‘Final Fantasy Type-0 HD’ Devs Come To Campus For College Lecture Tour


Key members of the Final Fantasy Type-0 HD Tokyo development team, Yusuke Naora and Kazuyuki Ikumori, are scheduled to deliver on-campus lectures at the University of Southern California (USC) and Southern Methodist University (SMU) this spring. Final Fantasy publisher Square Enix has announced in a recent press release that they are working in partnership with both colleges to bring these special seminars stateside.

The first lecture will be conducted by Yusuke Naora, the art director for Final Fantasy Type-0 HD and Final Fantasy XV, on February 26 at SMU’s Guildhall campus in Plano, Texas. Director Hajime Tabata noted on the Square Enix blog that Naora began working at Square Enix in 1993. He also noted that Naora has multiple Final Fantasy titles under his belt, including Final Fantasy VI, which he praised as a “personal favorite” of his. As such, his talk will focus on the visuals of the Final Fantasy series.

Kazuyuki Ikumori, General Manager and Chief Creative Director of Visual Works, is presenting the campus tour’s second lecture on March 12 at USC in Los Angeles. He will speak on the creative process behind the CG movies of Square Enix games. Tabata further explained the Visual Works division in his blog post.

Visual Works is the internal studio branch of Square Enix that makes all of our CG movies, including those for Western titles like Tomb Raider and Deus Ex. They are also heavily involved in FINAL FANTASY TYPE-0 HD.

Via press release, Tabata also assured aspiring game developers the talks are not intended to be a one-way dissemination of knowledge.

We’re excited to take the opportunity to speak to students in game development programs that will shape the future of our industry… We believe that it will be stimulating for us to learn from the students’ experience as well.

In addition to the opportunity to learn from and interact with the esteemed lecturers, future students may want to consider attending one or both of these lectures as part of a spring break college tour. The Final Fantasy devs will be speaking at two of the most renowned game design schools in the United States. USC is currently ranked as the top video game design school by The Princeton Review. The graduate program at SMU’s Guildhall is ranked third on the same list.

For those who cannot make it out to Plano or Los Angeles, the lectures will be made available on the Square Enix Presents Twitch Channel.

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