Amano vs Nomura vs Yoshida

[the AJman]

Amano and Nomura have been the two longest lasting and most recognizable character designers for the Final Fantasy series. Yoshida is the main character artist for Ivalice one of the biggest sub series in the franchise.

So who do you think was the best character designer for the series and don't forget to explain why, its always interesting to see how other people feel.

Crap I messed up Amano's name on the poll, and I can't figure out how to fix it

[Nice]

Crap I messed up Amano's name on the poll, and I can't figure out how to fix it

^.^ Don't sweat it.

Ahhh, I guess I'll go old school with Amano. Scratch that, Namura did VII, I'll go with him. =p

[black orb]

>>> I dont know who is the best, but I know who is the most important for the series and that is Amano.

[Jessweeee♪]

I really liked all of them tbh.

[scrumpleberry]

Amano, then Yoshida.

I've never been able to stand Nomura to be honest.

"This character looks kind of boring...what to do...ehh, let's give him a really girly top and cute little jacket...or should I go with the zip-up jumpsuit this time..? maybe slice up his pants a bit...and...and...belts! More belts! MOARRRR BELTS!!! (http://republika.pl/blog_zn_3552115/4324050/tr/nooj.jpg) There, now he looks just (http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-02/kh2-seifer.html) faaaa (http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-02/kh-cloud.html)bulous (http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-01/ff10-seymour.html)!"

Yeah.

[Slothy]

Nomura is too generic for me.

Amano definitely has the most original style of the lot of them if you ask me, and the one I enjoy the most. Yoshida is awesome as well though.

[Freie-Kefka]

Amano! He has the most original stile. Yoshida is a very good artist, while Nomura's sketches are somehow trite.

http://www.amanosworld.com/html/images/hiten1.jpg °_°

[Dreddz]

Nothing beats Amano's classic character designs.

Nomura is too generic for me.
Really? I'd say he has the least generic character designs out of the three. At least back when he first started designing characters. Now his style is copied quite a bit so it has lost a lot of its identity. All that said, I think Nomura's designs are bad for the most part with the odd exception here and there.

[Jessweeee♪]

Amano, then Yoshida.

I've never been able to stand Nomura to be honest.

"This character looks kind of boring...what to do...ehh, let's give him a really girly top and cute little jacket...or should I go with the zip-up jumpsuit this time..? maybe slice up his pants a bit...and...and...belts! More belts! MOARRRR BELTS!!! (http://republika.pl/blog_zn_3552115/4324050/tr/nooj.jpg) There, now he looks just (http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-02/kh2-seifer.html) faaaa (http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-02/kh-cloud.html)bulous (http://http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-01/ff10-seymour.html)!"

Yeah.

I won't deny that Nooj is the ugliest thing ever to exist ever.

[Slothy]

Nomura is too generic for me.
Really? I'd say he has the least generic character designs out of the three. At least back when he first started designing characters. Now his style is copied quite a bit so it has lost a lot of its identity. All that said, I think Nomura's designs are bad for the most part with the odd exception here and there.

He's always had a pretty generic anime styling if you ask me. Now he's not only got the typical anime styling, but his designs are even highly derivative of his prior work now. So yeah, I'd say they're generic in that sense.

[arcanedude34]

Who designed Zidane,, NEVER had anything to do with Nooj and remembers that people typically have noses? That's the guy what won it for me.

plus he's cool enough to have his name censored. Yohttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifhttp://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gifaka haha.

[black orb]

>>> hehe, looks like some fans are giving their backs to Nomura these days, Im not going to defend Nomura but I have lot of respect for his work in the ff series, if im not wrong every ff/ff related game he has worked on as a character designer are the best selling ones, coincidence? I dont think so..

[Zeromus_X]

They're all cool, but Amano is my favorite.

[Fynn]

Amano. mainly because he's actually an artist, a painter, not just a character designer... Yoshida comes close, some of his arts for FFXII were simply amazing.

[Saber]

I'm gonna go with the crowd here

[sir helix]

theres nothing wrong with an over amount of belts.....exept when you have to go to the bath room

[Bolivar]

I can't really even consider Amano in this because his designs have never been faithfully interpreted in a game, to the extent that the most basic aspects of their appearance have been changed. Even when it came time to remake his characters in more detail (Final Fantasy III and IV DS) they opted to get different artists (Yoshida and (can't remember?), respectively). However, with the one screenshot of the character in front of the painting (http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/903/903020/final-fantasy-versus-xiii-20080826034415700.jpg), it looks like he may finally get some representation in Final Fantasy Versus XIII.

Belt and buckel fetishes aside, Nomura has always struck me for his original concepts, making characters one has never quite seen before. Although VIII definately tried to maintain a real world (school days) aesthetic, I would say all his games have an original flare I'd commend him for.

Yoshida also is a heavy contender, especially for his work on Final Fantasy XII. If you take a good look at the characters in the field, even their faces with the way their eyes look, it's really impressive how his style translates into the game. FFXII I give credit for being apart of the amazing "last generation" lineup of PS2 games that really went all out for te console. Of course his art and the rendering of such in vagrant story, FFTactics especially is enough to make him legendary. Definately one of the greats in the industry today and I'd like to see him contracted out for more SE projects in the near future, hopefully a Fabula Nova Crystalis installment in the XIII series with Hiroshi Minagawa and Sakimoto preferrably.

[jammi567]

Whilst Amano has a fettish of trying to dramatically reduce the human population by roughly half by making all his male characters gay, Nomura only has a thing for zippers, spiky hair and belts. Can you see why I prefer the latter to the former?

[Slothy]

Whilst Amano has a fettish of trying to dramatically reduce the human population by roughly half by making all his male characters gay, Nomura only has a thing for zippers, spiky hair and belts. Can you see why I prefer the latter to the former?

Ironically, Nomura has designed some of the more effeminite characters in the series. Coincidence?

[Wolf Kanno]

Its difficult for me to make decisions in this. I'm very bias towards Amano cause I respect him as an artist and I adore all his works. In my opinion he's easily the best artist out of the three but Yoshida is not very far behind either. I would love to see more non-FF related work from Yoshida.

Amano's works have never been properly transferred to games with a few minor exceptions. I always felt the FMVs of Anthology were breathtaking to behold and through them I feel its easier to understand where Amano's influence can be felt. Amano's designs and illustrations are inspiring and dreamlike. They capture the imagination of the viewer and show fantastic places we see only in our dreams. Even his characters are set with mood and life. He doesn't draw pictures, he captures moments.

This is where I have issues with Nomura. Nomura is a true character designer. His designs feel lifeless in comparison to the other two cause he tends to draw flat images with the characters basically staring in the distance. They lack emotion. His style is also rather unimaginative and borrows heavily from the anime industry of the 80's and early 90's as well as whatever is fashionable in Shibuya. They are not bad though just simplistic and plain in comparison to the other two. I prefer Nomura's heavy anime style and I must say its good to see it come back. His lifelike drawings are boring unless he makes them fashion disasters. I also wish he could make better outfits, they seem to range from boring and plain (VII, VIII, AC, FFvXIII) to just plain gaudy (VIII, X, X-2, KH, FFXIII) Personally, I wish he would return to monster designs as that is where his real creativity seemed to flourish imo.

Yoshida has been a fave since FFT but now with games like Vagrant Story and XII under his belt and showing his diversity, I must say I feel Yoshida has proven worthy of taking over the mantle of lead character designer.

I will also say that Amano will always be remembered as the character designer for the FF series. Dissidia is more than proof since Nomura took such painstaking lengths to capture Amano's style and designs for the characters. In fact, Nomura's redesigns of Amano's pictures are probably my favorite works he's done.

[Rocket Edge]

I like Nomuras stuff, regardless of some criticism that has come his way. However, nothing touches Amano's artwork.

[Jiro]

I have to say Amano, but the other two are not far behind.