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Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward director discusses character design
A portion of a Siliconera interview with director, Kotaro Uchikoshi...
S: Let’s talk about the other characters. Since this is a successor to Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, the characters that appear in this game needed to feel different from those of the previous game. When you were coming up with characters, how did you go about deciding what they’re like? How do you figure out the mix of personality traits and what goes well with what?
KU: I’m a writer who prioritizes storyline over character, so I start with getting the basic story down. From there, I figure out which characters are necessary to the story, and that’s how I decide my characters.
I’ve heard that some other writers prioritize character, and will come up with the characters first and the write a story around them. And as an FYI, it’s more common to write stories prioritizing characters. There’s a much bigger demand for that. That means it sells. I think this is the reason my titles don’t sell, ha ha ha!
Anyway, let’s get back to your question. After I decide on the story and figure out the main character, I look at the balance. Let’s say there were more men or more women overall. Or if I make character “A” a cold person, then I should make “B” more nice. If there’s a grandpa, then I would need a child. Like so, I just make sure if there’s a plus, I put in a minus, or ying and yang, positive and a negative, rational, irrational.
I create characters so there is a sense of equilibrium. Once that is determined, I just throw the characters in with some rules,shake them up a few times and it’s finished!
Full interview here
S: Let’s talk about the other characters. Since this is a successor to Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, the characters that appear in this game needed to feel different from those of the previous game. When you were coming up with characters, how did you go about deciding what they’re like? How do you figure out the mix of personality traits and what goes well with what?
KU: I’m a writer who prioritizes storyline over character, so I start with getting the basic story down. From there, I figure out which characters are necessary to the story, and that’s how I decide my characters.
I’ve heard that some other writers prioritize character, and will come up with the characters first and the write a story around them. And as an FYI, it’s more common to write stories prioritizing characters. There’s a much bigger demand for that. That means it sells. I think this is the reason my titles don’t sell, ha ha ha!
Anyway, let’s get back to your question. After I decide on the story and figure out the main character, I look at the balance. Let’s say there were more men or more women overall. Or if I make character “A” a cold person, then I should make “B” more nice. If there’s a grandpa, then I would need a child. Like so, I just make sure if there’s a plus, I put in a minus, or ying and yang, positive and a negative, rational, irrational.
I create characters so there is a sense of equilibrium. Once that is determined, I just throw the characters in with some rules,shake them up a few times and it’s finished!