Jun Akiyama

is a Japanese video game event director and scenario writer who works at Square Enix. He joined the predecessor company Square in 1995. 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. He also suggested Final Fantasy VIII character Squall Leonhart be renamed Leon to maintain suspense before his first on-screen appearance. 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. 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. 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. For a time, Akiyama was the event planning director of Final Fantasy Versus XIII (which was later reworked into Final Fantasy XV).

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 Event director