Tetsuya Nomura
Tetsuya Nomura | |
|---|---|
| Born | 野村 哲也 |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Known for | Video game director, character design, illustration. |
Tetsuya Nomura (野村 哲也, Nomura Tetsuya) (born October 8, 1970) is a Japanese video game director and character designer working for Square Enix (formerly Square), perhaps best known for his work on both the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series.[2]
Biography
Time before Square
Nomura was born in Kōchi Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. When he was a young man, he worked at a vocational school creating art for advertisements.
Time at Square
In the early 1990s, Square hired him to work as a debugger for Final Fantasy IV and following it as a monster designer for Final Fantasy V and then as graphic director and minor character designer for Final Fantasy VI.
Nomura did not gain recognition until 1995, when Square asked him to be the character designer for Final Fantasy VII to replace Yoshitaka Amano, the series' original character designer. It was a huge critical and commercial success and became the definitive role playing game for the PlayStation. In 1998, he worked on both Parasite Eve & Brave Fencer Musashi. In 1997, Nomura worked on 1999's Final Fantasy VIII, a game that achieved commercial success, where he returned as the character designer.
Afterwards, Nomura worked on several other different projects for Square Enix, ranging from character designing in Ehrgeiz for the PlayStation to character designing for Square's first PlayStation 2 game, The Bouncer, before returning to character designing for the Final Fantasy series with Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2, and Final Fantasy XI. More recently, he has acted as the director, concept artist, and character designer for the Kingdom Hearts series, which currently includes the title game, the Game Boy Advance sequel and PlayStation 2 remake Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, the PlayStation 2 sequel Kingdom Hearts II, and most recently the Nintendo DS sequel Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. He is also working on two other Kingdom Hearts side games: Kingdom Hearts Coded, which is a cell phone game sequel to Kingdom Hearts II and a prequel to the first Kingdom Hearts game, Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep for the PSP. He was also responsible for the complete designing and orchestration of The World Ends with You for the Nintendo DS.
Movie
Nomura directed the CGI animated film Final Fantasy VII Advent Children which was released on 2005 in Japan and in North America on April 25, 2006, and also wrote some of the lyrics that appear on the soundtrack. This was also Nomura's film debut, and he re-designed the characters as well.
Current work at Square Enix
Nomura is currently working on the Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy XIII projects. He is the character designer of all three games and the director of Final Fantasy Versus XIII, as well as the character designer of Dissidia: Final Fantasy for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) which is now a finished game.
Nomura also confirmed that he will be working on multiple projects related to the Kingdom Hearts series - Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days. These were revealed to be additional projects in the Kingdom Hearts series at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show. One of the showcased titles will focus on events outside the scope of the current storyline and characters featured in the previous games.
Nomura also said that he was working on two more new announced projects from existing franchises in December 2009.[3]
There has been a resurgence of a possible FF7 remake since Nomura's remarks, which coupled with both Nomura and Kitase's quote "We will do a Final Fantasy VII remake one day, no question, but people might have to wait a while" (Taken in 2006) tends to support the idea.[citation needed]
Works credited
References
- ^ a b "Tetsuya Nomura". Retrieved 2007-07-30.
{{cite web}}: Text "publisher Internet Movie Database" ignored (help) - ^ Next Generation staff (2007-03-03). "The Hot 100 Game Developers of 2007". Next Generation. Future Publishing USA. Retrieved 2007-04-02.[dead link]
- ^ Brian Ashcraft (December 22, 2009). "Tetsuya Nomura Working On Two Unannounced Titles". Kotaku. Retrieved December 17, 2009.
External links
- Tetsuya Nomura at IMDb
- Tetsuya Nomura's Biography and Artwork
- Tetsuya Nomura Rap sheet at MobyGames
- Tetsuya Nomura profile, interviews, and photo gallery at the Square Haven People Database