I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt this way. I mentioned it in another thread, but his designs got really sharp and angular during that era. I call it the era of wacky pronged hair, because you get hair that bends in unnatural ways:
Look at his hair!
Hair doesn't bend like that. It doesn't form pronged hooks. It's like Nomura wanted characters' hair to look like tribal tattoos.
You can see it more with his work on Musashi: Samurai Legend
Nomura, what the fuck were you THINKING?! I love Nomura, don't get me wrong. I know he can create some cool costumes and characters, but when he did stuff during THAT era, it just pissed me off! I truly believed that dark age was ushered in by designs like this:
and continued until Crisis Core(which was probably when that style was basically fading away).
Initiated with the first KH(2002), ignited with FFX-2(2003) and lasted until Crisis Core(2007). Yeah, while it was alright for the KH series(because it's stylized as it is), other than that, that era, in Final Fantasy, was the one that made me wish Nomura would just go away and someone new was brought on board, indefinitely. Hell, getting that taste of Yoshida, I wanted him to replace Nomura(or even get Naora to replace him). Of course, Nomura eventually won me back!