Tetsuya Nomura facts for kids

Tetsuya Nomura (born October 8, 1970) is a famous Japanese video game artist, designer, producer, and director. He works for a company called Square Enix. Nomura first joined Square to design monsters for the game Final Fantasy V in 1992. Later, he helped design characters for Final Fantasy VI (1994).

He became the main character designer for Final Fantasy VII (1997). He also helped create the story for that game. After this, he designed characters for many other Final Fantasy games. He also worked on other popular games like The World Ends with You. Nomura is known for creating famous characters like Cactuar, Gilgamesh, and Tonberry.

Nomura also created and directs the very popular Kingdom Hearts game series. He has been leading this series since it started in 2002. He was also a creative producer for The World Ends with You series. In 2005, he directed the movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. More recently, he directed Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020) and was the creative director for its sequel, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2024).

Early Life and Art

Nomura's father helped him get interested in art and games when he was young. His father would draw small pictures and create unique Sugoroku board games for him. Nomura started drawing at just three years old. He even made his own Sugoroku games when he was in elementary school.

As a child, he loved playing baseball, swimming, and fishing. He also enjoyed building forts. When he was in middle school, his father told him that computers would become very important. His father then bought him his own computer. Nomura played games on it and began learning how to program to create his own video games.

He first played a Nintendo game on a Color TV-Game console. Later, in high school, he borrowed a Family Computer. Around that time, the game Dragon Quest became his favorite. It surprised him and showed him that video games could have great stories. His high school art teacher also introduced him to the work of Yoshitaka Amano, who illustrated Final Fantasy games. Nomura also drew his own manga in class. He thought about becoming a manga artist but decided not to.

Nomura went to a vocational school to learn about magazine and advertising art. He looked for a job in advertising at a publishing company. However, he applied to Square after seeing a job ad with a drawing by Yoshitaka Amano.

Career Highlights

Starting in the 1990s

In 1991, Square hired Nomura. His first job was to find and fix problems (debug) in Final Fantasy IV. Later, he joined the team working on Final Fantasy games. After getting some training from artist Tetsuya Takahashi, Nomura designed monsters for Final Fantasy V.

Back then, each game developer had a "plan book" to show their ideas. Nomura wrote his by hand and added many drawings. This really impressed the director Hironobu Sakaguchi and event planner Yoshinori Kitase. Because of this, Nomura became the graphic director for Final Fantasy VI. For this game, he created the characters Shadow and Setzer. He also wrote their backstories.

After working on a few smaller projects, Nomura was asked to be the main character designer for Final Fantasy VII. He took over from Amano for this role. Nomura drew the characters in a unique, stylized way. He also came up with the idea for "Limit Break" attacks. He helped create the story, including important parts like Aerith's death.

In 1998, Nomura worked on Parasite Eve and Brave Fencer Musashi. Then, he designed characters and monsters for Final Fantasy VIII. He said this game showed his "actual style of drawing." He worked with art director Yusuke Naora to make the game's graphics look more realistic. He also wrote the characters' backstories and directed the battle visuals. Nomura also designed characters for the 1998 fighting game Ehrgeiz, which included characters from Final Fantasy VII.

The 2000s: Kingdom Hearts Begins

In 2000, Nomura designed characters for the game The Bouncer. He then returned to the Final Fantasy series as a character designer for Final Fantasy X in 2001. He worked with the team to make sure characters' clothes looked the same in both cutscenes and gameplay.

In February 2000, he started directing Kingdom Hearts. The team had over a hundred people from both Square and Disney Interactive. Nomura first heard about the game when Shinji Hashimoto and Hironobu Sakaguchi talked about using Mickey Mouse in a game. He was inspired to work on Kingdom Hearts by Nintendo's game Super Mario 64. Nomura convinced the Disney team to use new, original characters. The main character, Sora, became his favorite character he had ever designed.

After Kingdom Hearts, Nomura worked on Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy X-2. He also designed characters for the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series, which included new games based on Final Fantasy VII.

Work on a Kingdom Hearts sequel began after Kingdom Hearts Final Mix was finished. This updated version added hints about the series' story. Nomura continued his work with Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories for the Game Boy Advance in 2004. He had planned to work directly on Kingdom Hearts II for PlayStation 2. But fans wanted to play the original game on a portable console. So, Chain of Memories was made to connect the stories of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II.

After that, Nomura directed and wrote lyrics for the CGI animated film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. It came out in Japan in 2005. This was his first time directing a movie, and he redesigned the characters for it. He joined the film's team after producer Yoshinori Kitase called him. He became a director because he felt a strong connection to the character Cloud Strife. He shared the directing role with Takeshi Nozue.

Kingdom Hearts II was released in 2005. It explained things hinted at in the first game. Since it was set a year after previous games, Nomura made sure the story was easy for new players to understand. After Square Enix finished Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, Disney asked Nomura about a sequel. He said they had ideas but were not ready to announce anything.

Nomura wanted to pause using Sora for a bit. Instead, he wanted to make games that explained different parts of the story. This led to Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days for the Nintendo DS in 2008. This game showed events that set up the story of Kingdom Hearts II. In 2007, Nomura wanted to create a Kingdom Hearts game for mobile phones. He wanted it to play a bit differently. This resulted in Kingdom Hearts Coded, a game set after Kingdom Hearts II. It was later remade for the Nintendo DS in 2010.

Meanwhile, Nomura also designed the main characters for The World Ends with You for the Nintendo DS. In 2009, he was the main character designer for Final Fantasy XIII. The powerful graphics of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 allowed him to add more complex details to character designs. This included things like Lightning's cape and detailed faces. This meant the art team had to work much harder on each character.

In 2008, he designed characters for Dissidia Final Fantasy. Nomura first thought of this game as a Kingdom Hearts spin-off with Disney characters. But he felt uncomfortable with Disney characters fighting each other. So, he chose to use Final Fantasy characters instead. Nomura was in charge of the character designs, which changed a lot from Amano's original art.

The 2010s: New Directions

In 2010, Square released Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. This game was a prequel to the first Kingdom Hearts. It explained scenes shown in Kingdom Hearts II. In early 2011, Square released a follow-up to Dissidia called Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. This game included new characters and gameplay ideas Nomura had from the start.

For Final Fantasy XIII-2 in 2011, Nomura only designed the new characters' faces. Other team members designed their clothes. After the Kingdom Hearts Coded remake came out, Nomura and his team thought about creating Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. This game would set up the events for Kingdom Hearts III. It was released for the Nintendo 3DS because the team liked the console's quality.

Nomura also confirmed he would consider an "HD Technical Test" to celebrate the series' tenth anniversary. This would also help new players get into the series. This happened on March 3, 2012, at a special event. Footage from the game, including its full CGI introduction, was shown to celebrate the game's release. In May 2012, Nomura said he was directing a new Kingdom Hearts game that Square Enix had not yet announced.

He was also directing Final Fantasy XV. This game started being made as Final Fantasy Versus XIII before it was announced in May 2006. Nomura left his director role on Final Fantasy XV in December 2013. This was due to "changes in development." After leaving Final Fantasy XV, work began on Final Fantasy VII Remake. Nomura directed this project. Other key members from the original Final Fantasy VII team, Kitase and Kazushige Nojima, returned as producer and writer. At E3 2015, Final Fantasy VII Remake was announced, and Nomura was confirmed as its director.

Nomura also designed characters for the "Torna" group in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. He also designed bosses for the Eden raid in Final Fantasy XIV's expansion, Shadowbringers.

The 2020s: Current Projects

In April 2020, Nomura and Square Enix released the very popular Final Fantasy VII Remake. He worked as the director, character designer, and concept designer for this game. After its successful launch, Nomura worked on extra content for the game called "Intermission," released in 2021.

During this time, he was also working on the next game, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Work for that project began in 2019. In an interview, he revealed that progress for the game would be shown in 2022. No specific release date was given at that time. For Rebirth, he became the creative director, which means he was in charge of the game's overall creative vision. He also continued as the concept designer and character designer.

He is also working on the recently announced Kingdom Hearts IV. Like previous games, he will be in charge of character design, story, and concept design. No release date has been given for this project. More visual updates for the game will come later. In October 2022, Nomura also created art pieces of his characters for postcards that could be bought. He also made artwork to introduce Kingdom Hearts IV. This art showed many characters he has created throughout the long history of the games.

Art Style and Inspirations

Nomura sees Yoshitaka Amano as one of his biggest inspirations for his artwork. His four "seniors" (mentors) Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yoshinori Kitase, Hiroyuki Ito, and Tetsuya Takahashi also greatly influenced him. He even called Sakaguchi "like a godly figure" when he first started at Square.

At that time, Ito also taught Nomura the basics of game design. Ito told Nomura not to stick to old ideas. Instead, he should reuse only specific ideas. He also explained concepts like making games easy to control and magic spells easy to use. Ito's work as a battle system designer inspires Nomura when he thinks about the gameplay for Kingdom Hearts games.

When designing characters, Nomura wants their names and outfits to match their personalities. For example, in Final Fantasy X, the main character Tidus wears a colorful uniform. This shows his cheerful personality and is different from earlier, more serious Final Fantasy characters. Tidus's name and Yuna's name (another character in the game) both have a common theme. Tidus is Okinawan for "Sun," and Yuna is Okinawan for "night."

Many characters, like Squall Leonheart and Lulu, have many accessories. This makes the games more challenging for the programmers to create. When directing Advent Children, Nomura explained that the film was different from Western movies. This was because the plot did not give direct answers. He added that he wants viewers to think about certain scenes themselves. Then, they can discuss them with friends as another way to enjoy the film. The same happens in the Kingdom Hearts series. Scenes with unknown characters are left for the player to imagine until the next scene reveals who they are.

Works List

Awards and Recognition

Nomura received an award called "Excellence in Visual Arts." This was from the International Game Developers Association. He got it for his work on the first Kingdom Hearts game, along with Shinji Hashimoto. In a list by IGN called "The Top 100 Video Game Creators of all Time," Nomura was ranked at number 84.

Images for kids

• Nomura.jpg

  Nomura in 2015

See also

In Spanish: Tetsuya Nomura para niños