toi8 is known for having done artwork for .hack//The Movie and for a Chain Chronicle movie, but his next big role is that of Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem’s character designer. Today, he shared a little more about himself on the game’s official blog. Here’s what he says:

Hello. I’m toi8, and I’ll be in charge of the main character designs for Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem. As for when we began talking about this title, it was around the time I finished working on a piece of light novel cover art. It was around the time that I was handling one-shot work, and asked myself “what should I do next?” As part of the generation that grew up on Nintendo consoles such as the Famicom and Super Famicom, the name “Nintendo” has a very special meaning to me. I remember being very excited upon hearing about the [Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem] collaboration. Years later, I’ve finally been able to see it take form right before my eyes, and I find myself filled with deep emotion. Now, let’s quickly talk a little bit about the character designs. The stage of the game is set in Shibuya, and the background shows a gorgeous world, so the character design’s direction will go with a highly saturated, gorgeous look. Everything I’ve drawn up until now has been low saturation, so this will be a challenge of colors!

toi8 then explains that illustrators often have opportunities to do “single-sheet” work (for example, a single piece of concept art or a cover), whereas designers take on more extensive responsibilities. Personally speaking, he prefers the former, but since he’s a character designer on all of Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem, he has accepted this role as a personal challenge.

I’ve received help from all kinds of people, and as a result we’ve achieved the characters and the backgrounds shown in trailer, which is something I haven’t been able to do up until now, and I’m proud of it. As far as characters go, we have discussions such as “what should we do in terms of bust size?” with suggestions like “they could be large and have glasses to go with them,” and “no, glasses are no good,” and so on.

Specific details on the characters of Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem are light, but for now, toi8 leaves us with the above image.