Hiroshi Minagawa

Hiroshi Minagawa
Native name	皆川 裕史
Born	1970 (age 53–54)
Nationality	Japanese
Other names	Nigoro
Occupation	Video game artist, designer and director

Hiroshi Minagawa (皆川 裕史, Minagawa Hiroshi, born 1970), also known by the nickname Nigoro, is a Japanese video game artist, designer and director.

Career

Minagawa had worked at Quest Corporation alongside his colleagues Yasumi Matsuno and Akihiko Yoshida before they all decided to switch to Square in 1995. He continued collaborating with his coworkers as the art director of Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story. For the Final Fantasy XII project, he was originally the graphics and real-time visual director. However, when the original director Matsuno left the company due to an illness, Minagawa was put in charge of directing the game in cooperation with Hiroyuki Ito. He felt that the pressure of working on a Final Fantasy installment helped him and influenced his decisions. Minagawa most enjoyed the period in which the team continued to come up with new ideas, but he ultimately had to decide to abandon many features in order to finish the game.

Following the remake of Final Fantasy Tactics, a decision was made to remake Quest's Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. Minagawa directed the game and took on the laborious task of assembling the original 1995 staff members—including Matsuno—who were now working at different companies. Upon finishing his work on the project, Minagawa was asked to join the Final Fantasy XIV team as the lead user interface and web designer. This was part of a plan to salvage the game after its initial 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.

Works

Hiroshi Minagawa (right) and Akitoshi Kawazu (left) at the Final Fantasy XII London Launch Event at HMV in 2007.

Release	Title	System	Credit(s)
1991	Magical Chase	PC Engine	Director, game design, art direction, CG design
1993	Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen	Super Nintendo Entertainment System	Art direction, main graphics design, image effects
1995	Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together	Super Nintendo Entertainment System	Art direction, system CG design
1997	Final Fantasy Tactics	PlayStation	Art direction, event direction
2000	Vagrant Story	PlayStation	Art direction, character model supervisor, artistic supervisor of menu and layout
2000	Final Fantasy IX	PlayStation	Special thanks
2003	Final Fantasy Tactics Advance	Game Boy Advance	Artistic supervisor
2006	Final Fantasy XII	PlayStation 2	Director, visual design, character texture supervisor
2007	Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions	PlayStation Portable	Original staff: Art director, event director
2007	Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System	PlayStation 2	Director, visual design, character texture supervisor
2007	Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift	Nintendo DS	Visual design supervisor
2009	Gyromancer	Xbox 360, Windows	Special thanks
2009	Final Fantasy XIII	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360	Crystal Tools development staff
2010	Final Fantasy XIV	Windows	Special thanks: Crystal Tools
2010	Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together	PlayStation Portable	Director
2013	Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn	Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Mac OS X	Lead UI artist, lead web designer