Yasumi Matsuno

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Yasumi Matsuno (松野 泰己, Matsuno Yasumi^?) is a former director at Square Enix (previously called Squaresoft). He was born in 1965 and began his career at the developer Quest, where he created the Ogre Battle series of tactical role-playing games. After leaving Quest he joined Squaresoft in 1995. His colleagues at Square Enix usually called him by his nickname "YAZZ". According to e-mail responses from the Square Enix Information Center, Matsuno left Square Enix on August 31 2005, following his step-down from directing Final Fantasy XII. Although his current whereabouts are unknown, Matsuno has been rated by the website Next Generation as the 13th most important and anticipated video game developer of 2007.^[1]

Contents 1 Final Fantasy Tactics 2 Vagrant Story 3 Final Fantasy XII 4 Trivia 5 Gameography 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Final Fantasy Tactics

At Square, Matsuno oversaw the development of Final Fantasy Tactics for the PlayStation. Similar in design and gameplay to Tactics Ogre, it was lauded for its highly intricate and convoluted story, in which a young and naive nobleman becomes embroiled in a civil war over the throne to the kingdom of Ivalice. The nobleman, Ramza Beoulve, must come to term with his own beliefs amidst a number of conspiracies involving the church, Ramza's brothers and his childhood friend Delita. Final Fantasy Tactics is being re-released by Square Enix on the PlayStation Portable as Final Fantasy Tactics Shishi Sensō some time in 2007 and will include all-new computer-generated cutscenes among other gameplay additions.

[edit] Vagrant Story

After the release of Final Fantasy Tactics Matsuno and his team began development on Vagrant Story. Smaller in scope than FFT, in Vagrant Story players took control of one Ashley Riot, a Riskbreaker of the Valendia Knights of the Peace. Here the focus is more on the protagonist's personal life and past than a world-consuming conflict. As in Final Fantasy Tactics, though, the plot has considerable depth and features a number of forces conspiring to unleash an ancient power. Gameplay-wise, Vagrant Story was praised as unique and progressive because of its focus on weapon-based statistics as opposed to the character-based leveling found in typical role-playing games. The game has also been described as a "real-time strategy role-playing game" due to the unique combination of isometric camera angles, ranged attacks which vary with weapon types and lack of turn-based gameplay. Vagrant Story was highly regarded by critics and has gained somewhat of a cult following since its release.

[edit] Final Fantasy XII

Final Fantasy XII was written and directed by Matsuno, though his official credits are listed as "Story and Concept". Although he had to bow out of XII's staff, ostensibly due to health issues, he is still credited for much of the work. As a tribute to his legacy, the development team of XII included an optional boss in the game called Yazmat (a play on his aforementioned nickname, Yazumi Matsuno). In-game information about Yazmat (localized as Yiazmat in the North American version) is accompanied by a subtitle which reads, "Farewell to a Legend." Further lending credibility to the rumors surrounding Matsuno's departure from Square Enix^{[citation needed]}, Montblanc, who assigns the player the task of slaying Yiazmat, tells a story of how he and his moogle friends once worked with a wise leader and mentor with whom they did many wonderful things. Montblanc explains that Yiazmat came along and killed that master, causing them all to break up. [1]

[edit] Trivia

• Matsuno supervised Square's PlayOnline project prior to its first beta release. He has the honor of being the director of not one, but two games to get a perfect score by Famitsu magazine, which has to date only given perfect scores to six games in its twenty-year history. Matsuno's Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII were critically acclaimed by the magazine with a 40/40 score.

• One of Matsuno's trademarks is to pay homage to the rock band Queen in his works. His first game was titled Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. Both Ogre Battle and March of the Black Queen are song titles from the album Queen II. His next game was Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, Let Us Cling Together being a song from the album A Day at the Races. His game Final Fantasy Tactics had a chapter called Somebody to Love, also a song title from A Day At the Races. In the game Vagrant Story, the lead character begins the game with a sword called Fandango, which is a reference to a lyric in the song Bohemian Rhapsody, from A Night at the Opera. In Final Fantasy XII, the earth elemental summon uses an attack called "Rock You", a nod to the song We Will Rock You from the album News of the World. "Rock You" has been changed to "Roxxor" in the localized English game, a likely play on Internet slang.

• There is a secret dungeon in Vagrant Story called Iron Maiden, though it is probably a reference to the medieval torture device rather than the rock band..

• Due to his presence in a Nintendo Wii promotional video, Matsuno is rumored to be working on a title for that platform with an unknown company. [2]

[edit] Gameography

• Ogre Battle: Director, scenario and game design
• Tactics Ogre: Director, scenario and game design
• Final Fantasy Tactics: Director, script and game design
• Vagrant Story: Producer, director and battle design
• Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: Producer, original concept
• Final Fantasy XII: Original concept, scenario plotter, and supervisor

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• 1UP.Com feature on Yasumi Matsuno's career
• Yasumi Matsuno profile, interviews, and photo gallery at the Square Haven People Database