Masato Kato

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Masato Kato (加藤正人|Katō Masato, born March 28, 1963) is a Japanese video game artist, scenario writer and director. In the early days of his career, he was credited under the pseudonyms of "Runmaru" and "Runmal". He then joined Square, and was most famous for penning the script of Chrono Trigger (based on a story draft by Yuji Horii), as well as Radical Dreamers, Xenogears, Chrono Cross, and parts of Final Fantasy VII.

Kato first worked for Tecmo on Captain Tsubasa and the Ninja Gaiden series. On his first three games, he moved from graphics, to graphics and scenario writing, to also directing the action elements. Translation issues came up when attempting to translate the word "Ryuukenden" into English, and led the team to use the word Gaiden, because it "sounded good", even though Gaiden usually means "side story".

He went on to work for Gainax.

Masato stated that Chrono Cross development encountered difficulty in expanding the game world due to hardware limitations, and that they crammed as much data as they could onto the game disk. Conversely, developing the multiple game endings was seen as easier, on par with Chrono Trigger as a bonus for players who finished the game.

Kato left Square after designing the plot of Final Fantasy XI: Rise of the Zilart to become a freelance scenario writer. In addition to games for different companies, he has continued to work on Square Enix projects such as the World of Mana series, an enhanced port of Chrono Trigger for the Nintendo DS, and three more expansion chapters for Final Fantasy XI.

In 2005, Masato Kato also collaborated with Yasunori Mitsuda, longtime friend and music composer, to write a short story titled Five Seasons of kiЯitɘ, which Mitsuda accompanied with music on his album kiЯitɘ. The story and soundtrack have also been presented in opera form. Prior to this, Mitsuda composed the soundtrack for several of Kato's games, including Chrono Cross and Xenogears.

Gameography

Masato Kato has been credited for the following games:

Early games

Captain Tsubasa (1988): animation sprites
Ninja Gaiden (1988): pictures
Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (1990): movie director, scenario, pictures
Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom (1991): director of action sequences
Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (1992): assistant director, planner, script writer, graphics
Princess Maker 2 (1993): planner, script writer, graphics

Square Co./Square Enix

Chrono Trigger (1995): story planner, script writer
Radical Dreamers: Nusumenai Hōseki (1996): director, scenario and script writer
Final Fantasy VII (1997): event planner, script writer
Xenogears (1998): event planner, script writer, lyricist
Chrono Trigger (PlayStation enhanced port) (1999): supervisor
Chrono Cross (1999): director, scenario and script writer, event planner, FMV storyboard
Final Fantasy XI (2002): plot conception and events, lyricist
Final Fantasy XI: Rise of the Zilart (2003): plot conception and events

Freelance

Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean (2003): scenario writer, screenplay
Deep Labyrinth (2006): scenario writer
Children of Mana (2006): scenario writer
Heroes of Mana (2007): scenario writer
Sands of Destruction (2008): scenario writer
Chrono Trigger (Nintendo DS enhanced port) (2008): supervisor
A Crystalline Prophecy: Ode to Life Bestowing (2009): plot conception
A Moogle Kupo d'Etat: Evil in Small Doses (2009): plot conception
A Shantotto Ascension: The Legend Torn, Her Empire Born (2009): plot conception
Shiren the Wanderer (2008): scenario writer
Fushigi no Dungeon: Fūrai no Shiren 4: Kami no Hitomi to Akuma no Heso (2010)
Phantom Blue (2010)
Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer 5 (2010)
Ninja Gaiden 3 (2012): story