FFXII Gets a date

[Wizard]

Among the revelations at the two-day Square Party 2005 event were some details surrounding the highly-anticipated Final Fantasy XII. The first news, which Square planned to make an official announcement about, despite it being projected on the huge walls surrounding the FFXII theater, is that the game will ship in Japan on March 16, 2006. That's pretty late for a game considering the localization on the game's storyline is 100% complete, according to a source within Square-Enix. The current logic is that Squenix is holding it back to avoid it locking horns, sales-wise, with Tetsuya Nomura's upcoming Kingdom Hearts II. FFXII is still coming out within the fiscal year, though, so sales will still count towards the company's annual revenue -- savvy, but tough for gamers waiting to see the Empire Strikes Back-meets-Final Fantasy themes in action.

 

The second revelation, and far more surprising of the two, is that FFXII director, Yasumi Matsuno, is no longer working on the game. The former Quest developer (Quest made games like Tactics Ogre and Ogre Battle for the SNES and Sega Saturn) is the mastermind behind such brilliant games as Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, but is said to be temperamental. When part of the FFXII team was said to have left Square-Enix for Hironobu Sakaguchi's new development studio, Mist Walker, Matsuno was reported to have not shown up for work for a month until the crisis was resolved. In fact, we're not sure what Matsuno is working on now, and whether he was kicked off the team or if he voluntarily removed himself, although he is still said to be at Square. The RPG powerhouse is reported to have a replacement at the helm already, the choice of whom is likely to raise the eyebrows of many people who have been following the troubled chapter's evolution. As we learn more about this development we'll let you know.

www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3142452

 

**Update: The reason why Mr. Matsuno stopped working on the game was apparently due to a health reason and concern.

Edited August 2, 2005 by K`dash

[Agozer]

Square-Enix surely is taking its sweet time again... March 2006? Come on.