At the end of August, the Genei Ibun Roku #FE official site added two new staff blog posts. Since the posts were in Japanese though, there wasn’t much to do besides smile and look at the pretty pictures.
“It isn’t just about females, hello from the male side! Toma is a really cool guy!” -Yano
Thankfully, the translation wizards at Nintendo Everything must have seen our plight and now you can now read both blog posts translated into English on their site.
The latest post is by Art Director Fumitaka Yano and discusses how the #FE team hired Hideo Minaba to design the Mirages (the mysterious beings from Fire Emblem who assist the main characters).
In particular, Yano describes an impressionable first meeting with Minaba.
“Minaba-san […]suddenly took out a brush and created a character in a moment! It was that cool-looking Chrom. With speed that was like magic, he overwhelmed everyone who happened to be there.”
Meanwhile, the previous post is from Mirage Designer Hideo Minaba himself, as he provides some insight into the process (and struggles) of creating a “unique identity” for the Mirages.
“While Mirage Chrom is named Chrom and the design represents [Lords from across Fire Emblem], it has sharpness and darkness that is a characteristic of Atlus games.
And you can’t have him taking the spotlight from the main characters, but then again you can’t lower his presence too much, either.”
“For Caeda,] whether a red or blue outfit would be better was already a cause of trouble. ([Story-wise] she wears red, but usually [Fire Emblem] shows allies with blue costumes and enemies with red costumes in-game)”
From the sound of things, a lot of thought has gone into the Mirage designs and they aren’t merely “different” just for the sake of it. Well, that’s reassuring to know!
