Tetsuya Nomura holds many titles at Square Enix and has had pivotal roles in the creation of Kingdom Hearts and several iconic entries in the Final Fantasy franchise; he's a household name among those who follow Japanese games. He has also established instantly recognizable character designs over the years--gratuitous use of fashionable belts and zippers aside, fans of Square Enix games know Nomura's influence when they see it. However, with the upcoming NEO: The World Ends With You (henceforth referred to as NEO TWEWY), a different generation of character designers have left their creative mark alongside Nomura in this game, supporting what he set in motion with the original game from 2007.

I had an opportunity to talk specifically about the development of NEO TWEWY's character designs with those who led its development: Gen Kobayashi and Miki Yamashita, in addition to Tetsuya Nomura. With extravagant style and fashion at the forefront of NEO TWEWY's expressive, youthful attitude, our brief conversation centered around keeping up with trends, reflecting the real world in their designs, and how creating characters has changed but also stayed the same over the years.

NEO: The World Ends With You is set to launch soon on July 27 for PlayStation 4 (playable on PS5) and Nintendo Switch, and a PC version is planned for release sometime this summer. For more on the game, you can read up on our NEO TWEWY gameplay impressions, our previous interview with Nomura and company on NEO TWEWY, or check out the game yourself with the demo available on PS4 and Switch.