 Basch was initially meant to be the main protagonist 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 younger , youthful one was thus decided after targeting demographics were considered . With the casting of actor Kouhei Takeda for the voice acting and motion capture , Vaan became less feminine and more " active , upbeat bright and positive " . Comments were made about the similarity between main character designer and background design supervisor Akihiko Yoshida 's creations and those of Tetsuya Nomura , another Square Enix character designer . Yoshida feels this connection is sparked by the style of color used by both artists , which involves a color consistency between the characters and the environments . The designers stated that non @-@ human characters and races feature a prominent role in the game , which was influenced by an interest in history among the developers . 
