Final Fantasy XII
In 2001, Matsuno was assigned to work on "Final Fantasy XII" as director together with Hiroyuki Ito. He came up with the game's original concept and plot. Matsuno reportedly was temperamental and refused to come to work for a month after part of the "Final Fantasy XII" team had left Square Enix to join Hironobu Sakaguchi's new company Mistwalker. In August 2005, it was officially announced that he had stepped down from his position on the project due to a prolonged illness.