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Isamu Kamikokuryo (Art Director for FFXII, FFXIII trilogy, FFXV) has left Square Enix

W

wmlk

Member
i4mmhCo.png


https://twitter.com/kamikoku2009/status/848052711291445248

Google Translate:
Yesterday, on 3/31, has resigned from Square Enix. Since joining in 1999 was 18 years.
Starting from FF10 concept artist to FF15 wonderful new experience. The company giving me the opportunities get to meet many people and talent is filled with gratitude.
Click to expand...

Mods can hijack with a better translation if needed.

EDIT: Better translation from Gematsu.

0eisWPV.png
 
Z

ZeoVGM

Banned
Damn, long career there.

Despite the divisiveness of XII and the XIII games, the art in all of them is unquestionably fantastic.
 
J

jdstorm

Banned
Hope he has something equally rewarding lined up. The visuals in all those titles mentioned above are amazing
 
SoulUnison

SoulUnison

Banned
Art direction and visuals certainly haven't been my problem with SquareEnix over the last decade.

Shame to see him go.
 
Y

Yabberwocky

Member
noooooooooooo

All the best to him, I've always loved his work, FFXII especially. He's done some of my favorite FF concept art pieces in general, too.

.....

noooooooooooooooooooooo
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
SoulUnison said:
Art direction and visuals certainly haven't been my problem with SquareEnix over the last decade.

Shame to see him go.
Click to expand...

Well said.

The art (and the music) has been top-notch throughout, even for those of use that have had issues with Square Enix's output.

He will be missed.
 
D

DiipuSurotu

Banned
Good.

A talent like him shouldn't be stuck for years on end on development hell projects like FFXII, FFXIII and FFXV.

He was at SE for 18 years and only worked on 8 games in that time span.

Lunafreya Nox Fleuret said:
Always sad to see a big career end. I'm glad he loved what he did but wants to find something else now. That Lightning piece above is one of my favourites.
Click to expand...

What? This isn't the end of anything.
 
K

Koozek

Member
:(

Wishing him the best for the future. He did great work on FFXII and the FFXIII-saga:

Code: 
[IMG]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/f3/d1/9c/f3d19c6716b972e66502e379a84e9383.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/rxzuAdT.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://squareportal.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/ffxiii_artwork.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b6/a9/5f/b6a95fa0041633efd9c9a8c3a311cc46.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/BdmltL1.jpg[/IMG]
---


With him and Naora having left after FFXV I guess it's time for Yuki Matsuzawa to shine now, hopefully on his own mainline FF! I've absolutely loved everything he's done in the last years.

Code: 
[IMG]http://abload.de/img/ffxv6got4.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/sZq4YkR.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CPESt3ZXAAQHpSn.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/Yb5LDcf.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/wmFy0HF.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/fK8GmvL.png[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/k2oa4vQ.jpg[/IMG]
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[IMG]http://static.blog.playstation.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/murder.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3849/14164265290_650a3e696e_b.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2938/14347524081_db00ccb28d_b.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://eu.square-enix.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/post-image/image_gallery/600/ddda3e41a1a74cc7bfb7478e02b45b3a.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/Ov15G6h.png[/IMG]
 
Z

zeromcd73

Member
Speaking of people resigning from Square Enix:

https://twitter.com/VP_yamagishi

The producer of the Valkyrie Profile series, Star Ocean series, and the current mobile game Valkyrie Anatomia (Valkyrie Profile series) just announced he resigned from Square Enix. He will be going to work for a different game company.
 
D

duckroll

Member
Bladenic said:
FF games are gonna be a lot uglier now :(
Click to expand...

Why? He didn't say he's not going to work with S-E anymore. He's just going freelance.

I'm happy that the big artists at S-E are taking cues from the big composers. Leaving the company and going freelance is the best direction for their careers because it offers more opportunities once you are a known quantity. Makes no sense to stick at the company when they can't even ramp up enough work on substantial projects. Artists end up having to do extra work on throwaway mobile titles, promo stuff, and so on. It's a waste of time when they can be working on multiple big projects for different publishers instead.
 
D

DiipuSurotu

Banned
duckroll said:
Why? He didn't say he's not going to work with S-E anymore. He's just going freelance.

I'm happy that the big artists at S-E are taking cues from the big composers. Leaving the company and going freelance is the best direction for their careers because it offers more opportunities once you are a known quantity. Makes no sense to stick at the company when they can't even ramp up enough work on substantial projects. Artists end up having to do extra work on throwaway mobile titles, promo stuff, and so on. It's a waste of time when they can be working on multiple big projects for different publishers instead.
Click to expand...

Maybe Bladenic wanted Kamikokuryo to work on this: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1356991
 
mortal

mortal

Gold Member
Kamikokuryo is one of my favorite concept artists. I've always admired his ability in creating these dreamscape like environments for Final Fantasy, he provided some truly otherworldly aesthetics as an art director. His style is like a really pleasing blend of 19th century romanticism and sci fi.

It's sad to see him go, but at the same time I think it's also wonderful that more and more seasoned talent are making way for a new generation of artists to take creative lead for future Final Fantasy titles.
Hope he continues to provide his talent in other interesting projects.

His illustration of Shiva over Bujherba is one my favorites pieces from him:
rxzuAdT.jpg
Click to expand...
 
A

APZonerunner

Member
duckroll said:
Why? He didn't say he's not going to work with S-E anymore. He's just going freelance.

I'm happy that the big artists at S-E are taking cues from the big composers. Leaving the company and going freelance is the best direction for their careers because it offers more opportunities once you are a known quantity. Makes no sense to stick at the company when they can't even ramp up enough work on substantial projects. Artists end up having to do extra work on throwaway mobile titles, promo stuff, and so on. It's a waste of time when they can be working on multiple big projects for different publishers instead.
Click to expand...

It's true that he's likely going to continue working with SE/FF in some capacity as a freelancer, but it's worth generally bearing in mind that Kamikokuryo's role on most of the big projects he's been on has been to head up a larger art team and try to provide a guiding direction that keeps the game as a cohesive whole. This often involved major art coming from other sources (Hasegawa, Nomura, Naora, Minaba, Yoshida etc) plus a bunch of smaller, junior artists working under them. He became the go-to guy for unifying a game's direction in that sense.

This sort of job is unlikely to be one that can be done effectively from outside SE, especially with the sheer amount of art needed for a major game like a full-scale FF, so I think it's fairly unlikely we'll see him take on that kind of job again. I'm sure we'll see him contribute character designs and concept designs to games in the same way Yoshida has since leaving SE, though... but that's very different to his fingerprints being all over the game's visual identity from top to bottom.

Given the size of art teams, I think it's pretty hard for an artist to be effective in the same way as an outsider compared to composers, who work in relative isolation anyway.

There are plenty of great people left who can do that job anyway... it'll just be different. In that sense I'll miss him being in-house.
 
K

Koozek

Member
APZonerunner said:
It's true that he's likely going to continue working with SE/FF in some capacity as a freelancer, but it's worth generally bearing in mind that Kamikokuryo's role on most of the big projects he's been on has been to head up a larger art team and try to provide a guiding direction that keeps the game as a cohesive whole. This often involved major art coming from other sources (Hasegawa, Nomura, Naora, Minaba, Yoshida etc) plus a bunch of smaller, junior artists working under them. He became the go-to guy for unifying a game's direction in that sense.

This sort of job is unlikely to be one that can be done effectively from outside SE, especially with the sheer amount of art needed for a major game like a full-scale FF, so I think it's fairly unlikely we'll see him take on that kind of job again. I'm sure we'll see him contribute character designs and concept designs to games in the same way Yoshida has since leaving SE, though... but that's very different to his fingerprints being all over the game's visual identity from top to bottom.

Given the size of art teams, I think it's pretty hard for an artist to be effective in the same way as an outsider compared to composers, who work in relative isolation anyway.

There are plenty of great people left who can do that job anyway... it'll just be different. In that sense I'll miss him being in-house.
Click to expand...
Yuki Matsuzawa era now 🙏
 
Myths

Myths

Member
No... I'm going to miss his presence and influence. XII was teeming with class while XIII took us with juxtaposed realities. The latter especially when it was dev disaster...
 
Perfo

Perfo

Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
Definitely my favorite artist in there, sad he left but I'm here hoping he'll continue actively working with them in the next years.
 
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