Key Takeaways
- Tetsuya Nomura, the co-creator of Kingdom Hearts and designer of many Final Fantasy characters, avoids creating ugly characters.
- A high school friend complained about the protagonist in a game being unattractive, and Nomura credits this as the reason he only creates more attractive characters.
- Nomura is responsible for designing iconic characters like Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7 and Sora from Kingdom Hearts, among countless others.
Tetsuya Nomura, the co-creator of Kingdom Hearts and designer of numerous Final Fantasy characters, has explained why he avoids creating unattractive characters. Nomura is a prominent figure in the JRPG community, having worked at Square Enix for over three decades and contributing to many of the company’s vast library of games.
After over thirty years at Square Enix, Tetsuya Nomura is now one of the most prominent figures at the Japanese company. He was the co-director of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, the creative director of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and is still working on the third and final part of the remake, all while developing Kingdom Hearts 4. Recently, Nomura mentioned that he’s considering retirement and that his last project would be to complete Sora’s storyline in Kingdom Hearts.
Players have often taken note of Nomura’s tendency to design gorgeous characters. In a recent interview with Young Jump, the designer explained the reason behind his beautiful creations, dating back to his high school days. According to Nomura, a classmate was playing a game in which the protagonist “wasn’t good-looking,” which led his friend to ask “why do I have to be ugly in the game world too?“ Nomura explains that this left a strong impression on him, likely influencing his creation of some of Square Enix’s most attractive and iconic characters.
Tetsuya Nomura Avoids Creating Ugly Characters Because of a High School Friend’s Complaint
Nomura was responsible for designing several of Final Fantasy 7‘s main characters, including Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Aerith, and Vincent Valentine. He also created Zack Fair and the world-famous villain Sephiroth before going on to design Squall, Tidus, and Noctis, among other well-known Final Fantasy characters. In Kingdom Hearts, the designer was behind characters like Sora, Riku, Roxas, and Aqua, utilizing his highly recognizable artistic style. Back in the PlayStation 1 era, Nomura also designed Aya Brea, the protagonist of Parasite Eve.
Over the years, Tetsuya Nomura has been the center of fan discussions for two main reasons. His character designs are easily identifiable, due to spiky-haired protagonists or the abundance of belts on a character’s costume. Fans also continue to discuss the Kingdom Hearts storyline at length, often calling it convoluted and confusing, something even Nomura has admitted being true. Because of this, many players mistakenly believe that he was responsible for the changes in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy when it was producer Yoshinori Kitase who pushed for the narrative shifts.