Michael-Christopher Koji Fox

Michael-Christopher Koji Fox, also known as Koji Fox, is an American video game localizer, translator and lyricist. He is best known for his localization work on Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy XVI, as well as his role as lead singer for The Primals, the official Final Fantasy XIV rock band. He joined Square Enix in 2003 to work on Final Fantasy XI.

Biography Fox was born in Oregon. He was inspired to study Japanese by , a Japanese drama that aired locally when he was a child, as well as a desire to play imported games earlier than his friends, including The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. After high school, he spent time in Japan as a foreign exchange student where he gained a desire to become a teacher. He received a teaching license from Hokkaido University of Education and taught English and homeroom at a junior high school. His first day was on April 1, 2003, the day of the merger between Square and Enix. During the development for the North American release of the game, he worked on text from the Windurst area, including Shantotto's rhyming dialogue, as well as phrases for the auto-translation feature. He was praised for starting the trend of playful item descriptions to the English version of the game. He also worked on lyrics and lyric translation and is credited on "Distant Worlds", the ending theme for Chains of Promathia.

Fox was a translation director for the original 2010 release of Final Fantasy XIV, which was widely panned for its software bugs and poor gameplay. He was retained in the role after Naoki Yoshida took over as producer and director for subsequent releases. He described the rapid development of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (2013) as a "weird euphoria" as the team was unsure if the new game would meet players' expectations. so the story and localization team continued the same high fantasy tone, inspired in part by A Song of Ice and Fire, for the revamped story. In contrast to the speech patterns based on the fantasy races of Final Fantasy XI, Fox focused the differences in dialect on characters' region of origin for this game.

Due to the ongoing nature of live service games, the localization teams for Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV work collaboratively with the development team on the story, lore, and world of the games to ensure that patches are translated in time. For certain aspects like item and attack names, Fox and his team would contribute text in English, French, or German and translate it back into Japanese for those versions of the games. For Final Fantasy XVI (2023), the script was written in Japanese but recorded and motion captured first in English. Fox, who served as localization director, saw this as an opportunity for ensemble recording, in which multiple cast members would record their lines together in the same room and benefit from playing off each others' acting. This allowed more opportunities for ad-libbing and exploring the relationships between characters. The adjustments made for the English script were then integrated into the final Japanese script. He also arranged for a character who provides recaps of the game's story to be sung in the style of a bard. Another goal of the localization was to preserve the historical fantasy tone. To this end, he tried to avoid any vocabulary or turns of phrase invented after the 18th century. He further reinforced the history of the world by assigning different British accents to each nation to emulate how language evolves and diverges naturally even within one language. He pushed for a hub for players to discuss the lore on the official forums for Final Fantasy XIV and uses it to post articles that expand on the game's world. He worked with Banri Oda, one of the main writers, to translate the Encyclopædia Eorzea books, which document the lore of Final Fantasy XIV in detail. In Final Fantasy XVI, his approach was to integrate the lore throughout the fabric of the game, including item descriptions, side quests, and ambient dialogue, rather than solely through explicit exposition. He took inspiration from Alex Pheby's Cities of the Weft trilogy to write the in-game "Active Time Lore" entries. For the lore book, Fox served as lead writer to transform creative director Kazutoyo Maehiro's notes into Logos, an encyclopedia written from the perspective of Harpocrates, a historian within the game. He invited voice actors like Ben Starr to write letters and journal entries based on their characters. He also invited Pheby, a fan of Final Fantasy, to contribute as well. For the 2014 Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival, Soken got him to join The Primals because of his familiarity with the lyrics on the setlist. He performed with The Primals at Download Festival at Leicestershire, England in 2026. In addition, he works as an interpreter for Naoki Yoshida in media appearances and interviews.

Works

Video games TitleYearPlatform(s)Notes Final Fantasy XI 2003 Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360 Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII 2006 PlayStation 2 Mario Hoops 3-on-3 2006 Nintendo DS Voices Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions 2007 PlayStation Portable Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII 2008 PlayStation Portable The World Ends With You 2008 Nintendo DS Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King 2008 Wii Crystal Defenders 2009 Wii Final Fantasy XIV 2010 Windows Translation direction, English localization Secret of Mana 2010 iOS English supervisor Lord of Arcana 2011 PlayStation Portable Narrator Moon Diver 2011 PlayStation 3 Demons' Score 2012 iOS, Android Chaos Rings 2012 iOS, Android Chaos Rings Omega 2012 iOS, Android Final Fantasy Dimensions 2012 iOS, Android Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn 2013 Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 Translation direction, English localization, lyrics Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward 2015 Windows, macOS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 Translation direction, English localization, lyrics Adventures of Mana 2016 iOS, Android, PlayStation Vita NieR: Automata 2017 Windows, PlayStation 4 Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood 2017 Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4 Translation direction, English localization, lyrics Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers 2019 Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4 Translation direction, English localization, lyrics Actraiser Renaissance 2021 Windows, iOS, Android, Switch, PlayStation 4 Localization consultant Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker 2021 Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 Translation direction, English localization, lyrics Final Fantasy XVI 2023 Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series Localization director, lyrics Foamstars 2024 PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 Lyrics, vocals Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail 2024 Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series Localization supervisor, lyrics

Discography TitleYearNotes Sanctuary: Final Fantasy XI: Music From The Other Side Of Vana'diel 2009 Drums Final Fantasy XIV: From Astral to Umbral - Band & Piano Arrangement Album 2014 Lyrics, vocals Final Fantasy XIV: Duality ~Arrangement Album~ 2016 Lyrics, vocals Untempered: Final Fantasy XIV Primal Battle Themes 2017 Lyrics, vocals The Primals 2018 Lyrics, vocals The Primals: Zepp Tour 2018 -Trial By Shadow- 2018 Lyrics, vocals Journeys: Final Fantasy XIV Arrangement Album 2019 Lyrics, vocals The Primals - Out of the Shadows 2020 Lyrics, vocals Pulse: Final Fantasy XIV Remix Album 2020 Lyrics, vocals Scions & Sinners Final Fantasy XIV ~Arrangement Album~ 2021 Lyrics, vocals The Primals: Beyond the Shadow 2022 Lyrics, vocals The Primals: Live in Japan - Beyond the Shadow 2022 Lyrics, vocals Forge Ahead: Final Fantasy XIV ~Arrangement Album~ 2023 Lyrics, vocals The Primals: Riding Home 2024 Lyrics, vocals And Back Again: Live Performances from the FINAL FANTASY XIV Fan Festival 2024 2024 Lyrics, vocals The Primals: Live in Japan - Darkest Before Dawn 2025 Lyrics, vocals The Primals: Dark Decades 2025 Lyrics, vocals The Primals: Dark Decades - Tour BUDOKAN 2026 Lyrics, vocals The Primals: Back in the Ring 2026 Lyrics, vocals

Books TitleYearNotes Encyclopædia Eorzea 2016 Encyclopædia Eorzea Volume II 2018 Encyclopædia Eorzea Volume III 2023 Logos: The World of Final Fantasy XVI 2026