Tetsuya Nomura

>>> The guy designed the FF7 characters, he has my respect just for that..
I think he is a very good character designer, maybe not the best, not my favorite but still a good character designer..

I like Nomura :jess: I really do like his designs, and I've enjoyed the games he's worked on.

Besides, it's not like he's the sole force behind Final Fantasy as of late or something. The director of VII was Kitase, and the producer was still Sakaguchi then. He is credited on the story, but he isn't for the others.

VIII is the same. Kitase, Sakaguchi, and Uematsu were the three main forces behind the game's feel and vision with Nomura only being responsible for the characters' designs.

X and X-2 were directed by Toriyama and produced by Kitase, and once again Nomura is making clothes and hair.

The scenario writer for these stories is Nojima. He is the reason behind Cloud, Squall, and Tidus' stories.

The only two games Nomura really is responsible for is Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, and then the Advent Children movie. Soon Versus-XIII can be added to this list.

Anyway, what I'm saying is, if you really don't like VII, VIII, X, and X-2 the blame doesn't even lie with him, it lies with Kitase and Nojima more than anybody else. He could have very easily been the designer for XII and the game would come out exactly the same because the rest of the team would have formed the rest story and Ivalice.

That's interesting, LunarWeaver. I think KH1 and FFVII AC were great, though, and so far KH2 seems good too. How about FFVII DoC, who were responsible for making that game?

DoC was produced by Kitase and the Director is Takayoshi Nakazoto, who was a Map Director for X and Field Planner for X-2, so who knows why he got shoved in the big chair. Nomura was the character designer still, though.

Oh, I forgot to mention...Even though I really do like Nomura's designs, I do understand the criticisms of him too (characters starting to look the same, or trying too hard for the cyberpunk style and such). But what can I say, I still really like him =/

Still, My favorite designer to work on Square titles is probably Yoshida. I liked XII's look, and his noseless wonders in Tactics were very charming. Sydney from Vagrant Story had an awesome design going :jess:

Thank's Lunar Weaver, I'll take back my comment on FFVIII, but my thought's on KH2 still stand ;). I like cyber punk as well and I still feel that FFVII is his best game from a character design stand point, well that and Brave Fencer Musashi.

But lately, it seems like all he can do as a designer is make funky looking hair that cosplayer die from, when they try to futily recreate them. I never liked FFX's designs with the exception of Auron, and FFVIII was pretty bland with a few exceptions.

I have never liked his designs for the summons. Now FFVII was hampered by graphics, but FFVIII and X just seemed awful. Most of X's were pretty gaudy. I still remeber summoning Bahamut and saying to myself (My god, what have you done to him?!" If he wanted to do the feathered dragon look, the least he could have done was convice them to replace Ixion with Quezecotle (sp). Well, that argument is kinda've pointless, so don't take it too serious. I know he's probably limited in how much he gets to say about what goes in the game.

As a writer, I feel he makes up for his lack of creating a cohesive plot by either throwing in an action scene (FFVII:AC and KH2) or he leaves you in the dark and keeps building up your expectations (KH and KH:CoM) My real complaint with him is the fact that he practicaly "killed" KH. FFVII had a similar issue in my opinion but I know he can't be completely blamed for that.

Bahamut in 8 was pretty neat, I think. I think most of the GFs in 8 are pretty good looking.

I've always enjoyed Amano's designs better. I especially enjoy seeing Amano's version of Nomura characters, though I can't recall seeing more than one or two. I also prefer Yoshida's work over Nomura. It's hard to pinpoint exactly where I find fault, but I feel, for the most part, that Nomura's character designs lacked imagination. I don't really dislike Nomura's work, but he has popped out some pretty lame characters. I feel that both FFVII and FFVIII had some pretty boring designs, and that's based on the concept art.

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Originally Posted by Mirage

Bahamut in 8 was pretty neat, I think. I think most of the GFs in 8 are pretty good looking.

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I don't think all of them were bad. A few lacked imagination, they just seemed like they were transferred over from FFVII or VI and given a quick polish. I'm still trying to figure out what Eden even looks like... A few stood out, Odin and Leviathon were some of my favorites. His re-imagination of Gilgamesh was really good.

I dunno, I like Nomura's designs. Then again, I'm really not to picky about my character designs. I like Amano, Nomura, and Yoshida's designs for different reasons. Of course, I prefer Amano's style and designs much more than Nomura's, but I in no way think Nomura's style is bad. My favorite game with Nomura's designs is probably FFX.

However, I do adore Nomura's monster, and summon designs. They're just wonderful.

I liked Bahamut in X. :/ Cool spinning nuclear reactor ring. :cat: