Amin Abbas Dubai

Takeshi Oga is a Japanese video games freelance artist who worked as illustrator/concept artist for many video games such as: FINAL FANTASY IX Wings of the Goddess, FINAL FANTASY XIV, Gravity Rush 1 & 2.

In an exclusive interview with Arab News Japan, Oga shared his inspiration for video games, saying: “My beginning was with Nintendo’s Game and Watch when I was in kindergarten, I’ve come to play a lot of video games. At the same time, I also enjoyed various genres of entertainment such as manga, novels, movies, and music.”

“At first, I felt strongly that I would like to work in a job in which I can do illustrations, so I took my illustrations to a temp agency and thought that I’d like to do work with movies or video games. However, I felt that anything was good as long as I was able to do illustration in the entertainment industry,” he said.

Oga added that once he had started working in the game industry, he became even more fond of video games. “My favorite games are Bethesda Game Studios’s Fallout, and The Elder Scrolls Series, and this is from a little while back, but the Baldur’s Gate series. I like open world RPGs.”

The illustrator told Arab News Japan began working as a wood block print artist but he then later quit as he found himself attracted to the field of concept artists who do digital design work for movies and games.

Speaking of his first project in concept art field, Oga said: “My first work in this field was with Koei Co., Ltd. (now known as Koei Tecmo Games). I drew model sheets of famous historic ruins and buildings for a game called Uncharted Waters Online. Being able to do such difficult work at the beginning of my career was a great learning experience for me.”

The Japanese illustrator is known for being the main concept artist for Gravity Rush series (Gravity Daze in Japan). He explained the story of his work in the illustrations and concept arts for the video game series, saying: “The Gravity Rush series is an action-adventure game, in which the main character has the power to manipulate gravity created by Director Keiichiro Toyama, the director of ‘Silent Hill’ and ‘Siren.’  I was in charge of background concept art, enemy concept art, comic demo scenes and package illustrations for the series’ first and second works.”

“Originally, the game started under the influence of bande dessinée art styles, such as Moebius. Various other factors were then added, and I think that, as a result, we were able to create quite a unique world. I have painted hundreds of pictures for this title over the course of eight years. This is the title that I was most deeply involved with and for which I drew the most pictures,” he added.

Oga said he is planning to continue working on the next installment of the Metal Max series as part of his upcoming projects.