Yoshinori Kitase | |
|---|---|
| 北瀬 佳範 | |
 Kitase at the 2009E3 | |
| Born | (1966-09-23)September 23, 1966 (age 59) |
| Alma mater | Nihon University |
| Occupation(s) | Video game director,game producer |
| Years active | 1990–present |
| Employer | Square Enix |
| Notable work | Final Fantasy series |
Yoshinori Kitase (北瀬 佳範,Kitase Yoshinori; born September 23, 1966) is a Japanesegame director andproducer working forSquare Enix. He is known as the director ofFinal Fantasy VI,Chrono Trigger,Final Fantasy VII,Final Fantasy VIII andFinal Fantasy X, and the producer of theFinal Fantasy X andFinal Fantasy XIII series.
He is currently in charge of Square Enix's Creative Studios I and II, theFinal Fantasy series Brand Manager, an executive officer at Square Enix and a member of the board of directors at both Square Enix Co, Ltd and Square Enix Holdings.[1]
He was the head of Square Enix's Creative Business Unit 1 as well as Business Division 1 during their entire respective existences as well as a Corporate Executive. He is also part of theFinal Fantasy Committee that is tasked with keeping the franchise's releases and content consistent.[2][3]
In July 1978, at the age of 11, Kitase watched the movieStar Wars for the first time and was deeply impressed with it. He later examined the making-of video to it and became interested in the creative process of the film industry. Kitase decided to attend theNihon University College of Art and studiedscreenwriting andfilmmaking. Although he enjoyed filming, he showed a much greater passion forpost-production editing as he felt it allowed him to give the footage a completely new meaning and to appeal to the viewers' feelings. In his first year after the graduation, Kitase worked at a small animation studio that produced animated television programs and commercials. When he playedFinal Fantasy for the first time, he considered a switch to the game industry as he felt that it had potential when it came to animation and storytelling.[4] Despite having nosoftware development knowledge, he applied at the game development companySquare and was hired in March 1990. In the ten years to follow, he gathered experience as an "event scripter", directing the characters' movements and facial expressions on the game screen as well as setting the timings and music transitions. He has compared this work to directing film actors.[5] Kitase continued directing cutscenes in spite of filling other roles in later projects; for example, he directed part of the event scenes inFinal Fantasy VIII and was event planner for the Nibelheim section ofCrisis Core: Final Fantasy VII.[6][7]
When many players responded to the sci-fi world ofFinal Fantasy VII andFinal Fantasy VIII by requesting a "simple fantasy world", Kitase tried to expand the definition of the word "fantasy" beyond that of a medieval European setting. This led to Southeast Asia being the backdrop forFinal Fantasy X.[8] Kitase referred toFinal Fantasy VII and its protagonistCloud Strife as his favorite game and character, respectively.[9] In an interview, he said that he lovesfirst-person shooters.[10] Kitase supervised theFinal Fantasy VII: Technical Demo for PS3.Final Fantasy creatorHironobu Sakaguchi feels that he "handed the torch to" Kitase as far as heading the series is concerned.[11]
| Year | Title | Credit(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Final Fantasy VI The Interactive CG Game | Director |
| 1999 | Party fromFinal Fantasy VIII | Director |
| 2001 | Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within | Thanks |
| 2005 | Final Fantasy VII Technical Demo for PS3 | Producer |
| Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children | Producer | |
| Last Order: Final Fantasy VII | Executive producer | |
| 2009 | Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete | Producer |
| On the Way to a Smile - Episode: Denzel | Executive producer | |
| 2016 | Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV | Special thanks |
Yoshinori Kitase: For Final Fantasy VII and VIII, the setting was sci-fi and many players responded by saying that they preferred a simple fantasy world. They seemed to have a fixed notion of what fantasy means to them, and to them, it consisted of a medieval European world. I wanted to change that idea. I wanted to expand the definition of what the players thought the word "fantasy" implied.
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