Chihiro Fujioka – Japanese Game Director, Composer & Drummer

Chihiro Fujioka is a legendary Japanese game designer, director and composer with a career spanning several decades. He began his career at Xtalsoft in the early 1980s before joining Square (now Square Enix), where he directed the classic Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). This groundbreaking title seamlessly merged the charm of platforming with deep role-playing mechanics, setting a new standard for crossover game design.

Following the success of Super Mario RPG, Fujioka-san co-founded AlphaDream, the studio behind the Mario & Luigi series. The games praised for their humor, art design and innovative battle systems are widely considered the spiritual successors to Super Mario RPG, carrying its legacy into the handheld generation and into the Nintendo Switch.

Beyond game development, Fujioka-san is an accomplished drummer and live performer, regularly appearing with Nobuo Uematsu (composer of Final Fantasy) as a founding member of the progressive rock band Earthbound Papas and conTIKI. His rhythm-driven creativity extends from music to gameplay design, reflecting his belief that games and music share the same heartbeat.

In recent years, Fujioka-san has pursued solo music projects, releasing two albums: Flowers of Magic and Echoes of Magic.

Notable Works:
– Final Fantasy Legend III (1991)
– Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (1996)
– Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (2003)
– Fantasian: Neo Dimension (2024)

Location:
🇯🇵 – Tokyo