| Rieko Kodama | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Rieko Kodama |
| Born | May 23, 1963 Kanagawa, Japan |
| Field | Video game designer |
| Works | Phantasy Star series, Skies Of Arcadia |
Rieko Kodama (小玉 理恵子 Kodama Rieko, born May 23, 1963 in Kanagawa, Kanagawa Prefecture) (Also credited as Phoenix Rie, Phenix Rie or Phoenix)[1] is a video game designer. She has been involved with some of Sega's high profile projects such as Alex Kidd, the Phantasy Star series, Sonic The Hedgehog, Shinobi, Skies of Arcadia, and several other A-list games.
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Born in Kanagawa, Japan, she began her education undecided between art and archeology. She opted for art and enrolled in a trade school for advertising design. In 1984, a fellow student brought her to work at Sega.
Influence of archeology can be seen in several games that she has worked on, including Phantasy Star and Skies Of Arcadia, where the player often has to travel and discover past civilizations.
Kodama started in character design, for arcade titles such as Champion Boxing (1984) and Ninja Princess (1984), as well as Master System games like Alex Kidd in Miracle World (1986) and Quartet (1987).
As one of the few designers at the company, she found herself working on multiple titles at once, being credited on as many as five or six games a year. Kodama built up a reputation as an artist and was soon given a chance to work on larger projects, such as Phantasy Star. As the main designer, Kodama was responsible for creating all the character designs, the 2D maps, battle-scene backgrounds, and townspeople, among other things.
In 2008 it was announced that Kodama would be producing a new RPG entitled 7th Dragon, in collabration with Kazuya Niinou (Trauma Center, Etrian Odyssey) and legendary composer Yuzo Koshiro. It received positive reviews and sold 80,000 copies on its Japanese launch.[2][3]
In the 80s and 90s video game designers were not credited under their actual name.