To many people, Japan is seen as the spiritual home of gaming; and there’s a very good reason for that. It’s a country that has given a ridiculous amount to the industry over the years, both in terms of the fantastic games that have been created there and the pioneering Japanese talent behind them.
Although the west has caught up a little recently, Japanese developers still lead the way when it comes to innovation and creativity in gaming. Not only are these genre-defining visionaries responsible for some of the biggest and most recognizable franchises of all time, but they’ve also inspired countless others along the way.
10 Hironobu Sakaguchi
Hironobu Sakaguchi first began working for Square in the 1980s and went on to work on many of the company’s biggest games over the next two decades. His greatest achievement, however, was the creation of Final Fantasy. The huge success of the series over the coming years led to him becoming Square’s executive vice president, although he stepped down from the post in 2003 shortly before the company’s merger with former rivals Enix.
Following his departure from Square, Sakaguchi set up his own development studio called Mistwalker. Having originally started out creating titles for consoles, the studio has since shifted its focus to mobile gaming and has released several successful games for IOS and Android. The most notable of these is Terra Battle; which was downloaded almost two million times and reunited Sakaguchi with legendary Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu.
9 Shinji Mikami
Shinji Mikami began working at Capcom after attending a college recruitment event in the early nineties and it did not take long for the young designer to make a name for himself at the company. Together with producer Tokuro Fujiwara, he created Resident Evil; which would go on to become one of the largest and most successful survival horror franchises of all time.
Mikami worked on the series’ first four entries as well as a number of other big titles like Devil May Cry and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney before leaving the company to start up his own studio in 2004. In the years that followed, he had a hand in the creation of a number of other successful games including The Evil Within and its 2017 sequel.
8 Yuji Naka
With Mario helping Nintendo to capture a huge share of the North American video game market in the mid to late eighties, Sega needed a mascot of their own to help turn the tides. Many were considered, but the company ultimately settled on a blue hedgehog named Sonic. The man responsible for bringing the character to life was a young programmer named Yuji Naka.
The blue blur took America by storm and catapulted its creator into the spotlight. Naka was given his own team and together they were responsible for the creation of some of the best games to ever appear on Sega consoles. Naka has since gone on to set up his own studio which will be releasing a new platformer later this year.
7 Yu Suzuki
Yu Suzuki really hit the ground running when he began working at Sega in 1983. Within his first four years at the company, he created eight hugely successful arcade titles including Space Harrier, Out Run and After Burner. His next big achievement came in 1993 in the form of Virtua Fighter; a groundbreaking 3D fighting game that completely revolutionized the genre.
With his stock at Sega at an all time high, Suzuki embarked upon what would prove to be his most ambitious project yet. Shenmue. Upon its release, the game’s state of the art visuals and innovative gameplay mechanics wowed players and critics alike and helped to lay the groundwork for future open world games. Suzuki continues to work on the series to this day and is currently in the process of pitching a fourth entry to publishers.
6 Toshihiro Nagoshi
Toshihiro Nagoshi actually spent much of his early career working beneath Yu Suzuki at Sega’s legendary AM2 department. He worked as a supervisor and designer on many of the studio’s biggest hits before moving into more senior positions following the release of Shenmue in 1999.
As well as directing and producing several of the Daytona racing games, Nagoshi is credited as having created both the Super Monkey Ball and Yakuza franchises in the early two thousands. The success of the latter ultimately led to the formation of the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio; of which Nagoshi remains the general director.
5 Satoshi Tajiri
Satoshi Tajiri was just 16 years old when he began writing and editing his own arcade gaming fanzine, Game Freak. Eight years later, it was this name that he chose for his game development studio. The company developed a number of fairly successful titles throughout the early nineties, but it would not be until 1996 that Game Freak would become a recognizable name outside of Japan.
Takiri’s Pokemon games were hugely successful domestically and took the rest of the world by storm when they released worldwide the following year. In the 25 years that have followed, the series has gone on to become one of the largest and most recognizable in the world with over a billion games sold to date.
4 Masahiro Sakurai
Masahiro Sakurai started working at HAL Laboratory when he was still a teenager and quickly set about coming up with ideas for a game that was accessible to casual gamers. This ultimately led to the creation of Kirby and the NES classic, Kirby’s Dream Land. He worked on several more Kirby games in the years that followed before eventually turning his attention to the fighting game genre.
Super Smash Bros. released in 1999 and became an instant hit thanks to its solid combat mechanics and the inclusion of some of Nintendo’s most popular characters. Since then, the game has spawned multiple sequels; four of which rank among the top 15 fighting games of all time on Metacritic.
3 Tetsuya Nomura
Tetsuya Nomura started his career at Square and worked as a character designer on some of the company’s biggest hits of the nineties. It wasn’t until the turn of the century, however, that he was given a shot at directing his first title. That game was Kingdom Hearts, which Nomura also co-created along with veteran producer Shinji Hashimoto.
Following the game’s success, Nomura was handed senior positions on a number of other big projects while also continuing as the director for the numerous Kingdom Hearts sequels and spin-offs. As his stock continued to rise, he was handed the reins for the highly anticipated and much requested remake of Final Fantasy VII.
2 Hideo Kojima
Despite expressing a keen interest in film-making during his teenage years, Hideo Kojima ended up taking a job at Konami after graduating from university. It was here that he came up with the idea for Metal Gear. The game was a big hit with players, although it would not be until the series’ third entry that Kojima’s would become such a recognizable name within the industry.
The increased power of the PlayStation allowed Kojima to combine his love of film-making with his natural talent for game design. Cinematic cut-scenes and an incredibly immersive narrative helped Metal Gear Solid to become a critical and commercial success and became synonymous with the series moving forward. After decades of acclaim, however, Konami and Kojima parted ways in 2015 and Kojima Productions became an independent studio as a result. If Death Stranding is anything to go by though, there’s a lot more to come from the legendary auteur.
1 Shigeru Miyamoto
In many ways, Shigeru Miyamoto is like the Steven Spielberg of gaming. He’s responsible for the creation of some of the biggest franchises of all time and has helped to shape an entire genre. It helps, of course, that he was able to learn from such visionaries as Gunpei Yokoi and Satoru Iwata, but his unparalleled achievements remain incredibly impressive nonetheless.
As well as creating the likes of Mario, Zelda and Star Fox, Miyamoto has had a hand in almost all of Nintendo’s biggest hits of the last few decades. He’s also held several senior positions at the company and has acted as a mentor to many of its up and coming developers. Although he’s taken more of a back seat as he approaches the twilight years of his career, he remains an incredibly influential figure in both the company and the industry itself.
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