Posted by Dean on
July 8, 2008
Character designer Ryoma Ito, from Final Fantasy A2, tells us about the passion of the work he puts into his designs in this exclusive square enix members interview. Here he even explains why Cid was based on a cattle. This interview can be found here. But to those whom don’t have a square enix members account, the full interview can be found below.
Despite being Character designer for FINAL FANTASY TACTICS A2. He also did design work on FINAL FANTASY TACTICS ADVANCE, FINAL FANTASY XII, and FINAL FANTASY II REVENANT WINGS. Asked of his favourite job he replied; “I like all the jobs. If I had to pick, I’d pick the moogle jobs. The others jobs were already more or less fixed, so it was just a question of how to modify them. But for the moogles, I was able to make them in a way that was easy for me. I feel a special attachment to them.”
- When did you hear that this title would be developed?
Ryoma Ito: After FINAL FANTASY TACTICS ADVANCE was done, I was working on FINAL FANTASY XII, and I remember a conversation about it then. I was very happy to hear about the project, but at the same time FFXII was getting very busy, and I was asked to devote myself to that title. I didn’t hear anything else about the project for a while. Then this year Mr. Murasawa told me they were working on FINAL FANTASY TACTICS A2 and asked if I’d be interested in doing the character design. He didn’t have to ask me twice.
- So you were very interested in doing it?
Ryoma Ito: Definitely. I asked to be put on it. It wasn’t just that I’d worked on the previous title, but I also really liked the story of the game, too.
- You worked on the previous title as well, but was there anything you tried to be mindful of coming into the project?
Ryoma Ito: Since they were planning to use jobs from the previous game, I wanted to avoid changing those designs. For the new races, I went in with the goal that when lined up with the rest of the characters, they shouldn’t look out of place. At the same time, I did want to make some small touch ups to the designs I’d made for the first game. I suppose I wanted to show how I’d grown as a designer. [Laughs] So I went in and redrew only the human-like figures, the humes and viera, which tend to come under more scrutiny.
- Do you take into account that your drawings will need to be converted to pixel art when creating them?
Ryoma Ito: For the main characters, I make the illustration first, then that’s converted to pixel art. But for the regular jobs, those are created first as pixel art, which I then refer to when rounding out the illustrations.
- So some things start as pixel art?
Ryoma Ito: Yes. The regular jobs start this way. On the other hand, for the player characters I started by deciding on their main color, and then communicating that to the rest of the team. That way when the time comes to convert them to pixel art, it comes across the way I’d intended.
- What’s something that stands out about Luso’s pixel art, for example?
Ryoma Ito: From the start I decided that he’d have a red hat, and that overall you’d have an impression of the color yellow when you look at him. I chose red because—and this may just be me—it seems like a heroic color. [Laughs] So I thought red should be the basic color. Once development got underway and I saw some of the background art, I started thinking that yellow, rather than red, might look nice, so I made the design accommodate that.
- What about Adelle?
Ryoma Ito: For Adelle it wasn’t so much the pixel art, but some design documents describing her that helped develop her concept. The text mentioned that she was known as “Adelle the Cat,” so I thought that something of that should show through in her design.
- What areas in particular reflect this?
Ryoma Ito: Her ribbon looks like cat ears, and her belt hangs low like a cat’s tail. Her knee guards are shaped like cat paws. It’s a little obvious, but there’s also a cat adorning her shoulders. Her eyes are even a little slanted to make them more catlike.
- Cid’s design was based on an American bison!?
- Cid is definitely one of the most memorable characters.
Ryoma Ito: At the start, [Scenario & Event Director] Ms. Kyoko Kitahara asked that Luso, Adelle, and Cid be a certain way. The materials she gave me made it clear that Cid was from another race, and it had some examples of the way he spoke. When I saw all this, the first thing that popped into my head was a very slender, a very thin Cid. I thought I’d nailed it, so I brought it to Ms. Kitahara, and she told me I had it completely wrong. [Laughs]
- So, not thin. [Laughs]
Ryoma Ito: It seems she had envisioned a very well-muscled race like the bangaa. I hadn’t really pictured the bangaa, so I asked Ms. Kitahara if using another race would work. She said that the bangaa was just an example, and that any stout race should be fine. So I started designing a new, muscly race. Just about this time I had a lot of interest in a very muscly animal, the American bison, so Cid started from a bipedal form of that animal.
- So Cid is based on cattle.
Ryoma Ito: At first he really looked just like a bull, but I thought it was a little too plainly bovine, so I did things like extend his nose like a goblin, and fiddled with his ears. He started to look sort of mischievous. [Laughs] Around this time I liked South American colors, so I made him a little South American. I also thought that even though he’s cattle-like, it might be interesting to make him a bit like a cowboy, so I gave him a sort of cowboy style. Personally, I thought he’d turned out really well. But I was worried he wouldn’t pass the check. Luckily, he did. [Laughs] After all the tweaks and changes I’d really become attached to him, so I asked that they approve the design, and they did.
- His look came from cowboys?
Ryoma Ito: Yes. Since he’s originally a bull designed to stand on two feet, his legs are a little short. It looks a bit funny, but I think that’s part of what makes him look so good. [Laughs]
- Next could you tell us about the main character, Luso, and his design?
Ryoma Ito: Ms. Kitahara told me that her image of Luso was something like Tom Sawyer. Since I imagine Tom Sawyer wearing overalls, I took that and tried to make a more warrior-like design. Then I added a ladybug and a four-leaf clover to bring out his natural innocence. At first he looked a bit too much like an ordinary boy, so I went back and added a few things. In the end I think it all came together pretty well.
- Vaan ended up having a grownup feel.
Ryoma Ito: He did. It was decided that he should be different from his appearance in FINAL FANTASY XII REVENANT WINGS. FFXII RW was the story of Vaan trying to find his own airship and become a sky pirate after FFXII. In this game Vaan’s finally gotten the hang of being a sky pirate, so [Producer]Mr. Hiroaki Kato thought it might be time put some clothes on him. [Laughs] At the same meeting, someone suggested that since Vaan looks up to Balthier, maybe he could wear a shirt that’s similar to his. So the idea goes that Vaan bought clothes similar to Balthier’s.
- What about Lezaford?
Ryoma Ito: Lezaford is actually the same race as Cid.
- Really?
Ryoma Ito: Yes. The premise is that the race split into subgroups a long time ago, one being more physically powerful and the other more intellectual. Since Cid was already done, I used an old Cid as a sort of template, although since Lezaford is a great mage, I gave him a staff and a robe.
Source: http://member.square-enix.com/na/
