Yoshinori Kitase

• 1. An Eleven-Year-Old and Star Wars

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  Yoshinori 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 making-of video, becoming fixated not on the spectacle itself but on how it was made. That fascination pulled him toward the Nihon University College of Art, where he studied screenwriting and filmmaking. He found he loved editing above all else, because editing let him reshape footage into something emotionally new. His first job after graduation was at a small animation studio making television programs and commercials. Then he played Final Fantasy for the first time, and he recognized something: the game had real potential for animation and storytelling. With no software development background at all, he applied to Square. They hired him in March 1990.

• 2. The Event Scripter Years

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  For roughly ten years at Square, Kitase worked as an "event scripter". The job meant controlling how characters moved and expressed themselves on screen, timing music transitions, and sequencing story beats. He later compared the work to directing film actors. His background in editing gave him an instinct for pacing and emotional weight. He carried the event-scripter sensibility into nearly everything he touched. Even after he took on larger roles, he continued directing cutscenes. On Final Fantasy VIII, he personally directed part of the event scenes. On Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, he served as event planner for the Nibelheim section specifically. The discipline of shaping a moment, of deciding exactly when a piece of music shifts, stayed with him long after the title changed.

• 3. Directing the Defining Titles

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  Kitase directed Final Fantasy VI in 1994, followed by Chrono Trigger in 1995. Final Fantasy VII came next in 1997, and Final Fantasy VIII in 1999. Each of these games arrived at a moment when the medium was transforming, and Kitase shaped how players understood what a role-playing game could feel like. He took the director credit on Final Fantasy X in 2001, sharing the chief director role while also producing. Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi later said he felt he had "handed the torch to" Kitase when it came to leading the series forward. Kitase himself named Final Fantasy VII his favorite game and its protagonist Cloud Strife his favorite character.

• 4. Chasing a New Fantasy

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  After Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII, players told Kitase they wanted a return to a simpler fantasy world. He found the request interesting but decided to push back against the assumption behind it. His response was to interrogate the word "fantasy" itself, expanding its meaning well beyond the familiar medieval European template. That rethinking led directly to Southeast Asia as the setting for Final Fantasy X. The choice was deliberate: he wanted listeners and players to understand that "fantasy" could hold other histories, other textures, other visual traditions. The result was a game set in a world unlike anything the series had offered before, produced from a conscious decision to refuse the obvious answer.

• 5. Producer and Executive

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  From director, Kitase moved into the producer role. He produced Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XIII, and the entire Final Fantasy VII Remake series, including Final Fantasy VII Remake in 2020 and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth in 2024. His production credits extend across dozens of titles at Square Enix, from Kingdom Hearts in 2002 through the Pixel Remaster series, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion in 2022, and Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis in 2023. In parallel, he served as executive producer for films including Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and its 2009 extended cut, Advent Children Complete. He supervised the Final Fantasy VII: Technical Demo for PS3. His credits in other media and additional cooperation roles span at least three decades of Square Enix output.

• 6. Board Member and Brand Manager

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  Kitase currently sits on the boards of directors of both Square Enix Co., Ltd. and Square Enix Holdings. He serves as executive officer of Creative Studios 1 and 2, and as studio head of Creative Studio 2. In 2021 he took on the role of Final Fantasy series brand manager. He is also a member of the Final Fantasy Committee, a body charged with maintaining consistency across the franchise's releases. He previously headed Creative Business Unit 1 and Business Division 1 for the entirety of each unit's existence. The 2025 title Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven carries his credit as head of studio, and SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered, also due in 2025, lists the same role.