However, there are some things I don’t like in JRPGs or anime, and I took these things as hints when I wrote the story for Soul Dier.
In Soul Dier, I try my best to make the characters sensical. It doesn’t mean they are all smart. Some characters are dumb, but they won’t be that illogical to make you scream in your head, such as being irresponsibly sympathetic towards villains.
I also try to make the plots more logical and “down to earth”. For example, when the main characters encounter a difficulty, they need to figure out a solution instead of randomly introducing some sort of ad hoc superpower or spiritual power without any prior hint or integration afterward, despite the fact that the story has a fantasy setting. I believe it makes the story much more satisfying to read.
Finally, when we discussed the story, we did need to think a lot about world-building and background settings (which was quite fun to do), but we presented the story in a very easy way such that players don’t need to comprehend too much information at the beginning.
So overall, just like the gameplay, I took what I loved from my inspirations and threw away what I didn’t like about them.
Visual Design
I am quite happy about how the visuals of Soul Dier turned out, but it is not completely intentional. Initially, I wanted to have a simplistic cartoon style like “Planetary Annihilation: TITANS”, but I didn’t know how. Then I started abusing the PBR materials by throwing many high-quality textures. As the development went on, my knowledge of 3D graphics became better and better. After many experiments and iterations, the visual style ended up with the one you see now. It’s a semi-realistic, stylish look, influenced by the constraints of my lack of knowledge and the limitations in the tools I used. I personally find it unique and charming as a result.
