Many knew her by the alias Phoenix Rie. The woman recognized for her roles in the Phantasy Star series, Skies of Arcadia, Magic Knight Rayearth, and several dozen SEGA video games — is no longer with us.
News of her passing was seemingly revealed by the credits of the Mega Drive Mini II. Staff credits read, “In memory of Rieko Kodama.”
After some online discussion of what this message means, IGN would later confirm through SEGA — Kodama passed away in May of 2022. No other details were revealed out of respect for the family of Kodama.
SEGA’s “First Lady of RPGs” enjoyed going to the arcade as a child. She would later pursue advertising in college as a means to focus on her passion for art. Growing an interest in graphic design, she would later decide to enter the video game industry, landing a job at SEGA. She started by helping design games like Champion Boxing, Alex Kidd and Spellcaster. Sonic fans would gaze upon her environment art in its first two games. She is perhaps best known for her work on Phantasy Star, Skies of Arcadia, and 7th Dragon.
Her dedication to the art of video games shine through the quality of her work. To prove her commitment to the industry, perhaps one can look no further than her impressive tenure at SEGA. From 1984 to 2020, stretching across platforms from the SG-1000 to the Nintendo Switch, Kodama held a role in more than 50 games under the SEGA banner. She is remembered for major contributions like her RPG design, to lending her deep knowledge of the company to simple things, like finding the Virtua Racing source code for the Switch port. Virtually every SEGA fan has witnessed her work in some way.
Kodama is considered a pioneer for women in the video game industry. She was 58.
59’s no age for the great Game Over…