#yasumi matsuno

[acquired-stardust]

Final Fantasy Tactics Playstation 1997

[omercifulheaves]

Vagrant Story (2000)

[mendelpalace]

Development images for Final Fantasy Tactics, circa early 1996.

According to Yasumi Matsuno, the original plan was to create a real-time strategy game akin to Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen, but this concept was eventually scrapped.

[geekysteven]

[fostersffff]

The director of Ogre Battle and Final Fantasy Tactics telling everyone to shut the fuck up about Ogre Battle and Final Fantasy Tactics and play Unicorn Overlord is incredibly funny, and at least the second time I can think of a Japanese developer going “stop fucking talking about my games and go play a Vanillaware game, you philistines”.

[wind-caller2]

Hallo,followers!

A kind person transcribed a conversation between four game legends, including Mr. Matsuno, which was broadcast on the radio program.

enjoy😆😆😆

[charactercreatorlimbo]

So I'm playing through Final Fantasy XII it's been wayyyy longer than a decade since I last played it. I don't plan on spoiling big things, but may talk about future parts of the game before they happen, but not really spoiling story developments, anything remotely spoilery happens after the read more:

The last time I played this the color was blown out because I didn't have the right converter and and for added fun, blownout speakers.

Yasumi Matsuno deserved better.

Rather than being known for the fashion choices of its cast (tho we'll get there trust me) this final fantasy places more emphasis on the lore and history of the world, which I remember to be pretty neat.

It's the Year 704 in the world of Ivalice a lot has happened in the past, there have been wars between the nations, invasions, stuff you'd expect from kingdom politics. Sending your invading army over to the nearest kingdom is just how you ask your neighbor if they have a cup of sugar they can spare.

Currently Ivalice is is experiencing a golden age brought on by the invention of airships and industrialization advances (brought about by the invention of airships). Today happens to be the royal wedding, see Lady Ashelia of Dalmasca, and Prince Rasler of Nabradia tying the knot.

This wedding is significant in this world because it unites the territory of Nabradia that lies above Rabanastre with that of Dalmasca of which Rabanastre is its capital.

But as is the case with games in this franchise even the most prosperous times can turn turbulent in s a flash, as we'll see in for the desert capital of Rabanastre.

The city of Nabudis in Nabradia which as served as a prime bulwark between this city and the invading Arcadian empire (they ARE called The Empire, the star wars comparisons are completely justified) has fallen, the opposing army will make it to the city by sunrise tomorrow.

Prince Rasler whom hails from Nabradia leads the charge to Nalbina fortress, the last line of defense before Rabanastre.

does every game have to have names and locations that sound so similar, like ya its to show that connections that can be seen in the language alone but I wish there would be more variation present to prevent confusion, I have this bad when trying to remember anything that happened in Elden Ring.

This transition of the airship from its departure from the capital to Nalbina

Playing Final Fantasy 14 means you become immediately attentive when there's a crystal tower supplying a magic barrier in any given piece of media

hey can I play as Rasler now?

shit.

Defending Nalbina completely failed, King Raminas B'nargin Dalmasca of Rabanastre, (also Ashelia's father) is being flown to Nalbina to sign terms of surrender for Dalmasca. Captain Basch of Dalmasca (above) brought Rasler's corpse back home, there was a funeral, everyones sorta feeling it rn

On the night of the signing Basch smells hijnx and is gathering up any able bodies that are still alive from the previous battle, in this case fresh faced Reks who we'll be playing as.

This section has so much detailed geometry for just this tutorial section where all u do is learn how to run and talk to ppl.

There's even some small breadcrumbing done for the player, this red dome stands out in this sea of blue and it's an identifiable architectural feature in the next screen once we pass the level transition.

Me looking for ppl irl with :) above their heads so I can talk to them.

Also having the infantry wearing gym shorts is very funny, also this outfit gets copied and used in Final Fantasy 14, it won't be the last thing that gets repurposed

Seriously there's no reason why this entrance is so elaborate it's not like we're not coming back here.

This shot of the tonberry in front of the moon still striking in 2023 even though it won't even take a minute to scrap.

boom

Somehow it's not destroyed after that, Some of the empire's airships, especially from a distance seem like they should have more capabilities in devastation but this tonberry model uses radio communication with a WW2 era audio compression that for me helps ground the technology in this world.

Dawn is breaking.

Now we're in this gorgeous hallway, but its cut off from the symbolic victory of bringing dawn back from the night. We're completely encased in.

All of the environments have been largely transitory so guessing this room exists to demonstrate the level of clutter players could expect in these spaces. Spoiler- it's a lot for something that originally released on ps2

King Raminas is beyond this door

oh.

oh that might be a problemmm

oh Reks being betrayed and murdered is so you

Ok so this guy above is Vayne. Compared to other final fantasy villain designs he's pretty muted. I like to think that if his design was more memorable and maybe had a unique pattern of speech the game wouldn't need this pickup shot of his face which dispels a bit of the intrigue.

kinda keeps u guessing with these twinks the first has iconic armor that looks important sure, players first thinking that he's the protagonist and then gets one-shotd

then theres muffin Reks we just played as, unbaptized in the fires of war, unprepared for the challenges that lay in front of him, that's pretty close to how these protagonists start out o wait plot got them too, honk now boarding the party Vaan

After it's revealed by Arcadian empire that Dalmasca's king has been assassinated by the captain of its guard. Basch is executed for treason, Princess Ashelia takes her own life, and the empire proceeds to occupy Rabanastre the game doesn't want you to be too down because now its time to bag some rats in a sewer

This is Vaan they've been living in occupied Rabanastre, they had strange textures on their abs that got removed in the remaster

Going from Reks fighting in Nalbina with a short sword to Vaan's here with dagger maybe creates an unconscious connection before the game outright tells you that the gutterpunk is Rek's younger brother.

this was kind of a lot, now's a good place to stop. next update will be checking out Rabanastre proper

[genkinahito]

Vagrant Story ベイグラントストーリー (2000) Director: Yasumi Matsuno

[andnowrotfront]

i need to actually start bozja so i can experience more actually well written ffxiv politics again

[sprintingowl]

Writing A Wargame When The World's A Bastard

I think most people looking at an rpg blog are probably familiar with the "Wow! Cool Robot!" meme.

And I think to an extent all play consists of "Situations I Don't Actually Want To Be In But It's Fun To Imagine The Scenario." Even tag and hide and seek simulate escaping from a predator.

However, when I say Over War is both a wargame and a tabletop roleplaying game, I want to be a little more precise about which inspirations I'm drawing on.

Yasumi Matsuno is a name that Final Fantasy XIV players might recognize, but he has a much broader body of work with incredibly consistent themes.

Matsuno also directed and wrote Final Fantasy Tactics, designed directed and wrote Tactics Ogre, designed directed produced and wrote Vagrant Story, and created Ogre Battle, which lit a fire in my head as a child and eventually led to the creation of this game.

In a Yasumi Matsuno story, you can generally expect gothic vibes, a baroque aesthetic, and messy, multi-sided political choices that orbit around resentment, societal disenfranchisement, and a struggle for a better world.

Those themes and elements are what I'm trying to channel in Over War.

There's more than a few splashes of the usual Sprinting Owl ridiculousness (you can build a unit out of just chupacabras and goats in the uneasiest alliance any fantasy world has ever seen,) but the game centers around questions like "Should anyone ever deserve to rule a land?" and "What compromises on integrity and vengeance are you personally willing to make to achieve your goals?"

There's a sidebar at the beginning of the book making it clear that I am not trying to draw real-world parallels---I'm not smart enough to do that without messing it up---but I do want the players to think when the game hands them a thorny issue, and to reach a decision that they are ultimately comfortable with.

This is tricky to do in a game which ultimately also needs to be fun, it won't sell if it's not fun, but those are the compromises I'm making in the hopes that this game will bring enjoyment and disquiet to folks.

[autopotion]

I've included games that he was at least either a director, writer, or producer on

[acquired-stardust]

Final Fantasy Tactics Playstation 1997

[catiuapavel]

It’s always been surreal to me that people created this rumour that Vaan was inserted late into the development of FFXII and that Yasumi Matsuno’s was forced to add him in to justify their dislike of the character... All because of an early piece of concept art that was stylistically and aesthetically SO different from the character design of FF12 anyway and a piece of interview where it’s mentioned that, in an early draft of the game, they contemplated having an adult knight protagonist.

Early drafts and concepts being discarded is nothing unusual in game development (or in any kind of writing tbh). You see it on the regular, and yet this led to a 17 years myth about how Basch (who was never the knight in question) was somehow always intended to be the protagonist but, at the last minute they inserted Vaan into the game. This is taking your dislike of a character to an extreme level honestly.

And now 17 years later the former director says this rumour is baseless and you’ve still got people saying they don’t believe him because they can’t let go of their bizarre theory. At this point you have got to be normal and just accept there is no insider story explaining why you’re justified in hating Vaan. Your opinions dont need some official explanation.

[falciesystemessays]

i think a lot about Farewell To A Legend.

for those of you fake fans who haven't played Final Fantasy XII, that's the name of the last hunt quest, where you fight against the superboss Yiazmat. this name is important, but i'll get back to that. this boss is memorable for having hp in the millions. it took me hours to beat this monster, and i had to cheese it using Wither. beating this boss is not just a show of skill, but of dedication. you have to commit to beat Yiazmat, and that honestly gives it a special place in my heart.

but let's talk about the name now. Yiazmat (or Yazmat in Japanese) is named after the original lead for FF12, Yasumi Matsuno. Matsuno is an important figure for a particular kind of fantasy RPG. He directed Ogre Battle, Vagrant Story, and was the creator of the Ivalice setting used in FF12 and the Tactics games. He was very familiar with these games, and it showed for FF12, where he was both director and producer. This meant that he was both the creative lead with the vision, and the project lead making sure everything goes smoothly. An in-house interview with localization lead Alexander O Smith shows him talking particularly kindly about Matsuno's work, the level of information and worldbuilding he had ready for them.

Then he got sick and had to step down from the project. taking his place were Hiroyuki Ito at the director's seat, best known as a battle system guy and the director of FF6 and 9, and Akitoshi Kawazu in the producer's role, best known for the SaGa series. We can only speculate on how different things could've gone, but ultimately FF12 is a good-ass game, where you can feel the love in every aspect of its development. It's well-worth playing if you haven't, and in my opinion makes the perfect bridge between eras of Final Fantasy.

So let's get back to Yiazmat. After seeing Matsuno step down, the rest of the team wanted to honor him in the best way they could: By naming the biggest baddest boss fight after him, and calling the quest "Farewell To A Legend." Gonna be honest, that quest name is probably about 75% of the reason why this boss sticks out in my head so much. I plan to use that exact sentence a few decades from now on the off-chance Matsuno proves to be mortal. And like, sending a message as a game developer, that's something I want to do!

I wonder, sometimes, when I get far enough in this gamedev shit, will I get that farewell to a legend? Will my presence be missed if I leave a project? Will I be remembered as someone who mattered? All the crunch culture and layoffs and harassment in the game industry paint us as expendable, as things to be used and discarded, and I don't want to be part of that. I want to rise above that, and being a bit less selfish, I want us as a collective to rise above that. But going back to selfishness, I know somebody has to be The Guy who gets the credit. And I hope that for my work at least, I earn that. I'm only just getting started, I need a hello before a farewell. So I guess I'll start by sending my own message. Look forward to that.

[itsmissing]

Play any video games? If so any notable favs?

me and video games go way back! ask them about me, they'll totally tell you they know me. i promise.

it's funny, i was thinking about how to answer this and it turns out a lot of my favorite video games were by Yasumi Matsuno! i'd consider Final Fantasy XII one of my favorite video games of all time, and i grew up with Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen and Final Fantasy Tactics. later on, when i got a PSP, i pretty much inhaled Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together and i dropped a lotta hours on the fairly recent remaster of that title.

some non-YasMat faves include the Megaman Legends series, Pillars of Eternity 2, Okami, Risk of Rain 2, XCOM 2, the Disgaea series (up until 5), Fallout: New Vegas, and TF2 (which i've recently started playing again with some friends). there's probably a couple more that i could name but those were the ones that stood out in my noggin.

thanks for the question!

[beardedmrbean]

Final Fantasy Tactics is the spiritual successor to Tactics Ogre, though oddly the remake versions of Tactics Ogre are basically the spiritual successor to Final Fantasy Tactics. Both games were directed by Yasumi Matsuno, as was part of Final Fantasy XII.

Wow, I nailed that one then. lol

Very cool, handy to know all that and looking at the screens more it looks like my computer could actually run it without difficulty too.

I'd need to look at the requirements, should be fine though.

Thank you again, I appreciate the suggestion and the info.