 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.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.The game's art director Hideo Minaba has said that Vaan is not comparable to any previous protagonist of the series, which he explained as partially a result of the game using a different character designer than previous ones.