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.