Yusuke Naora

Yusuke Naora (直良 有祐 Naora Yūsuke) (born January 9, 1971) is a Japanese video game art director and character designer who worked for Square Enix (formerly Square). He served as the art director for several Final Fantasy and Compilation of Final Fantasy VII titles. He also served as the producer of the Code Age franchise. On October 1, 2016 he announced on Twitter that he had left the company, but would continue to contribute to Square Enix games as a freelancer.

Naora described the game as a "journey", and the Besaid Village from the game was heavily influenced by his trip to Bali, Indonesia, where he saw seaside towns, temples, people handing out tropical flowers, and distinctive dress.

Naora worked on the game Code Age Commanders for three years, in cooperation with a group he assembled for this project called "War Head". The game was conceived to be a new game, unlike Final Fantasy, and could be made into a game for the PlayStation 2, a manga, and a cell phone game. Some of the drawing is done by Naora himself. In order to simulate the nature of two handed combat, multiple buttons are utilized in combat. The game was designed to appeal to the western desire for game customization.

Naora took note of the popularity of Fallout 3, and the growing differences between Japanese and Western RPG's. He then undertook to compare the two styles to appeal to both audiences. Naora developed the game "from the ground up" to appeal to both Japanese and Western audiences, and undertook extensive customer research into American gaming desires and tastes.

Naora was on a staff of three for Type-0 in 2006, but development began in 2008 due to ongoing work on Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, and even then not fully until 2009 due to The 3rd Birthday. Naora worked to create the backstory for the game, and the built up the fourteen characters life stories. He developed the country designs and the main game visuals. It was the longest he had ever worked on a single game.

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