Kazushige Nojima Writer - Final Fantasy
Kazushige Nojima is a Japanese video game scenario writer that was born on January 20, 1964 in Sapporo, Japan. He is best known for his involvement in the Final Fantasy series, a Japanese fantasy role-playing video game series that is developed and produced by Square Enix. He was the main writer in Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and the Kingdom Hearts series. Nojima has also written a number of lyrics for various songs in the soundtracks of Final Fantasy games. Overall, Nojima is renowned as one of the strongest and creative writers in the video game industry. Not only working on Final Fantasy related works but also world famous titles such as Super Smash Bros.
Life and Career
Nojima started out in the video game industry at Japanese video game developer Data East, which is known for creating popular titles such as BurgerTime, Windjammers, and the Joe & Mac series. He joined Square in 1994 and began working on Final Fantasy VII after the main character setting had already been completed. His input included a proposition that female characters Tifa Lockheart and Aerith Gainsborough should both die in the game, though this idea was eventually scrapped. He wrote the mythology behind the games in the Fabula Nova Crystallis series, which serves as the foundation of the plot for all of the entries in the series. Aside from writing scenarios and stories for video games, Nojima has also written lyrics for several songs in the Final Fantasy series. In particular, Nojima is credited for creating the lyrics for “Liberi Fatall” from Final Fantasy VIII, as well as “Suteki da Ne” and “Hymn of the Fayth” for Final Fantasy X.
Nojima was also responsible for writing most of the Kingdom Hearts games. In 2003, Nojima left Square (now Square Enix) to open his own scenario writing company called Stellavista Ltd., where he went on to write the plot of Sakura Note and also began work on the plot for Glory of Heracles, in which he incorporated an incredible amount of Greek mythology. Although Nojima had left Square Enix, he still made a number of contributions to their projects, such as Final Fantasy XIII, later entries in the Kingdom Hearts series, and Final Fantasy XV. In 2011, it was announced that Busō Chūgakusei Basket Army (Armed Middle School Student Basket Army), an anime short based on a novel written by Nojima, would be released and made available for streaming online.
Complete List of Credited Video Game Roles
- Bahamut Lagoon (1996; as Director)
- Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII (2004; as Scenario Supervisor)
- Black Rock Shooter: The Game (2011; as Scenario Writer)
- Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (2007; as Scenario Writer) (with Sachie Hirano)
- Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (2006; as Special Thanks)
- Dissidia Final Fantasy NT (2018; as Scenario Concept)
- Dragon's Dogma Online (2015; as Scenario Writer)
- Final Fantasy VII (1997; as Scenario Writer) (with Yoshinori Kitase)
- Final Fantasy VII Advent Children (2005; as Scenario Writer)
- Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020; as Scenario Writer)
- Final Fantasy VIII (1999; as Scenario Writer)
- Final Fantasy X (2001; as Scenario Writer) (with Daisuke Watanabe, Motomu Toriyama and Yoshinori Kitase)
- Final Fantasy X-2 (2003; as Scenario Writer) (with Daisuke Watanabe)
- Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (2013, Scenario Writer, Audio Drama Writer)
- Final Fantasy XIII (2009; as Scenario Concept)
- Final Fantasy XV (2016; as Original Story Plot)
- Glory of Heracles (2008; as Scenario Writer)
- Heracles no Eikō II: Titan no Metsubō (1989; as Scenario Writer)
- Heracles no Eikō III: Kamigami no Chinmoku (1992; as Scenario Writer)
- Heracles no Eikō IV: Kamigami kara no Okurimono (1994; as Scenario Writer and Director(with Eiichi Nishiyama)
- tadaki Street: Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary (2017; as Scenario Supervisor)
- Kingdom Hearts (2002; as Scenario Writer) (with Jun Akiyama and Daisuke Watanabe)
- Kingdom Hearts II (2005; as Scenario Writer) (with Daisuke Watanabe and Harunori Sakemi)
- Kingdom Hearts III (2019; as Scenario Supervisor)
- Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (2004; as Scenario Supervisor)
- Last Order: Final Fantasy VII (2005 as Original Story Writer)
- Last Ranker (2010; as Scenario Writer)
- Lord of Arcana (2010; as Original Lyrics)
- Mobius Final Fantasy (2015-2020; as Scenario Supervisor)
- Sakura Note (2009; as Scenario Writer)
- Shadow of Laffandore: Laffandor Country Story (2016)
- Sol Trigger (2012; as Scenario Writer)
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008; as Scenario Writer for Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary) (with Masahiro Sakurai)
- Tantei Jingūji Saburō: Kiken na Futari (1988–1989; as Scenario Writer)
- Tantei Jingūji Saburō: Toki no Sugiyuku mamani... (1991; as Scenario Writer)
- Zodiac (2015; as Scenario Writer)