The confirmed art designer for Final Fantasy XIV, Akihiko Yoshida, was also the character and landscape designer for Final Fantasy XII. Some of you may remember the interview included with the Final Fantasy XII Collector's Edition in which Yoshida provided fans with information on the inspiration and motives behind his designs.

With information about Final Fantasy 14 so limited in these early stages, we're drawing on what we already know from the previous series to establish an image of what's to come. We've written the interview up into a browseable list to help you draw your own conclusions, which you will find below.

Whether or not you find these questions relevant is down to personal opinion; the inspirations that helped Yoshida to develop Final Fantasy XII's art probably haven't changed in such a limited time. Designers quite often have a running trend they incorporate into their designs, meaning the answers in this interview and his work in previous projects should help us to build a realistic assumption of what Final Fantasy XIV's art will be like.

1. What do you draw upon for inspiration?
2. What does the position of character designer entail?
3. Tell us about the Judge Magister designs.
4. What are some of the tricks of the design trade?
5. Tell us about the visual expressiveness of the characters.
6. Tell us about the background design.
7. How do you ensure such high standards of quality?
8. What are your thoughts on Final Fantasy as a series?

What do you draw upon for inspiration?

"I'll often look at the work of various painters, illustrators, and manga artists. I also refer to the cultures of other countries – It's an ongoing learning process. Some of my favorite artists – I'm particularly fond of the way they use light – are Rembrandt, Millet, Whistler, Katsuhiro Otomo, and Moebius."

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What does the position of character designer entail?

"My concept for this project was to approach the design from a new perspective, to do something outside the confines people might expect. Designing the characters, first I gathered all the design documents, detailing things like age, profession, history, and the like. Then I use these materials as a springboard for the actual design itself.

"For the environment and clothing, I wanted to design something that didn't exist anywhere in the real world... something that had never been seen before."

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Tell us about the Judge Magister designs.

"I've designed a lot of pieces of armor in the past... the design for Gabranth's armor was born of the concept of freedom freedom found throughout this project. In earlier works, it was common for me to base the designs on relatively real pieces of armor.

"This time I wanted to make something as different as possible, so for Gabranth's armor, the idea actually came from protective gear used in mountain biking, a hobby of mine. So the concept is the reverse of what you might normally see... with a futuristic design informing the design of something from the past."

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What are some of the tricks of the design trade?

"When I'm having trouble coming up with a design, or I'm otherwise stuck, I'll start working from the back or buttocks. Using these as starting points, the ideas seem to flow very smoothly for me. It's not something I really understand myself. The designs for many of the characters in this game started this way."

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Tell us about the visual expressiveness of the characters.

"To be honest, the characters turned out even better than I had imagined when I was designing them. I had sessions with the members in charge of each character model. We went over what it would take to make the emotiveness and expressions in FFXII unlike any other. I think it was very successful."

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Tell us about the background design.

"I wanted everything to have a sense of scale. I think particularly in the areas appearing toward the beginning of the game, such as Rabanastre, we accomplished what we set out do to."

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How do you ensure such high standards of quality?

"I think even if we had FFXII to do over again, we wouldn't be able to improve very much on what we actually did. Put another way, I think we really pushed the limits of what is currently possible. The quality we ended up with isn't far from what I had imagined for the game in the beginning.

"Different games have different features, which impose their different limits on each game, so I can't compare FFXII with anything else. But I really think we made FFXII the best game it could be."

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What are your thoughts on Final Fantasy as a series?

Even after title after title comes to an end, there's always a new designer with a new story waiting to be told.

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Thanks to Arcadian of our Final Fantasy 14 Forums.