Actually Nomura had nothing to do with this game. Yoshitaka Amano did the character design but Hideo Minaba was the art director and him along with a few other non-high profile artist did the background characters and redesigns of the main cast.

The only game where Hiroyuki Ito (IX's Director) and Tetsuya Nomura have worked together is FFVI. I would point out that the Alexandrian Army's outfit does bear a striking resemblance to Nomura's redesign for Celes Chere's sprite in VI. So it may actually be a shout-out to VI.