Apparantly due to health issues, Yasumi Matsuno, a main driving force behind FFXII has dropped out. Although i was wondering is it already too late in development for this to disrupt or hinder progress or the games quality?.

Can FFXII be still affected by this?

I guess.. I mean, it's never too late for Square to fuck up a game.

But my point is that it`s out in March in Japan, so we can only hope that there already more or less finished.

Well, you're right. It should be about finished, but there is no telling what Square can do without Matsuno.

True. Although he still is a supervisor he doesn`t have the push he once had behind it.

I also heard a lot of the team working on the game left to work on another project, that could really jeopardise development

Then again, if there are less people working on it and if most of those who have left have already made their primary contributions, then a narrower playing field might be able to finish things more effectively. It may decrease the quality, or it may increase the quality. The loss of one of it's most qualified persons, will probably be to the detriment, but the shedding of less important personell, may have been removing of warm bodies who have made their excellent contribution already, but are now just taking up space. Perhaps moving them to another project made their expertise more usefull at the same time. From the sounds of it, the project was already somewhat overstaffed.

Yasumi Matsuno, the original man behind Final Fantasy XII, is no longer part of the Final Fantasy XII development staff due to health issues. Hiroyuki Ito (FFIX director) and Hiroshi Minagawa (FFT art director) will be taking over as Final Fantasy XII's directors. Akitoshi Kawazu (U:Saga producer) is taking up the role of Final Fantasy XII's executive producer. Matsuno is still supervising the game and apologizes for the long development time. The main staff members have been revised and listed at the developers section.

I'm sure if he's still supervising things will be fine.