Isamu Kamikokuryo departs Square-Enix to freelance

Isamu Kamikokuryo announced via his twitter that, as of March 31st, he is no longer working for Square Enix. He pans to continue as a freelance artist.

https://twitter.com/kamikoku2009/status/848052711291445248
https://twitter.com/kamikoku2009/status/848053211281805313

Isamu Kamikokuryu said:

Yesterday, March 31, I resigned from Square Enix. It’s been a little over 18 years since joining the company in 1999. It was a wonderful experience, from starting out as a concept artist for Final Fantasy X to Final Fantasy XV. I feel nothing but gratitude for the company that provided me with the opportunity to meet so many people and display my talent.

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Isamu Kamikokuryu said:

Although I feel as if I left my heart behind, I want to move forward onto drawing new things. From here on, I’ll do freelance art and diction work, and I’m thinking about reviving some writing activity as well. To all the staff, and to all the fans, thank you very much for supporting my drawings for such a long time.

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Joining Square Enix back in 1999, his first project was designing the pre-renderd backgrounds in Final Fantasy X before being promoted to art director for Final Fantasy XII.

He may be most known by Final Fantasy fans for his work on the Final Fantasy XII and the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, where he employed wildly different inspirations for the visual design of each entry: photo-realism, surrealism, and Gothic art. As a lead for the games’ art direction, he encouraged his teams to include more of their own ideas to give more life to the places they were designing. He recently worked on Final Fantasy XV, joining as an art director later on in development.

Kamikokuryo plans to rekindle his passion for writing and diction, but will continue on as a freelance artist. (Which, bears pointing out that: yes, he may still work on Square Enix projects).