Yasumi Matsuno

Yasumi Matsuno is a game designer who started out at a small company named Quest, then got bought out by Squaresoft, then left to join Level 5. He has a long working history with Hitoshi Sakimoto for the music and Akihiko Yoshida for the artwork, and is friends with translator Alexander O Smith. He is basically responsible for the Ivalice Alliance as well.

He has directed the following:


 * Ogre Battle
 * Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together & Wheel of Fortune
 * Final Fantasy Tactics
 * Ogre Battle 64
 * Vagrant Story
 * Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
 * Final Fantasy XII
 * Guild 01: Crimson Shroud

He has also been involved with:
 * Conquest of the Crystal Palace: Planning - his influence can be seen in the news reports and the sheer number of different items
 * Mad World: Story

Tropes that frequently appear in his works:
 * Ancient Conspiracy
 * Anti Villain/Anti Hero
 * Black and Gray Morality/Grey and Grey Morality
 * Bonus Boss / Bonus Dungeon: Extremely big ones that can take a while!
 * Character Alignment / Karma Meter
 * Corrupt Church / God Is Evil
 * Encyclopedia Exposita: To the point where the first trailer for Crimson Shroud (last fourth of the video) is simply a look at RPG books with Surprisingly Good English
 * Face Heel Turn / Chronic Backstabbing Disorder
 * Framing Device
 * Gambit Pileup
 * Job System
 * Light Is Not Good
 * Loads and Loads of Characters
 * They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Unfortunately, with so many players in the story there are always at least a few characters who might not be felt to have lived up to their potential. OTOH, it adds realism.
 * Loveable Rogue
 * Medieval European Fantasy
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Political / Fantastic Nuke: He used to be a political science student, and also studied Eastern European history, thus influencing many of his storylines.

Other influences:
 * Cold War
 * Dungeons and Dragons
 * Star Wars
 * Tabletop Games
 * The Yugoslav Wars