Tetsuya Nomura

Despite humble beginnings when he started at Square straight out of vocational school, Tetsuya Nomura quickly managed to carve out a niche for himself at the Japanese giant fairly quickly. Initially recruited to handle the graphic design for the monsters and battles in Final Fantasy V, and then some basic character design for Final Fantasy VI, it wasn't until long-time character designer Yoshitaka Amano finally left Square in 1995 that Nomura moved up to lead character designer on a little project called Final Fantasy VII.

The success of the game (and its sequel) solidified Nomura as a fixture of Square's core franchise (though Amano did return to design the characters in Final Fantasy IX), with stints on Ehrgeiz and both Parasite Eves until finally being turned loose on The Bouncer. Nearly all of Square's early PlayStation 2 games had characters designed by Nomura, and with the Kingdom Hearts series, he added director to his list of roles.

In addition to directing the CG movie Final Fantasy VII: Adventure Children, Nomura continues to head up many of Square Enix's biggest franchises, from the smattering of Final Fantasy titles planned for multiple platforms to the upcoming Kingdom Hearts continuations.