SE: Star Ocean as a series has had a fair number of guest artists contribute artwork and designs, including yourself and others like Akiman (Street Fighter) and Kou Yoshinari (Valkyrie Profile). There have been many instances where they are overshadowed by the personality exuded by supporting characters, so I try to be mindful about avoiding such an outcome. On the contrary, I find it challenging to create the hero or heroine, attempting to depict the handsomest or cutest characters. There may be instances where I get over-enthusiastic and run wild with my imagination, giving them too much character. Regardless of the project, I always love supporting characters. SE: Of the three new illustrations released thus far (Roddick, Millie, Dorne), which character was your favorite to draw and why? ![]() I have not met the artist who worked on the original game, but I am one of many who played the game with those designs, so I’m truly grateful for the opportunity to illustrate them myself. For this title, I believe the opportunity was presented to me as the illustrator that worked on “Star Ocean: The Last Hope,” so illustrating in a way that generates the feeling that it is all part of the same series is something I tried to keep in mind during the process. KE: I believe key art and character illustrations were everything for many games from the past, where they focused on character images to help supplement and expand on the player’s imagination. SE: How did you approach updating the original artwork for Star Ocean First Departure R? Did you collaborate with the original artist? “Star Ocean First Departure R” was similar in that I was drawing available designs, but there was an added element of giving them a sense of atmosphere that would make them relevant for this day and age. It didn’t allow any room to cut corners with the help of dense details, so I considered the best way to dress the characters with their outfits in order to generate a good atmosphere.Īs for differences in the production process, the work on “Star Ocean: The Last Hope” was relatively simple as illustrations were generated from available designs. In order to honor the original designs that fans adore, rather than drastically changing or modernizing them, I was conscious of maintaining parts of the original designs, while updating some aspects so they could be appealing to modern players.Ĭompared to “Star Ocean: The Last Hope,” the characters’ outfits are simpler. “Star Ocean First Departure R” is a port of the original game, so the original designs served as a basis. That said, after finishing the illustrations, I felt that the detailed designs gave the mechanical objects a weightiness that gave the finished product a level of quality/texture that goes beyond my own design capabilities. KE: There was a moment of regret on my part after taking on “Star Ocean: The Last Hope” as it involved depicting a lot of Sci-Fi armor, and drawing mechanical objects was not my forte. SE: How did working on Star Ocean: The Last Hope differ from working on Star Ocean First Departure R? How has your method/process of illustration changed over the years? Particularly on “Star Ocean: The Last Hope,” the armor with a mechanical feel was something I had never had a chance to draw until then, so there was a bit of personal satisfaction for being able to accomplish drawing something of that nature. I consider this - attempting to distinguish them from one another as I draw them - to be both a challenge and a pleasure. The range of physical appearances and outfits makes it appear as though each one is based on a completely different lore, even within the same title. KE: The game is set in an expansive world based in outer space where a variety of races and cultures exist. ![]() SE: What do you like most about creating artwork for the Star Ocean series? ![]() As for the Star Ocean series, it all began when I was given the opportunity to work on the character illustrations for “Star Ocean: The Last Hope.” At that time, the work I had done for “Baccano!” served as an impetus for receiving more jobs in the direction of character design. At that point, I started to receive several requests to illustrate for “light novels” so I found the courage to leave my job to begin my career as an illustrator. Despite being responsible for backgrounds, I wanted to draw characters and started posting my illustrations to a personal website I had created. KE: Originally, I worked at a game company designing graphics, mainly drawing backgrounds/environments. SE: How did you get your start as an illustrator and how did you begin working on the Star Ocean series? The Square Enix team sat down with Enami-san to talk about his work on the Star Ocean series, his approach to redesigning some of the series’ most beloved characters, and his background as an illustrator.
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