Kazushige Nojima
According to Nomura, he wanted to give Tidus a cheerful persona and appearance after designing serious, moody main characters for "Final Fantasy VII" and "Final Fantasy VIII". He wanted to continue the recent trend of sky-related names, and Kazushige Nojima chose a name based on "tiida" (Okinawan for "sun"). Nojima called Tidus' personality "lively" and compared him to "Final Fantasy VIII"s Laguna Loire and Zell Dincht, two other cheerful characters. Tidus was initially a rude plumber who was part of a delinquent gang, but Kitase said he would be a weak protagonist and he was made an athlete instead.