I was going to bring this up in the Vaan thread but thought it would be better to make a new thread about it to keep things uncluttered.
I was reading through the Wikipedia page recently and noticed this in the character section:
Now, this information actually seems to be sourced at the bottom. However, the page it links to is in French and while it seems pretty legitimate (the quote is from what seems to be an actual interview with the creators, however a quick search of the page doesn't turn up the word Basch at all. EDIT: It is there, they just spelled it "Bash". Thank you, Babelfish.) I was wondering if this information has surfaced on a more credible (ie more English) source.Basch was initially meant to be the main character of the story, but the focus was eventually shifted to Vaan and Penelo when the two characters were created later in development.<sup id="_ref-FrenchInterview_0" class="reference">[39]</sup> The development team explained that their previous game, Vagrant Story, which featured a "strong man in his prime" as the protagonist had been unsuccessful and unpopular; the change regarding Final Fantasy XII from a "big and tough" protagonist to a more effeminate one was thus decided after targeting demographics were considered.
Any ideas? Also, presuming this is true, discuss how much better/worse this game would have been with Basch in the lead role.