Career
His most notable works are those within the Xenogears (Square), Xenosaga (Monolith Soft/Namco) and Xenoblade (Monolith Soft/Nintendo) series, all of which he directed. Born on November 18, 1966 in Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan. He began his career in video games in the 1980s working with Nihon Falcom.
Squaresoft
Takahashi worked on Final Fantasy VI, including the design of the Magitek armor from the opening scene of the game.
He also was the graphics director on Chrono Trigger. Xenogears
Originally submitted as a potential plot for Final Fantasy VII, it was made into its own project after being judged too dark and complicated for a fantasy game by others at Squaresoft.
Monolith Soft
While at Squaresoft, Takahashi realized that the company intended to focus on the Final Fantasy series, and that sequels to the Xenogears series were becoming unlikely. He then decided to leave and start his own software development company.
In October 1999 he left Squaresoft to start a new company, Monolith Soft, together with Hirohide Sugiura.
Xenoblade Chronicles
Following a meeting about the game Soma Bringer, Takahashi imagined what a game would be like where the world was actually the body of a "giant god". Takahashi attempted a more "mature" writing style for the game, and said he expects to continue in the same vein in the future. The game references both Japanese and Western RPG styles, referring to the western style in some cases "without thinking about it".
In this way, the game is designed to appeal to fans of "text-based" RPGs and western RPGs.
Minor localizations were made for the American and European release, as well as bug fixes and game balancing. Originally Takahashi tried a more traditional turned based combat system, but he later incorporated the games system where the protagonist can see into the future.
Xenoblade Chronicles X
Takahashi and Monolith Soft were revealed to be working on a new game for the Wii U in September 2012. lieutenant was later revealed in the January 2013 Nintendo Direct under the tentative title X, and shown further at E3 2013.
Foreign E3 2014, it was announced with the title Xenoblade Chronicles X.
Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes (1989): Art
Final Fantasy IV (1991): Battle Graphics
Romancing SaGa (1992): Field Graphics
Final Fantasy V (1992): Field Graphics
Secret of Mana (1993): Map Graphic Design
Final Fantasy VI (1994): Graphic Director
Front Mission (1995): Graphic Design
Chrono Trigger (1995): Graphic Director
Seiken Densetsu 3 (1995): Black Gold
Final Fantasy VII (1997): Concept Art
Xenogears (1998): Director, Scenario Writer
Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht (2002): Director, Scenario Writer
Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse (2004): Original Author
Xenosaga: Pied Piper (2004): Story Writer
Xenosaga I & II (2006): Scenario Writer
Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra (2006): Author, Music Coordinator, Supervisor of Scenario and Database
Soma Bringer (2008): Producer, Game Designer
Xenoblade Chronicles (2010): Concept, Executive Director, Scenario Writer
Xenoblade Chronicles X (2015): Executive Director.