• Register
  • TOS
  • Privacy
  • @NeoGAF

duckroll
mashadar's neko-mimi slave
(Today, 09:09 AM)
duckroll's Avatar
In "The Art of Bravely" (the Bravely Default artbook which just came out), Yoshida's message to fans confirms that he left Square Enix since November. He says he'll still work on the series as needed though, probably on a contractual basis.
Nirolak
Spatula Khan
(Today, 09:10 AM)
Nirolak's Avatar
I'm curious to see what he does in the future.

Since Square Enix doesn't make that many non-mobile games anymore, and he's not on their two remaining console projects, I imagine he wanted to spread his wings.
KyanMehwulfe
Member
(Today, 09:10 AM)
KyanMehwulfe's Avatar
Please please rejoin Matsuno somewhere anywhere I'll pay anything
jiggle
Member
(Today, 09:10 AM)
jiggle's Avatar
WHAT
noooooooooooooooooooo
Kintaro
Worships the porcelain goddess
(Today, 09:11 AM)
Kintaro's Avatar
Wow. Massive loss. =(
Hours Left
Member
(Today, 09:11 AM)
Hours Left's Avatar
The writing was on the wall for a while.

As long as they still contract him for future Bravely and Ogre games, I think it's probably for the best. Now we can see some other companies utilize his stuff.

Though as obvious by the art for Bravely Second, he's already working with SE again.
Basileus777
Member
(Today, 09:11 AM)
Basileus777's Avatar

Originally Posted by Nirolak

I'm curious to see what he does in the future.

Since Square Enix doesn't make that many non-mobile games anymore, and he's not on their two remaining console projects, I imagine he wanted to spread his wings.

Does the platform really matter so much for an artist? One who worked plenty on less capable devices than modern smartphones?

Originally Posted by Hours Left

As long as they still contract him for future Bravely and Ogre games, I think it's probably for the best. Now we can see some other companies utilize his stuff.

Will they even make more Ogre games?
ProfessorMoran
Member
(Today, 09:12 AM)
ProfessorMoran's Avatar

Originally Posted by duckroll

In "The Art of Bravely" (the Bravely Default artbook which just came out), Yoshida's message to fans confirms that he left Square Enix since November. He says he'll still work on the series as needed though, probably on a contractual basis.

Oh no.

He's the best artist at SE.

First Matsuno, now Akihiko Yoshida, who's next?
Kageshinzo
Member
(Today, 09:12 AM)
Kageshinzo's Avatar
Yoshida should go hook up with Sakaguchi and get him back to making proper console games instead of taking pictures of sunsets and posting them on Facebook. :(
Inorigo
Member
(Today, 09:12 AM)
Inorigo's Avatar
Great loss. He's been the best artist they've had for years.
TheFLYINGManga_Ka
Member
(Today, 09:13 AM)
TheFLYINGManga_Ka's Avatar
Square Enix: Make ios games!

Yoshida: See ya.
Nirolak
Spatula Khan
(Today, 09:13 AM)
Nirolak's Avatar

Originally Posted by Basileus777

Does the platform really matter so much for an artist? One who worked plenty on less capable devices than modern smartphones?

Will they even make more Ogre games?

Well, I imagine the amount of effort that goes into the games and recreating said art is more relevant than the hardware.
Eusis
Member
(Today, 09:13 AM)
Eusis's Avatar

Originally Posted by Hours Left

The writing was on the wall for a while.

As long as they still contract him for future Bravely and Ogre games, I think it's probably for the best. Now we can see some other companies utilize his stuff.

Ideally they'd just give Ogre to Matsuno and be done with it, but you never see that happen with Japanese companies and he'd need his own studio again for that to even matter anyway.

Originally Posted by ProfessorMoran

Oh no.

He's the best artist at SE.

First Matsuno, now Akihiko Yoshida, who's next?

Nomura leaves. Then we truly witness the internet lose its collective shit.
miladesn
Member
(Today, 09:13 AM)
miladesn's Avatar
now maybe he can work with Matsuno on his new things...
duckroll
mashadar's neko-mimi slave
(Today, 09:13 AM)
duckroll's Avatar

Originally Posted by ProfessorMoran

Oh no.

He's the best artist at SE.

First Matsuno, now Akihiko Yoshida, who's next?

Team Ogre:
Yasumi Matsuno
Akihiko Yoshida
Hiroshi Minagawa
Hitoshi Sakimoto
fredrancour
Member
(Today, 09:13 AM)

Originally Posted by ProfessorMoran

Oh no.

He's the best artist at SE.

First Matsuno, now Akihiko Yoshida, who's next?

Rumors say Nomura is going to leave to found an indie belts-and-zippers manufacturing firm, with a side business of hair-gel manufacturing.
DJIzana
Member
(Today, 09:13 AM)
DJIzana's Avatar

Originally Posted by Nirolak

I'm curious to see what he does in the future.

Since Square Enix doesn't make that many non-mobile games anymore, and he's not on their two remaining console projects, I imagine he wanted to spread his wings.

I'm curious too... there's no one that has a better art style as amazing as Akihiko Yoshida, in my opinion. Nomura is still a talented one there and he's pretty good but absolutely no comparison between him and Akihiko Yoshida.

Once Nomura leaves... I'm out.
danthefan
Member
(Today, 09:14 AM)

Originally Posted by Hours Left

The writing was on the wall for a while.

As long as they still contract him for future Bravely and Ogre games, I think it's probably for the best. Now we can see some other companies utilize his stuff.

Though as obvious by the art for Bravely Second, he's already working with SE again.

There's a future Ogre game!?
pirata
Member
(Today, 09:14 AM)
pirata's Avatar

Originally Posted by jiggle

WHAT
noooooooooooooooooooo

At this point, working for Square means you're pretty much consigned to cell phone games for all eternity. You should be glad that a talented developer escaped that fate. Hopefully the indie movement will become big in Japan soon. The country desperately needs it.
Hours Left
Member
(Today, 09:14 AM)
Hours Left's Avatar

Originally Posted by danthefan

There's a future Ogre game!?

I'm putting it out into the universe, Oprah style.
HeelPower
Member
(Today, 09:14 AM)
HeelPower's Avatar
Wasn't he also responsible for FFXIV ARR's art ?

Well it sounds bad ,but hopefully he can still work with SE from time to time.

:/
Mauricio_Magus
Member
(Today, 09:15 AM)
Mauricio_Magus's Avatar
That's so sad, his art is amazing, I hope Square keeps contracting him for Bravely Default at least.
tiggerkiddo
Member
(Today, 09:15 AM)
tiggerkiddo's Avatar
That guy was the man, I hope he can work on something worthwhile.
foxuzamaki
Member
(Today, 09:15 AM)
foxuzamaki's Avatar
Guess bravely second might be the last game he fully works on with SE
TheBatman
Member
(Today, 09:15 AM)
TheBatman's Avatar
A sad day indeed for Ivalice.
Gutss
Junior Member
(Today, 09:15 AM)
Gutss's Avatar
Vagant story what a game this is, its hard but its so rewarding, good call leaving Sqenix dont want you to root with a mobile game company, go some where else like monolith, mistwalker.
Eusis
Member
(Today, 09:16 AM)
Eusis's Avatar

Originally Posted by pirata

At this point, working for Square means you're pretty much consigned to cell phone games for all eternity. You should be glad that a talented developer escaped that fate. Hopefully the indie movement will become big in Japan soon. The country desperately needs it.

Yeah, Nintendo doesn't seem to have favorable conditions for their systems, but I wonder if Sony does for theirs? Would be interesting if the PS4 takes off in that regard, especially if we get companies that will localize that stuff like CarpeFulgar.

... Man, I really do think I'll be reminiscing when SE made non-mobile games by the end of this next generation. :/

Originally Posted by foxuzamaki

Guess bravely second might be the last game he fully works on with SE

Well, it does sound like he'd still work with them probably on a contractual basis, so admittedly I can see it being a situation where it's effectively the same as before, just that he shows up in non-SE games again.
Pappasman
Member
(Today, 09:16 AM)
Pappasman's Avatar
Yoshida is one of my favorite artists in gaming. His work is incredible. Hopefully he can move on to quality products.
Hours Left
Member
(Today, 09:16 AM)
Hours Left's Avatar

Originally Posted by foxuzamaki

Guess bravely second might be the last game he fully works on with SE

If he left in November, I would guess that his work on Bravely Second is already on a contractual basis.

It does indicate that the split was on good terms.
Glass Rebel
Member
(Today, 09:17 AM)
Glass Rebel's Avatar
Huge loss for Square-Enix. He's the best artist they've had, arguably the best in the industry. For fans of his work this could be better though.
dc89
Member
(Today, 09:17 AM)
dc89's Avatar
Welp, what a loss. Guess he didn't want to work on the $15.99 Vagrant Story iOS port.
Knurek
Member
(Today, 09:17 AM)
Knurek's Avatar

Originally Posted by duckroll

Team Ogre:
Yasumi Matsuno
Akihiko Yoshida
Hiroshi Minagawa
Hitoshi Sakimoto

Was Sakimoto ever employed by Sqeenix? I imagine they contracted him (or Basiscape) for the few games he scored for Matsuno.

Also, you forgot Masaharu Iwata, who scored half of TO/OB scores and Hayato Matsuo (few tracks for OB, loads for OB64)
Hesemonni
Member
(Today, 09:18 AM)
Hesemonni's Avatar
Sooo Vagrant Story II for PS4 confirmed!
TheFLYINGManga_Ka
Member
(Today, 09:18 AM)
TheFLYINGManga_Ka's Avatar

Originally Posted by fredrancour

Rumors say Nomura is going to leave to found an indie belts-and-zippers manufacturing firm, with a side business of hair-gel manufacturing.

LoL! And a mobile phone business, since he always puts in mobile phones in his games.

I doubt Nomura would leave...he still has at least ten years to finish KH3 and FFXV!

How about Kitase? What is he going to so without Lightning!?
Necromanti
Member
(Today, 09:18 AM)
Necromanti's Avatar
It seems that a lot of former Square-Enix staff end up on working on mobile games or just fade away into the ether. And it's not like their prospects were any more positive when they were still at the company, anyway. Mistwalker's output has been kind of meager as well. This is depressing.
Oublieux
Member
(Today, 09:18 AM)
Oublieux's Avatar
I... This makes me sad. Square-Enix, what are you doing letting talent get away like that?
JDSN
You must walk home naked, dragging behind you the Stone of Shame.
(Today, 09:19 AM)
JDSN's Avatar
Oh great, another future mobile game that I wont give a shit.
Basileus777
Member
(Today, 09:19 AM)
Basileus777's Avatar

Originally Posted by Eusis

Yeah, Nintendo doesn't seem to have favorable conditions for their systems, but I wonder if Sony does for theirs? Would be interesting if the PS4 takes off in that regard, especially if we get companies that will localize that stuff like CarpeFulgar.

... Man, I really do think I'll be reminiscing when SE made non-mobile games by the end of this next generation. :/

I don't think it's the platform conditions that are the biggest barrier, but the way that the doujin scene works in Japan.
Eusis
Member
(Today, 09:20 AM)
Eusis's Avatar

Originally Posted by Basileus777

I don't think it's the platform conditions that are the biggest barrier, but the way that the doujin scene works in Japan.

Oh yeah, I definitely figure a cultural shift in that scene would need to happen first and foremost, but it doesn't help when someone like Nintendo's way more restrictive in Japan than in America or Europe.
Teknoman
Little Big NeoContra
(Today, 09:20 AM)
Teknoman's Avatar
Im fine with this if it means his art spreads to other genres and developers as well as keeping with S-E RPG when needed.

EDIT: A game with Yoshida, Uematsu, and Sakaguchi would be pretty nice nowadays.

What else has Amano done recently aside from FF title art and concept pieces every so often?
Last edited by Teknoman; Today at 09:22 AM.
jiggle
Member
(Today, 09:20 AM)
jiggle's Avatar

Originally Posted by pirata

At this point, working for Square means you're pretty much consigned to cell phone games for all eternity. You should be glad that a talented developer escaped that fate..

Guess what platform he'll most likely end up on next
raven777
Member
(Today, 09:21 AM)
raven777's Avatar
Hope he still works for FF XIV ARR future stuff.
fredrancour
Member
(Today, 09:21 AM)

Originally Posted by TheFLYINGManga_Ka

LoL! And a mobile phone business, since he always puts in mobile phones in his games.

I doubt Nomura would leave...he still has at least ten years to finish KH3 and FFXV!

How about Kitase? What is he going to so without Lightning!?

He will be fired halfway through the development of his next project when upper management discovers that he has replaced every single character in said game with Lightning in a different outfit.
Kagari
Asleep in the Fantasy
(Today, 09:22 AM)
Kagari's Avatar
SE done goofed.
Jinfash
needs 2 extra inches
(Today, 09:22 AM)
Jinfash's Avatar
Dark_castle
Member
(Today, 09:23 AM)
Dark_castle's Avatar
This sucks.

Hate to see talented designers leaving one after another.

If Hiroyuki Ito and Hiroshi Minagawa are the next ones to leave, this company will be stripped of nearly all the good apples.
Cert.in.Death
Junior Member
(Today, 09:24 AM)
Cert.in.Death's Avatar
Never got the credit he deserved.
On to greener pastures. There are games to be made...
Teknoman
Little Big NeoContra
(Today, 09:24 AM)
Teknoman's Avatar
Kenji "battle theme king" Ito is still around...havent heard much from him lately though.
Riposte
Member
(Today, 09:25 AM)
Riposte's Avatar
They will probably contract him for FFXIV going forward.
kuroneko0509
Junior Member
(Today, 09:25 AM)
kuroneko0509's Avatar
Sigh Square Enix....

Thread Tools