Famitsu, Tetsuya Nomura interview.

-- You are both a “designer” and a “creator” now, but I believe you started out from just liking to draw, is that right? Have you been drawing since you were a kid?

Nomura: Yes. I’ve liked pictures since I was little, I was always drawing. Well, mostly it was manga I drew, though I never finished anything (laugh.) But I always drew anyway.

-- Of course. So you like drawing, and you wanted to make a career out of it, so you went to Tokyo?

Nomura: Well... that wasn’t really my goal. But I wanted to do something with drawing so I went to art school and studied a lot. I was studying things about advertisment design while thinking “This doesn’t seem quite right...” (laugh.) There was one class where we had a camera and took pictures.

-- You were learning stuff that was closer to an Editor’s job then (laugh.) Though you were doing a lot of things, you were still most interested in “drawing” right?

Nomura: Yes that’s right.

-- So what sort of job hunting did you do?

Nomura: Well there was a job at a publishing house that someone was going to help me get, but that fell through. I looked through the classifieds not knowing what I should do. There was a time like that. At the time there were advertisments for other game companies, but for some reason I got hired here (Squaresoft at the time.)

-- The turning point of your fate (laugh)

Nomura: (laugh) When I first got hired I never thought I’d be here this long. It’s so strange.

-- Sorry to ask this, but why did you stay longer than you’d planned?

Nomura: Well the job just got so fun making so many different things. The team leaders I’m working with now are the people I’ve been with since the beginning. So long as they still wanted to work together, I saw no reason to quit.

-- So you felt “complete” in your job then? By the way, what game left the strongest impression on you as a “turning point”?

Nomura: Well, I would say “before” and “after” games became 3D, how we made games really changed. Before, we decided things as we made them. There were no things decided before hand. Now, everything is decided before we start working. FFVII was the first game that started this. I designed FFVII characters how I wanted to, but after making them there were a lot of difficulties. I learned my lesson, and with FFVIII I only started designing them after everything had been decided.

-- So that’s why you achieved so much with FFVIII.

Nomura: It was pretty bad at the time though. But, I think that was the last time I did whatever I wanted on a game. I still remember everyone scrambling.

-- Finally, I’m going to change questions a bit, what sort of things do you do on your private time?

Nomura: Let’s see... mostly when I’m at home, I just don’t move (laugh.) I just watch TV.

-- So you probably get ideas from that, and you can turn it into new things at work...

Nomura: No... not really (laugh.) I’m just watching it because I want to, I’m not really thinking about work. I’m basically just lazy, lately I just sit around and don’t do much.

-- I see (laugh) I thought maybe there was some hint into the creator Tetsuya Nomura by what you do on your off days. I was hoping that there would be some tips for people who want to become a designer like you, but I didn’t think that you’d say you didn’t do anything (laugh.)

Nomura: Aha (laugh.) Well, move around while you can. No really, I think it’s important to do things while you still feel like it. Since lately the rest of the staff has been treating me like an “old man”.

-- An old man!! (laugh)

Nomura: Well lately all my joints pop and things like that (laugh.) I get angry at everything, and tell stupid jokes. Even though I was only talking about how our future plans. But everyone is nice to me, like they are nice to an old man (laugh.)

-- This is probably weird to say, but it’s a wonderful thing to be able to talk about your future plans clearly. We’ve covered a lot of topics, and I’d like to thank you for talking with us. I feel as though I’ve been able to see the true you.