Tetsuya Nomura

Tetsuya Nomura (野村 哲也, Nomura Tetsuya; born October 8, 1970) is a Japanese video game artist, designer, producer, and director working for Square Enix. He was hired by Square initially as a monster designer for Final Fantasy V (1992), before being shifted towards secondary character designer alongside Yoshitaka Amano for Final Fantasy VI (1994). Final Fantasy VII (1997) had him working in the original story alongside Hironobu Sakaguchi, and marked his debut as the lead character designer, a capacity he would retain for several future installments of the series, as well as other Square Enix titles such as The Bouncer and The World Ends with You. He also created the characters Cactuar, Gilgamesh, and Tonberry.

Additionally, Nomura created and has led the development as director of the Kingdom Hearts series since its inception in 2002 and has been creative producer in The World Ends with You series. He has also directed the 2005 film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and directed Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020), and served as creative director for the sequel Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2024).