Amano History: Final Fantasy 2000

Once 2000 hit, Amano returned as the main artist of a Final Fantasy game, when Final Fantasy IX hit the stage. This game was to be a “retro” type game and be a big montage to everything the series had stood for up to that point. Below is artwork for Zidane Tribal, the main protagonist of the game.

This is similar to the artwork of Cloud Strife from VII that Amano made, symbolizing the game’s symbolism of being a mixture of recent and classic Final Fantasy at the time. He had curvy hair and had a combination of light and dark colors.

Another character from the series’ Amano art is below, whom is named Garland, one of the main antagonists who also is speculated to be the same Garland antagonist from the original game.

This was also shown as a mix of light and dark. Unlike Zidane, though, Garland is dominated mostly by his black armor and cape, with the only bright colors coming from his wavy hair and the red jewel on his chest plate.

After Final Fantasy IX was through, Nomura switched back as head designer and Amano went back to promotions and logo art.

I’ll be back with another post soon!
Trent – L2K