The World Of Tetsuya Nomura | Chapter II: True Style

0:01Tetsuya Nomura is hands down one of the most captivating and interesting figures in the video

0:06game industry. His original ideas and iconic style have played a large part in some of Square Enix's

0:11most successful titles. Whether you love his crazy story designs and concepts or you think he's

0:17actively ruining video games as we know it, he's a big name in the industry and he's a hard worker.

0:23Even today, Nomura bounces between projects frequently and based on my research for this video

0:28series has had projects in circulation since 1991. Hi, my name is Joe. When I like something a whole

0:37lot, I want to find out what's going on behind the curtain. This video is that I did the research

0:43and write up for my benefit, but I did this video part for yours so I can pass on this information

0:49as completely and definitively as possible without boring my friends and family. In this video

0:56series, I will examine all of Tetsuya Nomura's works to the best of my ability. I understand

1:01there are countless videos available regarding the very start of his career. So some information

1:05may be quite familiar to you if you frequently watch videos on this topic, but I've done my best

1:10to make what you watch here today a smidgen more informative and entertaining than videos before.

1:15And before long, we'll be in uncharted territory. I'll include all of my sources in the description

1:19below, and I'll include a number on screen if I am citing a source. I'll also include fun facts

1:25and text boxes on screen to give you some bonus information if you're actively watching the video.

1:30I've grouped each project as accurate to development as possible,

1:34but Nomura would sometimes be bouncing between four to five projects at a time. So, I've arranged

1:40all titles in order of release with out of place blurbs about relevant titles if necessary.

1:46Now that everything's out of the way, let's dive into the prolific career of Tetsuya Nomura.

2:01[COMMERCIAL]

2:02More than 200 animators and programmers,

2:07a multi-million dollar production, over 2 years in the making and a cast of thousands.

2:17They said it couldn't be done in a major motion picture. They were right. FINAL FANTASY VII.

2:30With the breakout success of FINAL FANTASY VII, Square had achieved a strong foothold

2:34in the Western market. The company was achieving new hVIIIs after diving into

2:38the industry-wide shift to 3D, especially after creating the most popular JRPG to date.

2:44DreamFactory, a subsidiary of Square, would riff on this success by including characters from FINAL

2:50FANTASY VII in the roster for their upcoming game, Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring. DreamFactory was a

2:57small development team of around 17 staffers with fighting game titan Seichi Ishii as its chairman.

3:03Ishii had his own adventures before the establishment of DreamFactory,

3:07including work as the game designer and coordinator of Sega's Virtua Fighter in 1993 and

3:12acting as director and game designer of Namco's Tekken and Tekken 2 in 1994 and 95, respectively.

3:20These three games were monumental in their own ways, helping push gaming and the fighting game

3:24genre forward. After these successes and catching the eye of Hironobu Sakaguchi,

3:30Ishii left his position at Namco and established DreamFactory in November of 1995. On his team

3:36were a large portion of the team behind Tekken and even some members that worked on Virtual Fighter.

3:41[COMMERCIAL] Characters designed by Akira Toriyama.

3:49Battle system features the ultimate in realism. Full 360° free movement battles.

3:59DreamFactory's first project was 1996's Tobal No. 1, a fighting game similar to Ishii's previous

4:05projects, including adventure elements to change things up. The game came prepackaged with the demo

4:10of FINAL FANTASY VII, which may have contributed to its great success in Japan. However,

4:16its overseas performance was not as peachy keen. Tobal No. 1 was the first 3D video game Square

4:22had published. It was also their first venture into the fighting game genre. The next entry,

4:28Tobal 2, was another stumble in sales and reception. Despite its abundance of content,

4:34the game was never released outside of Japan due to its predecessor's performance in the West.

4:39Square had secured a deal with Namco to produce a game that would release on their Namco System

4:4312 arcade cabinet hardware with a console release that Square themselves would handle.

4:48The previous Namco cabinet, the System 11, was based on a prototype build of the PlayStation.

4:54The system 12 was a slight cut above 11,

4:57offering a processing speed 1.5 times faster than it on the same base hardware.

5:02Despite the rough performance of the Tobal games, Square once again reached out to DreamFactory

5:06to produce a new game for this arrangement. This game was Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring.

5:19Because of the bond between both companies, Square offered DreamFactory some of their own

5:24personnel to aid production, including Nobuo Uematsu and Shinji Hashimoto.

5:29Uematsu worked as a supervisor for usage of music from FINAL FANTASY VII.

5:34Hashimoto had supervised the Tobal games while working as publicity producer on

5:38FINAL FANTASY VII. Now he had returned to work as supervisor on Ehrgeiz. Tetsuya Nomura would

5:44be assigned to Ehrgeiz as character designer and supervisor for the FINAL FANTASY VII characters.

5:50Ehrgeiz guest characters included Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart. These two were

5:55the only FINAL FANTASY VII characters featured on the Namco system 12 build of the game.

6:00Once the cabinet is set up, Cloud is set to unlock 30 days after installation, and Tifa after 60.

6:06After 90 days, the cabinets will unlock Django, an original character penned by Nomura with quite

6:11an obvious influence. Django features a player 2 pallet swap that resembles Red XIII. and his

6:17moveset features attacks such as Seto Punch and Nanaki Kick, among others making explicit

6:23references to FINAL FANTASY VII's characters and monsters. Cloud's P2 palette swap is red as well,

6:29though this could be tied to the appearance of Second Class SOLDIERs in FINAL FANTASY VII.

6:35Tifa's pallet swap is red too, resembling her appearance in promotional artwork done

6:39by Yoshitaka Amano. With the PlayStation release, Sephiroth, Yuffie Kisaragi, Vincent Valentine, and

6:47Zack are added to the game's roster. Along with Cloud and Tifa, Sephiroth is immediately available

6:53to players booting up the game for the first time. The other characters have to be unlocked.

6:58Cloud and Tifa were also given new alternate costumes depicting their outfits during the

7:02Nibelheim incident. Sephiroth's alternate costume is his shirtless appearance seen in

7:07his final confrontation with Cloud. Yuffie’s is based on her original ex-SOLDIER design,

7:13and Vincent is given an alternate costume depicting his time as a Turk. Vincent is

7:18the only character in Ehrgeiz to feature a different artwork for his alternate costume.

7:23Zack does not have an alternate costume and shares a red P2 palette swap with Cloud.

7:28These appearances give the characters involved all new Nomura penned artwork and voice acting,

7:35a huge step in their likeness since their debut just the year prior.

7:39Yumi Kakazu, the Japanese voice actor for Yuffie, stuck out to the higher-ups in

7:44production when delivering her performance for Ehrgeiz. The original cast for Ehrgeiz

7:49includes fighters of all different styles and backgrounds. There is some evident inspiration

7:54from Tekken characters in the cast mixed with a flare of ideas that could only come from Nomura.

8:00Han Daehan and Ken Godhand Mishima have prosthetics that double as ranged weapons. Prince

8:06Doza's outfit is very Nomura with many straps around his Muay Thai gear. Another character,

8:12Yo-Yo Yoko Kishi Bojin, is an international police officer that fights with a yo-yo. Doubling back,

8:19it's also worth mentioning that Ken Mishima shares a last name and likeness with Kazuya Mishima,

8:24the face of the first two Tekken entries. Kazuya was replaced with his son Jin Kazama in Tekken 3,

8:30and Ken Mishima's design seems to take notes from this character as well.

8:35Whereas Ken and Django are based on fictional characters, others are inspired by real world

8:40fighters. Dasher Inoba is based on Japanese wrestlers Antonio Inoki and Giant Baba.

8:47In-game, Inoba is both a wrestler and founder of the Ehrgeiz Championship tournament,

8:53a parallel to Antonio Inoki’s founding of New Japan Pro Wrestling in 1972.

8:59Lee Shuwen is 1:1 with Li Shuwen, a historical Chinese warrior known for his mastery of Bajiquan.

9:07Shuwen's name, cause of death, age of death, and fighting style are all echoed in his fictional

9:13counterpart. Ehrgeiz’s Shuwen seems to be a resurrected and de-aged iteration of the same

9:19Shuwen from world history. Prince Doza is renamed in the English release of the game.

9:25His original name is Prince Naseem, taken directly from the real world British boxer. Prince Doza

9:31is also British. Whether Nomura thought of these real world ties originally or not is unknown,

9:37but given his involvement in the project, we can see that the original characters for Ehrgeiz

9:41are a sign of where he tends to look for inspiration. Nomura's artwork for Ehrgeiz uses

9:47the classic anime style he had come to be known for, but his artwork for the characters of FINAL

9:51FANTASY VII have a new refined edge to them. Their proportions are more realistic in these artworks.

10:00His work here is emblematic, showcasing the dichotomy in his art style during this time

10:04period. Ehrgeiz would be a natural progression from the Tobal duology,

10:09incorporating RPG elements into a 3D fighter and using a similar gameplay style.

10:14Ehrgeiz also made use of the PlayStation's high resolution mode, offering a natural 60

10:19frames per second in what GameSpot journalists described as “drop-dead gorgeous graphics”.

10:26Ehrgeiz got a good reception. It was released and sold and people played it in arcades, but

10:31it didn't push the fighting genre forward or give Virtual Fighter 3 or Tekken 3 any real opponent.

10:38Despite having had a large part in creating his competition, Seichi Ishii had not been able to

10:43surpass his old works with his new ones. Even with his experiments with RPG elements and now

10:49the added novelty of FINAL FANTASY VII characters, Ehrgeiz was white noise in a sea of fighters.

10:56The game was released in Japanese and American arcades in March 1998 and received its home

11:01console release on December 7th, 1998 in Japan. America did not receive it until May 4th, 1999

11:09and the rest of the world would receive it on February 8th, 2000.

11:16Following series fashion, after production wrapped for FINAL FANTASY VII,

11:20the team would begin talks for FINAL FANTASY VIII. In these talks, Yoshori Kitase requested that the

11:26game make use of the unused sorceress Nomura drafted for FINAL FANTASY VII.

11:31Talks would continue for VIII, as Nomura did work for other projects within the company.

11:43As we'll come to see, 1998 was quite the release year for Square. They had plenty

11:48of new IP releases this year, covering genres that spanned much further than JRPGs. 1998's Einhänder

11:56was a scrolling shooter that would be developed by some new talent working at the company.

12:00The game used the graphical advancements made in FINAL FANTASY VII, as most side entries in this

12:05era would. Einhänder, however, was the first 3D sidescrolling shooter that the company published.

12:12Notable staff include Kenichiro Fukui as composer, Yusuke Hirata as producer,

12:18and Kenichi Iwao would start his work with Square on this title as planner. Once upon a time,

12:24Iwao was employed at Capcom and had contributed greatly to 1996's Resident Evil. He was brought on

12:32to the project by Capcom executives, which led to frequent creative differences with Shinji Mikima,

12:38who had been working on the game longer than Iwao, and saw most of his concepts wiped with Iwao’s

12:43changes. This conflict ultimately led to Iwao’s departure from Capcom. After he left the company,

12:50his name was erased from the Resident Evil staff roll despite all of his hard work.

12:58Adapted from Hironobu Sakaguchi's original idea for FINAL FANTASY VII,

13:031998's Parasite Eve is a horror role-playing game most likened by critics to Resident Evil.

13:10The game takes place in New York City and follows NYPD detective Aya Brea as she fights a parasitic

13:16life form known as Mitochondria Eve. In a rare turn of events, the game's lore was not

13:21written in-house, as Parasite Eve is a sequel to the eponymous novel written by Hideaki Sena

13:27and published in 1995. Though it is a sequel to the novel, Sena was not involved at all in the

13:33game's development process. The game was entirely a work between Square and Sena's publisher.

13:39Regardless, Sena is credited on the game as a writer as tribute to his original text.

13:44Parasite Eve's development was the first time that work on a title took place between Square's

13:49Japanese and American offices, spawning its own set of obstacles for the team.

13:54Takashi Tokita would direct and write the story for Parasite Eve, and Yoko Shimomura

13:59would compose the score for this game. Hironobu Sakaguchi was a producer, and brought in Tetsuya

14:04Nomura to fill the role of character designer. This project would be the first time that after

14:09sharing credits on three games prior, Tetsuya Nomura and Yoko Shimomura would cross paths.

14:17While the game was widely likened to Resident Evil,

14:20the combat systems and story of Parasite Eve bear less similarity. The combat system, for one,

14:26was adapted from the turn-based systems that Squaresoft had since mastered,

14:30and allowed players to adapt their own arsenal of weapons. Given that Takashi Tokita was directing,

14:36it's no surprise that the battles could be likened to Chrono Trigger. The stories for

14:41both Resident Evil titles available in '98 are largely bioweapon-based. While Parasite Eve's

14:47mythos used mitochondria and human cells to pedal its narrative, in line with the original novel,

14:53their aesthetics are similar, but upon closer inspection, Parasite Eve is its own creation.

14:59Square's cinematic RPG was built on a modified engine of the one used for FINAL FANTASY VII, once

15:06again featuring pre-rendered backgrounds, fixed camera angles, and polygonal character models.

15:12Square's CG technology was further developed, allowing for fully proportioned characters in

15:17gameplay and cutscenes, making chibi models a thing of the past. Full motion video cutscenes

15:23are evenly distributed throughout Parasite Eve, resulting in a game that is paced more like film.

15:29This was evidently a continuation of one of FINAL FANTASY VII's production goals,

15:33but this time with more research and experience. All of these deviations paired with the realworld

15:39premise of the game offered quite a lot of room for Nomura to grow. As such, Parasite Eve was

15:45Nomura's first delve into what he identifies as his “true style”. When interviewed about the game,

15:51Nomura commented, "Finally, I could draw my own pictures, not like the ones before."

15:57One quick look at his art for this game confirms that his thoughts are accurate.

16:01All the projects he had been involved in thus far could not handle his level of detail quite yet.

16:08Aya Brea was thought up by Hironobu Sakaguchi. Her creation had a specific scope that he

16:13found only Nomura could accomplish. So, Nomura was brought on board.

16:18Sakaguchi phoned him at home and requested Nomura design her. As it turns out, a different designer

16:25was working on the project prior to Nomura and couldn't quite replicate Sakaguchi's vision. So,

16:30Sakaguchi was kicking that person off the project to get Nomura's pen on the character.

16:36Aya was brought about by combining two different designs, a mistake Nomura made in response to a

16:41different job Sakaguchi had for him. The actual request for Nomura was to create a character

16:46with long hair in a ponytail with hair on the sides similar to Aerith in FINAL FANTASY VII.

16:52Nomura incorrectly provided a character with a shorter haircut. Despite also not meeting

16:58Sakaguchi's vision, Nomura's design for Aya was accepted, Nomura was not kicked off the project,

17:04and production moved forward. Aya's name is the same as Sakaguchi's daughter, Aya Sakaguchi.

17:10It is unclear when in Aya's design process that she was given her name. In her final design, Aya

17:17is a 25-year-old woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. She wears a long black evening gown with a

17:23slit on its left side and black platform heels in the game's beginning and ending. For a majority

17:28of the game, she wears black boots with a zipper tucked under the legs of her high-waisted jeans,

17:33a white t-shirt, and a black leather jacket. For a small portion of the story, she sheds her jacket.

17:40After completing Aya's design, Nomura would move on to design the rest of the cast.

17:45Mitochondria Eve is a classic Nomurian monster. She sports an appearance similar to Culex,

17:51God Kefka, and Safer Sephiroth with her own maternal aesthetic. Her design is also a lot less

17:57realistic than the rest of her game's cast, which allows Nomura's style to shine through even more.

18:03Technically, she was created by Hideaki Sena in the original novel. So was Kunihiko Maeda,

18:09a Japanese biologist who helps Aya on her journey. Though not confirmed, it is speculated

18:14that Nomura's design of the character is based on Sena’s likeness. This would be the first instance

18:20where Nomura would pen a good amount of key arts and promo artwork for a title he was working on.

18:26He had done some illustration work before, but for Parasite Eve, Nomura drew Aya quite a lot.

18:32There are VIII key artworks of her from this time, and each of them use varying techniques,

18:37showing us that Nomura really was finding his way. In this illustration, where she

18:42isn't wearing a t-shirt under her jacket, we can see that while she's realistically proportioned,

18:48her facial features resemble the anime style of FINAL FANTASY VII.

18:52A few of these illustrations are reminiscent of what Nomura might create for FINAL FANTASY VIII,

18:57leaning into the realistic side of his art style. A couple of illustrations even use

19:01the thick lines he had just used for Ehrgeiz with the watercolor adjacent coloring he would

19:07make use of in the early 2000s. As you can also see by these artworks, Nomura tends to

19:12highlight Aya's sex appeal. A year prior, Tifa was given big boobs and sent off into the world,

19:19but Nomura's approach to Aya's character feels intentional and calculated with effort made to

19:23depict her as both sexy and cool. Both characters easily fall under the action girl trope,

19:30but Tifa's designs take opposite approaches to illustrating their sensuality. Tifa's design puts

19:36this first, as she is designed like any hot anime girl with exaggerated features to draw spectacle.

19:42There's not only emphasis placed on her chest, but also on her waist and legs. As I've said before,

19:48thankfully the writing room for FINAL FANTASY VII would balance this out and give Tifa a solid

19:52characterization, which separates her from some characters she shares these physical tropes with.

19:58By contrast, Aya's design is restrained. Her realism, competence, and intelligence

20:03give a view of her that is more adult. Of course, her environment contributes to the aspect we're

20:09discussing, as being in an apocalyptic setting makes Aya vulnerable. Maeda crushes on her

20:15throughout the game, but a majority of the sexual air around her is quiet and subtle, perhaps in an

20:21attempt to stay realistic. We can tell that it's there, though, considering Nomura's art.

20:27To summarize this comparison, Tifa is a character designed with appearance first

20:32and character second. Thankfully, her presence in the game script and the genre of her game

20:37help her distance from being one-dimensional. Aya's character is designed with realism first,

20:44but uses promotional art and the game's atmosphere to suggest her attractiveness. In a complete

20:49inverse from Tifa's scenario, the atmosphere of her world is what highlights her sexuality most.

20:56Nomura's work on Parasite Eve gives us a semblance of his pure ideas. Since its realistic setting

21:01forces him to suspend his quirkiness, we can get right down to what makes his character design

21:06work great. Each character is recognizable and unique without being quadripedal or asymmetrical.

21:13They also wear modern clothing which would become a pillar in Nomura's influence.

21:18Fantasy elements included, Nomura's designs for Parasite Eve are sensible within their lore

21:23and his illustration style follows suit. Parasite Eve was released on March 29th,

21:291998 in Japan and September 10th that year in North America. Most critiques were reserved for

21:35the game's short runtime and long load times. North American copies of the game included a

21:40playable demo of Xenogears and trailers for Brave Fencer Musashi and FINAL FANTASY VIII.

21:48In February and October 1998, Tetsuya Takahashi and Kaori Tanaka's Project Noah

21:53would hit store shelves in Japan and North America as Xenogears. Xenogears took an inverse approach

22:00to FINAL FANTASY VII's 3D graphics. VII used 3D models on pre-rendered 2D backgrounds, but

22:09Xenogears used pre-rendered 2D characters in 3D environments. Like the titles Takahashi and Tanaka

22:16had done work on prior, the combat in Xenogears was based on the Squaresoft signature ATB system.

22:23With this game, Tanaka would begin to go by the pen name Soraya Saga. It's unclear since both are

22:29private about their personal lives, but at some point, Takahashi and Saga married each other.

22:35Protagonist Fei Fong Wong has Disassociative Identity Disorder, meaning he has multiple

22:41personalities as a result of severe trauma. This has drawn many comparisons with Cloud Strife,

22:47who also has identity issues as a result of trauma. In reality, the two are similar at best.

22:54Both have mental health issues as a result of intense trauma, but they are different conditions.

23:00Fei has DID and Cloud is an Amnesiac. In my research, I have not found anything conclusive

23:07that could suggest that Cloud's concept was taken from Soraya Saga's idea for Fei,

23:12though it is plausible. I should also add that while Nomura was present in the early days of

23:18Xenogears’ production, he was not on board long enough to contribute to Fei's design.

23:23When Nomura left, Kunihiko Tanaka filled his place as character designer.

23:28Around the same development window as Parasite Eve, Tetsuya Nomura would illustrate the

23:33characters and handle some artwork for Brave Fencer Musashi. This title was an action RPG

23:39directed by Yoichi Yoshimoto, following an interpretation of Miiamoto Musashi that goes on

23:45an adventure in a world based on food. Protagonist Musashi uses two swords in his adventure,

23:51a reference to the real world samurai. Among the historic Miyamoto Musashi's many feats

23:57was his use of the Niten Ichi-ryu technique. This roughly translates to “the art of strategy

24:03of two heavens as one”. Most samurai carried two blades at all times, referred to as the Daisho.

24:10Daisho translates to large and small. This consisted of their katana and their wakizashi.

24:16The wakizashi is a short blade typically measuring about 30 to 60 cm or 12 to 24 in.

24:23It was typically used as a close quarters weapon, a backup, and sometimes used to commit seppuku.

24:29Niten Ichi-ryu is a style of swordsmanship that wields both katana and wakizashi at once.

24:36Musashi famously used this technique in most of his duels and later in his life opened a school

24:41surrounding it. Brave Fencer Musashi uses his two blades, Fusion and Luminina, in battle.

24:48Fusion is a standard katana, but Lumina is a broad westernstyle sword that seems to be as

24:54wide as it is tall. This could be a subtle nod to the oar blade once wielded by Miyamoto Musashi.

25:01Brave Fencer Musashi was top-own 3D and a platformer puzzle action RPG, another genre Square

25:08hadn't tried their hand at yet. This would be the first game soundtrack that Tsuyoshi Sekito would

25:13compose for Squaresoft. Hironobu Sakaguchi served as the executive producer on Brave Fencer and it

25:20is likely due to this that Nomura was on board for this title as well. Tetsuya Nomura did not

25:25design the characters for Brave Fencer Musashi. However, we can tell especially after FINAL

25:30FANTASY VII's chibis that Nomura did illustrate these characters. Other illustrations were done by

25:36character designer Koji Matsuoka, who would later go on to work the same role in Ape Escape 2 and 3.

25:44Brave Fencer Musashi released in Japan on July 16th, 1998 and in North America on November 12th,

25:501998. Due to the game setting and gameplay, it was frequently described as a mix between both

25:56the Kirby and Legend of Zelda games. The game came prepackaged with a demo of FINAL FANTASY VIII.

26:05While in Los Angeles working on Parasite Eve and Brave Fencer Musashi, Nomura would exchange emails

26:11with Yoshori Kitase, drafting concepts for FINAL FANTASY VIII. The two decided that this FINAL

26:17FANTASY should be lighter in tone. VI and VII had been quite dark, and most of Square's side entries

26:23at the time were too. To lighten things up, it was decided that the main cast would be a group

26:28of students pitted against an evil sorceress, the same evil sorceress sketched for FINAL FANTASY

26:33VII. The students were in place to give the entry a cheerful story. The sorceress was in place

26:38to ensure the high fantasy of FINAL FANTASY was not left behind as the series advanced.

26:44As for this project's staff roll, VIII’s team would be largely the same as VII. Shinji Hashimoto

26:50worked as producer, Yusuke Naora as art director, Nobuo Uematsu on the soundtrack as always,

26:55along with Yoshitaka Ammano around to provide promotional artwork and the game's logo art.

27:01Among the new faces in production, Takeshi Arakawa and Tomohiro Hasegawa stand out.

27:07Tetsuya Takahashi returned to FINAL FANTASY as a lead field designer. And though he was occupied

27:12with other projects during the production of VII, Hiroyuki Ito also returned to mainline

27:17FINAL FANTASY with VIII and developed the junction system as a response to VII's Materia system.

27:23The project would be helmed by the same power trio behind FINAL FANTASY VII's writing. Kazushige

27:28Nojima, Yoshinori Kitase, and Tetsuya Nomura. This time with significantly less contribution

27:34from Hironobu Sakaguchi. Though he had stopped directing FINAL FANTASY with its sixth entry,

27:40Sakaguchi has still remained an integral part of VI and VII's production. He's credited as an

27:45executive producer on FINAL FANTASY VIII, but admits that he was mainly working on his own

27:50project in Hawaii. This was the animated feature film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Inspired

27:56by CG technology and film, the goal of The Spirits Within was to continue the pursuit of cinematic

28:01quality in the company's games. It was intended to be a case study on CG animation that could

28:06be reapplied likely in FINAL FANTASY X or XI, as Sakaguchi speculated before the release of VIII.

28:13Everything about FINAL FANTASY VIII had to be bigger than before. Yusuke Naora would go

28:19on record saying, "We were determined not to be outdone by the achievements of FINAL FANTASY VII.

28:25Our ultimate rival was our own work from FINAL FANTASY VII." The team even planned on using

28:30four CD ROM discs instead of three, which came to fruition. They took a quality over quantity

28:36approach with VIII side content to avoid the sporadic nature of VII’s mini games.

28:41The brighter tone and reintroduction of high fantasy elements were another way the team made

28:46an effort to stand out against VII. Thankfully, furthering the technological advancements of FINAL

28:52FANTASY VII, Parasite Eve's graphical feats served as a launching point for FINAL FANTASY VIII.

28:58Full-size character models were a goal from the beginning of development per Kitase,

29:02which would once again allow Nomura's designs to include more detail than previously possible.

29:08Though he was hard at work as the director of The Spirits Within, which itself was the first

29:12photorealistic computer animated film, Sakaguchi wasn't fond of the full-size

29:17character models in VIII, and would later comment that the cartoonish art style and

29:21return to chibi models in FINAL FANTASY IX was “him fighting back against FINAL FANTASY VIII”.

29:27As he crafted the plot for The Spirits Within, he was simultaneously working on the first draft

29:31of FINAL FANTASY IX, staying an oceans's length away from VIII. Tetsuya Nomura took another step

29:37forward in his credited work by directing the iconic opening cutscene to the game.

29:42The cutscenes title, Liberi Fatali, is Latin for “fated children”. Speaking of cutscenes,

29:48FINAL FANTASY VIII would introduce motion capture animation in its FMV cutscenes, further pushing

29:54the graphical fidelity of the FINAL FANTASY series than had been done before. This would entail a

29:58hiring process to find talent that could perform the motion that was to be animated in game.

30:04Notable names here would be Mayuko Aoki and Masakazu Morita. Aoki performed the motion

30:10capture for both Edea Kramer and Rinoa Heartilly. and Morita performed the capture for Zell,

30:16his professional debut as an actor. But way before that, the characters had to be created.

30:24Nomura was constantly making adjustments on his male characters this time around, as Yoshinori

30:29Kitase often had notes. “All of Nomura's characters end up looking like pretty boys.

30:34We asked him to rough up the design for several of them.” He would recount in an interview.

30:39The most notable example of this back and forth is protagonist Squall Leonhart.

30:44In an attempt to capture realism, Nomura decided to base this game's protagonist

30:49on the late actor River Phoenix. Beginning with this choice, Nomura would start to embrace his

30:54fascination with contemporary pop culture and fashion by integrating them in his characters.

31:00We'll see this appear a few times in this project alone before going on to define his work.

31:05The first draft of Squall had long unkempt hair and a scar in his face.

31:10He wanted this protagonist to feel less fantastical than Cloud, so his hairstyle

31:15was kept relatively realistic, while the scar ensured Squall remained visually distinctive.

31:21After taking notes from Kitase, Nomura would rough up Squall by giving him a shorter haircut

31:26with the scar remaining. The trick here was River Phoenix has sported both a long and short haircut,

31:32so Nomura could still use him as a reference. Despite being short, Squall's hair is not spiked

31:38to unrealistic proportions, and his curtain bangs make way to highlight the scar on his forehead.

31:44Squall's first name is defined as a sudden gust of wind, and his last name, Leonhart,

31:49is a reference to the character from FINAL FANTASY II. Not only this, but Leon is Greek for “lion”,

31:55the animal depicted on Squall's Griever charms, and as we know by now, Nomura's favorite animal.

32:03Right off the bat, Squall's bomber jacket indicates that the street fashion of Parasite Eve

32:08had stuck with Nomura. That is to say, Parasite Eve likely opened his eyes to just how much modern

32:14fashion he could include in a given design. He even added fur lining on the coat's collar.

32:20Littered throughout Squall's design are an abundance of silver accessories,

32:24a seasoning he would become notorious for as his use of it continued.

32:28One of Squall's accessories is his Griever chain, which depicts a lion's head over top of a cross.

32:34Regarding his fur lining and chain, I'd like to insert the popular fan speculation that Squall's

32:39outfit may have taken inspiration from Gackt, the frontman of the Visual Kei band MALICE MIZER.

32:46The Visual Kei movement is a niche J-Rock genre that focuses on its visuals as much as its music

32:52derivative of the western glamrock movement. In March 1998, the popular band MALICE MIZER released

32:58their third album, Merveilles. Of the many outfits Gackt wore during this time, one bears a striking

33:05resemblance to Squall's outfit and, thanks to his haircut, a slight similarity and likeness.

33:11This has been speculated by fans for years, but never confirmed by Tetsu himself.

33:16Allegedly, Gackt referred to Squall as Gackt #2 in a TV program to reference this,

33:21but I could not find this clip. What I did find was an official figure of Gackt dressed as Squall,

33:27released exclusively to fans in 1999. Squall's signature Gunblade was given a chain dangle with

33:33a similar pendant, something Nomura had first conceived for Cloud's Buster Sword.

33:39Squall's design is the first example of Nomura's trademark usage of belts.

33:43Squall wears three belts around his waist, two of which intersect in an X pattern,

33:48another frequent Nomura trick. He also wears three belts on his thigh. I speculate that this could

33:54have been partly inspired by Michael Jackson's appearance on the cover of his 1987 album, Bad.

34:01Despite their undeniable style, Squall's accessories and fur lining were also

34:05partially chosen by Nomura in order to challenge the character animation team. Regarding Squall's

34:10characterization, Nomura had this to say. [NOMURA] In the beginning, I was going to

34:14make Squall a reticent character, but as another team member pointed out, that would make him the

34:19same as another character from FINAL FANTASY VII, Cloud. We had to differentiate the two.

34:25So, the script writer and I decided to make Squall initially quiet, but when a subject interests him,

34:31he will talk a lot. It's those kinds of details that went into fleshing out characters.

34:38Yoshinori Kitase’s original script concept for FINAL FANTASY VII involved both a father and son

34:43campaigning through different time periods with direct consequences to choices made on either

34:48end of the story. This may have subtly been adapted to the dynamic between Cloud and Zack,

34:53but in FINAL FANTASY VIII, it was truly given the old college try. Laguna Loire, Squall's dad,

35:00was then designed as a parallel to Squall. His design would seem to quote some concepts in the

35:05early sketches for Squall. Despite this, Nomura paid attention to details and designed Laguna

35:10to contrast with Squall in certain ways in order to augment their personalities. This parallel is

35:16central to the story of FINAL FANTASY VIII and shows from a developmental standpoint how no

35:20leftovers from VII went to waste. Even the social interactions between Laguna and his comrades,

35:26Ward and Kiros, were based on the real world social dynamic of the team when they were

35:30working on FINAL FANTASY VII. This showcases an intentional undertone in FINAL FANTASY VIII,

35:36duality. Several interpersonal connections in FINAL FANTASY VIII are designed as parallels

35:42and are all mostly central to pushing the plot forward.

35:49To be different from the last rival character he had designed for FINAL FANTASY, Nomura needed

35:53someone more human to fill the role for VIII. This was the design framework for Seifer Almasy.

36:00At first glance, he seems to be a repeat attempt at creating Rufus Shinra thanks to his white

36:05trench coat, use of a gun adjacent weapon, and his slicked back blond hair with some strands poking

36:11out from his hairline. But Seifer's personality is far removed from Rufus' cold attitude. He

36:16leans more into a classic bully archetype. Unlike Sephiroth's apathetic and almost inhuman presence,

36:23Seifer is emotional and reckless, making him feel much more human and relatable as Squall's rival.

36:29He wears a large trench coat donning the Cross Of St. James on either sleeve.

36:34Also known in Spanish as the “Cruz de Santiago”. This emblem was used by the Order of Santiago,

36:39a Catholic military order active during the Reconquista, the 781-year long conflict between

36:46Christian kingdoms and Muslim ruled territories in Iberia that lasted from 711 to 1492.

36:54The symbol's cross shape resembles a sword, a subtle design choice to symbolize both the

36:59valor and faith of the order. Squall's griever accessories also resemble the cross of St. James,

37:05though they replace the top with a lion's head. Seifers posse, Raijin and Fujin,

37:11were first created for FINAL FANTASY VII, but were scrapped to avoid thematic overlap with the Turks.

37:17Their names refer to the gods of thunder and wind in Shinto mythology. In Japanese

37:22mythology and Buddhist iconography, the two are almost always depicted together as a duo.

37:28Fujin is the god of wind, traditionally shown carrying a large sack of winds over his shoulders,

37:33while Raijin is the god of thunder and lightning, often surrounded by taiko drums that he beats

37:39to create thunder. This translates nicely into their eponymous FINAL FANTASY VIII characters.

37:45Raijin is loud, aggressive, and physically imposing. He absorbs any lightning damage

37:50done to him in battle and makes use of the thunder spell while fighting.

37:55His special attack, Raijin Special, is named “Thunder God Flying Dragon Ascent" in Japanese.

38:01Fujin is quiet, reserved, and only speaks in one-word sentences.

38:06She absorbs any wind damage done to her in battle and makes use of wind magic. Her chakram,

38:12a throwing weapon from the Indian subcontinent, makes use of flowy spiral designs that allude to

38:18iconography related to the mythological Fujin's bag of winds. While they're based on myths,

38:23the duo are also conceptualized based on shonen manga. Shonen manga are specifically manga that

38:29are aimed toward young boys. It's easily the most popular genre of anime and manga, including some

38:35of the most recognizable anime IP. This influence clues us into another avenue Nomura draws from for

38:40inspiration, and it also helps brighten the tone of FINAL FANTASY VIII. Seifer's bully archetype,

38:47combined with Raijin and Fujin as his lackeys, reinforces the classic terrible trio trope.

38:53Compare the three of them to Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle from the Harry Potter

38:58books, or Team Rocket from the Pokémon Animated Series. Playing on familiar tropes like these

39:04helps lighten the story's tone since they are commonly used in media centered around children

39:09and teenagers. Squalls and Seifer’s weapon of choice, the Gunblade, was born from Nomura's

39:15idea of allowing the player to have a new way to control the protagonist's weapon in battle.

39:20With this new invention, players can deal extra damage if they press the R1 button on impact.

39:25This will trigger Squall to fire a blank within his blade, making the weapon vibrate and deal

39:30more damage. As silver accessories were a dominant accent piece on Squall's design,

39:35his Gunblade was made silver, too. It was modeled after a revolver, likely a Colt Python. To

39:41parallel Squall, Seifer wields his own Gunblade. This weapon is known as Hyperion. Hyperion is the

39:47name of the Greek Titan god of wisdom. Seifer's Hyperion is modeled after the Beretta M9 pistol.

39:55Squall’s and Seifer's designs are made to contrast in many ways, beginning with

39:59their matching scars that they inflict on each other in the Liberi Fatali sequence.

40:04The two both don a Cruz de Santiago, though Squall’s are decorated with a lion's head emblem.

40:09The two carry the same weapon, and Seifer wears a large white trench coat and collar,

40:14while Squall wears mostly black. This is another example of duality in the game.

40:24The opening cutscene, mastheaded by Nomura, is based on the concept of morning practice. A before

40:29school activity where student athletes start the day by practicing their sport or activity early.

40:35Liberi Fatali is directed in a way that leads the viewer to believe the stakes

40:39are much higher until it is revealed that Seifer and Squall are students.

40:44This captures the essence of the game perfectly, as it carries the thrill of high fantasy duels,

40:49introduces the iconic Gunblade, gives Squall and Seifer their scars,

40:54and subverts the audience's expectations by the end. Nobuo Uematsu had proven quite

40:59a feat when incorporating a Latin chorus into Sephroth's final boss fight in FINAL FANTASY VII.

41:11As if to prove that FINAL FANTASY VIII was made to surpass VII,

41:15the first notes of the game soundtrack are from a Latin choir.

41:25While on the topic of music, FINAL FANTASY VIII was the first instance of a Square game

41:29featuring a pop vocal song as its theme song. The song, “Eyes on Me” was composed by Uematsu

41:36with lyrics by Kako Sumeya and performed by Chinese recording artist Faye Wong.

41:41The track was composed by Uematsu in order to capture the love between Rinoa and Squall.

41:45Instead of composing a main theme and individual character themes, as was done with VII,

41:50Uematsu put all his chips on “Eyes on Me”, justifying this by commenting,

41:55"It is reasonable to have character themes if each of the main characters have their own highlights

41:59in the game. But in FFVIII, the main character is focused in a single couple of Squall and Rinoa.

42:06Considering ‘Eyes on Me’, I let the other characters take a step back music-wise.”

42:11Rinoa Heartilly was a large pillar in FINAL FANTASY VIII's development,

42:15as the team intended to explore a FINAL FANTASY narrative with more emotion and a budding romance.

42:22Nomura was very exact with Rinoa's likeness and spent much time deliberating on it.

42:26After completing it, he would hover around Nojima as he wrote her with frequent notes.

42:31[NOMURA] Rinoa was just going to be a contrasting character to Squall just to make them different.

42:36A darker history versus a cheerful brightness. So, we started to make her cheerful, but then

42:42also made her have weaknesses that Squall would have to compensate for. This is the

42:46type of fleshing out of characters that goes into the game. The details don't come out all at once.

42:52We worked on them as the story progresses. We completed them as the story was completed.

42:58Since Squall's origin was River Phoenix, much speculation has been made as to who Rinoa could

43:03be inspired by. The truth is that Rinoa is based on a close female friend and coworker.

43:10She too owned an Australian Shepherd, which would inspire Angelo's appearance alongside her. The

43:15woman in question remains anonymous. Rinoa marks the third FINAL FANTASY in a row to feature a

43:21character that fights with a dog at the behest of Nomura. This shows his tendency to repeat designs,

43:27which will only pick up from here. The crux example of duality, as it is used in FINAL FANTASY

43:33VIII, is the dynamic between Squall and Rinoa. It's pretty glaring considering the game's logo.

43:39This pairing is reinforced throughout the game, which consistently frames Squall and Rinoa as

43:43emotional opposites whose relationship anchors the story. Nearly every layer of

43:49FINAL FANTASY VIII's presentation has Rinoa and Squall's relationship at top priority.

43:54With Squall, Seifer, and Rinoa, we can see Nomura's first test using iconography to symbolize

44:00characters. Squall's icon is his lion's head emblem. Seifer’s is the red cross of St. James

44:06and Rinoa's is a set of angel wings. These appear on the back of her duster cardigan.

44:12Angelic imagery is frequent in her design:

44:14Her dog is named Angelo, an Italian name meaning “angel”. Her second limit break

44:19attack depicts her growing angel wings and levitating before greatly buffing her.

44:28Thirdly, a white feather is frequently used to symbolize her or her presence in the cinematics

44:34of FINAL FANTASY VIII. Nomura's use of iconography is solidified when taking a closer look at the

44:39international box arts of the game. The North American art depicts Squall, Rinoa, and Seifer

44:44explicitly. The Japanese box art is white, featuring the logo and a slip cover that uses

44:50Squall's lion's head emblem, Seifer's Cross of St. James and Rinoa's Angel Wing over top of the art.

44:57Players of FINAL FANTASY VIII will find that they cannot rename the rest of Squall's party.

45:02This was an intentional move to make sure the player remained focused on the

45:05romance between Squall and Rinoa. Yoshinori Kitase would rationalize this by saying,

45:11"I think there's a lot of people who like naming them after themselves and the person they like.

45:16And since Quistis is the first female character who shows up in this game, it could become

45:20problematic later in the game if the player gave her their girlfriend's name. In that case,

45:26they'd end up hooking up with a different woman from the one with their girlfriend's name.

45:29Because of that, we decided to make Squall and Rinoa the only ones whose names you can change.”

45:35Additionally, removing the player's ability to name any other characters except for Squall

45:40and Rinoa also helps to make the remaining party members feel like a supporting cast

45:44rather than a big rag tag group as was done in FINAL FANTASY VII. This approach gives

45:49another element of typical coming of age films to the story of FINAL FANTASY VIII.

45:54Selphie Tilmit was one of the earlier characters to be designed. Her flip hairstyle was the first

45:59idea. Her outfit only went through two drafts. The first being a pair of overalls

46:05and the second being a yellow miniskirt. The overalls from design one carried into design two.

46:11Quistis Trepe was designed around the same time as Selphie. The main conflict Nomura encountered

46:16while working on them was which one of them would wear pants or a skirt. Technically, both wear

46:21skirts, but Quistis’ is over pants. Nomura turned the two in and was surprised to find the writing

46:27team had decided Quistis to be a teacher at Balamb Garden. He eventually came to terms with this,

46:32justifying that “foreigners normally look older”. The party's martial artist, Zell Dincht,

46:38was designed to be in line with the shonen manga protagonist. This along with Raijin and Fujin

46:45is a great full circle moment for Nomura. Any sketches he'd made before that involved

46:50storyboarding resembled manga panels. And with three characters designed based on the medium,

46:55one could say that Nomura got his dream of being a manga artist, albeit in an indirect way.

47:02Zell's tattoo was influenced by an MTV clip that Nomura saw depicting a man with a full

47:06body tattoo. Fan speculation sometimes quotes Mike Tyson. However, Tyson did not get his iconic

47:14tattoo until 2003. My best guess regarding this music video might be MALICE MIZER's music video

47:21for their single “Illuminati”. The single was released on May 20th, 1998, and had certainly

47:27been in Nomura's wheelhouse of inspiration on this project before. The only reason I'm not

47:32entirely sure is because there was only one short shot featuring guitarist Kozi wearing eye makeup

47:38in a design similar to the look of Gene Simmons of KISS. This is just a guess, though. Zell's

47:45ultimate weapon is named Ehrgeiz, a reference to the 1998 fighting game, and he also shares a few

47:50limit break names with Tifa from FINAL FANTASY VII. Zel's final look is an interesting case, as

47:56we'll see several different individual ideas used on his design reused well into Nomura's career.

48:03Because of his pretty boy design tendencies, Nomura constantly found himself making

48:07alterations to Irvine's design. In fact, when Yoshinori Kitase referenced these tendencies

48:13in the aforementioned interview, Irvine was the example he chose to highlight.

48:18First, he was too handsome and similar to Squall. Then, he was a little too close

48:22to FINAL FANTASY VII’s Cid Highwind. To distance him from this similarity,

48:27his goggles were swapped out for a cowboy hat. And with that, his final design fell into place.

48:36FINAL FANTASY VIII’s Cid is based on Kazushige Nojima. Nojima requested this

48:41and thus created Cid, but Nomura designed him and found himself hurriedly getting rid of any

48:47wrinkles on Cid's design after learning how old, or rather young, the character was going to be.

48:53It could be chalked up to 90s trends, but I've seen a wonderful comparison by Andrew Bluett

48:58in his FINAL FANTASY VIII retrospective that points Squall and Cid to Will Hunting and Sean

49:03Maguire from the 1997 film Good Will Hunting. The comparison is hard to ignore once pointed out.

49:10Like Will Hunting, Squall is emotionally withdrawn, defensive, and uncomfortable with

49:14vulnerability. And Cid believes in him, gives him chances, and also frequents a sweater vest.

49:20Yet another, though likely coincidental, allusion to coming-of-age media.

49:25Edea Kramer was the first designed character for the game going back to FINAL FANTASY VII.

49:30She was one of the founding concepts for the themes of FINAL FANTASY VIII.

49:34Her design carried the goal of bringing high fantasy back to the FINAL FANTASY series.

49:39And rightfully so, considering she was inspired heavily by Yoshitaka Amano's characters.

49:44The game's final antagonist, Ultimecia, takes even more notes from Amano's art style.

49:50Her design contrasts with Rinoa's as the two are sorceresses with opposite alignments.

49:55Rinoa wears blue and Ultimecia wears red. Rinoa's hair is black and Ultimecia’s is white:

50:01another duality. There are also some subtle Nomurian monster touches. Her arms resemble the

50:07ones used for Mitochondria Eve's final form, as does the general shape of Ultimecia's final form.

50:13Her design in this form takes on more of a monstrous appearance than a holy one.

50:17The design includes wings which look rather skeletal and would come up about 10 years later in

50:22a different project. Ultimecia’s design is rather veiny and has traces of sinew all throughout.

50:28This is a pretty big step in his monster design, and would also float around for this time period.

50:33FINAL FANTASY VIII's lore is heavily centered around guardian forces. The entries take on the

50:38summons featured in previous FINAL FANTASY titles. They are the core of the game's junction system,

50:44letting the player equipped summoned entities to characters to grant abilities and to modify stats.

50:49One of these guardian forces is Odin, whose defeat at the hands of Seifer leads to the sudden

50:54appearance of Gilgamesh. Rather than functioning as a standard guardian force, Gilgamesh replaces

51:01Odin as a random assist in battle. He is implied to be the same character first seen

51:05in FINAL FANTASY V, having traversed dimensions after being cast into the interdimensional rift,

51:11and from this point on, he would go on to appear intermittently throughout the series.

51:16Upon review, of all the FINAL FANTASY games Nomura's worked on, I'd argue that VIII is

51:22probably the most Nomurian, so to speak. When one knows his later work, this game

51:27begins to be full of 100% pure Nomura. This is largely due to the debut of silver accessories,

51:34the Gunblade, unnecessary belts, and reverence for pop culture in real world fashion. But thanks

51:40to the other facets such as iconography, tattoos, and a continued use of mythology,

51:46FINAL FANTASY VIII acts as a debut for Tetsuya Nomura's true style.

51:51While he developed this working on Parasite Eve, by the time that FINAL FANTASY VIII came around,

51:56he had a strong sense of his preferences, art style, and design choices. FINAL FANTASY

52:02VIII would release in 1999 and go on to be the fourth bestselling game of the Sony PlayStation

52:08behind Gran Turismo, FINAL FANTASY VII, and Gran Turismo 2, in that order. As the follow-up to the

52:16smash hit of VII, FINAL FANTASY VIII stepped up to the plate and hit a home run of its own.

52:22The game setting, narrative, and themes resonated well with audiences, as well as the gameplay and

52:27soundtrack. This, combined with its graphical advancements and furthered cinematic presentation,

52:33set up FINAL FANTASY VIII to bolster the series reputation for being top-of-the-line

52:38in the Western market. VII had put FINAL FANTASY on the map, and VIII quickly followed it up and

52:44reinforced that success for the franchise. FINAL FANTASY VIII coming to a home theater near you.

52:53After wrapping production, development for the next FINAL FANTASY was being handled by a

52:58different team. So the company flew Nomura out to France to work with Kalisto Entertainment on their

53:04upcoming game Dark Earth 2: Edge of Chaos. After Nicolas Gaume, the founder of Kalisto, had failed

53:11to strike a publishing deal with Enix, Square requested a meeting with him and agreed to publish

53:17the game so long as Nomura was brought on board to handle the characters. The original draft of

53:22the game was a PC game like its predecessor, Dark Earth, and had its own pre-existing characters.

53:28When Square entered the picture, the project scope was altered to be for PlayStation and

53:33feature Nomura's work. His design work here made frequent use of harnesses, belts, and buckles.

53:40In a way, it's classic Nomura, but with a middle ages restraint. The designs are similar to the

53:45ones found in FINAL FANTASY VIII, but not because of the material of the clothes. After wrapping

53:51up work with Kalisto, Nomura headed home to help Parasite Eve II finish production before deadline.

53:58Meanwhile, Xenogears was well received worldwide, and fans were curious whether a sequel would be

54:04produced. However, after coming to terms that Squaresoft would rather pursue the FINAL FANTASY

54:09series than develop another Xenogears, and with the upcoming Parasite Eve II, putting

54:14salt in that wound, Tetsuya Takahashi and Soraya Saga resigned from their roles at the company.

54:20After working for Squaresoft for around nine years, the power couple sought funding from Namco

54:25and through their support established Monolith Soft. After establishing, Takahashi, Saga, and

54:31their small team would begin work on a spiritual successor to Xenogears. Before leaving Square,

54:37Takahashi had done work he would later be credited for on The Bouncer and FINAL FANTASY X.

54:44Relentless audience comparison between Resident Evil and Parasite Eve had caught up to Squaresoft.

54:50It seemed a smart move to make a follow-up to Parasite Eve in response to this comparison.

54:56Luckily, the company had recently employed just the right guy for the job.

55:01After wrapping work on Einhänder, Kenichi Iwao and the rest of the team behind the

55:05sidescrolling shooter were tasked with creating a new follow-up to Parasite Eve

55:09that would consider both the original novel and the 1998 video game. The key reason for such a

55:15large switch up in personnel is that PEII began development as a spin-off and not a direct sequel.

55:23Iwao had been told by the higher-ups, "There's no need to make it as big as the first game.

55:27just create an action RPG with the budget and manpower made available to you.” And so he did.

55:33He was even able to crop up some fellow ex-Resident Evil staff.

55:37This new Parasite Eve project was going to follow a private investigator, Kyle Madigan,

55:42uncovering deeper mysteries about the evolution of the human brain and emotion.

55:47There were plans to feature human prototypes that would have been genetically engineered to

55:51be specialized in hearing, sound, and smell. This new protagonist, Kyle, would allow the narrative

55:58to explore the phenomenon of Aya Brea objectively. Kyle would also be an ordinary guy, leaving room

56:05for contrast between the characters. Though it seemed to be a walk in the park at first,

56:10development for Parasite Eve II quickly became a constant uphill battle. Midway through production,

56:17the idea to include Aya as a more involved character would result in Kyle being kicked out of

56:22his protagonist role and the project turning from spin-off to sequel. Reflecting on the struggle,

56:28Iwao said, "Since our staff was originally working on 2D shooting games, we lacked both the number

56:34of people and necessary experience. Also, as the company's financial performance worsened halfway

56:41through development, we had to have our team. Moreover, due to delays in other main titles,

56:48we were ordered to accelerate the release by six months during the late development stage.

56:53Like Parasite Eve, the Parasite Eve II team initially had a different character designer.

56:58This was Isao Oishi, the main character designer for Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2.

57:05Oishi quit amongst the chaos and so Tetsuya Nomura was called in 10 months from deadline to

57:10fill the role. Thus, Tetsuya Nomura stumbled into Parasite Eve II's hectic development,

57:16credited on the game as character illustrator. Nomura did his best to preserve Oishi’s work,

57:22and added some small touches of his own before illustrating all the artwork,

57:25as he had done for Parasite Eve prior. The cast of Parasite Eve II is much smaller than before.

57:31This size largely has to do with the original scope for the project. In Nomura's workflow,

57:37Parasite Eve II occurred concurrently with The Bouncer and just after FINAL FANTASY VIII.

57:42We can triangulate this by nods left in the final product and its branding.

57:47Golem No. 9’s main weapon is Squall's Gunblade from FINAL FANTASY VIII and is the hardest

57:52obtainable weapon in the game. On the other end, Nomura drew some promotional artwork of

57:57Aya in a tube top with Dog Street brand jeans, a fictional fashion line referencing The Bouncer.

58:03This artwork clues us in to how much of Oishi's original designs were left over and how interested

58:08Nomura was in including fashion in his designs at the time. We'll discuss Dog Street further later,

58:14but for now, take note that on Aya's back pocket is a cross, the emblem Nomura was experimenting

58:20with in the designs for FINAL FANTASY VIII. Nomura would once more create several promotional

58:25artworks of Aya for Parasite Eve II, but this time his art style was more consistent between pieces.

58:32In this piece, she can be seen with wings on her back and a silver cross dangling from a chain

58:37out of her mouth. The line work, coloring, Aya’s vacant expression, wings, and silver accessories.

58:43This piece calls to mind the work Nomura had just done for FINAL FANTASY VIII.

58:48A notable piece used for magazine ads was Nomura's second take on one done for the original.

58:53This time, however, elements from another artwork made for the 1998 game are used as references,

58:59providing the basis for the color scheme, possibly influencing the change in pose, and definitely

59:04inspiring her waistband to be folded over. Aya's eyes are even more realistic than both reference

59:09pieces. In another, she is naked, censored by shadows, and has mutilated bodies at her feet.

59:16This art is characterized by thick outlines and a bold coloring scheme, something that

59:21Nomura would heavily lean into as he drafted designs for his next and biggest project yet.

59:28Despite its tumultuous development, Parasite Eve II was released on December 16th, 1999,

59:3410 months after the release of FINAL FANTASY VIII. The game's localized copies would roll out

59:40throughout the year 2000, as would the company's final wave of original titles for the PlayStation.

59:49After being in development since 1997, Kalisto Entertainment's Dark Earth 2: Edge of Chaos,

59:55now simply named Silent Chaos, was complete and ready for its release on the PlayStation. But

1:00:02the absolute worst case scenario came true for the French development team. As Hironobu Sakaguchi's

1:00:07Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, began to take more time and money to create. Square would have

1:00:12to cancel projects and tighten game budgets to stay fiscally afloat. This affected Parasite Eve

1:00:18too harshly, as we've discussed. This, hand in hand with the PlayStation 2's upcoming release

1:00:23in 2000, led to Silent Chaos being cancelled by Square despite being complete and fully playable.

1:00:31No copies of the game were leaked or made public. So, Silent Chaos died quietly and has been lost

1:00:36media ever since. All that remains are only a few CG models, some sketches, and some background art.

1:00:46As the '90s came to a close, Tetsuya Nomura found his true illustration style and began

1:00:52to pick up some new design habits with his work on Parasite Eve and FINAL FANTASY VIII. The success

1:00:57of both of these titles would catapult him even further, making his work quite relevant in the

1:01:02industry and opening him up to many projects that he would not have been involved in before.

1:01:06As soon as he hit a stride with FINAL FANTASY VII, Nomura did not let up. By doing this,

1:01:11he involved himself in many projects that pushed the PlayStation much further beyond what was done

1:01:16in FINAL FANTASY VII, allowing him to open up and establish what his natural art style looked like.

1:01:22Rather than sitting back and letting the cash roll in, Nomura opted to find himself,

1:01:27which brought more praise. It's a good reminder to hone your craft and not get too comfortable.

1:01:33As for some, selling out is not fulfilling. My name is Joe. I have talked. Thanks for watching.