‘Final Fantasy’ Art Director Yusuke Naora Quits Square Enix After 24 Years
Final Fantasy series art director Yusuke Naora announced his resignation from Square Enix, reported Forbes. He shared no reason for leaving the company. During his tenure of 24 years at the company, Naora has contributed to the Final Fantasy series and has several other games credited to his name for art direction.
Earlier today, Yusuke Naora shared the update about him quitting Square Enix on Twitter. In 1993, Naora started off his tenure with the Japanese developer and joined the Final Fantasy series in 1994. Since then, Naora has directed and supervised art for 11 Final Fantasy games including his last project – Final Fantasy XV.
Final Fantasy art director Yusuke Naora leaves Square Enix after 24 years https://t.co/fLTeAoP6n1 pic.twitter.com/tahLRFYwrm
— Gematsu (@gematsucom) October 2, 2016
Naora thanked Tabata for the ending of the Final Fantasy XV. He thinks it is a great ending and also apologized to the fans for the delay of the game’s release.
The latest title in the series was previously set to release on September 30. The game’s director, Hajime Tabata, clarified that Square Enix is adding the “day one” in the game discs to deliver a hassle-free installation experience, according to the Inquisitr.
As of 30th September, I resigned Square Enix, the company I worked for 24 years.
— ???? naora yusuke (@NaoraYusuke) October 1, 2016
Before joining Square Enix in early 90s, Naora had never played role-playing games and studied on the job while working the designs, reports Polygon.
The development cycle of the Final Fantasy XV lasted for a decade. Back in 2006, the game’s development started with a working title, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, for PlayStation 3. Tetsuya Nomura was the game director, designer, and the main brain behind the story as well as characters. But in 2012, the Japanese Studio rebranded the game to Final Fantasy XV and pushed the game development for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Yusuke Naora joined as one of the three art directors and became in charge of one of the characters.
Naora said, “Where the series has traditionally given characters an abstract visual identity using signature costumes, weapons, and hair, the mark of Final Fantasy 15‘s style is the degree to which we could create the living, breathing people and realistic objects thanks to advanced physics-based technology.”
As an art director, Naora’s intent was to use the modern, physics-based game development technologies to create more realistic looking characters. He admitted the struggles of implementing the same while adding details to the characters.
These are some of the amazing projects he worked on. Art director for FFVII, FFX, FFXV and more. Naora-san had done an awesome job. pic.twitter.com/yccT4LvHSI
— MakuXV (@RedMakuzawa) October 1, 2016
From the game trailers and screenshots released, Final Fantasy XV looks the most realistic game of the series. The game’s world called Eos is claimed to have a massive scale with countries such as Lucius, Nifelheim, Tenebrae, and Altissa.
Nova Crystallis posted a humongous list of songs that can be played in the Regalia car while driving anywhere in the game. That list itself should be indicative of game’s scale.
Naora’s fans on Twitter thanked him for the illustrations and designs in the Final Fantasy series for more than two decades. You can watch Naora’s lecture on the evolution of the design in the Final Fantasy games in a recap video below:
The full two-hour long lecture on Final Fantasy‘s design evolution is available on Square Enix’s YouTube page.
After quitting Square Enix, Naora plans to move to his hometown Izumo, in Shimane Prefecture of Japan. Despite the resignation, he will continue working on designs and illustrations with Square Enix. However, Naora hasn’t shared any details of his future projects. It is possible that the Japanese developer will reach out to Naora for designs and illustrations on future Final Fantasy games and other titles.
Yusuke Naora’s eleventh Final Fantasy project, Final Fantasy XV, is set to release on November 29, 2016. The Final Fantasy XV will be available for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 game consoles. GameSpot believes that it will be one of the early games to support the upcoming PlayStation 4 Pro console.
[Featured Image by Square Enix]
