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[DKHF]

<_< Does that really need to be a question

If you mean Nomura, he wasn't the art director of the titles he worked on, Naora was lol.

 

[nemisis0]

Thanks for the great work on these titles especially 7 8 and 10, but why does ff15 say TBA for the date.... scary stuff indeed and hoping it was just something before the release date of ff15 was announced.

 

[Inuhanyou]

If you mean Nomura, he wasn't the art director of the titles he worked on, Naora was lol.

What does an art director do anyway? Nomura may have to have been doing double duty on that front, especially if Naora was already working on FF15 since the beginning.

Nozue was the co-director of Advent Children and Kingsglaive was apparently an idea for FFXV he pitched and Tabata supported him. It was his pet project. Nozue is even credited for the story concept of Kingsglaive iirc.

No wonder it turned out how it did, even though i liked Advent Children...i don't think that that co directorial experience helped him much in this instance.

Also...now that's got me curious...Kingsglaive was an idea Nozue pitched? So...if he had not pitched it then it would not have happend? But...that would have left the game in a bad place, since Tabata said key portions of the movie were plot points they could not properly expand on in the game without having the game's development become super long and drawn out(which presumably the SE higherups wanted to avoid at all costs)

I guess now that i think about it, Nozue may have just saved the narrative with that pitching of the idea from being super rushed and jarring, although it still may end up being the case.

 

[qualitydisc]

Thanks for the great work on these titles especially 7 8 and 10, but why does ff15 say TBA for the date.... scary stuff indeed and hoping it was just something before the release date of ff15 was announced.

That's a slide from last year..........

 

[duckroll]

What does an art director do anyway? Nomura may have to have been doing double duty on that front, especially if Naora was already working on FF15 since the beginning.

In Japanese credits language, art director generally refers to the creative head of the background and concept art department. This is true for films, games, animation, etc. So basically the art director is the one who is in charge of leading the visual tone of what the game setting looks like. Paintings which show the tone of imagine scenes, background art paintings to show environment modelers how the areas should look, artistic renditions of town and city layouts, etc.

Nomura is a character designer and director. The sort of art he does is very different. He defines the characters, clothings, and accessories. He might have a hand sometimes in how character motion is handled, and he storyboards scenes when he needs to specify visual direction. Naora is the one who defines how the world looks.

 

[DKHF]

What does an art director do anyway? Nomura may have to have been doing double duty on that front, especially if Naora was already working on FF15 since the beginning.

I'm not very knowledgeable of the job but I think they are in charge of the visual style of the game, not designing the characters. Though XV was slightly different than normal because Naora did do some character design (like old Noctis). I'm guessing Kamikokuryo is art director of FFVIIR since Kitase heavily implied his team (the XIII trilogy team) are working on FFVIIR, and Kamikokuryo was art director for all three XIII games. So Nomura probably isn't doing it.

Edit: duckroll explained it better above.

 

[KojiKnight]

Suddenly all the belts in the Final Fantasy world screamed out in terror, and were suddenly silenced...

(edit) Stupid joke aside, an Art Director's job is to make sure that the art direction (ooooo) matches throughout the game.

If you have a hundred artists working on a hundred different assets, it's very easy for them to get a little too creative/unique. You have to reign them in and make sure that their monster looks like it comes from the same world as that other guy's sword which also looks like it matches that house in the background.

 

[DeSolos]

I have a feeling whatever his next project(s) would have been didn't get greenlit. Type Next was one of them.

 

[Dark_castle]

End of an era.

Thanks for designing one of the best female character in JRPG.

 

[Koozek]

Koozek, mah boi, where you been at?

Doing what any sane person should do at this point: staying out of FFXV-GAF until (after) release. Still the same old, tired discussions that make your head spin and question your very existence. I've seen enough of the game now anyways after the last few, meaty TGS/PAX/EGX streams.

 

[- J - D -]

You can't really consider it the same game. Its not. A lot of staff was changed/removed/added around in the cancellation of Versus and renaming of what was kept of the project to 15. Because there was a lot more staff needed to put it at full priority as a numbered title.

And Nomura had to change certain things as well from the original concept to 15 in order to fit a mainline title, even though i think he had in mind keeping things more similar to what he originally envisioned than what they are going to turn out in the final result, which makes sense considering him and those people working on the original concept have not been on it for a long time.

Jun Akiyama got demoted to working on Kingsglaive instead of the main game, which makes me think there aren't going to be that many CG sequences in the game. Fine by me, it would look weird putting Luna in CG after already having a kingsglaive design, they would have to have the two designs side by side which would be very strange in the same game.

Yoko Shimomura? Although even she's a contractor.
Interesting story -- one of the original CG artists on Versus quit due to stress and then got roped back into the project when his new company got hired to help with Kingsglaive.

As for full time employees.... maybe there are a few who worked on it the entire time but I don't know any by name.

Fascinating. I would be interested in buying a tell-all type of book.

 

[Plywood]

Welp, so much for Type-1! Although I guess he could work freelance with S-E in the future, like every other talented ex-S-E artist.

Funny how that works out, it's good that they tend to have those kind of working relationships though.

Are there actual employees who have worked on this game continuously for 10 years?

The credits list must be huge.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Holy crap!

One of if not the greatest art directors the industry has seen. Thank you for your wonderful contributions.

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

I hope he keeps working with Square Enix in the future, what a legend.

 

[Ran rp]

who else generally handles art direction?

 

[Koozek]

who else generally handles art direction?

Isamu Kamikokuryo.

FFXII:

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/1THI2Yk.jpg[/IMG]

FFXIII/-2/LR:

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/Liub6lX.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/ejJ6Skt.jpg[/IMG]

 

[benzy]

Here's his art seminar at SMU if anyone's interested.

http://youtu.be/E63MciSH_-E

 

[sublimit]

Always loved Naora's work.I hope from now on he's involved in smaller projects where he has more creative freedom.

Unfortunatelly FFXV ,artistically looks all over the place to me and that is probably because way too many people got involved.

 

[silva1991]

are art directors responsible for stuff like enemy/monster designs?

 

[Augemitbutter]

good luck dude.

 

[omnislayer]

are art directors responsible for stuff like enemy/monster designs?

No, not usually.

 

[wmlk]

...wow.

 

[Gbraga]

A living legend. Can't wait to see what's next from him.

Probably will take quite a while, though, given how wanting to take a break and be with his family was the main motivation behind his decision.

 

[Ultimadrago]

Best wishes to him! I really loved the art direction of a number of the games listed under his credits.

 

[MoonsaultSlayer]

As someone who only recognizes Amano and Nomura as FF art staples, what is this person known for?

I'm curious because I'm a big fan of VIII and would like to know what he's responsible for, for context and appreciation.

 

[duckroll]

As someone who only recognizes Amano and Nomura as FF art staples, what is this person known for?

I'm curious because I'm a big fan of VIII and would like to know what he's responsible for, for context and appreciation.

Think of the iconic backgrounds in FFVII, FFVIII, FFX, and FF Type-0. The steampunk of Midgar, the colorful flamboyant style of Balamb Garden, the mystic eastern flavor of Spira, and the imperial Japanese military setting in Type-0. That's all Naora.

 

[orochi91]

Think of the iconic backgrounds in FFVII, FFVIII, FFX, and FF Type-0. The steampunk of Midgar, the colorful flamboyant style of Balamb Garden, the mystic eastern flavor of Spira, and the imperial Japanese military setting in Type-0. That's all Naora.

...

That seems like a significant loss for SE.

:/

 

[Yabberwocky]

Oh, wow, all the best to Naora. End of an era. FFVII, FFVIII, and FFX all had such incredible art direction. FFVII and FFX are still two of my most memorable gaming experiences, and the art direction was such a huge part of that.

(Kamikokuryo isn't allowed to leave Square until we get another Ivalice game out of him. Since that will probably never happen, he has to stay forever.)

 

[True Fire]

His art was great, but I'm glad Final Fantasy is finally moving on from his aesthetic. It was caged by it. He can do wonders as a freelancer I think.

This also tells me that XVI is happening and Square Enix doesn't have backup work for Naora (He worked on X during IX and Agito XIII during XII)

 

[Hibiki Kurosawa]

More power to him. He made some good art, but there are lots of great artists at SE and that work with SE still, so if he wants to leave, I won't miss him too much. Hopefully his future ventures satisfy him. Goodluck Naora!

 

[Ganondorfo]

Final Fantasy doesnt have amazing art since XII. I hope that the new guy will be as good as him or Amano or the Vagrant Story guy.

 

[Pooya]

FF8 still look the best. Maybe he can put out more work as a freelancer, honestly when you look at a lot of Japanese games, they have such bad and janky art direction for the most part, their industry could use talents like him. Namco should hire him for Tales games so that they don't look like the most blandest games in the world.

 

[Rymuth]

For those who are curious what he is responsible for, in visual terms

 

[MissDeviling]

His art was great, but I'm glad Final Fantasy is finally moving on from his aesthetic. It was caged by it. He can do wonders as a freelancer I think.

This also tells me that XVI is happening and Square Enix doesn't have backup work for Naora (He worked on X during IX and Agito XIII during XII)

I don't agree with this at all. Naora has contributed a fantastic variety of worlds and tone throughout the series, and each entry feels different enough because of it.

 

[Acquiescence]

Damn, VII, VIII and X - the three best Final Fantasy games. He put in good work.

 

[Kagari]

Unfortunate but I'm sure he had his reasons.

 

[inner-G]

Damn, his games have some of the best visual design and locations in the series.

I'm wishing him the best and the retirement is mostly merited, so thank you! But it's not the end, my french FF news website said he'll still do freelance job for square enix in the future, so I guess we'll still have a chance to see him around sometime.

That's cool - maybe he will be able to consult and give more conceptual direction, without being mired in the same projects for a decade.

 

[rayman1900]

I'm wishing him the best and the retirement is mostly merited, so thank you! But it's not the end, my french FF news website said he'll still do freelance job for square enix in the future, so I guess we'll still have a chance to see him around sometime.

 

[NateDog]

Such a shame but he leaves behind a wonderful catalogue of work and history for FF art.

 

[duckroll]

Dug out my ancient V Jump FFVIII Visual Guide Book which they released before the game was out to take some Naora photos:

 

[MikeE21286]

I thought this kind of stuff didn't really happen sign japanese companies. Employee for life and all...

Maybe that's just something that used to happen that I'm thinking of

 

[raven777]

Dug out my ancient V Jump FFVIII Visual Guide Book which they released before the game was out to take some Naora photos:

wow he looks really different now..

 

[Calm Mind]

Nintendo will hire him.

 

[Koozek]

His art was great, but I'm glad Final Fantasy is finally moving on from his aesthetic. It was caged by it. He can do wonders as a freelancer I think.

This also tells me that XVI is happening and Square Enix doesn't have backup work for Naora (He worked on X during IX and Agito XIII during XII)

Huh, how? His style ranged from Steampunk-ish Medieval (FFVI) to Industrial Dieselpunk (FFVII) and Fantastical Reality (FFVIII), from South East Asia-inspired (FFX) to now Reality-based Fantasy (FFXV). I'd say the garbage writing since Nojima and Watanabe joined is caging FF creatively way more.

Dug out my ancient V Jump FFVIII Visual Guide Book which they released before the game was out to take some Naora photos:

Whew, I'd love to see all of those books. What other FFs had those?

 

[Spieler Eins]

FFVII/VIII/X/XV

Awesome, does this mean potentially less J-Pop styled entries in the series?

 

[Ran rp]

Awesome, does this mean potentially less J-Pop styled entries in the series?

??

 

[Big Nikus]

Ha, I've got his autograph on a Last Remnant drawing

Good luck sir.

 

[Fou-Lu]

It's always sad to see such talent leave a series you love. Hope he finds work elsewhere.

As excited as I am to finally get FFXV into my hands, it's seeing what FFXVI will be that has me really amped. So much has changed at Square Enix in the past few years.

 

[TDLink]

FF15 saying TBA instead of 2016 bodes well haha.

Big loss though.

 

[MagnaderAlpha]

Nice. He's likely going to go the freelancer route and still work with Square(just like Hideo Minaba and Akihiko Yoshida, or on the musical side, Uematsu, Hamauzu, Mitsuda, and Shimomura). The thing about this is that it also opens more possibilities to work with other studios on non-Square games. Sweet.

Awesome, does this mean potentially less J-Pop styled entries in the series?

Nomura is still at Square.

Besides, Naora was more essential to the look of a lot of those games' worlds. Some of the most iconic locations were designed by him.