Also, in another roundtable interview, Yoshida stated that a snow monster-type character was floated around as a possible lead. But I think it's apparent with the way that the game begins and plays out that it was intended to be Basch's story. I think Gabranth as the logo in the Amano-designed title also reflects that. It all starts with Basch leading up to the events at Nabudis, him going there to meet the archadians, then going again to save the King. He failed to protect Rasler, his King, and Dalmasca and the rest of the game is him making things right.

I also read that when square execs heard about Matsuno's original ideas, they began a focus group/public study to see what the prospects would be to have a rugged male lead, and they concluded that it wasn't a good idea and basically told him he had to stop it. I think all of this lead to his departure from Square, as very little and very vague information has been given by Square, no one has heard anything except rumors that he's working on a Wii RPG, and at times a DS RPG. In any case, i think the split was anything but amicable.

However, I think it's a miscalculation to regard FFXII as "the game that never was." I too had been following the game since early on, and I remember sometime before XI was released, they showed pics of Vaan and Ashe and the illustration of Archades that's in some pages of the manual. So I think alot of the original ideas that seemed to have been left out were only preliminary. Executive Producer Akitoshi Kawazu has stated that only 2 members were added to the original team (himself included) and that all of Matsuno's intentions were manifest in the final product.