Designing the characters for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was a difficult process according to those who worked on it. The latest entry in the JRPG series was one of this year’s most anticipated games, and the excitement for it now feels totally justified as Xenoblade Chronicles 3 reviews have been mostly positive, with critics praising the game’s story, characters, and gameplay mechanics. Some have even considered it to be the best entry in the series.
However, not everyone enjoyed everything about Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Some reviewers called out the limitations of the Nintendo Switch, which have allegedly prevented the game from looking much better than it could have. Others have also found the story, combat, and other gameplay mechanics too complicated or hard to follow, adding that the game’s tutorials were present far into the game’s progression. Unfortunately, Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s troubles were also present outside the game as fans faced some difficulty in acquiring its selection of special editions, with scalpers hoarding Xenoblade Chronicles 3‘s special editions.
As reported by Nintendo Life, in Nintendo’s latest “Ask the Developer” post, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Senior Director Tetsuya Takahashi, Producer/Director Koh Kojima, and Director and Planner Genki Yokota were asked about how smoothly the process of deciding the visual design of the game’s main characters was. Somewhat unsurprisingly, Kojima responded by saying that it was a “hellish process of trial and error,” expounding that they struggled the most with Noah’s design. According to Kojima, Takahashi worked with Masatsugu Saito, a freelance character designer and illustrator who also designed the main characters for Xenoblade Chronicles 2, to come up with the concepts for the character designs. For Noah in particular, Saito came up with numerous illustrations for the character based on Takahashi’s ideas but none of them ended up clicking, so they had to repeat the process multiple times before they came upon his final character design.
Noah’s Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Design Worked Out In The End
Noah is one of Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s two main playable characters, with Mio being the other one. The two protagonists are off-seers from Keves and Agnus, respectively. The game’s four other main characters include Noah’s friends Lanz and Eunie as well as Mio’s fellow servicemen Taion and Sena. While the developers at Monolith Soft apparently had a difficult time coming up with Noah’s design, the process for the other characters was relatively easier because their traits were already previously defined in their character profiles.
All the effort that Takahashi, Kojima, Yokota, and Saito put into designing the game’s characters looks to have definitely paid off, given how well the reception for the game has been. Fans can look forward to more as Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s expansion includes new characters for players to meet.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 will be released for the Nintendo Switch on July 29, 2022.
Source: Nintendo’s (via Nintendo Life)