Curated playlist
Square Enix people
- Koichi IshiiSquare turned down Koichi Ishii's game idea before he finished pitching it.
- Shinji HashimotoKingdom Hearts began with an elevator conversation in Tokyo. Shinji Hashimoto met a Disney executive there.
- Mitsuto SuzukiMitsuto Suzuki, a Japanese composer born in 1973, once filled 60 minute tapes with video game music that he recorded himself. He built those tapes with multitrack recording, long before anyone paid him to write a note. Today his…
- Naoshi MizutaNaoshi Mizuta studied law and economics before writing game music. He later scored Final Fantasy XI for over ten years.
- Yoshinori KitaseYoshinori Kitase set Final Fantasy X in Southeast Asia to widen what "fantasy" could mean.
- Hiroyuki ItoHiroyuki Ito began at Square in 1987 as a debugger hunting bugs in Final Fantasy.
- Daisuke WatanabeDaisuke Watanabe wrote the Zanarkand Ruins dialog in Final Fantasy X almost entirely in one night.
- Masashi HamauzuMasashi Hamauzu left Square Enix on the 19th of January, 2010. He started MONOMUSIK, a studio with no other composers.
- Yusuke NaoraA trip to Bali gave Final Fantasy X its Besaid Village. Artist Yusuke Naora brought back images of temples and flowers.
- Kazushige NojimaKazushige Nojima joined Final Fantasy VII after its main character settings were already locked.
- Akihiko YoshidaVaan in Final Fantasy XII was first drawn as rugged and tough. The team later made him younger and thinner.
- Junya NakanoJunya Nakano said Nobuo Uematsu hadn't influenced his work. He co-composed Final Fantasy X alongside him anyway.
- Hiroshi MinagawaHiroshi Minagawa goes by the nickname Nigoro, and his name sits in the credits of some of the most admired role-playing games to come out of Japan. He is an artist, a designer, and a director. His earliest credit in the list of his works…
- Hitoshi SakimotoHitoshi Sakimoto was paid to write video game music at 16. He also wrote the program that played it.
- Kumi TaniokaKumi Tanioka built the Crystal Chronicles sound from the recorder, crumhorn and lute.
- Hironobu SakaguchiHironobu Sakaguchi named his film's heroine after his mother, who died in a house fire.
- Yoko ShimomuraYoko Shimomura turned down a music store job to write video game music. Her family and instructors were dismayed.
- Kazuko ShibuyaKazuko Shibuya drew the characters, monsters and menus for the first Final Fantasy.
- Naoki YoshidaIn December 2010, Naoki Yoshida took over the troubled Final Fantasy XIV as director and first-time producer.
- Nobuo UematsuNobuo Uematsu never took a formal piano lesson. A Square employee offered him game work at his music rental shop.
- Masayoshi SokenComposer Masayoshi Soken hid his chemotherapy from nearly everyone on the Final Fantasy XIV team in 2020.
- Tetsuya NomuraTetsuya Nomura started at Square as a debugger, not a designer. A hand-drawn plan book later got him noticed.