Dandelion Meeting: Designer and Developer Panel
- Details
- Published on April 20, 2018 @ 09:34 pm
- Written by Cecily
On today's Square Enix Mobile stream, the staff shared slide images from the Designer and Developer panels. These slides depict various design documents for characters, maps, cutscenes and animation, as well as the transcript of the Q&A segment.
Designer Panel
Tatsuya Kando (Art Director): After receiving a request for a Sephiroth medal, designers will test the model in a variety of poses and submit for feedback. If necessary, they will revise. Once it has been approved they will apply the image to the medal border and add effects to finish. The first slide shows one of the rejected poses for Sephiroth [EX+].
Mayumi Okamoto (NPC and Character Designer): Using the style of Kingdom Hearts Mobile as a base, they played around with the character's proportions, testing poses and movement, refining, and finally arriving at the player avatar we have now.
Miki Yamashita (Character & Avatar Designer): They created many designs based on the description received from Nomura: a dandelion, based after a flower, color is orange and she is very quiet and reserved.
Sometimes there is one design that they try to adhere to, sometimes they have various types that are proposed and narrowed down.
Sara Shimokobe (Heartless Designer): After a rare Heartless is requested, the designer will brainstorm what design such a Heartless would have. The word "rare" invites ideas like treasure or rainbows, so that is used as the base. Sometimes they will create new Heartless and repurpose old animations for them, such as the Shadow Witch using the Flower Rider's animations.
The Mean Maiden was inspired by Lady Tremaine and her two daughters, so they referenced scenes from Cinderella to match the design and behavior. Likewise with the Weapon Master and Gilgamesh from Final Fantasy.
Designs for upcoming Ramuh and Shiva Heartless were shown alongside the recently introduced Titan.
Thank You artwork from the Heartless designer, Sara Shimokobe.
Daigo Tsukada (KHUX and KH3 Designer): Because of the stylised cute aesthetics, they tried to give them more cute and comedic behaviour. For the main title, because of the unique illustrative style, you can distinguish who the designer behind that artwork is. For the backgrounds of Keyblade decks, he first designed them with the concept of stained glass, but Nomura later suggested carousels to coincide with the medals's movement.
Aki Igarashi (Background Designer): Using Maleficent's castle as an example, designers use the film to make sure where buildings are positioned, paying attention if important scenes will be located there as well as other narrative elements, and reference screenshots to recreate the area. She takes consideration of where the player will go, what perspective there will be, and how to condense the area to being playable.
Megumi Yamamoto (Cutscene Designer): They are sometimes unable to recreate the original film entirely due to the addition of the player character so sometimes it is a bit challenging. Animation and film references for Prince Phillip and Samson are shown off. They wanted to depict nervous tension and a sense of speed but because of camera work you can't really see it too much.
Fan Q&A
Q: What types of designs did you go through for Starlight? Are there other original designs in the works?
A: With Union X, because you are collecting lux, the motif of the star is very important so we based Starlight on that.
Q: Have you considered making medals with CGI effects?
A: The idea of adding animation to different medals was brought up, talked about with the development team. It is not really easy and it is a tough hurdle to overcome.
Q: Why can't girls wear more pants? Why can't boys wear dresses?
A: When we design avatar parts, we think about men and women and we do come across that restriction. It has been noted and designed for gender neutral avatar parts. We can't promise anything but will discuss it with the team.
Q: Was there any point in the game that differs from concepts and what stories are there, if so?
A: With Union X being a mobile game, when we transitioned from PC browser to mobile we changed cards to medals.
Q: Were there any challenges in development?
A: Art director has to wrangle the team and keep everyone in check. We use delicious snacks and goodies to share as motivation. Another thing is when designing medals, because of different characters, e.g. Kingdom Hearts 1, there was so much reference data to sift through which provided to be a challenge. For character medals, with Princes and Princess, if they are really good looking it is tough to make sure they stay in character and are represented correctly. Coming up with new material for new designs is challenging as there are new designs each month, especially with seasonal events like Christmas where you don't want to repeat designs.
Developer Panel
Tetsuya Nomura, Tatsuya Kando, and Hironori Okayama are on the panel.
The LCD games are collectively called Classic Kingdom. Concept art of the mini-games are being shown off. Musical Farmer, Barnyard Battle, Giantland, and Carnival Kid are all games you can play in Kingdom Hearts 3, which have been built in Unreal Engine 4. Sora will be adventuring through the game and they'll become available throughout the game.
The mini-games were revealed at this event because you can play Classic Kingdom in Union X! They are unable to give a date for when the games will be live in Union X, but they say it will be live before Kingdom Hearts 3 launches.
Player versus Player mode for Union X was shown off. It features 1 on 1 gameplay, asynchronous battles, three Keyblade setups, infinite HP and you will battle for total damage. This mode will take place in Olympus Coliseum. The gameplay features a 3 turn battle with 3 sets. First to win two out of three times wins.
When choosing your opponents, three will be randomly selected. One will be stronger, another weaker, and the last one will be equal. The goal is to fight your way up the ranks. The battle will immediately begin after choosing the opponents and you can choose to fight manually or use the Auto mode. It is akin to a data battle as it is not a live battle like in Union Cross and points are collected just like in a High Score Challenge. After each round, Keyblades swap out to the next setup and the battle begins again. Buffs and debuffs will carry over from round to round.
Fan Q&A
Q: How do players in KHUX carry around their medals?
Nomura: Probably in their pockets?
Kando: What? ...How are they equipping them onto their Keyblades?
Nomura: The Keyblade probably opens up and the wielders place the medals in them. It's a function made possible by dreams and magic!
Q: Are there any worlds that you want to add in KHUX?
Nomura: We do plan to add a new world that will not be in KHIII. The hint for the world is that a character from that world will appear in KHIII as a summon. However, we haven't revealed that character yet so I don't think you'll know which character or world I'm talking about. You might be able to figure it out if you carefully watch one of our future KHIII trailers.
Q: Why is "Guit" localized as "Special Attack Bonus" (in the English version)?
Nomura: Perhaps... "Special Attack Bonus" is abbreviated to "Guilt"?
Q: Are there any collaboration events that you would like to do in the future?
Okayama: For me, it would be the Toy Story Land collaboration that we just anounced earlier.
Nomura: Kando will follow with a funny answer.
Kando: What kind of pass is that!? ...Do you want to collaborate with me? (smug expression)
Kando: I knew this wasn't going to go over well! How about you, Nomura-san?
Nomura: Since Japanese games do a lot of collaborations with other titles, I don't think KHUX needs to foc us on that. This is just an example, but it might be interesting to collaborate with non-game content, like the LINE app or Twitter. Maybe a Twitter bird medal? Lol
Kando: 7 stars?
Okayama: He's probably drunk so don't take him seriously!
Nomura: I didn't drink anything and am not drunk! If anyone here wishes for a collaboration, please contact our official Twitter about it.
Q: Please tell us about the design and the reasoning behind the appearance of new Union leaders like Ephemera and Skuld.
Nomura: You want to know more about them instead of their design, right? There is a storyline in KHIII where you will sense their existence and influence here and there. I believe you will feel their presence more than the five Foretellers who are the previous Union leaders. The fates of these new Union leaders are already set, and there is a meaning behind everything, including their names.
Okayama: By the meanings of their names, you're also talking about how they're spelled as well, right?
Nomura: Yes. There is a meaning behind everything. This includes Strelitzia, who is not amongst the five. Another new character will also appear as well, so the story of KHUX will really become something that you can't miss out on.
COMMENTS
Huh, completely missed that medals will go 7 stars.
At last, the various screenshots from the event! I wanted to take a look at the supposed eidolons bosses. Thanks for all the info!
One of the Nomura QA panels seems to be missing, the one about ties to KH3.
I'm so glad we got to see stuff from the panels though. The art panel stuff in particular is really nice.
One of the Nomura QA panels seems to be missing, the one about ties to KH3.
I'm so glad we got to see stuff from the panels though. The art panel stuff in particular is really nice.
Oop, you're absolutely right. I'll go add it back in.
Edit: and move this thread to the proper section
so the new characther is either coaty or someone new any guesses?
also the the kh3 stuff got intreast
THAT JUICY CONCEPT ART MMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!
I was hoping Skuld/Strelitzia etc would have some appearance in KH3. With what Nomura said..it doesn't seem likely?Idk.
All i know is i really wanted to see those characters in unreal 4.
I was hoping Skuld/Strelitzia etc would have some appearance in KH3. With what Nomura said..it doesn't seem likely?Idk.
All i know is i really wanted to see those characters in unreal 4.
I interpreted it as more a tease that they might appear in some form rather than suggesting that they won’t. They’ll be related to a KH3 storyline. I’m guessing for him to outright say they’d physically appear would be a potential spoiler for UX.
Yeah I interpreted the opposite (and was glad for it), that they wouldnt appear (with the obvious exceptions of Ven and Mar i guess) but that you'd be able to see their effect and impact on the universe, and then you'd naturally get the story of that impact in KHUx.
But it is ambiguous could really go either way.
Yeah I love those Heartless bosses, and just seeing behind the scenes shots in general. The special artwork they made is nice too :)
I do dig the 7 star medal design, but am dreading that still lol. It sounds like it'll be grindy and annoying to get them.
I wonder how long it will be before 7-star only proud quests start happening
I wonder how long it will be before 7-star only proud quests start happening
Ugh, well hopefully after whatever point Japan is up to now? But I could see them adding something like that relatively soon after...
my big question with 7-star medals is actually if the medal gets new art/pose for the new rank? or if it is the same as the 6-star just with a new border
Yeah I interpreted the opposite (and was glad for it), that they wouldnt appear (with the obvious exceptions of Ven and Mar i guess) but that you'd be able to see their effect and impact on the universe, and then you'd naturally get the story of that impact in KHUx.
But it is ambiguous could really go either way.
Same, that's what I got out of it as well. Still, if their names get mentioned and we find out a little something about them, they could get an entry in Jiminy's journal and then we might get their models after all?
All super interesting stuff, it's high time for another KH art book but I'm asking for it for over ten years now I think.
I think the best part is how much time is spent for designing the maps so they fit closely to the Disney movies, just to throw it all out at the end and make repeating rooms again and again.
Seriously, the world design has gone downhill since Unchained/Union, the new worlds are basically just long corridors now, maybe that's where level designer of FFXIII works nowadays.
Can anybody here make out if the two cat Heartless from the Mrs. Insolent boss fight have names, I don't think so but the image is a bit to small to be actually sure.
"You want to know more about them instead of their design right?"
Yes, Nomura. Thank you for pointing that out, actually.
I can't wait to see the meaning behind Brain. And I'm not being sarcastic, I genuinely wanna know. I don't care much that that's his name, but I wanna see the explanation for something that ruffled the fans' feathers so.
All super interesting stuff, it's high time for another KH art book but I'm asking for it for over ten years now I think.
I think the best part is how much time is spent for designing the maps so they fit closely to the Disney movies, just to throw it all out at the end and make repeating rooms again and again.
Seriously, the world design has gone downhill since Unchained/Union, the new worlds are basically just long corridors now, maybe that's where level designer of FFXIII works nowadays.
Can anybody here make out if the two cat Heartless from the Mrs. Insolent boss fight have names, I don't think so but the image is a bit to small to be actually sure.
It's all so blurry but I don't think so.
"You want to know more about them instead of their design right?"
Yes, Nomura. Thank you for pointing that out, actually.
I can't wait to see the meaning behind Brain. And I'm not being sarcastic, I genuinely wanna know. I don't care much that that's his name, but I wanna see the explanation for something that ruffled the fans' feathers so.
I will crawl into a hole and die if the answer is "because he is brainy".
This is some really amazing developer insight. I appreciate the faithfulness that Square Enix are trying to capture with the Disney properties represented. For as much filler Disney material this game has, it definitely has the most faithful depictions of the Disney properties in terms of aesthetics and narrative structure.
Regarding Ephemer and Skuld's inclusion in Kingdom Hearts III, I was personally under the assumption that they'd be in the game seeing as they were part of X's Third Year Anniversary Art. I mean, we already have two of the five Dandelion Union Leaders confirmed for Kingdom Hearts III so I wouldn't be at all surprised if the remaining leaders make it in too.
And with this other new character that's going to be introduced, does anybody else think that it's going to be the somebody of another Organization XIII member like Luxord or Larxene? Marluxia is number XI so I do find it a bit peculiar that he's the only Organization XIII member so far that originated from The Age of Fairy Tales.
This is such a meme-worthy quote. I'll reference this as my go-to sentence if I can't clearly explain something in Kingdom Hearts.
And with this other new character that's going to be introduced, does anybody else think that it's going to be the somebody of another Organization XIII member like Luxord or Larxene? Marluxia is number XI so I do find it a bit peculiar that he's the only Organization XIII member so far that originated from The Age of Fairy Tales.
Now that we know his name is definitely Brain, I just want to mention that the old English of “brain†is braegen. Not too far off from Braig...
Now that we know his name is definitely Brain, I just want to mention that the old English of “brain†is braegen. Not too far off from Braig...
Plus he's acting a lot like Braig. I'm still gonna call him Blaine though lol.
I also recently looked up Lauriam's name and it's meaning. Found some interesting parallels to his personality showcased in UX.
Plus he's acting a lot like Braig. I'm still gonna call him Blaine though lol.
I also recently looked up Lauriam's name and it's meaning. Found some interesting parallels to his personality showcased in UX.
Yeah Blaine is just so much better. Lol. But yeah at this point, I think if he’s anyone established, he’s Braig. The connection that Xigbar found and recruited Marluxia is further possible connection. That’s the only thing prior to UX known about their relationship, so it’d be easy to make a story out of their younger selves in UX and continue it in KH3.
I kinda hope that 'Brain' is just a misspelling of 'Brian' and the translators forgot that brain means that big thing in your skull that makes us all function...Still calling him Blaine tho.
I'm not gonna make any predictions for now. Blaine could just be some random guy who's unrelated to other characters.
The real question I have is whether Marluxia remembers his past.
I kinda hope that 'Brain' is just a misspelling of 'Brian' and the translators forgot that brain means that big thing in your skull that makes us all function...Still calling him Blaine tho.
I'm not gonna make any predictions for now. Blaine could just be some random guy who's unrelated to other characters.
Except Nomura went on record to say that's his name, so at this point, you're disrespecting the official name of a character over a fan-translated variant. I get that Brain sounds awkward as a name, but that's his name.
Yeah no I still prefer Blaine and will never accept Brain or call him that. I don't even really care if it's his actual name, I'll stick to the fan-translation (which according to many people also makes more sense) thank you very much
Now that we know his name is definitely Brain, I just want to mention that the old English of “brain†is braegen. Not too far off from Braig...
Blaine I find very suspicious. He's acting like he owns anything he touches. All that's left is that he says "As If"
Brain is dumb and should never be accepted as an actual name. From how talked up season 2 was to the reality of how disappointing it actually is, alongside their clueless answer about Special Attack Bonus / Guilt, I do not trust anyone at the event calling him “Brainâ€. For all we know, Nomura said “Blaine†but they kept translating it as Brain because they have made some ridiculous choices that they can’t even explain away.
Kingdom Hearts Union X has and continues to be such a mess. What a disappointment this game is.
Brain is dumb and should never be accepted as an actual name.
Agreed, it becomes even more idiotic when looking at other localisation efforts.
I shudder at the prospect of having to deal with a character named "Gehirn" or "Hirn" in German.
Having latin names is one thing that can be somewhat greenlighted due to it not being an everyday language but
From how talked up season 2 was to the reality of how disappointing it actually is, alongside their clueless answer about Special Attack Bonus / Guilt, I do not trust anyone at the event calling him “Brainâ€. For all we know, Nomura said “Blaine†but they kept translating it as Brain because they have made some ridiculous choices that they can’t even explain away.
Kingdom Hearts Union X has and continues to be such a mess. What a disappointment this game is.
Heh, what we currently have cannot even be called a "season 2" because nothing actually happens beyond introductions and a first meeting.
R and L are interchangeable as far as I know in Japanese so the western part of SE/Disney could also just be constantly mistranslating it.
Either way though one can't help to second the assessment that so far Union X is quite the disappointment.
They're more concerned about trying to grab into the player's pockets and introduce banners with more overpowered medals and supposed "deals" every second week instead of actually moving the game itself forward.
Like, Brain from Pinky and Brain makes sense because he is actively shown as an intelligent mind who comes up with ingenious plans. Our Blaine has just read a book and hasn’t shown any reason why he should have been given this name. I can’t trust anything that SENA says about the game and the translations, especially with how tone deaf they appear to be with their community and mostly just sharing memes on Reddit instead of actually interacting with the larger community. They just had the UX event and it didn’t even occur to them to share a write up / photos on the Square Enix blog where it would be seen by more people until someone mentioned it to them (and I don’t believe it has happened).
The amount of banners they have thrown at us this month is insane as well. No one has any idea what is coming so you can’t really save because it’s unpredictable what is coming and if you spend your Jewels you might then feel awful when the next banner has a medal/s that you’ve wanted for a long time. I don’t play other SE games so I don’t know how legit this is, but I’ve heard that Record Keeper shows you the banners available for that month. From what I’ve heard about how well the players are treated on that game it wouldn’t surprise me if this were legit.
The panel was a nice idea but I’ve expressed my displeasure about how much time was wasted on pointless things. The answer about Guilt is insulting, and clothing should already have been gender neutral (but then they wouldn’t get double the amount of Jewels if you were to get both). Apparently they wasted a bunch of time talking about the Lord Pence meme and it’s just... it is a waste of time for Nomura and the others on the panel as well as a waste of time for people who could have spent that time listening to more information about how the game is made.
I mean, it's not like translation and localization errors (or even just questionable choices) aren't a thing.
As I said I have no problem with Brain, it's... I've heard far dumber names for that to touch me (also it could be that I have no attachment to this character whatsoever, he could be named Strawberrius Huguoe as far as I'm concerned), but I'd be lying if I didn't acknowledge mistakes were made in the past, from "Yufeie" in KH1's ending credits to the "Lethal Flame"/"Icy Flame" that I think are very similar to this whole Brain nonsense.
Basically, just because something could even be official doesn't mean it's unpunishable. Even pros are still human, something might be canon and still be a bad choice.
No one has any idea what is coming so you can’t really save because it’s unpredictable what is coming and if you spend your Jewels you might then feel awful when the next banner has a medal/s that you’ve wanted for a long time.
Yup. My current statement on the entirety of Ux is that I have no idea what's going on. Story is nonexistant, gameplay is a mess and the "this game is still free2play" grows thinner and thinner with each banner, since while I can indeed still plow through whatever excuse of story updates they've been giving these past few months have shown the challenges with 1000+ lvl bosses in 30 seconds are where the game's at, and good luck with any of them if you've been lagging behind.
The only thing I'm looking forward is the Larxene edition of this new Org XIII stuff that I assume will be in December, so I'll save just for that.
Such a shame. I'm still a huge fan of regular X as its own story and I also still kinda like Back Cover for what it's worth. But Union embodies everything nay sayers of the series have been saying all along.
They actually fixed the Icy Frame a long time after that issue without telling anyone lol. And they never fixed “Missioneâ€:
If there is an actually legit reason for Brain to be his name, they either need to add quests that show us why he is named that or tell us. Either should be done ASAP because if they want me to accept ‘Brain’ then they need to provide reasons why.
And don’t get me started on timed quests lmao. Wasting 4 seconds with “engaging target enemy†and 3 seconds for “enemy defeated†to appear really sours me.
Brain is dumb and should never be accepted as an actual name. From how talked up season 2 was to the reality of how disappointing it actually is, alongside their clueless answer about Special Attack Bonus / Guilt, I do not trust anyone at the event calling him “Brainâ€. For all we know, Nomura said “Blaine†but they kept translating it as Brain because they have made some ridiculous choices that they can’t even explain away.
But isn't the thing that Brain and Blaine probably sound very similar, if not exactly the same if pronounced by a Japanese native speaker, especially if they currently speak Japanese instead of English? Whichever it is, Blaine or Brain, they very likely took that specific name and put it into Katakana (?), the same way they must have done for Ephemer(a), Skuld and Strelitzia, since they're all names/concepts in a foreign language. Taken that into consideration, I do believe that "Brain" must be legit, unless there was a HUGE misunderstanding going on on that panel lol.
However, I definitely agree that we NEED to see Brain deserve his name in the game play. I will admit that the way he struts around the MoM's study and easily uses his instruments pretty much warrants the name already if they keep this characterization of his up. It was only one cutscene, but he comes off as the "brain" of the lot, the one who takes action, if you want to call it that, even questions things (such as their rules). But yeah, it would be really nice to see the Union Leaders do something. It's been six months since they last appeared in JP, what the heck? I know the story won't be resolved by the time KH3 releases, but either they will keep this horrible pacing and just not care (I actually wonder how the pacing will be in the first months after KH3's release lol, as if the people who got the game would spend time on KHUX then...), or three months before release, they will suddenly shoot out the story updates like crazy to prepare us for whatever prior knowledge we need. Can't wait for SENA catching up 7 months after KH3's release :rolleyes: Thank GOD we at least get all the banners... not.
They completely avoided mentioning Blaine/Brain's name altogether during the panel. Just a heavily guided discussion towards the "spelling is important" line, which felt very disingenuous. The only time it was directly acknowledged was by Glacie during last week's SE Mobile stream.
For the record, I don't doubt that they intended for the name to be Brain even though we all agree it's an awful name. And the translators are well-informed of localization changes so if Nomura were to answer with "ブレイン" during the panel, they would automatically substitute with "Brain". But I just don't buy it with the obvious scripted answer they gave, the bullshit explanation of Guilt/Special Attack Bonus, and all the typos they keep making with new updates. Doesn't exactly set a good track record.
Sign
April 20, 2018 @ 10:34 pmOffline