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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 at all times enjoyable to see how Sq. Enix studios leverage extra highly effective {hardware} to deliver worlds to life. These settings, characters, and monsters are memorable, and a big cause for that's the artwork. It’s hanging and distinctive – you recognize it’s Ultimate Fantasy while 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 accomplished previously 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 fashion.
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Ultimate Fantasy XVI Artwork Director Hiroshi Minagawa
“Like different members on the Ultimate Fantasy XVI group, 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 improvement course of. Very early in that course of, I used to be capable of converse so much 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 artistic course of there.”
He says he approached artwork course fairly in another way from his work on FFXIV as a result of, with FFXIV being an MMO, the group focuses graphical high quality on displaying plenty of various things on display. With FFXVI being an offline single-player expertise, “the graphics need to be at a better degree, they usually need to be deeper and richer in that sense.”
Minagawa labored with the CBUIII group to emphasise the distinction in concentrate on visuals between the 2 video games. From there, it was about bringing FFXVI’s artwork to life based mostly 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 Sport of Thrones,’ that sort of pure normal excessive fantasy that you just’d see in that kind of program and visible medium.”
Past Sport of Thrones, Minagawa says the group seemed on the character designs from FFXVI artist and illustrator Kazuya Takahashi. Not solely had he drawn the characters, however a few 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 Sport of Thrones‘ and attempting to determine a technique to mix that and make it work, after which determine a technique to implement that within the sport was my greatest job 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 means that one minute they is perhaps stunning, however one other minute, on hearth and destroyed.
“While you look again on the Ultimate Fantasy collection, you see that the artwork fashion is completely different for every sport,” Minagawa provides. “And whereas the collection is sort of transferring 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 places however nonetheless very a lot Ultimate Fantasy. When it comes to 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 group’s employees in addition to “the IMS group,” which is the group that works on a variety of the animated CGI films 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 group arrived at some seems for Clive that seemed nice, solely to find that when he did one thing like smile, “it simply seemed disgusting” and “didn’t look proper.” It was solely after bringing in CG artists and having discussions with them about this concern that CBUIII created the face Clive has at the moment.
As for the visible design of FFXVI’s Eikons, I used to be interested by how CBUIII approached the fashion 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 venture, I bear in mind Takai-san mentioned its idea was ‘summon professional wrestling,’ that’s how he described what they had been attempting 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 assume that kind of idea affected the design; you’re going to have a design that’s extra suited to those close-up encounters.”
The group additionally returned to what many may describe because the picture of Ultimate Fantasy XVI: the Ifrit Eikon clashing with the Phoenix Eikon, current within the sport’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 by his ideas on the legacy of Ultimate Fantasy artwork. Is it one thing the group 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 technique to get that within the sport as finest as attainable with out taking away from that artwork,” Minigawa says. “So, in that sense, it’s about attempting as exhausting as you’ll be able to. For me, it’s similar to principally attempting to do the perfect I can and hopefully, it should resonate with the gamers. However once more, that’s going to be completely different for every of the artists.”
For extra, you’ll want to take a look at Sport Informer’s unique FFXVI protection hub by clicking the banner beneath.
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