Yasumi Matsuno (born 1965) 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 Fate/Reborn
- 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
- Final Fantasy XIV: Scenario writer for the "Return to Ivalice" and "Save the Queen: Blades of Gunnhildr" side stories.
- MadWorld: Story
- Unsung Story: Story & game design - unfortunately as of February 2016, the future of this game is looking very much in doubt
, and it's getting worse as of 2017. As of 2018, he's no longer involved with the project after Little Orbit took over, but the CEO of said company did meet him once for a lunch meeting to talk about the game.
Other influences:
Tropes that frequently appear in his works:
- Darker and Edgier: Compared to most works in the Final Fantasy franchise (and SquareSoft in general), Matsuno's works tend to have complex sociopolitical themes, a heavy atmosphere, and lots of violence. This is most seen with Final Fantasy Tactics, which is considered one of the darker installments in the franchise, and Final Fantasy XII, which heavily leaned into heavy sociopolitical themes compared to other mainline games.
- 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 well-written English
- Named After Somebody Famous: Yiazmat of Final Fantasy XII was named after him.
- Production Posse: Is nearly always seen working with Akihiko Yoshida and Hitoshi Sakimoto.
- Ripped from the Headlines: This interview shows that he already plans to use bits from the Syrian Civil War in Unsung Story.
- Well before that, Tactics Ogre was originally released in 1995, right when The Yugoslav Wars were in full swing. Tactics Ogre's plot bears a strong similarity to the causes of the conflict, right down to having Fantasy Counterpart Cultures of Bosnians, Serbs, and Croats.
- Space Cold War: He used to be a political science student, and also studied Eastern European history, thus influencing many of his storylines.
