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FFXV character designer Roberto Ferrari comments on his creations on Facebook

I need receipts on megane Gentiana pls.

But we must say that they are very disorganized. We staff -200 souls in it- we had to work even when the story had not been defined. In 2013, in fact, this blessed story kept changing every three months and the deadline for delivery of the game -That definitively had been set for the end of 2014 (who would have imagined that they would then pulled for long until you get November 2016?).
In the world of animation, however, (the world where I come from) the story is catalyzed guide before calling in if its staff to avoid this type of waste.

lets see what this means for the SE should've let Tetsuya Nomura finish FINAL FANTASY XV thread.
How the fuck were they supposed to release FFXV in 2014 when it was just rebooted, though??

Maybe Verendus meant the unveiling would be released in 2014? idk
 

Zakalwe

Banned
The ugly head of the long development is showing up. the game could have been a great mainline entry had it been properly taken care of.

It is a great mainline entry, which is absolutely incredible considering all we know so far about its development.

If Tabata had had more time this could have been a GOAT contender.
 

DemWalls

Member
Now, this is interesting :lol:

I wasn't part of the first group who (barely) worked on FF Versus XIII (which would then become FF XV), I entered the team in May 2010.
I know I was called after a [female] designer resigned because she didn't manage to get any positive feedback from the art director.

Maybe she was proposing some actually sensible designs? :p
 

Kuraudo

Banned
It is a great mainline entry, which is absolutely incredible considering all we know so far about its development.

If Tabata had had more time this could have been a GOAT contender.

It's absolutely incredible considering how much of a mess the final game is. That it's fantastic despite being fundamentally flawed on many levels is a real triumph.

If the game had a narrative that had actually been designed with the type of game that Tabata was making in mind, rather than a concept that had been conceived ten years previously, it could have ended up being a masterpiece.
 

Setsu00

Member
Now, this is interesting :lol:



Maybe she was proposing some actually sensible designs? :p

Maybe he's referring to Nao Ikeda, the sub-character designer for FFXIII? I know that she left SE and didn't work on any of the XIII sequels, but she did work with Level-5.
 
So wait, a baka gaijin did the character designs for this game? It's no wonder I find character art for this game to be so repellant as to put me off the game entirely.
 

DemWalls

Member
So wait, a baka gaijin did the character designs for this game? It's no wonder I find character art for this game to be so repellant as to put me off the game entirely.

As he says at the link in the opening post:

I created:

-Ardyn Izunia アーデン・イズニア
-Cidney Aurum シドニー・オールム
-Cid Sophiar シド・ソフィア
-Iris Amicitia イリス・アミシティア
-Aranea Highwind アラネア・ハイウィンド
-Gentiana ゲンディアナ
-Umbra アンブラ
-Verstael ヴァーサイタル

So, if you also disliked the four buddies it's not really his fault.
 

Famassu

Member
The story kept changing even when Nomura was incharge. Lmao.
Well duh. This kind of stuff happens with a lot of stories, whether that be games, movies or books. FFVII was originally a SNES game, then it became a PS1 game that was supposed to have a (futuristic?) New York setting and a detective story, which turned into mommy issue Sephiroth and world-destroying Meteor. Nomura & Nojima had a long time to plan the story because the production couldn't advance all that much due to FFXIII & XIV 1.0, so of course they'd have a lot of time to fiddle with details large & small and change things in the story, especially since they eventually were planning a whole Versus Saga instead of a single game.
 

Zakalwe

Banned
It's absolutely incredible considering how much of a mess the final game is. That it's fantastic despite being fundamentally flawed on many levels is a real triumph.

If the game had a narrative that had actually been designed with the type of game that Tabata was making in mind, rather than a concept that had been conceived ten years previously, it could have ended up being a masterpiece.

Indeed. There are so many flaws that would usually ruin an experience for me, that it manages to keep me constantly engaged despite them is really something.

He seemed very passionate when writing about adding content to the game, we might see it get a little closer (although at this point letting expectation run away from you regarding XV would.be insane).

If not, maybe a future entry will get the chance.
 
Who's verstael?

This guy:

latest

I had too look it up myself lol, I don't even remember his name being said in game.
 

SilentRob

Member
I like Ardyn's background story well enough but I hate his character design. It's completely overdesigned and I never really understood how it fit with his
vengeful demon immortal
persona. The less said about Cindy the better. Character Designs are among my least favorite parts of the game.
 

HeelPower

Member
You can tell they didnt know what to do with Gentiana.She serves way too many disparate ideas at once.It was inorganic & unconvincing.
 

Zakalwe

Banned
Wait, Nomura didn't design FF15's cast? Could've fooled me

Read the thread.

He designed the main characters and this guy designed some more.

On a game as large as XV the work needs to be shared, but they'll work within the style of the original designer for consistency.
 
It's funny this game was in development hell due to story, because it didn't seem all that important. There are things I appreciated that went along with the story, so maybe it can't all be shit (road trip, countryside, the teams banter).

This game is good for being easy monster hunter and checking off quests.
 

Kaizer

Banned
I would be really mad if they havent had XVI in development for a while. They cant keep making people wait 5-7 years between mainline games. That's not healthy for the brand even if the games are good, nobody wants to wait that long.

While I agree, technically the FFVII Remake is the next big mainline entry for this series - and it's being released in episodic chunks. I expect at the least we'll get three episodes of FFVIIr before they're done with it. And whenever the first episode is released, I'd expect a year to year & half gap for the next episode, so that & Kingdom Hearts 3 are going to be their big focus going forward.

And when you think about it, the FFVII Remake, Kingdom Hearts 3 & Versus XIII/FFXV have been the 3 proverbial "monkeys" on Square's back for over a decade now. People have long clamoured & desired all three & we're finally starting to get them, in some form at least. Once KH3 & FFVIIR are completely out the door the future is really unwritten. As supremely estasic & excited I am for both KH3 & FFVIIR, I'm more looking forward to seeing where Square will go/what they will be in the 2020s. The possibilities for FFXVI are endless;
 

13ruce

Banned
Wait a sec a western guy made those characters so it's not even a japanese dev/artist who perved up Cindy, mind is blown.
 

Riposte

Member
Wait a sec a western guy made those characters so it's not even a japanese dev/artist who perved up Cindy, mind is blown.

Yeah, but Italian though, so outside the moral purity of Anglosphere, you can't expect him to use his brain when creating character designs like we do.

Moral degeneracy aside, I've been interested in his work since The Last Remnant, one of my favorite JRPGs of all time.
 
Ha, I would put Roberto Ferrari up there in terms of designers who's natural tendencies are perfectly comfortable with more lewd designs more so than any other character designer that contributes art to Final Fantasy is right now.
 

Philippo

Member
Heh, i started working on a translation as soon as Koozek PM'd me, but it looks like many others chimed in meanwhile lol
Still, went through all the FB posts, take a look

On Aranea:

She hasn't changed at all, i only had to change the spear because it lacked scenic impact [...] I drew a quick draft of Biggs and Wedge, but my prototypes weren't taken into consideration and ended up being two "mannequins" in a suit. She initally was supposed to always be accompanied by those two. Her origial was that of a member of a squadron that had specific attack patterns based on jumps.

On Gentiana:

Compared to my original concept, they changed Gentiana's clothes for script reasons. Still, the new dress kept much from the two versions i drew (a formal outfit and a party dress). The face remained unchanged. She also originally had red-framed glasses. [...] She originally had a white armour on the arm and a heavy sword at her side. Gentiana's original role was that of Stella's messenger, and a contact point between the countries of Tenebrae and Niflheim.

On Ardyn:

I gave birth to Ardyn in December 2010, before Kingsglaive was even in the works. The game's version is closer to my concept.

Umbra:

There were characters that i liked more but got removed from the story: they were closer to ninjas and very similar to those who appear in Kingsglaive but more japanese. [...] This stays between us, but Umbra the dog was supposed to turn into one of those.

On developement:

I wasn't part of the 2010 group from XIII that "would have scatched their bellies" (and then turned into the XV one), i came into May 2010. I know i was called in when a (female) designer resigned since she wasn't able to get any kind of approval from the art director. Then, from 2010 till the end of 2011 i worked on the designs i got assigned with, without any big issues. That's why, when the team got resized from 200 workers to around 20 in 2012 (right before the arrival of Tabata and the Type-0 team), i was still there and worked with the newcomers till 2013. Then i left because i followed mister Nomura.
I had no story planned for Gentiana, but i can confirm you that the writers changed the script i received in 2011.
[...] I stand behind what Sakaguchi said about big budget games developement: it's not worth it anymore. But they are also very disorganized. The staff -200 souls- had to work when the story still wasn't completely definied. In fact, this story kept changing every 3 months and the definitive delivery date for the game was for the end of 2014 (who would have thought it would have been pushed back to November 2016?).

On FFVIIR:

I'm already working on other episodes but what i did for XV was a lot.
[...] Sadly there aren't many new characters in VII Remake, i just reinterpreted the ones that already existed. I don't have the freedom of choice i had with XV.
 
I'm assuming all the people here hating on Cindy a slightly more relevant NPC were also outraged by a main character like Gladious looking like some dude from Magic Mike right?
 

Nydius

Member
I don't understand the "hate" on Cindy's design.

It's dumb as hell, it doesn't fit her character, it's titillation for the sake of titillation.

And it makes me think that whoever designed her was so bereft of ideas that they sketched her up while watching a Dukes of Hazzard marathon. Which would have been fine... if it were still 1982.
 

Nydius

Member

Puhleeze. That screenshot is nothing compared to the blatant way they shove Cindy in your face any time you fuel up at Hammerhead. The only thing missing when she washes your windshield are soap bubbles blowing around the background.
 

~Cross~

Member
Roberto what are you doing "I agree with sakaguchi that its not worth it to make large budget games" *Heads out with Nomura to do KH3 and FFVII*
 

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
"In the world of animation, however, (the world where I come from) the story is catalyzed guide before calling in if its staff to avoid this type of waste."


You know you've fucked up when the fucking anime industry is telling you how to manage your product.
 

jett

D-Member
So he's working on the FF7 Remake? Someone should ask him if Nomura specifically tells him to add belts and zippers.
 
On developement:

I wasn't part of the 2010 group from XIII that "would have scatched their bellies" (and then turned into the XV one), i came into May 2010. I know i was called in when a (female) designer resigned since she wasn't able to get any kind of approval from the art director.

FFXII and FFXIII character designer Nao Ikeda left Square Enix after the release of FFXIII, which was in December 2009. Roberto Ferrari was called into FF Versus XIII in May 2010. I think he may be referring to Nao Ikeda here.

ntJTZPi.png
 
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