Akihiro Hino

Akihiro Hino (日野 晃博, Hino Akihiro) (born July 20, 1968) is a Japanese video game designer and businessman. Starting his career as a programmer in the 1990s, he later took on roles in writing, design, directing and producing. He founded Level-5 in 1998, where he remains its president and CEO.

Akihiro Hino
日野 晃博
Hino in 2015
Born	(1968-07-20) July 20, 1968 Ōmuta, Fukuoka, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Occupation	Game designer, game producer, scriptwriter
Notable work	Dark Cloud series Professor Layton series Inazuma Eleven series
Title	President and CEO of Level-5 Inc.
Term	1996–present

Biography

Hino began his career in the video game industry in the late 1980s at the now defunct Japanese developer Riverhillsoft, specifically on the OverBlood series for the original PlayStation. Hino acted as the lead programmer on the first OverBlood, and was subsequently promoted to lead designer and director for the sequel, OverBlood 2.

Hino founded Level-5 in October 1998.[1] Since the creation of Level-5, Hino has designed, planned and produced several of the studio's released titles, Dark Cloud, Dark Chronicle and Rogue Galaxy for the PlayStation 2, Jeanne d'Arc for the PlayStation Portable, and Professor Layton and the Curious Village for the Nintendo DS. He also directed Square Enix's Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King for the PlayStation 2.

Recently, Hino once again assumed designing and producing duties for Level-5's titles, White Knight Chronicles for the PlayStation 3, and the next two Professor Layton games – the Diabolical Box and the Unwound Future, both for the Nintendo DS, and Inazuma Eleven for the Nintendo DS, and Dragon Quest IX, also for the DS, which is his studio's second collaboration with role-playing video game powerhouse Square Enix.

Works

Year	Title	Role
1989	Burai: Jokan	Programmer
1992	Prince of Persia	Programmer (3DO version)
1994	Doctor Hauzer	Programmer
1996	OverBlood	Programmer
1998	OverBlood 2	Director, designer, writer
2000	Dark Cloud	Producer, designer, writer
2002	Dark Chronicle	Producer, designer, writer
2004	Dragon Quest VIII	Director
2005	Rogue Galaxy	Director, producer, designer, writer
2006	Jeanne d'Arc	Producer
2007	Professor Layton and the Curious Village	Producer, designer, writer
	Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box	Producer, designer, writer
	Inazuma Eleven	Producer, designer, writer
2008	Professor Layton and the Unwound Future	Producer, designer, writer
	White Knight Chronicles	Director, producer, designer, writer
2009	Inazuma Eleven 2	Producer
	Dragon Quest IX	Director
	Professor Layton and the Last Specter	Producer, designer, writer
2010	Ni no Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn	Writer
	Inazuma Eleven 3	Producer
2011	Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask	Producer, designer, writer
	Inazuma Eleven Strikers	Producer
	Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch	Producer, writer
2012	LBX: Little Battlers eXperience	Producer, planning, writer
	Time Travelers	Producer
	Mobile Suit Gundam AGE	Producer, designer, writer
	Layton Brothers: Mystery Room	Producer
	Crimson Shroud	Executive producer
	Inazuma Eleven GO Strikers 2013	Producer
	Fantasy Life	Producer
2013	Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy	Producer
	Guild02	Executive producer
	Yo-kai Watch	Producer, writer
	Attack of the Friday Monsters	Executive producer
2014	Wonder Flick	Director, producer
	Yo-kai Watch 2	Producer, writer
2015	Yo-kai Watch Blasters	Producer
2016	Yo-kai Watch 3	Producer, writer
2017	Layton's Mystery Journey	General director, planning, writer
	Snack World: Trejarers	General director, planning, writer
2018	Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom	General director, writer
	Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl - Gold	General director, planning, writer
2019	Yo-kai Watch 4	Producer, writer

References

1. Winkler, Chris (2003). "Creator's Talk Interview #2: Akihiro Hino". RPGFan.com. Retrieved 2009-05-24.

External links

• Akihiro Hino on IMDb
• Akihiro Hino at MobyGames