Character designer toi8 has been the next person involved in Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem’s development to share their approach to the task at hand, drawing on previous experience working on .hack//The Movie and a Chain Chronicle film.
“Hello. I’m toi8, and I’ll be in charge of the main character designs for Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem,” his post on the official website begins (translated by Siliconera). “As for when we began talking about this title, it was around the time I finished working on a piece of light novel cover art. It was around the time that I was handling one-shot work, and asked myself ‘what should I do next?’
“As part of the generation that grew up on Nintendo consoles such as the Famicom and Super Famicom, the name ‘Nintendo’ has a very special meaning to me. I remember being very excited upon hearing about the [Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem] collaboration. Years later, I’ve finally been able to see it take form right before my eyes, and I find myself filled with deep emotion.
“Now, let’s quickly talk a little bit about the character designs. The stage of the game is set in Shibuya, and the background shows a gorgeous world, so the character design’s direction will go with a highly saturated, gorgeous look. Everything I’ve drawn up until now has been low saturation, so this will be a challenge of colours!”
Illustrators have regular chances to do ‘single-sheet’ work in comparison to designers, he goes on to explain. This can see them draw concept art or a cover, with toi8 sharing that “bust size” has come up regularly in design discussions…
He continues, “I’ve received help from all kinds of people, and as a result we’ve achieved the characters and the backgrounds shown in trailer, which is something I haven’t been able to do up until now, and I’m proud of it.
As far as characters go, we have discussions such as ‘What we should do in terms of bust size?’ with suggestions like ‘They could be large and have glasses to go with them,’ and ‘No, glasses are no good,’ and so on.”
Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem is currently targeting a winter 2015 release in Japan, exclusively for Wii U.
