Who would you recruit to make your dream team?

[TheSpoonyBard]

Production team, that is. If you were creating your own Final Fantasy game, who would you employ to help you?

If you don't recognise the names you'll surely recognise their work so that might help you make your decision.

Scenario Writer
Akitoshi Kawazu - I, II
Kenji Terada - I, II, III
Takashi Tokita - IV
Yoshinori Kitase - V, VI, VII
Kazushige Nojima - VII, VIII, X, X-2, DoC, CC
Kazuhiko Aoki - IX
Yasumi Matsuno - Tactics, XII
Masato Kato - XI
Daisuke Watanabe - X-2, XII

Character Designer/Art Director
Yoshitaka Amano - I, II, III, IV, V, VI, IX
Akihiko Yoshida - III, Tactics, XII
Tetsuya Nomura - V, VI, VII, VIII, X, X-2, DoC, CC
Yusuke Naora - VII, VIII, X, DoC, CC
Toshiyuki Itahana - IX
Tetsuya Nomura - XI
Nobuyoshi Mihara - XI
Tamae Kisanuki - XI
Ryosuke Aiba - XI
Shintaro Taka - X-2

Composer
Nobuo Uematsu - I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII
Hitoshi Sakimoto - Tactics, XII
Masaharu Iwata - Tactics, XII
Masashi Hamauzu - X, DoC
Naoshi Mizuta - XI
Kumi Tanioka - XI
Hayato Matsuo - XII

(list is not comprehensive)

[Brennan]

I don't think Nobuo did FF XII

If I'm only able to pick one from each...

Note: My favorite FFs are V, VI, and X

Scenario Writer
Yoshinori Kitase

Character Designer/Art Director
Tetsuya Nomura

Composer
Nobuo Uematsu

[Cyric]

Actually, if I were Square Enix, since Nobuo is no longer with them, they should talk to Noriyuki Iwadare.

[TheSpoonyBard]

I don't think Nobuo did FF XII
He's still credited with the Prelude and Main Theme and composed the vocal track "Kiss Me Goodbye".


Actually, if I were Square Enix, since Nobuo is no longer with them, they should talk to Noriyuki Iwadare.
Is that the guy who did the Grandia soundtrack? If so, great suggestion.

[Laddy]

Kitase, Nomura, Uematsu.

[Ouch!]

Aoki, Amano, Uematsu. Yes, yes, yes.

[Wolf Kanno]

"Vision" and Project Leader - Hironobu Sakeguchi
Though he's not the complete creative driving force of the FF series, he does know how to use people with talent to make great games and there is just something magical about any game he puts his heart and soul into. His mood really adds a level of life to his projects and I feel a dream team would need this.

Director - Kitase and Matsuno
Matsuno knows how to do drama and create wonderful scenes and memorable moments. Kitase always adds a bit of Hollywood flair that adds that extra punch in his titles. I feel both co-directing a piece would create a more balanced piece with Matsuno bringing intelligence and high drama while Kitase brings action and visually stunning moments.

Character and World Design - Amano
His artwork is breathtaking and his worlds are bizarre and mind blowing. Just seeing the teaser of his work come to life in the FMVs of V and VI as well as what has been seen from his anime movie adaptions will make this Final Fantasy something that will truly stand out. His Character designs are elegant and incite the viewers imaginations whereas other designers give away too much. I still don't feel anyone has come close to beating his character designs for the series.

Monster Designs - Nomura
I've always loved the monster designs in VI and VII and I feel Nomura's bizarre over the top designs tend to work for his monsters. As long as he isn't being lazy and doing variations of the same designs a la FFX, I tend to feel the games he works on have very eye catching and memorable monsters for random encounters.

Battle Design - Ito, Matsuno, and Nomura
I don't know what it is but Ito and Matsuno always seem to make awesome battle systems whenever they work together. Ito will bring his usual quirky creativity while Matsuno will bring an emphasis on strategy and using your head to win battles. Nomura is there to make the system move faster and have an edge of your seat excitement about it.

Scenario Writer - Matsuno
I love Matsuno's plots cause they actually make you think, not in a "How does that even logically work in this weird world of metaphysics gone wrong" like Nojima but rather makes you think about the characters and their relationships with each other. His tales always have no real clear view of good or evil either. Good guys become villains and villains turn out to be saints. Tactics and Vagrant Story still rank as some of my favorite plots of all time.

Music - Nobuo Uematsu and Yasunori Mitsuda
The man does good, and I'd be curious to know what he could bring to a Matsuno piece. Mitsuda is another underrated composer and their work together on Chrono Trigger was truly marvelous. I'd love to see them work together again.