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If J-Pop can be embodied as a game in the way that Suda
51’s No More Heroes embodies punk, Tetsuya Nomura has already designed it.
Nomura’s games and character art inhabit a weird spot
between genre fantasy and urban Japanese fashion trends. Gross exaggerations of real (and
almost-real) styles and products, they are often off-putting to the critical
circus and a majority of the gaming population.
Yet his games are also successes, engendering a cult niches
of fans and solid-to-blockbuster sales: Kingdom Hearts, Final
Fantasy VII-on, and The World Ends With You are just some of those that
present Nomura’s unique thumbprint.
On a basic level, Nomura excels at his craft. The
silhouettes of his characters are simple and discernible from one another, but,
in the wake of Final Fantasy VII, intricately
detailed. Not a bit of space on Sora, Lightning, etc. goes to waste.
Turn to Nomura’s break out, Final Fantasy VII. Every major
character is simply designed, but iconic in their simplicity. Reduce them to
silhouettes, and most are still immediately recognizable: Cloud Strife has
spiked hair that slants diagonally and a man-sized sword, Barrett is inhumanly large and squat
with a Mr. T hairstyle, and even Tifa and Aeries appear separate (despite being two long-haired women with vaguely similar builds) due to their poise. Aeries has her hands drawn in, awkward and shy, while Tifa is confident with her hands posed on hips.
This is key character information rendered simply in an expressive, unique hybrid of styles.
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| top left and center image courtesy of finalfantasy.wikia.com |
This is key character information rendered simply in an expressive, unique hybrid of styles.
Why, then, is Nomura so rejected?
