Ivalice

Ivalice Concept Artwork for Fortress
Final Fantasy XII location
Created by	Yasumi Matsuno
Genre	Role-playing game
Type	Kingdom, region
Notable locations	Nabudis, Rabanastre
Notable characters	Vaan, Balthier, Ramza
First appearance	Final Fantasy Tactics

Ivalice (イヴァリース, Ivarīsu^?) is a fictional universe setting primarily appearing in the Final Fantasy video game series. The world was conceived by Yasumi Matsuno when he joined Square (now Square Enix) in 1995, and has since been expanded upon by several games, with more yet due with the Ivalice Alliance series. Ivalice is described as a complex world with a very long history, and the stories of Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII are said to unfold quite close on the Ivalice map.

Though described often as a world, this was only physically true of Ivalice in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, in which Ivalice was created parallel to the real world. The 'true' Ivalice, as witnessed in the remaining games, describes two distinct locations; a geographical region, and a smaller kingdom, both of which belong to a larger, unnamed world. Generally, however, the term Ivalice is also used to refer to the conceptual setting, rather as one might say the Medieval world of Europe and the Mediterranean.

Ivalice was created by Yasumi Matsuno as a fictional world with its own identity; a medieval-like world where magic and machine exist together. The usual elements of Final Fantasy, such as Chocobos, crystals and magic spells, blend into the setting. This setting first appeared in Final Fantasy Tactics, a game produced mostly by the team that made Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre, and was Matsuno's first project with Square following his departure from Quest in 1995. Matsuno's next game, Vagrant Story, featured several allusions to Final Fantasy Tactics, and Matsuno stated in 2004 that Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Final Fantasy XII unfold quite close on the map of Ivalice, "a complex world with a very long history and the stories".