"A captain of the Order of the Knights of Dalmasca, Basch achieved renown as a gallant and brave hero credited with countless victories on the battlefield. He is a man of justice who cannot abide inequity. Unlike the other captains chosen from aristocracy, Basch is of common blood and enjoys the love of the people, until he inexplicably murders the King on the eve of a treaty-signing with Archadia. He is led away in chains. What could drive so loyal a man to slay his oathsworn liege?"

When viewing some of the preliminary game environment art work for Final Fantasy XII, one may notice a figure of a man. That figure was originally, the main character of Final Fantasy XII who happened to be named Basch. Although the Basch in the art work, and the Basch you currently see in the game may share the same name and similar physical attributes, they are completely different characters.

When Final Fantasy XII was first announced years ago, Basch happened to be one of the last characters announced in the Japanese official site's character roster. Under his name was the phrase "man branded as traitor". Interesting as it may seem, my initial reaction was that Basch is actually a good character, because Square-Enix has never put a bad character into the main party of any of the previous Final Fantasy games and if they did it would be a very interesting and pivotal change for the series. Thus, my thoughts concluded that the character, Basch, was framed by someone in the game not because I doubted that Square-Enix would actually put a bad character into the main party but for the sake of the series' character consistency. It is also because of that phrase seen in the Official websites and game manuals that make Basch interesting as a character. Who was the one who framed him? For what reasons? Is he really a traitor? The situation? As with mediums such as film and writing, you need a "hook" to catch the audience's attention. With that tagline, the character of Basch would most definitely be the "hook" of the story of Final Fantasy XII.