs. It had the Gambit battles and the seamless open world."
The first live footage of FFXII was shown in 2003, with the footage being released to the public in 2004.
It showed footage very similar to the finished game. A lot of elements found its way intact too. It also dispels the narrative that Vaan was added halfway in development.
It showed footage very similar to the finished game. A lot of elements found its way intact too. It also dispels the narrative that Vaan was added halfway in development.
So what happened? Final Fantasy XII was an overly ambitious game that needed time to complete.
Katano had also worked on FF10, and he recalls FF12 being so much more complicated, due to its open world nature and its novel Gambit system.
Katano had also worked on FF10, and he recalls FF12 being so much more complicated, due to its open world nature and its novel Gambit system.
In comparison, Xenoblade 1 took four years to be made. Also a very long time that accounts for the ambition put into the game.
While FFXII was originally envisioned as a classic FF crowd-pleaser, the drive of the Ivalice team turned it into the most ambitious project yet.
While FFXII was originally envisioned as a classic FF crowd-pleaser, the drive of the Ivalice team turned it into the most ambitious project yet.
Katano added that the open world design was a basic principle of FFXII. Its approach of leaving the keys to the player, is also very similar to FFT or Vagrant Story which they had worked on.
They are proponent of letting the players be able to exploit the game how they want.
They are proponent of letting the players be able to exploit the game how they want.
The narrative that Vaan was focus tested is also unproven. The interview that is being used, actually says that their previous game, Vagrant Story, featured a strong man in his prime (Ashley Riot) but was a commercial failure so they took another route with a teenager this time.
They already had experience writing teenagers, as one of their previous game, Final Fantasy Tactics, featured Ramza Beoulve, who was among the youngest protagonists in the series (16). A teen was also in the vein of every protagonist since FF8 (earlier if you discount Cloud).
So in this sense I don't understand why Vaan is the focus-tested character but every teenager protagonist in other FF is somehow a pure & honest creative decision with no business intent in mind towards demographics whatsoever. It just doesn't track.
Something you never hear of though, is that FFXII was actually supposed to be different in that they wanted to come back to a Super Deformed style like FF7 or FF9, with characters having big heads.
The game wasn't originally supposed to be closer to Vagrant Story in its design.
The game wasn't originally supposed to be closer to Vagrant Story in its design.
They say this because they consider FFXII to be Vagrant Story with multiple party members. This is how it ended up being in the end for them.
There was a reason for this, because Vagrant Story was THE reason they were assigned FFXII by Hironobu Sakaguchi himself.
There was a reason for this, because Vagrant Story was THE reason they were assigned FFXII by Hironobu Sakaguchi himself.
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