Hiroshi Minagawa.
Hiroshi Minagawa (皆川 裕史, Minagawa Hiroshi?) was born in 1970 and is a Japanese game artist and game director who joined Squaresoft (now Square Enix) in 1995. Minagawa is credited as "Nigoro" in his earliest game titles. He is best known as the art director of Final Fantasy Tactics (1997) and Vagrant Story (2000). He was chosen by Yasumi Matsuno as his replacement to co-direct Final Fantasy XII (2006). Minagawa delivered a post-mortem of Final Fantasy XII at the 2007 Game Developers Conference.
In November 2010, Minagawa was asked to join the Final Fantasy XIV (2010) team as Lead UI Designer. This was part of a plan to salvage the game after its overwhelmingly negative reception by critics and players. Director Naoki Yoshida considered the fact that one of the Final Fantasy XII directors was now solely responsible for one aspect of Final Fantasy XIV an indication of how serious Square Enix was about improving the game. The improved game Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (2013) was released in August 2013 to critical acclaim. Minagawa has remained a senior member of the Final Fantasy XIV team ever since.
Works within the series[]
| Game | Release | Work |
|---|---|---|
| Final Fantasy Tactics | 1997 | Art Director, Event Director |
| Final Fantasy IX | 2000 | Special Thanks |
| Vagrant Story | 2000 | Art Director, Character Model Supervisor, Menu & Layout Artistic Supervisor |
| Final Fantasy Tactics Advance | 2003 | Artistic Supervisor |
| Final Fantasy XII | 2006 | Director (with Hiroyuki Ito), Visual Design & Character Texture Supervisor |
| Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions | 2007 | Art Director, Event Director |
| Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System | 2007 | Director (with Hiroyuki Ito), Visual Design & Character Texture Supervisor |
| Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift | 2007 | Visual Design Supervisor |
| Gyromancer | 2009 | Special Thanks |
| Final Fantasy XIII | 2009 | Crystal Tools Development Staff |
| Final Fantasy XIV | 2010 | Lead UI & Web Artist, Crystal Tools Development Staff |
| Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn | 2013 | Lead UI Artist |
| Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward | 2015 | Lead UI Designer (3.0), Art Director (3.1-3.5) |
| Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood | 2017 | Art Director |
| Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age | 2017 | Supervisor |
| Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers | 2019 | Art Director (5.0) |
| Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker | 2021 | Special Thanks |
| Final Fantasy XVI | 2023 | Art Director |