Tetsuya Nomura
Birth name	野村 哲也
Born	October 8, 1970 (1970-10-08) (age 39)[1] Kōchi, Japan[1]
Nationality	Japanese
Field	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]

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Time Before Square 1.2 Time at Square 1.3 Movie 1.4 Current work at Square Enix 2 Works credited 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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. He is known for designing characters with many "Belts and zippers".

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Works credited

Game Name	First Released	System Name(s)	Nomura's Role(s)
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	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	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		Director
Kingdom Hearts II	2005	PlayStation 2	Director, Character Designer, Concept Design & Base Story
Final Fantasy V Advance	2006	Super Famicom, PlayStation, 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	Character Designer
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days	2009	Nintendo DS	Director, Concept Designer, Character Designer, Base Story & Scenario Writer
Final Fantasy XIII	2009 (JP), 2010 (NA,EU)	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360	Character Designer
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep	2010	PlayStation Portable	Director, Concept Designer, Character Designer & Base Story
Final Fantasy Agito XIII	?	PlayStation Portable	Character Designer
Final Fantasy Versus XIII	?	PlayStation 3	Director, Concept Game Designer, Character Designer & Base Story
The 3rd Birthday	?	PlayStation Portable	Creative producer, Concept design, Character Designer

[edit] References

[edit] 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