Template:Infobox artist
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), best known for his work on both the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series.[1]
Biography[ | ]
Time before Square[ | ]
Nomura was born in Kōchi, Japan. 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's most notable work came in 1995, when Square asked him to be the character designer for Final Fantasy VII to replace Yoshitaka Amano. It was a critical and commercial success. In 1998, he worked on both Parasite Eve & Brave Fencer Musashi. In 1997, Nomura worked on 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 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, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts II, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, Kingdom Hearts: Coded and most recently, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. He was also responsible for the complete designing and orchestration of The World Ends with You for the Nintendo DS.
He was also the main character designer of Final Fantasy XIII, as well as the character designer of Dissidia: Final Fantasy for the PlayStation Portable.
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.
Nomura is currently working on Kingdom Hearts 3D and other new untitled titles of the Kingdom Hearts series,[2] one of which - Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep - is scheduled for release in 2010 which he had previously mentioned in a Twitter interview[3] and the second in 2011;[2] both of which were mentioned in December 2009 where in mentioned that he was working on two more unannounced projects from an existing franchise.[4] In addition he is also working on Kingdom Hearts III which is currently in the conceptual stages.[2]
Most recently in the July 2010 issue of Game Informer an interview with Nomura revealed that he would be involved with a number of titles with the first of which being announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010.[5]
Works credited[ | ]
| Game name | First released | System name(s) | Nomura's role(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Final Fantasy IV | 1991 | Super Nintendo Entertainment System, PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS | Debugger |
| Final Fantasy V | 1992 | Super Famicom, PlayStation, Game Boy Advance | Battle Graphics |
| Final Fantasy VI | 1995 | Super Nintendo Entertainment System, PlayStation, Game Boy Advance | Graphic Director |
| Live A Live | 1994 | Super Famicom | Tosa-ben Translation |
| Chrono Trigger | 1995 | Super Nintendo Entertainment System, PlayStation, Nintendo DS | Field Graphics |
| Front Mission | 1995 | Super Famicom, PlayStation, WonderSwan Color, Nintendo DS | Graphic Designer |
| Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars | 1996 | Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Virtual Console | Boss Monster Designer |
| DynamiTracer | 1996 | Super Nintendo Entertainment System | Concept Designer |
| Final Fantasy VII | 1997 | PlayStation, Windows, PlayStation Network | Character Designer, Battle Visual Director, Original Story |
| Parasite Eve | 1998 | PlayStation | Character Designer |
| Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring | 1998 | Arcade, PlayStation, PlayStation Network | Character Supervisor |
| Brave Fencer Musashi | 1998 | PlayStation, PlayStation Network | Character Illustrator |
| Parasite Eve II | 1999 | PlayStation | Character Illustrator |
| Final Fantasy VIII | 1999 | PlayStation, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation Network | Character Designer & Battle Visual Director |
| The Bouncer | 2000 | PlayStation 2 | Character Designer |
| Final Fantasy X | 2001 | PlayStation 2 | Character Designer |
| Kingdom Hearts | 2002 | PlayStation 2 | Director, Concept Design, Character Designer & Base Story |
| Final Fantasy X-2 | 2003 | PlayStation 2 | Main Character Designer |
| Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII | 2004 | Mobile phones | Character Designer |
| Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories | 2004 | PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance | Director, Character Designer, Concept Design & Base Story |
| Final Fantasy VII Advent Children | 2004 | Director | |
| Musashi: Samurai Legend | 2005 | PlayStation 2 | Main Character Designer |
| Last Order: Final Fantasy VII | 2005 | Supervising Director | |
| Kingdom Hearts II | 2005 | PlayStation 2 | Director, Character Designer, Concept Design & Base Story |
| Final Fantasy V Advance | 2006 | Game Boy Advance | Monster design |
| Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII | 2006 | PlayStation 2 | Character Designer |
| Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode: Final Fantasy VII | 2006 | Mobile Phones | Character Designer |
| Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII | 2007 | PlayStation Portable | Creative Producer & Character Designer |
| The World Ends With You | 2007 | Nintendo DS | Creative Producer & Main Character Designer |
| Kingdom Hearts coded | 2008 | Mobile Phones | Director, Concept Design, Character Designer & Base Story |
| Dissidia: Final Fantasy | 2008 | PlayStation Portable | Creative Producer & Character Designer |
| Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days | 2009 | Nintendo DS | Director, Concept Designer, Character Designer, Base Story |
| Final Fantasy XIII | 2010 | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | Main Character Designer |
| Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep | 2010 | PlayStation Portable | Director, Concept Designer, Character Designer & Base Story |
| Kingdom Hearts Re:coded | 2010 | Nintendo DS | Director, Concept Designer, Character Designer & Base Story |
| Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy | 2011 | PlayStation Portable | Creative Producer & Character Designer |
| Final Fantasy Versus XIII | TBA | PlayStation 3 | Director, Concept Game Designer, Character Designer & Base Story |
| Final Fantasy Agito XIII | TBA | PlayStation Portable | Character Designer |
| The 3rd Birthday | TBA | PlayStation Portable | Creative producer, Concept design, Character Designer |
References[ | ]
- ↑ Next Generation staff (2007-03-03). The Hot 100 Game Developers of 2007. Next Generation. Future Publishing USA. Retrieved on 2007-04-02[dead link]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Olivia (March 24, 2010). BBS Ultimania Details: 3 New KH Titles?. HeartStation.org. Retrieved on March 21, 2010
- ↑ Anoop Gantayat (March 18, 2010). Tetsuya Nomura Interviewed at Twitter. Andriasang. Retrieved on March 20, 2010
- ↑ Brian Ashcraft (December 22, 2009). Tetsuya Nomura Working On Two Unannounced Titles. Kotaku. Retrieved on December 17, 2009
- ↑ Game Informer Staff (2010-06-05). Game Informer (GameStop Corporation): 84–85.
External links[ | ]
Tetsuya Nomura at the Internet Movie Database- 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