Podcasts about Yasumi Matsuno

Get ready for a deep dive into the intriguing tale behind Vagrant Story, a game that has etched its mark in gaming history. We'll unravel the development history of Vagrant Story and shed light on the creative genius behind it, Yasumi Matsuno. From his first game, through the development of Vagrant Story, we'll explore the evolution of Matsuno's game design. Join us as we look at the likes of the Ogre Battle series, Final Fantasy Tactics, and more. And of course, we'll talk about our own experiences with the game. So, buckle up for another exciting episode as we venture into the captivating realms of Vagrant Story on today's trip down Memory Card Lane.

Vagrant Story är ett av Squares mer okända rollspel och frågar du regissören Yasumi Matsuno skulle han nog inte vilja att det karaktäriserades som ett sådant heller. Det är också lite av ett unikum i det japanska spelföretagets katalog: brutalt svårt, knepigt och säreget.Men handlingen är rafflande och presenteras i de kanske coolast regisserade mellansekvenserna under hela PlayStation-eran - trots att det mest handlar om dialogscener. Mästerligt är bara förnamnet.Gäst: Michael Gill

Brad dished up a real doozy for our latest Revival Club game. Vagrant Story may be verifiably impenetrable but it remains a fascinating RPG that remains unlike anything else out there. While the game may have proven too much for Nick (and perhaps the community at large) to overcome, Brad does an excellent job of explaining it's systems and what makes it so unique. Perhaps most notably, It shrugged off almost every other common RPG convention and defined itself as an unapologetic Yasumi Matsuno game.

Three persons of decidedly unlordly caliber have taken it upon themselves to play Ogre Battle 64. It turns out one must first discuss Quest, Yasumi Matsuno, and the Nintendo 64 before talking about this very involved strategy RPG! If you've been enjoying the podcast, please consider supporting us at https://www.patreon.com/DeepListens

In the first episode of our Final Fantasy Tactics deep-dive, we look at the development history of the game, including Yasumi Matsuno's transition from creating the Ogre series at Quest to working with Hironobu Sakaguchi at Square Soft. We also dive into the background of Ivalice--its kings and its wars--and how those things relate to the overall situation at the start of the game. 1. Intro (0:00) 2. Development History(1:06) 3. Background On Ivalice, Its Kings, And Its Wars (1:05:02)

- Un ataque a Steam en China bloqueó durante la Navidad la aplicación varias horas. Debido a este ataque a través de las DNS de la tienda de Valve, los usuarios, además de no poder a la tienda, creyeron que se trataba de una nueva prohibición del gobierno chino. - Josef Fares, creador de It Takes Two, prefiere «un tiro en la rodilla a los NFT en videojuegos». Así de tajante respondía el director en una entrevista para The Washington Post, mostrándose muy crítico con cómo las compañías están aceptando incluir estos elementos en sus títulos. - Everwild podría haber reiniciado su desarrollo, según Jeff Grubb. El insider especializado en Xbox comentaba en su podcast que el título habría vuelto a empezar de cero debido a que «era un auténtico desastre». Habla también de que se están marchando empleados y que Rare no sabe bien qué rumbo darle a este proyecto. - Yasumi Matsuno, quien fuera director de Vagrant Story y Final Fantasy Tactics, está trabajando en un nuevo proyecto. Esta información viene ni más ni menos que del mismísimo Sakaguchi, creador de Final Fantasy, así que podemos darla como bastante fiable. - Los juegos del PS Plus de enero de 2022 serán los siguientes: Persona 5 Strikers, Dirt 5 y Deep Rock Galactic. Puedes encontrarme en Twitter como @nachocerrato.

On Episode 1, we are joined by our very special guest, Vagrant Story co-author (alongside Yasumi Matsuno), and localisation writer, Alexander O. Smith, who joins show producer Albert Chessa to discuss the complex art of adapting and co-authoring cinematic, literary and poetic symbolism-laden narratives and worlds, explore a shared kinship with The Beatles and Tame Impala, and of course, speak on our long awaited return to Leá Monde… ALEX https://instagram.com/aokajiya ALBERT https://instagram.com/albertchessa SHOW https://instagram.com/vagrantstorypodcast COMMUNITY https://reddit.com/r/vagrantstory SITE https://albertchessa.com/media --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/albertchessa/message

Kiaran and Adam journey back to the year 2000 when this title hit the shelves. Does it live up to the legacy of the RPGs from that era when Square was king? Join us in the kingdom of Valendia to find out as we tell a story of a Vagrant named Ashley Riot.

Final Fantasy Tactics is a tactical role-playing game developed and published by Squaresoft (later changed to Square and now Square Enix) for the Sony PlayStation video game console. Released in Japan in June 1997 and in the United States in January 1998, it is the first game of the Final Fantasy Tactics series. The game combines thematic elements of the Final Fantasy video game series with a game engine and battle system unlike those previously seen in the franchise. In contrast to other 32-bit era Final Fantasy titles, Final Fantasy Tactics uses a 3D, isometric, rotatable playing field, with bitmap sprite characters. Final Fantasy Tactics is set in a fictional medieval-inspired kingdom called Ivalice, created by Yasumi Matsuno. The game's story follows Ramza Beoulve, a highborn cadet who finds himself thrust into the middle of an intricate military conflict known as The Lion War, where two opposing noble factions are coveting the throne of the kingdom. As the story progresses, Ramza and his allies discover a sinister plot behind the war. The game received critical acclaim from gaming magazines and websites and has become a cult classic since its release. It has been cited as one of the greatest video games of all time.

Hola Xenogamers, como siempre y cada dos semanas aproximadamente os traemos una nueva edición de nuestro podcast. Y como siempre os dejamos con el contenido del mismo: Xenogames Responde. Reseña de Monster Hunter Rise por Roldán. Xenoculto, para esta ocasión le toca el turno a Yasumi Matsuno. La Historia de los Videojuegos, año 2006 Parte II. Now Playing. No olvidéis dejarnos vuestros comentarios de que os ha parecido el podcast.

En este episodio hablamos de Final Fantasy XII, un juego del director favorito de Ranger, Yasumi Matsuno, por muchos considerados que estaba adelantado a su época.

Na votação de Junho de 2020, o jogo escolhido curiosamente não foi o mais votado. É que jogo mais votado foi desclassificado, e o segundo lugar assumiu. Dessa forma, uma das mais importantes e ambiciosas obras de Yasumi Matsuno, Vagrant Story, foi o jogo do mês. Joaquim "Joka" Ramos, Klebs Santos e Felipe "Lee" Lins recebem o membro do clube que indicou o jogo, Jael Araripe, para se aprofundar um pouco no universo idealizado por Matsuno, relatando suas experiências, trazendo algumas curiosidades e apresentando suas conclusões pessoais. O Backlog Game Club é um clube de jogo que funciona por meio de um grupo de Telegram. Entre em contato com a gente pelo Twitter e faça parte do clube: Joka - @exsurferdetrem Lee - @ofelipelee Klebs - @klebs781 Jael - @jaelararipe

Hi hi hi. Before you knew it, it was time for another podcast, and here we are!  In our weird synchronistic way, we cover a couple of picks this episode that have at least one thing in common: they make Jeremy a little angry. We open with the soundtrack to (of all things) the pinball game Black Knight: Sword of Rage, and we discuss some of the history of video games through the perspective of pinball, and how the two mediums comingle. The soundtrack by Scott Ian thumps and marches to a metal beat as the pinball machine mercilessly takes your money, and we explore the mingling of the musical and mechanical in this very special release. Then Anthony brings the vertical shooter oddity Radiant Silvergun and its recent Data Discs release, which currently represents the ONLY extant vinyl release for music by Hitoshi Sakimoto. We reconcile our "Yasumi Matsuno" expectations for the soundtrack with the fact that Sakimoto is a big shooter fan, and we discuss Radiant Silvergun's place in the pantheon of shooters, and why this one is practically custom-made for frustration. We then cover the recent news in the world of video game soundtracks on vinyl record with some new releases, announcements, and lots of opportunity for money spending! What kind of podcast would we be running if we didn't cost you some money? Finally, we discuss the phenomenon of the "B-side" and whether it has a place in the world of video game soundtracks, and what it might take for a consumer to make some room, so to speak, on the releases we have now to allow for oddities and more raw creativity on our shelves versus the "as-seen-in-game" soundtrack reproductions. What do you think? Join us and weigh in! Outro: "Penta [5th Force]" - Radiant Silvergun, by Hitoshi Sakimoto Images from Jeremy's visit to the 1UP Arcade Bar in Denver, CO A Life Well Wasted podcast episode http://alifewellwasted.com/2009/11/25/episode-five-help/ Twitter – @vg_grooves, @jeremy_lamont, @ajohnagnello Links: Death Stranding (Mondo) Kentucky Route Zero (iam8bit) Kentucky Route Zero (mystery vinyl) (iam8bit) The Missing - JJ Macfield and the Island of Memories (Limited Run Games) (sold out) Metal Slug 3 (Wayô Records) Seven (Knight of the Round Bandcamp) Dead Cells Prisoner's Edition (Signature Edition Games) (PS4) Yuppie Psycho (Black Screen Records) Super XYX (Qrates) (ends 7 Mar 2020) The Wonderful 101 Remastered (Kickstarter) Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (Kickstarter) Hessian (Kickstarter) Image Gallery

This week, we dive into a masterful PSOne classic, Vagrant Story. From the kindred spirits of Yasumi Matsuno and Hideo Kojima to the artistic mastery of Akihiko Yoshida including butt-based design philosophies and a lineage of creators that spans much of the Final Fantasy series. We cover technical achievements, influences, the golden age of SquareSoft and more!

We're back for part 2 of our Vagrant Story discussion! Our two panelists go over the Vagrant Story endgame, Ashley Riot's motivations, and the future of Vagrant Story in today's episode. There are some kind words about Yasumi Matsuno and some less-kind words about block-pushing puzzles. Featuring: Michael Sollosi, Jo Padilla

Alex and Daniel talk about Aggretsuko season 2, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Final Fantasy XIV collaborations with Yasumi Matsuno and Yoko Taro, Vinland Saga———————————————————-SUPPORT OUR PATREON!http://patreon.com/mybacklogbattleUse our link every time you buy from Amazon or Audible!http://bit.ly/amazonbacklogbattleOfficial Backlog Battle Merch!http://shop.spreadshirt.com/mybacklogbattle———————————————————-Daniel Santos -An Analytical Reviewer-http://youtube.com/shintaireviewsDaniel Santos Twitterhttp://twitter.com/shintaireviews———————————————————-Subscribe to Backlog Battle!YouTube: http://youtube.com/mybacklogbattleTwitter: http://twitter.com/mybacklogbattleInstagram: http://instagram.com/mybacklogbattleDiscord: http://bit.ly/bbarmydiscordQuestions? Comments? Suggestions? Email us at podcast@mybacklogbattle.tv!Download this episode!

In a very special episode of the GameBytes Show podcast, Dale returns from his asiatic wanderings just in time to TALK ABOUT VIDEO GAMES. Jeremy joins him and they fusion dance their way into a discussion of a mutual favorite: Final Fantasy 12. The Zodiac Age edition of the game brings some new features to the old Matsuno chestnut. We then proceed into something completely different with Housemarque's twin-stick shooter, Nex Machina. The game borrows from some of the studio's past titles and makes them into something new and kickin' (and shootin'). Come get some! Intro: "Cosmic Hero" - Nex Machina, by Ari Pulkkinen Outro: "Penelo's Theme" - Final Fantasy XII, by Hitoshi Sakimoto Check out our Discord community at https://discord.gg/ZTzKH8y

Alex and Daniel talk about Aggretsuko season 2, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Final Fantasy XIV collaborations with Yasumi Matsuno and Yoko Taro, Vinland Saga———————————————————-SUPPORT OUR PATREON!http://patreon.com/mybacklogbattleUse our link every time you buy from Amazon or Audible!http://bit.ly/amazonbacklogbattleOfficial Backlog Battle Merch!http://shop.spreadshirt.com/mybacklogbattle———————————————————-Daniel Santos -An Analytical Reviewer-http://youtube.com/shintaireviewsDaniel Santos Twitterhttp://twitter.com/shintaireviews———————————————————-Subscribe to Backlog Battle!YouTube: http://youtube.com/mybacklogbattleTwitter: http://twitter.com/mybacklogbattleInstagram: http://instagram.com/mybacklogbattleDiscord: http://bit.ly/bbarmydiscordQuestions? Comments? Suggestions? Email us at podcast@mybacklogbattle.tv!Download this episode!

The boys discuss the recent IGN interview with Yasumi Matsuno (Wool Head), the creator of the Ivalice games - is the Ivalice x Hydaelyn theory dead now? Also predicting and discussing the upcoming live letter, and answering MogMail! Discord: https://discord.gg/ATBUccS

Dale, Jerod, and Jeremy have arrived on your device, overcoming time and space and probability to tell YOU about the video games that we've been playing. Jerod kicks us off with outerspace city builder Surviving Mars, and RPG desktop simulator Kingsway. Dale COMPLETES Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, transitions immediately into Final Fantasy Tactics (hax edition) and gets mad at Middle Earth: Shadows of Mordor. Jeremy kicks balls in Captain Tsubasa, reminisces about anime of the 80s, and makes bold, unfounded and offensive claims about JRPGs. Intro: "Main Menu" - Captain Tsubasa Dream Team, by KLab Games Outro: "Free Earth Channel" - Surviving Mars, by Paradox Games Check out our Discord community at https://discord.gg/ZTzKH8y

Spotlight: Yasumi Matsuno   Now that we’ve officially in the Tactics run of the Ivalice era, I figured that now would be a good time to shine a little light on a huge force behind the scenes of the Tactics games: Video Game Designer, Director, and Producer, one with an absolutely stellar career: Yasumi Matsuno.   Yasumi Matsuno was born October 24th, 1965 in Myoko, in the Niigata Prefecture of Japan. Growing up in a rural environment, Matsuno claims that he was very isolated as a child. Thus, nearly all of his time was spent in front of television screens, reading books, and practicing the very specific hobby of creating dioramas, especially those based on World War 2. Oddly enough, quite the indoor kid considering that he grew up in the countryside.   His had his first video game experiences as a high schooler, playing one of two arcade games at the local train station. One was PacMan, a game I’m sure we’re all familiar with, and the other was a game called “Xevius”, a vertically scrolling shooter war game where you take on the role of a combat airplane.   Matsuno wanted to become a writer for either books or movies, but he decided to do the smart thing and go to college and study Foreign Policy.  Finding his studies unfulfilling, he dropped out of school after 3 years to pursue his dreams. He did manage to get a writing gig as an economic reporter, but he wanted something more creative. A fan of the games Ultima Online, Dragon Quest, and The Legend of Zelda, he tried to land a writing job at a gaming company. Incredibly good at getting jobs, Matsuno landed a lead “Planner” position at a game developer called “Quest”.   The first game he did “planning” for was for the NES game “Conquest of the Crystal Palace”, not much is known about this game’s development, except that this was the first time Matsuno and his later partner in crime, composer Masaharu Iwata, began working together.   Moving up to a director position at Quest, Matsuno pitched a Fantasy RPG strategy game that would be put out on the new SNES. Borrowing strategy, fantasy, and Active-Time elements from the games “Nobunaga’s Ambition”, “Daisenryaku”, and “Master of Monsters”, game would come to be known as “Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen”. If I were to describe the gameplay to a Final Fantasy player, it would be Final Fantasy Tactics, but with a much simpler map. A couple interesting facts about the game: the North American Edition of the SNES version is considered one of the rarest games of all time since only 5000 copies were ever shipped. Another odd fact: Ogre Battle was a Queen song, and also Queen’s name is used in The “March of the Black Queen” part of the title. Basically, Matsuno is a huge fan of Queen and refers to them often in his games.   After the success of Ogre Battle, Matsuno would get to work on a sequel, changing the gameplay in drastic ways, focusing more on intimate battles, and making the world a 3D one. Behold the awkwardly titled “Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together”. Now Ogre Battle was pretty much FF Tactics, but this, if you’ve seen screenshots of it, was almost exactly the same game, but with a tragic multi-branching storyline inspired by the Bosnian Genocide.   Tactics Ogre was an extremely popular game, with RPG Gamer calling it “forever [...] a masterpiece”.   Oh, and “Let Us Cling Together” is a Queen song.   Not one to stay anywhere for very long, in 1995 Yasumi Matsuno quit “Quest” to move to the big leagues. He would get a job at Square Soft, getting to work on a game very, very, very, similar to Tactics Ogre, a game called…   ...Bahamut Lagoon.   ...Which would later have the Final Fantasy name slapped on it in the form of “Final Fantasy Tactics”.   Tactics, of course, would turn out to be legendary. As in hearing people tell us to get to tactics is a legendary pain in the ass. That’s how popular the game has become.   Creating the Ivalice Universe, Matsuno would stretch his strategic and tactical game design skills in the loosely-related Vagrant Story. Inspired by architecture from France, nearly canceled due to it’s size, it released in 2000, and would be a smash hit, and earn the coveted 40/40 from Famitsu Magazine.   Next he would oversee Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced in a producer role, and also help out with the horrible PlayOnline Function on FFXI, but his next big gig would be as co-director (along with Hiroyuki Ito) of a little PS2 game called “Final Fantasy XII”.   FF12’s development history is insane and I’m not gonna get into it here, but Matsuno was one of the people deeply upset by Hironobu Sakaguchi’s messy departure from Square-Enix, and quit square officially over “illness”, which may or may not be true, we talk about that on the FF12 review I think.   Since 2006, Matsuno has been a free man, a freelance game that many companies have clamored for. He wrote the super-violent Wii game “Madworld”, as well as the 3DS game “Crimson Shroud”. He was asked to help write another Tactics Ogre Game, and even worked with Hironobu Sakaguchi on his mobile title “Terra Battle”.   Currently he’s working on two games for Mobile Platforms, “Unsung Story” and Lost Order”.   In conclusion, for those guys who think that the greatest Final Fantasy game of all time is Tactics, you know who to thank. Matsuno is one of those game Directors who truly has a unique style. Way to go, Matsuno

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where we are in our third in a series of episodes about 1994's X-COM: UFO Defense. We wrap up our discussion of the game, covering save-scumming and difficulty, and talk about some pillars and takeaways. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Just as much as we could fit in Podcast breakdown: 0:39     Segment 1: X-Com finale 41:51   Break 42:24   Segment 2: Pillars and feedback Issues covered: the terror mission that kicked Tim's butt, getting under your skin, "super-gratifying," difficulty curve a bit too steep, quitting the game early, interceptor trouble, plasma clips, the United States pulling out, powered armor, aliens I have seen, experimentation and determining enemy behavior rules, negative connotation of save-scumming, fairness, save-scumming to survive, aggressive play, discovery and save-scumming, setting up the second playthrough, smoke inhalation, planning around the 88% shot, forcing improvisation, figuring out elevations and other rules for line of sight, pacing and rhythm and controls, waiting on research and manufacture, endless learning curve, sending out the rookies to die, how medkits work, motion scanner use, the first two turns, flanking more, chain reactions, multilayered interdependent systems at the tactical level, having to deliver on the tactical combat, alien autopsies, player-driven stories, escalation of the game, invasion story to counter-invasion story, wish fulfillment of being a government bureaucrat, "they said yes to a lot of things," generosity in game design, scaling generosity because it's a sim, why games didn't incorporate time in calculations, Bad Designer No Twinkie, modding in games, unique ability of games to mod, why Vagrant Story is so good, restoring Brett's blog, horror games, Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Alien, Metal Gear, Casablanca, Blade Runner*, Laser Squad, Temple of Elemental Evil**, Troika, Arcanum, Final Fantasy Tactics, Mario + Rabbids, Far Cry 2, Rogue Spear, Rainbox Six, Zelda: Link Between Worlds, Ghostbusters, Rube Goldberg, Republic Commando, V: The Miniseries, Morgan Gray, Super Mario World, Nick Faulhaber, Dungeon Keeper, Ernest Adams, GamaSutra, Joao Vitor Bispo Galvao, Planescape: Torment, OpenXCOM, System Shock 2, Firaxis, Just Cause 2, Skyrim, Thomas the Tank Engine, Patrick Holleman, Losstarot, Kotaku: Splitscreen, Final Fantasy XII, Vagrant Story, Yasumi Matsuno, Dark Souls, Devil May Cry, JQ (yes, that's my real name), Resident Evil, Don Delillo, Zero K, Emily Ruskovich, Idaho, Hideo Kojima, Drop 7, X-COM: Enemy Unknown, Silent Hill 2, Clock Tower, Fatal Frame, Crimson Butterfly, Amnesia, Condemned: Criminal Origins, SOMA, Cthulhu. *Yes, I flubbed the quote, it has been quite some time. **It was 2003 (not 2004) and I was close: it was D&D 3.5. BrettYK: 4 TimYK: 79 Links: OpenXCOM: https://openxcom.org/ Kickstarter for Reverse Design, Volume II: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/144457690/reverse-design-volume-two Next time: Guest? @brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Michael Saba and Ragnar Ulricson revisit Leá Monde on their journey through Vagrant Story, a 2000 Action JRPG by Squaresoft (now Square Enix) conceived and directed by Yasumi Matsuno. Also avalable on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD7w5i1T_NA iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/blast-from-the-past/id1256148184 Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/blast-from-the-past-podcast?refid=stpr This is a complementary podcast to the video essay Forgotten Gems: Vagrant Story on RagnarRox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I96Z1AyGNnE Intro and outro song contain samples of "Turrican (Amiga) Soundtrack" by Chris Hülsbeck

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross chance upon Crimson Shroud. Yasumi Matsuno is responsible for some amazing games, Final Fantasy Tactics chief among them. One of his lesser-known projects is Crimson Shroud, a JRPG released for the 3DS as a part of a collection of smaller games. While it's soaked in Matsuno's style, Crimson Shroud is truly special because it emulates the trappings of tabletop games, right down to simulating dice rolls. But does it stick the landing?

Games? We played some games. We played them THIS WEEK. And we may never recover. In this cathartic episode, we will tell all about Jeremy's potpourri of The Last of Us Remastered, Battleborn's winter update, Atlas Reactor's free-to-play update, and Chrome Death. Dale goes into detail about Yasumi Matsuno's Crimson Shroud, and Legrande plays Xenoblade Chronicles X and Overcooked. Intro: "Chrome Death", Chrome Death by VHS Glitch Outro: "Theme X" - Xenoblade Chronicles X, by Hiroyuki Sawano Check out our Discord community at https://discord.gg/ZTzKH8y

This week, we discuss the early days of our favorite game publisher/developer Square! And Enix. Enjoy!! The History of Square-Enix - Part VII: Game-Making Machine 7 Last time we talked about how Square Co. become an almost exclusive Playstation game publishing company. By 1998 they had a multi-game publishing deal with Sony, and with the success of Final Fantasy VII things were looking up for the now very profitable gaming company. Enix, although keep in mind they were a publishing-only company and made no games in-house, weren’t nearly as successful in the mid-to-late 90’s as Square Co. was. However, games weren’t the only thing Enix was selling. Since 1991, likely due to Enix’s relationship with Akira Toriyama (the artist behind Dragon Quest and Dragon Ball), Enix began publishing a weekly Manga magazine to compete with Shonen Magazine, Shonen Jump, and Shonen Sunday. Enix’s magazine would be called “Monthly Shonen Gangan” (by the way, “shonen” means a type of magazine aimed at young men and boys). It was so successful that they published another fantasy-only magazine in 1993 called “Monthly GFantasy”. Both of these monthly Manga Publications have been selling successfully all the way up to now around Japan. You may recognize some of these names: Fullmetal Alchemist, Soul Eater, Star Ocean and other spin-off manga has been published through these magazines for series later including Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts. In 1991 Enix also and a couple of other gaming companies in Japan helped fund the Digital Entertainment Academy Co., which is a school for game development. Speaking of games… The first game Enix published for the Playstation? “Bust a Groove” from 1998. It was a rhythm game developed by the now-defunct “Metro Graphics”. It was enough of a success a sequel in 2000 (Bust a Groove 2), and a more obscure third game on the PS2 called “Dance Summit 2001”, which even wikipedia didn’t even know existed. Following up the successful “Star Ocean” from 1996, Enix released “Star Ocean: The Second Story”, which was the first in the sci-fi/fantasy series released outside of Japan, and proved to be a pretty successful game with 1.09 Million copies sold worldwide. Although we listed the games on a previous episode, I’ll reiterate once again that Enix did experiment with publishing a couple games on both the N64 and the Sega Saturn, but middling sales from both of those systems is what probably led Enix to publish exclusively on the playstation after 1996. Square Co. during this era was pumping out games like crazy in comparison to Enix. Although it didn’t make the game, Square did publish the famous, and ahead-of-its-time, fighting game called Bushido Blade in 1997, created by “Light Weight” Studios (to be fair, they would also end up making the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon game which is neither famous or any good). Bushido Blade would be considered one of the greatest games of all time by many publications, and sell moderately well for a 1997 title with 388,000 copies sold in Japan. Also in 1997, Square Co. would re-release Final Fantasy IV on the Playstation, release 2 games that I couldn’t find any info on, “Power Stakes” and “Digical League”, and publish the sequel to their first Playstation game, Tobal 2. ...And then they decided to shake up the Final Fantasy series with “Final Fantasy Tactics”. Written and Directed by Yasumi Matsuno (the director who stepped down in the middle of FF12), with gameplay designed by Hiroyuki Ito (we have an episode on him btw), Tactics would be one of the strangest departures from the Final Fantasy series, yet one of the most successful and beloved with over 2.4 million copies worldwide, almost all of which went to snobby hipsters who keep reminding people that FF7 is not the best FF game, but their super-rare-totally-not-Final-Fantasy Final Fantasy is. I kid, I’ve never played it, so I don’t know yet. Square would continue 1997 with another addition to the Saga series with “Saga Frontier”, a moderate critical success that sold just over a million copies. A very critically successful sequel to “Front Mission”, “Front Mission 2” would sell a moderate 500,000 copies and be considered one of the best Playstation games. And you’ll forgive me for rushing through the rest of 1997, where we had an “International Version” of FF7 (whatever that means), a little-known game called “Power Stakes Grade 1”, the disappointingly unsuccessful side-scroller 16 bit-like retro-shooter “Einhander”, the forgetful “Front Mission Alternative”, and “Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon”, which no, we’re not playing. Final Fantasy VII must have lit a fire under Square’s ass or something, because they would make and publish even more games in 1998, many of which are classics. They would start the year mildly, publishing a little game called “Super Live Stadium”, but would make gaming history in February with the release of “Xenogears”. Praised for its complex psychological plot, and interesting use of anime-style artwork, Xenogears was actually one of the early pitches for the plot for Final Fantasy VII and eventually became it’s own game. It sold over 1 million copies and fans have begged for a sequel ever since. Not to be missed, “Bushido Blade 2” would follow, along with a Playstation port of FF5 in Japan, the unknown-to-wikipedia games “Hai-Shin 2” and “Power Stakes 2”. Now here comes another mega-game… ...Based on the popular horror book (gotta be one of the first games based on a popular modern book, right?), the survival-horror RPG game “Parasite Eve” would make quite the splash as a serious and cinematic game, praised for its storytelling, and selling almost 2 Million copies to date. Not all things can be hits though, the critically-panned Sokaigi would follow, as well as some other not-too-noteworthy games like FF7’s Windows port, Brave Fencer Musashi (forgotten, but it sold ok), “Another Mind”, which is supposed to be really bizzarre game with still photos of actors and shit in a horror game…., yeah…., “Ehrgeize”, the apparently mediocre fighting game which is most notable for its inclusion of FF7 characters, “Chocobo Dungeon 2”, and “iS - Internal Section” which is a “tube shooter” game, like space invaders. With the classics released in 1997 and 1998, Enix was doing pretty wall, but Square Co. was creating a fucking lagacy. And that legacy would only become more solidified in February 1999 with Final Fantasy VIII.   THE REMIX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoPLHBhCRqQ

Let's talk about Yasumi Matsuno's wonderful strategy RPG...and possibly a lot about the use and abuse of history!

Final Fantasy XII began development in the year 2000, after Final Fantasy Xi’s announcement, and would become the game with the longest development time in history when it was finally released in 2006. The development was a tumultuous one as well as an expensive one, costing 35 Million USD to create, an estimated 12 million more than FF10.   The game was to be co-directed with Hiroyuki Ito (of FF6 and FF9 fame) and a man named Yasumi Matsuno, who had previously helmed and penned the very popular game Vagrant Story as well as Final Fantasy Tactics. It was Matsuno who had come up with the story of FF12, and Ito, along with battle designer Hiroshi Tomomatsu, was well underway with the creation of his new FF battle system called the “Active Dimension system”, drawing inspiration from the plays in American football.   It was to be a truly glorious combination of Square’s creative teams.   And Square-Enix spared no expense. The art team was shipped off to Turkey to draw up design ideas for the game, and much of the early development of FF12 was based upon custom-creating the tools used to make the game, drawing upon the same game engine as FF11 to create a type of MMO experience in a single player game.   A couple things about the early iterations of Final Fantasy 12: There was a planned 2-player mode. There were plans to allow for recruitments of non-player characters to join in mob hunts. There was a job system. Basch was initially meant to be the main character of the story.   But, as I said before, FF12’s development was a troubled one.   Halfway through production, Hironobu Sakaguchi, series creator, quit Square-Enix altogether, taking a huge chunk of the Final Fantasy XII development team with him to his new company, Mistwalker. Devastated by this blow to the project, co-director Yasumi Matsuno refused to come to work for a month after the split.   Rumors are that Matsuno was extremely temperamental after that. And in 2005 Matsuno stepped down from his position, claiming illness as the cause. He has since stated that though he had in-fact been sick, he felt he had disappointed the staff, shareholders, and fans who were looking forward to the game. Matsuno would later follow Sakaguchi to Mistwalker to work on the game Terra Battle.   Series veteran Nobuo Uematsu would also bow out of this Final Fantasy, leaving Square in 2004, Uematsu’s only tracks appearing on FF12 would be Final Fantasy’s main theme and the ending song, fitting called “Kiss me Goodbye”.   Hitoshi Sakimoto was the primary replacement for Uematsu, with a handful of tracks created by Square-Enix composers, Hayato Matsuo and Masaharu Iwata.   To finish up the game, Matsuno was hurriedly replaced by Hiroshi Minagawa to salvage the game. Later, that same person would be one of the staff members sent to save another troubled FF game, FF14.   Within this environment of ever-changing staff members, there were some ever-changing aspects of the game tacked on: The planned 2-player mode and NPC recruitment were dropped from FF12 due to hardware limitations, and the fact that trying to implement those systems would cause too many delays. The Job system was dropped as Square-Enix decided that such a complex system would “confuse the players” as well as make the game’s development even longer. This would later be put back in, in a way, with the release of a game called “Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System” in 2007. And lastly, Basch was deemed as too old and too tough of a character for the target demographic of the game, and in order to make up for this, the characters Vaan and Penelo were created. Vaan starting out as a tough guy and ending up an outgoing, spunky kid.   In 2005 a playable demo of FF12 was released with the game Dragon Quest 8, and in March of 2006 the full game followed in Japan. In october of 2006, North America received the game, and in February of 2007 it was released in Europe and Australia.   Despite all the setbacks, FF12 was a large commercial success, selling over 5 million copies and becoming the 4th biggest Ps2 game of 2006. It was also a mega-hit critically, winning multiple game of the year awards, and recieving top scores by many critics.   Yet, a few years later and FF12 is nearly forgotten. Often seen as a low-point in the series, many fans of the Final Fantasy series see 12 as a disappointment. In one of the reviews for the game, Gamespot criticized it for having the weakest soundtrack in the series, and many a youtube reviewer have expressed disinterest in the weak characters of Vaan and Penelo, saying that they had nothing to contribute to the story. Series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi said he couldn’t play more than the first 20 minutes, and executive producer Akitoshi Kawazu stated that although he was happy with the perfect famitsu score of 40/40 for the game, he felt that it was far from perfect, and that the storyline did not meet expectations.   The legacy of FF12 is a conflicting one indeed…   Remixes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pCzY801ZHE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHSpGvd-Jy8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsrgyCn8adU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWAJZ7rU2PY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv73PYw71rk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX-wPtcq700

Live from San Antonio, VGH is at the first ever PAX South expo! We're joined by some special guests to talk about the games we played, the costumes we saw, and, of course, Yasumi Matsuno. Episode Timeline 0:00 - Intro1:05 - PAX South!60:08 - Outro  

Yasumi Matsuno’s work includes a title from the late PS1 era that defies easy explanation. Attempting to describe it anyway may require a flow chart...

It’s Yasumi Matsuno’s vast Ogre world, but the game format for this bunch is rather different than March of the Black Queen. Just because things...

By request of Jeff Tibayan, we follow up on last week's Yasumi Matsuno episode with an in-depth look at the lore and evolution of Matsuno's largest single body of work (plus some other games) to date: The Ivalice series.

By request of supporter Hugh Franck, we delve into the complex (and often very earth-tone) world of Yasumi Matsuno, from the early Quest era all the way through the recent Unsung Story Kickstarter. 

An early Yasumi Matsuno title on the SNES remains a complex and rewarding experience, while its direct sequel provides one of the few opportunities we...

This week our lovely hosts talk about what is and isn't censorship, try to think of ways to make the Wii U sell better, what Nintendo could possibly do on smartphones if they chose to and a whole lot of gushing about Broken Age, Yasumi Matsuno games and the possibility of a new Dragon Quest localization.

It’s our first week in the IGN office! This show sounds a bit wonkier than usual, tech-wise, because we’re using the IGN podcast setup -- in fact, it has more chairs, so we had 1UP features duder Bob Mackey sit in too. At some point, we will have things fixed. Until then, oh well! That doesn’t stop us from talking about Jeremy’s promotion to 1UP Editor-in-Chief and his overall goal for the site, the Supreme Court decision, the truth behind Bungie Aerospace, Call of Duty XP and Respawn Entertainment’s site launch, and even some news about Tactics Ogre’s Yasumi Matsuno and Ubisoft’s I Am Alive! We also talk a bit about Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, the Uncharted 3 multiplayer beta, and Deus Ex Human Revolution. Have a great July 4 weekend, and do the homework that Jeremy assigns!

It’s our first week in the IGN office! This show sounds a bit wonkier than usual, tech-wise, because we’re using the IGN podcast setup -- in fact, it has more chairs, so we had 1UP features duder Bob Mackey sit in too. At some point, we will have things fixed. Until then, oh well! That doesn’t stop us from talking about Jeremy’s promotion to 1UP Editor-in-Chief and his overall goal for the site, the Supreme Court decision, the truth behind Bungie Aerospace, Call of Duty XP and Respawn Entertainment’s site launch, and even some news about Tactics Ogre’s Yasumi Matsuno and Ubisoft’s I Am Alive! We also talk a bit about Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, the Uncharted 3 multiplayer beta, and Deus Ex Human Revolution. Have a great July 4 weekend, and do the homework that Jeremy assigns!

Frankly, it's too damn hot in Tokyo to spend much energy writing up a fancy description of our latest episode, so let's just cut the crap, OK? We talk about Operation Rainfall's attempt to bring Wii JRPGs to the West, Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D save file-gate, Journey (the game and the band), Wii U, famed game director Yasumi Matsuno moving to developer Level-5, yadda yadda yadda. Get it? Got it? Good.

Frankly, it's too damn hot in Tokyo to spend much energy writing up a fancy description of our latest episode, so let's just cut the crap, OK? We talk about Operation Rainfall's attempt to bring Wii JRPGs to the West, Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D save file-gate, Journey (the game and the band), Wii U, famed game director Yasumi Matsuno moving to developer Level-5, yadda yadda yadda. Get it? Got it? Good.

Frankly, it's too damn hot in Tokyo to spend much energy writing up a fancy description of our latest episode, so let's just cut the crap, OK? We talk about Operation Rainfall's attempt to bring Wii JRPGs to the West, Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D save file-gate, Journey (the game and the band), Wii U, famed game director Yasumi Matsuno moving to developer Level-5, yadda yadda yadda. Get it? Got it? Good.