Final Fantasy art is several of my favored in all of games. The collection’ visuals drop someplace in between realistic look and also dream, and also it’s constantly enjoyable to see just how Square Enix workshops utilize extra effective equipment to bring globes to life. These setups, personalities, and also beasts are remarkable, and also a huge factor for that is the art. It’s striking and also special – you recognize it’s Final Fantasy when you see it.
With each brand-new Final Fantasy, Square Enix has a possibility to strengthen personalities and also globes right into the zeitgeist of pc gaming, like the firm has actually carried out in the past with Final Fantasy VII’s Cloud Strife, Final Fantasy X’s Zanarkand, and also extra. During my cover tale journey to Square Enix’s Tokyo, Japan, workplaces, I talked to Final Fantasy XVI art supervisor Hiroshi Minagawa concerning just how designer Creative Business Unit III set about developing the game’s aesthetic design.
Final Fantasy XVI Art Director Hiroshi Minagawa
“Like other members on the Final Fantasy XVI team, I was also working on [Final Fantasy XIV] when I was asked to come over to Final Fantasy XVI,” Minagawa informs me. “I got that call very, very early in the development process. Very early in that process, I was able to speak a lot with [FFXVI director Hiroshi Takai] about what type of world it was going to be, what type of flavor the world is going to be, and be a part of that creative process there.”
He states he came close to art instructions rather in a different way from his service FFXIV due to the fact that, with FFXIV being an MMO, the group concentrates visual high quality on presenting great deals of various points on display. With FFXVI being an offline single-player experience, “the graphics have to be at a higher level, and they have to be deeper and richer in that sense.”
Minagawa collaborated with the CBUIII group to stress the distinction in concentrate on visuals in between both games. From there, it had to do with bringing FFXVI’s art to life based upon what Takai pictured.
“We had that broad stroke where Takai said, ‘We want to have something that’s going to have that feel of Game of Thrones,’ that kind of pure standard high fantasy that you’d see in that type of program and visual medium.”
Beyond Game of Thrones, Minagawa states the group took a look at the personality layouts from FFXVI musician and also illustrator Kazuya Takahashi. Not just had he attracted the personalities, yet several of the art for atmospheres.
“His art has this bright and transparent type of feel, so taking that with the idea of, ‘Okay, we want to make it dark and gritty like Game of Thrones‘ and trying to figure out a way to combine that and make it work, and then figure out a way to implement that in the game was my biggest task when I joined,” Minigawa states.
Takahashi’s intense and also clear art is still existing in some components of the game, yet CBUIII pared it back in some areas to fit the game’s tone. The atmospheres likewise required to be made as though one min they could be stunning, yet an additional min, ablaze and also damaged.
“When you look back at the Final Fantasy series, you see that the art style is different for each game,” Minagawa includes. “And while the series is kind of moving towards that photo-real aspect, we wanted something that wasn’t necessarily photo-real. We wanted to put more emphasis on that original art that we had from [Takahashi].”
This was the viewpoint behind the aesthetic idea of Valisthea, which is influenced by real-world places yet still quite Final Fantasy. In regards to motivation, Minigawa mentions north England and also its special rock developments that, to him, specify dark dream. He likewise mentions Iceland’s barren rough landscapes, Slovenia, the Middle East and also Africa, specifically in regard to Valisthea’s Dhalmekian Republic, and also also various other components of Final Fantasy, like Final Fantasy XII’s Dalmasca.
To produce lead character Clive Rosfield, Minagawa states it was the mix of job from the art group’s personnel along with “the IMS group,” which is the team that deals with a great deal of the computer animated CGI flicks for Square Enix. CBUIII generated CG musicians to offer comments due to the fact that it desired a genuine personality that stood for those initial personality art pictures well. He jokes that prior to touchdown on the last variation of Clive, the group reached some seek Clive that looked terrific, just to uncover that when he did something like smile, “it just looked disgusting” and also “didn’t look right.” It was just after generating CG musicians and also having conversations with them concerning this concern that CBUIII developed the face Clive has today.
As for the aesthetic layout of FFXVI’s Eikons, I wondered concerning just how CBUIII came close to the design of beasts that the majority of Final Fantasy followers are currently accustomed to. Minigawa states the physicality of these summons and also just how they battle notified their layout.
“When I joined the project, I remember Takai-san said its concept was ‘summon pro wrestling,’ that’s how he described what they were trying to do,” he states. “Instead of having these Eikons shoot magic at each other and fight, it’s more like they’re going to get in and grapple. It’s going to be close quarters; they’re going to be using their bodies as opposed to ranged attacks. And so I really think that type of concept affected the design; you’re going to have a design that’s more suited to these close-up encounters.”
The group likewise went back to what several may refer to as the picture of Final Fantasy XVI: the Ifrit Eikon encountering the Phoenix Eikon, existing in the game’s main logo design developed by famous Final Fantasy illustrator and also musician Yoshitaka Amano.
I completed my time with Minigawa interested concerning his ideas on the tradition of Final Fantasy art. Is it something the group thinks of when developing these personalities and also globes? He states it differs from one person to another.
“My job is to take art that has been created by my staff and figure out a way to get that in the game as best as possible without taking away from that art,” Minigawa states. “So, in that sense, it’s about trying as hard as you can. For me, it’s just like basically trying to do the best I can and hopefully, it will resonate with the players. But again, that’s going to be different for each of the artists.”
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