Oooh, That's Not Good: SaGa Producer Takes Over Final Fantasy XII Reins

[PittsburghAfterDark]

You mean Square gives the producer of unquestionably their weakest franchise, the SaGa series, control over their most important franchise?

Egads! I hope this game is so far in development for it not to matter.

FFXII producer steps down

Square Enix cites health issues for Yasumi Matsuno's departure; Akitoshi Kawazu takes over as producer for upcoming PS2 RPG.

TOKYO--Square Enix announced today that Final Fantasy XII producer Yasumi Matsuno will be stepping down from his position due to complications with his health. An official statement by Square Enix revealed that the seasoned producer has been ill for a while. However, he will remain on the project as a supervisor. Taking over as executive producer will be Akitoshi Kawazu, an experienced director best known for the SaGa series.

Even before E3, rumors about Matsuno's absence from Square had been circulating, but this is the first time the company has publicly confirmed his status.

"Final Fantasy XII's development producer Yasumi Matsuno has left his position to recover from his illness, and he is currently working as a supervisor [on the game]. His roles in the project are being passed on to the section leaders, and our development staff is working hard on its production. The game is just one step away from completion, so please look forward to it. We are confident that we will deliver a Final Fantasy beyond everybody's imagination on March 16," commented Square Enix in its public statement.

Matsuno also released a statement: "To all the fans that have been waiting for the release of Final Fantasy XII, I'm sorry that its development has been taking an extremely long time. I unfortunately will have to take a step away from the production scene, but the game is progressing in its development under the hands of excellent staffs, including Minagawa, Ito, and Akiyama."

Square Enix's announcement came just one day after the Square Enix Party 2005, where it showed off Final Fantasy XII in a playable format for the first time to the public.

The current Final Fantasy XII staff is as follows:

Executive Producer
Akitoshi Kawazu

Original Concept/ Scenario Plot/ Supervision
Yasumi Matsuno

Director
Hiroyuki Ito
Hiroshi Minagawa

Chief Programmer
Takashi Katano

Art Direction
Hideo Minaba
Isamu Kamikokuryou

Character Design
Akihiko Yoshida

Battle Design
Kazutoyo Maehiro

Event Direction
Jun Akiyama

Movie Director
Eiji Fujii

Supervisor
Taku Murata

Composer
Hitoshi Sakimoto

By Hirohiko Niizumi -- GameSpot
POSTED: 08/01/05 11:29 AM PST
Link (http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/08/01/news_6130121.html)

[supadupacheap]

best known for the SaGa series.

I was thinking more "infamously known"

[Sk]

I have a feeling this is going to be the worst FF game to come out. Even from the start I had a bad feeling about it.

[VanillaGorilla]

FFXII is going to stink no matter who produces it. How many of these stinky games does Square have to make before people stop slobbering all over the franchise? I guess people like their RPG's with the most cookie cutter, generic characters ever. What's this, a lead character with funny blonde hair?! No freakin' way!

[tdphillips]

The FF series has been mostly good, but SaGa sucks. This is horrible news.

[Tromack]

It is only the executive producer. In the movie world, that means nothing. I don't know about the game world though.

[punqsux]

the 8 bit saga games are great, the ps1 games were alright, i loved unlimited on the ps2, i hope he reinvents the game a bit.

[Blind the Thief]

This is the icing on the delayed-filled cake that is FFXII. It'll be a miracle for this game to not fail. *crosses fingers*

[Mid Boss]

I don't have a problem with the change, I loved the first Saga Frontier on PS1(though I hated 2). Besides, the game has got to be pretty close to done, I doubt there's much that can be changed that drastically at this point. If the game turns out to suck then odds are that there was already something fundamentally wrong long before Kawazu took over.

[VanillaGorilla]

It is only the executive producer. In the movie world, that means nothing. I don't know about the game world though.
Uhhh, the executive producer of a movie has almost as much input on the entire movie as the director does, sometimes even more.

[WinnieThePujols]

"The game is just one step away from completion, so please look forward to it. We are confident that we will deliver a Final Fantasy beyond everybody's imagination on March 16"

So, why is it that everyone is panicking and thinking that a late change in staff is going to have an earth-shattering affect on the production or things?

[eldad9]

http://www.largeprimenumbers.com/article.php?sid=saga

[evanft]

Isn't the game incredibly far along, though? I mean, it comes out in japan in MArch, and it was playable at last year's e3, so...

[Mr. Anderson]

http://www.largeprimenumbers.com/article.php?sid=saga

That was really entertaining.

[Tromack]

Uhhh, the executive producer of a movie has almost as much input on the entire movie as the director does, sometimes even more.

No, that would be the producer. The role of the executive producer is to either
a) get someone's name on the film
or
b) get money from someone rich

According to wikipedia, "Executive producers are commonly the main investor or financier of a project."

Note, often in television the executive producers are those that created the initial idea , i.e. Simpsons - Matt Groehning, Seinfeld - Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David. As I said, in movies they are usually just there for the money, I don't know about videogames though.

edited- for grammar

[Vinny]

Wow, I was hoping that I would get excited for an FF game again... but then I see this.

I thought having to wait until mid-late 2006 for the game's US release was bad but now this? That's it... I can't take anymore. What kind of morons are running Square Enix!? Give the job to the guys who made great non-FF games like Chrono Trigger/Cross, Vagrant Story, Xenogears... but nooooo... they give it to the guy who produces the worst games is Square Enix's line up.

I thought that because there was Final Fantasy in the title, that he couldn't screw up Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Well, sadly, he did but I had very low standards for that game so I wasn't too dissappointed.

He'll ruin the Final Fantasy series though...:-(

[humidore]

Yess! This will price drop faster than you can say "Unlimited Saga" (I think my Circuit City is paying people to take copies now ;))! That "review" of Minstrel Saga was huge! I didn't know this guy made FF Legends on Gameboy (I had FFL2)...boy did that game annoy me! And now I know why...

EDIT: I found 1UP's initial article on the FFXII news interesting (http://1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3142452). "[Yasumi Matsuno]...is the mastermind behind such brilliant games as Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, but is said to be temperamental." I'd be tempermental too if I made those kind of games for Square ;)

[Reality's Fringe]

Square-Enix cannot make a decent game. I believe it is now a scientific law. When the two companies merged, the quality of each one cancelled out the other. Square-Enix is nothing more than a bastion of mediocrity hiding behind a big name(kind of like Nintendo...oooh, fucking BURNED baby!.

[psiufoxx2]

I agree with the previous posts. A producer is not a designer, developer, programmer, director, creator, or editor. They handle the $$, and considering a heaping pile like Unlimited SaGa saw a release in the states, finding money should not be a problem for this dude. I think the game looked shitty from the get-go, so I'll also agree that this will probably be the worst one yet.

Then again, I didn't think FF X was "oMg teh l33t!" either....

[daschrier]

The Saga series is quite popular in Japan, they have a different taste than US gamers, and do you think that this far in development a new producer is going to matter much? No, especially since they don't really do much aside from keeping people on task.

[evanft]

Square-Enix cannot make a decent game. I believe it is now a scientific law. When the two companies merged, the quality of each one cancelled out the other. Square-Enix is nothing more than a bastion of mediocrity hiding behind a big name(kind of like Nintendo...oooh, fucking BURNED baby!.

Star Ocean disagrees with you.

[Reality's Fringe]

Star Ocean disagrees with you.

If you're talking about the third one, then my point is illustrated with even more clarity.

[daschrier]

SO3 was a good game, but could've been amazing if they had worked on the characters and story a bit more. In terms of gameplay, it is one of the best games ever.

[GreenMonkey]

That was really entertaining.

Agreed. Very funny.

I liked this comment:

"I'd suggest Kawazu get a fat notebook, play Dragon Quest VIII, and all the while write down things that are better about that game than any game he's ever made."

Yay for anyone respecting Dragon Quest :D Dragon Quest VIII looks frickin awesome...admittedly though I am a Dragon Warrior fanboy. DWIV = best NES game IMO.

As far as the Star Ocean comment, I'm about 30 hours into it right now, and it's the only RPG with an action/rpg battle system that I think I've enjoyed. Normally I'm not big on the action/RPG genre, the last one I liked, really, was probably Secret of Mana on SNES.

Personally I'm not liking the direction I'm seeing FFXII go in. It looks too much like an offline version of the FFXI combat system...not big on it. Give me the combat system/experience system of FFX, but with some actual difficulty, FFX was pathetically easy :cry:

[Spoon_si]

Final Fantasy Series... hate it or like it...

it's goin to sell over 10 million... but I learned my lesson...

I'm goin to wait for a $20 price drop...

[Reality's Fringe]

Sorry, but I feel (strongly) that Square started its long and painful spiral into mediocrity with their Summer of Shit™. Threads of Fate was a boring Musashi ripoff, Legend of Mana was like some college slut(Nice to look at and fool around with for a while, but you don't want to keep it) and Chrono Cross(for those who haven't heard my tale) forced me to trade in my PSX and a load of games for a Gamecube. Square can lick my left nut and suckle my right one until they can redeem themselves.

[psiufoxx2]

Sorry, but I feel (strongly) that Square started its long and painful spiral into mediocrity with their Summer of Shit™. Threads of Fate was a boring Musashi ripoff, Legend of Mana was like some college slut(Nice to look at and fool around with for a while, but you don't want to keep it) and Chrono Cross(for those who haven't heard my tale) forced me to trade in my PSX and a load of games for a Gamecube. Square can lick my left nut and suckle my right one until they can redeem themselves.

You spelled Fascist wrong.

[Reality's Fringe]

You spelled Fascist wrong.
?

*Edit* Oh, nevermind. The sig. Yeah, I'm ashamed to say it, but I've never been able to spell it correctly. Must fix it, for the sake of Ted Kennedy...and hot dogs.