Hideo Minaba

Hideo Minaba is a video game art director. He began work with Squaresoft in 1991. His first major role was as a field graphics designer on the Super Famicom title Final Fantasy V. He was the art director of Final Fantasy VI. He was later placed in charge of artistic supervision of Final Fantasy Tactics for the PlayStation.

Minaba served as both art director and character designer of Final Fantasy IX. However, he didn't design all the playable characters, as some others were designed by other artists such as Toshiyuki Itahana. Minaba later served as art director of Final Fantasy XII. For this game, he was also responsible for the design of all the airships that appear in the game.

Minaba left Square Enix in 2004, the middle of Final Fantasy XII's development. He formed Designation, a freelance art company. It is believed that he left Square Enix to go freelance due to being approached by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the Final Fantasy series, and asked to create art for the various games being developing at Mistwalker.