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Steven M. Rosen

Steven M. Rosen (born September 6, 1942) is an American-Canadian philosopher and psychologist, currently based in Vancouver, British Columbia. His writings focus on issues concerning phenomenological ontology, the philosophy and poetics of science, Jungian thought, the gender question, ecological change, and cultural transformation.

Rosen's books include Dreams, Death, Rebirth (Asheville, NC: Chiron Publications, 2014), The Self-Evolving Cosmos (Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific Publishing, 2008), Topologies of the Flesh (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2006), Dimensions of Apeiron (Amsterdam-New York: Editions Rodopi, 2004), Science, Paradox, and the Moebius Principle (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1994) and The Moebius Seed (Walpole, N.H.: Stillpoint Publications, 1985).

Steven M. Rosen taught psychology and philosophy at the College of Staten Island of the City University of New York from 1970 to 2000.

title: Steven M. Rosen


license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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Final Fantasy XII

Final Fantasy XII (ファイナルファンタジーXII) is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix. The twelfth main installment of the Final Fantasy series, it was first released for the PlayStation 2 in 2006. It introduced several innovations to the series: an open world; a seamless battle system; a controllable camera; a customizable "gambit" system, which lets the player control the artificial intelligence (AI) of characters in battle; a "license" system, which determines what abilities and equipment can be used by characters; and hunting side quests, which allows the player to find and defeat increasingly difficult monsters in the game's open world. Final Fantasy XII also includes elements from previous games in the series, such as Chocobos and Moogles.

The game takes place in Ivalice, where the empires of Archadia and Rozarria are waging an endless war. Dalmasca, a small kingdom, is caught between the warring nations. When Dalmasca is annexed by Archadia, its princess, Ashe, creates a resistance movement. During the struggle, she meets Vaan, a young adventurer who dreams of becoming a sky pirate in command of an airship. They are quickly joined by a band of allies; together, they rally against the tyranny of the Archadian Empire.

Final Fantasy XII was both a critical and commercial success, earning several Game of the Year awards and selling over six million copies on the PlayStation 2 by November 2009. In 2007, a sequel titled Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings was released for the Nintendo DS and, in that same year, an expanded version of Final Fantasy XII, titled Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System, was released on the PlayStation 2 exclusively in Japan. A high-definition remaster of the International Zodiac Job System version, The Zodiac Age, was released worldwide for the PlayStation 4 in July 2017, for Windows in February 2018, and for the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One in April 2019.

Gameplay
Throughout the game, the player directly controls the on-screen character from a third-person perspective to interact with people, objects, and enemies. Unlike previous games in the series, the player can also control the camera with the right analog stick, allowing for a 360° view of the surroundings. While in towns and cities, the player may only see from the perspective of Vaan, but any character may be controlled in the field. The world of Final Fantasy XII is rendered to scale relative to the characters in it; instead of a caricature of the character roaming around miniature terrain, as found in the earlier Final Fantasy games, every area is represented proportionally. The player navigates the overworld on foot, Chocobo, or by airship. Players may save their game to a memory card using save crystals or gate crystals, and may use the latter to teleport between gate crystals. An in-game bestiary provides incidental information about the world of Final Fantasy XII.

Final Fantasy XII restructures the system of earning gil, the currency of the Final Fantasy games; instead of gil, most enemies drop "loot" which can be sold at shops. This ties into a new battle mechanic which rewards the player with improved loot for slaying a particular type of enemy multiple times in a row. Selling different types of loot also unlocks a bazaar option in shops, which provides items at a lower cost, or items exclusive to the bazaar.

Battle system

Excluding the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Final Fantasy XI, Final Fantasy XII is the first entry in the main Final Fantasy series not to include random encounters. Instead, enemies are visible in the overworld and the player may choose to fight or avoid them. Battles unfold in real time using the "Active Dimension Battle" (ADB) system. Battles begin when the party comes within range of an aggressive enemy, the party attacks an enemy, or a story event initiates a confrontation. When a character or enemy begins an action, target lines connect characters to other party members or enemies; different colors represent the different types of action. The player may swap to and issue commands to any of the three characters in the party, but guest characters are controlled by artificial intelligence (AI). Battle commands are initiated through a series of menus, and include Attack, Magicks, Technicks, Mist, Gambits, and Items. The player may switch any active character with an inactive character at any time, unless the active character is targeted by an attack or ability. Characters who are knocked out may also be substituted.

A new feature in the game is the "gambit" system, which allows the player to program each character to perform certain commands in battle in response to specified conditions. Using gambits, the player may set reactions to different stimuli for each character. Each gambit consists of three parts: a target, an action, and a priority. The target specifies which ally or foe to act on and the condition for applying the action. For example, the target "Ally: HP < 70%" causes the character to target any ally whose hit points have fallen below 70%. The action is the command to be performed on the target. The priority determines which gambit to perform when multiple gambits are triggered. These heuristics guide the characters when acting autonomously, though player-directed commands are always given top priority.

In Final Fantasy XII, a mysterious phenomenon known as "Mist" is the key energy which allows characters to cast summoning magic and perform "Quickenings". After defeating an Esper in combat, the player will be able to summon it to the battlefield. Similar to Final Fantasy X, the summoned creatures become active participants in battle, as opposed to the cinematic attacks seen in previous games in the series. Unlike X, however, Espers follow hidden gambits, rather than the player's direct command. The summoner remains an active member in the fight, able to attack and cast support magic, instead of leaving the party or standing idle while the summoned creature fights. An Esper will leave the battle if either the summoner or itself is knocked out, its time limit expires, or it executes its special attack. Some Espers have origins in Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Advance and others are derived from the final bosses of previous Final Fantasy games such as Chaos, the final boss of the first Final Fantasy, and Zeromus, the final boss of Final Fantasy IV.

Final Fantasy XII introduces "Quickenings", a new Limit Break system unique compared to those in previous games in the series. Characters learn Quickenings by progressing to specific panels on the License Board. Each character can learn three Quickenings, which are unique to that character. Characters may string together Quickenings into large combo attacks, called Mist Chains, via timed button presses. If a Mist Chain reaches a certain length, a final strike will be initiated at the end of the Quickening cycle, called a Concurrence.

Growth system
As in many role-playing games (RPGs), characters "level up" each time they earn a set number of experience points from defeating enemies; each level gained increases the character's statistics and improves performance in battle. Statistics include hit points, the amount of damage a character can receive; strength, the power of the character's physical attacks; and magic, the potency of the character's magical spells.

In addition to leveling up, players may improve their characters via the License Board. The License Board is an array of panels that contain "licenses" which allow a character to perform certain actions. The board is split into two parts; the upper part comprises Magick, Technick, Accessory, and Augment (stat increases and other permanent buffs) licenses, and the bottom part comprises mostly Weapon and Armor licenses. To use a Magick, Technick, or piece of equipment, the character must obtain its corresponding license by spending the required amount of LP (License Points). LP are earned in battle along with the experience points. Like the Sphere Grid in Final Fantasy X, all characters may obtain all licenses on the board, but each Quickening and Esper license may only be activated by a single character.

Setting
Final Fantasy XII is set within the land of Ivalice during an age when "magic was commonplace" and "airships plied the skies, crowding out the heavens". At this time, magicite, a magic-rich mineral, is commonly used in magic spells and in powering airships—a popular form of transportation in Ivalice. Ivalice is divided into three continents: Ordalia, Valendia, and Kerwon. Ordalia is located in the western part of Ivalice. The Rozarrian Empire makes its home in the vast inland plains of this continent as the eastern portion of it is largely desert and "jagd"—lawless regions so rich in Mist, the ethereal manifestation of magicite, that airships cannot function. Valendia is the home of Imperial Archadia, where lush highlands dot the landscape. Central to the story is Dalmasca, a small kingdom between the two continents and empires. Located in the middle of the Galtean Peninsula of Ordalia, Dalmasca is surrounded by an expanse of desert. The temperate climate of Dalmasca differs from the cold environs of Kerwon to the south and the lush plains of Valendia and Ordalia. During this time, Ivalice is beset by the pending war between the forces of Rozarria and Archadia. Caught between the two powerful Empires, Dalmasca and a number of smaller nations have already been subjugated by Archadia two years before the game begins.

Characters
The six main playable characters in Final Fantasy XII are Vaan (Bobby Edner/Kouhei Takeda), an energetic orphan of Rabanastre who dreams of becoming a sky pirate; Ashe (Kari Wahlgren/Mie Sonozaki), a determined princess of Dalmasca who lost her father and her husband in the Archadian invasion; Basch (Keith Ferguson/Rikiya Koyama), a disgraced knight of Dalmasca charged with treason for slaying the king; Balthier (Gideon Emery/Hiroaki Hirata), a gentlemanly sky pirate who pilots his airship, the Strahl; Fran (Nicole Fantl/Rika Fukami), Balthier's partner and a Viera exile whose knowledge extends to legends and myths; and Penelo (Catherine Taber/Marina Kozawa), Vaan's childhood friend who accompanies him on journeys to "keep an eye on him".

The Archadian Empire is ruled by House Solidor, headed by Emperor Gramis (Roger L. Jackson/Hidekatsu Shibata). The emperor's sons are Vayne (Elijah Alexander/Nobuo Tobita) and Larsa (Johnny McKeown/Yuka Imai), the former a military genius and the game's main antagonist, and the latter a charismatic seeker of peace. Judge Magisters, upholders of Archadian law, protect House Solidor and execute every command issued by the ruling family. The technological marvels of airships and synthetic nethicite—a form of magicite that absorbs Mist—are thanks to Doctor Cid (John Rafter Lee/Chikao Ōtsuka), a prominent researcher from Archadia. The Resistance against Archadia includes Dalmascan knight Vossler (Nolan North/Masaki Terasoma), an ally of Basch; Marquis Halim Ondore IV (Tom Kane/Akio Nojima), the game's narrator and ruler of the skycity Bhujerba; Reddas (Phil LaMarr/Takayuki Sugo), a sky pirate based in the port at Balfonheim; and the Rozarrian Empire, of which Al-Cid Margrace (David Rasner/Norio Wakamoto) is a prince of the ruling family. The mythos of Final Fantasy XII revolves around a character known as Dynast-King Raithwall, a man who once united Ivalice to create the Galtean Alliance in ages past.

Story
In Dalmasca's capital city of Rabanastre, Princess Ashelia (Ashe) of Dalmasca and Prince Rasler of Nabradia have just wed, as the Archadian Empire invades the two countries. Rasler is killed in the war, the city of Nabudis is destroyed in a single explosion, and the Dalmascan King Raminas is assassinated moments after signing a treaty of surrender. Marquis Ondore announces that the assassin was Dalmascan captain Basch, who has been sentenced to death, and that Princess Ashe has committed suicide.

Two years later, Vaan, a Rabanastre street urchin, ignores his friend Penelo's objections and infiltrates the palace during a dinner celebrating the appointment of Archadian prince Vayne Solidor as consul. In the treasury he finds a piece of magicite, a powerful magical crystal. He is discovered by Balthier and Fran, a pair of sky pirates looking for the magicite. The three escape as Dalmascan Resistance forces assault the palace, and in the sewers they meet the Resistance leader, Amalia, before being captured by Archadian forces. In the dungeons they meet Basch, who was imprisoned but not killed, and who states his twin brother Gabranth was the one to kill the king. The four then escape together back to Rabanastre. There they discover Penelo has been kidnapped and taken to the floating city of Bhujerba.

In Bhujerba, they meet Lamont, a curious boy who is Vayne's younger brother, Larsa, in disguise. After they rescue Penelo, Basch confronts the Marquis over his lies, but the party is captured and detained aboard the Archadian airship Leviathan, headed by Judge Ghis. On the Leviathan, the party is reunited with Amalia, who is revealed to be Princess Ashe. Ghis takes the magicite, which is revealed to be a royal Dalmascan artifact, "deifacted nethicite". The party escapes, but as Ashe had planned to use the magicite as proof that she was the princess, the group journeys to collect another of the pieces of nethicite, the Dawn Shard. They are again captured by Ghis; when he tries to use the Dawn Shard in the Leviathan rather than the "manufacted" (artificially made) magicite it normally uses, his entire airship fleet is destroyed in a mirror of the destruction of Nabudis, and the party flees again.

They encounter Larsa, who seeks a peace treaty between Dalmasca and the empire. The group and Larsa go to Mt. Bur-Omisace to seek the Gran Kiltias Anastasis, Ivalice's religious leader, and beg his approval of Ashe as queen of Dalmasca. There they also meet Al-Cid Margrace, who is in talks with Larsa to avert a war between Rozarria and Archadia. Their plans are curtailed when Anastasis is killed by Archadia, and soon afterwards the Archadian emperor Gramis dies and Vayne ascends the throne.

The party journeys to Archadia, where they discover Doctor Cid, the creator of manufacted magicite, who directs them to go to Giruvegan to find the source of nethicite. In Giruvegan, Ashe encounters the makers of nethicite, the immortal Occuria, who "pull the strings of history"; they give her the Treaty Blade to cut new pieces from the Sun-cryst, the source of all nethicite and its power. She learns that Venat, one of the Occuria, has defected to put the "reins of History back in the hands of Man", manipulating Vayne in his quest to conquer Ivalice and leading Cid to create manufacted magicite to reduce the relative power of the Occuria.

Ashe and the party journey to the Sun-cryst, where she decides not to take her revenge by following the Occuria's wishes, but instead destroy the Sun-cryst. The party defeats Gabranth, who reveals that he killed King Raminas, and destroys the crystal. Al-Cid tells them that the Dalmascan Resistance, led by Ondore, is about to fight Archadia in Rabanastre, but the Archadian forces now include the Sky Fortress Bahamut. They infiltrate the Bahamut, and find Larsa failing to dissuade his brother Vayne from his plans for war. They defeat Vayne and Venat, and Ashe and Larsa announce the end of the conflict to the battlefield. Larsa becomes the Archadian emperor and Ashe the Queen of Dalmasca; Basch replaces his brother Gabranth as Larsa's protector; Vaan and Penelo fly an airship to meet Balthier and Fran for another adventure.

Development

Development for Final Fantasy XII began in December 2000 and was headed by Final Fantasy Tactics director Yasumi Matsuno and Final Fantasy IX director Hiroyuki Ito. Matsuno provided the original concept and plot but was forced to bow out a year before release due to health concerns. The team was restructured as a consequence: the new directorial duo consisted of Ito and Hiroshi Minagawa, while Akitoshi Kawazu of SaGa series fame became the game's executive producer. Series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi was disappointed by Matsuno's departure and declined to play the game beyond its introduction.

The desire to move away from random encounters was present since the beginning of development. This desire fueled the development of the Active Dimension Battle system so players could seamlessly move from battle to exploration. The gambit system was conceived early on as a way to facilitate this change. Battle system designer Hiroshi Tomomatsu said that it gradually moved away from a complex and rigid formula to the more flexible form seen in the final version of the game. Ito drew inspiration for gambits from plays in American football where each team member has a specific job to do based on the conditions and desired outcome. As for the license system, he explained that needing "licenses" to perform certain actions was a natural extension of the rigid structured society of Archadia, as epitomized by its Judges.

At the early stages of development, Minagawa revealed that numerous ideas and features were planned for the game, but were dropped from the final stages due to certain constraints and hardware limitations. Some of these included the ability for a second player to join in the gameplay, enabling a two-player mode. Another idea that was given a considerable amount of thought was the ability to recruit non-player characters to join in the mob hunts. Due to the technical limitations of the console and multiple number of characters joining the fray, the development phase took longer than expected, causing delays.

Design inspiration came from a mix of medieval Mediterranean countries as demonstrated by the architectural styles found throughout Ivalice along with many of the races populating the region. The art team, led by art directors Hideo Minaba and Isamu Kamikokuryō, visited Turkey, which influenced the game's Mediterranean-style setting. The developers also used styles and deco from other sources including areas in India and New York City. Of note is the use of Sanskrit in the city of Bhujerba. Phrases such as "svagatam" (welcome) and titles like "parijanah" (guide) are lifted directly from Sanskrit. Minaba mentions that the team tried to bring out Arabic culture in the design of the game. War is a prominent theme of the game and the developers stated that the cutscene battles are influenced by Ancient Rome. When asked to comment on the fan observation of Star Wars similarities, Minaba replied that although he was a fan of the series, it was not necessarily an influence to the game's designs. It has also been noted that the similarities originate from The Hidden Fortress, the 1958 Akira Kurosawa film that inspired Star Wars. The developers initially planned to return to the "big-headed" character designs of previous Final Fantasy games, but settled on similar proportions as characters in Vagrant Story, the team's previous game, as development progressed. Basch was the first character designed and the developers considered him the "hero" of the story at the time. Vaan and Penelo were added last and became the heroes in the final version of the plot. The developers were motivated by the commercial failure of Vagrant Story, which featured a "strong man in his prime" as the protagonist, and switched the focus to a younger protagonist as a result. Vaan's early designs were described as effeminate, but with the casting of Kouhei Takeda as his voice and motion capture actor, Vaan became less feminine and more "active, upbeat, bright and positive". Comments were made about the similarity between character designer Akihiko Yoshida's creations and those of Tetsuya Nomura, another Square Enix character designer. Yoshida felt this comparison was sparked by the choice of color used by both artists, which was based on maintaining consistent color between the characters and the environments. Non-human characters and races play a prominent role in the game, which was influenced by an interest in history among the developers.

Miwa Shoda wrote a storyline for the game premised on the basis of the cutscenes and world setting that had already been finished when she joined the team. Scenario writer Daisuke Watanabe in turn fleshed out Shoda's plot into a script. During the English localization process, Alexander O. Smith, who had previously worked on Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy X, acted as producer and translator. While still preserving the meaning behind the Japanese script, Smith made the decision to use different dialects of English to reproduce the regional differences in pronunciation found in the Japanese version. He also tried to distance the game from the "flat reads" found in other dubbed work by casting voice actors who had experience in theatre work. In terms of general changes, the localization team introduced widescreen 16:9 ratio support and reinserted scenes that were left out of the original Japanese version for political reasons and to preserve an "All Ages" CERO rating.

A playable demo of the game was shipped with the North American release of Dragon Quest VIII in November 2005. To commemorate the release of Final Fantasy XII, playable demos of the English version were available at DigitalLife's Gaming Pavilion in New York City on October 11, 2006, a day dubbed "Final Fantasy XII Gamer's Day". Additionally, Square Enix gave fans the chance to cosplay as characters from XII. Each person was asked to show Square Enix three photos of his or her costume for a chance to win a trip to New York and participate in the Final Fantasy XII Gamer's Day event.

Final Fantasy XII once held the Guinness World Record for longest development period in a video game production, with a total of five years, spanning from 2001 until its release in 2006. At a Final Fantasy XII "postmortem" at MIT in March 2009, Hiroshi Minagawa mentioned that several years of production were devoted to the creation of custom tools used for the development of the game. It was also listed as 8th on the Guinness top 50 games of all time in 2009.

Music
Hitoshi Sakimoto composed and arranged most of the game's soundtrack, with Hayato Matsuo and Masaharu Iwata creating seven and two tracks respectively. Nobuo Uematsu, following his departure from Square Enix in 2004, only contributed the ending song, "Kiss Me Good-Bye". Sakimoto experienced difficulty following in Uematsu's footsteps, but he decided to create a unique soundtrack in his own way. "Kiss Me Good-Bye" was performed in both English and Japanese by Angela Aki. Aki's style of playing the keyboard while singing reminded Uematsu of his childhood idol, Elton John, which was one of the reasons he chose her. The English version of the song was featured in both the Japanese and North American versions of the game. In addition to the theme song, violinist Taro Hakase co-composed, arranged, and performed the game's ending credits theme, Symphonic Poem "Hope", along with Yuji Toriyama.

Two promotional soundtracks were released before the original soundtrack, Symphonic Poem "Hope" and The Best of the Final Fantasy XII Soundtrack, on March 1 and 15, 2006, respectively. The former contains all the music used in the game's trailer performed by Taro Hakase, including Symphonic Poem "Hope". The original soundtrack itself was released two months later in Japan on May 31. It consists of 4 CDs with 100 tracks, and includes promotional tracks not in the final version of the game. The CD single for "Kiss Me Good-Bye" was released on the March 15, 2006. A limited edition was also released, featuring a DVD containing the music video for "Kiss Me Good-Bye". Tofu Records has released an abridged version of the original soundtrack, which contains 31 songs, including "Kiss Me Good-Bye".

Merchandise

On March 16, 2006, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan released a special Final Fantasy XII package, which contained a PlayStation 2 game system, the Final Fantasy XII game, a standard DualShock controller, and a vertical console stand. The Japanese third-party manufacturer Hori also released Final Fantasy XII memory cards on the day of the game's release; stickers of Final Fantasy XII characters are included. Game peripheral maker Logicool (Logitech's Japanese branch) released a special edition Final Fantasy XII controller on the same day. Suntory produced "Final Fantasy XII Potion"—a drink containing such ingredients as royal jelly, chamomile, sage, thyme, and marjoram. The drinks became commercially available in Japan on March 7. Suntory also released a Final Fantasy XII Premium Box, which came with a Final Fantasy XII collector's card. The Potion was a limited edition product and is no longer available. Final Fantasy XII was also adapted into a manga by Gin Amou. Square Enix published the series in a total of five tankōbon volumes from December 22, 2006, to August 22, 2009.

Studio BentStuff published three Ultimania books in 2006: Final Fantasy XII Battle Ultimania and the Final Fantasy XII Scenario Ultimania on June 16, and Final Fantasy XII Ultimania Ω on November 24. The Battle Ultimania provides a description and analysis of the new battle system and its components, and developer interviews. The Scenario Ultimania describes the main scenarios in the game, profiles on the characters and areas in Ivalice, developer interviews, and details on each location. The last guide, the Ultimania Ω, includes voice actor interviews, the complete story of Final Fantasy XII including additional character profiles, a collection of artworks and illustrations, the complete play guide, and a novella written by Benny Matsuyama, author of Hoshi wo Meguru Otome from the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Ω Guide. Another Ultimania edition, the Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System Ultimania, was released on September 6, 2007, as a guide book for the International Zodiac version of the game. The game was re-released as part of the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Ultimate Box Japanese package in December 2012.

For the North American release, a "Collector's Edition" was available through GameStop and EB Games. This edition includes the original game packaged in a metallic case along with a special bonus disc, which contains Final Fantasy XII developer interviews, an art gallery, U.S. and Japanese trailers, and a featurette, "History of Final Fantasy", which gives a brief overview of Final Fantasy games. On January 26, 2007, Square Enix Product Blog revealed full-color Gabranth, Ashe, Balthier, and Vaan figures.

In 2007, Balthier was featured in Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions as a playable character.

Reception
Final Fantasy XII received "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator Metacritic. It was the sixth game to receive a perfect score from the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu. It is also the second Yasumi Matsuno game to garner a perfect score, the first being Vagrant Story. The game was praised for its graphics, scenarios, game system, and the freshness it brought to the Final Fantasy series. It was praised for its seamless transitions between full motion video segments and the in-game engine, and was voted number one for Best Art Style on IGN's weekly Top Ten. Newtype USA named Final Fantasy XII its "Game of the Month" for November 2006, praised the gameplay, graphics, and story, and called it "the best RPG to have been released for any Sony platform".

Although GameSpot lauded the gambit and license systems as an innovative and in-depth way for the player to control the characters, it criticized them for being too complicated and difficult to adjust to, especially for newer players of the series. The reviewer also criticized the sometimes tedious back and forth travel. On the other hand, GameSpot took particular note of the "excellent" voice cast. IGN praised the game's rich storyline and artistic direction, shown through its "sheer depth of character". It also assuaged criticism that the gambit system would "let the game play itself", countering that gambits do not function without a player. However, IGN wrote that while "still extremely strong", Final Fantasy XII has one of the series' weaker soundtracks.

Executive producer Akitoshi Kawazu was pleased by Famitsu rating but admitted that he thought the game was not perfect; he felt that the storyline did not meet some fans' expectations. Kawazu expressed his frustration and regrets regarding the storyline, citing creative differences between the PlayOnline and Final Fantasy Tactics members of the development team.

Final Fantasy XII was named best PlayStation 2 game and best RPG by numerous video game journals and websites, including GameSpot, GameSpy and IGN. Both Edge and Famitsu awarded it Game of the Year 2006. The Japan Game Awards 2006 honored Final Fantasy XII with their "Grand Award" and "Award for Excellence" and the PlayStation Awards 2006 bestowed the "Double Platinum Prize". It was selected for the list "Top 100 New Japanese Styles", a list of "products and services originating in Japan to serve as a mark of excellence". Final Fantasy XII also received nominations in such categories as best RPG, story, art direction, character design and original musical score at the AIAS' Interactive Achievement Awards, Game Developers Choice Awards, BAFTA Video Games Awards, Spike Video Game Awards, and the Satellite Awards.

Sales
Final Fantasy XII sold more than 1,764,000 copies in its first week in Japan, almost equaling the sales of Final Fantasy X in its first week. A Square Enix conference report stated that Final Fantasy XII sold more than 2.38 million copies in Japan in the two weeks since its March 16, 2006, release. In North America, Final Fantasy XII shipped approximately 1.5 million copies in its first week. It was the fourth best-selling PlayStation 2 game of 2006 worldwide. As of March 2007, the game had shipped over 5.2 million copies worldwide. By November 2009, over 6 million copies of the game were sold worldwide on PlayStation 2. As of October 2017, the PlayStation 4 remaster shipped over one million copies worldwide.

International Zodiac Job System
An expanded version of the game, Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System, was released in Japan on August 10, 2007. It includes twelve license boards (instead of the original game's one), each corresponding to a different Zodiac sign and job. The player can control guest characters and summons, and hold L1 to double the game's running speed. There is also a "New Game+" option, a "New Game- (minus)" option (in which characters do not gain experience), and a "Trial Mode" in which the player hunts monsters in 100 different maps to gain items and money. The game also includes the western version's English voices and widescreen 16:9 support, and a bonus DVD.

Revenant Wings
A sequel, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, was released for the Nintendo DS in 2007. It takes place one year after the events of Final Fantasy XII and follows the adventures of Vaan. The game is one of four in the Ivalice Alliance series, which also includes International Zodiac Job System.

Fortress
Fortress, an action game developed by Grin, was to have been a spin-off game that took place following the events of Revenant Wings. Square Enix cancelled the project after six months of development.

The Zodiac Age
In July 2017, Square Enix released Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, a high-definition remaster of the Japanese-only International Zodiac Job System for the PlayStation 4. It adds trophy support, a remastered soundtrack with a few new tracks, and improved technical performance. The Zodiac Age was nominated for "Best Remake/Remaster" at IGNs Best of 2017 Awards, and won "Best Remaster" at Game Informers Best of 2017 Awards and 2017 RPG of the Year Awards. The remaster also received favorable reviews. The Zodiac Age was largely developed by Virtuos, who previously developed Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster for Square Enix.

A version for Windows was released via Steam on February 1, 2018. The port included support for higher display resolutions and 60 frames-per-second rendering, options to switch between three different versions of the soundtrack, and immediate access to the post-game modes. Versions for the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One were released on April 30, 2019.

Legacy
The gambit system inspired similar systems used in other games such as Dragon Age: Origins and Pillars of Eternity II. Final Fantasy XIV also used the gambit system as a base for its "Trust System", a mechanic that pairs online players with story characters controlled by artificial intelligence. The game also incorporated several regions and characters from Final Fantasy XII into its game world, alongside other games from the Ivalice universe with Yasumi Matsuno as a guest creator. Michael-Christopher Koji Fox, the translation director of Final Fantasy XIV indicated in an interview that the team have a lot of people who worked on Final Fantasy XII and "is one of the games they wanted to borrow heavily from because they thought it was really cool, and they really liked the imagery and lore that it had". Astria Ascending used its job system seen in later re-releases as a source of inspiration for its gameplay system. The Diofield Chronicle used the game as one source of inspiration for its controls and player movement. The localization of Final Fantasy XII was praised as a high point of the series and video games as a whole. Lead localizers Alexander O. Smith and Joseph Reeder went on to collaborate again on Tactics Ogre: Wheel of Fortune, the remake of a previous Yasumi Matsuno game, with its localization also receiving high praise. Producers of The Zodiac Age said that they were considering another game set in the Ivalice universe, adding that earlier projects faded away due to original development members working on other games.

title: Final Fantasy XII


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Roman School

In music history, the Roman School was a group of composers of predominantly church music, in Rome, during the 16th and 17th centuries, therefore spanning the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. The term also refers to the music they produced. Many of the composers had a direct connection to the Vatican and the papal chapel, though they worked at several churches; stylistically they are often contrasted with the Venetian School of composers, a concurrent movement which was much more progressive. By far the most famous composer of the Roman School is Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, whose name has been associated for four hundred years with smooth, clear, polyphonic perfection. However, there were other composers working in Rome, and in a variety of styles and forms.

History and characteristics
While composers had almost certainly been working in Rome continuously for the thousand years since the time of Gregory the Great, the development of a consistent style around the middle of the 16th century, due in part to the musical requirements of the Counter-Reformation, led to their being grouped together by music historians under this single label.

The music of the Roman School can be seen as the culmination of a development of polyphony through the infusion of music of the Franco-Netherlandish school during the last hundred years. Franco-Netherlandish composers had long been coming to Italy to live and work—Josquin, Obrecht, Arcadelt, and many others made the long journey, and their musical style was decisive on the formation of the Italian styles. Under the guidance of the Vatican, and with the Sistine Chapel Choir being one of the finest of the time, it was perhaps inevitable that the stylistic center of sacred polyphony would turn out to be Rome.

The Council of Trent, which met from 1545 to 1563, had a significant impact on the music of the Roman School: indeed it can be argued that these reforms in the Roman Catholic Church, which were part of the Counter-Reformation, defined the music of the Roman School. The Council of Trent recommended that sacred music, especially for use in church, be written in a dignified, serious style. The Council allowed polyphony—a common misconception is that they banned it outright, but this is false—however they did require that text which was sung be clearly understandable. In addition, while they did not ban the use of secular melodies as source material for masses and motets, such use was discouraged.

The combination of the reforms of the Council of Trent with the presence of the extremely talented composers inheriting the Franco-Netherlandish style, was the production of a body of music which has sometimes been held to represent the peak of perfection of Renaissance polyphonic clarity. The subject matter of "16th Century Counterpoint" or "Renaissance Polyphony" as taught in contemporary college music curricula is invariably the codified style of the Roman School, as it was understood by Johann Fux in the early 18th century. It is important to recognize, though, that the "Palestrina style" was not the only polyphonic style of the time, though it may have been the most internally consistent. The polyphonic style of Palestrina may have been the culmination of a hundred years of development of the Franco-Netherlandish style, but it was one of many streams in the late 16th century, and significantly contrasts with the music of the Venetian school to the north, as well as the music being produced in France and England at the same time.

Other composers living and working in Rome, while not considered members of the Roman School, certainly influenced them. The most famous of these is probably Luca Marenzio, whose madrigals were wildly popular in Italy and elsewhere in Europe; some of the composers of the Roman School borrowed his expressive techniques, for instance word painting, for occasional use in a liturgical setting.

While the Roman School is considered to be a conservative musical movement, there are important exceptions. Rome was the birthplace of the oratorio, in the work of Giovanni Francesco Anerio and Emilio de' Cavalieri; the score for Cavalieri's Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo is the earliest printed score which uses a figured bass. The style is similar to the style of monody being developed in Florence at approximately the same time; indeed there was considerable competition between composers in those two musical centers. The success of Rappresentatione was such that the monodic style became common in much Roman music in the first several decades of the 17th century.

Later composers of the Roman School included Gregorio Allegri, composer of the famous Miserere (c.1630). This piece was guarded closely by the papal chapel; it was considered so beautiful that copies were not allowed to circulate. A favorite story involves the 14-year-old Mozart, who made the first illegal copy by transcribing it from memory after hearing it only twice. Many of the later composers of the Roman School continued to write in the polyphonic style of the 16th century, known then as the stile antico, or the prima pratica, in distinction to the newer styles of monody and concertato writing which defined the beginning of the Baroque era.

Composers
Members of the Roman School, including some who were active in Rome for only part of their careers, are as follows:

 * Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c1525–1594)
 * Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548–1611)
 * Giovanni Animuccia (c1520–1571)
 * Felice Anerio (c1564–1614)
 * Giovanni Francesco Anerio (c1567–1630) (Younger brother of Felice)
 * Gregorio Allegri (1582–1652) (Composer of the famous Miserere)
 * Paolo Bellasio (1554–1594)
 * Antonio Cifra (1584–1629)
 * Domenico Allegri (c1585–1629)
 * Marc'Antonio Ingegneri (c1545–1592)
 * Giovanni Maria Nanino (1543–1607)
 * Emilio de' Cavalieri (c1550–1602)
 * Annibale Stabile (c1535–1595)
 * Giovanni Dragoni (c1540–1598)
 * Francesco Soriano (c1548–1621)
 * Paolo Quagliati (c1555–1628)
 * Ruggiero Giovannelli (c1560–1625)
 * Giovanni Bernardino Nanino (1560–1623)
 * Stefano Landi (1587–1639)
 * Domenico Mazzocchi (1592-1665)
 * Luigi Rossi (c1597-1653)
 * Virgilio Mazzocchi (1597–1646)
 * Michelangelo Rossi (c1600-1656)
 * Francesco Foggia (1604–1688)
 * Annibale Zoilo (c1537–1592)
 * Bartolomeo Roy (c1530–1599)
 * Giovanni de Macque (c1550–1614)
 * Johannes Matelart (before 1538–1607)
 * Rinaldo del Mel (c1554–1598)
 * Marco Marazzoli (c1602-1662)
 * Giacomo Carissimi (1605–1674)

title: Roman School


text:
Montazeau

Montazeau (Montaseus) is a commune in the Dordogne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France.

It is fairly close to Bergerac and Bordeaux. Many of its inhabitants derive their principal income from winemaking.

Events
Montazeau is known for its annual cheese-wine festival in which the townspeople make cheese-wine (a local delicacy) and it is then judged by the mayor.

title: Montazeau


text:
Talk:Final Fantasy XII

Ultimania development information
The following sources should be translated and used to expand the current incomplete article:

 * Final Fantasy XII Battle Ultimania
 * FFXII Development Staff Interview 1 – Character Section
 * FFXII Development Staff Interview 2 – Program Section
 * FFXII Development Staff Interview 3 – Battle Section

 * Final Fantasy XII Scenario Ultimania
 * FFXII Development Staff Interview 1 – Art Section
 * FFXII Development Staff Interview 2 – Movie Section
 * FFXII Development Staff Interview 3 – Sound Section
 * FFXII Development Staff Interview 4 – Scenario Section
 * FFXII Development Staff Interview 5 – Map System Section
 * FFXII Development Staff Interview 6 – Directors

 * Final Fantasy XII Ultimania Omega
 * Creator Interview
 * Special Column
 * Voice Actor Interview Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
 * Hitoshi Sakimoto Interview
 * Movies Text Commentary

Anyone willing to help translate even one page is welcome! Jonathan Hardin' (talk) 15:50, 6 June 2010 (UTC)
 * I removed the links per WP:COPYVIO. – Allen4names 17:05, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

Who wrote this?
It's like it was written by a super-fan, there's hardly any criticisms in this article, and this game should have a whole lot. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.164.37.128 (talk • contribs)
 * What part of the article are you talking about? Sjones23 (talk - contributions) 16:06, 18 August 2010 (UTC)
 * To be perfectly honest, I thought the same thing. The whole article simply reeks of the "best FF ever" attitude I've seen displayed here and there on the internet. Especially on the FFXII GameFAQs message board, where they practically queue up to bash other FF games... which is weird, cause back in the old days, if you were an FF fan, you liked all the games. I guess VII changed all that. Regardless, this is a very biased article and needs to focus on more of the criticisms, such as going into better detail why some thought the soundtrack wasn't as memorable, or discussing how hard the game tries to distract you from the plot with a multitude of sidequests and excessive backtracking coupled with lengthy hikes through enemy-filled locations. The latter of which often requiring you to hold down a button to avoid battles the entire way through. Nothing wrong with wanting to boast about a game's good features and aspects, but you gonna include the blemishes, too.--Dakmordian (talk) 10:16, 31 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Actually, count me with Sjones23 - which parts are you having problems with? A quick look through at least the first half of the article (through Gameplay) reads as pretty bog-standard for describing what's going on, without any particular support or criticism either way of how good the game is (or isn't). umrguy  42  20:57, 31 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Wow, I totally forgot I'd written this or I'd have responded since my original comment (this is Dakmordian). What I think wasn't clear in my comment is that there really isn't any sign of negative criticism within the article. There's a minute comment, almost tossed in, about GameSpot regarding "back and forth" wandering around but that doesn't even begin to cover the amount of criticism I have seen people bring up; they're not hard to find, but probably not from proper sources. Even reading back through it, I still get the feeling there's a lot of bias in favor of this game. Considering the length of the article, I guess it just feels one-sided.--68.111.242.222 (talk) 08:37, 31 October 2011 (UTC)
 * The article feels about standard for a WP video game article- a bit enthusiastic feeling (no problem there) and a reception section that glosses over the negative bits. Most vg articles are written by people who like the game, so they don't focus as much as they should on criticisms as opposed to praises. The game was well-received, but even the reviewers that gave it high scores had points that they didn't like, and the reception section right now does a poor job of expressing what they were. If anyone wants to pull in some quotes from the reviewers used in the article about what they didn't like, feel free. -- Pres N  00:04, 1 November 2011 (UTC)
 * The whole page needs to be redone. There's a lot of negativity surrounding FFXII that this page doesn't address, same as the FFXIII page. Be patient, I'm working on rewriting the entire FFXII page (it's my fave FF) and including all criticisms (I know them all from being on the GameFAQs board for the game since it came out) and how the development staff have responded to them according to the Ultimania interviews. I've been too busy in the real-world since early September so haven't been on Wikipedia for 2 months. In the mean time, read the section on FFXII on the Daisuke Watanabe page. G-Zay (talk) 17:29, 2 November 2011 (UTC)

 * Future note for would be editors: Criticisms can only be added if they're from a reliable source (read: a professional review site). Nobody cares what gamefaqs says. --68.123.159.155 (talk) 11:43, 29 May 2014 (UTC)

Infobox cleanup
Updated the infobox with the current formats and changed the credit fields as they did not use the currently established conventions: I also removed the link to Final Fantasy X-2 at the top of the article as I just don't think people have problems distinguishing the two games, hyphen plus arabic numeral and all. Prime Blue (talk) 14:10, 15 March 2011 (UTC)
 * changed to order shown in the game
 * scenario writers first, story writers last
 * added Miwa Shoda as scenario writer, removed Jun Akiyama (not a scenario writer)
 * removed producer (only people who worked on the original version are credited)
 * removed programmer (field only used for notable people or single programmers with significant new concepts/technological breakthroughs in older games)
 * removed some composers (only main contributors to the soundtrack are listed, Matsuo and Iwata are also both debatable, but I left them for now)
 * removed Ivalice Alliance (only independent standalone articles on game series allowed in series field)

Product Development Division 4.
There is no hyphen used in the official logo.

Image for proof: http://img713.imageshack.us/i/pdd4.png/

G-Zay (talk) 01:28, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

 * Again, that is the official logo. It's taken directly from the event where FFXII was officially announced by Square Enix.

 * Video of FFXII announcement event

 * So can you please stop reverting my edits calling them "G-Zay's usual stuff" when you're the one putting incorrect information on Wikipedia. Thank you. G-Zay (talk) 16:46, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Final_Fantasy_Tactics_Advance&diff=prev&oldid=419643075 . Last I checked, you're the one that keeps getting notifications for inserting unsourced stuff and pro-Ito opinions in articles. Jonathan Hardin' (talk) 16:50, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

 * I insert what is fact. The only problem is that there's no available sources for people that want citations before it can be accepted. When I obtain sources for my contributions then people thank me for them. This was the case in how I managed to obtain sources that prove that there are now two Hiroyuki Ito's currently working for Square Enix.

 * Anyway, the FFTA intro does not have the official logo. We're looking for how it's officially written. Further still, in the Japanese URL reference provided on the FFTA and FFXII pages, there's no hyphen. Regardless, here's further proof that there is no hyphen in the official logo of Product Development Division 4:

 * Famitsu magazine job advert for FFXII
 * FFXII announcement event booklet page 5
 * FFXII announcement event booklet page 6
 * FFXII announcement event booklet page 7

 * This and the previously mentioned video are enough proof that there is no hyphen in the official logo. All you have in your argument is the FFTA intro which is not even how it's officially written. My proof is there and solid and you're being stubborn and ignoring it. If you still continue to revert then I will have to send you a warning. G-Zay (talk) 17:35, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
 * ....is this seriously worth getting worked up about? ♫ Melodia Chaconne ♫ (talk) 18:09, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Don't worry. This debate is over. It's important to me that accurate information gets provided to the readers, though. G-Zay (talk) 18:44, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

Review table.
The current table with stars doesn't appear bloated to me. Further still, it can be hidden and therefore disappear off the page. I don't see how it's bloated or page consuming when the ability to hide 95% of it is given to the reader.

This is like Gambits in FF12 all over again; people complained that Gambits made the game "play itself" but the developers gave the ability to turn them off for all party members. Similarly, the table is not even that bloated or long; the entire thing can fit on the screen at once. Further still, if you wanna remove it from view then the ability to do so is there for the reader with the "Hide" command. I really don't see how a reversion to a table with far less information for readers is an improvement to the page. If anything, it's a downgrade. G-Zay (talk) 00:25, 31 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Well obviously since YOU see it that way, you're obviously right, huh? Depsite the fact that it seems that everyone on this page and on WT:VG disagrees...♫ Melodia Chaconne ♫ (talk) 02:12, 31 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I always edit pages thinking of the reader. The more information, the better. How is less information a good thing? The claim that there are too many reviews is also not that solid as the whole table can fit on the screen at once. It's not like the reader will have to scroll to see the whole thing. Lastly, there is a "Hide" command, so if they feel the table is in the way then they can just make it disappear. All that taken into account, the table is fine the way it is. It has lots of reviews, all from famous publications and they're all referenced. G-Zay (talk) 02:47, 31 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm afraid there is no consensus to include so many reviews in the review table. Not only are there at least four people here who disagree with you, the accepted usage notes on Template:Video game reviews/doc explicitly direct to keep it down to 5-6 reviews which represent a wide variety of sources (region, print vs. web, platform-specific, aggregate, etc.). Axem Titanium (talk) 03:07, 31 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I will never stop reverting the table as the table on the FFVI page is even longer and yet there are no complaints about it. If this FFXII table has to get reduced then so does the one for FFVI. If the FFVI table stays as it is then the FFXII one is worthy of staying in its current form. G-Zay (talk) 23:42, 3 August 2011 (UTC)
 * See WP:OTHERSTUFFEXISTS. You can not make arguements based on other articles. Blake (Talk·Edits) 23:49, 3 August 2011 (UTC)
 * My point still stands. If the FFVI table can be even longer than the FFXII one and stay then the FFXII one is fine the way it is. I don't think people took the FFVI table into account when the original consensus was reached so I hope this can be redone and fair agreement reached this time. Honestly, this is just overblown. The table is fine how it is. We need to drop this and move on to more important issues. G-Zay (talk) 00:33, 4 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Agreed, we should drop this. As in, you should stop this idiotic long-term edit war. This table is too long. So is FF6s. The solution is not to say that this one stands because that one is too long. The solution is to cut both of them, which I will now do- review tables should have 6 representative reviews or so at most, and should never contain any reviews that aren't in the text. -- Pres N  00:45, 4 August 2011 (UTC)
 * There are probably some ten people now who you oppose and keep reverting. Consider this your final warning. Prime Blue (talk) 00:49, 4 August 2011 (UTC)
 * Final Fantasy 6 is now down from 3 aggregates/18 reviewers (some with several reviews per reviewer) to 2/8; I left a bit extra since there's 2 and a bit game versions included in the table. Agree with Prime Blue above- your reverting and long, slow edit warring is really getting out of hand. Keep it up and I'll block you; you've done some good work here, but for the past while you've done nothing but waste everyone's time by continually going against consensus and staying just shy of 3RR on 10 articles at once. If you don't like the consensus, get it changed, don't keep fighting on your own. -- Pres N  00:59, 4 August 2011 (UTC)

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Guest characters/gambit
It says guests are controlled by AI, but they're controlled by gambits, which you can modify in the Zodiac versions of the game. Jeandeve (talk) 17:31, 16 September 2017 (UTC)
 * This is still an article about the original game, in which that isn't the case. ~ Dissident93  ( talk ) 18:07, 16 September 2017 (UTC)

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International version
Why do we think the "International Zodiac Job System" edition classes as "an international version" of the game? Even in the original press release, cited in the article, it says that there are no plans to release the game outside of Japan, and doesn't use the term "international version". The way I see it, they took what was already the international (i.e. North American) version of the game, and localized it for Japan, also adding the new job system. Hence the name "International Zodiac Job System". This is a bit different from calling it "an international version". Kidburla (talk) 01:24, 27 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Because, way back in 2007, an "International Version" was an expanded, English-language version released only in Japan of a game. Hence the name "International" Zodiac Job System. SE was the biggest user of the term, but it never caught on very widely, and it's not used at all in 2018. I'm going to remove it from the article, it just causes confusion. -- Pres N  02:48, 27 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Maybe just add "marketed as an international version" instead? ~ Dissident93 (talk) 04:59, 27 November 2018 (UTC)

Edit reverted
My edit got reverted on suspicion that I am G-Zay. has already started investigating as he should. However I'd like to know where have I erred in my edit. I've looked at the references that were at the top of the talk page, incorporated them into my edit and added all the references. The rest was just following the template that was on Final Fantasy X especially when it comes to the Legacy section, which only uses single references to proclaim that the game has been a pioneer for things such as 3D RPG maps where I've used several references to show that several writers have claimed FFXII was "ahead of its time". My edit is not praising the game any more than the FFX page does and it is also FAC. I'd like to be vetted now on the content of my edit so I know better next time. Wachenroder (talk) 14:43, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

 * Posting some context because that wikipedia's diff system is awful sometimes, and it's been a long time since there was something more publically explanatory than a revert for this kind of thing. Here's the bits that were added:

Matsuno was personally appointed by series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi to direct the game. Sakaguchi was impressed with the work of Matsuno and his team in creating the fully polygonal Vagrant Story on the Playstation 1, as well as the genre breakout success Final Fantasy Tactics which was a personal project that Sakaguchi had entrusted to Matsuno. . Matsuno, who was already a popular name for his work on the cult classic Tactics Ogre in creating grittier, politically-driven stories had brought back much of the same team that had worked on all his games up to Vagrant Story: Akihiko Yoshida as character designer, Hiroshi Minagawa as visual designer and Hitoshi Sakimoto as the composer are some of the most popular names that occupied key positions in the development of the game.

...

Takashi Katano, one of the producers of The Zodiac Age remaster who worked as a project coordinator for the original game said in an interview that the game "pretty much" followed on the same track after Matsuno's departure BLOCKQUOTE: "There wasn't a huge overhaul or anything like that. The playable version of the game had been shown at E3, and at that point it was really a matter of polishing up the final product. Once he left, it was just a matter of, 'We'll take it from here,' and following the path."

The other edit was just adding refs to existing content, though the cite to a Fandom blog is questionable at best.

The G-Zay context is that the guy's been trying to sneak in false or biased content promoting Ito, Matsuno, and Koizumi (and FFXII/their games), and denegrating Kitase and Toriyama (and their games, such as FFX) for literally 6.5 years. At this point it's like an allergic reaction when anyone edits like that, even if it's non-promotional, so apologizes if you aren't them. That said: popping out the gate on your very first 4 edits to add content to FFT and FFXII, with correctly formatted refs and obscure templates like blockquote, followed up by immediately understanding what "G-Zay sock" meant? Kind of a red flag. As to the content- the first section is overly praising of Matsuno, positioning him as Sakaguchi's scion as well as praising him for other games. The second half is the worst, and uncited, while the first half is cited to 2 cites that are doubtful at best for reliability- and also not, as you imply, from the list on this talk page. The second chunk isn't awful and is cited to one of the RS's listed on this talk page, but is essentially (and especially in the context of the first chunk) just praising Matsuno again, this time for essentially directing the whole game and relegating anything that came after his departure as mere polishing. The total result is revertable, though maybe bits could be salvaged, but combined with your talk page message here, which is textbook G-Zay in how you framed your edits and focused on the minor ref changes and not the actual content additions, it's well beyond any reasonable doubt. -- Pres N  15:33, 18 October 2019 (UTC)

 * First of all thank you for answer. My changes were more extensive than that, though I might have misinterpreted "existing content" in your case. The legacy section is my edit for example.

 * I did not want to get on the issue of G-Zay right off the gate considering those are my first edits and I didn't know how personal we could get in talk pages but you have to realize that G-Zay is named on pretty much every talk page and has a dedicated page on reverting his edits. Any person even remotely serious to make a change in pages related to Ivalice content and devs will have to encounter what he did one way or another. I've "tried" to make due process before making changes to the page (which wasn't enough as I understand). I've had no idea that blockquote was an obscure template considering it is still featured in Template:Quote, that I have used VisualEditor, and "block quote" is one of the prime options in the paragraph tab (and I admittedly didn't feel comfortable enough to know if my paraphrases would keep the meaning of the quote intact). As to the Fandom reference, the article was hosted on the website's main page, and commission freelance writers as well as at least having a game editor at some point (not anymore for that specific game editor I linked). This didn't strike me as a personal blog and felt it was warranted enough to become a credible source.

 * "'[...] the first section is overly praising of Matsuno, positioning him as Sakaguchi's scion as well as praising him for other games.'"

 * There's two things to this that pushed me to write it this way. First was the shmuplations translation of a Famitsu interview (I do not know if it is a viable source, but in itself Shmuplations has never been vetted as inaccurate and was featured before outside of me on FFT page) between Matsuno and Sakaguchi, which begins about how Sakaguchi had thought up this project for years but didn't have the time to work on it:

 * "Sakaguchi: The title “Final Fantasy Tactics” was actually something I thought up four years ago. We even took out a trademark on the name. I’m a strategy game fan myself, and I had been thinking about what Final Fantasy would look like as a strategy game. I’m the type of person who comes up with a name first, so nothing much else had been concretely set down, but there was a “Final Fantasy Tactics” design document that I had made then. Unfortunately I was caught up in the development of the main FF series—which were coming out at a quick pace, one every 12-18 months—so my plans for FFT remained unrealized. But it is true that the kernel of the development goes back 4 years, to 1993."

 * and :

 * "Sakaguchi: Actually, the truth is I showed Matsuno my 5-6 page design document… although, looking at it now, it seems they adopted a very different system from the one I described, and a lot of my ideas were dropped. (laughs) It was fully up to Matsuno and Itou to decided which ideas to use, you see. My role was more one of watching from the sidelines; as a strategy game fan, I’ve really been looking forward to playing it!"

 * And in order to not be seen as cherry picking:

 * "Sakaguchi: I’m sure many people must see the title of this game, “Final Fantasy Tactics“, and think that we headhunted Matsuno and reached out to him first, but it’s actually not like that, just as he says. You can write this down for posterity: (laughs) the idea for a Final Fantasy strategy game was one that I had been brewing and fermenting for quite awhile before."

 * which is why I said Sakaguchi entrusted the project to him, rather than becoming Sakaguchi's disciple. Another source, named "La Légende Final Fantasy XII & Ivalice" in French roughly translated "The Legend of Final Fantasy XII & Ivalice" (legend word being closer to word chart) from Third Editions. The book is French so for transparency I will offer the french quote and then my translation

 * '''"Extrêmement touché par Vagrant Story pour lequel il admettra avoir lâché quelques larmes, Hironobu Sakaguchi a décidé tout naturellement de confier la réalisation du douzième épisode de la saga à celui dont il se considère lui-même comme un fan, Yasumi Matsuno."

 *  "Une confession faite à Famitsu, à laquelle il ajoute avoir pensé « Merci, Mattsuu », le surnom qu’il donne à Matsuno."'''

 * my translation:

 * '''"Extremely moved by Vagrant Story to which he would admit shedding some tears, Hironobu Sakaguchi naturally decided to entrust the direction of the twelfth episode of the saga to the one he regards as being a fan of, Yasumi Matsuno."

 *  "A confession made to Famitsu, to which he added having thought "Thank you, Mattsuu", the nickname he gives to Matsuno."'''

 * My own edit on the matter was much tamer only because I didn't trust that the book would be seen as a viable source despite being a well-reputed publishing house. And that it is still in French made me think it would have seen me vetted, and it is itself a translation of a Famitsu interview, to which I do not know the exact source and do not read Japanese even if I could.

 * "'The second half is the worst, and uncited, while the first half is cited to 2 cites that are doubtful at best for reliability- and also not, as you imply, from the list on this talk page'"

 * You are right. The FFRing interview is a reference that I have merely taken from the existing and current FF12 wiki page. That reference is the only cite for the basis that Basch was meant to be the main protagonist, but was switched to Vaan and Penelo and also that it was because of Vagrant Story's Ashley Riot bad reception that this decision was made (ref 61). Considering this reference alone is doing a lot of the heavy lifting by itself, I did not think once that it would be seen as doubtful. This interview has Akitoshi Kawazu claiming that "Sakaguchi [...] had decided FFXII should also be different from the others, which is why he decided to entrust it to the team responsible for Vagrant Story". That's what I tried to go with that.

 * French quote for transparency:

 * "M. Sakaguchi qui est le créateur des Final Fantasy avait décidé que Final Fantasy XII devrait être encore différent des autres, c'est pour ça qu'il avait décidé de le confier à l'équipe qui avait été responsable de Vagrant Story."

 * I agree that the praise was unwarranted for "genre breakout success Final Fantasy Tactics", even though it was the first SRPG to become a million seller, and the tangent on Tactics Ogre wasn't necessary all things considered. I wanted to show that Matsuno was already known among hardcore gaming circles at the time of making FFXII and there was a throughline from his time at Quest to now with his "core" team, but I realize it wasn't necessary. As to this part being uncited is another one of my mistake. I did not know what to cite in order to reference that the same core team has been working with him since Tactics Ogre, and them having already a wikipedia page felt that it was enough. Maybe a credits page of the game?

 * "'The second chunk isn't awful and is cited to one of the RS's listed on this talk page, but is essentially (and especially in the context of the first chunk) just praising Matsuno again, this time for essentially directing the whole game and relegating anything that came after his departure as mere polishing.'"

 * This is overall an interview of a person who worked as project coordinator of FFXII and one of the producers of its remaster. There isn't anything that is remotely negative about the game in it and pretty much is the first interview since 2006-7 where someone from the original staff is speaking out about the game's development with any level of candidness. I have not removed a single sentence that would indicate that Matsuno didn't direct the whole game, I added several bits from a person that I felt had a position that made him involved in the project that would make his claim have weight and be worth being displayed on the wiki page. His claims does not contradict that Matsuno had left and others took care of the direction, just that the project kept being on track. I wasn't the one who said that either. I'd like more details on that point.

 * If you think there is reasonable ground that I am not he, then I would like some good faith to be assumed regarding my edit. Wachenroder (talk) 18:14, 18 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Obviously edits that improve the article and are well sourced should be kept, but you shouldn't fault me for thinking you are a newly created sockpocket of an editor who has been blocked multiple times to add in the same general subject matter on this article (and almost nothing else). ~ Dissident93 (talk) 19:43, 18 October 2019 (UTC)
 * @: I do not fault the thinking and I was half-way expecting that any substantial edit would raise eyebrows. I do hope that my edit, while clumsy and too focused on praise, is somewhat sourced enough that there is merit to keeping some of the content when the matter of sock-puppetry is resolved. I'm also willing to dispel the anonymity to anyone who wants confirmation that I am just a person from France who wanted to improve the article and make it more in line to FFX and maybe work on a Zodiac Age article like FFX HD Remaster received one. There is no malice behind my intent, but there wasn't any way to announce my innocence before I made an edit. There's no point in starting an edit war over something so trivial so I hope you will get back to me if there are any updates on the matter and I shall just leave it be if the suspicion can't be dispelled. Wachenroder (talk) 17:05, 21 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Considering this matter has seen no progress and I have seen no reply, I've opted to make smaller changes to the page from my reverted revision that should not be controversial. This should give editors the ability to closely monitor my activity on this page rather than just defaulting to a blanket revert. Wachenroder (talk) 18:12, 12 November 2019 (UTC)

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 * E3 FFXII.jpg

Basch was initially meant to be the main protagonist of the story?
I've seen this repeated elsewhere, but I can't find a usable cite; the cites currently in the article don't seem to support it. The only remotely relevant part of the French interview merely says (via Google Translate): ...so it actually says less than the other source (which says something similar); neither interview mentions Basch at all, and the French interview doesn't even indicate that the lead character was changed in development at all, though the other one does go over how he was revised. It's easy to see how a fan who was searching for evidence to support an argument they were trying to make in that regard could interpret those as meaning that the protagonist was literally originally supposed to be Basch (since Basch fits that description), or that their attributes were split between different characters or the like, but it's not what the sources say, so using them like that here seems like it's WP:OR. Are there any sources specifically saying this? This is the closest I could find, but even then it carefully makes clear that what it's saying is speculation ("presumably..."), and even that source doesn't even speculate that Basch was originally the main character, it just speculates that Presumably, many of the original hero's traits went to Basch (who arguably fits the role of main protagonist better, anyway) while others when to Balthier.--Aquillion (talk) 06:14, 16 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Q: Why is the hero design so effeminate?
 * Akitoshi Kawazu and Hiroshi Minagawa: (Laughs) It's true that we don't really know either. What happened is that the previous game we worked on which was Vagrant Story, which was a pretty beefy hero in the prime of his life, hadn't worked at all and wasn't too popular. . So we decided to go on a teenager to see if it would interest the public more.

 * The polygon source in refideas already confirms Basch was supposed to be the main character.Blue Pumpkin Pie (talk) 12:41, 17 April 2021 (UTC)
 * Ah, that wasn't cited in the article! I've added it and changed the wording back (with some tweaks.) --Aquillion (talk) 20:11, 17 April 2021 (UTC)

I have made some further edits to this paragraph because of a recent Gamesradar article that purports to debunk the "rumor" that Basch was the original main character. Yes, in response to someone asking him "Well, I guess the confusion here is the rumor Basch was supposed to be the main character of FFXII. Shot in the dark here to see what's true", Matsuno tweeted "That rumor is a fake story". But that directly contradicts the FFRing interview with Minagawa and Kawazu, who were involved with the project from start to finish. Thus, out of an abundance of caution, I reworded it to even more closely follow the source. There's no indication in contemporary sources that it was "executive meddling"---this seems to be a detail that was added/embellished in the retelling (e.g. Polygon source from 10 years later). The Screenrant source appears to be just a lightly edited copy of Wikipedia (WP:CIRCULAR) so I removed it. Axem Titanium (talk) 08:23, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Final Fantasy XII