Tetsuya Nomura is an interesting figure in Square-Enix history. If you’re not familiar with the name, he’s an artist and director who is responsible for character design in numerous Final Fantasy games (most notably Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, and Final Fantasy XIII) as well as being the director and creative force behind the Kingdom Hearts franchise. If you are familiar with the name, you might also know that he gets blamed for a lot of things that he had nothing to do with while somehow not getting blamed for the things he actually does wrong. But we’re here to talk about the recent piece on his experiences playing Final Fantasy XI, in which he reveals that he was one heck of an annoying player to be alongside.
Yeah, dude is complicated.
Nomura recounts his experiences in playing the game, which seem to mostly come down to a steadfast insistence on experiencing things without outside knowledge including party members telling him not to do things. This attitude increasingly put him at odds with his friends, who wanted to do things like “actually learn to do fights” and “not die to random enemies in high-level areas,” which by his own admission was less fun to him. So whatever your feelings are on the man’s body of work as a director and artist, you probably wouldn’t want to play with him in Vana’diel. (Although he hasn’t played for some time by his own admission.)
