Isamu Kamikokuryo

is a Japanese video game artist who worked at Square Enix until his resignation on March 31, 2017. He is known for his work on the company's role-playing video game series Final Fantasy, for which he designed locations and characters. Among others, he was involved in the Ivalice Alliance and Fabula Nova Crystallis franchises.

Kamikokuryo had initially planned to become an oil painter and illustrator but was inspired to join the video game industry by the release of Final Fantasy VII. His influences as an artist include realist painter Andrew Wyeth and photojournalist Steve McCurry. Kamikokuryo draws inspiration from his photography hobby and world travels.

Biography and career Kamikokuryo was born on July 31, 1970. He originally aspired to become an oil painter and illustrator, but his hobby of playing video games had him interested in their emerging industry early on. After about three years, he applied at Square with a resume containing a photographed oil painting of his and was hired by the company in 1999.

Kamikokuryo started working at the company back in 1999, beginning with concept art for Final Fantasy X. Kamikokuryo's first assignment was directing the background art for Final Fantasy X. In July 2001, he joined the Final Fantasy XII project team and took a high fantasy approach to creating the game's fictional world. Kamikokuryo designed large cities with varied architectural styles as he wanted to convey the feeling of walking through a real-life metropolis. While he was still working on Final Fantasy XIII, he was asked to create illustrations for The 3rd Birthday. He accepted the offer because Aya Brea was one of his favorite characters and he wished to participate in the revival of the Parasite Eve series. Kamikokuryo eventually became the game's art director and went through a long period of trial and error while trying to conceive a unique graphical style. The visuals started to come together once he had drawn an illustration of a monster hive centered around the concepts of "fear" and "sensuality". While Kamikokuryo did not personally design the characters' costumes, he gave specific instructions to the artist in charge of them.

Afterwards, Kamikokuryo worked as art director on Final Fantasy XIII-2. As he felt that the tone of the story was much darker than that of its predecessor, he decided on surrealism as the main theme for the visuals. The works of Salvador Dalí and Giorgio de Chirico were used as references and helped Kamikokuryo strike a balance between photorealism and fantasy-like surrealism. Unlike Final Fantasy XIII, the game had a much tighter schedule allowing for little pre-production. Kamikokuryo hence used photographs instead of self-drawn pictures to explain his setting ideas to the other staff members. Kamikokuryo gave his artists more freedom to include their own ideas in the game's locations, intending to rectify the shortcomings of the more artificial seeming settings in Final Fantasy XIII. Kamikokuryo's first character design, he received suggestions from Nomura and finished Lightning's costume in one to two months. Kamikokuryo designed two of Lightning's costumes, among them the "Nocturne" garb.

Kamikokuryo resigned from Square Enix on March 31, 2017. His last game at the company was Final Fantasy XV, on which he served as art director.

Style and personal life

Before he joined the game industry, Kamikokuryo had created figurative art of people and landscapes.

Works YearGameRole(s)2001 Final Fantasy X Gadget art designer, background art director 2020 Paper Mario: The Origami King Art director 2022 The Diofield Chronicle Character designer, concept art 2022 Harvestella Concept art 2024 Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Art director (HD remake)