Tetsuya Nomura is a well-known Japanese illustrator, designer, and art director in the gaming industry. He was born on October 8th, 1970 in Kochi Prefecture, Japan. He has been drawing since the age of three and his parents noticed his talent in illustration even for his age. Nomura even made a Japanese game himself for him and his friends to play during school. Nomura recognized that when he realized how happy he made his friends along with the support from his father that he wanted to consider illustration as a career. When Nomura was in high school, his father bought him a computer and was enthusiastic about his interest in gaming and illustration. During this time, Nomura met an early Final Fantasy illustrator, Yoshitaka Amano. Amano was able to be a mentor for Nomura and supported him into taking the steps to become a video game artist.
As Nomura grew up, his interest in video games began to develop and his love for illustration was still prominent, with thanks to the support from his father. He started to get ideas during high school of becoming a mangaka, or Japanese manga artist. However, Nomura saw the possibility of becoming a manga artist very unlikely and hence studied advertisement at a vocational school instead. Around 1996, Nomura received a degree in advertising and started looking for advertising jobs in Japan.
This is where he ran into the company of Square Enix, or at the time was known as Square. Nomura began his part in the company as a debugger for their game Final Fantasy IV in 1991. His success with his involvement in the games allowed the company to promote him to graphic director for Final Fantasy VI especially after a few of the designers were impressed with his illustrations for the previous Final Fantasy games. In 2002 began the involvement as a director in one of Nomura’s most noteworthy games, Kingdom Hearts.
Tetsuya Nomura is now most known for his consistent work as an art director for the gaming company Square Enix. He is seen as one of the most remarkable game directors in Japan, with his net worth being 1.3 million dollars. Nomura’s latest projects are the Final Fantasy VII Remake and the latest downloadable content for Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts RE: Mind. Nomura has changed the lives of gamers all around the world and produced amazing storylines that was remarkable for games around its time.
