Tidus  Tidus was designed by Tetsuya Nomura with a cheerful appearance, in contrast to previous "Final Fantasy" protagonists. Scenario writer Kazushige Nojima wanted to expand the relationship between player and character with monologues describing the game's setting. Tidus is voiced primarily by Masakazu Morita in Japanese and James Arnold Taylor in English. Both actors enjoyed voicing the character, and Morita also performed his motion capture. He has been generally well received by video-game critics. Tidus' cheerful personality and heroic traits make him an appealing protagonist, contrasting with previous male characters in the franchise. His character development and romantic relationship with Yuna are considered among the best in video games, although reviewers and fans were divided on Taylor's voicing. Tidus has been popular with fans, often ranking as one of the best "Final Fantasy" characters in polls. Action figures and Tidus-related jewelry have been produced, and he is a popular cosplay character. Before the development of "Final Fantasy X", game scenario writer Kazushige Nojima was concerned about the relationship between the player and the main character in a "Final Fantasy" title and wanted to try to make the story easier to follow. Since the player and the main character find themselves in a new world, Nojima wanted Tidus' understanding of that world to track the player's progress in the game. Nojima felt that Tidus was the easiest character to draw in the first half of "Final Fantasy X", because character and player learn about the storyline together. Nojima created a brief description of Tidus for character designer Tetsuya Nomura, and Nomura created a sketch for input from Nojima and other staff members. Nomura was asked to design Tidus differently from the game's theme so he would stand out. Movie director Hiroshi Kuwabara noted the difficulty the developers had in making Tidus and the other main characters realistic. The staff wanted to use an undead person as a playable character, and Tidus was meant to be that character. During "Final Fantasy X" development, however, Nojima saw a film with a similar idea for its protagonist. The role of an undead person was then given to a secondary character, Auron. Nomura mentioned the contrast between the lead male and female protagonists established by their names; Tidus' name is based on the Okinawan word for "sun", and Yuna's name means "night" in Okinawan.