RPGFan1 said:
Aside from the Kingdom Hearts games, he practically had nothing to do with the rest of those games. Creative producer and character designer? Had nothing to do with the gameplay of any of those games, so there's you can hardly call any of that reason for Final Fantasy 15 to take over the course of an entire generation to complete under his development. |
You're partially mistaken in understanding the industry particulars, but more importantly, you also misread my post.
I'll address the two points separately, with the re-explanation of my post coming first:
1. I never said those games had anything to do with hindering FF Versus XIII/XV's development. That's a misreading on your part. The truth is just the opposite! I merely pointed out that, while SE's bad management were fucking over the project, putting it on multiple halts, ruining the engines, stealing devs to fix other teams' problems, etc., Nomura kept busy with lots of projects. He was never dawdling, but rather was always involved in more work than anyone else at SE. Those games are simply evidence of the work ethic. They did not impact FFvXIII/XV in any negative way.
2. His roles in different projects vary in scope, obviously, yes. But you also seem to partially misunderstand some gaming industry positions (especially in Japanese organisations) and particularly misunderstand the traditional organisation of staff within Square Enix (itself a unique thing). For example, "character designer" in SE is a huge job, because it involves much of the storycraft, character drafting (and not just physical aspects, but ones of personality, backstory, etc.), thematic elements, etc. This is why people like Amano and Nomura became such huge names. Nomura was assigned as character designer for FFVII (the moment which particularly launched him into fame, though he had done good work prior), but that role led to him being the primary creative force behind the project. Similarly, a creative producer has to put a lot of oversight into a project. TWEWY is such an example where Nomura's production role involved very deep control over art direction, thematic ideas, general concepts, battle direction, etc. Or, if you look into Dissidia's development, part of his production role was being the primary designer of the combat system, which had in fact started as designs for a KH spin-off before becoming Dissidia FF. While these tasks are not QUITE as demanding as his 100% control over things like KH: Birth by Sleep, they are immensely more demanding than most jobs in the game industry--and he did multiple simultaneously. To much success, no less.
The most important thing to know about the situation with Versus XIII is that it was the biggest victim in a long list of victim projects to the absolutely horribly executive management of SE last gen. This gen opened with a complete executive restructuring of SE, with Nomura having much influence in how the company reorganised. And, lo and behold, that has been a huge success. We've got so much stuff coming from SE that it's mind-boggling. In addition to the simultaneous heavy-hitters like KHIII, FFXV, FFVII Remake, DQXI, etc., we're being surprised with revivals like Star Ocean 5, Nier New Project, Dissidia FF (PS4/Arcade), SaGa, and more. There are also very high-end spin-off and collaborative projects, including the likes of World of FF, DQ Heroes, and DQ Builders. And they're even experimenting with new IP again, as evidenced by Setsuna (which looks beautiful and should excite fans of 1990s JRPGs). Hell, even their mobile output has become stellar for anyone who isn't 100% opposed to mobile, with stuff like KH Unchained [X] and Mobius FF even making me want to pull out my phone and set it next to my Vita and 3DS. It's a great time to be a SE/JRPG fan. Eighth gen has treated us exceptionally well.
