One of the most visible changes in Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout compared to previous titles of the series is the design of Ryza herself.
While older Atelier protagonists have always been quite petite, Ryza is curvaceous, exhibiting a much fuller figure devised by the new character designer Toridamono.
During an interview at Tokyo Game Show in Chiba, Japan, Twinfinite talked to producer Junzo Hosoi, who explained the reaons behind the new character design.
“With the Arland series on PS3, Mel Kishida was the character designer. Freom then on, the character design has always been quite girly, and it continued in that vein including the mysteruious series as well.
At that point, we — and maybe the users as well — felt that it was maybe becoming a little bit formulaic, doing the same thing over and over again.
That’s why we wanted to try something differen. Especially since this is the new Atelier series, we thought this would be the best time to try a new design.”
Later in the interview, we asked Hosoi-san how the new design has been received among Japanese fans.
He explained that in Japan there has been some focus on Ryza’s thighs, and that went as far as trending on Twitter.
He also added that at the Koei Tecmo booth at Tokyo Game Show there is a life-sized statue of the heroine (which you can see below), and a lot of fans have been taking pictures focusing on that specific feature.
If you want to see more of the game, you can also check out the latest trailer, another trailer and screenshot combo from a few weeks ago, some gameplay showcasing the Nintendo Switch version, the latest screenshots, a trailer focusing on the story, the previous batch of screenshots, two more trailers, the previous trailer that revealed a new character and the theme song, plenty more recent gameplay footage, another video featuring the soundtrack, the first video, another brief clip released recently, and two more.
Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout releases in Japan for PS4 and Switch on September 26. Afterward, it’ll launch in North America on October 29 and in Europe on November 1 for PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.
