The SMT X FE Developer Interview series continues with some words from main character designer toi8. Once again, Mystic of TRADUKOSOFT graciously translated the interview, which you can read here. I’ll summarize the interview below.
Due to the especially unique nature of this crossover and not having another reference point to help him find a way to articulate an aesthetic message to the game, toi8 admits being under quite some pressure to figure out how to do design characters when he first started. While the game is a crossover and a work of fiction, he still wanted something that could make the crossover make sense and feel consistent.
Fire Emblem as a franchise began on the NES, while Shin Megami Tensei got its start on the SNES. Describing himself as someone who grew up in the SNES generation, toi8 finds personal meaning in this crossover, especially since he finds idea of the collaboration between Atlus and Nintendo exciting. It took years before his designs materialized into any sort of in-game render, or the promotional video gamers recently watched on a Nintendo Direct. However, seeing his work evolve from a point of uncertainty and pressure years ago to living characters was exciting for him, regardless of the fact that his works were simply being reproduced in a digital and animated form. And while others certainly helped in the final rendering of various SMT X FE characters, he still felt proud of what was accomplished for the game.
toi8 mentions that Shibuya is a central location for SMT X FE. There is a specific unifying concept of beauty that was important to toi8 in designing Shibuya and the characters; the world had to look “gorgeous” and still fit with the characters’ outfits. He also mentions that maintaining a certain level of color saturation between both Shibuya’s environments and the character designs. Perhaps this is observable when taking a look at the piece below:
toi8 also remarks that in character design, various factors were considered. Consider this article’s featured image, which toi8 left as a closing gift in the interview. There were discussions on this character’s bust size and whether or not they wanted her to wear glasses. He can’t go into much detail until individual characters are expanded upon in future promotional SMT X FE media, but when that media does comment he hopes to offer some comments on these characters’ designs.
Credit to TRADUKOSOFT and the translator Mystic for the content of this article.