isamu-kamikokuryo
Latest
Final Fantasy XIII UK launch event rewarding cosplayers
Square Enix, apparently, is all about the cosplay. Just today, the publisher announced that it'll be rewarding the first 50 people dressed in "Final Fantasy costumes" who arrive at the March 9 launch event for Final Fantasy XIII with a free copy of the game's soundtrack. Oh, and also, Square Enix producer Yoshinori Kitase and art director Isamu Kamikokuryo will be there, signing whatever you want. The release further entices attendees with "high-profile DJ and TV presenter Alex Zane," who'll no doubt be spitting hot fire into a mic all evening. The event kicks off at 5:30PM at the Oxford Street HMV in London and runs until the sun comes up -- or 7:30PM, whichever comes first. %Gallery-41346%
Square Enix cut a game's worth of content from Final Fantasy XIII
It turns out there once were many more labyrinthine paths and dungeons in Final Fantasy XIII, but they got cut. An interview (in Japanese) over at FF-Reunion with art director Isamu Kamikokuryou ("No you!" to his friends) has him saying that the team removed enough extra locations from the title to make up a whole other game entirely. Sections cut include a secret base for Snow's hero squad, a character's home that included a park, and even a zoo inside one of the game's amusement park areas. This is all more impressive when you consider that Square Enix is expecting to need three DVDs to hold everything that's still in the Xbox 360 version of the game. But FFXIII completists, don't worry too much -- we're sure some of that content will appear sometime during the game's 10-year cycle.
GDC08: Final Fantasy, beautiful men, and fighting the uncanny valley
Note: We'd like to show you images from the session, but as is typical of Square Enix events, no photography of any sort was allowed.Isamu Kamikokuryo discussed the process of making art for Final Fantasy in a crowded Q&A panel at this year's Game Developer's Conference. At first, Kamikokuryo reminisced about how he got his job at Square Enix. It wasn't particularly romantic: he followed a simple call for applicants, and submitted a resume with a photograph of one of his oil paintings. He got a call back, and got a job that many fanboys would kill for.Eventually, the discussion moved on to the high quality graphics that Square Enix has been able to produce in its pre-rendered movies. Asked how the team copes with "the uncanny valley problem," Kamikokuryo noted that it's something everyone on the team is constantly thinking about. "In terms of the uncanny valley, that is something we have to fight against. We can't go there -- that's basically how we feel about it. For all the things we create, many of the section creators get together and we make adjustments so this uncanny valley phenomenon doesn't happen. We don't usually use that phrase, because all the staff has this in mind while we do our work."
