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Splatoon devs talk character design, Squid Sisters, sound effects and the final boss

by rawmeatcowboy
27 July 2015
GN Version 5.0

Coming from a Famitsu interview with Splatoon Producer Hisashi Nogami, art director Seita Inoue, designer Keisuke Nishimori, sound director Toru Minegishi, and sound composer Yuki Tsuji.

On early character design:

“The main emphasis was on the girl, to the extent that we thought at first whether it would be alright to not have a boy (laughs).” – Inoue

“When having a chance to design a new character, there is the fact that it’s rare to have a girl lead in a Nintendo title and also having a strong and active female may make it easier to become accepted overseas. The design was centered on the girl at first, and then the design of a boy was thought of in comparison.” – Nishimori

On the Squid Sisters:

“The staff was very particular on the dialogue, like ‘Marie doesn’t say a thing like that’, so some adjustments were made. Originally, before they were idols, they were called ‘shrine maidens’ and their role was to transmit divine messages from god to people.” - Nogami

On sound effects:

“Yes. I thought there was no other choice to have sounds of a liquid with such high viscosity than creating them myself. So I went shopping alone during work hours (laughs). I focused on buying things with high viscosity, like borax (an ingredient in making toy slime), starch, solidified jelly and wood glue. Later the person responsible for accounting was calculating these costs and inquired like ‘What’s this?’ I had the difficulty of explaining, ‘I use them in creating sounds of ink!’ (strained laugh)” - Tsuji

“By the way, a punk rock band Squid Squad is currently popular in the world of squids, but perhaps the trend will shift a bit in the future, and a different band may appear. Please look forward to it.” - Minegishi

Concerning DJ Octavio:

“It happened in this order: first the name Takowasa [Octavio in the Japanese version, tako means octopus] was decided, then he changed from a wasabi maker to a DJ, and then scratching music was put in (laughs). This background music starts with a rhythm ‘don don don don’ and it was decided to match the rhythm perfectly with the making of wasabi.” - Minegishi

[Link]