《最终幻想12：黄道时代》让开发团队回忆起了PS2原作的制作过程

原作者：Jeremy Parish 译者：Willow Wu

《最终幻想》系列每当有新游戏发布之后，伴随而来的是一场不可避免的激烈辩论。从玩家哭诉《最终幻想7》的“背叛”行为：原定在任天堂N64发售最后却转到了PlayStation平台，到《最终幻想15》十年曲折发展屡屡让玩家失望，对于Square Enix这个规模最大的游戏系列来说，出品新游戏从来就不是容易的事。

《最终幻想12：黄道时代》于今年7月11日发行，它是2006年在PlayStation上发行的《最终幻想12》的高清重置版，《最终幻想12：黄道时代》可能是整个系列中发布过程最为曲折的一个。这部迟到了好几年的游戏还摒弃了很多本系列自有的传统元素，塑造了一种全新的玩法风格。《最终幻想12》一发售就引发了狂热玩家的追捧，但同时也招致了部分系列忠实玩家的的憎恶，双方似乎是吵得不可开交。

更糟糕的是，它一波三折的制作过程、一拖再拖的发行日期也影响了后续的《最终幻想》游戏。由于《最终幻想12》的进度跟原计划相比实在是落后太多了，都拖到了PS2准备退出历史舞台的阶段了，致使《最终幻想13》创作团队不得不放弃在PS2平台发售游戏的计划，把目光瞄准新一代的高清硬件设备。这个打乱系列后续计划的问题直到最近才有好转的迹象。

本不该是这样的，《最终幻想12》本来应该是一张安全牌，能让玩家满足的一个游戏。和受欢迎的《最终幻想9》一样，《最终幻想12》和制作想法就是在系列传统元素上下功夫，轻轻松松大卖。游戏的创作团队包括松野泰己，他是《最终幻想战略版》的剧本作者，同时也是总监，还有伊藤裕之，《最终幻想》系列的主要系统设定几乎都是由他负责的。实时战斗系统（游戏邦注：即ATB, Active-Time Battle system）和自由职业系统（flexible Job class system）这两大游戏机制就是他的杰作。

《最终幻想12》本可以把前作设定中的最受欢迎、最好用西方奇幻元素结合在一起，比如：王国和王权、骑士和飞船、海盗和无政府主义领导者。然而北濑佳范的团队在科幻题材上进行了更深入的研究，他们制作出了《最终幻想10》和《最终幻想13》，再之后，这个任务就由田中弘道接手，发行了系列首款MMO游戏《最终幻想11》。有些玩家对新游戏中新设定、新题材感到越来越失望，认为《最终幻想》丢失了原有的风格，现在松野泰己和伊藤裕之的名字出现在制作人员名单中大概就是对他们的最好安慰吧。

当然，他们俩不会单枪匹马地做游戏。和他们一起制作《最终幻想12》的大师级人物还有画师吉田明彦、作曲家崎元仁、设计师皆川裕史——自从松野泰己在Quest制作了开创性的战术RPG游戏《皇家骑士团》和《皇家骑士团：命运之轮》之后，这些人可以说是成为了松野泰己的固定团队。他们一起跳槽到Square，在1998年又作为一个团队制作了《最终幻想战略版》和画面极其精良的动作RPG游戏《放浪冒险谭》。关于《最终幻想战略版》，伊藤裕之功不可没：他完善了《最终幻想3》和《最终幻想5》游戏角色职业系统，继而应用到这个游戏中。

不管是《最终幻想》这个系列资产，还是Square整个公司，都迟迟无法确定《最终幻想12》的发行日期。2001年，公司宣布了他们宏伟的计划：首部（游戏邦注：事实证明也是最后一部）由Square Pictures发行的完整CG版权电影《最终幻想：灵魂深处》。这部电影在票房方面表现十分惨烈，这在一定程度上也导致了《最终幻想》系列主设计师、制作人、“系列之父”坂口博信离开Square，他之后建立了自己的游戏工作室Mistwalker。粉丝们经历了这次失败事件，还有《最终幻想11》（只有网游版）的各种不确定因素，他们认为至少不用担心下一代《最终幻想》的游戏质量，公司肯定会吸取教训做出一个成熟、稳定的作品，开发团队也应该是Square中最优秀的人才。确实是这样——但是成品可能并不是老粉丝们所期盼的那样。

现在，已经过了十多年了，《最终幻想12》的两位主创人员希望粉丝们能给这个颇具争议的游戏第二次机会。

来见见新老板

片野尚志和加藤弘彰看起来是风格迥然不同的两个人，现在他们成为了工作搭档。片野尚志就是那种长得非常典型的游戏程序员：圆脸，温声细语，留着中规中矩的发型，穿衣风格就是普通的纽扣衬衫。而加藤弘彰留着蓬松的发型，戴着时尚的粗框眼镜，嘴角时不时会抿出一个微笑。事实上这两个人一直在协力开发《最终幻想12》，前前后后加起来大概有十年了。虽然我们在PS2版本的“功臣”名单上并没有看见他们的名字，但是他们两个对于初版《最终幻想12》的贡献也是不可或缺的。由于初版团队成员有部分已经离开了公司，新项目的很多事项都难以开展，片野尚志和加藤弘彰就接手了重置版的任务，也就是《最终幻想12：黄道时代》。

差不多是从《最终幻想12》项目开启的第一天开始，片野尚志就加入了，他说尽管还有些问题困扰着团队，但是最终成品跟团队预期的设计还是比较接近的。事实证明，尽管很多玩家想当然，但是《最终幻想12》颠覆系列以往的传统设计一直是开发者们计划内的事情。

“从我的角度看，《最终幻想12》的成品效果确实是符合计划的。”他说，“看到《最终幻想12》开发文件的时候，我才刚刚完成《最终幻想10》的主程序员工作。它包含了Gambit战斗系统，还有无缝式的开放世界。”

跟《最终幻想10》相比，《最终幻想12》在设计方面有着根本性的改变。这游戏彻底颠覆了人们对于《最终幻想》系列的原有印象。虽然《最终幻想10》在技术方面有很大提升，故事场景全都有配音了，淘汰了了PS1时代《最终幻想》系列的预渲染静态背景，但是它限制了玩家探索世界的自由。更让人震惊的是它抛弃了伊藤裕之标志性的ATB系统（它混合了实时战斗系统和回合制系统，玩家可以通过游戏菜单发出指令），目的是为了塑造更加严谨的回合制战斗模式。它也让人想起了Square Enix其他策略RPG游戏中的回合顺序管理问题。或许这是意料之中的，毕竟游戏系统设计师土田俊郎是刚刚加入到在这个项目中的，他之前制作的策略RPG游戏有《妖精战士》、 还有Square旗下的《前线任务》三部曲。

伊藤希望能够借助片野的帮助把《最终幻想12》转回另一个方向。他们给新的战斗系统起了个的名字：实时多维战斗(Active Dimension Battle)，从名字就可以知道这是原实时战斗系统的进化成品。从各个角度上看，ADB系统感觉像是从《放浪冒险谭》（松野早些年的作品之一）的3D战斗系统中汲取了灵感。《放浪冒险谭》中大多都是一对一的战斗，但是《最终幻想12》的战斗模式是三四人的团队一次要对抗6个或者是更多敌人。还不止于此，《最终幻想12》的战斗系统还能让玩家边探索边战斗，就跟典型的地下城探索（dungeon-crawling）一样，能在同一个虚拟空间内展开多次战斗。

“那时候我其实挺担心PlayStation平台能不能实现这个效果，”片野说。“跟《最终幻想10》相比，这部游戏需要考虑的事情更多了，需要做的事情自然也更多，《最终幻想12》是个非常复杂的游戏。所以当我们打算下功夫做某件事之前通常都需要很大的决心，反复思量，然后才定下来‘我们要做这件事。’”

“它真的要比《最终幻想10》要复杂很多，毕竟《最终幻想10》的支线任务比较少，基本上都集中在主线剧情上，”加藤是这么说的，他是《最终幻想12》PS2初始版本的项目管理员——“你懂的，就是监督整个游戏的开发进度，处理整个开发过程中的大事小事。我并不是一开始就在这个项目中的，是到这个游戏真正开始制作的的时候我才加入进来。”

在这个项目中，加藤通过宏观角度感受到的不仅仅是游戏的规模之大，还有增加玩家游戏体验的自由度所带来的复杂问题，这是他之前没有预料到的。举个例子，在游戏中玩家可以在任何时候调遣后备成员，撤换他们的三人团队，这是个让加藤非常头痛的问题。“要实现这个功能就意味着在开始播放过场动画时，你还要考虑到好几种情况，”他说。“有这么多种不同的变化、组合方式，我们一直在讨论这个问题，尽量把每种结果都做出来。”我们着手解决这个问题，然后又遇到问题：‘噢，我们忘了算这个。’找到问题，然后解决它，如此一直重复，还要考虑到所有的可能性。”

相比ADB系统，Gambits系统在对抗敌人、无缝式战斗方面是更加精确、有效的，可以说它就是《最终幻想12》的战斗精髓。但这也是游戏目前最受争议的部分。有些玩家觉得Gambit系统直接替代了玩家的行动，或者是弱化了战术策略的作用。热门的网络漫画Penny Arcade画了一个故事：一个自动版本的超级玛丽，玛丽可以自己跳或者是踩板栗仔，都不需要玩家控制，以此来讽刺《最终幻想12》的Gambit系统。

实际上，Gambit系统的本质就是通过操控简单的编程语言，让玩家设定团队成员的行动。玩家学会了Gambit规则之后，他们就可以通过设定条件引导团队成员的行动，这样一来战斗在很大程度上就变成自动的了。在最初级的阶段，你可以设定游戏角色自动使用火属性咒语来对抗怕火的敌人。但是你也可以使用更加复杂的指令：比如，用油让敌人变得怕火，之后玩家就可以对目标使用火属性咒语。Gambits系统能让玩家的团队非常精准地执行指令，玩家不必盯着角色的每一个行动——但是你还是可以随时打开指令菜单，暂停一下，调整战术。

自然的，给了玩家这么多自由，让他们掌控游戏AI的行动，这样会给开发团队带来不同寻常的挑战。“比如说你的游戏角色在这里，”片野用左手敲着桌子，“这个角色已经开启了Gambit。所以他们是有可能会晃到那边去，”他点头，指了指靠近右手边的位置，“然后就会触发过场动画。为了防止这类的事情的发生，我们需要搜寻不同的编程方案，找到有效的办法。这花了我们两个月的时间。我们必须得保证游戏角色不会跑到那边去，才能防止意外情况发生。”

片野说尽管应用Gambit系统会产生很多复杂问题，但是它似乎就是提升ADB系统的真实度最适合的方法。“我们以前没怎么想过要让玩家发出单人控制指令，”他说。“从来都没有这个意思。”

“在团队控制方面，我们确实研究了很多变换方式，伊藤裕之起到了非常关键的作用。《最终幻想4》中他制作的怪物AI系统跟现在的Gambit系统有些相似。虽说Gambit系统比较复杂一些，但是可以说有了之前的怪物AI系统可以借鉴，我们就没有必要对游戏角色实行微管理手段，可以直接操控整个团队。游戏中的三人团队，有时候也会有剧情人物加入，成为四人团队，如果要为每个游戏角色逐一挑选指令可能就会让玩家感到乏味，我们不想这样，所以就搭配了Gambit系统。我们之前没有研究过用游戏菜单发送指令。”

现在是有了，但是Gambit系统和ADB系统并没有脱离《最终幻想》的系列本质。《最终幻想12》的战斗方式就像是模仿大型多人游戏的战斗方式，然后把它改成单人版的，就如田中弘道的团队为《最终幻想11》设计的那样，把探索和战斗结合在一起。或许这是个巧合，因为Square Enix内部的每个团队差不多都是独立工作的，但加藤承认说这并不是完全的巧合。

“公司并没有将《最终幻想11》的制作理念刻意分享给所有人。” 他说，“但是，在那个时期，很多工作人员都在玩《最终幻想11》。作为同一个公司的作品，我觉得它能给我们一些启发，也会在一定程度上影响我们的决策。就比如在《最终幻想12》中有些独有的元素，我们需要它们在单人模式下运作，这时候我们就会想到《最终幻想11》。但是我们并不是提前计划好了要参考这部前作。

“最终，我们设定《最终幻想12》的目标就是让玩家按照自己的意愿展开冒险。这就跟《最终幻想10》不一样，游戏创作者只会给玩家提供建议，而不是告诉你一定要这样做。松野团队的目标很简单：帮助玩家做出选择，同时尽力避免有些玩家的恶作剧行为对游戏产生不好的影响。

“公司内部对于开放世界的设计没有任何反对意见，这是项目的基本构架理念，”他说。“大家都熟悉这个计划，愿意参与进来。然而更重要的问题是，我们要怎么做。所有人都接受了这个设定，我们的问题只剩下项目本身的制作难度。所以，最终大家都把注意力集中在怎么完成这个项目上。

“我们不想以任何方式限制玩家，即使是他们发现bug了，还加以利用。我们想要玩家去发现游戏中的小细节，享受乐趣。这也算是游戏探索之旅的一部分：发现捷径，去利用它们。这种感觉非常好，我们希望玩家有这种感觉。

剧变

很遗憾，这些绝妙的想法在实现的过程中还是遇上了些棘手的问题。过了原定的发售日期，之后又耗了两年，《最终幻想12》已经没有任何可能按照原来的构想完成了。开发团队想让这部游戏成为《最终幻想》系列史诗级的迭代产品。梦想很丰满，但是现实很骨感，这项工程的复杂程度远远超出了他们的预期想象。然而更棘手的问题出现在2004年的E3游戏展上，这是《最终幻想12》首次在大型试玩展会上出现。游戏的主设计师松野泰己选择离开Square Enix。

大家纷纷猜测他辞职的具体原因是什么，还没做完的游戏要怎么办。也许正如一些人所说的那样，他做这个大项目承受了很大的压力，也给他的健康造成了伤害，患上肩疾。又或者是如另一些谣言所说的，他离开是因为公司管理层干涉游戏的开发过程，意见不合。松野原定的《最终幻想12》剧情是围绕着巴修·冯·罗森伯格这位被误判了弑君之罪骑士展开。巴修试图洗刷他的罪名，恢复他的名声，这条关键的剧情线也延续到了最终版本的《最终幻想12》。据说公司的高层人物坚持把少年角色梵和潘妮罗作为POV角色，因为《最终幻想》需要吸引年轻玩家的目光，而巴修，一个28岁的角色肯定是没办法的。

松野辞职的原因可能是两种情况都有吧。他之前的游戏都没有《最终幻想12》这么庞大，而且更注重缝隙市场：比如节奏紧凑的地下城探索游戏，还有类似于棋牌的策略游戏。就其本身而言，《最终幻想12》作为系列正传续作，它的吸引力不应该只局限于系列粉丝，还需要吸引普通玩家。《最终幻想12》团队所追求的的这种可扩展的开放世界也正是当下大型PC RPG游戏（例如《上古卷轴》）所需求的。松野对游戏的鉴赏力以及他不轻易妥协的个性让《最终幻想12》在同期作品中脱颖而出。但是像Square Enix这种规模的公司要发行这样一个重磅作品，双方还是需要一定的互相妥协。

松野离开之后，资深RPG设游戏计师河津秋敏接手了这个项目。河津所拥有的非传统角色扮演游戏开发经历（《最终幻想2》、《沙迦》、《圣剑传说：玛娜传奇》）让他成为了业内有名的精于制作高难度游戏、对玩家一点都不体贴的开发者——但是他本人对这个评价感到十分高兴。结果就是很多系列粉丝把《最终幻想12》最后一关的质量问题的归咎于河津。

但是片野说实际情况并不是这样的：“松野先生离开之后，游戏基本上还是按照他的原有设定进行下去的。并没有什么地方有过彻底更改之类的。我们在E3展会上展示了试玩版本的《最终幻想12》，那时候已经进入了最后的调整阶段。松野离开之后，这个项目的情况就是‘接下来就交给我们吧，’只要跟着原有的设定走就好了。”

游戏中有一些比较受争议的部分，片野强调说其实它们在松野离职之前就设计好了，已经很久了，并不是后来才插入的。“关于主角部分的更改，实际上在开发的早期阶段就定下来了。这是真的，为了将游戏剧情和开发工作配合好，有时候我们会微调剧情顺序，哪个人物应该出现在哪个阶段。就这二者而言，我们一直是把开发工作放在首位的，必要的时候我们会更改剧情。

“但这不是说我们会把原来的东西都改得面目全非。只是为了让玩家在玩游戏的时候游戏节奏和剧情能够对的上。像是位置、战斗，还要保证它们无缝衔接。这就是我们更改剧情最重要的原因，保证它不会跟游戏玩法产生冲突。”

不是所有的员工变动事件都会变成双方撕逼大战，松野在几年后又回到了Square Enix，为PSP平台重制了初代《皇家骑士团》，新版的游戏将会带来很多焕然一新的内容。他和《最终幻想12》的余留团队成员也保持着友好的关系。“我们跟松野先生依然保持着联系，”片野说，“实际上，他对《黄道时代》还是感到挺兴奋的。他就像个玩家一样充满期待。我们迫不及待地想知道他会如何评价我们的工作成果。他甚至还发了好几次推特说这件事！”

《最终幻想12》的后续影响

《最终幻想12》在发行之时收到了各种不同的反馈。专业评论员们几乎都对它赞不绝口，但是玩家们却争议不断。有些玩家喜欢这种“解放双手”式的战斗玩法，或者喜欢游戏中设定的地平线视角，另外一群人就觉得这些东西跟《最终幻想》系列的传统理念背道而驰。

在片野看来，如果一个团队受制于游戏的头衔而不敢对它叠加新设计或者是进行改造，那这个游戏最终还是卖不好的。“这完全是我个人的看法，”他说，“但是‘这就是我们做的《最终幻想》吗？’这种问题我从来都没想过，因为《最终幻想》是从你手中做出来的，并不是原来就存在的，它并没有预定的标准或者是框架。

“这大概就是它的要领吧：制作‘最终幻想’就是一个呕心沥血的过程，我们脑中所想的就是竭尽全力把一个优秀的游戏呈献给玩家。如果我要关注一件事，那就是保证玩家在游戏中能够感受到乐趣，理解我们所设计的玩法风格。

加藤也认同。“只要记住：这是个挑战，因为它是‘最终幻想’，而你无能为力。这挺有意思的，到最后你就会圆满地完成任务。当然，你会得到陆行鸟和圣灵药，还有那些你该得的点数。只要你都拿到了，你差不多就是想怎么玩就怎么玩了。”

“《最终幻想》的每一部正传都不会受限于前作，而是会打造成一部完全不同的作品，”片野说。“这就是一个新的故事,它还有Gambit系统以及无缝式的战斗,这就是我们关注的事。就和其他从零开始的游戏一样，无论是团队还是公司，该怎么做就怎么做，不要因为前作的名气而畏首畏尾。”

尽管《最终幻想12》是玩家之间争吵得最激烈的系列作品之一，再加上《最终幻想》系列本身就是评论两极分化的，但看起来片野和加藤并没有后悔加入到这个项目中来，带领团队撑过这一段艰辛而又漫长的制作过程。这是个颇具挑战性的项目，但是他们能从中收获满足。“‘满足感’和‘挑战性’，这是两个挺难的词，”片野若有所思地说，“我觉得结果可能是无法令人满意的，没错，但是我觉得能完成这样一个高难度任务，能给玩家带来乐趣，就有一种充实感。我们接手这个任务，最后的成果就是呈现出这样一个游戏。”

“在那时候，你知道的，Gambit系统、无缝衔接的游戏世界、还有所有的支线任务……把这些东西都刻进一张光盘里，这是一件让人很有成就感的事情，”加藤补充道，“所有的这些，在我看来是一项非常了不起的工程，特别是在那个时代的硬件条件下。”

“至于挑战……制作《最终幻想12：黄道时代》的时候，我们又研究起了游戏系统。提升游戏的趣味性，制造新的游戏体验，这都是我们经常面临的挑战，过程还是挺有趣的。”

十多年过去了，《最终幻想12》的创作团队很想知道玩家对这款高清重制版的游戏会有怎么样的反应。从各种意义上来讲，2006年PS2版本的《最终幻想12》算是一部争议不小的作品，感觉就像是是一个超时代的作品。然而今天，无缝式的开放世界已经成了RPG主机游戏的标配，甚至连非奇幻题材的游戏也在借鉴《最终幻想12》的设计元素，而这些被相继模仿的设计在以前那个时代看来是相当猎奇的。

以此类推，应用高度自动化、由AI主导的RPG战斗，也不算是违背了RPG游戏本该有的战斗模式。《最终幻想12》之后，Square Enix继续开发它的系列正传续集，两部单人游戏都包含了类似于ADB系统的战斗机制，但是没有Gambit系统。然而现在有很多热门游戏系列都像《最终幻想12》那样引入AI，并且大范围地使用，把这类AI系统标准化。从射击游戏到潜行类游戏再到西方RPG游戏都有，比如从《巫师3》和《合金装备5》中你就可以看出《最终幻想12》的影子。如果硬要挑什么的话，那就是《最终幻想12：黄道时代》在2017年看来，可能是有点过于平庸了。10年前人们觉得《最终幻想12》太前卫了，而现在它却成为了“平庸之作”，可见它的影响力有多大，它是一部能够引领潮流的游戏。

然而，如果要说《最终幻想12》是为了在RPG游戏领域掀起一场革命，那片野不同意这个说法。“我们做这个游戏的目的并不是为了改变世界或者是改变整个游戏行业，”他说，“我们只是在探索我们觉得有意思的东西。所以从这个角度来说，这是个成功的作品。成功之处就在于能让人们享受这个游戏过程。

“如果游戏业内人士觉得这游戏是个了不起的成就，或者能给他们一些启发，那我们就很高兴了。”

“我的想法也差不多，”加藤说。“重点不在于改变世界或者是改变游戏行业。而是在于你能不能做出让玩家享受的游戏。你看看以前那个时候，日式RPG游戏基本上都是靠指令控制游戏角色，在那个时代也是非常新奇的设计，所以，我们那时候应用无缝式开放世界……嗯……现在回忆起来，确实是一个风险挺大的挑战。这可能也是来源于《最终幻想12》影响力：勇于大胆尝试的精神。

“而且我们永远都不知道接下去会发生什么。在那个时候，Gambit系统是个很新鲜的东西，也很有意思。我们一直都在寻找能给玩家带来乐趣的新东西，以后也依然如此。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

The project leads on Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age look back at their roles in the creation of the PlayStation 2 original.

Controversy trails behind the Final Fantasy series with each new release. From cries of betrayal when Final Fantasy 7 jumped ship to PlayStation to frustration over the story changes Final Fantasy 15 underwent during its tortuous 10-year development process, there’s simply no such thing as an easy birth when it comes to Square Enix’s biggest franchise.

Final Fantasy 12, the 2006 PlayStation release whose overhauled high-definition remake The Zodiac Age launches July 11, may well have been the most tortuous release of all. Arriving years late and abandoning numerous established series traditions in favor of a radically overhauled play style, FF12 immediately inspired ardent enthusiasm and passionate hatred among the series’ faithful, with seemingly little room in between.

Worse, its troubled history and belated arrival led to a cascade effect throughout subsequent Final Fantasy titles. Because it shipped so far behind schedule and appeared at the tail end of PS2′s life, Final Fantasy 13′s creators had to abandon plans to bring that game to PS2 and instead target next-generation HD hardware — a disruption with an impact on the franchise the company is only now beginning to get under control.

It wasn’t supposed to be like that. FF12 was meant to be the safe game, the comfortable fan-fodder. Like with the charming Final Fantasy 9, the idea behind FF12 was to double down on series traditions and easy wins. Its creative team brought together Yasumi Matsuno, the visionary writer and director responsible for Final Fantasy Tactics, and Hiroyuki Ito, the systems designer who created the series’ two defining play mechanics: The Active-Time Battle system and the flexible Job class system.

FF12 would combine the best and most beloved elements of the franchise in a setting steeped in Final Fantasy’s established rendition of Western high fantasy: Kingdoms and royalty, knights and airships, pirates and nihilistic gods. While Yoshinori Kitase’s team explored sci-fi futurescapes with Final Fantasy 10 and 13 and Hiromichi Tanaka led the charge into massively multiplayer online collaboration with Final Fantasy 11, Matsuno and Ito’s names hinted at a game that would embrace fans who felt increasingly disenfranchised by the series’ movement into new settings and genres.

Of course, Matsuno and Ito didn’t create the game single-handedly. Their collaborators on Final Fantasy 12 included such luminaries as illustrator Akihiko Yoshida, composer Hitoshi Sakimoto and designer Hiroshi Minagawa — all of whom had been largely inseparable from Matsuno since working together at Quest on groundbreaking tactical RPGs Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre. They’d all moved over to Square together to team up again on 1998′s Final Fantasy Tactics and the stunning cinematic action RPG Vagrant Story, and Ito had contributed heavily to Tactics, refining the character class Job system he had designed for Final Fantasy 3 and 5 to its next evolution.

Square as a company, and Final Fantasy as a property, were collectively in a state of flux around the time FF12 was announced. In 2001, the company released the ambitious first (and, it would turn out, final) full-length motion picture of its Square Pictures movie imprint in the form of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. That film’s crushing failure at the box office in part led the “father of Final Fantasy,” series lead designer and producer Hironobu Sakaguchi, to depart from the company and establish his own studio, Mistwalker. Amidst this turmoil and the uncertainty surrounding the online-only Final Fantasy 11, fans could at least rest assured that the next numbered Final Fantasy would be a mature, grounded work created by some of the most talented people at Square. And so it would be — but the end result wasn’t necessarily what series fans had been dreaming of.

Now, more than a decade later, two key personnel on FF12 hope series fans will give this polarizing entry a second chance.

Takashi Katano and Hiroaki Kato make for something of an unlikely pair. Katano is every inch the classic vision of a game programmer: Round-faced, soft-spoken, with his fashion choices tending toward buttoned-up shirts a conservative hairstyle. Meanwhile, Kato sets off his lean features with an unruly mop of hair and trendy, thick-framed glasses, while a hint of wry amusement frequently tugs at his lips. Yet the two have worked together on Final Fantasy 12 for almost a decade, all added up. While neither saw their names bandied about as marquee talent on the PS2 release, they both played critical roles in the original project. And with most of 12′s project leads long since having departed from the company, Kato and Katano have taken charge of the game’s upcoming remake, The Zodiac Age.

Having been entrenched in the FF12 project more or less from day one, Katano confirms that despite struggles that beset the team, the final product closely resembled the team’s original creative vision. It turns out that, despite assumptions by many players, the radical upheavals FF12 brought to the franchise formula were always a part of the plan.
Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age Square Enix
“Final Fantasy 12 did actually turn out planned, from what I saw,” he says. “I had just finished up as the main programmer on Final Fantasy 10 when I was shown the dev docs for Final Fantasy 12. It had the Gambit battles and the seamless open world.”

FF12 represented a fundamental shift in design from FF10. That game had largely pared down the concept of what a Final Fantasy game could be. While it brought considerable technical advances to the series, including fully voiced story sequences and an end to the pre-rendered static backgrounds of the PlayStation One Final Fantasies, it stripped away any pretense of freedom to explore. Even more shockingly, FF10 abandoned Ito’s trademark Active-Time Battle system — a hybrid of real-time and turn-based menu-driven command — in favor of a strictly turn-based format. Battle in FF10 called to mind the turn-order management of the company’s tactical RPGs. Perhaps not surprisingly, the system’s designer Toshiro Tsuchida had come to the project fresh from working on tactical RPGs like Arc the Lad and Square’s own Front Mission trilogy.

Ito, with Katano’s help, hoped to push FF12 back in the other direction. Even the name the team came up with for its new battle system, Active Dimension Battle, suggested an evolution of the old Active-Time Battle. In many respects, ADB combat felt inspired by the inventive 3D combat system that had appeared in Vagrant Story, Matsuno’s previous project. Where Vagrant Story focused largely on one-on-one combat, however, FF12 needed to work for a party of three or four characters against half a dozen or more enemies at once. Even more ambitiously, FF12′s battle system would break down the barriers between exploration and combat, allowing fights to unfold in the same virtual space as standard dungeon-crawling.

“At the time, I was pretty concerned about whether the PlayStation could really pull that off,” Katano admits. “Compared to FF10, there was a lot more to do and a lot more to consider, because it was a very complicated title. So it really took some resolve to kind of dig down and say, ‘We’re going to do this.’”

“It was just so much more complicated than, say, FF10, which was more of a linear path,” says Kato, whose role on the PS2 version of FF12 was that of “a project manager — you know, monitoring development progress and taking care of all the ins and outs and everything that came up during development. While I wasn’t on from the very beginning, I was in just about when things really got moving in terms of building the game.”

Working with a high-level view of the FF12 project allowed Kato to grasp the enormous scope of the game and the unexpected complications that arose from relinquishing so much control of the player’s experience. For example, he recalls the headaches introduced by giving players the freedom to change around the makeup of their three-member combat party by swapping in reserve team members at any time. “The ability to switch party members in and out of action meant that, at the start of every cutscene, there were several conditions you had to take into account,” he says. “With so many different sort of variations and permutations to account for, the team was always discussing, trying to see every possible outcome. We’d get to work on it and then run into a wall: ‘Oh, we hadn’t accounted for this one thing.’ It was a very iterative process about finding problems and solving them, and also considering all the possibilities.”

Even more than the Active Dimension system’s ability to target foes and seamlessly initiate combat, the Gambit system sat at the heart of FF12′s battle mechanics. It also proved to be, by far, the game’s most controversial inclusion. Some players felt it removed their agency of the action or trivialized the strategy of combat. Popular webcomic Penny Arcade lampooned the Gambit system by envisioning a self-playing version of Super Mario Bros. that allowed players to set Mario to jump and stomp Goombas without their input.

In effect, Gambits allowed players to set the behavior of their party members in battle by rigging a simplified programming language. As players acquired additional Gambit rules, they could largely automate combat by setting conditions to guide their team’s actions. At the most basic level, you could set characters to automatically use fire-based spells against enemies weak to fire. But you could also connect more complex commands: For example, using the Oil skill to render an enemy vulnerable to fire, which could then be exploited by the character set to target elemental weaknesses with fire spells. Gambits could allow you to set your party to perform incredibly sophisticated sequences of commands, freeing you from the need to micromanage their every action — though you could still bring up the command menu to freeze time and adjust tactics on the fly as needed.

Naturally, granting the player so much control over the behavior of the game’s artificial intelligence posed unique challenges. “Say you have your player character over here,” says Katano, tapping the table with his left hand. “You have that party member in an active Gambit. So they might wander off over there instead,” he nods, pointing to a space near his right hand, “and trigger a cutscene. In order to prevent things like that, we had to explore different methods and find a way in the programming. It took about two months. We had to make sure the characters didn’t run over there to make sure we could prevent it from happening.”

Despite the complications involved in implementing the Gambit system, Katano says it felt like the most natural approach to solving the problem of making the Active Dimension system a reality. “We never really explored the idea of having the players issue individual commands,” he says. “It was never meant to be that way.

“We did look into variations on the party control, and one key here was Hiroyuki Ito. His system for monster A.I. in Final Fantasy 4 was somewhat similar to the Gambit system. Maybe Gambits were a little more complicated, but basically that precedent allowed us to manage the party without micromanaging the characters. With this, the three-member parties, and sometimes having a fourth when a guest joined … having the player pick out commands for every single one of them would have taken away from what was supposed to be the fun of the game. We didn’t want it to be overwhelming, so we went with the Gambit system. We never really looked at a menu-based approach.”

As it happened, though, the Gambit and Active Dimension Battle systems weren’t entirely unprecedented within Final Fantasy canon. FF12′s approach to battle felt almost like a single-player adaptation of the massively multiplayer approach to unified exploration and combat Hiromichi Tanaka’s team was designing for Final Fantasy 11. While this connection may not have been deliberate, as each team within the company worked more or less alone, Kato acknowledges that it wasn’t a complete coincidence, either.

“There wasn’t specifically an intentional sharing of concepts with FF11,” he says. “But, at the time, a lot of the staff were playing FF11. Being part of the same company, I think it informed our ideas and influenced our decisions in some ways, with FF12 having some unique elements necessary to make that work for single player. But there wasn’t a conscious sort of exchange there.

Ultimately, Katano says, the team’s goal for FF12 was to let players approach the adventure however they like. Unlike with FF10, the hand of the creators would provide gentle nudges rather than firm directions. Matsuno’s team simply aimed to facilitate player choices while minimizing the damage mischievous minds could inflict on the game.

“I wouldn’t say there was any resistance to the open world design [at the company], because that was just such a basic principle of the project,” he says. “Everybody was in on it. It was more a question of, you know, how we were going to do it. It was accepted and there wasn’t resistance except that it was really going to be very difficult. So, ultimately, everyone was simply focused on how they were going to accomplish it.

“We didn’t really want to limit players in any way, even if they found exploits. We wanted them to find these things and enjoy them. That’s part of the discovery of the game: Finding those little shortcuts and exploits that you can do. It feels good, and we wanted them to feel that way.”

THE UPHEAVAL
Unfortunately, these best of intentions encountered some critical stumbling blocks along the way. Final Fantasy 12 ended up shipping about two years later than its intended launch date. The impressive ambitions the team members laid out for the next evolution of Final Fantasy proved even more complicated than they had expected. Yet an even more critical roadblock emerged sometime around the game’s first major playable public showing at E3 2004: The departure of the game’s lead designer, Yasumi Matsuno.

The precise nature of Matsuno’s resignation from the company and the game remains shrouded in speculation. Perhaps, as some people claim, he suffered a health crisis inflicted by the stress of carrying such a massive project on his shoulders. Or maybe there’s something to rumors that he left due to frustration over executive meddling in the game’s creative direction. Matsuno’s original vision for FF12′s story centered around Basch fon Ronsenberg, a knight falsely accused of regicide, as the lead character. While Basch and his struggle to restore his good name remain a critical element of the final version of the game, the company’s higher-ups reportedly insisted that teenage duo Vaan and Penelo be made the game’s point-of-view characters. Final Fantasy has to connect with young players, and Basch (being an elderly 28 years of age) evidently wouldn’t do.

Or perhaps Matsuno’s departure involved a little of both columns A and B. His projects leading up to FF12 had been smaller, more niche-oriented works: A compact dungeon dive, a chess-like tactical game. FF12 by its very nature as a numbered Final Fantasy sequel had to appeal to a far wider audience than a franchise spinoff. Meanwhile, the expansive open-world vision the FF12 team chose to pursue made for a venture as demanding as the most massive contemporary PC RPGs, such as Morrowind. Matsuno’s work leading up to FF12 stood out amongst its peers due to its uncompromising sensibility. Yet a tentpole release for a corporation the size of Square Enix necessarily involves compromise on both ends.

Following Matsuno’s departure, veteran RPG designer Akitoshi Kawazu stepped in to guide the project to completion. Kawazu’s work on unconventional role-playing experiences (Final Fantasy 2, SaGa, Legend of Mana) has given him a reputation for creating difficult, unfriendly games — a reputation he happily embraces. As a result, many fans attribute the uneven quality of FF12′s final act to Kawazu.

Katano, however, says that’s not really the case: “The game pretty much followed on the same track after Matsuno-san left. 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.”

Katano also emphasizes that some of the game’s more polarizing or controversial features were in place long before Matsuno left the team. “The part about the change in lead character — that change actually was pretty early on in development. Really, in terms of the story tied into development, there were some slight changes as to which character would appear at which stage, but nothing that would overwhelm development, necessarily, in terms of changes to the plot.

“It’s not as though the whole tale was rewritten into something completely different as we went along. It was just a matter of following the gameplay beats and having them pair up with the story as they went along. Things like locations, and battles, and keeping it all seamless. That was the biggest element of the rewriting, making sure it fit with the gameplay.”

In any case, the change in staffing doesn’t seem to have resulted in bad blood, given that Matsuno returned to Square Enix a few years later to head up a top-to-bottom remake of Tactics Ogre for PlayStation Portable. He also remains on friendly terms with the remaining FF12 team members. “We’re still in touch with Matsuno-san,” Katano says, “and he’s actually quite excited for [The Zodiac Age]. He’s looking forward to it as a player. We can’t wait to see what he thinks of what we’ve put together. He’s even tweeted about it a couple of times!”

THE FF12 LEGACY

Final Fantasy 12 met with mixed reactions at launch. Professional critics almost unanimously lauded it with positive reviews, but players struggled to find consensus. For every fan who loved, say, the game’s hands-off approach to combat or the way its story offered a ground-level perspective on a grand saga, another considered those elements anathema to the very concept of Final Fantasy

For Katano, the idea that the team was beholden to some external vision because of its name is ultimately counterproductive. “This is strictly my own opinion,” he says, “but the question of, ‘Is what we’re making Final Fantasy?’ never really occurred to me, because Final Fantasy is what you make of it. It’s not predefined.

“That’s honestly pretty much the gist of it: ‘Final Fantasy’ is what comes of the process of giving it your all. If I were concerned about one thing, it was simply making sure players would find the fun and understand the play style we were going for.

Kato agrees. “Just echoing the same sentiments that it’s a challenge, and there’s nothing you can’t do because it’s ‘Final Fantasy.’ If it’s fun, then it’s accomplished what it’s supposed to be. Of course, you’ll have your chocobos and elixirs and those specific points that you touch on. But as long as you hit those, you’re pretty much free to make it what you will.”

“Each numbered Final Fantasy kind of builds itself completely differently from everything that has come before,” says Katano. “This was just a new story, and it had the Gambits and the seamless battles, and those were the points we wanted to focus on. It just naturally took the shape it did, both at a team level and at a company level.”

Even though FF12 has proven to be one of the most divisive chapters in an already polarizing franchise, Katano and Kato don’t seem to have any real regrets about the game they helped steer through a long and difficult birthing process. It was a challenging project, but one they take satisfaction in. “Those are difficult terms, ‘satisfaction’ and ‘challenging,’” muses Katano. “I think, ultimately, they’re kind of the same answer. The result — maybe not satisfaction, exactly, but I felt fulfilled by having made something challenging and fun. We took on this task, and coming up with this as the end result.”

“At the time, you know, the Gambit system and the seamless world and all the side quests … having those all concentrated on a single disc, that was satisfying,” adds Kato. “All that volume — that was very impressive to me, especially for that hardware generation.

“As for challenge … Well, we’ve revisited the systems here in The Zodiac Age, and I find that making that as fun as possible and seeing what new experiences we could generate — that’s always been the challenge. It’s been fun.”

More than a decade on, FF12′s creators seem curious to see how players will react to the game’s HD remaster. In many ways, the elements that made the PS2 release so controversial in 2006 feel like a result of FF12 being a work ahead of its time. Today, seamless open world RPGs have become standard fare on consoles, to the point that games from completely unrelated genres frequently integrate concepts that felt so strange and unexpected in FF12.

Likewise, the idea of highly automated, A.I.-driven RPG combat no longer seems like a betrayal of the genre. Both of Square Enix’s numbered, single-player sequels to FF12 have incorporated combat mechanics similar to that of the Active Dimension Battle system — minus the Gambits — while blockbuster franchises have helped standardize FF12′s approach to A.I. party companions in everything from shooters to stealth games to Western RPGs. You can see FF12′s DNA in everything from The Witcher 3 to Metal Gear Solid 5. If anything, The Zodiac Age runs the risk of feeling too commonplace in 2017. Considering how jarringly unconventional FF12 felt a decade ago, that may be the game’s greatest claim to fame.

However, Katano rejects the idea that the FF12 set out to revolutionize the RPG. “We weren’t really trying to change the world, or change the game industry, with what we were doing,” he says. “We were just exploring something that we thought was fun. So in that sense, it’s a success. The game’s legacy is that success, in that people enjoy it.

“If people in the game industry think of it as as significant accomplishment or it inspires them, too, that makes us very happy.”

“I feel pretty much the same,” says Kato. “It wasn’t about changing the world or the game industry. It was just about making something that people would enjoy. And seeing that at the time, you know, Japanese RPGs had all been pretty much command-based, it was something very new for that era, so for the time … having that seamless open world … yeah. Looking back, it was a pretty bold challenge, come to think of it. So I think that’s part of the legacy.

“And we never know what’s next. At the time, the Gambits were something new and fun. We’re always looking for the next thing that’s going to be new and fun.（source：polygon）