Tetsuya Nomura

This is a discussion about one of the key players at SE. What are your thoughts about him? Gripes, praises, critiques, and comical amusings...

My personal feeling is that he can't write or create good characters. Out of all the games he has personally worked on I have only liked four of them for their characters and stories. Brave Fencer Musashi, FFVIII, KH, and KHCoM. Even thses games have their fair share of faults, but I find them at least tolerable.

Now I feel he's a good artist, though I prefer his more anime style (FFVII and the KH series). He can also do action scenes very well. Though KH2 and FFVII:AC were both rather disappointing in their plots, few could argue that the action scenes weren't incredible.

But it bothers me that these qualities seem to be used in order to cover up the fact that the plot is poorly written and the characters are rather bland.

Now perhaps the real problem may lie in the fact that he is now the main star over at SE. He may have been stretched too thin and needs a little time off to build up those creative juices. I also understand that he's not solely responsible for the mistakes made in his games but he is technically in charge...

I fear for FFXIII:cry:

Everything he creates is plagued by a general lack of subtlety or integrity. His character designs increasingly adhere to the latest wacky fashion trends from out of Harajuku, while his characters themselves are imbued with a corresponding dose of juvenile angst. In other words, he does whatever it takes to appeal to the lowest common denominator of brain-dead teenage girls.

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Originally Posted by Kawaii Ryûkishi

In other words, he does whatever it takes to appeal to the lowest common denominator of brain-dead teenage girls.

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Last time I checked the major demographically slice of the marketting pie was not brain-dead teenage girls. Heck, not even plain old girls. What logical reasoning could make Tetsy to go down such a route?

There are many possible reasons. Maybe it's because they know the male demographic will now buy whatever they produce as long as "Final Fantasy" is in the title, so they may as well try for the female, too.

I think Tetsuya Nomura is more like a hit-or-miss kind of a guy. IMHO, he has done some really great titles, such as FFVII, KH, KH2 and FFVII AC, but he's also done some titles that I consider to be clearly weaker, such as FFVIII, FFX, FFX-2 and FFVII DoC. When he manages to produce something good, it's usually really good, but when he doesn't, it's usually disappointing. There's not really many Nomura titles in the middle.

Now I have question about Nomura. I know which character designs he was responsible for, but I'm a little confused as to which plots he worked on. I know he worked on KH, KH:CoM, KH:2 as well as Advent Children. But what about VII, VIII, X, and X-2 , was he responsible for their story line's also ?

I don't think he writes the story, but he's the director or something nowadays. In the early years he was just the character designer.

Nomura lacks genuine artistry. I like some of the games he's been a part of--FFVII, FFX, KH--but in general I think he's pretty worthless. I'm not a big fan of his character designs for the most part. Amano's characters were vibrant, seductive, and vital; it's a shame they were never fully realized in 3d. That's the main difference between the two. Nomura's characters are very easily translated into 3d and fit the mold of the games very easily, but Amano's are so subtle and visceral that SE was never able to make the transition very well.
I hate to bash the guy because he's been instrumental in FF's success, but I wonder sometimes at what cost. I don't really like the general direction the (FF)games have gone since he arrived. His designs fit a game like KH, but I don't like them in the Final Fantasy world. I'm very glad that Matsuno directed FFXII instead of Nomura. And although they're a little coarse sometimes, I like Yoshida's characters more than Nomura's. Even if it's not a critical hit like some of the other games, I've enjoyed the break from Nomura. He has this annoying tendency to create empty beauty. Vanity.

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Originally Posted by RiseToFall

Now I have question about Nomura. I know which character designs he was responsible for, but I'm a little confused as to which plots he worked on. I know he worked on KH, KH:CoM, KH:2 as well as Advent Children. But what about VII, VIII, X, and X-2 , was he responsible for their story line's also ?

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Off the top of my head, I know he had a writing credit in FFVII. And after the success of that game, I'm sure he had some amount of influence in the following installments, credited or not.

Thanks for that Kishi.

Now did anyone else think that Akihiko Yoshida borrowed quite a few things from Nomura in terms of character design for FF XII. Now I'm not saying that he completely copied Nomura, but there are some subtle hints of influence from him, and I don't mean just the mini skirt (look below). I don't know, maybe it's just me.

I also completely agree with chionos on the fact that Amano's art can not be implemented into 3D. When I look at Amano's original art, and then look at the character in 3D it's quite clear that his art style is extremely hard to convey in a game. Though lately I've been wondering what it would look like with a Okami type visual style.

Sorry, getting off topic. The two pics below are geared towards my first paragraph.

I think when he made ffvii ac he copy some characters off of other final fantasy

Like Rinoa mix Garnet, with the outfit looking alittle like rinoa's making Tifa's AC outif and Look.

And i think...not sure but when he made YuRiPa, (they had there own looks) that gave him an idea for the villans of AC.
*Yeah yeah in my other topics and this drives people crazy,i didn't think they looked like each other but i study there looks and they do):eek:

Yuna's face and hair length Gave the Idea for Kadaj
Rikku's face and hair length gave the idea for Yazoo
Paine's face and hair length gave the idea for Loz

Cloud looks like Shuyin mix Tidus.

So he could be runing out of idea's for characters looks

I've heard Yoshida mention in a few interviews that the similarities were not intentional in his character designs.

I prefer Amano over nomura as well. Amano always had interesting monster designs and his characters were always gorgeous. When I saw the opening to FFVI in FF Anthology my jaw dropped at how well his designs worked for the scenes. It's a shame that we have finally reached a technological level that would allow SE to properly convey his artwork and he no longer works as a character designer...

I feel the real problem with the games that Nomura has worked on is the fact that they tend to have the common theme of being potentially good. His games have several wonderful ideas to work with and yet they never use any of them well or just completely drop them, making them irrelevant. The GF's taking your memories from FFVIII, the entire concept of the Nobodies, Roxas' role, the list goes on...

All of my favourite Final Fantasy titles (FFVI, FFIX, FFV, etc.) were not designed by Nomura. The more I see out of him in new Final Fantasy titles, the more I understand that that's not a coincidence. I especially think the tendency towards creating sequels is a sign of a lack of original ideas and an abandonment of the principles that made Square an interesting company in the first place.

I'll still play FFXII, but honestly, I'm looking a lot more forward to finally being able to play DQVIII when I graduate college and have time for gaming again.

Nomura had nothing to do with FFXII. That game is all Matsuno, Yoshida, and Sakimoto. They're good people.

Yeah, I know. That's the main reason I even want to play it. xD

>>> 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: