Ultimate Fantasy artwork is a few of my favourite in all of video games. The collection' visuals fall someplace between realism and fantasy, and it’s all the time enjoyable to see how Sq. Enix studios leverage extra highly effective {hardware} to carry worlds to life. These settings, characters, and monsters are memorable, and a big purpose for that's the artwork. It’s placing and distinctive – you recognize it’s Ultimate Fantasy whenever you see it.
With every new Ultimate Fantasy, Sq. Enix has an opportunity to solidify characters and worlds into the zeitgeist of gaming, like the corporate has performed prior to now with Ultimate Fantasy VII’s Cloud Strife, Ultimate Fantasy X’s Zanarkand, and extra. Throughout my cowl story journey to Sq. Enix’s Tokyo, Japan, places of work, I spoke to Ultimate Fantasy XVI artwork director Hiroshi Minagawa about how developer Inventive Enterprise Unit III went about creating the sport’s visible model.
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Ultimate Fantasy XVI Artwork Director Hiroshi Minagawa
“Like different members on the Ultimate Fantasy XVI staff, I used to be additionally engaged on [Final Fantasy XIV] after I was requested to come back over to Ultimate Fantasy XVI,” Minagawa tells me. “I received that decision very, very early within the growth course of. Very early in that course of, I used to be capable of communicate lots with [FFXVI director Hiroshi Takai] about what kind of world it was going to be, what kind of taste the world goes to be, and be part of that inventive course of there.”
He says he approached artwork path fairly otherwise from his work on FFXIV as a result of, with FFXIV being an MMO, the staff focuses graphical high quality on displaying a number of various things on display screen. With FFXVI being an offline single-player expertise, “the graphics should be at the next stage, they usually should be deeper and richer in that sense.”
Minagawa labored with the CBUIII staff to emphasise the distinction in concentrate on visuals between the 2 video games. From there, it was about bringing FFXVI’s artwork to life primarily based on what Takai envisioned.
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“We had that broad stroke the place Takai mentioned, ‘We wish to have one thing that’s going to have that really feel of Recreation of Thrones,’ that type of pure normal excessive fantasy that you simply’d see in that kind of program and visible medium.”
Past Recreation of Thrones, Minagawa says the staff appeared on the character designs from FFXVI artist and illustrator Kazuya Takahashi. Not solely had he drawn the characters, however a number of the artwork for environments.
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“His artwork has this brilliant and clear kind of really feel, so taking that with the concept of, ‘Okay, we wish to make it darkish and gritty like Recreation of Thrones‘ and making an attempt to determine a method to mix that and make it work, after which determine a method to implement that within the recreation was my greatest activity after I joined,” Minigawa says.
Takahashi’s brilliant and clear artwork continues to be current in some elements of the sport, however CBUIII pared it again in some locations to suit the sport’s tone. The environments additionally wanted to be designed in such a method that one minute they is likely to be lovely, however one other minute, on hearth and destroyed.
“Once you look again on the Ultimate Fantasy collection, you see that the artwork model is totally different for every recreation,” Minagawa provides. “And whereas the collection is type of shifting in the direction of that photo-real side, we wished one thing that wasn’t essentially photo-real. We wished to place extra emphasis on that authentic artwork that we had from [Takahashi].”
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This was the philosophy behind the visible idea of Valisthea, which is impressed by real-world areas however nonetheless very a lot Ultimate Fantasy. By way of inspiration, Minigawa cites northern England and its distinctive rock formations that, to him, outline darkish fantasy. He additionally cites Iceland’s barren rocky landscapes, Slovenia, the Center East and Africa, particularly in relation to Valisthea’s Dhalmekian Republic, and even different elements of Ultimate Fantasy, like Ultimate Fantasy XII’s Dalmasca.
To create protagonist Clive Rosfield, Minagawa says it was the mixture of labor from the artwork staff’s employees in addition to “the IMS group,” which is the group that works on numerous the animated CGI motion pictures for Sq. Enix. CBUIII introduced in CG artists to offer suggestions as a result of it wished an actual character that represented these authentic character artwork illustrations nicely. He jokes that earlier than touchdown on the ultimate model of Clive, the staff arrived at some seems for Clive that appeared nice, solely to find that when he did one thing like smile, “it simply appeared disgusting” and “didn’t look proper.” It was solely after bringing in CG artists and having discussions with them about this subject that CBUIII created the face Clive has at the moment.
As for the visible design of FFXVI’s Eikons, I used to be interested in how CBUIII approached the model of monsters that almost all Ultimate Fantasy followers are already acquainted with. Minigawa says the physicality of those summons and the way they struggle knowledgeable their design.
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“Once I joined the mission, I keep in mind Takai-san mentioned its idea was ‘summon professional wrestling,’ that’s how he described what they have been making an attempt to do,” he says. “As a substitute of getting these Eikons shoot magic at one another and struggle, it’s extra like they’re going to get in and grapple. It’s going to be shut quarters; they’re going to be utilizing their our bodies versus ranged assaults. And so I actually suppose that kind of idea affected the design; you’re going to have a design that’s extra suited to those close-up encounters.”
The staff additionally returned to what many would possibly describe because the picture of Ultimate Fantasy XVI: the Ifrit Eikon clashing with the Phoenix Eikon, current within the recreation’s official brand created by famed Ultimate Fantasy illustrator and artist Yoshitaka Amano.
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I wrapped up my time with Minigawa interested in his ideas on the legacy of Ultimate Fantasy artwork. Is it one thing the staff thinks about when designing these characters and worlds? He says it varies from individual to individual.
“My job is to take artwork that has been created by my employees and determine a method to get that within the recreation as greatest as doable with out taking away from that artwork,” Minigawa says. “So, in that sense, it’s about making an attempt as exhausting as you’ll be able to. For me, it’s identical to principally making an attempt to do the perfect I can and hopefully, it should resonate with the gamers. However once more, that’s going to be totally different for every of the artists.”
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