Often appearing on box art and in marketing materials for Final Fantasy games, Amano’s work takes the characters from each game and presents them with a fantastical style players don’t typically see in the game industry.
“I feel like what I add to the franchise is my approach differs from a game developer’s approach,” he says. “And I think that gives the art more leeway — it isn’t limited to something that would fit into a game.”
While for early Final Fantasy games, Amano based his work on pixel art designs and thus had to visualize what those characters should look like in his paintings, on Final Fantasy 7 he painted a series of pieces inspired by concept art from Square character designer Tetsuya Nomura. Square couriered over Nomura’s samples, and Amano interpreted them as he saw fit.
“Amano was way above our pay grade,” says Nomura, who says he likely only met with him once during FF7’s development. “He wasn’t someone we could just talk to casually.”
Because Amano used Nomura’s work as a jumping off point, he didn’t have to read between the lines as much to define what the characters should look like before painting them in his style. He says it was a straightforward process and he didn’t have any particular advice for Nomura.
“There wasn’t really much that I passed along to Nomura-san,” Amano says, “but I was relieved because I didn’t have to do as much.” [Laughs]
Talk to Amano about his work, and he focuses less on the details of each game and more on how the characters make him feel. He can’t always describe which characters do what at which point in each game; instead, he looks at the game industry from a high-concept perspective, noting that he sees video games as a great way to deliver new technology to the masses.
Amano’s art has made him an integral part of the franchise — even through to today, as he still contributes occasional work for Square’s new Final Fantasy projects, such as a mural for Final Fantasy 15 (which Square then turned into a trailer).
Now in his 60s, Amano says he’s less inclined to take on client jobs that come with rigid guidelines, as he doesn’t like the limitations that come with that sort of work. But he regularly shows his work at galleries and says he has no intentions of retiring any time soon.
“As an artist, I still feel like a beginner,” he says. “So there’s a lot left to do. I’m going to continue doing this for a long, long time.”
