Hiroyuki Ito (伊藤 裕之,Itō Hiroyuki) is a Japanesegame producer,director anddesigner who works forSquare Enix. He is known as the director ofFinal Fantasy VI (1994),Final Fantasy IX (2000) andFinal Fantasy XII (2006) and as the creator of theActive Time Battle (ATB) system in theFinal Fantasy series.

After graduating fromTokyo Zokei University, Ito joinedSquare in 1987.^[1] He initially worked onFinal Fantasy andFinal Fantasy II as adebugger but first became genuinely involved with game development while creating sound effects forFinal Fantasy III.^[2] His next major role was as the designer of theActive Time Battle system forFinal Fantasy IV.^[2][3] Square filed a Japanesepatent application related to the ATB system on 16 July 1991 and a corresponding US application on 16 March 1992. One Japanese patent (JP2794230) and two US patents (US5390937 and US5649862) were granted based on these applications.^[4] ForFinal Fantasy V, Ito designed the fully customizableJob system.^[3][5] He also created the 'Chicken Knife or Brave Blade' choosing event.^[5]Final Fantasy VI marked the first time that Ito became a director on a game. For this title, he was in charge of all battle aspects.^[6] He was also responsible for the battle systems inFinal Fantasy VIII andFinal Fantasy Tactics before he once more took on the role of director withFinal Fantasy IX.^[2] Ito had the idea to make its protagonistZidane Tribal flirtatious towards women.^[7]

In mid-2005,Square Enix announced thatYasumi Matsuno had left the company due to an illness but would be acting as a supervisor onFinal Fantasy XII. Ito was appointed as the director of the game. Matsuno apologized for the long development time of the project but guaranteed players that it was "progressing in its development under the hands of excellent staffs".^[8] Ito created the License Board ofFinal Fantasy XII with the intention to give the player much freedom in developing characters to their liking without becoming too complicated.^[9] At the Square Enix Party 2007 pre-conference meeting in May 2007, he was introduced on stage as the producer and director of the newly announcedFinal Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System.^[10] He stated later that he considered the game design and battle system ofFinal Fantasy XII a "definitive contribution to the gaming lexicon" and that it had "the potential to shine in future games".^[11] In about 2012, Ito was tasked by producer Shinichi Tatsuke with the creation of a battle system for a new game. However, the plan changed and he was told a week later that there was a different project to consider. Tatsuke now requested a concept for a social game which he felt was an interesting opportunity to have Ito work on, given his experience with simple Nintendo Entertainment System game systems. This concept becameGuardian Cross.^[12] In September 2012, Ito said that he would work on anotherFinal Fantasy game if the company's president wished for it.^[3] The corporate executive of Square Enix's 1st Production Department,Shinji Hashimoto, mentioned in July 2013 that Ito was "planning and doing some proposals for a new project" and "putting some ideas together".^[13]

As thegame designer of aFinal Fantasy game, Ito tries to balance the story andevent scenes with the gameplay.^[14] When he begins his work on a title, he does not consider the story at hand but rather adapts his game system to it as closely as possible over the time. He thinks that it is his job to smoothly implement a game so the people in charge of the stories do not have to worry about this aspect.^[3] He also believes that the most important factor of theFinal Fantasy series is the player's feeling of accomplishment after beating the game and seeing "The End" on the screen.^[15] Professional sports were the primary inspiration behind Ito's battle systems.^[3] The monsters inFinal Fantasy IV and the Gambit system inFinal Fantasy XII resemble aspects of theNFL in that their actions are based on the most likely outcome of a specific situation.^[3][15] The Active Time Battle system was similarly inspired byFormula One, as Ito had the idea to give characters different speed values after seeing a race in which the cars passed each other. These values would then become the basis for the battle system and dictate when it will be a character's turn.^[2][3][16]

At theCESA 2006Japan Game Awards held on 22 September 2006, Ito accepted the "Grand Award" and "Award for Excellence" forFinal Fantasy XII. He thanked the development team, longtime fans and new players alike and said that the team was grateful for the awards as they could not possibly think about the game's reception during its creation.^[17] His comment at the ceremony was: "I did my best to bring new and innovative elements to this work. I'm very happy that something like this, which was one of the more challenging games to create in the Final Fantasy series, has received this award. To return the favor to the users who've played this game and who regard it so highly, I'm determined to continue creating by always reminding myself of the need to rise to new challenges."^[18]Tetsuya Nomura considers Ito one of his four "seniors" at the company and a likely influence on his battle planning.^[19] He also stated that he was taught the basics of game design by Ito.^[20]

• Famitsu interview aboutFinal Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System(in Japanese)

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• Tokyo Zokei University alumni

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