This article is from the M! 351 (Dezember 202).
JAPAN Rieko Kodama passed away on the 9th of May, just before her 59th birthday. At the request of friends and family, the death of the extraordinary designer was not officially announced until October 27th.
Rieko Kodama was born on May 25, 1963 in Yokosuka, Kanagawa. His first hobbies include archaeology, manga drawing and the then emerging Formula 1 sport. She has started dating the creators at the old station and is now in touch with the game. Even if she’s older than herself, she doesn’t really know how to decide between her art and archeology, particularly in ancient Egypt, and is not very a big candidate for all his exams. In the end, she’s planning on studying a commercial artist. She started taking lessons from playing industry and found out about the growing industry. She soon discovers her interest in the actual development: she learns the basic pixel art from Kosoika Kawasaki and contributes to the opponents and the background of the SG-1000 title Champion Boxing at. Other works include Ninja Princess, Quartet and Alex Kidd in Miracle World. She often hides her name under a pseudonym, so she was very frequent. She often is in the credits of Phoenix Rie which became known later, and referred to as the anime or manga series Saint Seiya.
She was involved in the legendary RPG Phantasy Star, where she works well for the background, the character design and many more. She has created a name for herself, now a name she associated with her. She is a hugely successful songwriter. In addition to the music of the Saturn 2D, Rayearth has almost all the strings in his hands. She has served as the producer at the late survival horror extortion. She is in this role also with the legendary Dreamcast RPG Skies of Arcadia and the rather mixed reboot of Altered Beast on PlayStation 2. She later oversees many of the now popular Brain Training-Title, before her start with the 7th Dragon series will return to playing role-playing. Her biggest job at Sega is probably the production of the Sega Ages series for Nintendo Switch. In 2018, she received the Pioneer award at the Game Developer Choice Awards. She works extremely well and notes how she feels at the achievements of her teams and colleagues. She is often self-critical in its own art, and complains that older works such as the motif shown here for the new Mega Drive edition of the Phantasy Star are still being shown in new editions. Female characters and players are an important topic, so in her games it is always important that her not to treat female characters unwisely as well. The strong heroines of Phantasy Star and Arcadia are the best examples.
It is then the in Memoriam entry in the Mega Drive Mini 2 credits spread the sad news. Singabe employee Yosuke Okunari finally confirmed Kodamas death on Twitter, prompting a worldwide outpouring of sympathy on social media. I am very grateful for her, because we were co-workers at Sega and we had something in common with Phantasy Star and Sonic. I want everyone to remember her. May she rest peacefully. Rieko Kodama will remain in place, writes Yuji Naka. Judy Totoya dedicates a drawing to her Phantasy Starheroine Alis and says that If Ms. Kodama hadn’t dreamed up Alis I probably wouldn’t have gone to Sega if she hadn’t dragged me into the home console division, my life might have been different. I can’t thank her enough. But Izuho Numata honours Kodama a lot and thanks for all the help that I’ve received during my time at Sega. I appreciate how we could work together. Thank you. We can only agree with that. With Rieko Kodama, the gaming world has lost one of the greatest people. May the first lady of RPGs, as she was often called, rest in peace.