Kazushige Nojima (野島 一成, Nojima Kazushige; born January 20, 1964) is a Japanese video game writer. He is best known for writing several installments of Square Enix's Final Fantasy franchise—namely Final Fantasy VII and its spin-offs Advent Children and Crisis Core, Final Fantasy VIII, and Final Fantasy X and X-2—in addition to the Kingdom Hearts series, the Glory of Heracles series, and the story to the Subspace Emissary mode in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Nojima also wrote the original lyrics of "Liberi Fatali" for Final Fantasy VIII and both "Suteki da Ne" and the "Hymn of the Fayth" for Final Fantasy X, as well as "No Promises to Keep" for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. He is also the founder of Stellavista Ltd.
Kazushige Nojima first joined Japanese video game developer and publisher Data East.
He joined Square in 1994. He began work on Final Fantasy VII after the main character settings were done, though Nojima considered this early in the process; he was still working on Bahamut Lagoon.
Nojima also wrote the mythology of Fabula Nova Crystallis, which has been used as the story foundation for all the titles within the series. Nojima also wrote a number of the Kingdom Hearts games. He also wrote the scenario for Final Fantasy XV (Previously known as Versus XIII).
Kazushige Nojima left Square Enix in 2003 and founded Stellavista Ltd, a freelance scenario company. He wrote the story for Sakura Note. He also contributed some story concepts to the script of Final Fantasy XIII. While developing the scenario for Glory of Heracles, Nojima took inspiration from the Fall of Troy and the Battle of Thermopylae. Not many actual Greek locations were used, but locations derived from Greek mythology were.
In 2011 Enterbrain announced on its Famitsu resource that a short anime and audio drama, based on a novel written by Kazushige Nojima, will be streamed with a name Busō Chūgakusei Basket Army (Armed Middle School Student Basket Army).
Nojima has been called one of the "strongest voices" in the video game industry for his writing. His stories have been noted for their complexity and fearlessness in delving into romantic plot lines.
Tantei Jingūji Saburō: Kiken na Futari (1988) – Scenario writer
Hercules no Eikō II: Titan no Metsubō (1989) – Scenario writer
Tantei Jingūji Saburō: Toki no Sugiyuku mamani... (1991) – Scenario writer
Heracles no Eikō III: Kamigami no Chinmoku (1992) – Scenario writer
Heracles no Eikō IV: Kamigami kara no Okurimono (1994) – Director, scenario writer
Bahamut Lagoon (1996) – Director
Final Fantasy VII (1997) – Event planner, story
Final Fantasy VIII (1999) – Scenario writer
Final Fantasy X (2001) – Scenario writer
Kingdom Hearts (2002) – Scenario writer
Final Fantasy X-2 (2003) – Scenario writer