Tetsuya Takahashi

Tetsuya Takahashi (高橋 哲哉 Takahashi Tetsuya) (born November 18, 1966 in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan) is currently the head of game software company Monolith Soft, Inc. In the past, Takahashi has worked at Square (now Square Enix) and on such games as Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger. His most notable works are those within the Xenogears (Square), Xenosaga (Monolith Soft/Namco) and Xenoblade (Monolith Soft/Nintendo) series, all of which he directed. He is married to Soraya Saga, who also worked with him at Square Enix, as well as on Xenogears, Xenosaga, and Soma Bringer. He is the co-founder and director of Monolith Soft.

Born on November 18, 1966 in Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan. He began his career in video games in the 1980s working with Nihon Falcom.

Squaresoft

Takahashi worked on Final Fantasy VI, including the design of the Magitek armor from the opening scene of the game. He also was the graphics director on Chrono Trigger.

In 1995 he married his Squaresoft coworker Kaori Tanaka, better known by her pen name Soraya Saga.

Xenogears

Originally submitted as a potential plot for Final Fantasy VII, it was made into its own project after being judged too dark and complicated for a fantasy game by others at Squaresoft.

Monolith Soft

While at Squaresoft, Takahashi realized that the company intended to focus on the Final Fantasy series, and that sequels to the Xenogears series were becoming unlikely. He then decided to leave and start his own software development company. In October 1999 he left Squaresoft to start a new company, Monolith Soft, together with Hirohide Sugiura.

Xenoblade Chronicles

Following a meeting about the game Soma Bringer, Takahashi imagined what a game would be like where the world was actually the body of a "giant god". Takahashi attempted a more "mature" writing style for the game, and said he expects to continue in the same vein in the future. The game references both Japanese and Western RPG styles, referring to the western style in some cases "without thinking about it". In this way, the game is designed to appeal to fans of "text-based" RPGs and western RPGs. Minor localizations were made for the American and European release, as well as bug fixes and game balancing. Originally Takahashi tried a more traditional turned based combat system, but he later incorporated the games system where the protagonist can see into the future.

Xenoblade Chronicles X

Takahashi and Monolith Soft were revealed to be working on a new game for the Wii U in September 2012.

It was later revealed in the January 2013 Nintendo Direct under the tentative title X, and shown further at E3 2013. For E3 2014, it was announced with the title Xenoblade Chronicles X.

• Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes (1989): Art
• Final Fantasy IV (1991): Battle Graphics
• Romancing SaGa (1992): Field Graphics
• Final Fantasy V (1992): Field Graphics
• Secret of Mana (1993): Map Graphic Design
• Final Fantasy VI (1994): Graphic Director
• Front Mission (1995): Graphic Design
• Chrono Trigger (1995): Graphic Director
• Seiken Densetsu 3 (1995): BG
• Final Fantasy VII (1997): Concept Art
• Xenogears (1998): Director, Scenario Writer
• Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht (2002): Director, Scenario Writer
• Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse (2004): Original Author
• Xenosaga: Pied Piper (2004): Story Writer
• Xenosaga I & II (2006): Scenario Writer
• Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra (2006): Author, Music Coordinator, Supervisor of Scenario and Database
• Soma Bringer (2008): Producer, Game Designer
• Xenoblade Chronicles (2010): Concept, Executive Director, Scenario Writer
• Xenoblade Chronicles X (2015): Executive Director
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (2017): Executive Director