oday Square Enix held an event at the Virgin Cinema in Roppongi Hills, Tokyo to unveil Final Fantasy XII. The event itself was open only to a small amount of Japanese and International Press, some Square Enix guests, and 100 lucky local Japanese winners. We were on hand to give you a closer look at the latest installment of this huge franchise.
When we arrived to the Cinema, there was a huge line of people. There was an extreme amount of excitement in the air – which isn’t really normal from the normally subdued emotion from the Japanese people. Yet, it may have just been me and the mixture of Curry Tonkatsu and Pocari Sweat I had jumping around in my stomach.
First off, the team was unveiled, and what a team this is. These are the main members of the Final Fantasy XII team:
Producer: Yasumi Matsuno (Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Ogre Battle)
Art Direction: Hideo Minaba (Final Fantasy V, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy Anthology, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance)
Character and 3D Map Director: Akihiko Yoshida (Zeliard, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance)
Backround Art: Isamu Kamikokuryou (Final Fantasy VIII, X)
Audio: Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy everything! Note: Audio God), and Hitoshi Sakimoto (Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Legaia 2: Duel Saga, Vagrant Story, Bloody Roar, Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Ogre).
The game takes place in a world called Ivalice. Ivalice is split into two empires: The Arcadian Empire, and the Rosaria Empire. Dalmasca is a smaller country that’s smack in the middle of the two empires, and has been captured by the Arcadians.
As you’ve seen previously on Game Informer Online, Final Fantasy XII’s two main characters are Vann (pronounced Van), and Ashe (pronounced Ah-shea). Vann is a 17-year-old human male from the Dalmasca kingdom. Vann’s family was killed in the battle between the Dalmasca Kingdom and the Arcadian Empire. Vann dreams of someday becoming an air pirate, and owning an airship so he can leave the city and escape the Arcadian empire.
Ashe, the heroine, is a 19-year-old human female who is the Princess of the Dalmasca Kingdom. Her father (the king) has already passed, and was also killed during the battle between Dalmasca and Arcadia. Ashe has been missing since this epic battle, and has been engaged in resistance efforts against the Arcadians to liberate her kingdom and regain what is rightfully hers. Vann and Ashe meet up in this process, get to know each other and - we’re assuming - work together to liberate the Dalmasca Kingdom. Whether or not these two will become romantically linked has not been determined – but c’mon now – have you seen Ashe? One look at her skirt, and this young buck is going to go butt wild! Ok, sorry – it’s the curry speaking.
The characters were designed as “real time” instead of a movie type characters. There was more focus on skin textures and how muscles are seamlessly connected. A lot of time was put into how these characters look, and we were told that these images have not been finalized. When talking about how short Ashe’s skirt was, Akihido Yoshida, Character and 3D map designer said, “we designed from the back first, the front and the face comes later.” As you can see from the art, both were done well.
The characters look much better than in Final Fantasy X, yet surprisingly they use less polygons. The art style is extremely detailed, epic, and just plain beautiful. Square Enix has outdone themselves once again.
The overworld has been explain to be modeled after a Mediterranean Sea motif, not a “resort style” Mediterranean Sea, but more like a mixture of European and Arabic cultures, as well as a mix of other cultures. This blend is to convey the environment as well as the story line – which will touch on different cultures, languages, religions, and values. The art team (Isamu Kamikokuryou’s team) did a lot of research for the art, and traveled to Turkey and studied their architecture and culture.
The title logo pictures a knight, or a character who is much like the Judge from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. The knights in Final Fantasy XII are a part of a special group who protect law and order in society and serve as the courts and police force. The main difference between these knights and the Judge in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance are they are a group of knights of terror or fear. How they play out in the game in comparison to Tactics Advance is also unknown.
Sound will once again be handled by the well renowned Nobou Uematsu, as well as his counterpart Hitoshi Sakimoto. It was explained that the Final Fantasy theme song would play an important role in the game, but in a new and different way. They want to do something unique – it won’t just be a song or the lyrics, they want to go beyond that. It was very cryptic how this was explained.
Square Enix also revealed that Kohei Takeda will be playing the part of Vann for motion capture and voice. Not only was no female lead announced yet, but no North American voice talents have yet been revealed. Another odd thing, Kohei was the only one to receive applause during this press conference.
Returning characters in Final Fantasy? According to Producer Yasumi Masuno, Cid will make his usual return (shocker!!!!), as well as Moogles (supposedly cuter now). We also noticed soldiers riding on chocobos in battle, yet they looked a lot tougher than previous installations. Dare I say that Chocobos actually look bad ass now? Yes! We’re talking meaty, beefier chicken horses!
There was also a 3-minute trailer shown (which we are not allowed to post online quite yet) which showed some of the gameplay. The general layout doesn’t seem that much different from Final Fantasy X or earlier. Summons seem to be back once again (they aren’t in X-2), and we saw one that looked much like Ifrit.
Final Fantasy XII is scheduled for a Summer 2004 release in
Japan, yet no North American release has been determined. We’ll have more later when we interview the Final Fantasy XII team tomorrow at their headquarters in Shinjuku.
