Jun Akiyama (video game designer)

Jun Akiyama
Native name 秋山 淳
Born 1973 (age 42–43)
Japan
Nationality Japanese
Occupation Video game event director and scenario writer at Square Enix.

Jun Akiyama (秋山 淳 Akiyama Jun, born 1973)[1] is a Japanese video game event director and scenario writer who works at Square Enix. He joined the predecessor company Square in 1995.[1] In his role as event planner for Final Fantasy VII, Akiyama was responsible for the story elements and cutscenes involving the characters Red XIII and Yuffie Kisaragi, respectively.[2] During his work as the event director of Vagrant Story, he intended to make the transitions between gameplay and event scenes as smooth as possible. The fully polygonal graphics of the game entailed precise camera movements, character animations and the usage of different lens effects.[1]

In late 1999, Akiyama watched Disney's animated Tarzan film and then pleaded with Kingdom Hearts director and story writer Tetsuya Nomura to join the game's team. He became the event planning director and one of the scenario writers, taking charge of the Tarzan-themed segment, among others. Akiyama tried to inject Disney-like humor into the game, such as a scene in which Donald Duck is flattened by an opening door.[3] He also suggested Final Fantasy VIII character Squall Leonhart be renamed Leon to maintain suspense before his first on-screen appearance.[4] In January 2002, Akiyama joined the Final Fantasy XII project as event director in charge of such aspects as camera movements, voice-overs and motions.[5] When Yasumi Matsuno stepped down as the game's director in mid-2005, he expressed his high confidence in the remaining team members, among them Akiyama.[6] Many of the story ideas that Akiyama came up with alongside scenario writer Daisuke Watanabe had to be abandoned in order to finish the game on time.[7] For a time, Akiyama was the event planning director of Final Fantasy Versus XIII (which was later reworked into Final Fantasy XV).[8]

Works

Title Release System Credit(s)
DynamiTracer 1996 Super Famicom Event design
Final Fantasy VII 1997 PlayStation Event planner, snowboard minigame planner
Final Fantasy Tactics 1997 PlayStation Event planner
Vagrant Story 2000 PlayStation Event director
Kingdom Hearts 2002 PlayStation 2 Event planning director, scenario writer
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2003 Game Boy Advance Event script editor
Kingdom Hearts II 2005 PlayStation 2 Special thanks
Final Fantasy XII 2006 PlayStation 2 Event direction
Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System 2007 PlayStation 2 Event direction
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift 2007 Nintendo DS Special thanks
Final Fantasy XIII 2009 PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Crystal Tools development staff
Final Fantasy XIV 2010 Windows HQ cutscene production
World of Final Fantasy 2016 PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita Event director
Final Fantasy XV 2016 PlayStation 4, Xbox One Special thanks
Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age 2017 PlayStation 4 Game design[9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Vagrant Story: from the Development Team". Square. 2000. Archived from the original on 2002-08-08.
  2. ↑ Studio BentStuff (2009-04-16). "10th Anniversary Discussion". Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary Ultimania. Square Enix. pp. 8–13. ISBN 4-7575-2560-5.
  3. ↑ Studio BentStuff (2002-06-13). "開発スタッフインタビュー マップ&イベントチーム". Kingdom Hearts Ultimania. Square Enix. pp. 313–314. ISBN 4-7575-1344-5.
  4. ↑ Studio BentStuff (2002-06-13). "野村哲也インタビュー". Kingdom Hearts Ultimania. Square Enix. p. 530. ISBN 4-7575-1344-5.
  5. ↑ Studio BentStuff (2006-06-16). "「FFXII」開発スタッフインタビュー4". Final Fantasy XII Scenario Ultimania. Square Enix. ISBN 4-7575-1696-7.
  6. ↑ Niizumi, Hirohiko (2005-08-01). "FFXII producer steps down". GameSpot. Retrieved 2013-11-29.
  7. ↑ "Final Fantasy XII Director Interviews". Square Enix. 2006-10-31. Retrieved 2013-11-29.
  8. ↑ "Final Fantasy Versus XIII Video - DKS3713 Trailer". GameTrailers. 2008-12-12. Retrieved 2013-05-09.
  9. ↑ "The "FFXII" turned into HD "FFXII the Zodiac Age" will be released in 2017 in the PS4". Famitsu. 2016. Retrieved 2016-06-06.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.