History Trivia / FinalfantasyXII

* CreatorsFavorite: Penelo is composer Creator/HitoshiSakimoto's favorite, which explains why she is the only other character to have an eponymous theme song aside from [[TheHero Ashe]].

* TheWikiRule: The [[http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_Wiki Final Fantasy Wiki]].

* CreatorCouple: Gabranth and Dreis' respective Japanese voice actors, Creator/AkioOhtsuka and Creator/YokoSoumi, were married at the time of the game's release. They have since divorced.

** Creator/AkioOhtsuka was the Japanese voice for Gabranth and his late father Creator/ChikaoOhtsuka voiced Dr. Cid.

** In addition to Revenant Wings, the game was supposed to have another sequel allegedly titled Fortress. The developers making Fortress went bankrupt, but a few remnants of it survived, such as some concept art, combat storyboarding, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq6XiYQFBgA one amazing track.]]

* RealLifeRelative: Creator/AkioOhtsuka was the Japanese voice for Gabranth and his late father Creatoe/ChikaoOhtsuka voiced Dr. Cid.

* CelebrityVoiceActor: The Japanese version has film actors Kouhei Takeda and Marina Kozawa[[note]]credited under her former stage name Yuna Mikuni[[/note]] as Vaan and Penelo, respectively.

* CelebrityVoiceActor: The Japanese version has film actors Kouhei Takeda and Marina Kozawa as Vaan and Penelo, respectively.

* FakeBrit: In the English version, American Julia Fletcher voices the British-accented Judge Drace.

* TooSoon: The sequence of Penelo tied up in Lhusu Mines had to be removed from the original Japanese version of the game. This was due to the game's release coinciding with the execution of Tsutomu Miyazaki, a notorious kidnapper and serial killer of young girls in Japan - and they risked getting a higher rating if they included the scene.

* FakeNationality: In the English version, David Rasner voices Al-Cid with a European Spanish accent.

* TroubledProduction: The game is the poster child for the series, having many problems that caused it to go down for a long time as the worlds longest developed video game.
** The delay of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' caused the team to have extra pressure during their merger with Enix, and not helping was that ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' was in development at the same time ''XII'' was start to be as the well. All these factors put them in serious financial stress. Not helping was the BoxOfficeBomb of ''Anime/FinalFantasyTheSpiritsWithin'', further damaging the company financially speaking until a few calls made after helped balance the company.
** Before the game could really start, the series founder, Hironobu Sakaguchi, left the project and eventually the company due to the issues above, forcing Yasumi Matsuno, head developer of ''VideoGame/VagrantStory'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' to take control. Many staff members quit and followed Sakaguchi as well.
** The marketing team insisted on changing elements of the story such as an older main character that was unrelatable. This was well after a few years of development, meaning many elements had to be reworked, altered, or scrapped entirely to follow their demands. The stress of this caused Matsuno to resign from illness, and later leave ''Square'', forcing Hiroyuki Ito to take lead of the project.
** Despite having a story planned, the team had to have Miwa Shoda write a story based on what was already developed, adding even more stress to the development.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Why Vaan and Penelo exist the way they do--Vaan was originally conceived as a more rugged, world-weary and cynical character, but the developers were concerned that an older hero wouldn't go over well with Japanese audiences (they used Ashley Riot from Creator/YasumiMatsuno's previous game ''VideoGame/VagrantStory'', which was critically acclaimed but did not meet [[Creator/SquareEnix Square]]'s sales expectations, as an example), since [=JRPGs=] usually have younger, {{Bishonen}} heroes. They become proper characters in their own right in the {{Gaiden Game}}s. This trope, combined with tightening the loose ends that come with six years of DevelopmentHell is why the International version of the game is markedly different from the original game.
* GodNeverSaidThat: It is a widely spread misconception that at some point, someone from Square-Enix said that Basch was supposed to be the original protagonist of the game, but was replaced with Vaan due to the ExecutiveMeddling. In reality, nothing of the sort has ever been said. There is some degree of truth to it however, since as the above entry notes, Vaan was originally conceived as an older and more rugged protagonist, but was changed due to genre expectations, and some of those early ideas seem to have influenced Basch's character.

* TroubledProduction:
** ''XII'' has the rockiest development of any ''FF'' game to date, thanks to the collapse of Squaresoft (courtesy of ''Anime/FinalFantasyTheSpiritsWithin'') and its merger with Enix, creative differences with series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi (who resigned and was replaced by Akitoshi Kawazu), and the rough equivalent of $35,000,000 US spent to make the game happen. Five years is a preposterously long time considering how Square had been producing main series ''FF'' games at a steady clip of every two years. To put it in perspective, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' was released in 2001, the first year of the [=PS2=]'s life cycle, whilst the much-promised ''XII'' was released in the run-up to the [=PS3=]'s launch and (at least outside of Japan) ''after'' the announcements of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' (then ''Versus XIII''). In fact, ''Final Fantasy XV'' is the only game in the series to have been in development for longer than ''XII'', it was released ten years after its announcement, though it only entered true development in 2012.
** Halfway though production, Matsuno resigned from Square Enix, citing health reasons. He had lost much of his leverage after his project, ''Spirits Within'' collapsed like a bad soufflé, and Square Enix wanted to go [[HollywoodOld in a more youth-oriented direction with the game's characters]]. Considering how much bullion they sunk into the game, you can't blame them for being a bit cagey.

* WriterRevolt: The developers were pretty open about how Vaan was [[ExecutiveMeddling forced as the main character by the higher ups.]] In the final game, while Vaan starts out as the default playable character, he spends most of the time standing in the background in majority of the cut-scenes and is mostly inconsequential to the overall plot. Somewhat VindicatedByHistory as Vaan became popular enough in his native Japan to be the game's representative in the Versus series and later, Final Fantasy Explorers.

** This sometimes undergoes further GossipEvolution and turns into the misconception that Vaan and Penelo were added to the game ''after'' the change of directors or late into development. Their Japanese mo-cap/voice actors (Kouhei Takeda and Marina Kozawa) have both said on record that they were casted when they were 16, which would be in early 2002. Vaan was also one of the first confirmed main characters alongside Ashe [[https://archive.rpgamer.com/news/Q4-2003/112003a.html in 2003]] and Penelo being confirmed [[https://archive.rpgamer.com/news/Q2-2004/041604a.html in spring 2004]], before Matsuno reportedly left the project in late 2004 and officially resigned in August 2005. In fact, Basch was the last main party character to be revealed.

** This sometimes undergoes further GossipEvolution and turns into the misconception that Vaan and Penelo were added to the game ''after'' the change of directors. Their Japanese mo-cap/voice actors (Kouhei Takeda and Marina Kozawa) have both said on record that they were casted when they were 16, which would be in early 2002. Vaan was also one of the first confirmed main characters alongside Ashe [[https://archive.rpgamer.com/news/Q4-2003/112003a.html in 2003]] and Penelo being confirmed [[https://archive.rpgamer.com/news/Q2-2004/041604a.html in spring 2004]], before Matsuno reportedly left the project in late 2004 and officially resigned in August 2005. In fact, Basch was the last main party character to be revealed.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Why Vaan and Penelo exist the way they do--Vaan was originally conceived as a more rugged, world-weary and cynical character, but the developers were concerned that an older hero wouldn't go over well with Japanese audiences, since [=JRPGs=] usually have younger, {{Bishonen}} heroes. They become proper characters in their own right in the {{Gaiden Game}}s. This trope, combined with tightening the loose ends that come with six years of DevelopmentHell is why the International version of the game is markedly different from the original game.

** This sometimes undergoes further GossipEvolution and turns into the misconception that Vaan and Penelo were added to the game ''after'' the change of directors, despite Vaan being one of the first confirmed main characters alongside Ashe [[https://archive.rpgamer.com/news/Q4-2003/112003a.html in 2003]] and Penelo being confirmed [[https://archive.rpgamer.com/news/Q2-2004/041604a.html in spring 2004]], before Matsuno reportedly left the project in late 2004 and officially resigned in August 2005. In fact, Basch was the last main party character to be revealed.

* ActorAllusion:
** Cid, a MadScientist obsessed with a strange, godlike being, is very similar to [[WesternAnimation/AeonFlux another character portrayed by John Rafter Lee]].
** Creator/HiroakiHirata (Balthier's Japanese VA) has also played a [[Manga/OnePiece pirate]] [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean before]].

** This sometimes undergoes further GossipEvolution and turns into the misconception that Vaan and Penelo were added to the game ''after'' the change of directors, despite Vaan being one of the first confirmed main characters alongside Ashe [[https://archive.rpgamer.com/news/Q4-2003/112003a.html in 2003]] and Penelo being confirmed [[https://archive.rpgamer.com/news/Q2-2004/041604a.html in 2004]], before Matsuno reportedly left the project in late 2004 and officially resigned in August 2005. In fact, Basch was the last main party character to be revealed.