Being fascinated with this game’s visual style, we reached out to the creators and got some insight into their artistic vision for the game. Check it out below!
I wanted to ask about your inspirations and style decisions. Obviously I can see lots of Suikoden influences but I am curious if there are any others you’re taking strongly from?
Junko Kawano: I think you have to be reticent of the current times. So when working on these characters I kept thinking, If I was going to design characters like in Suikoden, here in 2020, what would they look like? There really aren’t any other inspirations beyond that. That being said, if we are talking things other than games, pretty much everything I see in daily life in one way or another becomes an inspiration for my characters.
Junichi Murakami (Art Director): There were two basic inspirations in the beginning. First Genso Suikoden did inform some visual directions and choices early on but the second one is clearly Octopath Traveler. When looking at what made Suikoden so visually impactful, it was the fact that even though the characters were pixel based, their bodies were taller and slightly elongated compared to normal pixel RPGs those days. I remember thinking it was a striking visual design I hadn’t seen in RPGs before because the longer and bigger you make the shape, the more pixels you use and laying them out one by one is extremely time consuming (laughs). However, by choosing that style you have a lot more options when it comes to action animations/etc. That’s one of the reasons Genso Suikoden was amazing back in the day and one of the areas that influenced our art design on this game.
With Octopath Traveler, it showed us the future of pixel art. I think it was a very bold move and when I saw it for the first time I new I wanted to try something in that hybrid style. Octopath Traveler showcases pixel art in a 3D diorama but with this game I wanted to show the pixel art in a more natural form (not as compressed) and bring more reality and atmosphere to it.
How much are y’all looking outside the gaming industry for inspiration? I’m always excited to hear about creative development, especially in the ideation phase.
Murakami-san: For something outside of the game space it would be anime. Or more importantly, the limited budgets in Japanese anime where you really have to squeeze the most emotion out of limited shots which require some really creative art design. You can really learn a lot from it.
We are still experimenting with the visual design so until we get to the final step in our process, it’s probably best to hold off on answering that question (laughs). However, one thing I can say is that with this game the resolution is extremely high compared to older games so unless the pixel scale is adjusted you would be left with standard 2D which wouldn’t have the pop the current style does. Balancing the 3D resolution with the 2D pixels in scale is very challenging.
Thanks so much for your time!
Check out their website for more details about Eiyuden Chronicle here.
Check out some of the game’s amazing art here.
And check out our game art library here.