The obvious joke response to this headline would be something like…’yes, it’s the guys’ looks that come first.’
Final Fantasy XIII director Motomu Toriyama says Square Enix’s female character design starts first with their personalities, and then they work on looks.
“With Yuna from Final Fantasy X, we started with the back story of a summoner that fights against Sin,” Toriyama told Famitsu. “But for Lightning in FFXIII, our initial concept was just for a ‘strong woman’ — it was personality-based instead of plot-driven.”
From there they consider the character’s role and also make sure that there’s no overlap with other series game characters. After all of this is covered they’ll finally hand it off to Tetsuya Nomura for design work.
“Once the character’s concept starts to take form, we write out her basic personality traits and so forth on a sheet of paper and give it to Nomura,” the director explained. “With Lightning, one look at the design made me say ‘This is it!’ She looked so cool and strong that there was no need for any retakes. It was the same way with Yuna.”
After all of this, movements (mo-cap) and voice are added, with great care taken.
Toriyama: Final Fantasy leading ladies’ looks come second [VG247]
