Curated category
Square Enix people
- Koichi IshiiKoichi Ishii received an invitation to work on the original Final Fantasy in 1986. He joined Square shortly after that call arrived.
- Shinji HashimotoShinji Hashimoto began his professional life at the toy company Bandai before entering the video game industry. He joined Squaresoft, which later became…
- Mitsuto SuzukiIn the early 1980s, Mitsuto Suzuki's life changed when his older brother brought home a synthesizer. The instrument became a playground for the young boy who…
- Naoshi MizutaNaoshi Mizuta was born in Kōchi, Japan, during the year 1972. His fascination with music started when he was a child in the second or third grade of…
- Yoshinori KitaseYoshinori Kitase was eleven years old in July 1978 when he saw Star Wars for the first time. The film left such an impression on him that he tracked down the…
- Hiroyuki ItoHiroyuki Ito joined Square in 1987 as a debugger, tasked with finding bugs in the original Final Fantasy. Few entry-level jobs in gaming feel more invisible…
- Daisuke WatanabeDaisuke Watanabe wrote the dialog for the Zanarkand Ruins in Final Fantasy X almost entirely in a single night. That moment of compressed creativity stands…
- Masashi HamauzuMasashi Hamauzu was born in Munich, Germany, into a household where music was not an elective subject but a household language. His mother taught piano.
- Yusuke NaoraYusuke Naora was born on the 9th of January 1971. He began his professional life at Toaplan, a Japanese video game developer known for arcade shooters.
- Kazushige NojimaKazushige Nojima has written some of the most emotionally charged scripts in video game history, yet most players who wept over Cloud Strife or Tidus have…
- Akihiko YoshidaAkihiko Yoshida has spent decades shaping how players see the worlds they inhabit. Born in 1967, he joined Square in 1995 and spent nearly two decades…
- Junya NakanoJunya Nakano was born in Kyoto, Japan. His parents introduced him to music when he was three years old. They offered him lessons in the electronic organ…
- Hiroshi MinagawaHiroshi Minagawa, known by the nickname Nigoro, began his career at Quest Corporation in 1991. He worked alongside colleagues Yasumi Matsuno and Akihiko…
- Hitoshi SakimotoHitoshi Sakimoto was born on the 26th of February 1969 in Tokyo, Japan, and by the age of 16 he was already being paid to compose music for video games.
- Kumi TaniokaKumi Tanioka was born in Hiroshima, Japan. Her childhood there included studying music and composition while attending school.
- Hironobu SakaguchiHironobu Sakaguchi named the lead character of his debut film after his dead mother. Aki Ross, the protagonist of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, carried…
- Yoko ShimomuraYoko Shimomura was born on the 19th of October 1967, in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, and started taking piano lessons "at the age of four or five".
- Kazuko ShibuyaKazuko Shibuya was born in 1965. Her creative journey began during middle school years when she started drawing illustrations and animations inspired by…
- Naoki YoshidaNaoki Yoshida grew up in Hakodate, Japan, where money was scarce for his family. He spent hundreds of hours playing a single video game title during his…
- Nobuo UematsuNobuo Uematsu was born on the 21st of March, 1959, in Kochi, the capital city of Kochi Prefecture, Japan. He never took a single formal piano lesson.
- Masayoshi SokenMasayoshi Soken was born in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. His family later moved to Tokyo, Japan. He attended the Tokyo University of Science and…
- Tetsuya NomuraTetsuya Nomura was born in 1970 and applied to Square after seeing a job advertisement featuring artwork by Yoshitaka Amano.