Yasumi Matsuno is a video game designer that has worked with Enix, Squaresoft and Level-5. He is most famous for his work on the Tactics Ogre series of games, as well as Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII.
Matsuno began his career when he started working for Quest, with his first major work being director for Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. The game was released on the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo in 1993. Despite the game being praised, the game was limited to only 25,000 copies in North America, so the game wasn't exactly a commercial success for Enix, which owned Quest at the time.
Even with that fact, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together was released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo/Famicom, with Matsuno as director once again. Matsuno changed the gameplay for Let Us Cling Together and set the standard for tactical role-playing games. The game was later re-released on Sega Saturn in 1996 and Playstation in 1997.
In 1995, Matsuno left Quest/Enix and went to work for Squaresoft. He began work on a game that was quite similar to Tactics Ogre, which became known as Final Fantasy Tactics. The game was a commercial success, borrowing a lot of elements from Tactics Ogre, as well as simplifying it for the Final Fantasy universe.
After work ended on Final Fantasy Tactics, work began on a secret project that would eventually become Vagrant Story. The game was released near the end of the Playstation's life, and while it received high praise, including a perfect score from Famitsu, the game fell short commercially. Despite that, the game later received a cult following and would later be released as a digital title on Playstation Network.
Following the release of Vagrant Story, Matsuno did some various work on other projects. He was a freelance writer for Ogre Battle 64, acted as producer for Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and even supervised some work on PlayOnline, which was Square's online service that was used for many games, although its primary use was for Final Fantasy XI.
He would later be named as co-director for Final Fantasy XII, alongside Hiroyuki Ito. He also worked on the game as a writer, although the final credits list Story and Concept. He ended up leaving the project, with Square's official reason being health problems, although later remarks suggest that he was forced out because of his visions causing the game to use too much money.
In August of 2005, Matsuno would end up leaving Square, although no reason was given at the time. It wasn't until 5 years later, in 2010, that Matsuno mentioned he left because he was annoyed with the company as a whole. Although he didn't finish the game, Final Fantasy XII still ended up receiving a perfect score from Famitsu, although fan reactions were mixed on the game.
After leaving Square, Matsuno went freelance and collaborated on a few things, although not much is known. He expressed interest in the Wii in 2006, commenting that the Wii controller feels natural and fits more than just first-person shooters. In 2009, he helped write the story for Platinum Games' MadWorld. In 2010, he revealed he was working with the original team and Square Enix on a remake to Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, which would be released for the PSP.
In June of 2011, Matsuno joined Level-5, with his only contribution being his original game for the Guild 01 compilation for the Nintendo 3DS. He worked with Goichi Suda, Yoot Saito and Yoshiyuki Hirai on the compilation. His contribution was named Crimson Shroud, which was a role-playing game. In October of 2012, he left Level-5, which was announced in November and has mentioned that he is working on a secret project.
