- Motomu Toriyama
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Motomu Toriyama 
Motomu Toriyama at the 2010 Game Developers Conference.Nationality Japanese Occupation Director and scenario writer of video games at Square Enix. Motomu Toriyama (鳥山 求 Toriyama Motomu) is a Japanese game director and scenario writer who has been working for Square Enix since 1995. He is the director in charge of the main series Final Fantasy games developed by their 1st Production Department, which is managed by Yoshinori Kitase.
Yoshinori Kitase specifically chose Toriyama to be his successor as director of main series Final Fantasy games developed by Product Development Division 1 after the positive reception to Final Fantasy X, which was Toriyama's directorial debut. At the South Korean launch event of Final Fantasy XIII, Yoshinori Kitase said that he wants to continue working closely with Toriyama on main series Final Fantasy games.[1]
Contents
Game design philosophy
Motomu Toriyama has a similar game design philosophy to Yoshinori Kitase. He believes his strength is in creating games that are very story-driven.[2] He also believes that it becomes very difficult to tell a compelling story when the player is given a huge amount of freedom to explore.[3] According to him, the most important aspect of a Final Fantasy game is the characters.[4] Toriyama aimed for the game design of the first half of Final Fantasy XIII to play like watching a film. The reason was so the player could become absorbed with the story and characters and not get distracted or lost.[5]
He also highly values vibrant special effects being used in the battle system of the game he is directing; the main reason for Final Fantasy XIII not to have a seamless battle system was reportedly because it would not have been possible to have vibrant special effects in a seamless battle system due to the amount of memory and processing power needed. Toriyama is interested in using first-person shooter games for inspiration rather than other role-playing video games, as he believes they give a better sense of tension during battles.[6]
The position in the story and duties in battle of the female character depends on the game Toriyama is working on. He does not base heroines on real people as he always tries to make a unique world in a Final Fantasy game. However, he thinks that there is a constant challenge to make new characters not overlap with previous ones from the series.[7] Toriyama has noted that seeing as making a main series Final Fantasy game takes several years, he would need to essentially fall in love at first sight with a character so he can really have the high morale and motivation to keep developing the game.[7] He also said that when portraying a character in a game, he takes extreme care in their movements and voice. This begins with the motion-capture process, which he directs very intricately to prevent messing up the personification of the character. The voice acting comes last in this process, and the recorded voice essentially becomes the main image of the character and so the most delicate part of creating a character, according to him.[7]
Works
Game Released System(s) Credit(s) Bahamut Lagoon 1996 Super Nintendo Entertainment System Story event planner Final Fantasy VII 1997 PlayStation, Windows Event planner, "Submarine Chase Section" planner Racing Lagoon 1999 PlayStation Scenario writer Final Fantasy X 2001 PlayStation 2 Director (event) Final Fantasy X-2 2003 PlayStation 2 Director Final Fantasy VII: Technical Demo for PS3[8] 2005 PlayStation 3 Director[9] Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings 2007 Nintendo DS Director, scenario writer The World Ends With You 2007 Nintendo DS Special thanks Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King 2008 Wii Scenario writer Dissidia: Final Fantasy 2008 PlayStation Portable Scenario supervisor Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord 2009 Wii Scenario writer Blood of Bahamut 2009 Nintendo DS Director, scenario writer, event planner Final Fantasy XIII 2009 PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Director, scenario designer Front Mission Evolved 2010 PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows Lead scenario writer The 3rd Birthday 2010 PlayStation Portable Scenario writer Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy 2011 PlayStation Portable Special thanks Final Fantasy XIII-2 2011 PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Director, scenario designer References
- ^ "FF13을 통해 전하고 싶었던 것은" (in Korean). GAMESHOT.NET. 28 May 2010. http://www.gameshot.net/common/con_view.php?code=GA4bff9d7e42c0e. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
- ^ Christian Nutt (March 10, 2010). "GDC: FF XIII Director - Production Drove Content Decisions, Elements Will Return". Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27619/GDC_FF_XIII_Director__Production_Drove_Content_Decisions_Elements_Will_Return.php. "Motomu Toriyama: Personally, the Final Fantasys that I have worked on have been very story-driven, so in terms of the development I wanted to, of course, use my personal strengths which where those,"
- ^ Tim Ingham (February 16, 2010). "Final Fantasy XIII boss responds to review scores". Computer and Video Games. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/235030/news/final-fantasy-xiii-boss-responds-to-review-scores/. "Motomu Toriyama: When you look at most Western RPGs, they just dump you in a big open world, and let you do whatever you like... [It] becomes very difficult to tell a compelling story when you're given that much freedom."
- ^ "FINAL FANTASY XIII Official Release Date Announcement Trailer". Square Enix Co., Ltd. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAVTCAk9pmg. Retrieved 18 April 2011. "Motomu Toriyama: The most important element of FINAL FANTASY is the characters."
- ^ "News - Director: Motomu Toriyama". FINAL FANTASY XIII Official site. Square Enix Co., Ltd. http://www.finalfantasy13game.com/#/uk/news/6. Retrieved 3 April 2011. "Motomu Toriyama: In order to allow the player to become absorbed in the drama of the storytelling and the new and exciting world of Cocoon and be drawn to the characters without getting distracted or lost we have deliberately used a linear game design for the introduction sections so they can be enjoyed in the same manner as watching a film."
- ^ Lynch, Gerald (19 February 2010). "Final Fantasy XIII 's Motomu Toriyama and Yoshinori Kitase - Interview". News. Tech Digest. http://www.techdigest.tv/2010/02/final_fantasy_x_1.html. Retrieved 31 March 2011. "Motomu Toriyama: Mass Effect and Fallout allow the players to play with more freedom, and within their story-lines it is quite successful. But we're more interested in things such as first person shooters like Call of Duty. They give a better sense of tension on the battlefield. We some times draw inspiration from those sorts of games. It's not just RPGs but FPS titles that get us excited."
- ^ a b c Gifford, Kevin (30 March 2011). "Motomu Toriyama Talks About Making Heroines". 1UP.com. http://www.1up.com/news/motomu-toriyama-talks-making-heroines. Retrieved 2 April 2011.
- ^ "The complete video of Final Fantasy VII: Technical Demo for PS3". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp_B6ucB-yQ.
- ^ "FFX producer developing PS3 Final Fantasy?". GameSpot. June 8, 2005. http://uk.gamespot.com/news/2005/06/08/news_6127146.html. "Yoshinori Kitase: As a hint, one thing I can say is that the FFVII technical PS3 demo was supervised by me and created by Toriyama and his team staff."
External links
- Motomu Toriyama profile and photo gallery at the Square Haven People Database
- Motomu Toriyama at the Internet Movie Database
Categories:- Square Enix
- Final Fantasy designers
- Video game directors
- Living people
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