Xenoblade Chronicles 3 dev says designing the main characters was "hellish"

Xenoblade Chronicles 3's developers struggled with creating its main protagonist.

Speaking to Nintendo in a newly published interview, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 co-game director Koh Kojima reveals the process behind developing the game's protagonist, Noah. "No, it was a hellish process of trial and error..." says Kojima with a laugh when asked if the development process for the visuals of the main characters was smooth.

"We especially struggled to decide on the design concept for Noah," Kojima says, adding that series creator Tetsuya Takahashi didn't like what freelance artist Masatsuga Saito drew for the main characters. From then, Kojima adds, it was a process of "trial and error" until the development team eventually landed on a finalised look for Noah and his companions.

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"Saito-san came up with all kinds of illustrations, but somehow none of them quite looked like Noah…" Takahashi says. It turns out Takahashi wanted Noah to be seen as a philosopher or poet, but without being overly "pompous" and definitely without any sense of being "weak-willed." Monolith Soft originally came up with some designs that were too fierce, Takahashi reveals.

Just yesterday, in another interview with Nintendo, Kojima revealed that when he was initially pitched the core concept of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 by Takahashi, he thought it "didn't sound like Xenoblade at all." The themes of "unreasonable power" are a far cry from the Xenoblade games of the past, but Takahashi's vision eventually won over Kojima.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 launches later this week on Friday, July 29. Retail copies have shipped early to customers, however, so be warned that spoilers for the sequel have made their way online, and are doing the rounds on forums and comments sections. 

Head over to our upcoming Switch games guide for a complete look over everything else on the horizon for Nintendo’s console.